A/N this story has had loads of hits but only 1 review and that was within the first few days I put this up, I dunno wether to continue this as nobody is reviewing, i dont knwo if anybody likes it :(

Chapter Ten – Darkness

"ZEKE!" everyone shouted at the same time as he swayed a little before collapsing to the floor.

"ZEKE!"

Rachel crouched down next to him while Ringo shouted out the door,

"Can we get some help in here?!" Several doctors came rushing.

"Zeke, can you hear me?" She cried, no please… not again…

Ringo dragged her out the way as doctors loaded him onto a hospital bed and rushed him out the room. Ringo let go of Rachel as she went racing after her brother, then followed himself, Bridget and Donna tailing him, even Declan got out of his hospital bed despite protests of the one doctor left behind to see what was happening…

***

Karl and Susan nearly fainted when they saw Zeke, lying motionless on a bed being taken back into his room. Once he was hooked up to the oxygen and all the other necessary equipment the doctor turned to face everyone.

"Zeke blacked out because of lack of oxygen to the brain, he's only got one lung working properly and he can't breathe without help of some sort" he said gesturing to the oxygen mask. "You shouldn't have let him get out of bed, we could have arranged for Declan to visit him; it would have been much safer."

"I tried to stop him, but he was just so determined." Karl said

"Is he going to be okay" Rachel asked, hoping and praying she wasn't going to go through it all again, "He's not going to die… is he?"

"No," the doctor reassured her, "He'll wake up when his body's ready, he's not going anywhere for a while when he does though, we'll need to closely monitor him." He then left leaving them alone with Zeke.

"I'm sorry…" Declan started to say,

"It's not your fault, the doctor's right we shouldn't have let him go, what was I thinking, I'm a doctor for goodness sake" Karl replied miserably.

"You tried to stop him, you really did but he wasn't taking no for an answer." Susan said.

"What so you're saying he brought it all on himself?" Rachel shouted getting angry at the thought of them blaming Zeke when he lying there helpless.

"No… no of course not, he didn't know what would happen."

Rachel begrudgingly accepted that then went to Zeke's bedside and held his hand.

"You should go back to bed." Bridget said to Declan.

"No, I'm okay"

"He's sleeping; we can come back when he wakes up, they're letting you out tomorrow, no need to give them a reason to keep you in any longer, ay?

"Fine." Declan said and went back to his room with Bridget.

***

It was later that evening before Zeke awoke, Rachel was leaning over him.

"Hey, how you feeling?"

"C-chest hurt-ts…" he mumbled.

"Yeah, well you did insist on going to see Declan with broken ribs and a punctured lung,"

"Uh-huh…" he murmured then drifted off to sleep again.

***

When Zeke woke up the next day everyone was in his room,

"You okay?" Declan asked, relieved he was looking a little better.

"Yeah," Zeke replied playing it down, his chest still killed him. "They let you out then?"

Declan nodded, "This morning, when are they letting you go?" He smiled.

Zeke grinned back, "Not anytime soon apparently."

***

A week later and Zeke was ready to go home, he had been taken off the oxygen the night before and seemed to be okay, his chest still hurt as his ribs and lung hadn't fully healed which made breathing on his own a bit difficult… but not impossible. The bandage on the back of his head had been taken off – there were only stitches but the ones around his stomach and chest still remained, those wounds would take longer to heal. His ankle was slowly healing but he would be on crutches for a couple more weeks at least.

"Right, we'll just run some final checks and then you'll be free to go." The doctor smiled, addressing Zeke who was sitting up in bed looking a whole lot healthier then he had done just a week or so before…

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