"Christian?" Jane asked, as Linda came over to help her. All the others but Yusef stood back to give them room.

"Christian," Linda began, "Christian you need to talk to us, love."

Christian didn't see that everyone was worried about him; he was too busy fretting to realise that he had a spaced out look in his eyes. Yusef spoke quietly to the police officer about the fact that Christian had been badly affected by a previous incident. Instead, the officer took Zainab and Masood aside and spoke to them about their son. Tam and Afia decided to give everyone space and hovered in the kitchen, making tea for the others.

Yusef moved back as Linda stood and pulled Jane aside to let the doctor in to see her son, who wasn't answering anyone when they asked him to. They were family, though, and handling Christian far too carefully. Yusef, however, forced Christian's head up so he could look in his eyes and Christian reacted by fighting back against it, which brought his awareness back to his surroundings.

"Christian, we all know you're worried, but the police need your help to find Syed. You can do that," Yusef said.

"If it's Alec, I can't... I just can't..."

"It's not Alec, Christian. No matter what you're thinking." Yusef held Christian's head in both his hands, making sure that he kept talking to him. "You saw what happened; you know he died."

"What if I'm wrong? I could be wrong... you said I have post-traumatic stress, my mind has played tricks on me before, maybe his death was one too."

"Not possible, there was a body. It was Alec."

Christian took a few moments. He didn't know whether to believe Yusef or not. He was a doctor though, and he'd have all that access to medical records, and he'd have seen them and would know for sure this time. Alec had faked his death once; they wouldn't let him get away with that a second time. But Alec was rich, clever and had contacts all over the place. Even though everyone was so sure he was dead, a part of Christian had been watching his back ever since his death. It was one of the reasons he was still stuck in the flat, having such difficulty going outside.

A single tear ran down Christian cheek as he nodded to Yusef. He rubbed the tear away and swiped his hand over his face, taking a deep breath. Yusef sat back and smiled as Linda pulled a chair closer to Christian's side and put her arm around him. "Oh, darling, we'll get him back. You know we will."

Christian patted Linda's hand, but didn't agree with her.

The police officer who had taken Liam outside came back in. Christian overheard him talking to the others. He'd gone back to Liam's house and spoken to Pat. Liam was going to talk to a photo-fit artist to get a good likeness of the man who gave him Syed's wallet. But so far he had a description to go on of a blond man, about the same height as the police man himself, quite thin, good looking... Christian froze. The description... it sounded like it could be Alec.

As his eyes widened and his hand shot to cover his racing heart, Yusef took it as his cue for action. He smiled his bedside manner smile, and excused both himself and Christian, saying he wanted to examine Christian better, away from everyone. He escorted Christian into the bathroom and made him sit down on the toilet lid. Yusef crouched in front of him.

"I'm worried that this could be a side effect of the drugs you're taking."

"But they're supposed to stop me from thinking too much about these things. They're supposed to calm me down. They're not working, that's the problem."

"It's not that. You've not been on them long. We haven't got the dosage correct yet and I suspect in the last 24 hours you haven't kept to any strict timing for when you take them. Not only that but you haven't slept and I think that is adding to your agitation."

"What should I do?" Christian asked, trustingly.

"I don't want you to take another tablet now; I will tell you when to take more. In the meantime, I'd like to give you something else. It won't react with what you've taken already. It should help you relax and not have you so worried."

"What is it?"

"It's a similar drug, but because it's an injection, it should work faster. And that's what you want right now, yes?"

"Yes, I just... I need to think clearly, I need to sort out everything. The police, everyone in my flat. I need to be in control."

"Okay." Yusef took a needle and a small vial from his bag and filled it a little way up. Christian did as he was told in order to get the injection and didn't flinch when Yusef said it would be in his backside. Yusef rushed Christian slightly once it was done and said he'd rather Christian went and sat on his bed, just in case, while the drug started to make its way into his system.

Christian stood and immediately felt dizzy.

"It's okay, it'll only last for a second,"Yusef reassured him. He kept one hand around Christian's elbow as he stumbled from the bathroom. Christian then got one hand on the door frame in full view of everyone before he felt his eyes closing and he couldn't work out what was going on or where he was. He knew he was suddenly at the side of the bed and then sitting on it but had no clue how he got there, he just felt so incredibly spaced out.

In another instant, his eyes closed, whether he meant them to or not, and then he was unconscious.

Linda and Jane helped get Christian onto the bed properly, and Linda put a blanket over her sleeping son. Yusef hadn't seemed panicked when Christian lost consciousness and he was a Doctor, so everyone listened to him when it came to matters like this, and his calmness helped everyone else.

"I suspected this may happen," he said, as Linda put a hand on her son's brow. One of the police officers was hovering, wondering if he was needed to help out in any way or call an ambulance. "He's exhausted after everything and still getting used to his recent medication."

"But he just fell over."

"He was running on nothing. Once I was able to calm him better, everything caught up with him. That's all. I refused to let him take anymore anti-anxiety medication for the moment. He's not been taking it properly since last night. He needs to take it at proper intervals. If it gets out of sync then it can play havoc with his body and mind. Add in that he's not slept or eaten properly..."

"Yes, of course."

"I wouldn't worry about him," Yusef sat next to Christian on the bed and took his pulse. "In fact, I would say this is the best thing for him right now."

Being a doctor gave Yusef a level of trust from people. The minute he began talking about the medications or giving his advice, people automatically believed him. None of them knew that he'd given Christian morphine in that injection and that had been the cause of Christian's collapse. They didn't need to know either. Not Christian's family, or the police.

He could tell that Christian had been taking more of the anti-anxiety meds than he should. He could see it in Christian's eyes, not to mention the fact that he could count perfectly well and he knew there were fewer pills remaining in the bottle than there should have been. It seemed Christian might be getting 'attached' to taking them. And if he added a dose of such an addictive drug as morphine into the mix then so be it. When Christian eventually woke he'd need to take quite a few of the anti-anxiety pills to sort himself out as those would completely wear off during the hours he was sleeping through right now, and Christian would do it because his worry for Syed was so great right now that he'd want to numb his mind as much as possible.

Yusef didn't know who it was that had taken Syed, or what he wanted. It had all come out of the blue and now he had to adjust his way of thinking to factor it in, but if he played it right, then it could be a help, rather than a hindrance. He looked over at Zainab, who was doing her best to take charge over her son's situation, despite being so worried herself. He didn't want Zainab to lose her son. Not this way. Not yet.