ETWentHome, noticing Ethan's feelings isn't usually one of Cal's strong points! So you wouldn't expect him to be any better at it when he's heartbroken and hungover. Thank you so much for your kind words.

Becs2202, Ethan hasn't said very much, but let's hope it's enough to get through to Cal. Thank you for the review!

Tanith Panic, thank you so much! That's really kind of you. I agree it was justified. You could say it wasn't the best time, but when would it have been a good time?

Cal stared after Ethan, too confused to be upset. He could understand why Ethan was annoyed with him. Everything Ethan had said to him was true. He shouldn't have kept Ethan awake for most of the night and although he hadn't had much choice about asking Ethan to come and pick him up from the prison, he knew he shouldn't have gone there in the first place.

It seemed especially thoughtless when Ethan had problems of his own. Cal had realised that yesterday, but then he'd got all wrapped up in his own problems again and he'd forgotten about Ethan. He'd forgotten about his own little brother.

Ethan had tried to talk to him last night, Cal realised. He'd offered to explain what Connie had meant about the doctor who needed supervision at work. But all Cal had wanted to do was talk about his own problems.

Assuming Connie really hadn't been talking about Cal, there was only one doctor she could mean. She would hardly have mentioned it to Cal if it was Dylan or Zoe. It was just about possible that he meant a junior doctor like Lily: perhaps she'd made a mistake in front of Cal which he hadn't noticed because he was too busy trying to keep himself together, but it seemed far more likely that she was talking about the doctor Cal knew better than any other. The doctor he'd grown up with and now lived with. His brother.

Ethan was struggling at work and Cal had made things a million times worse.

Cal didn't know what to do. He could apologise, of course - much as he hated apologising to Ethan - but he couldn't do that until Ethan came home. He would also ask what was wrong and offer his support, but he knew Ethan might refuse to tell him anything. It wasn't the first time he'd accused Cal of not caring about him and not noticing there was something wrong, but part of the problem was that Ethan didn't confide in him. He just carried on as usual and expected Cal to guess.

Cal picked up his phone and toyed with the idea of sending Ethan some sort of supportive text message to help get him through the day, but his mind was blank. He started scrolling through the other texts he'd received, looking particularly at the get-well-soon texts that Lofty, Max and Robyn had sent him, but although they were kind, Cal didn't see how he could adapt them for Ethan's situation. He went further back in the hope that someone might have sent him a supportive text at some stage and, perhaps inevitably, he ended up reading through all his messages from Taylor.

The result of this was predictable. Cal cried for a while and then started wondering if one drink would do any harm. He wasn't at all convinced one could help where ten had failed yesterday, but he stumbled into the kitchen all the same, only to discover that Ethan had hidden all the alcohol.

A part of him was glad. He knew that drinking wouldn't be good for him and it would only cause more stress for Ethan, but Cal was angry now. If he wanted to drink, that was his decision. Ethan had no right to take the choice away from him.

Cal stomped into Ethan's room, thinking that was the most likely place for him to have hidden alcohol, but his brother was meticulously tidy and it didn't take long to establish there was nowhere the bottles could be hidden. More in hope than anything else, Cal grabbed some books from the shelves and threw them onto the floor. There was no space behind the books for bottles, but the action seemed to help so Cal took another handful and did the same thing. Once he'd emptied the bookshelf, he looked at the fallen books and fell to his knees with a sudden rush of guilt.

He carefully began to gather up all the books, which he arranged on the shelf in alphabetical order. Perhaps that was wrong; perhaps it was supposed to be subject order or some sort of numerical order: it was difficult to tell with Ethan. But Cal couldn't leave them all over the floor.

He had to stop letting his emotions control his behaviour. Ethan needed him. Perhaps more than he'd ever needed Cal in his life.

Ethan knew he was late. He'd been late even before he'd left the flat, but he'd been trying to cling to a vague sort of hope that all the clocks in the house and in his car were wrong. He was so worried about it, he didn't even panic about leaving the car and soon he was hurrying off to get changed and back to work.

Exactly what his work could entail was something he was trying not to think about.

He was also trying not to think about how Cal must be feeling following Ethan's outburst. He would probably feel very upset once the shock had worn off, but there was nothing Ethan could do about it now. There wasn't time to phone and apologise and he felt apologies should really be made face to face.

"You're late," Louise told him with a certain amount of relish as he passed reception.

"Give it a rest, Louise," said Noel. "Ethan wouldn't be late without a good reason."

Ethan threw him a quick smile and hurried past, but Louise called him back. "I just thought you'd like to know Mrs Beauchamp is looking for you."

"Thank you," said Ethan and went off to change, but all he really wanted was to go home and hide in bed with Cal as though they were children again.

But he knew he wouldn't be welcome. Not after what he'd said.

When Cal had finished putting the books back on Ethan's shelves, he returned to his room. He'd hoped that doing something nice for Ethan might help him to feel better, but it wasn't quite the same when he'd caused the problem in the first place. He finished the tea and toast Ethan had made for him, but Cal didn't think that would help Ethan much either.

Cal lay down on his bed. Almost at once, he thought of Taylor and the tears rose to his eyes again, but he dashed them away in sudden annoyance. He couldn't lie here crying like a big baby when Ethan needed him. He needed to go and do something useful. Something that would help Ethan.

Cal stayed where he was for a moment. Gradually, an idea formed in his mind.

It wasn't going to be easy. His head still ached and the nausea hadn't completely gone, and his emotions definitely still felt raw. He knew he'd struggle to concentrate and not make mistakes and he wasn't sure how he'd cope if something went wrong. All he knew was that he couldn't ask Ethan to rescue him. The whole point of this exercise was to make things better for Ethan, not worse.

This time, Cal remembered to put a coat on. He also remembered his wallet and his key to the flat.

But he knew that was the easy part.