A/N:Dawww, everyone's being cute this chapter. Except Grell. He and the Undertaker will be cute next chapter. Grim and Eric are bonding, William and Eric and bonding, Ron and Alan are bonding. Lovely. So, thank you for the reviews and please keep them coming.

William jumped awake hearing something smash. He glanced around and found Ronald was nowhere to be seen. He got up quickly, grabbed his glasses, barely stopping to slip on his slippers just in case whatever had smashed was on the floor, and ran out to the living room. He wasn't there. Grim was sitting by the spare room door. He stepped forwards but glass crunched under foot. He glanced down and felt his heart wrench. It was a photo he'd shown Ronald the night before. It was completely shattered. He picked it up slowly and frowned.

"Ronald?" he called quietly, heading over to the spare room. "What are you..." He trailed off, his throat going dry and his stomach churning. Ronald was sitting on the bed, his files spread out around him, tears dripping down his cheeks. He knew he should have got rid of them. "Ronald-"

"Stop lying to me," Ronald hissed, slowly lifting his gaze. "Tell me the truth."

"It's not what you think, Ronald," William said, stepping forwards slightly.

"Isn't it?" he cried. "Look at all this. Look at me. This is me! This is all me! I don't understand any of this and you've lied to me the entire time! Who am I? Honestly this time? Who am I? What am I?"

William sat with him and took his hands gently but Ronald quickly jerked away. "Ronald, listen to me. You are Ronald Knox, one of the best young reapers I've ever seen, and the love of my life. That's all you need to know, darling. None of this other stuff matters."

"But it does matter! This said I killed Mr Slingby years ago. How is that possible? Why doesn't any of this make sense? Why don't I remember all this?"

"Stop it, darling," he whispered. "Please. It won't end well. Please, stop. You have to stop this. It's not going to help."

"Why won't you tell me anything?" he yelled, pushing him away, tears falling faster. "Stop lying to me!"

"I don't want to see you suffering anymore," William said desperately.

He caught and pulled him in against his chest, holding him tightly against him and wrapping his arms around him. Ronald was sobbing uncontrollably and pounding his fist against his chest. William didn't blame him. He wanted to stop Ronald suffering. Part of the reason he'd been swayed to kill him and let him be reborn. Without his memories, Ronald wasn't supposed to suffer. They would have kept him safe from harm and protected him. He was supposed to be completely safe now. If Ronald every discovered what he'd done, he'd be killed. The only reason he had been allowed to live was that he was considered an innocent party now. The higher ups wouldn't be so forgiving again. He had to keep Ronald in the dark or he'd be held responsible for his actions. He had to keep him safe.

Closing his eyes as Ronald's fury faded, his trembling hand holding his top, whimpering and sobbing, William sighed and rested his head on top of Ronald, gently stroking his hair. How was he supposed to tell Ronald what had happened to him? How was William supposed to tell him all he'd been through? It almost destroyed him the first time and he was a more mature and older and stronger. Ronald had every right to be so confused and angry and he would do anything to make it better, but there was nothing he could do.

"William?" Lifting his head, he stared up at the other three, not sure what to say. Alan frowned. "What's going on, William?"

William frowned and returned to leaning against Ronald, closing his eyes again. "Ronald found some old files."

"Did you all know?" Ronald whimpered, gazing up. "Did you all know what I've done? All the terrible things in those files? Is that what happened to the worst criminals? You just wipe their minds and turn them into children again? Was I really that bad?"

"No," Alan said gently, sitting with him. Eric smiled slowly and sat with them. "No, Ronald, you weren't. You were so sweet and kind."

"Then why does my file have so many black marks against it?" he cried.

"Because you're part of our troubled but talented bunch," Eric said. "Ronald, we all loved you, we were going to keep you safe. Look, we can't keep you safe if you start to look into this stuff ok? I know it sounds cruel but we took away your memories and resurrected you to keep you safe. They would have killed you and that would be that if we hadn't. Not that we had much choice."

Ronald frowned and tilted his head as Eric glared at William. "But you said to be reborn as a reaper, I have to be killed, that my life had to end unnaturally. What happened to me? How did I die?" His eyes widened and he pulled up his sleeves, looking at the hideous scars on his wrists as William's heart wrenched. "Was it these? Did I-"

"No," William said quickly. "No, they weren't you." He sighed and kissed the top of Ronald's head. "Darling, no. You were murdered during that demon attack on the hospital. I managed to reap your soul before it ate it."

Ronald closed his eyes slowly, resting against him. William frowned and gently stroked his cheeks, brushing away his tears. His poor Ronald. He couldn't tell him he'd murdered him. He couldn't. He'd hate him for the rest of his life. He couldn't take that. He sighed and closed his eyes as well, holding him close.

"Did you fall for a human lover when I was with the demons?" Ronald whispered. "Or was that just another explanation to keep me quiet? To explain away my presence?"

"Demons?" Eric said gently. "Ron, what are you-"

"I'm not stupid," he muttered, turning to Eric. "I get it. I'm Mr Spears little blonde lover who died in the demon attack, right? I was... raped... and almost killed... and ended up in the hands of demons... that's me, isn't it?"

They glanced at each other before William sighed. "Darling... I'm sorry... I didn't want you to find out like this."

"We were trying to protect you, Ronald," Alan said gently. "We didn't want you to get hurt."

"Please don't be mad, Ron," Eric said, squeezing his hand.

"I missed you too," Grell said, wrapping his arms around his shoulders from behind. "I always knew you and Will would be back together soon."

"Sutcliff," William snapped. Grell grinned and Eric pulled him up, opening a porthole. "We'll come and get you when your input will be less troublesome."

"Hey! Where are you sending me?" he cried as Eric shoved him through.

"Right," Eric said quiet quickly. "So, Ron, are we forgiven? We were only trying to keep you safe. If you remembered, you'd be killed as a traitor. It was our only choice."

Ronald sighed and got up. "I need to think."

William watched him hurry out before turning to the others. They hadn't planned for this. If it ever came out it wasn't supposed to be like this. He frowned and glanced at the files around them. He'd put them away in one of the boxes. How did he find them?

"What's wrong, William?" Alan said quietly.

"How did they get the files?" William murmured.

"What?" Eric said.

"The box with the files in was right at the back, under the desk behind all the others, but it's the only one open. How did he know to get that one open?" He frowned and turned his gaze on Grim who was sitting on the pillows. The kitten mewled and tilted his head, looking too innocent as William narrowed his gaze. "That's the last time you're sleeping in the bed."

Grim blinked up at him, looking so sad. Eric laughed and patted his head. "I know how you feel, mate. He keeping letting me come back just for one night too. I was kicked out this morning too."

"Don't bond with him over sleeping on the couch," Alan snapped, smacking his arm. "You make it sound like I'm causing trouble here. You're the one who kept interfering. Look at what's happened to him. You should have just left him alone. And I'm really disappointed in you, William. We should have just left him alone. I'm going to find him." He got up and Eric went to follow but Alan pushed him back. "You three-" he glanced from Eric to William to Grim and back "-are going to stay here and think about what you've done to him by playing with his life. He is a person, not a toy, his life is not ours to play with. We should have just left him to grow up. Now, perhaps next time you won't be so selfish and will stop thinking about what you want and remember we're supposed to be thinking about what's best for him. Try not to forget that again."

All three nodded dumbly and Alan turned and strode out. William frowned and glanced at Eric who shrugged. When Alan got going he could be rather intense, but he did make some good points. They had lost sight of what was important. Ronald was the important thing and they'd been thinking about themselves and getting back to how it was. Grim flopped on his lap and rolled his eyes.

"I know, pal," Eric said, scratching his ear. "Women, huh?"

"I sometimes wonder why people questioned my relationship with Ronald and never you and Alan," William muttered. Eric frowned. "Does he honestly not mind you comparing him to a woman all the time? You're terrible to him."

"We need to think about Ronald," he said. William nodded, as did Grim. "This hasn't really worked out how we planned, has it?"

William sighed and shook his head. "This is going to destroy him. We did the right thing, didn't we? Making him forget? I didn't murder him for nothing, did I?"

"You did the right thing," Eric whispered. "I know it's tough, and I know I was angry, but it's better this way, right? We helped him. And this is where his problems started last time right. He was about a year old, Richard St John-"

"You did kill him, didn't you?" William said.

"Yeah, me, Grell and Michelle," Eric replied. "Around the same time I started killing for Alan. We've seen how screwed up he can be, and the sweet boy he is. He's strong William. We all know he's so strong. We can get him through this. If he has the support he needs this time then he'll be ok." Grim nodded and Eric smiled. "Although, I think Grell's help needs to be kept at a minimum. You know how he's a little insensitive sometimes. I know he means well-"

"But it's how he is," he said. "He seems to think life is a novel and he's the hero-"

"Heroine," Eric laughed. William nodded. "And it should revolve around him. If his friends are hurting, everyone should worry about how it's hurting him to see them suffering. He's the star and should have the attention."

"It's almost endearing how delude he is sometimes."

"If you're living in a fantasy world, it may as well be a satisfying one. Don't worry, Alan is probably the best person for him to be around at the moment anyway. You're really not acting like yourself recently. I know this mess must be getting to you."

"You have no idea, and Lucy caught us last night, so now I have a half shift today with two hours overtime. I need to get going. Make sure Ronald's alright for me."

Eric nodded. "You know me. Making sure Ron's alright is high on my list of priorities." William frowned and strode out to get changed as Eric smiled and laid back on the bed. Grim tilted his head and head-butted his forehead gently. He smiled and laughed. "Just us then, Grim. Don't worry, I know how you feel. Those women, they get so worked up over everything and anything. Any excuse to kick us out of bed, right?" Grim mewl and collapsed in a heap next to him, resting his head on his paws as Eric tucked his arms behind his head. "You think Ron will be ok?" Grim nodded. "You're right. Al will talk him down, I'm sure. He's good at thinking clearly when things get tough. If only he was as good at thinking clearly when it came to me. You know, we were barely done last night when he had one of his mood swings and locked himself in the bedroom. Said I was using sex to get forgiveness and he's not that kind of guy and I should know that by now." Sighing, Grim rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Then I finally got back into bed and he kicks me out again at three a.m. I swear, if he was a woman, I'd say he was pregnant." Grim glanced up at him and shook his head and Eric glared back. "What do you know, you're just a cat?"

Alan searched everywhere he could think of for Ronald before returning to heading out to London. It was a long shot, but it was possible. He turned through the twisting roads and Ronald was there, sitting on the door step of a rundown house in an alley. He sighed and shook his head. He knew this place. Ronald's instincts must have led him there. The alley where he'd been attacked by a pair of demons. He'd been offered a promotion, on the condition that William was promoted too, and he, Eric, Ronald and Grell had gone out to celebrate, even knowing that so many reapers were being attacked and never woke up again. William had been furious that they'd been so careless and that they'd let Ronald wander off while he was drunk and with the demons out there. They'd be so lucky Ronald had survived. It was that attack that had pushed William to act on his developing feelings for Ronald though.

"Hey, Ronald," he said gently. Ronald's head jerked up and Alan smiled. "Are you ok?"

"No," Ronald whispered. "No, I don't think I am."

Alan nodded. "What file did you take?" Ronald blinked and Alan smiled. "I saw you take it, even if no one else did. Which one?" He pulled out the folder from his jacket and Alan sat next to him. The file on what Marcus had done to him. "Are you sure you want to look at that?" He nodded. "Want me to stay with you?"

"Yes please."

"Look, Eric and William love you," Alan said, patting his arm. "Eric loves you like a little brother and William loves you more than anyone. They want what's best for you, they just let their hearts rule their heads sometimes. Although, William only really does that when it comes to you."

Ronald nodded and slowly opened the folder. Alan had never seen the folder either. The first thing he noticed was the devastatingly graphic pictures with the reports. First were Ronald's files on his time in isolation. They were simple and made sense. Then came the day of the attack. There were pictures of Ronald's room, his bed soaked in blood and over the floor. Next to them were the pictures of Ronald's arms as he was stitched up and cleaned up. Ronald frowned and ran his fingers over the pictures.

"They thought I tried to kill myself," he murmured. "Did you believe him?"

"We didn't want to believe if," Ronald murmured. "Eric was the only one allowed in to see you, he didn't believe it for a second, but he didn't tell us much at the time. And he turned on the doctors so fast. He'd seen exactly what had happened to you from the start and was furious that no one else had seen it." Ronald nodded slowly and flicked to the next page. "He demanded they did a proper exam."

And there were the results, photo after photo of Ronald's bruised body and notes on injuries they couldn't take pictures of and the psychological and toxicology reports. Tears welled in Ronald's eyes and Alan leant over, brushing them away gently.

"We stayed with you every step of the way, Ronald," he said firmly, squeezing his hand. "We did then and we will now. That's what we do, the five of us, together. Us against the world, because we get in so much trouble, we have to stick together. William, Grell and Eric, the slaughter the son of a bitch who did this to you. We are going to keep you safe Ronald. Put your trust in us. We'll keep you safe. You're ours and we're going to keep you safe. I promise, just give us a chance."

Ronald gazed up at him and frowned. "Did you say that before this happened?"

"We did all we could before and after. It hurt us all to know we'd let you go through that and we couldn't help. We'll keep you safe. Please, trust us." After a long moment, Ronald nodded. Alan smiled and hugged him close. "It's going to be ok, Ronald. I promise."