AN: Ok you guys are just awesome! Thank you to everyone that has reviewed, followed, and faved. All the guest reviewers that I can't PM...thank you! This has become my highest reviewed fic and it makes me so incredibly happy to see that y'all are enjoying it. Anyway enough rabbling y'all came to read the fic not listen to me so enjoy =]

PS: Super super LONG chapter as a thank you!

Tuesday 11 PM

Cheryl walks out of her 2 story house as Brendan pulls up to her driveway. She erupts into hysterical laughter at him as he ends up hitting her garage door with the front of his car. He shrugs his shoulders and mumbles "oops" as he turns off the car. She shakes her head and waves him in.

"God you're an awful driver. How did you manage to even pass the driving exam?"

"I'm a great driver." He walks inside her home and gives her a hug and a kiss on the cheek as he puts his coat on the hanger. "Besides I flirted with the testing instructor to pass. Got a perfect score."

"Figured you used your looks. You want something to eat or drink."

"I could eat. What you have?"

"Make you a sandwich real quick."

"That's fine. Thanks."

"No problem. While I do this go into my room and on the nightstand is the extra cell phone for you."

Brendan goes upstairs to her room and finds his new phone. He smiles to himself as he knows that Cheryl will most likely go buy another phone for when he breaks this one. He doesn't like intruding in her room but he sees some pictures on the wall and has to look. He thinks she must have just recently placed them up as he's never seen them here before, then again he doesn't remember the last time he came up here. The picture in the center is of Cheryl and him a couple weeks ago at the hospital. He remembers it, he was seated at the counter doing paperwork and she snuck up behind him and said look up only to be confronted with a camera to his face. It's actually not a bad picture. She has on a huge smile that could blind anyone and he has a very tiny smile. Around this picture are a couple more of Cheryl with her friends; Lynsey, Stephanie, Anne, and Jen. There are also pics of places in Dublin, some black and white ones as well. But the ones she has most of are of her and Brendan. About 70 % are of them both. There's one where they are in a car and Brendan is leaning over trying to get in the frame. Another one is them on the sofa watching a movie he presumes as their faces are lit up with the tv screen. Another has them both sitting outside his house on the driveway. He's looking down as Cheryl has her arms wrapped around his neck and looking down as well. They both look lost. Almost childlike. He doesn't know who took that one though. The picture that gets to him is one that looks very old. The edges are fading and it looks almost crumbled. It's off to the side, almost as if she didn't want to put it with the rest of the pictures. It's of them as kids. He looks about 9 so she's 13. Their at the beach home. He thinks their Nana must have taken it as both of them are down by the beach. Brendan is sitting close to the ocean as the waves hit him and Cheryl is holding his hand. Watching over him like always.

"Bren! What's taking you so long?" He snaps out of his memories and goes back downstairs. She has his sandwich on the coffee table and she's on the sofa with a blanket watching tv. He joins her and eats his sandwich as he watches some show that he doesn't get. After about 30 minutes Brendan gets in a comfortable position and ends up falling asleep. Cheryl lowers the volume and moves over to give Brendan more room as she continues watching her show.

***"How come you don't have to help with cleaning the house today? It's so unfair!"

"Da told me to relax today so that's what I'm doing. Besides you're old."

"Oh shut up I'm only 20. So why did Dad let you off the hook today?"

"I don't know. Didn't tell me."

"Do you know how lucky you are Bren. To be the apple of his eye. You're his favorite child. I know you are. Nothing I do will ever make him love me as much as you."

"Chez you're still his little girl. His princess. And if anyone is his favorite it's you."

"No I wish I was you."

"No believe me you don't want that."

"Why not? He loves you so much."

You don't know what happens next. It's been you and your dad's secret for 8 years. You never messed up before, never slipped up. There have been times when you wanted to say something. Wanted to ask for help, but you kept it inside. At one point you thought it would end. That he would stop doing it to you, but it didn't. You were such a weak man, at least that's what he told you. You saw yourself in the mirror and you hated yourself. Thin, fragile, couldn't even defend yourself. A failure is what you are. And the bruises and cuts all over your body remind you of that every day. A couple years ago the sexual abuse basically stopped, it only happened rarely now. The physical and mental abuse still continued. You weren't strong enough to take him on so you dealt with the pain. Every day you wanted to just run away but you had nowhere to go and you weren't going to leave Cheryl by herself with this monster. But today you slip up. A decision that you would live to regret.

"He loved me a little too much. In his own special way." You realize what you said and you hope maybe she didn't hear you. Once you meet her eyes you realize she heard you quite perfectly. Your sister has always been smart, the smartest girl in school. But she was so naive. She never saw the bad in anyone until someone would have to shove it right in front of her face. Now you stare at her as you can see her mind racing. She shakes her head and walks over to you.

"What do you mean?"

You don't know if you should tell her but you already can tell she's made an assumption. You try getting out of it by admitting the physical abuse. The punches.

"Bren that doesn't show love though. What do you mean?" She slowly says the last words and she's looking at you so deeply as if she's pleading with her eyes to tell her the truth.

"I just told you. He beat me Chez ok. That's it. I wasn't thinking and used the wrong word." You try to laugh but it comes out sounding forced. That's when you see it. Her eyes change into realization. Every single thing in the past that she overlooked comes straight to the front. Every time you flinched when your dad touched your shoulder and she asked what that was for. Every time he touched your lower back and you jumped forward and she laughed at you for being jumpy. Every time he would smile at you and you would excuse yourself to your room and she would say your being mean to him. All those thoughts hit her and you see her eyes widen. This is the day you'll remember as the day when you witnessed your sisters heart shatter in front of you. A single tear escapes her eyes as she crouches down in front of you.

"Brendan. Look at me. You know you can trust me. You know I'll always be here for you. I need to know-" she hesitates as she looks down and catches her breath "has...has he ever...touc... did he ra-" she can't say it. You know it's not because she doesn't believe you but it's because she's failed you.

"Yes." That's all you say. The next thing you hear is your sister's sorrowed filled scream.***

Wednesday 9 AM

Beep. Beep. Beep. An alarm goes off and both Brendan and Cheryl panic and roll straight off the sofa. They slam into the ground as the both yell out "SHIT!". Somehow they ended up falling asleep on the sofa with the tv on. Luckily Cheryl set her phone to go off at 9 AM. She gets up and goes to the kitchen to turn the kettle on. She points upstairs.

"Gonna go get ready. My shift starts at 10:30. You got some scrubs in your room so you can just stay here till you have to go in if you want."

"Yeah ill make breakfast for us before I get ready."

"Thanks. I'll be back down in a bit."

They finish up their breakfast and Cheryl grabs her coffee on her way out.

"30 minutes to get to work. When you go in?"

"Noon I think."

"So I should see you there at what 2?"

"Basically."

"Try to make it there on time though Brendan. You know they are doing that stupid employee of the month crap this week."

"Chez when have I ever even been placed in the nominees for that?"

"Never. But you get a week off if you win."

"The chances of me winning the lottery are higher than me winning the best employee award."

Cheryl laughs and nods as they both know Brendan will never win that. She gives him a hug and kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later. Look for me when you get in. Oh and remember I need you to take Ste to get that MRI done as soon as possible."

"Gotcha."

"And Bren. Medicine at noon please don't forget."

"I know. Go. You're gonna be late."

"Fine. Bye." She walks out and Brendan looks at the time. 10 AM. He still has 2 hours to kill. He goes and takes a shower and puts on his scrubs. He does his hair perfectly and then turns the tv back on. It's still only 11 AM and he is bored out of his mind. He thinks about actually getting to work on time. Might as well. He goes back into his room and takes off his scrub top and grabs a tube of cream from his drawer. He scoops out a handful of it and starts applying it to his left arm making sure he coats the entire scar all the way to his finger. He then takes out more and applies it to his forearm where he has another scar and runs it all the way to his back where the scar ends. He waits a bit for it to dry and puts back his shirt. It's now 11:30 so he pours out 3 pills from his vial and takes them a little earlier than usual but he will forget otherwise. Brendan grabs his wallet, phone, and keys and is ready to leave but he wants to put on his ring and knows its somewhere at his house so he decides to head over their first. Needless to say he takes longer than usual and he's still at his house when it gets to be 1 PM. He puts on the ring and grabs everything and drives over to the hospital.

Wednesday 1:35 PM

Ste can't help but smile as Amy tells him about the kids. He misses them but doesn't want them to see him like this.

"They miss you Ste. Maybe they can come visit next week?"

"I don't want them to see me like this though."

"I know but they need to see their dad. Please think about it?"

"Ok I will."

"Thanks. So anyway how's it been going here? Cheryl says you might be here a month or so."

"It's been ok. Just get tired of been stuck in one place all the time. But it's not that bad." Ste smiles subconsciously and Amy picks up on it.

"What you smiling about?"

"What? Nothing."

"Ohhh Ste has a secret! Tell me!"

"No!"

"Ah ha! So there is something. Come on what?"

"Ok but promise not to go all crazy. And you can't and I mean you CAN'T tell anyone."

"Pinky promise." She holds out her pinky and Ste takes it.

"Ok well my nurse right is well fit. He's bloody gorgeous. You remember him right? You met him the first time you were here."

"Oh the tall Irish guy right. Brendan was it?"

"Yeah him. What do think?"

"I don't know I barely saw him for 5 minutes. He's pretty hot. How's he like?"

"Sarcastic as fuck. It's funny though. He was a little cold at first but I think we're friends now. He's interesting but he's kind of all over the place."

"What you mean?"

"I don't know. Something's off with him."

"Maybe you're just reading too much into it. He's probably fine. Anyway do you think he likes you? Wait is he even gay?"

"I don't know! I can't tell!"

"Gaydar Ste. Which way?"

"No bloody clue. It's like at one point I think he is then right afterwards I think he's not."

Amy is about to respond back when Stes door opens and Brendan walks in. Ste can see it in Amy's eyes that she is about to do something and he gives her a look to say please don't.

"Oh sorry didn't know you had visitors. Think we met before."

"Yeah on Monday when he was brought in. Names Amy. Nice to see you again."

"Same here. I'll come back later don't want to use up your visitation time."

"No no it's ok. I actually was about to go and pick up our kids. Can I ask you how he is doing?"

"He's fine. Nothing new really. I'm about to take him to do an MRI and see if his body is healing. After that we could probably tell you a better estimate of how long he will be here."

"That sounds great. I should really be going." Amy stands up and starts grabbing her things she gives Ste a hug and then pretends to be looking for something. "So Brendan has Ste been giving you any trouble?"

"Nope perfect patient."

"Really? He sometimes is a hassle. Stubborn."

"I can tell."

"So you two getting along well then?"

"Erm I guess you could say that yeah."

"Spend a lot of time with him?"

"Ames." She jabs him with her elbow.

"Yeah probably more than my other patients. Why you ask?"

"No reason. Anywho I'm gonna go." She smiles at them both and walks over to the door. Brendan moves so he isn't blocking her way. Right as she gets ready to leave she turns around and looks at Brendan.

"Quick question. Do you like Lady Gaga or Britney Spears?"

Brendan looks at her as if she has two heads. He looks at Ste for a second than back at Amy almost trying to figure something out.

"Neither actually."

"Alrighty then." She opens the door and waits till Brendan's back is toward her. She motions to Brendan and nods no and waves her hands in the air to emphasize NO. Ste just moves his hand to tell her to go.

"What was that about?"

"I don't know Amy is weird sometimes."

"Right. So what is she again to you?"

"Mother of my children."

"So are you two still together?"

"Nope haven't been for a while. Works better that way."

"Right. Anyway how was your morning. Good?"

"Yeah it's been pretty good. Amy was here all morning so I had company. Yours?"

"Yeah it's been alright. Cheryl wants me to take care of that scan immediately so if you're ready we can go now?"

"Yeah I'm good."

Brendan gets the wheelchair and easily lifts Ste onto it. He pushes him out of the room and starts moving over to the end of the wing. Ste looks over at one point and sees Jen coming straight towards them or more like straight towards Brendan.

"Oh damn it. Steven get ready to move."

Ste doesn't get time to even respond as all the sudden Brendan starts running down the wing. Ste holds on for dear life as he gets pushed. They swerve to avoid crashing into anyone. After Brendan makes the turn he stops and catches his breath.

"What was that for?!"

"Nothing...just needed... exercise." He's panting hard and all Ste can do is imagine himself pressed underneath him as Brendan catches his breath on top of him.

"Why you looking at me like that?"

Ste comes back to reality and his face turns into a cherry red color. He can't look him in the eyes because all he can imagine is them in bed together. The headboard knocking against the wall as Brendan pushes into him. Stuff flying everywhere as they both slam each other into the walls in the midst of their passion.

"Steven you wanna tell me what you're thinking of?"

'You idiot' Ste thinks to himself as he mind went back to that. He wonders if Brendan can read his mind. What if he knows what he was thinking of? He needs to think of a good excuse.

"Erm I was thinking of...of... you know... the umm... how big this place is." Oh yeah that's gonna do it.

"Really? You sure you weren't thinking of how big something else might be?" Brendan is behind the wheelchair but is leaning over so that his face is next to Stes neck. Ste can't breathe and he knows he's failing at this horribly.

"The rooms are pretty big to." Idiot.

Brendan moves back up and Ste swears he hears him say laugh. The most quietest laugh ever. Brendan continues to push Ste till they make it into this huge room with a giant machine right in the middle of the room.

"Hiya love."

"Hey Cheryl."

"How you doing?"

"Good."

"Great to hear. Anyway Brendan is gonna go ahead and put you on that bed there and then it's going to slide inside and you just gotta stay still in there ok. Don't move."

"Got it."

She exits the room and Brendan moves him over next to the machine.

"Alright hold onto me again while I move you up here yeah."

Ste hooks his arms around Brendan's neck and he gets lifted up onto the bed. Ste sees Cheryl through the window just looking at them both.

"Ok so this thing is gonna move back and surround you. You really gotta stay still though or it'll mess up the results. As soon as it's done it'll pull you back out ok. Got any questions?"

"Nope think I'm set." For some reason Stes hand reaches out and touches Brendan's hip. Brendan doesn't seem to notice as he adjusts Ste one more time. But Ste knows Cheryl sees it. Her eyes are glued onto his hands and he can't read what she might be thinking. As soon as Brendan turns she looks the other way. He walks out and joins Cheryl in the other room. The MRI goes by smoothly and Brendan is in there again lifting Ste back onto his wheelchair. Ste doesn't remove his arms off Brendan's neck this time. Brendan moves his neck left and right to signal for him to let go but Ste ignores him. Before Brendan can say anything Cheryl walks in.

"Something wrong with your arms love."

They both separate and Cheryl gives Brendan a look. Ste can't tell what kind of look it is but it appears that Brendan knows what she is telling him and he rolls his eyes at her and goes behind the wheelchair.

"Well I'll get the results later on today and let Brendan know to inform you. And umm Bren don't you have to go check up on your other patients."

"Yeah just gonna get him settled again in his room. Oh and Nick got discharged yesterday so I'm down to 3 patients again. Ste and Laura here and then Megan over in the north."

"Oh that's good. Was he ready to go?"

"Yeah he was basically at 100 % I couldn't do anything else for him. His body just had to adjust back to real life."

"Good job Bren! Go ahead and get Ste back into his room then check on Laura. I gotta talk to you afterwards tho."

"Fine."

Wednesday 4:45 PM

"Food or not yet?"

"Hello to you too."

"Sorry. Hi. So yes or no? Kind of busy."

"No I'm good."

"Alright let me know if you need anything. Ill check up on you in a bit."

After about another 2 hours Brendan comes back in and sits down on the chair. He looks and sees Ste is sound asleep. He gets up and starts cleaning up the room a little. As he's cleaning the nightstand he knocks over Stes phone.

"Ah fuck." Brendan looks and sees Ste shuffle a little but doesn't wake up. He picks up the phone and his curiosity gets to him he opens it up and sees 2 children as his wallpaper. They look like their dad. He looks through his photos and most of them are of his kids and a few of Amy and maybe one or two are some other people. He finds his contact list and goes through it. There is an array of names and numbers. He finds his name and clicks it. He deletes the number that was saved as it was his home number and he never picks that up. He replaces it with his cell phone number and saves it. Brendan closes the phone and places it back on the table. He looks around and can't find anything to do.

"Screw it. Steven wake up." He taps him on the arm but he doesn't wake up. "Steven come on." He taps him harder on the arm but still nothing. He gets up from the chair and leans a little towards the bed. As he does this his phone in his shirt pocket falls out. It falls into the rail on the other side. Brendan moves to the other side and tries reaching in but he can't. Ste is more on that side so he can't move the mattress up. He climbs onto the bed gently and tries to slowly roll Ste to the side. He places his knee in between Stes legs to balance himself. He gets Stes upper body to move over but then Ste flinches and jumps up causing him to collide into Brendan. When Ste opens his eyes he sees Brendan on top on him with his arms on either side of his face and one of his legs are in between his. He blinks again as he remembers his dream. Brendan doesn't move but he's eyes are half opened. They both hear footsteps walk into the room.

"Well isn't this...cozy."

Forgive me for how freaking long this chapter is. I hope y'all are ok with the Cheryl and Brendan bit at the beginning. Now can y'all do me a small favor? I wanna crack the 50 point mark in reviews so please tell me if you liked it. Thanks =]