Christian stopped dead in his tracks and bundled Kamil closer to himself as he saw the gun in Alec's hand. "What... what're you doing, Alec?" he asked carefully.

"You can't do this to me, Christian!" Alec's hand shook as he pointed the gun at Christian, threatening him.

"I'm not doing anything. You need to calm down, put the gun down," he pleaded.

"I thought we had something, Christian! You and I were going to get away together... and then this happens?"

"I didn't know anything about the police, Alec. It wasn't me."

"Liar!" Alec pushed his hair back from his forehead. He was nervous and agitated, and sweat continued to bead on his brow. "I told them not to involve police, I told them what would happen if they did and now I've got no choice but to follow through with it."

"What are you going to do, Alec? Are you going to try and hurt Kamil? Because if you do there's no chance of us going forward," Christian warned, his mouth dry as he took his stand.

"I have to. It's what I do. I'm known for it. If I say I'll do something then I'll do it."

"You don't have to. Not all the time. Not when it involves a baby." Christian hugged Kamil tight, keeping his head turned away from Alec and the gun pointing at them.

"Why should he be given any special treatment, just because he's so young? Maybe he'd be better off considering who his parents are."

"No. Alec, just no. I may not get on with Zainab and Masood. Maybe their views are bigoted and I find plenty about that abhorrent, but to deprive a child of his parents, the love of his family... of his life? Alec... Kamil isn't you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You lost your parents in a fire, right?"

"Yes, I did. And if there was ever a reason to want to relieve a child of his parents, then they would be a prime example." Alec spat as he talked, making Christian realise that there was more to Alec's history than he ever knew. Whatever his parents had done to him had clearly affected him badly. It had probably led to all of this. And he'd probably just touched a nerve and made things worse... unless he could get Alec to talk about it properly, maybe even consider this a kind of therapy.

"What happened? You can tell me, I'll listen."

Alec looked out of the window again, seeing men taking positions behind walls and cars, but carried on. "I came home from university for the summer. I decided it was time for me tell them my biggest secret... the one laying heavily on my conscience... the one that scared me the most."

Christian closed his eyes as he instantly knew what secret that was. "You told them you were gay."

"I told them." Alec nodded. "And they told me to get out."

"They disowned you."

"Disowned. Disinherited... you name it, I was to expect it."

"But you weren't. You must have made up with them."

Christian's hopes were dashed as Alec spoke up again. "They died that night, before they could do anything."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be!" Alec waved the gun around in his agitation. "They got exactly what was coming to them. For years I'd worried about what they might say and do. I knew they wouldn't be happy. We never got on well anyway but I'd spent my life being told what to do by them. What subjects to learn, what schools to go to, what hobbies to have... and then I just cracked, okay? I cracked under the pressure they put me under and the minute I told them I was something they didn't expect... I was dead to them. So I made them dead to me."

Christian frowned. "What are you saying?" He didn't like where this was heading. He didn't like the sound of that last sentence Alec had spoken. It sounded far too much like some sort of ambiguous confession.

"I watched the fire, you know." Alec tapped his head with the butt of the gun. "I was there, the police don't know it, but I was there."

"Did you start the fire?" Christian asked, wanting a straight answer, wanting to know how much danger he and Kamil were in and whether Alec was just a bit crazy or if he was a psychopathic murderer.

"The difficult bit was making it look like an accident," Alec answered. It may not have been an out and out confession but it told Christian everything he needed to know. But it hadn't been the answer he'd wanted. He swallowed again, his throat hoarse and dry with tension.

He nodded. "So you see yourself in Kamil. The boy with parents who are controlling and think homosexuality is wrong enough to banish their child from the family."

"Perhaps."

"What about Syed? He's also their son. He was disowned by them, not Kamil. He's the one you should feel that affinity to. Why not let him be happy? Let us be happy?"

"See now, there's the other problem. Because it's the opposite problem, isn't it. He got what I want. And I don't see what makes him so special to deserve it over me!"

"He didn't kill his own parents!" Christian shouted back, before cradling Kamil's head as the boy became worried at the raised tone of voice. Christian immediately regretted his outburst, but it was an automatic response to defend Syed and his love for him.

Alec seemed to be ignoring the comment though, after a few blinks. The psycho in him appeared to be getting worse, his head was all over the place and he was beginning to show more cracks as he waved the gun around. Christian just wanted him to put it down before it accidentally went off.

"Syed." Alec spat the name. "It's him who should be punished, not me. Him and his parents. Losing the baby is just what they deserve! Don't you see? They should know the consequences of their actions and of their narrow minded views."

"Not like this. No one deserves this."

Alec smiled, but Christian just found it creepy. "I love that you see the best in people. It's like you're the perfect counter point for me."

Christian felt a revulsion as Alec still tried to show him why they should be together, when, in fact, every time he did so Christian believed the opposite more and more.

"I don't love you."

"You don't mean that."

"You have to leave Kamil alone."

"I can't do that."

"I won't let you hurt him."

"You can't stop me."

"I need to take him out of here."

"You can't. Christian, don't move any closer to that door."

"I'm going to hand him over to the police."

"Stop it. I'll shoot, I swear I'll shoot!"

"You won't hurt me."

"Stop!"

Christian turned his back on Alec and reached his spare hand to the door he'd been backing towards. He was totally convinced that Alec wouldn't hurt him, considering how much he kept saying how much he loved him; and surely that would override his desire to hurt Kamil.

But it was at that moment that the gun went off.

And Christian fell to the ground.