Oh I really got you all wound up with that last chapter, huh? I could literally hear the pulling of head hair as I read the reviews! Thank you verily much for them! And because you all took it so graciously, I have sat all day writing this chapter even though I have suffered a migraine throughout. But that's a good thing, as it took me offline to concentrate ;) Hope you like! :D

Steven sat for a while as Brendan slept, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest as he listened to his soft comforting snoring. Shuffling uncomfortably in the seat, Steven's body and joints were still aching from the abuse they had taken the night before; sitting still for any length of time caused his muscles to ceased up. But he was content to sit there regardless, just being near the sleeping man and he stroked Brendan's hand as he lost himself in a daydream, thinking about Brendan and everything that had happened in the past twenty four hours.

They were both lucky to be alive, Brendan even more so given everything that he had suffered, and it gave Steven a new perspective on both their lives. It was past time for them to trust one and other and stop all of the petty arguments that seemed to have cropped up between them recently. He understood that their arguing was mostly due to the presence of Seamus Brady in the village, but Brendan had become almost unbearable to be near, especially when he happened to have had an interaction with his father. But then, the way in which Brendan had behaved earlier, only highlighted why he reacted the way he did to his father and showed the torment that Brendan suffered all his life because of him.

Initially astounded that Brendan had been reluctant to tell him about the stroke for fear that he would leave him, it had served as a reminder of just how badly Brendan had been treated in his past and it filled Steven with a lasting sorrow. But a part of him understood this, the small part of him that had been left over from his own childhood when he had felt like he was the only child in the entire world whose parents did not love him, that no one had or would ever love him. His loveless childhood had left him with mixed up emotions and the inability to recognize real love which was why he often ended up broken hearted; he rushed towards love as he had never experienced much of it when he was younger, he needed to feel loved as he had never felt it as a child. Although their relationship never had the best or most conventional of starts, Brendan's love was different; he knew that Brendan's love for him was real and not the imagined happiness that Steven had fallen for in the past. It wasn't easy, he had said it countless times before; loving Brendan Brady was never going to be easy, but he did love him. Brendan made him feel special, loved, valued and accepted and even though he had little idea that Brendan had a similar background and insecurities as he did, he knew that they were two broken souls who were only complete when they were together, which was why they worked so perfectly.

He sniffed and blinked rapidly to moisten his dry eyes and looked at Brendan's face, ignoring the bruises and cuts to look at the face underneath. While he was sleeping, Brendan's mind and body betrayed him by allowing Steven a glimpse of the scared young boy that still resided deep within him. Steven could see traces of the younger Brendan in his face and even heard him whenever he whimpered or moaned in his sleep. It was something that Steven had witnessed countless times since they got back together and it had become especially prevalent since his father had showed up, but now Steven had a new understanding of what it was that he was seeing. Before, he simply thought it was the mans insecurities and the fact that Seamus reminded him of them, but Walker had made sure that he knew exactly why Brendan's dreams tortured him more now than ever.

"Please...Da...don't..."

Those three words, spoken in an almost childlike voice, had told him everything he had needed to know or really wanted to know. He hated the fact that Walker had forced Brendan to tell him, hated the fact that the divulgence had been a forced confession in a filthy abandoned work unit at the hands of a torturer. Steven would have wanted to find out from Brendan himself, in his own time and in his own way as it would have meant that he trusted Steven with the terrible secret and would have deepened their bond so much more, not because he had been forced to. He would never broach the subject nor even speak about it until Brendan did, he would allow Brendan to tell him, but he knew, deep down he knew what those words meant and it broke his heart.

He was unsure if Brendan would even remember anything of what he had said while under the effects of the drug, hell, he himself remembered very little of last night after being injected, the lights of Jack Osborne's car being the first thing that he could actively recall. So the possibility was that Brendan did not know that he had revealed his darkest secret, and Steven thought it best to leave it at that.

As he raised his hand and smoothed Brendan's hair back, he knew without a doubt that he would never leave him; Brendan was his world, how could he possibly leave that behind just because part of it was broken? Brendan continued to sleep, completely oblivious to everything around him, completely at ease for the first time in many years. Steven knew this as Brendan had a tendency to waken through the night at least once or twice after mumbling or moaning through a nightmare before going to get a glass of water. Steven had watched him sleep many times, but never had he seen him so relaxed and it made him feel somewhat proud to think that he might have helped give him that peace and enable him to sleep without fear.

He placed his hand over his mouth and yawned; even though he felt that he was well on his road to recovery, there were moments when his body would remind him that he was still healing and not quite fully ready to be back on his feet. He yawned again, long and loud as he sat back in the chair and folded his arms. His head was already lowered to his chest while his eyes drooped heavily and since Brendan continued to sleep, Steven decided that perhaps a ten minute nap wouldn't be such a bad idea. Almost instantly he was dreaming.

No matter how fast he ran it was never fast enough, the wind blew against him keeping him from advancing and all he seemed to do was run on the spot. He grabbed for the branches of the nearest tree in order to pull himself forward but the branches broke off in his fingers and crumbled into dust which the wind blew back into his face. A huge gust of wind finally managed to lift him into the air and he flew, tumbling and screaming through the air and trees all the way back along the path he had managed to run to land between the still figures of Brendan and Simon. They both lay with their heads turned towards him, their dead eyes seeming to stare right through him and even though he wanted to get to his feet and run again, he found that his body was rigid and unmoving and he lay there between the corpses and whimpered. Then all of a sudden, Simon was strangely twitching and moving quickly, like something from a horror movie and he slid his body on top of Steven's, his dead cold eyes staring straight into his.

"What was it that he saw in you...?" the corpse whispered as it cocked its head and leaned closer. Then Steven was shouting on Brendan, looking at his dead body and seeing a tear fall from its glassy eyes and he screamed and screamed and...

"Steven?" His shoulders were being shaken and he squirmed at the touch. "Steven?" The voice was more insistent, quiet but commanding and he opened his eyes to see Cheryl kneeling beside his chair with a look of concern on her face. "You alright love? You were doing a lot of twitching there!"

He sighed as he looked at her, his heart slowing down as he calmed. "Yeah I'm fine, just a bad dream is all." He wiped his face with his hands, noting that they trembled slightly.

Cheryl nodded then stood up and walked to the other side of the bed, looking unconvinced when she stared back at him.

"What?" He asked annoyed, and slightly embarrassed.

"Nothing, nothing. If you say yer fine, yer fine." She shook her head and rolled her eyes as she sat down and began unpacking the toiletries she had brought in for Brendan. "He looks a bit better, more colour to him, yeah? Has he woken?" She asked as she placed the toiletries into the bedside cabinet and folded the carrier into her handbag.

"Yeah, he were awake earlier, but he's still, you know, weak."

"It's taken it right out him that's fer sure. But he'll be back on his feet in no time."

Steven winced at the words, unable to say anything as it wasn't his place to. He nodded his head but stopped as it made him feel nauseous and his face blanched as he fought to hold onto his stomach contents.

"You know Ste, you look terrible love. Why don'cher go back and have a proper sleep? I'll come get yer if he wakens?" Cheryl nodded towards Brendan and smiled genuinely.

He was about to argue, not really wanting to leave Brendan's side for even a minute, but his body was telling him that if he didn't go lie down, it would force him to and as if to reinforce the fact, his head pounded making the room spin slowly.

"Yeah alright, but mind, come get me as soon as, yeah?"

When he got to his feet the room turned and he had to hold onto the chair for a second until it calmed down, aware that Cheryl was watching him and knowing that she was about to stand up to help him, he put one foot forward and said goodbye then walked as steadily as he could towards the ward exit. He passed though the first set of doors and walked slowly on towards the main exit and entrance of the ward. The nightmare had really shaken him, so much so that when he saw an image of Simon Walker opening the ward door in front of him, a sweat broke out on his brow and it took long moments for him to realise that it was in fact Walker and not just a trick of his tired mind.
Walker halted in the doorway and although he wore the sunglasses that Jason had worn on the day that he stalked Steven, he was sure that Walker was glaring at him from behind the darkened lenses and it nearly stalled his heart.

"Steven." He said in greeting with barely concealed hatred. "Bet you didn't think you'd see me again."

His voice was as cold as ice, his lips peeled back in a nasty sneer that revealed his sharp teeth, making him look as if he was some kind of human predator out on the hunt. Steven's mouth opened wide and before he could utter a sound, Walker was on him. Grabbing his arm, Walker turned and pulled him and Steven gasped as his back slammed into Walker's chest and was held tight. He could feel Walker's hot breath on his neck and heard his angry voice in his ear.

"I wouldn't even try to scream Steven, Trust me, I won't miss."

Steven's breath caught in his throat as he felt the gun being pushed into his ribs and he stood there quivering, terrified and angry at the same time.

"Thought you was dead." He said as Walker dragged him into the small waiting room, closing the door as he pushed Steven into the seats where he landed with a thump.

"I am, I just have a job to finish."

There was a grating sound to Walker's voice, an edge that had not been there before. Steven forced himself to look at him and his eyes widened in horror when he looked upon the face that had been pressed so close to his last night.
Walker removed the sunglasses and held them in one hand, while pointing the gun at him with the other and he panted as he stared at Steven murderously. The tiny fragile blood vessels within his eyes had burst causing the scleras to turn a blood red that gave him a truly demonic look. His eyelids were swollen as was his face which was flushed and covered in a sheen of sweat. His breathing was laboured and every now and again his arms would jerk and twitch for no apparent reason. His black jeans looked even darker in places where blood had seeped down his leg from the wound in his side and it was obvious he was in a great amount of pain, but Steven felt no pity for him, in fact it gave him grim satisfaction to see Walker in such agony.

"What's wrong Simon?" He asked with a smirk, "Got a thorn in your side or something?"

Walker lunged at him, grabbing his arm in a grip so tight it drew the breath from Steven's lungs.

"No time to fuck around Steven. Let's go see Brendan eh? I want to give him my best regards and this is how it's going to happen. I'm going to hold this gun to your back, right? And you are going to quietly walk me directly to Brendan's bed without a sound and if you try anything, I will blow a hole in your spine and leave you live with it, okay?"

"Well you wont find him in 'ere." Steven said as calmly as he could, nodding his head in the general direction of the ward.

"I called ahead, he's here." Walker smiled.

"No, they just moved him to another ward."

"Do you think I'm fucking stupid?" Walker growled and further tightened his grip. "Don't lie to me."

"Why d'yeh think I were leaving, eh?" Steven said as convincingly as he could, "They moved him less than ten minutes ago, I've just been told and were going to see him"

Walker looked down on him, his gruesome stare making Steven's stomach churn and it conjured up memories of the corpse from his nightmare. One of Walker's eyes twitched as he looked at Steven suspiciously, trying to decide if what he was saying was true. It was very evident that Walker was extremely ill and Steven hoped that his mind was also affected by what ailed him as he tried to convince Walker of his words. He forced himself to relax and look calm, hiding his fear to the best of his abilities to protect his lie. He could not allow Walker into the ward to get near Brendan and Cheryl, even if it meant that he would get hurt for his actions, which he was sure he would.

"Which ward?" Walker asked and Steven felt relief wash over him but still held himself rigid.

"I'll show you."

"Yes, I know you will." He adjusted his jacket to cover the ever growing blood stain on his jeans and placed the glasses back on his face as he opened the door. "Move."

Without so much as a backwards glance, Steven exited the ward with Walker closely behind him. He walked them down the corridor and passed the canteen then onwards, wanting to get Walker as far away from Brendan and Cheryl as he was able to, with no idea of what the hell he was going to do. His mind raced in panic, he had told Cheryl that he would sort Walker should he ever meet him again and now that he had the chance he was at a loss of how he was going to do it.

It quickly became apparent that Walker was very ill indeed, whatever was going wrong with his body seemed to be getting worse and he appeared to be weakening every second. He pulled Steven close, placing his arm over his shoulder and used him as support while making sure that Steven knew the gun was still pointed at him. His legs were now jerking almost as much as his arms and every now and again he hacked out a cough that ended with a breathless wheeze. He weighed down heavily on Steven and he found it increasingly harder to keep them both upright, knowing that his own debilitated body would give out soon. And then, just as he was about to give up, the perfect solution to his situation literally appeared before them. Two policemen exited a ward up ahead and Steven felt Walkers arm tighten on his shoulders.

"Keep your fucking mouth shut and keep walking." He growled as they continued to walk.

But Steven found that Walker's threats meant nothing to him anymore as with the appearance of the policemen came the revelation that his life meant less to him as others did. He felt ready to forfeit his life in order to save the lives of those he loved; Brendan, Cheryl, Leah and Lucas. For as long as Walker was allowed to stay free, they were all in danger of falling into Walkers evil hands eventually. Suddenly he understood everything that Brendan was willing to do to protect him, he fully understood the need to protect even if it meant the end if his own life. Leah and Lucas had others to look after them, even Cheryl had someone to look out for her, but Steven knew that he was the only one willing and able to protect Brendan, and right now, he had the opportunity to protect them all.

He straightened his back and squared his shoulders beneath the weight of Walker's arm, took a deep breath and smiled. But just as he started to shout, a nurse came out of the ward the police had just left to called them back and suddenly Steven was being dragged across the corridor with a hand clamped over his mouth towards a set of doors that lead to a stairwell.

Walker roughly pushed him through the doors and grabbed him by the throat, pushing him against the railings of the balcony which looked down on a drop leading to the laundries below the hospital.

"You little shit! Do you think I wont kill you Steven? Is that it?"

He pressed Steven further into the railings making him cry out as his back bent awkwardly over the landings handrail as Walker rested the gun against his temple. Steven was terrified as Walker's arms jerked and twitched, threatening to either throw him over the railings or pull the trigger on the gun.

Then Walker laughed and pulled Steven back up and threw him against the wall behind the doors. He placed his hand on Steven's jaw and pushed his head upwards while digging his fingers into his flesh.

"Where is Brendan you little fuck! If he's still in intensive I'll end you!"

Steven held onto the hand Walker had tightened on his face as he wriggled to get out of the grasp.

"He's not! I promise!"

"Then why are you leading me away from it then? These are the geriatric wards Steven, or do you think I can't read the signs?" Walker said as he pointed to the sign above the doors then abruptly let go of Steven's face and backed off, running his fingers through his hair then tore the sunglasses from his face and tossed them away as he began to pace back and forth along the narrow landing.

"My head is ruined! I can't think I can't think I can't think!" He growled and rushed at Steven, pushing his face into his menacingly. "I hear him you know, shouting at me, telling me that it's all going to be fine and I know that it's not, I know it never will be. It's all in here." He said, tapping his head with a finger as he smiled maniacally. "All of it! I see...it all and it plays over and over and over...and it hurts like hell and it it burns..." He backed off and stood staring at Steven who was so wide eyed and confused that Walker laughed at him.

"Look at you. You have no idea, have you? No idea of that place, hmm? You've never had to look there, into that...that hell and try to pull yourself away from it only for it to reach for you and you can't escape no matter how hard you scream or struggle." He was panting heavily, his rambling was taking it out of him and Steven continued to listen to Walker's insanity if only to allow him to become weaker. "It stares back at you, it stares back at you and makes you believe you are free when in fact you are not and never will be. It makes you feel like you are alive when you are dead and it knows it and you know it and it burns and it hurts and it feels as if the devil himself is standing inside your skin. It reminds you of everything and means nothing yet it sears and punishes me when it should be you and Brendan who suffers!"

As Walker fell ever deeply into insanity Steven dared to move towards the door and before he could even blink, Walker had snatched his hair and yanked him back to the railing, pushing him over to stare at the long drop below.

"Simon please! Please don't do this!" He was pleading with a madman and even though he knew it would make no difference, the words continued to flow from his lips in a barrage of blind panic and tears.

"I would have liked for you to die in front of him, I wanted to see him break but I guess I can't have it all my way." He pushed the gun to the back of Steven's head while he wheezed and Steven could feel the terrible spasms that rocked his body then he coughed violently, allowing Steven to break free from his hold and risk the gun going off. He pushed against the handrail and forced Walker backwards then twisted around to reach for him. Walkers arms flew outwards and Steven lunged for the hand with the gun, desperate to disarm him. The two men fought to gain the upper hand, both weaker than weak but unwilling to give up and they appeared as if they were dancing a morbid waltz as they pulled and pushed against each other. The gun went off with a deafening bang which reverberated throughout the stairwell but neither of them stopped their struggling, continuing to fight until one of them went down.

Steven was now as out of breath as Walker but Walker was crying blood and the sight of it spurred Steven into a more vigorous fight that saw them both frantically pushing against each other until the world disappeared beneath their feet and they were falling. For a second it felt as if they were flying but as they turned in mid air, the ground rushed up to meet them and they landed with a bone cracking thud.

Steven could barely breathe as he looked down on Walker's astonished face, making an awful sound every time he breathed in, winded and shocked. Walker had broken his fall and Steven lay on his chest as his body ceased its incessant jerking and relaxed. Pushing himself up, Steven screamed as pain ripped through his spine and his left shoulder and he lowered his head and whimpered as the tears of blood dried on Walker's face. He managed to slip from Walker's body and crawl towards the stairs, wondering how the hell he was ever going to make it back to the top of them again. The doors above were thrown open and he looked up to see the uneasy and focused faces of the two policemen that had been called back by the nurse. He placed his hands on the first step and pulled himself onto it to sit, not really hearing the shouts from the policemen above, but something made him look back towards Walker, and when he did he froze.

Walker had turned his head to look at him and he stared at him with those devilish eyes as he pointed the gun straight at his head. A weak smile played over his lips as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Be seeing you Steven." He whispered as he pulled the trigger then fell still.

Steven felt the impact hit and throw him backwards until his body slammed into the stairs behind him. With a screeching cry that he was sure came from someone else, he acknowledged the pain in his torn shoulder as the policemen came warily down the stairs. He raised his head to look towards Walker, then collapsed back down when the pain was too much. In those few seconds he saw all that he needed to see; Walker was clearly dead. His eyes were half closed and glazed, his body completely still and the gun had fallen from his hand. An ominous dark puddle of blood had began to spread on the floor and Steven knew that it was over.

He lay still and allowed the police to help him, feeling that no matter what happened now, he had saved them all from Simon Walker's insane hunt. He had taken a bullet to prove it and with that thought a smile blossomed on his lips as a chuckled started to build into laughter that rocked him and hurt him and he didn't care.

Like Brendan, he had been willing to take a bullet for the man who meant the world to him, how better to prove his love than this? He had taken a bullet for the love of Brendan Brady, and he was determined to stick around and damn well make sure he knew it.

TBC...

Feed me migraine soothing cookie comments! :D