A/N: Just a re-post of chapter 4 with an extra note to tell anyone who doesn't know - after I've completed my two on-going stories, (this being one of them) I'm not going to be writing for Stendan anymore. I think I've done all I can in terms of non-AU stories, to the point where I've overdone it a bit...but I will still be reading fic (couldn't give that up if I tried lol).

For the time being, I'm just going to concentrate on this story. Having a bit of writer's block when it comes to Exposure at the moment but I will finish it!

Sorry to be a pain by writing this in a confusing re-post of a chapter you've just read. I used to post extended Author's Notes as extra 'chapters' but find that this can be even more irritating for readers!

Thanks again for reading and for the lovely reviews. For anyone still following Impressions, I'll try and get the next instalment up as soon as possible :)

In the days following their meeting, Ste heard from Brendan several times. They had agreed not to plan anything more for the time being so that Brendan could concentrate on being there for his sister. But that didn't stop the Irishman from texting him at least twice a day.

It was something that he'd begun to look forward to – a morning and evening message from this man.

On the fifth day, Ste finished work and found that he had a voice-mail waiting for him instead. It was Brendan, telling him that his sister had come through her operation and was now recovering reasonably well.

He sounded like he'd spent the entire day scared out of his mind, and Ste instantly wished he could have been there to help him through it.

It was only then that he understood where Brendan had been coming from the night he'd confessed that he'd 'missed him'. Suddenly he realised that it just didn't matter how little time they'd spent together. He had feelings for Brendan Brady already.

"Ye busy today, Steven?"

It was Saturday morning, and Ste had been just about to have breakfast when Brendan had called.

"No, I'm completely free," he replied, smiling stupidly into the phone. "Why?"

"Well, ye can say no of course, but...Chez wants to meet ye."

Ste lowered the phone from his ear for a moment to stare pointlessly at it for a few seconds. He had never expected this; in fact he hadn't expected another date any time soon, let alone an invite to meet Brendan's sister.

"You've told her about me?"

There was a light chuckle on the other end at the daftness of the question. "I have."

"What did you tell her?"

Words were coming out of Ste's mouth before he could think them through, and it occurred to him too late that his next question should have been to ask how Cheryl was. Luckily, Brendan took it all in his stride.

"I'm sure she'll tell ye herself when ye see her – she seems to be back to her usual chatty self already."

"Right, okay," Ste agreed, hoping he really would hear more on the subject. "Glad to hear she's doing well. What time are you thinking today, then?"

"How about I pick ye up in an hour, if that suits ye?" Brendan suggested.

"Fine by me. Do you remember my address from the last time you dropped me off?"

"Sure, no problem. See ye soon, Steven."

Less than an hour later they were on their way to the hospital, and Ste couldn't help but study Brendan carefully. If it weren't for the worry lines and the dark circles under the man's eyes giving him cause for concern, he knew he would have been staring only to 'check him out'.

"How are you doing?" he asked when they were halfway through the journey.

"I'm fine. How are ye?"

Ste ignored the returning question and narrowed his eyes. "Are you really? Don't take this the wrong way – I'm only saying this because I care – but you look like you haven't slept in days."

Brendan chuckled, and his face seemed to brighten that little bit more despite the reference to his appearance. "Thank ye for that. And it's nice to know ye care."

"Wouldn't be here if I didn't, would I?"

Brendan let out an incoherent murmur in response, and Ste was compelled to say more.

"Wasn't my rant the last time we saw each other proof enough that I care?"

"A very good point – ye really were on fire that day, I must say."

Ste cringed at the memory. "Put my foot in it, more like. I'd never have laid into you like that if I'd known what you were going through."

"It's Cheryl that's going through it, not me," Brendan pointed out. But Ste shook his head.

"Don't pretend it's not hard for you too."

The Irishman sighed, and stopped to rub his eyes while waiting for the traffic lights to change. "I'm not going to win this round, am I?"

"Now you're getting the idea," he smiled. "So when was the last time you got a decent night's sleep?"

"I've been sleeping at the hospital, so..."

"What, every night?"

Brendan nodded. "She's my sister, and she's the only family I've got. I only left her this morning because she insisted - she wouldn't shut up until I did."

Ste got the sense that brother and sister were equally stubborn. He smiled at the thought as they approached the hospital and parked the car.

They walked in side by side at a leisurely place, Brendan guiding him expertly to the oncology unit. Cheryl Brady had her own private room, and given the money Brendan must have had Ste knew he should have expected that.

Sometimes his head just couldn't compute with the fact that this man was so well-off. In person, there was hardly anything about him that gave that away.

"Chez, this is Steven," Brendan announced upon entering the room. Ste followed him inside and smiled at the blonde woman, who was sitting up in bed looking considerably brighter and more rested than her brother.

"Hi," he said softly as they sat down in the chairs next to the bed.

"Hello, love," Cheryl beamed at him. And now that he was up close, he could really see that she was ill. But the smile remained on her face as she looked at him and continued talking. "Brendan's told me all about ye, Steven."

"Everyone calls me Ste," he replied kindly. "Well, almost everyone!" He glanced at his companion, then back at the patient, who smirked back knowingly. "I've heard a lot about you, too."

"Well then," she said with a conspiratorial smile. "I'd say it's his turn to be talked about, don't ye think?" She returned her gaze to Brendan and addressed him firmly. "Go and get me a smoothie, would ye Bren? And a strong coffee for yourself – ye look like ye need it. Ste, ye want anything?"

"Er..." He shifted awkwardly in his seat, wanting to wait until the older man gave him the nod.

"It looks like I've been told, Steven," Brendan said, amusement in his voice. "Might as well give me your order too."

Ste relaxed and nodded back. "In that case, I'll have a cappuccino, ta."

"Right. I won't be long. Chez, do me a favour and don't scare the poor bloke off. I quite like him."

He felt his face flush with familiar heat at the man's words. He knew they were only a small dose of his real feelings spoken aloud.

They watched Brendan leave the room and shut the door behind him, and then Cheryl surprised Ste by reaching for his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Ye seem to have had quite an effect on him," she announced.

"What do you mean?" Although Brendan had implied this himself, he wanted to hear exactly what it was that his sister had picked up on.

"For a start, I've never heard our Brendan say he liked anyone before, let alone a fella he fancies."

Ste laughed at her blunt statement. "He told you he fancies me?"

"Let's just say it's implied. I've been reading between the lines ever since he told me about ye. I saw the way he was looking at ye just now – it's so obvious! And ye feel the same way, don't ye?"

He paused. Of course he did; but he hadn't even said as much to Brendan yet – he didn't want to tell this woman before he told the man in question.

Not that he even knew how to express how he felt about him.

Eventually he settled on nodding, because he couldn't let her think his answer was anything other than a yes.

Cheryl sighed and leaned back against her pillows. "Good. Ye know, when he first got to LA he was a complete nightmare to be around. Spent the best part of two days moping until I finally got him to talk."

"What did he say?"

"He said he'd got stuck in the lift with this gorgeous young thing while on his way to sign over his share of the company, and that he couldn't take his eyes off him."

With another soft chuckle, Ste shook his head at her. He had a feeling he'd made a new friend for life already. "Is this another one of those 'it was implied' things?

"Alright, ye got me. I'm paraphrasing, obviously. But I got all the main facts right, didn't I?"

"Yeah, that's how we met," he smiled at the memory.

"Now tell me, love," Cheryl said then, her voice taking on a completely different tone. "When my brother talked about me, did he tell ye what a nagging cow of a sister I can be?"

Ste frowned in surprise. The statement was so out of the blue, and sounded so foreign coming from this bubbly woman – even one in the situation she was in. "No! What are you talking about?"

"It's my fault he lost touch with ye when he left," she explained. He leaned closer and waited for her to continue. "I told him to get a grip and stop being so sulky. Said that he'd made his choice and that it was time to start getting on with opening our club, otherwise it was pointless him even being there. I was just feeling fed up and I took it out on him; I'd already started feeling unwell by then ye see. I never meant to ruin things for the two of ye."

It was a lot to hear in the space of one minute. But once he'd processed her confession he simply took her hand and, just as she'd done when Brendan had left the room, he gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"You haven't ruined anything."

Cheryl's eyes seemed to hold so much gratitude, and Ste knew then that there were things about the Brady siblings he had yet to figure out. He remembered what Brendan had said on the way over about his sister being the only family he had. It was something he would file away until the man himself felt ready to talk about it.

"So anyway," she smiled, changing the subject after a couple of minutes of silence. "Bren told me ye work in the marketing department?" she added as an afterthought.

"Are ye finished interrogating here, sis?" Brendan's voice startled him just as he was about to answer, and he turned to find him strolling back into the room with two drinks in hand. Ste hoped that meant that the Irishman had already finished his own coffee, for his own sake.

"I don't interrogate; I gossip, as well ye know," Cheryl answered with a wink in Ste's direction.

He couldn't help winking back as Brendan rolled his eyes to the heavens.

"Your sister's so brave," Ste said as they approached his flat in the car. "I could never be that strong if I was going through all that."

"I think it's easier for her when she's got company. Conversation occupies her mind. That's why I don't like leaving her alone – in case she breaks."

He looked over at Brendan, whose face was closed off now that they'd said goodbye to Cheryl.

"If you ignore her and go straight back to the hospital now, I bet you anything she won't thank you for it. Cheryl said to go back to the hotel and get some sleep – proper sleep."

There was no reply, and Ste decided to appeal to the man's common sense instead.

"Okay, think of it this way: why spend money to stay at a decent hotel if you're never even there?"

Brendan turned to him and shook his head in disbelief. "Don't ye ever give up, Steven?"

"Never," he grinned. It struck him then that this was a complete role reversal in comparison to their first meeting. He'd been the one who was stressed, and Brendan had seemed to him to be nothing more than an oddly-optimistic stranger.

He wanted some of that optimism back for the guy.

"I don't suppose..."

Ste leaned towards him. "Yeah?"

"Would ye...would ye stay with me, if I went back to the hotel tonight?"

The younger man raised an eyebrow, on the point of commenting jokingly on his bare-faced cheek. Only now Brendan was looking at him sheepishly, vulnerably, and it looked as though he'd just heard his own words play back inside his head.

"I didn't mean that," he elaborated. "Just to sleep. At the risk of sounding pathetic, I'd rather not be alone at the moment."

With a soft smile in understanding, Ste nodded without hesitation, planting a kiss on his lips before opening the car door. "Let me just grab a few things from inside and then we can go."

As he ran to the flat and let himself in, he mused that he might not be able to find the words to tell Brendan exactly how much he cared, but he could certainly be there for him so that he could see it for himself.

He knew by now that he was powerless in turning this man down, even if he wanted to. The pull towards him was just too strong.