Steve sat by the window, watching the storm outside. He hadn't seen rain so torrential for years. Mark sat back at the table, the discarded plates still littered with half eaten food sat unattended. Amanda, her eyes fixed determinedly on Jesse, sat perched on the armchair, her posture stiff and tense. No one spoke, each absorbed with their own thoughts.

Four hours Mark thought, tapping his wristwatch with one finger. The face and its numbers were almost indiscernible in the dark but he had managed to see the time during a particularly violent flash of lightening. 12:07am, so there's about four more hours of darkness before dawn… Mark tried to think, to plan a way in which he could keep Jesse alive long enough to get to the hospital. It's too dangerous to try and move him now, his condition is far too unstable… We have to get more fluids into him, keep his pressure up… It was with this thought in his mind that he stood and wandered absent mindedly into the kitchen to prepare more water for infusion.

Amanda stared deeply into Jesse's face. His pale features contracted in pain even in sleep, his blonde hair ruffled messily, discoloured with dried mud and streaks of blood. She watched his chest rise and fall, trembling with each shallow intake. His lips were tinged blue, his blood stained clothing creased where it had dried to his skin. Amanda found she appraised him in a way not dissimilar to her assessments of the numerous bodies which came to her mortuary table; unfeeling, disconnected. Her muscles ached with tiredness, but her mind was numb, unable even to feel the exhaustion of her body. Too tired to move, unwilling to sleep, she simply sat, her eyes bright with tears, staring deeply into Jesse's face.

Steve sat with his back to the room, staring out of the window. He watched, almost mesmerised, at the sheets of rain as they pounded at the ground. What had been small puddles a couple of hours previously had now merged, creating a myriad of miry swamps which seemed to grow with each passing minute. He scanned the courtyard which fronted the house, alarmed at how it could look so different in such a short space of time. Only that afternoon had he driven up the same driveway Jesse had struggled to negotiate, parked his car and entered the house for what he had expected to be a relaxed evening with his father and friends. Yet now, in the absence of streetlights and through a deluge of rain it all looked so alien to him, the dark corners hiding any number of secrets, the carefully pruned shrubbery a haven for cloaking prowlers.

Steve sat back in his chair and rubbed wearily at his eyes. They itched with tiredness but he was determined that he would stay awake, determined that he would be ready to help whenever he was needed – determined to protect his friend. Just for a minute he thought, I'll just close my eyes for a minute…

The courtyard was awash with dazzling sunlight. Steve let his car glide to a halt before pulling on the hand brake and turning off the ignition. Rather than get out of the car he rested his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes, letting the warm sunshine wash over his face. Comfortable in the silence and with the glow of the sun on his face he found he could easily drift into a contented sleep… A sharp crackling broke the silence, jerking Steve from his slumber. "All units please respond, there is an ongoing 1014 in progress at…" Steve listened for a moment with only mild interest before switching his police radio off. He was off duty and had no intention of going back into work so soon, after all, Amanda and Jesse were coming over for dinner. He wanted to run one of his cases by them, see what they made of the evidence… Steve got out of the car and made his way towards the house. But something wasn't right… he found his feet moved with difficulty, as though they were cohered to the ground. He look down and found his feet embedded in thick mud, dark and cloying. But it looked wrong, almost red… It was blood. A sea of thick, viscous blood. And it was rising. The sticky fluid rose insidiously, it was at his ankles, his knees. Steve struggle to pull himself from its unrelenting grasp, but he couldn't move. He searched around him, looking desperately for something to grab hold of, to pull himself from the quagmire. There! He could see something large floating on the surface of the growing lake of blood. It… No! It was Jesse, floating face down into the blood, drowning. Steve struggled to get to him, to help him. But he couldn't move. The blood was up to his elbows and rising faster than ever before. It was creeping up his neck, over his mouth. He had to get to Jesse, to save him, but he couldn't breathe, he was drowning in the sea of blood…

"NO!" Steve jerked awake, a cold sweat trickling down his back. His heart pounded hard against his chest, the sound of it resounding in his ears. His blood seemed to be pooling in his head and his skin felt hot, yet his insides were freezing.

"Steve? What is it?" Mark was by his side in a second, concern evident in both his voice and his frown

Steve momentarily peered up into his father's anxious face, then looked away. He felt very aware of the beads of perspiration which were grouping on his temples and he wiped them away self-consciously.

"Uh…, it's nothing, just… just a dream." He stared down at his feet, a flush of heat rising up his face causing his cheeks to flame red with embarrassment. As Mark made no effort to move, Steve looked up at him again, noting for the first time the lines of worry and tiredness etched into his father's face.

"I'm ok Dad, really" he spoke more softly this time, "Why don't you take a nap? Amanda and I can keep an eye on Jesse…"

"No" Mark responded rapidly and firmly leaving no room whatsoever for disagreement or continued negotiation. Steve knew there was no point continuing to try and persuade Mark to take a rest, once his father had made his mind up about something it was completely pointless to try and persuade him to an alternative. After a moments silence Mark spoke again,

"I'm just going to start Jesse on a second infusion – his pressure is stable, I think its helping…" Mark trailed off, adding silently to himself, For now. He placed a hand on Steve's shoulder and squeezed reassuringly before disappearing again into the darkness in the direction of the kitchen.

Steve leant back in the chair and stretched his arms out above his head. He still felt a dragging tiredness pulling at his muscles but he couldn't sleep. The nightmare was still fresh in his mind, the image of Jesse drowning in a pool of blood crisp and haunting. He shook his head to try and flush the vision from his mind, but finding it still clear he stood and made his way back over to Amanda and Jesse, their presence hopefully providing enough of a distraction to tear his mind from his fears.

"Hey" Steve said by way of greeting, his voice unnaturally polite. It seemed odd, almost formal to greet Amanda in his own living room like this but then again, the whole evening had been anything but what he would have usually expected.

"Hey" she smiled a weak, almost sad smile. "What was that all about just now?"

"Oh, it was nothing. Just a stupid dream…" He trailed off, not wanting to say anything more. He still felt slightly ashamed at yelling out like he had. He turned his attention instead to Jesse.

"Has anything… changed?"

"No" Amanda replied with a sigh. "He's not moved for over an hour, but there's been no change in his vital signs so that's good…" she trailed off thinking that there was in fact nothing good whatsoever about the whole situation.

"I…" Steve fell silent, his brow furrowed as though deep in thought. Something had just occurred to him. Amanda waited a moment for him to continue.

"Steve? What were you saying?" Amanda inquired, watching him in bewilderment as he stared at some indistinct spot somewhere above her left ear. Receiving no response she probed again.

"Steve? Hey!" She waved a hand in front of his face trying to snap him from his stupor.

"Huh?" Steve blinked as if surprised to see Amanda there.

"Oh, I… I just had a thought…" he trailed off as something stirred in his memory, maybe, just maybe…

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"What were you thinking!?" Amanda said, exasperation evident in her voice.

"I… I'm not quite sure…" He answered with a faraway look on his face, obviously still lost in thought.

Amanda appraised him bemusedly and responded sardonically.

"So… let me make sure I've got this right. You're thinking of something, but you're not sure what."

"Yeah…" Steve responded slowly, and got to his feet.

"Yeah, uh, I'll be back in a minute…" Steve trailed off yet again and after picking the torch up off the table he wandered slowly out of the room, Amanda watching his retreating form with a bewildered frown on her face.