"He...He's...He's d...Dead? My Dean?" She sounded as though she was choking on her words.

"I'm so sorry" the other one told her, softly.

"Dean's dead" She repeated, it was more of a statement than a question. She couldn't take it in. She wouldn't take it in. She refused to believe he was gone.

"No" She whispered, over and over. Then she got louder. "No! NO! He's NOT dead! He can't be! He was fine, they were all fine. I'll ring him, he'll answer. Watch!" She pulled the phone from the stand and punched in his number, she held it to her ear, praying. It went straight to voicemail. Her heart sank.

"It'll have just run out of charge, that's all" She said. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth she remembered him going upstairs before he set off to take his phone off charge. She concluded that he must have it switched off. Even though in the back of her mind, she knew what they told her was the truth. She just didn't want to believe it.

"Maybe we could give you a ride to the hospital?"

"No. My son's upstairs" When she said the word 'son', the officers looked a little more pained. The phone attached to the officer suddenly crackled into life. Michelle could barely make out what they were saying, but she picked out her brothers names.

"They're nearly here, your brothers. My colleges was speaking to them about the crash, they're driving them here now"

"Why did they crash?" Michelle said, even though this still felt like a dream. She wasn't crying, because it wasn't real. None of this was happening...

"They went into a tree, it was dark on the roads...And Dean had had a lot to drink, all three of them had"

Anger boiled up inside her. Dean? Drink driving? Never!

"No!" She shouted again "You've made a mistake! My Dean wouldn't drink drive, he wouldn't do this to us, you're lying, I don't know why you're here so just get out!" She was getting hysterical. They didn't look as though they wanted to leave her in that state.

"GET OUT!" She screamed, physically trying to push them away. They tried to calm her down, but it wasn't working. Everything had sunk in now. She was in such a state that she didn't see the other police car pull up. All she knew was that Dean was gone. She slammed the door shut, and leant against it. She stood there for a moment, the emptiness smothering her like a blanket. She let out one torn cry, and then sank to the floor. She curled up there, shaking, tears streaming down her face. Her heart hammered painfully against her chest, it hurt so much that she was sure that it could bruise her. Dean couldn't be gone. She just couldn't lose the person that she loved most in the whole entire world. She let out another heartbroken whimper, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, trying to hold herself together.

That's when someone banged on the door, she could hear muffled voices, and then one clear shout.

"Michelle? Michelle! Open the door, Michelle. Please!" She recognised it at once to be Liam's. She scrambled to her feet and twisted the key in the lock so hard that she twisted her wrist too. Ignoring the stabbing pain, she wrenched the door open. She wanted them to tell her that the police had it all wrong. She wanted them to say they were all alright. However, she took one look at Pauls bruised face, his plastered arm and Liam's stitched cheek and her face crumpled again. Liam held his arms out and she fell into them, clinging onto him.

She could hear him trying to soothe her, stroking her hair and telling her it was alright. But it wasn't alright. How could it ever be alright again?