Chapter Nine- The Funeral.

Although they had exchanged e-mails, Will and his older brother hadn't spoken face to face since the day their mother had died. Even though the e-mails were friendly enough, the tension between the pair of them was almost unbearable, and Robin had to leave the room several times, just to escape it.

"Um... Robin... the... uh car's here." Will poked his head around the door and Robin looked up at his friend. His eyes were red from crying, and dark rings circled them.

"Ok. Come on let's go." He put a hand on Will's shoulder and walked out of the house and down to the waiting car. He noticed that Luke opted to take the front car with his uncle and grandparents, forcing Will to go in the second car. "Uh, Will, is everything alright between you and Luke?"

"He's blaming me, just like with mum. Cept this time dad blamed me first. It's not for long tho. He's going back to Thailand tomorrow." Will shrugged. "He's making me stay at the house until he leaves tho, he's knows I can't sleep in that place, without seeing it, but what Luke wants Luke usually gets."

Will fell silent as the car pulled into the church and stopped outside the door. As the car door was opened from the outside Will climbed out, followed closely by Robin, who had been the only member of the gang to have been invited.

"Hurry up. We don't have forever." Luke snapped, pushing his younger brother into the church. Will stumbled on the steps and Luke huffed at him.

They slipped into the reserved seats on the front row of pews and Luke reluctantly placed his arm round Will's shoulder as the priest began the service. Robin sat a few rows back and glanced round the church, it was packed out, Will's dad certainly knew a lot of people.

As the service progressed, Robin heard muffled sobs coming from the front of the church, and looked across to see Will, sobbing into his brother's shoulder. Luke, on the other hand, was staring straight ahead, face flaming with apparent embarrassment at his brother.

After the service, the mourners poured out of the church and into waiting cabs and cars, many going home, while a select few were heading to the cemetery for the burial service. Will and Robin climbed into the car that had taken them to the church and followed Luke, Brett and Dan's parents to the graveyard. By the time they had arrived it had started to pour with rain, and Luke refused to get out of the car for the service. Robin wrapped his arm around Will's shoulder and walked with him to the open grave, where pallbearers were waiting to lower the casket.

Will's grandparents cried as hard as the rain was pouring. Brett just stared down at his brother- in- law, being lowered into the ground. As they finished lowering the casket, Will buried his head in Robin's shoulder, he couldn't bring himself to watch as the grave was filled.

"Let's go Will. We have to pack up the house before the morning." Brett tried to pull his nephew towards the car, but Will didn't want to leave, not yet.

"Brett, I can bring Will back to the house when he's ready." Robin offered. "It wouldn't be a problem."

"Whatever, just make sure he comes back. I can't asked to be running round town all night looking for him." Brett turned his back on them and climbed into the waiting car.

Robin turned to where Will had previously been standing and noticed he was gone. Frantically searching the now deserted cemetery, Robin spotted him, sat on the soaking wet grass next to his father's grave, rain running down his saturated hair and clothes.

"Will. Are you alright?" Robin sat down next to him.

Tears once again joined the raindrops flowing down Will's cheeks. "You're the first person to ask me that all day. Everyone else has been more concerned about how all this is affecting Luke. No one seems to care that it was me who found him. That I have to live with what he wrote in his note. That my own brother will never talk to me again."

"That's not true. Luke will talk to you again, he just needs time." Robin tried to reassure his distraught friend, with little effect.

"That's bullshit Rob and you know it. It's been nearly a year already." Will stood up shakily. "I'm going back to the house. See you next week, I'll be back at school on Monday."

"Will, wait, I told Brett I'd take you home." Robin yelled, running after him.

"I'm fine. Look you should go and change before you get ill. Can't have anyone else dying because of me can we?" Will didn't even turn to look at Robin. "Go, I'll be fine." He walked off, out of the cemetery and back towards the house he had grown up in with his mum, dad and brother. Now they were all gone, only Luke was left and even he didn't want anything to do with his little brother.

XxXxX

Will closed the front door quietly behind himself as he went into the house. He went into the front room, deliberately not loitering in the hallway an longer than he could help. He hadn't even been upstairs since the day he found his dad, a week ago. Will flopped onto the sofa, still in his sopping wet suit from the funeral, when the sitting room door was practically knocked off its hinges.

"Off the sofa in that suit. Upstairs and get changed and packed." Brett hoicked him to his feet and pushed him out the door and up the stairs. Will scrambled along, tripping and stumbling his way up the staircase and into his room.

The room was empty save for a pile of clothes, that Will had to pack up, to be moved across town to his Uncle Brett's new flat. Hurriedly he pulled a pair of jeans and a t-shirt out of the pile, along with some dry socks and boxer shorts and changed, flinging his suit in a corner.

Brett tossed a suitcase in at him and Will began throwing his clothes in, not bothering to fold them. Once the case was locked he dragged it downstairs and dropped it by the front door.

"Not there. In the car boot. It's unlocked." Will sighed and carried the case out to the car, dumping it in the boot.

As he went back into the house, Will was greeted by Brett.

"Luke's sleeping on the couch tonight, since he's leaving first thing. I'll take the spare in the dinning room, and you get the floor. We're bunking down now, so you might as well too. Get some sleep since you've got a big day tomorrow."

Ok so I kinda cheated but I thought you deserved this chapter.

R&R please. 24 reviews is the target

Much Love

SxBx