Hello Everyone this is the final chapter!

This is from Alf's point of view-he is one of the original characters so to write this from his point of view was a huge challenge.

This is the last chapter so I would like to say a massive thank you to all those who have read and reviewed and so on. Watch this space because someday I will be returning to this fandom some day

Disclaimer-only in my imagination do I own these three and trust me if I did none of them would leave...ever...

Alf was difficult to write so I hope he came across alright

And again thank you all x

Underwater-

Chapter 4-Alf

In which Alf knows that these three boys are going to be alright

Water Alf knows is a dangerous thing. Having lived on the dangerous coast of Summer Bay for years Alf has seen the occasional young idiot drown tragically, succumbed to the powerful dark waves.

But there was something about Casey Braxton that had made Alf's stomach turn. Something about the desperation that was written on Heath Braxton's face and Brax's look of distraught grief that had made him pause.

Alf wasn't an idiot. He had grown up near the Mangrove River he had heard the stories of Danny Braxton and the gang he had started and he wasn't as fickle as John and Angelo and Collen who thought that these boys were devil spawn and should be treated like freaks.

Sometimes you couldn't help the life you had been born into.

Sometimes you couldn't help but be yourself. Even if you were a River Boy.

And if you were pushed more and more you only got more violent.

But still Alf hadn't shook the feeling that there was something about Casey Braxton lying on the sand blood pouring from his leg and oblivious to the chaos around him that made him feel slightly sick. After he had dropped the boys off he had gone home and poured himself a large scotch.

There was something about the way Brax had thrown up and the way that Heath had become the caregiver that had sparked something in Alf that had made him scowl.

He remembered all the people he had seen die in this Bay and all the families he had seen destroyed. His own had, had swings taken at it that had left them all reeling, but God….

There was something about the River Boys.

No there was something about those Braxton Boys.

He was thinking over this when he entered the café the next day and he saw Xavier, Romeo and Dex all three of them Casey Braxton's friends sat at the table faces strained and tired but still with an animated look to their faces of people who had gotten good news after a night of worry.

"How's the kid?" he asked and he took a small petty level of satisfaction of their reactions. "He woke up" Xavier said smiling brightly-the kid was really like a nauseating ray of sunshine Alf thought irritably he wasn't as young as he looked there was only so much happiness he could take a day.

"Good" he said ignoring the relief he felt and couldn't explain. He turned around ignoring Irene's confused look as he rushed out the door.

He sat in the car for longer than he anticipated. What the hell was it about these three brothers? What was it that made Alf want to check on them and make sure they were alright? When did he worry about them like they were his own?

But there was the crux of the matter at heart which was that the three of them were utterly one piece. Alf had no doubt that if one of them died the other two would crumble and fall.

And the truly tragic thing was that these three kids (because compared to him they were still that) were utterly alone.

So it was with a surprised and yet heavy heart that he found himself outside Summer Bay's Hospital unsure of what to do and what to say. But still he didn't know why he was there in the first place.

But maybe somebody had to make sure that these three (and he meant Brax and Heath) specifically were at least attempting to look after themselves.

He really didn't hold out hope that Sid had convinced them to go home and have a decent meal.

When he did eventually make his way to the room he stopped at the doorway. And he couldn't stop the smile that formed his way onto his face.

Casey was sat in bed. Sat up and though rather pale and clinging to an oxygen mask but there was something like a smile painted on his face. He looked tired and his breathing was laboured, but he was alive.

Heath was perched on the edge of the bed grinning that wide grin that had lost it's cockiness and showed a rather simplistic (and dare he say human) side to the usual tough man.

Brax was leaning against the chair, his eyes still a storm of emotions and barely controlled feelings that still hadn't been released. But there was something about his posture that showed how young and vulnerable he was and Alf frowned wondering what hell of a burden had been placed on him. And where the hell his parents had been when Brax had been growing up?

But still there was something about the three of them sat there, being together that made something in Alf wrench.

He didn't need to be there, he realised. These boys didn't need him, they didn't need anyone.

And as Alf walked away he smiled to himself. Those three boys were going to be alright.

And this is where we end on i hope you enjoyed x