Sorry this took so long, i was stupidly busy!

Thanks to all the reviewers again, i still love you guys, er, Disclaimers, language and content, i dont own any of the Four Brothers blah blah copywritecakes blah blee.

Erm, i kinda got the feelin that some people thought i went the wrong way in having Bobby and Jerry kill Jack's attacker,but tbh, and since i wrote it hehe, i if you look at how they reacted to Evelyn being killed, to me, it makes perfect sense for them to react how i had them do, so to the nay sayers, it fits guys, it makes sense!

But here it is R+R, it might be a wee while again before i post, just Uni work see, so dont be mad with me!
Love ya guys xxx

Bobby and Jerry Mercer walked into Jacks hospital room and wordlessly lay Jacks wallet down on the table beside his bed.

Jack's eyes slowly tracked to the wallet and focused on it, his eyes barely changing as he remembered where he had lost it. His reaction was a tiny, almost imperceptible twitch of the skin around his eyes.

"All for you" Jerry whispered.

"He'll never hurt anybody again" Bobby muttered "Especially not you"

Jack's eyes where fixed on the wallet, still eerily blank but he gave a minute half blink that Bobby and Jerry took for confirmation of his understanding and visibly relaxed, the tension that had been flowing through them simply draining away as if some one had turned a tap on. Dropping heavily into their seats, Bobby and Jerry leaned back to look out of the small window onto the room to see a tired looking Evelyn speaking with one of the doctors.

"A clinic?" Evelyn parroted the doctor, rubbing her forehead as if trying to rub her muddled thoughts into clarity.

"A rehabilitation clinic, to help him deal with his drug abuse, the…attack, and the emotional problems he's been having, discover the reasons behind his attempted suicide" the doctor said quietly.

"You want to put him in a mental institution" Evelyn said bluntly.

"A rehabilitation clinic" the doctor stressed.

"You want to put my son in the nut house!" Evelyn's voice dropped to a low angry hiss as she stepped closer to the doctor "My son is not crazy"

"No ones saying he is Miss Mercer, it's just the policy when it comes to kids like Jack, he's been self harming, he's been selling himself to men, taking drugs, and he tried to take his own life" the doctor shook his head "He would have had to stay there for a month if it had just been the drugs anyway, but with everything else that happened…my colleagues and I think he would benefit from a…longer stay" the doctor sounded genuinely sympathetic, keeping his voice low and soft.

"I don't know" Evelyn whispered "He's my son, I don't want to have to send him away"

"Miss Mercer, he has been all but catatonic since he was brought in, he hasn't said word one to any one about anything…he's in shock, he's traumatised. We know he has a lot of problems because of what he's already been through as a child…he needs extended psychological help" the man ducked his head so Evelyn couldn't avoid meeting his eyes.

"Miss Mercer, I know you're worried Jack's going to think you're abandoning him…but he wont get better without treatment and he wont get that back at home" he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "This is not your failing, you have to understand this, this was done to Jack, and to you. We think he may be suffering from some bipolar disorders, he needs help" he gave her the faintest of sympathetic smiles "Please trust me on this?" he asked.

"What do I say to him?" Evelyn asked.

"You just tell him it's to get him help" The doctor told her.

"He'll hate me"

"He'll understand"

Evelyn nodded and walked silently away from him, toward her son's room, closing the door behind her.

The doctor watched as she sat beside his bed and took his hand, which was still tied down to the bed.

Jack tried to pull his hand way but Evelyn gripped his hand in hers as she spoke. The Doctor, whose name was Paul frowned sadly as the other young men sat up in their seats, frowning angrily at what Evelyn was saying.

As Paul watched, Jack turned to stare at his mother, giving her the darkest look. Paul grimaced, glad that Evelyn didn't see it as Jack laid his head back against his pillow and closed his eyes, letting his hand in Evelyn's go totally limp, shutting himself off from her even as she touched him.

Paul saw Evelyn notice and with draw her hand sadly, settling back into her seat as Jack tuned back into whatever internal world he was occupying when he wasn't all there and switched off his family.

"Now we'll come and visit you once you detox Jackie, okay?" Evelyn was asking Jack as he was wheeled in a wheel chair to the waiting ambulance that would transport him to the 'rehabilitation clinic', a place near the city named St Patrick's Centre for Rehabilitation.

She reached out to lovingly touch his face and he turned his head away slowly.

"Hey, Jackie, this is to help you" Bobby crouched on the other side of Jack, directly in Jack's line of sight.

Jack's eyes slipped to the side and went blank as he slipped back into that internal hidey hole. Bobby sighed as Jack's took on his thousand yard stare.

"Angel couldn't get back but he's gonna write you" Jerry tried, "You can get letters up there" he made his voice sympathetic.

Jack was gone though, not hearing or seeing anything around him. His face darkened and one of his hands curled slowly into a fist so tight it seemed his knuckles would burst through his skin. What ever he was seeing in his head was something awful.

The orderly pushing the chair gave a small, polite cough and the Mercers drew back reluctantly from the unresponsive Jack. The orderly picked up a sports bag and hefted it onto one shoulder. The bag was Jacks, containing the clothes and few personal items Evelyn had packed for him.

"I love you sweetie" Evelyn whispered, her voice thickening with tears, "I do, I really love you" she began to sob as Bobby and Jerry embraced her, watching the orderly move away with Jack had wasn't hearing a word being said.

"We shouldn't be doing this to him" she whispered to her two remaining sons "It isn't fair"

"Ma I hate this more than you do but you know as well as I do it's to help him" Bobby said, his voice barely restraining his anger.

"The bastard who hurt my son will suffer, God owes me that much at least" Evelyn whispered, burying her head in Jerry's shoulder, missing the dark looks her sons exchanged over the top of her head.

In the back of the ambulance, the orderly who would be transporting Jack secured Jack's bed and fitted him with an IV. Calmly, he explained to Jack that is was policy to sedate patients during transport, his voice quiet and soft as he spoke. "It wont put you right out, you're just going to feel sort of….lazy for a little while" the man smiled kindly.

The doors to the ambulance stood open and a woman in her thirties with long dark red hair pulled back into a thick braid climbed in, closing the doors behind her, smiling at the orderly. "Hey Jorge" she handed him a Styrofoam mug of coffee and sat beside Jack's bed, ducking her head to try and see into his eyes. She had her own cup of coffee in one hand, and a thick manila folder tucked under one arm.

"Jack?" she said, her voice clear and loud "I'm Dr Laura White, call me Laura okay? I work up at the Centre; I'm going to be working closely with you in your time with us. I'm here just today to ride along with you and Jorge, let you get used to seeing a lot of me around…" She trailed off as Jack finally looked at her and something in his eyes; a terrible maturity that no boy his age should possess stopped her mid speech. "You won't go for the bullshit will you?" she asked bluntly. "Okay then I'll be frank, I'm here so that if you make an accusation against Jorge, say, for molesting you, there's a witness to say if it was true or not" She stated.

She buckled her self into a seat beside Jorge as a third person started the engine and they pulled out.

"You into sports Jack?" Laura asked as the ambulance pulled out of the parking lot and into the street.

Jack stared pointedly at her and she gave him an apologetic grin. "I've read your file. I know you play hockey. And I know you're into writing music, art…you can do all of that at St Patrick's, make it apart of your therapy" she told him.

Jack blinked lethargically and redirected his gaze, retreating yet again.

"Charming" Laura said brittley.

"He hasn't spoken since he was brought in, comes in and out of catatonic states" Jorge reminded her.

"Heavy sedation and restraints too" Laura added, reading from the folder "he wont let any one touch him when he's sober it seems" she raised an eye brow as she flicked back through Jack's file "Fuck" she breathed.

She looked up at Jack, sadness in her dark brown eyes "Well done for making it this far kid" she muttered.

For the rest of the journey, which took close to an hour, Jorge and Laura read through Jack's file, commenting and making personal notes as Jack lay half dozing in the bed.

When the ambulance pulled into the long driveway that led to the old house, Jorge gave injected something into the IV in Jack's arm "This'll perk you up a little" he explained.

Laura tidied the folder away and peered out of the window at St Patrick's. The Centre was housed in an old house which had been a boarding school way back when. The house stood in a small, private piece of land; just large enough to hold a thick copse of trees which at the moment, where dead, their branches bare.

The green landscape seemed dull under the heavy, late winter sky and as a light, bluster snow began to fall, the main house looked grim and dark.

Jorge was encouraging Jack to sit up and move around as they pulled up outside the house and the driver went around to the back of the truck to open the doors. As Jorge, picked up Jack's bag, Laura helped Jack who was operating on autopilot to step down from the ambulance.

"I just now realised how much this place looks like something out of a movie" Laura noted, giving a Jack a look to see if he reacted to her joke.

He was staring out across the long lawn, his eyes fixed on nothing in particular and Laura sighed, gently guiding him toward the front doors.

Laura had to buzz in on an intercom, something she noticed made Jack flinch ever so slightly when the door in front of them hummed electronically as it opened.

She walked him in and began to go through the paper work as Jorge took Jack's bag through to a separate room and go through the contents, removing anything potentially dangerous.

Before long, the paper work was completed and Laura looked up at Jack who she noticed with a slight shudder, had remained unsettlingly still while she worked through the documents. "You want the tour?" she asked him.

Jack gave her a blink and Laura took it as his affirmation "Alright then" she stood, walking briskly out of the room, waiting for him to follow her.

He did, his long legs carrying him after her easily as she walked through the house. "Well, there are obviously the offices, they're near the door but that door is a heavy duty security door with a magnetic lock, so don't think of trying to run away. Um, over here is one of the group therapy rooms" Laura pointed to what had been a classroom back when the house was a school, noticing that Jack's eyes flicked around constantly.

She paused, thinking he was panicking but she realised he was simply taking stock of his new surroundings. She was willing to bet that if she asked him to hours later, he would be able to describe the corridor, every door and window, every potential escape. It was behaviour typical of abuse survivors, and of criminals and Laura made a mental note of it as they walked on.

"At the end of the corridor there is the dining room, where, obviously, we eat, um, down the other end of this corridor there are some arts and crafts rooms, which I'm sure you'll see a lot of. Up the stairs are the boarding rooms, and what we call the Medication Station, which is where you'll go every day for your medication. There are also a couple of common rooms so you can watch TV or just hang out in the free time of the day. There are gardens but given the season you wont see too much of those, unless the weather picks up, and uh, well here at St Patrick's we think its best to start as you mean to go on so you're gonna go right into a group session right now, meet the people you're going to be seeing a lot of while you're here" Laura stopped out side of a door and pushed it open ushering Jack in.

"But if I hadn't killed that little bastard it would have bitten the baby and the baby would have died" a wiry kid with a shock of white blonde hair was speaking hurriedly, nervously, his arms wrapped around himself in a vice like hug.

"But Arthur, you remember we talked about this, there wasn't any baby. You imagined the baby" a woman with chestnut brown hair streaked with distinguished grey said kindly but firmly.

"There could have been a baby, you don't know" Arthur muttered.

Other than the older woman, no one in the room was older than maybe sixteen.

There where just over half a dozen people sat on chairs and sofa's positioned haphazardly through the room. Arthur was sitting in a plastic chair near the older woman, like an attentive student in a class.

"Dr Bergen?" Laura said politely "This is Jack Mercer"

The brunette woman gave Jack a kindly smile as he glanced at the other young people in the room.

"Let me introduce you to everybody" Dr Bergen noted Jack's lack of response and rose, stepping toward him.

"Uh, everyone, this is Jack" she spoke to the group "Jack, this is…" she pointed as she spoke "Arthur" the blonde haired kid gave Jack a sharp nod "beside him, that's Ted but everyone calls him Bear" a kid who looked taller than Jack and was at least a couple of hundred pounds, smiled from a big friendly face, his eyes dark and deep set, his skin pale by contrast "Uh, that's Bebe" a girl with dark, chocolate coloured skin and a messily shaven head gave Jack a shy smile, "And sitting on the bean bag chair as Drew" a young man with sandy brown hair and wire frame specs raised an eyebrow at Jack "Behind Drew we have Amanda" a plump red haired girl with freckle covered skin chewed a nail and regarded Jack with suspicious hostility. "Then there's Diggy" a Latino youth gave a friendly nod "Beside him is Jamal" a boy with Jet black skin raised a surprised eyebrow at Jack, his eyes flashing with recognition "And last but never least, Poe" A small young girl who only just looked fourteen sat at the window, perched nimbly on the narrow window ledge. She didn't acknowledge Jack or give any indication she had heard Dr Bergen say her name.

"Why don't you take a seat Jack" Laura said kindly "You can watch how the group interacts"

She let Jack make his own way into the room. He took a seat in one of the deep armchairs, watching the other young people in the room.

"Well…since you know everyone's name, why don't we all go around and each say something about ourselves so Jack knows who we all are?" Dr Bergen asked "Arthur we might as well start with you"

The white haired kid shrugged nonchalantly but there was glint in his eyes that Jack recognized as a love of attention. "I'm Arthur. I killed my Grandmothers stupid little terrier and they threw me in here because I swallowed some pills. Unfair punishment right?" he said angrily, looking to Jack for an agreement.
Jack gave him a cold stare as Dr Bergen tutted at Arthur and pointed to Bear.

"Hey man, I'm Bear" the big kid chuckled "I'm in here for uh…" he frowned, looking to Dr Bergen "What is it again Doc?" he asked.

"Bear has some anger management issues and what we call selective memory- he edits out the parts of his memory where he…misbehaves. We want to find out why" Dr Bergen gave the boy a kind but strained smile.

Bebe came next, her hollow and sunken cheeks making her look some how angry "They say I don't eat enough" Bebe shrugged.

"And" Dr Bergen pushed.

"And I tried to hang myself or something" the girl rolled her eyes, "Whatever" she sighed dramatically.

Beside Bebe, Drew gave her a softly amused smile and looked over at Jack "Uh, I had some problems with a bully" he pushed his specs further up his nose casually "I …what is it you cal it Doc? I saw red and put the guy in the hospital, and I fooled around with my Dads gun, almost shot myself in the head too. It was a genuine accident but it's the law or something that I come here" he gave a sheepish shrug and half looked over his shoulder at Amanda.

"Obsession with a guy at my school" Amanda said a little breathlessly, as if fighting to contain her excitement "okay not a guy, my lab teacher, he's a babe, seriously, you have to see him, I had some pictures but they took them away but he's a total fox, for serious, but he told me I wasn't allowed to go over to his house because he could lose his job, well that's what he said but I know it was because his wife was there so I set the house on fire, cos I figured it was his wife who wouldn't let us be together so I just tried to get rid of her and the police just like, freaked out and it was just this whole big mess" she threw her hands up, giggling in genuine amusement.

Dr Bergen held out a calming hand, as the young Latino, Diggy leaned forward to speak "I killed my dad cos he was beatin on my mom and my mom said it didn't happen and that I made it all up so here I am" he said smiling.

"Maybe you just an uppity little spic needs showin his place" the African American youth, Jamal sneered.

"Well I sure as shit aint gonna be shown it by now uppity nigger!" Diggy snarled angrily, rising in his seat.

"Hey, I will have none of that or you will be locked in your rooms" Dr Bergen snapped "Now Jamal, why are you here?" she continued, her voice holding the same warning as her words.

"I pushed my bitch principal down the stairs" Jamal rolled his eyes "I know you Mercer" he said, his voice oddly void of inflection.

Jack raised his head slowly and fixed Jamal with one of those Looks he was capable of, but the dark skinned youth managed not to react. He narrowed his eyes "What you in here for Mercer?" he asked quietly.

"Poe first!" Amanda squeaked happily, pointing to the still silent girl at the window.

"Poe, introduce yourself please" Bergen prompted.

The girl tilted her head slightly, her long dark brownish red hair sliding over one shoulder. She turned her head to look back into the room just enough that Jack got a glimpse of a green eye, pale skin.

"Poe" Bergen said more firmly.

"I'm not" Poe whispered cryptically.

As she raised one hand to touch her own cheek, Jack saw a neat scar running down the inside of her wrist and found himself slightly interested in her.

"Poe we're talking about why we're all at St Patrick's" Bergen said in the loud, over pronounced tones of some one who knew they where dealing with a difficult listener.

Poe fixed the doctor with a murderous glare but turned to Jack and raised an eyebrow "I had a disagreement with the Reaper" she gave him a half smile "We all did"

"Stop being so melodramatic" Arthur sighed "You tried to off yourself because you're bat shit crazy, no other reason"

Poe gave him wide eyes and looked at Jack again "Arthur has issues because everyone knows he made up the baby so people wouldn't think he was just a sick little fuck tard for killing the dog" she said softly.

"Poe" Bergen said warningly.

"Bergen?" Poe shot back.

"Behave" Bergen stated.

"I'm just telling Jack all about the gang" Poe gave a sweet smile "That's what you wanted isn't it?"

"Poe" Bergen warned again.

"Is it lunchtime yet?" Diggy asked suddenly, clearly trying to change the subject.

"As a matter of fact it is" Laura said, raising an eyebrow pointedly at Bergen.
"Jack are you hungry?" Laura asked.

Jack silently stood as the rest of the people in the group filed put of the room, leaving Poe and Bergen alone. Bergen looked as if she wanted to talk to Poe alone but the girl danced, as in, she pirouetted, past the doctor, giving Jack a neat little curtsy and danced out of the door.

"As you can see we have some eclectic groups of young people here, and sometimes there's a little bit of tension. But that's part of life" Laura smiled at him.

"Follow me" she gave the most imperceptible widening of her eyes to Dr Bergen who shrugged minutely and walked with them to the dining room.

There where several groups like Jack's entering the room, or sitting down to eat as catering staff moved amongst the young people, serving out meals. Jack glanced over at Poe to see that she was staring at a kid who was Jack's height but twice his muscle mass, who was taunting the red haired girl, Amanda. Amanda's grin remained on her face but had grown strained as the kid sneered and snarled at her.

Poe was hunched over the table, her eyes flickering from Amanda's reddening face to the boys cruel grin as Amanda began to blink back tears.

Everyone except the other youths in the room seemed oblivious that any kind of confrontation was taking place but Jack saw Poe tense a slit second before she sprung across the table, tackling the boy in a blur of movement. Despite his size in comparison to hers she took him down as the adults in the room ran toward the fight. Jack found himself smiling as he saw other fights erupt around the room and as people crowded around the other fight, one huge orderly strode through the crowd reaching into the tangle of people. He jerked his arm back up and was holding Poe by the back of the t-shirt, her legs kicking down even as she was yanked clear of the fight.

The orderly, threw the tiny girl over his shoulder as she wriggled and fought against him, landing some pretty solid blows on his back as he tried to walk away from the fight while other orderlies began working to break up the fights and calm the situation down.

"Fuck off, get off me!" Poe was yelling, her voice manic and delighted "Let me kill that ugly mother fucker Lou, come on, you know he deserves it!" she was asking the orderly who chuckled as he carried her toward the door.

He set her down, holding onto her arms, in front of Dr Bergen who raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"What was that?" Dr Bergen asked as another orderly separated the original teaser from the crowd, dragging the tall kid toward Bergen

"Brad started it" Poe said sweetly.

"Lyin little bitch" Brad muttered, wiping at his bloody nose.

Poe rolled her eyes and lunged for him again, actually getting air borne as the huge orderly caught her nimbly in mid air.

Jack laughed out loud suddenly, his voice high and hysterical but he couldn't help it and even as Laura and Dr Bergen frowned at him he hunched over, clutching his stomach as the laughter bubbled up and out. He felt like something inside him had broken and wasn't going to get fixed anytime soon and he backed away from the group, all of whom stared at him except for Poe who took advantage of the distraction to throw a punch at Brad. Another shout of laughter escaped and Jack pressed his back against the wall behind him as Laura moved to his side, trying to soothe him.

Poe very suddenly bit down on the hand of the orderly and he yet out a yelp of pain as she began to worry at the hand, shaking her head from side to side.

"Poe!" Bergen rushed toward the girl who immediately released the hand and darted past them, crouching in front of Jack, putting her hands on his face and staring directly into his eyes.

She had green eyes, coloured through with some kind of, almost amber streaks, the irises ringed with thick, night shade blue as if some one had taken a thick pen and drawn an outline around the iris.

Her skin was pale but lightly freckled and her lips where full but serious some how, sombre. Jack thought she looked like a pixie and his laughs ceased as he looked at her " 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep' " she quoted "Run away home Jack, Peter can only hold Hook off for so long, and after that, we're all dead" her eyes grew fearful and Jack frowned, one part of his mind thinking that the girl was clearly very disturbed, another part thinking that she was some one who could be interesting to hang out with.

She made a squeak of pain and her eye lids fluttered. As she swooned, Jack saw Dr Bergen holding a needle which she had jabbed into Poe's leg.

The big orderly caught the girl easily and Dr Bergen gave Jack a look, then walked with the orderly, out of the room as he carried Poe in his arms, cradling her like a child.

"Jack, are you okay?" Laura asked and Jack realised the fights where petering out and the patients where settling down.
The other orderly was checking Brad's nose to see how badly it was hurt and Jack suddenly felt an overwhelming compulsion to find a knife, to cut at his arms. He didn't know where the urge came from and he rubbed roughly at his wrists, feeling the thick bandages and under them, the raised ridges of the stitches in his wrist.

He dug his fingers into the ridges, feeling the burst of pain and the hot rush of blood on his wrist.

"Jack!" Laura pulled his hand away from his now bleeding arm and pushed his sleeve up, pulling off the bandage to see how much damage he had done.

"Not too bad" she told him, examining the cuts where he had pulled a couple of stitches.

"Let's go clean this up" Laura said kindly.

Jack stared at her "I'm not crazy" he told her.

She looked up at him and gave him a small smile "You do speak then?" she asked.

"I'm not like these other people" Jack stated "I don't need to be here"

"Jack, no one thinks you're crazy. We just think you need some time with other kids who have had experiences like you, to help you get better" she assured him.

"What about, the others, in that group? They're bat shit crazy and you know it" he stated.

"Some of em have more reason to be here than others, I'll admit, but mostly they're just kids who have had a hard time, who need some…guidance" Laura helped him to his feet, holding his arm so the blood ran down to be absorbed by his clothes.

"I'm not crazy" Jack repeated.

"I know that"

"But you'll make me stay?" Jack asked.

"It's the law Jack, you tried to kill your self, you have to come here" Laura shrugged as she walked him through the corridors to a room that looked like the nurses office at Jack's school.

"I didn't try to kill myself" Jack stated.

"Then what am I bandaging up, shaving cuts?" Laura asked, digging antiseptic wipes and bandages out of a drawer.

Jack couldn't help the small smirk that came to his lips as Laura shot him an amused look.

"So you're gonna start talking to people now?" Laura asked as she began cleaning the wound, apologising minutely as Jack winced slightly.

Jack pressed his lips together angrily "I don't wanna do that therapy bull shit, I don't need that"

"Tough" Laura raised an eyebrow "Everyone does therapy Jack, thems the rules"

"Cant I call in sick?" Jack asked wearily.

Laura regarded him sadly, "You've been through more bad shit than almost any one here. It helps to talk about it" She told him "I know it seems weird and at first, it is, but eventually, you will see why we advise it, you will" she promised.

Jack let her wrap up his wrist, then watched impassively as she pushed his sleeve further up to look at the cuts and old scars.

"Did these hurt?" she asked, reaching for his other arm to see to his other wrist.

"That was the point" Jack told her.

"Well, not any more. We're gonna find a way to help you let things out without having to hurt your self" Laura nodded.

"What ever" Jack pulled his arms back, letting his hands rest in his lap.

"Wow, you just jump from emotion to emotion huh?" Laura asked "Well we're gonna deal with all of that" she nodded again "but for now, lets just say, welcome to St Pat's"

"When can I go home?" Jack asked.

Laura's smile faltered and she pursed her lips "When we think you've made satisfactory progress" she stated.

"I just want to go home" Jack muttered plaintively.

"And you can. When you get better" Laura told him.

"Fuck St Pats" Jack growled.

"Nice"

"Fuck you too" Jack cocked his head to one side "Fuck everybody"