Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any characters mentioned.

Chapter 35

Returning home, Leo was pretty much used to his weekend routine, not too many questions asked, just the general "hi, did you have a good night?"

However, it seemed his Dad wanted to play twenty questions today.

"How's Marco feeling?"

"Well, you know, it's still early days. He'll get there."

"It's not going to be easy for him. He's seen the therapist though, right?"

"Yeah, he says it's not helping much, but he has plenty of time."

The next few weeks had been pretty eventful to say the least. Not only had Marco had been back to his therapist, he'd been taken off his crutches and he'd gotten the stitches removed from his stomach, which reminded him, that he really wanted some of that anaesthetic stuff, he hadn't slept better in weeks.

Not that things were getting much better; Marco felt the same as he did when he and Leo first spoke about it. He felt guilty ranting on to Leo all the time. Apart from when he was drugged up in hospital, he quite regularly got next to no sleep because of his nightmares; he just didn't know why it wasn't working.

Leo's life hadn't been plain sailing either, with Justin being threatened with boarding school, and trying to run away with Tiffany, he couldn't help feel like he was being swept along the side-lines.

Leo had also noticed how much he and his brother had grown apart, with Justin constantly fretting over Tiffany, and he and Marco were so serious, he realised just how little time he and his brother had spent together. He was still his brother, but things weren't quite right and they were only getting worse.

Especially since Tiffany had stopped going to school since the runaway incident, Leo was sure something else happened to make her not want to come in.

"Marco's mate Lizzie knows Tiffany well…"

"No Justin. Marco hasn't spoken to her since he's left school. I hardly talk to her either."

"Why don't you do this for me, I'm always doing favours for you?"

Leo knew this was a huge lie. The few favours he said he'd do never got done, and the amount of times Justin had said "I owe you" just made Leo realise it was meaningless; Justin was just using him so he'd get what he wanted.

He didn't like this manipulative, bullying side of Justin, he was angry, but he took it out on the people he shouldn't.

"You could talk to Floyd for me." Justin pestered.

"Why? I've hardly spoken him, ever."

"Well he's not going to tell me where Tiffany is, is he?"

Leo just rolled his eyes. He wasn't going to, Floyd wasn't stupid, and he'd know why Leo was talking to him, and he'd not tell him, he knew that.

Justin was smarter than that; he just wasn't using his head.

School was as best it could be, Leo would occasionally get a text from Marco, but from how far apart they were, he was probably distracted by something. He still didn't think Marco was as well as the front he was putting on showed; he still looked worried, on edge. Leo knew people came round to things at different times in life, but trying to be better than he really was, wasn't doing Marco any favours.

There was a nagging feeling in the back of Leo's mind that was pretty familiar, he felt like he had to be the adult all over again. He felt like he couldn't speak about it to anyone. His Dad was super stressed about the Justin and Tiffany situation, Justin was being Justin, and Marco wasn't well.

Not to mention exams were hardly anything not to stress over, Marco was apparently coming into school to sit his exams, but in a separate room, but Leo hadn't seen him. Marco told Leo in strict confidence that he just didn't want to be seen at school yet, he wasn't ready, which he completely understood.

"Have you spoken to Floyd yet?" Justin asked.

"Not yet." Leo sighed. "I have exams you know. I hardly have time."

"I just need this favour Leo."

"Okay, but you have more time for it than I do." Leo responded, glancing back at his geography notes, as his phone buzzed.

"I'm not late for the exam?"

The amount of question marks, made Leo smile, he never understood how someone with such a punk image was so persistent on not being late. Though, exams did really stress him out in anyway,

"Right, you don't have time for me, but you have all the time in the world for Marco, thanks bro."

"What? No. He was just asking about the exam."

"Whatever." Justin rolled his eyes. "Just do it, or me and you are going to fall out." He whispered threateningly before storming off.

Leo was slightly unnerved by his brothers threatening tone; this had nothing to do with him.

He was surprised when a pair of hands covered his eyes.

"Guess who?" The cheery voice piped up

"Katy Perry." Leo responded sarcastically.

"Close enough." Marco laughed.

"I thought you didn't want to come in yet."

"Yeah, I'm only coming in for the exam then I'm going, hence the lack of uniform." Marco responded. "I feel like everyone's staring at me ; I'm far from 100%"

"You're doing great by just being here. They could've rescheduled your exams."

"No way, get them over and done with, plus I get extra time on my paper, so I best take advantage of it now."

The bell rang, signalling the end of break, and time for everyone to head towards their Geography exam. Marco gave Leo a quick hug.

"Good luck, you'll ace it!" He said encouragingly.

"You too, you'll do fine." Leo replied, grinning, Marco hadn't been this happy in a while, maybe he'd thought wrong about Marco's lack of improvement, either that, or Marco's acting skills had gotten a lot better.

"Thank god that's over, that was just ridiculous."

Leo got himself some lunch and sat in the library, feeling a sense of Deja-vu, this used to be a very common occurrence.

After finishing his lunch, Leo headed to his locker, where he was met by Justin.

"I ask you to do one thing for me, you don't even do that." Justin sounded angry, though Leo knew he hadn't really done anything.

"I've been busy, I've got my own stuff to do you know." Leo responded as calmly as he could.

"Like what? Marco being off the map isn't your problem, it's his."

"Justin that was uncalled for, it's not his fault."

"Really? So you think that justifies him being shitty to you."

"Since when?" Leo asked.

"Come on Leo, you're way more stressed than you've been since that nut job got involved."

"That's not true. Just because you and Tiffany have finished, doesn't mean you have to pick faults with everyone else's relationships."

Leo regretted being so harsh, not really thinking through what he'd just said. He knew family came first, but it was difficult when Justin was being like this. It wasn't Marco's fault, and it seemed like Leo was the only one who believed that at this point.

Not even Marco seemed to believe it.

"What did you say?" Justin snarled, grabbing Leo by his shirt collar.

"You heard."

Marco had just finished his exam as he left the room, he was ready to go home and sleep it off. He'd studied for so long for that exam, and his heart raced all the way through, and he was struggling to get his breathing back to normal.

As he turned the corner, he saw Justin, holding Leo by his shirt collar, and it immediately made him freeze, and his heart began to race again. Not only that, there was a growing group around them.

"At least my girlfriend is normal, you should've dumped him as soon as you found out he was a complete psycho."

It went so quiet a pin could drop, and Marco didn't know whether to feel betrayed, or angry, or embarrassed, or anything else. It wasn't as if he blended in easily either, even when he kept his head down and avoided eye contact, which had gotten him this far.

"You could at least say it to my face mate, god, you're worse than the girls for bitchiness."

And as quickly as the silence fell, all eyes fell onto him.

"So it is true?" Shaznay asked.

"You should be locked up, there are hospitals for people like you."

Marco didn't know what to do, his head was spinning, and he saw red.

"Yeah, cause I am just a psychopath, right Justin?"

"If it wasn't for you, our family wouldn't be so messed up. Leo never had any issue until you showed up."

"Really, he didn't? Maybe he just didn't want to tell you because you're a terrible brother."

Leo's eyes widened. That was harsh. As much as he wanted to stop the both of them, neither side looked as if they'd back down.

"Me? Wasn't it you who fucked off up here because you don't speak to your brothers."

"Hardly true, but since you're so quick to make up lies about me, I'd expect nothing less. I mean, no wonder Tiffany dumped you." He chuckled.

That was it; Justin snapped swinging a punch his way, sending Marco to the ground.

He fought the flashbacks running through his mind

"There's no group, there's only one of him. Don't let him do to you what Brandon did, you can do this."

Marco got to his feet, not caring his nose was bloody, and retaliated, but just his look, Mrs Mulgrew was walking past.

"Justin, Marco, office, now!"

AN: I re-wrote this chapter, because I really didn't like it, so I've re-uploaded, I feel better with this one, so yay! Plus, I didn't really want Marco in and out of hospital too much, so this one should be a bit better :D

To the guest, you should have said sooner! I would've taken it on board and altered the story if it wasn't making you guys happy, I'm always open to suggestions and constructive criticism, if I had have known it wasn't what you guys wanted, I would've changed it, I do write chapters in advance, but I can alter them easily until they are published, so this goes to anyone reading/reviewing, I don't bite, if something is off, or you want to help with the story, I'm all ears to suggestions and criticisms (constructive, just saying it is shit helps nobody)

Unfortunately, the way things have gone, I can't alter the story too much now, as this has a lot to do with how I'm ending it, so hopefully it's not too disappointing of an ending, but if you guys would want a sequel, please, let me know :D

See you all next chapter, and thank you all for reading :) xx