Deep within her, her blood boiled. Her eyes shone with an anger that she had only felt once before, anger that threatened to break through its carefully constructed bonds with such force that she would be unable to control it. Her face had become a blank canvas waiting to be painted by the brush of life that would colour its surface with whatever emotion came first. It was something that didn't go unnoticed by the others in the room. They could almost feel it in its intensity as it filled the room making the atmosphere pregnant with unreleased tension that seemed to be mounting as every second grated by slower and slower. The air had become heavy with silence that seemed to deafen them to everything around them and beyond. She could feel it as it surrounded them, blocking everything in its path. There was no escape from it as it grew, filling the room entirely, so thick that it seemed that it would be almost impossible to break it.

Only one person attempted it.

"Don't look at me like that, Robyn. Not at least until you've heard me out." The stranger scolded lightly keeping his tone and face neutral.

"What could you possibly have to say?" Robyn shot back, "What can you possibly expect me to listen to? You never listened to me when I pleaded with you to give me a chance, to listen to what I had to say, to try and make some sort of relationship with you and convince you that I wasn't like her. You never gave me any of those things. Every letter I sent you came back unopened, every attempt to call you ended up in you hanging up on me. I even came to see you but you slammed the door in face. Even after that I invited you to my wedding but you just threw it all back in my face like everything else. You never gave me a chance so why should I give you one?"

Kit frowned slightly, "So that's why you look familiar. You're her grandfather aren't you?"

"Yes I am," Nine nodded, "Although I know that I haven't acted like it. I understand that you were angry, Robyn, and that you're angry now but please, let an old fool try to make amends for twenty one years worth of mistakes. At least let me start by saying sorry."

Even though she hadn't wanted to, Robyn heard her grandfather out. It had been hard to ignore the sincerity of his words coupled with the look of fragile hope on his face. Her anger mellowed as they sunk in, she couldn't turn him away. No matter what he had done to her in her life she couldn't push an old man away after he had done something she'd never expected, apologised for mistakes he'd come to realise he had made. It was something she'd stopped hoping for after all of the disappointment she had felt but she still felt weary, afraid that she would be pushed away again.

This was something Kit seemed to pick up on. She could feel him stroke her back with one of his hands as he kissed her cheek softly. Slowly he moved his lips to her ear.

"It'll be alright. He obviously feels sorry. Look at him, he's crying inside. As much as I don't like what he did or him for doing it you should talk with him. Go and have a long talk with him over a late night pizza from the Pizza Palace. I'll be fine here." He whispered.

With the barest movement Robyn nodded. As subtle as her lover's hint had been she knew that he wanted to sleep. Turning her head to kiss him she got off of the bed, as she reached for her crutch she could see her grandfather's reaction out of the corner of her eye. It was obvious to her that he hadn't heard about her problem.

Motioning for her grandfather to leave the room first she followed. Before closing the door behind her she spared Kit a final glance, he was in pain and she hated to see him like this but she knew that she had to let him have some time to himself to rest and to go over what had happened in his mind. Even though he'd never admit it, he'd been shaken in more ways than one. His statements with the police had brought home to him just what had happened and just how lucky he was to escape.

Hearing a sound below her, Greta waited for her sons to emerge from the ladder hatch. She didn't notice that there was only one pair of feet and hands climbing the ladder towards her sons' floating home. Not knowing which of her twins would arrive at the top first she refrained from calling out their name and waited in silence. It was only when a pair of hands bigger than those of her sons appeared on the rim of the hatch that she realised that she had been wrong. Her heart swelled as she saw the top of someone's head appear shortly after the hands, a head she knew well. A face appeared on the upturned head that made her own face glow with happiness as she saw it. Soon the whole body was through the hatch and she almost ran to be reunited with her husband.

"Greta," Ché half laughed holding his wife in a fierce hug.

"Ché, I was so worried. When Kit and Robyn came back and you didn't…Elias said nothing to me." Greta explained relishing the long lost contact with her only love.

"How are Kit and Robyn?"

Closing her eyes Greta stood back from Ché, "Something happened a few days ago. There was a stranger in town, Kit was attacked. Alejandro found him but the attacked was nowhere to be seen. He took him to Mayor Meanswell's house but they had to call an ambulance because he passed out."

"Santa Maria! Is he alright? What about Robyn?"

"Kit's fine, he's still in the hospital and will be in for a few more days. Robyn went with Robbie to see him and she didn't come back with him, I think she's still there."

"Why would she not have come home with Robbie? Has something happened?"

"I don't know, at least I don't think so but there is something you should know."

There was something in Greta's voice that made Ché feel very weary.

They had moved from one place of silence to another. A corridor dimly lit with lights designed only to be used at night. They offered just enough illumination for people to be able to see what they were doing without being so bright as to disturb those that were trying to sleep. As the two walked through the semi darkness they said nothing, neither wanting to break the comfortable silence around them or run the risk of disturbing anyone until they were away from the wards and into one of the public areas, one of which was nearby.

As they reached the nearly deserted cafeteria they noticed that the lights were still on and a few people sat at half empty tables. Pushing the doors to test them they noticed that they were still unlocked, looking at each other and making a silent decision between them, they entered. Hardly any of the people already in the room acknowledged them as they sat down at a table. It seemed as if they'd walked into a tableau, a living, moving picture that was nothing more than that.

Keeping his voice quiet, Nine finally broke the silence, "What happened to you? Why do you have the crutch?"

"To cut a long story short, I had epilepsy and not too long ago I decided to have an operation to remove the damaged part of my brain that was causing it. It was a risk a lot of people didn't want me to take but I took it anyway. The operation went well but something unexpected happened, my blood pressure spiked causing a bleed. It wasn't until I came out of my coma after the operation that they knew that something had happened as a result of it."

"Which was?"

"A minor stroke. There was nothing they could do to prevent it. I knew that there was a good chance that I wouldn't come through the operation in one piece and I was right."

"Can't they help you? Treat you for it?"

Robyn sighed, "I'm on a waiting list to see a physiotherapist. Hopefully I'll be on the top of that list in a week."

Nine smiled and placed one of his hands on Robyn's. It was then that he noticed the scar on her wrist.