Ste could hear beeping and the faint sound of snoring from somewhere beside him, for a minute he thought it was a dream and that he was now at home and in bed but he knew that wasn't true because if he was in his own bed there would be a heavy arm wrapped protectively around him, when he finally opened his eyes he was starting at a tiled ceiling, turning his head he saw Brendan asleep next to him in a chair, Ste winced at the way he had his neck bent "Bren" Brendan shifted in his seat before opening his eyes "Stephen" Ste reached his hand over to grab Brendan's "How long have I been asleep?" Brendan was rubbing soothing circles on the back of Ste's hand "About two days, you hit you head pretty bad" Brendan scrubbed his free hand over his face "Are the kids okay? did he do anything?"
"They're fine Stephen, they're all just worried about you"
"Are you okay, you kinda look like shit"
"You don't look to pretty yourself right now"
"Yeah but I have a good excuse, what's yours?"
"Shut up Stephen" Brendan said in a teasing manner "What happened?"
"You got driven into a river"
"A nice swim then" Ste was surprised when Brendan starting laughing, he laughed so much he had tears in his eyes "You nearly died and now you're just making jokes, what pain killer do they have you on?" Brendan ran a hand through Ste's hair "You hungry?" Brendan asked suddenly "Starving" Brendan bent down kissing Ste on the forehead "I'll go get you something"

Cheryl brought the children to the hospital later that day so Ste could see them, Amy was taking Leah and Lucas and the boys were going home early, Brendan thinks it for the best having a them leave a little early, it'll give Ste more time to heal if it's just a couple of them in the house, Leah was sitting cross legged on the end of Ste's hospital bed, Lucas was standing beside her clutching a card that he had made, Declan was standing behind the chair Brendan was sitting in holding Aodhan, Oisin was standing at the other side of Ste's bed with Fionn in his arms, Lily was sitting on the bed right next to Ste and Padraig was standing at the end of the bed with Leah, one hand on her shoulder "Are you even aloud this many people in a room?" Ste mused "Probably not" was Brendan's reply "Daddy, will you be back home before we leave with mummy?" Lucas asked "No mister, you'll be going tonight after tea" Ste said with a sad small smile "That's fine aslong as daddy Brendan isn't cooking" Leah said from beside him "Watch it you" Brendan said pointing his finger a now giggling Leah

Ste was aloud to go home two days later, a welcome home banner was on the front door, Cheryl's doing and a cake that she was trying to pass off as home made waiting in the kitchen, Cheryl left later that night and all Ste wanted to do was to crawl into bed and stay there for the rest of his life, Brendan was wrapped protectively around Ste when he heard a bang followed by tiny footsteps and then their bedroom door opened and a teary eyed Fionn wobbled over to them "Daddy?" Brendan reached over Ste to pick the infant up and place him between the both of them "Why are you awake ay?" Fionn didn't say anything he just wrapped his chubby arms around Brendan's neck and rested his head under Brendan's chin, the crying started from Lily's room after that but stopped after a second when Oisin who was standing in the hall went to get her, they walked into Brendan and Ste's room then and Ste pulled back the blanket and looked at them "Well come on then" Oisin handed Lily over to Ste who place her on his chest and then curled up beside Ste, Brendan had also laid back down with Fionn resting on his own chest "Goodnight" Oisin mumbled into Ste's shoulder

Ste found out the truth about Doug the next day when his mother phoned him, she thought they were together and moving back to America and she was crying because Doug was dead and it turns out she doesn't have a son in law or grandkids either and then she just cried more when Ste told her that Doug hadn't been right that he had kidnapped Ste and Aodhan, the phonecall came to an awkward end when she told Ste that she was sorry for all the trouble that Doug had caused

The police arrived later that day to remove the cameras, Brendan and Ste hadn't even know about them but the police had found footage on Doug's computer, it made Ste feel sick knowing that they were watched

Ste wasn't going back to work just yet but he did make a phonecall to have the 'Carter' removed from all the deli signs, it was his way of erasing Doug from their lives, he did find himself feeling bad for Doug sometimes until he reminded himself what Doug did and not to him but Aodhan, one thing about Ste Hay is that he is a good father and if you mess with one if his children you'd better fear for you life because that isn't something he would just let go, he could be scarier than Brendan when it came to the kids and Brendan can be pretty scary.

This was just a short chapter, I don't know how many more there will be but there won't be many, I'm still debating on the sequel but if I do one it probably won't be straight away, I still don't really know where this one is going to leave off because I only have like one conversation that I wrote yesterday between Brendan and Oisin that made me cry so I'm not even sure how'd fit that in really and I'm running out of inspiration to be honest but anyway I'm rambling :/ Please review!