Last time:

Lindsey was silent for a moment, though it was clear to Sandy that she had an idea in her head and was merely trying to think of a way to phrase it. Her patience grew thinner with every passing second and wasn't helped when Lindsey looked up, opening and closing her mouth a few times, as if the words she was about to say physically hurt her.

After a painful few minutes, Lindsey stilled, took a deep breath and turned fully to Sandy.

"I think we really need to consider getting Jason sectioned."

"What?" Sandy gasped, unable to believe that Lindsey was the first to say it. Sure, she had vaguely thought about it, but everytime the word 'sectioning' entered her mind she cast it aside, determined to stop thinking about it completely. Sandy was not going to send her child away, not without fighting for him first. "I can't do that, you can't seriously expect... not to my baby."

"It's protocol Sandy, you know that and he's at serious risk of hurting himself further than he already is. He needs professional help and whilst I'd love for Jason to make the first step and go to an inpatient himself facility, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon."

"But there must be something we can do," Sandy urged, the words that had been circling her mind rushing out of her mouth as she tried to dissuade Lindsey. "We're both qualified doctors, we should be able to handle this, I mean we haven't even tried anything yet, we've just found out about it." Lindsey sighed, feeling immense sorrow for the near hysterical woman by her side, but also seeing sense in her words.

"Okay," she nodded reluctantly. "We do everything we can to help, but Jason will need professional counselling and we have to make him take his insulin. We both have experience in these sort of things and it may just be enough to help him."

"Thank you," Sandy smiled weakly, running a hand through her hair. "I just, it sounds stupid, but I just need to do everything I can to help Jason myself. Sending him away as soon as I find out about it, seems... unfair. I want to do as much as I can to help as before I even consider getting him sectioned. If Jason doesn't improve, then we'll get some doctors in to assess him, but not before."

"I think that sounds sensible," Lindsey mused. "It'll show Jason that we trust him, that we want him to recover on his own terms. We shouldn't tell him about the possible sectioning though, he may see it as a threat and could fall even further off the rails."

"So where do we start?" Sandy asked the younger woman, dozens of ideas already coming up to the surface of her own mind. She was prepared to do anything and everything she could to save her son.

}}}}}}}

"Thought you were doing coursework?" Freddie called to Robbie when he saw the younger boy walking up the garage driveway, a murderous look on his face.

"Yeah and I were," Before Robbie could let rip, Freddie held up a hand, effectively silencing him.

"Please tell me you haven't done anything stupid." He begged, noting the way Robbie was cradling his hand. Fearing for the worst, he grabbed the younger Roscoe's hand and winced at the impressive swelling.

"This didn't all come from punching Jase earlier did it?" By now both Joe and Ziggy had stopped working and had come over, exchanging worried glances.

Robbie looked sheepish, unable to look at his older brothers. "We may have... exchanged words earlier." When the others said nothing and just looked at him pointedly, Robbie sighed and elaborated. "I came into our room and he'd trashed the place, no idea why, wouldn't tell me."

"So you punched him?"

"No. First I asked what he'd done, then I told him we were only trying to help him, then he provoked me and then I punched him."

"Robbie!" Joe cried, annoyed at his younger brother's actions. "You can't just act without thinking, Jase'll never trust us properly-"

"No wait," Freddie interrupted Joe. Shouting at Robbie wouldn't fix anything, so instead he let himself think, mind jumping onto one thing that Robbie had said earlier. "Do you have any idea why Jason trashed your room? Was he acting weird when you found out?"

"Of course he were, but when isn't he? And no, wouldn't tell me why when I asked and we all know how it ended when I pushed for questions." At this, Robbie raised his injured hand.
"But was he hiding something?" Freddie asked, urging for Robbie to remember anything, to help them. "Was he jumpy? Did he try to change the subject randomly?"

Robbie was silent for a moment, casting his mind back to the earlier event. "Actually yeah. I was trying to show him that we care, that we want to help him get better and then he went on bout me being dramatic or something.

"Then he were saying things, not answering my questions or nothing, just making these... accusations and I just snapp-"

"And let me guess, he went around playing on words but basically implying that he thought you're gay. And we all know what happens when someone says that to you," Ziggy sarked, correctly guessing what had gone down between the two brothers and rolling his eyes as he spoke. "He knows you Rob, he knows how to push your buttons, the biggest of which is saying you're gay. It's like your kryptonite or something.

"Everyone knows you feel the stupid need to assert your masculinity when that happens. I bet you didn't say anything else about him having an eating disorder did ya? No, you were too busy beating him to a pulp!"

"I'm sorry alright! I just reacted." Robbie yelled, glaring at the others and setting his shoulders back, trying to hide the fact that he was so obviously ashamed of his own actions.

"Well you can't bruv," Joe told him firmly, trying to show Robbie that they weren't angry at him, that they didn't blame him for Jason's current state. "You've got to keep a clear head, Jase is making accusations left, right and centre because he don't want us interfering.

"But Freddie didn't bail when Jason told us all that he was blackmailing him, me and Lindsey didn't call it a day when he was insulting her and you can't neither. You have to be strong, look past it because he don't mean it."

"Joe's right," Freddie said softly. Jason's lie yesterday still hurt him deeply and it would probably haunt him till the day he died. For his own brother to say something that twisted was devastating because it made it bloody difficult to still want to help him.

But that was the point of the lie and Freddie was eternally grateful that the others had all seen through it, because if he had been on the other side... If he had seen Jason's performance, well he wasn't sure he wouldn't believe the younger Roscoe.

"The insulin were in there wasn't it?" Robbie groaned suddenly, realising fully why Jason had wanted him gone so quickly, so he couldn't find it.

"Well we could always go back and look for it now?" Ziggy suggested dourly after a moment's silence, when the others had let the revelation sink in, all cursing themselves for missing a golden opportunity.

"Chances are he'll have moved it by now, maybe even got rid of it," Joe sighed, cradling his head in his hands. "But who knows where he'll have put it."

"I think I might," Robbie told the others, eyes shining. "I ran into him again, bout ten minutes ago. He was at the back of the club acting dead shady and he was definitely going to leave before he saw me."

"You reckon he's put it there?"

"Well it makes sense, what other reason would he have to be there? He probably put it in one of the bins, that way we'd never find it."

"Well lets go," Freddie said determinedly, already putting away his tool-kit. None of the others argued with him, tidying up as best they could, before locking up and rushing to the centre of the village.

"He was right here," Robbie told them breathlessly once they'd made their way to The Loft. "Standing by the bin for ages before he saw me."

There were only two bins by the gate, both half-full, their lids nowhere to be seen. Joe grimaced as he and Freddie pushed the black barrels over, empty plastic cups, paper and other... questionable things tipping out onto the courtyard.

The four brothers fell to their knees, going through plastic bags but ultimately coming up empty. "Are you sure he put it here?" Ziggy asked, wiping the gunk off of his hands.

"I'm not sure about anything anymore," Robbie replied grimly, standing the bins back up, though he made no effort to put the rubbish back. "But there's no way the insulin is still in the house."

"He could of dumped it anywhere between here and there then," Freddie suggested, not liking the outcome if it proved to be true.

"Please tell me we're not gonna be looking through bins all afternoon," Ziggy groaned. "That's just dire."

"Sorry Zig," Joe smiled grimly. "But it's all we got."
"It's just a bit excessive is all I'm saying, going through all the bins in the bloody village."

"Well, more like half," Robbie grinned, amused at his brother's dramatics. "But we need that insulin and soon. Even though Mum and Lindsey believe what's going on and can help, us not finding the insulin may make it harder to get Jason the help he needs. I'm doing anything I can to make sure Jason gets any treatment he needs and soon, because who knows what could happen if we don't."

The others were silent for a moment, surprised by Robbie's empassionate declaration and wrapping their heads around the change in their youngest brother.

Before they could leave the courtyard, Freddie spoke up, breaking the heavy silence. "What if we're wrong and the insulin is still in the house?"

"Then we split up," Joe decided. "You and Freddie can look through the house, me and Zig will take the streets."

"I hate every single one of you." Ziggy groaned again, lifting the tension as he mocking glared at Freddie and Robbie as they went to leave, both chuckling lightly under their breath.

"Oh stop complaining and lets go yeah?"

}}}}}}

"What the hell is Novolog?" Holly questioned as she stared at the glass vials that were laid out in front of her and Ruby. The two girls had left the village square shortly after they had found the bag that Jason had dumped, making a quick detour back to Price Slice so Holly could serve the disgruntled customers before going up to her flat.

Once there, they'd emptied the bag completely, laying the vials onto the kitchen table, at a loss what to do next. Each of the vials were identical and had the word 'Novolog' pasted all over the label, with a small list of information and numbers, which did nothing but confuse the two girls.

Grabbing her phone, Ruby opened a search engine and typed the brand name in, impatiently waiting for the results to load. "Novolog is a fast acting insulin," she read out, sharing a confused glance with Holly.

"Insulin? Like diabetes insulin?"

"There's another type?" Ruby asked dryly.

"Shut up," Holly snapped, not in the mood. "I just mean, well I don't know a lot about diabetes apart from what I learned in biology, but I was under the impression you kind of need to take this stuff to live."

"You do, it stops the blood glucose levels from rising too high." Ruby told her, reciting what she had learnt from previous science lessons, still scrolling on her phone and trying to get a clear picture of what was happening to her friend.

"So why was Jason throwing his away? There's loads of this stuff here and none of it's been used. Why wouldn't he take it?"

"I don't know, but I think we should tell his brothers," Ruby decided. "I bet you this was what Robbie was looking for, meaning they already know he's not taking it, but if it wasn't, then they need to know anyway." As she spoke, Holly bit her lip in obvious turmoil, not liking having to go behind her boyfriend's back, but at the same time, seeing the sense in Ruby's plan.

"We could try talking to Jason first-"

"And what?" Ruby interrupted. She knew what Holly was getting at, but she had to be rational. Jason was her friend and she cared greatly for him, but there was no chance that he'd sit down and tell them everything that was going on, not if that way he had been acting around Robbie was anything to go by.

She worried for Jason though, when they had first met he had seemed quiet though generally very happy and laidback, but over the last few weeks she had seen a change in him. He had begun to withdraw more and more, always having excuses to not hang out with her, Esther, Phoebe or the others outside of school, and even then he was distant.

Because of that, the group had begun to do the same, Phoebe was barely civil to him on the best of days and the others weren't much better. Ruby had tried to act normal, but she had a wide circle of friends, meaning she wasn't always there.

On the days that she was with some of the girls from her Health and Social care class, she'd often see Jason on the edge of the group, not saying anything and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. Something was wrong with her friend, that much was evident, but Ruby had no idea of where to even start, though his family may be able to help.

That was why she knew they couldn't go to Jason, he'd deny everything and possibly alienate them further and she wanted to be there for him, to support him if need be. His family however, were a completely different story.

They might be able to explain what was going on and Ruby knew they needed to be shown the bag of insulin, it was too dangerous to keep them in the dark. She explained all of this to the younger girl, though Holly still looked conflicted.

"I just feel like I'm betraying him," she revealed. "We're meant to trust one another and I don't really want to keep this from him, especially if he finds out we were the ones who showed the insulin to his family."

"But keeping it from them is even worse. I don't know what Jason's playing at, but it says here if you don't take your insulin you could go blind or have a stroke. They need to know if they don't already Hol, if you really cared about him, and not just what he thought of you then you'd see that." Ruby snapped, not caring when the blonde bristled.

Her friend was possibly in great danger and she didn't have time for little girls that had been treating him like pure crap for months on end. She didn't know what was going through Holly's mind, but if Jason was just going to be her latest accessory and then thrown to the side when someone 'better' came along, well she'd have plenty to say on the matter.

"Is that what you really think of me?" Holly asked, her tone dangerous. "That I don't actually care about him."

"Well what do you really know about him? You've barely given him the time of day since he got here and now you two are suddenly dating. I just don't get it," Holly was silent for a moment, trying not to react violently to Ruby's words. Unfortunately she saw the truth in them and the older girl's comments were completely valid, despite the fact that Ruby had seemingly be ready to accept the relationship only a little while earlier.

What did she actually know about Jason Roscoe? As she tried to think, her mind kept coming up with a blank. They'd spent such little time one-on-one that they really didn't know a lot about the other, all she knew was that he liked horror movies!

But didn't everything start off like that? You could never know everything about everyone instantly, but you learnt more and more as you got to know the person, and that was the joy in it. Sure she didn't know trivial things like Jason's middle name or his favourite colour, but she knew that she liked him. Shouldn't that be enough for now?

He had a kind soul and in their few interactions she had seen that he had a dry yet tasteful sense of humour. She had started looking forward to the next time she would speak to him and there was a spark between them, which was always growing.

So, just because she didn't know a lot about him yet, didn't mean that would always be the case.

"I admit, I was a complete bitch to Jason when we first met, but you will not believe how ashamed I am because of it. I do like him and there's nothing wrong with that, nor is there with being in a

relationship with him. It may not work out, but it may be the best thing to happen to me.

"Don't you ever dare try to insinuate that I don't care about him, if I wanted to be in a relationship for my image or my popularity then there are a hell of a lot of other people who I could be with that aren't him.

"But I'm not because I want to be with Jason. And the reason why I'm not sure about telling his family about the insulin is because I don't want him to be wary of me or think that I would betray his trust whenever I felt like it. I know it's the right thing to do, I just don't want to go behind his back."

"And you think I do?" Ruby asked, trying not to snap. She saw that Holly had Jason's best intentions at heart and she believed what she said, but that didn't mean Ruby was any less wary. Girls their age were extremely fickle and whilst she may feel that way for Jason now, it didn't mean it'd be the same next month, or even next week.

But she was willing to give Holly the benefit of the doubt, for now at least.

"Jason is probably one of my best friends, I don't want to ruin that by running to his family, but I've looked at the whole picture and you need to too. What Jason may be doing is so dangerous Holly, us telling Sandy may be the thing to save him. I can't have him going blind or losing a kidney be on my conscience, there's too much there already."

Holly was quiet for a moment, in obvious turmoil. "Okay," she finally nodded. "I'll call Robbie."

You would not believe the difficulty I had uploading this chapter. I had just finished editing it, was about to save it before downloading the file on to fanfiction, and then the power went. For one and a half hours! When it came on, the editing was all gone and I had to re-start. So if there were any hideous spelling mistakes I do apologise, because I'm tired and may have missed something.

Apart from that, I loved writing this chapter, because it really helps show the conflict between everyone and what they believe they should do regarding Jason, seen with Sandy and Lindsey and then Ruby and Holly.

I love the Sandy and Lindsey dilemma most though, because I see a lot of similarities in the two women, both professionally and personally. I think it also further highlights how difficult the situation is for Sandy, because she'll know protocols and such, a lot more than Lindsey, but like with a lot of people, they are sometimes blinded to their relatives troubles, believing they can be the ones to make it all better, even when logic says otherwise.

Sorry, rambley note is rambley, and I said I'd stop doing that.