Ok, here's the next update! Sorry it's taken so long, I am a slave to my exam revision :(

Big huggles to everyone who's reviewed so far!

(If anyone gets confused about who's POV their reading or whatever, tell me! I need to know if i gotta make improvements to my style!)

Disclaimer: any views expressed by the characters, especially regarding the NHS, are not necessarily really their views. But they might be mine. Also, i do not own Life on Mars.

Julian looked up as Mike came hurrying down the hospital corridor towards him.

"How is he?" he asked, face slightly paler than usual.

Julian hesitated. "…Not good. They're sending him up for an MRI; they think he must have hit his head or something. He…He thinks he's Vince. Keeps calling me Howard and asking for Naboo."

Mike sat down on one of the thin plastic chairs. "Shit. Do they know why?"

"No. they're hoping the MRI will turn something up."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vince was very confused. He could understand why he was in hospital, and why they'd taken his clothes away to be replaced by a loose fitting gown (he wasn't happy about it, but he understood.) What he didn't understand was why none of the nurses would meet his gaze, or why they kept calling him Noel, even though he told them he was Vince. Maybe they all had very short memories? But that still didn't explain why Howard was calling him Noel too…

He looked up as the door opened and Howard walked in, followed by a tiny man Vince didn't recognise, who grinned shakily at him.

"Alright, bruv?" he said. Vince looked at him, confused by the familiarity of the greeting. Who was he? His eyes widened as he suddenly recognised the face.

"Naboo! What've you done to your hair? Where's Bollo?" to his surprise, neither man answered him, just smiled at him as thought he were a cute puppy who was nonetheless known to attack and kill. "Why are you looking at me funny?" he asked, eating another strawberry bootlace.

"Noel…"

"Vince."

The-man-who-looked-like-Naboo glanced at Howard, who shook his head.

"Noel." He said firmly. "You have to think. You are not Vince, Julian is not Howard, and I am NOT Naboo."

"What're you on about?" Vince was getting seriously alarmed now. Had they all gone crazy?

"You had an accident. You remember that, yeah?"

"Yeah. The river. I fell in."

"Exactly. You must have hit your head, because you aren't Vince. Come on, you need to think. Don't you remember me? Mum? Dad? Dee? Anything?"

Vince frowned at him. It was true that nothing was how he had expected it to be, but what this guy was saying couldn't be true. He was Vince Noir, rock and roll star. He remembered his life. It had to be real. Didn't it?

"What do you think's wrong with him?"

"I don't know. It would help more if he was awake, we could talk to him…"

It was a dream. It had to have been a dream. He'd fallen in the river and woken up surrounded by fictional characters. But he was awake now. Those voices he could hear talking, that was Julian and Mike. Not Naboo and Howard, because that would be crazy.

Noel cautiously opened his eyes and looked around, heart sinking when he realised nothing had changed. He yelped when he realised the gorilla was sitting next to him, and scooted to the other side of the bed.

"Vince! Vince calm down! It's Bollo! It's only Bollo, he won't hurt you!"

"No. That is not Bollo! Bollo is Dave in an ape suit. THAT," Noel said hysterically, pointing at the ape, "is a fucking actual gorilla. Get it the hell away from me, what is wrong with you?!" he saw a look exchange between Mike and Julian (or was it Naboo and Howard?) "And stop acting like I'm crazy! This is ridiculous; you're having me on, yeah?"

"Vince, look at me."

"Stop calling me Vince! My name is Noel. Vince is fiction, he's a character…" Noel looked desperately into the faces peering at him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Vince, what're you on about? Who's Noel?" Howard turned to look anxiously at the tiny shaman. "Can't you do something?"

"Dunno. I'll summon the shaman council."

Howard frowned. He (and especially Vince) knew what the shaman council were capable of when riled. "Over this? Won't they be angry?"

"Nah." Naboo lowered his head and closed his eyes. Howard could see Vince watching, confused.

"What the hell is he doing?" he asked.

"Shh." Howard shushed him.

Suddenly, Naboo lifted his head and grinned. "Right. That's sorted, they're on their way. I promised them a load of Es."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Noel buried his face underneath one of the pillows. This couldn't be happening; it had to be a joke, surely? This sort of thing just didn't happen in real life. But then again, it had been going on a bit too long to be a joke…

"This had better be good, Naboo." Noel took the pillow off his face and stared.

"Richard?"

Standing in the doorway was who appeared to be Richard Ayoade, but in his full 'Saboo' costume. And in his hands…

"No fucking way." Noel breathed. "Tell me that is animatronics…"

Because he appeared to be carrying Tony Harrison.

"How dare you?" the head spoke in a familiar, nasally voice. "Animatronics? I'll have you know I'm a fully organic being. This is an outrage!"

"Shut it, you stupid cleft." 'Saboo' snapped.

"Guys, please?" Mike (Naboo?) told them. "We need help with Vince?" they all turned to look at Noel, who was still staring transfixed at the tentacled head.

"What's his problem?" asked Tony Harrison.

"He doesn't think he's Vince…"

Noel managed to find his voice. "That's coz I'm not Vince! Vince is a character in a TV show! I play him! And that's Tony Harrison…"

"So?"

"So?! So, he's me! Look at him, for crying out loud! It's me! I play Tony Harrison! I thought him up!"

'Julian' and 'Mike' exchanged a look. "Right…so…you play Vince, and you also play a head with tentacles? How exactly?"

"Green screen..."

"No-one can just invent me! I am a unique individual!" The pink head said, proudly.

"Oh really?" Noel switched to his 'Tony Harrison' voice. "Watch what you say to me, you slag! I'll give you the back of me tentacle if you're not careful!"

The room fell silent, everyone turning to stare at him. 'Julian' spoke up. "How did you…?"

He was interrupted by Dennis the head shaman coming in. "Ah, Naboo. What is it this time?" he noticed Noel sitting up in bed. "A problem with the young woman?"

Noel knew he should probably be offended, but he couldn't. All he could do was stare in amazement between 'Dennis' and 'Howard'. They're both Julian! How the hell is this possible?!

"What…but…how are you doing that?"

'Howard' frowned in confusion. "What?"

"That! You and him! You're the same person, I…" Noel slumped in defeat. He could just about convince himself that it really was his best mate and his brother having a joke on him (albeit one that involved an actual gorilla and a very expensive animatronics head). However, even he couldn't convince himself they had found an exact double of Julian, or perfected cloning.

"Ok." He looked at the party surrounding him, thinking hard. "Ok. I must be in a coma, it's the only logical explanation." He looked up at 'Naboo' and 'Howard' who were watching him closely. "Because that's the only way you can be here. Yeah, that's it. I must have hit my head and ended up here. Like in 'Life on Mars'! Only instead of the seventies, I've ended up in the Boosh!" he gulped and looked at the gorilla. "I think maybe I might have preferred the seventies."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Howard blinked, confused. "What're you on about, Vince? What's David Bowie got to do with anything?"

"Hold on, Howard." Naboo told him. "Head Shaman, can you read his aura?"

"That's why you called me? Naboo, why can't you use your own shamanistic gifts I bestowed upon you?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Oh yeah. Sorry. I'm a bit high."

Naboo turned to look at the man on the bed, and frowned. "Head Shaman, what colour does that look to you?"

He looked. "Oh, I don't know. Orangey-red. Maybe a bit of dark blue."

"That's what I thought."

Howard was completely baffled. "So?"

"So; Vince is more light pink and yellow." Naboo frowned in bewilderment at him. "Whoever that is, it's not Vince."

Julian sat out in the hallway again, staring at the ceiling and trying to drink a cup of vending-machine coffee, which in fact tasted more like dirty water. He looked around when Mike sat next to him. "What did they say?"

"They can't find a single medical reason for his thinking he's Vince. They're discharging him."

"What?!" Julian was appalled. "They can't do that! He's not well!"

"Apparently they need the bed. They said they don't care who he is, there is no medical reason for him to remain in hospital. They want him to come back every few days to see a psychiatrist."

"So now what? We just take him home?"

"I guess so."

Julian felt disgusted. So this was what the NHS had become? Just turfing someone who potentially had brain damage because nothing came up on their scans? Maybe they should check him into a private hospital? But then again, surrounding him with familiar things might jog his memory, bring him back. "Ok then." He said. "Let's take him home."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vince stared, fascinated, out of the car window. There were so many cars! He'd never seen the streets so busy! He couldn't wait to get back to the flat, he felt sure his hair must look awful, no matter what Howard said. Maybe that was why the nurses hadn't looked at him, because his hair was bad? That made sense. He frowned as they pulled into an unfamiliar street, and turned to look at Howard. "Where are we?"

The older man grinned nervously at him. "You're home, Noel. This is your house, remember?"

Vince looked in puzzlement at the house before them. "But we don't live in a house! We live in a flat above the Nabootique!"

"No, Vince and Howard live in a flat above the Nabootique. You live there."

Completely baffled now, Vince allowed himself to be led up the path and into the house. It was pretty genius actually, the décor was definitely something he would do himself. He picked up a photo from a small table in the hall. It showed him with his arm around a brunette woman. Vince thought she looked kind of familiar. She reminded him of Neon. Or was it Ultra? One of the two anyway. They were both grinning into the camera, looking slightly drunk.

"Who's she?"

The other man peered at the picture. "That's Dee. Your girlfriend."

"I don't have a girlfriend."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Julian opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. It wouldn't do to bombard Noel with too much information, it probably wasn't good for him "Never mind, eh? Let's just have a look around." He really hoped Dee wasn't still there. When Mike had rung and told her what had happened, she had agreed to stay with friends for a while. It had been decided that, as Noel thought he was Vince, he would have no idea who she was as she didn't have a recurring character in the Boosh. They didn't want to scare him.

He watched as his friend walked around the spacious kitchen, opening all the cupboards. He was acting like a kid. Or like Vince… Julian thought. Why had they made Vince so…simple? This might have been easier if he had a bit more intelligence than his single brain cell.

I'm really not too sure about this chapter, I wrote it in kind of a rush between revision sessions. Hopefully you still like it!

Click the review button please, coz it makes me happy ;)