I promised SisiDraig a quick update (even if she did sort of cheat lol), and I do try and keep my promises!

Lol, this was originally only going to be a short chapter, but somehow it's managed wangle it's way into becoming over 1800 words…never mind. I'm sure no-one's gonna complain!

Disclaimer: Still not mine. Oh, the things I would do if it was… ;)

Howard recovered a lot quicker this time, and was completely lucid almost as quickly as Naboo. He looked around. The two of them were alone by the riverbank.

"Did it work?"

"I don't know." he pulled out a phone (even though Howard didn't know where he'd been keeping it because he didn't seem to have any pockets) and phoned for an ambulance and the fire brigade.

Howard spent the next 5 minutes staring anxiously into the depths of the river, desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of the electro poof.

What if it went wrong? What if Vince drowned? Or was under too long and suffered brain damage? Howard wasn't stupid; he knew just how lucky both Vince and Noel had been last time around to make full recoveries. Would they be so lucky second time around?

He was jerked out of his thoughts by the fire engine pulling in, followed about three minutes later by an ambulance.

15 minutes later, Howard watched as they pulled a small body from the water. He couldn't tell if it was Vince or Noel. He thought it might be Vince…although that might have just been wishful thinking. Well, he supposed he'd find out soon enough, once the man woke up…

"He's not breathing, and there's no pulse. Commence CPR."

Howard's own heart almost stopped when he heard those words. He shot a horror-stricken look at Naboo, and saw his own feeling plainly mirrored on the shaman's face.

"Come on, Vince." he whispered. "Don't die on me. Not now. Not after all this…" as if that made any difference. Had he ever told Vince how much he cared? Looking at his lifeless body now, Howard wasn't sure he ever had. How could he have been so stupid? How could he have let 10 years go past without telling Vince what he meant to him? Even this past year, when Vince had seemed to be getting bored of him, Howard hadn't stopped caring. You just couldn't not care about someone like Vince. Even when he'd been at his worst, and Howard had felt angry and upset enough to consider jacking it all in and moving on; Vince would suddenly sidle up to him and beg him to watch Colobus the Crab with him, giving him his perfectly practised pout, and Howard would feel his heart soften. It was just impossible to stay mad at him when he was looking up at him with those big blue eyes through his fringe…

"Howard?" He looked around and saw Naboo was standing next to him. "Howard, do you want to go with him in the ambulance?"

Howard nodded, not trusting himself to speak. As he sat down in the cramped space, the paramedic looked at him.

"Are you ok? You look like you might be in shock."

"I'm fine. Vince is the one not fucking breathing." he snapped. He let out a small sigh. "Sorry."

"That's alright."

Howard watched as she tried everything she could to get his heart started again, to get him breathing again. It couldn't be too late. He had to be ok. What about what Naboo said about them being the centre of the Universe? Vince couldn't not be there any more. They'd been Howard-and-Vince for so long now, he wasn't sure he even remembered how to be just Howard. Having Noel there instead had been hard enough, and even he was very like Vince…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Howard walked quickly through the hospital corridors, keeping pace with the trolley. They'd managed to get Vince's heart started again in the ambulance, but it had stopped again.

"Can you wait out here please." a nurse ordered, putting out an arm to stop Howard and Naboo following Vince into the emergency room.

"I want to stay with him…"

She smiled sympathetically. "It's best if you just let the doctors do their jobs. Would you like me to show you to the relatives' room?"

"No. No, I'll wait here."

"Ok." she smiled and walked into after Vince.

Howard wasn't sure how long they sat there in silence. It felt like hours, days even. Eventually, Naboo spoke.

"He can't die." Naboo whispered. "They can't let him…"

"I know…"

"If he's not here anymore, the paradox would still be in effect. All this might as well never have happened."

Howard looked up in shock. "Is that all you fucking care about?! That's Vince in there, my Vince, our friend, fighting for his life! And all you care about is a fucking theory?!"

"Of course I care! But it's like I said, if you two aren't together then the effects on the Universe could be…"

"I DON'T CARE!" Howard turned to the shaman, face anguished. "If he dies, I've got no-one. Do you have any idea what that's like?! If he dies, the Universe can go to shit because there's nothing in it for me anymore!"

"Howard, I'm…"

"Don't Naboo. Just…don't." Howard pushed open the door to the ER and hurried over to Vince.

"Can someone get him out of here please!"

"I won't interfere, please, just let me stay." Howard begged.

The doctor looked at him. "Are you family?"

"No, just a friend, but I'm all he's got."

"Howard Moon?"

"Yes. How did you…?"

"You're down as Vince's next of kin."

Howard blinked, more tears threatening to overwhelm him. He hadn't known that.

The doctor laid a hand comfortingly on his arm. "I'm very sorry. It's been over 40 minutes. We're not going to get him back."

"One more round. Please."

"I think we should stop…"

"Please!" Howard begged. "Please, just try one more set of chest compressions. It's Vince. He's all I've got. Please try. Please."

The doctor looked over at one of the nurses. Even through his tears Howard could tell they thought they were wasting their time. "Resuming CPR." He said, and Howard sighed.

"Thank you." He watched anxiously, before reaching out and taking Vince's hand, ignoring the request for him to step back. "Come on, Vince. Breathe. Don't leave me…"

"I'm really sorry. He's gone. I really do think we should stop. Does everyone ag…" The doctor looked down in alarm when Vince let out a sudden cough. Hand shaking slightly, he placed two fingers against his neck. "Pulse…pulse is weak and thready, but present. And he's breathing." he looked at Vince for several seconds, looking completely surprised. Then he looked up at Howard and smiled. "We got him back."

Howard let out a sob of relief, and collapsed weakly into a chair.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vince opened his eyes and looked around his hospital room. His gaze rested on the man slumped over in his chair. From this angle, Vince couldn't tell if it was Howard or Julian. He closed his eyes, praying to a God he wasn't sure he believed in that it had worked, that he was home.

"Howard?" he asked softly, opening his eyes once more.

The head jerked up as though Vince had applied an electric current. In an instant, he was standing beside the bed. "Vince? Vince, oh God, tell me that's you."

"Of course it's me. You couldn't copy this level of perfection." he laughed shakily.

Howard smiled at him, and ran his fingers through Vince's long hair, half expecting to be told to leave it alone. "You're ok. Everything's ok. You have no idea how much I…oh God. This whole thing has just been so surreal…"

"Hmm." Vince murmured, suddenly tired. "Talk about it later. I'm just gonna have a little sleepy."

How can I tell you how it felt when I almost lost you…? "Of…of course. I'll see you later little man."

Julian sat, once again, on one of the plastic hospital chairs nursing a crap polystyrene cup of coffee. This situation felt way too familiar. If he wasn't careful, he was going to become one of those people that had a huge aversion to hospitals…

"Julian! What the hell happened?!"

He looked up to see Dee hurrying towards him. Oh, shit. He'd forgotten to ring her. He supposed Mike must have done it.

"He ran away. Thought he could 'get home'. It wasn't our fault, we couldn't stop him…"

"Not your fault?! He could have died!"

"Dee, listen…"

She slapped him. Hard.

Julian took a deep breath, and then righted his head and looked at her.

"I'm sorry." she said, tears suddenly running down her cheek.

"It's ok."

She wiped her face and leant her head against his shoulder. Julian brought an arm up and wrapped it comfotingly round her. "No, it's not, I'm really sorry. Of course it wasn't your fault. I mean, what were you supposed to have done, kept him chained up? I just…I've already lost him once. I don't think I could lose him again."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Noel groaned and opened his eyes. He was alone in the room, but he could hear voices talking quietly outside. "Hello?" he called out. Instantly, the voices stopped. A few seconds later the door was pushed open, and a woman walked into the room. Dee. Noel could tell she'd been crying, and wondered how long she'd been out there.

"You're awake!" she said happily, but didn't come over.

Noel smiled. "What, do I not even get a kiss from my girlfriend?"

She blinked, shocked, then walked over to the bed. "You remember me? You remember who you are?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

She leant down and kissed him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Oh, God, Noel, I've been so scared. Don't ever do that to me again, understand?"

"I wasn't planning on leaping into rivers again any time soon, don't worry." he glanced at the door. "Are Ju and Mike out there?" Noel couldn't wait to tell them everything that had happened in the Boosh world, and to hear everything about Vince. He really wished he could have met his alter ego, it would have been fun. Like hanging out with yourself, only not sad.

"Julian's here. I think Mike went to phone your mum."

She went and pushed the door open, beckoning someone inside. Julian walked in a second later, an anxious smile on his face. "How are you mate?"

"He remembers, he remembers everything!" Dee told him with a grin. "He's back!"

Julian looked thrilled. "Do…you remember anything about after the accident? What was that like?"

Noel frowned slightly, glancing at Dee, then back to Julian. "What do you mean?"

"You were going around convinced you were Vince. Thought I was Howard, then when you realised I wasn't, thought I'd kidnapped you."

Noel blinked. "I…no I didn't! I was in the Nabootique, in their universe, I…" he broke off at the expressions on their faces.

"Wow!" Dee said eventually. "How amazing is that?!" She laughed.

"You ran away from Mike and me this morning. Told us if you jumped in the river you'd get home again. We couldn't stop you." he smiled. "Although I suppose in a way you did get home."

"Yeah." Noel felt a ridiculous wave of disappointment crash over him.

It hadn't been real after all…

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Only one more chapter I think! I'm gonna miss this, I can still remember coming up with the idea for the first chapter...so long ago! Lol.

xx