Neil and George arrived in the wee hours of the morning, Neil having waited at Belfast Airport to pick George up. They were directed to the ICU waiting room, where they found Keith asleep with his head on his sketch pad. Ordinarily that would have been the perfect fodder for a Twitter prank, but the thought barely crossed their minds. They were even gentle about waking him up.

"Awwww," Keith gave a huge yawn (how do you type the sound a yawn makes, anyway?), then embraced both men at once. "Glad you're here. It's been kind of lonely out here. What time is it, anyway?"

"Half three. How's Ryan?" Neil asked urgently.

"Have you been able to see him yet?" George chimed in.

"Raymond came out around 2 hours ago and I went down with him to get some tea for him and Colette," Keith said. "He said Ryan was holding his own, other than the bruise on his head spreading so he's got a black eye now. We're not allowed in yet, but the doctor said if he stays stable overnight, he'll let us in in the morning. I hope he does. It's awful sitting here and not knowing what's going on until somebody comes out to talk to you."

"I can imagine," Neil said with a grimace. "So close, but we can't get to him..."

"Raymond told him that Emmet and I were here, and that you were on the way," Keith said, "but he's got no way to know if Ryan can hear him or understand him at all. The only thing he's responding to is stuff that hurts; then he'll make a face or tense up." He saw the disturbed looks on their faces and hurriedly said, "They're not doing stuff to hurt him on purpose to see if he reacts, I didn't mean that. Just, if they have to draw blood, or if they jostle him a bit when they're moving him around or something, he's reacting to it, and they say that's a good sign, because the information is getting to his brain."

"Rotten thing to have to be thankful for," Neil muttered. George put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"How are Mr. and Mrs. Kelly doing?" George asked.

"Hanging in there," Keith said. "I hope they're sleeping. Emmet's at the hotel with them, Sharon got us two adjoining rooms. He'll come back with them in the morning, and then I'll go sleep - after they let us in to see Ryan. I'm not leaving until I see him."

The three of them sat there, chatting occasionally, sometimes dozing off for a few minutes, until around 5:00 in the morning, when the dawn light was starting to come through the windows. Tim, Ryan's night nurse, came in to the waiting room to talk to Keith.

"Oh, I see the other two got here," he said. He introduced himself, and found out who was who. Then he said, "Colette asked me to come out and see if you would get some tea and maybe something for breakfast for her and Raymond. Raymond's asleep at the moment, and she doesn't want to leave him there alone."

"Sure," Keith said. "How's Ryan? Any change?"

"None," Tim said, "but right now no news is relatively good news, really. I know it's hard to hear that, but it really is best for him if he stays at a good stable coma level for a while."

George said, "Can we bring anything up for the staff? You lot have been up all night as well, can we do something for you?"

"That's not necessary," Tim said, but George said, "Yes, it is. You're taking care of our brother for us, the least we can do is try to help you out if we can."

Tim laughed. "Fiona told us you were like brothers, I can see it's true. It's been a quiet night, and while that's good for our patients, it makes it hard for us to stay alert sometimes. I really can't ask you to do this, it's not professional, but some coffee or tea and muffins or something would be grand. Nothing big."

"For how many?" Neil asked.

"There are 6 of us on duty right now," Tim said.

"Done," George said. "We'll be back shortly."

By the time they'd collected all the items and come back up, it was fully light outside. They'd gotten something for themselves as well and were eating in the waiting area when the Kellys and Emmet came in. Hugs were exchanged again, and then Mr. and Mrs. Kelly went in to Ryan's room and sent Raymond and Colette out. They were both exhausted, and it was agreed that Emmet would drive them back to the hotel in Raymond's car, with Neil following to bring him back to the hospital. By the time Emmet and Neil got back, the doctors were doing morning rounds, and the boys waited impatiently to see if they would be allowed in to see Ryan. Finally Dr. Reilly came to the waiting room, accompanied by Mr. Kelly.

"Good morning, gentlemen," he said, introducing himself to Neil and George. "I'm happy to say that Ryan's come through the night with only some minor changes, nothing too terribly concerning at the moment. We've agreed that the four of you will be treated as brothers and allowed to be in Ryan's room with him, although we're still limiting the number of people in the room at any one time to two."

"Thank you," George said. "Would it be all right if we all went in just for a minute to see him and let him know we're here? At least a couple of us are going to need to go and sleep then anyway, but I'm afraid we won't rest very well until we've seen him."

"I'd already asked," said Mr. Kelly with a smile. "Dr. Reilly said we'd wait to see what you wanted to do, but I told him you'd want to go together. Mrs. Kelly is in there now and she'll stay in there with whoever else decides to stay for a bit. We can sort out who'll be where and when later."

Dr. Reilly gave them a quick run-down of what to expect, much as the chaplain had given the Kellys when they first arrived, and then led them to the door to Ryan's room. The four men looked in, then looked at each other and, without a word needing to be said, clasped their four hands together in the middle of their circle as they did before a show, and went in.