Bonnie Sveen Fan, thank you for your review. I love Dylan and Lofty's friendship, so I'm enjoying making Dylan realise how much he cares about Lofty! I can't promise he'll be okay, but there probably is a limit to the number of people I'm going to kill off.

totti10, I loved the way Rita always tried to hard to connect with her patients and usually succeeded brilliantly. It was so sad that she left in the way she did - she made a big mistake, but the ED has still lost a phenomenal nurse. It's really difficult for Rita dealing with Iain, but she's not giving up yet! Thank you for your review.

X-Sammii-X, thank you for your review. Cal used to love stealing Ethan's prospective girlfriends, but not anymore! I wonder if he's still affected by Taylor, or if Emilie and Matilda have taught him to value his family more, or if he's secretly planning his move! I only know about Iain's PTSD from fanfictions, but I would love to see an episode about it.

Guest, thank you for your review. Here is the next chapter - I really hope it lives up to your expectations. If you're the guest who likes Zoe and Max, they're in the last section and you'll get to see quite a lot of them.

Tanith Panic, thank you for both your reviews. I know what you mean about 'enjoy'... it seems a funny word to use sometimes! But if you did find something to enjoy in the midst of all the pain, I can only be happy. I decided at the start of the story what would happen to Alicia, but now I'm wavering... one of the hazards of writing a long story! I'm really pleased that a Lofty fan supports Dylan's decision to treat her over Lofty.

westlife4ever80, Dylan doesn't often show emotion, so I feel on the rare occasions when he does, that must mean the emotion is really overpowering - much too strong for him to control. Not that I want him to suffer, but I do love his emotional moments on TV! Thank you for your review.

Thank you to DrOswald12 for the follow and favourite.

Cal tried to take in what Ethan was saying as they followed Alicia's trolley into Resus. Now Ethan was safe, the shock of what had happened was beginning to hit Cal. The pain in his head was intensified and he felt woozy and sick. He knew he wasn't in any state to work, but he could still be there for Alicia. Ethan had asked him to do it. Begged him.

For once in his life, Cal wouldn't let Ethan down.

But it was so difficult when Resus seemed to be swaying. There were bumps in the hospital floor that Cal had never noticed before. With every step, his legs trembled violently and threatened to collapse beneath him. He was glad he'd put a supportive arm around his brother because Cal wasn't sure he could have stayed upright without him.

"Cal?" Ethan was looking anxiously up at his brother. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… fine…" said Cal, but his voice sounded slow and slurred even to his own ears.

"Caleb!" said Ethan.

"Ethan…" said Cal, reaching out a hand towards his brother. He couldn't see him anymore. He couldn't see anything but darkness. "Help me…"

The last thing he felt was Ethan catching him.

His safety net.

Lily knew that what she and Robyn were doing wasn't sensible. This part of the ED hadn't been made safe. They needed to wait for that to happen before they resumed their search.

But she'd seen the desperation in Dylan's eyes and that had touched her because she'd never seen him look like that before. Lofty was important to him and he didn't want to be responsible for Lofty's death.

Lily was aware that in itself wasn't a good reason for doing this, but there were other reasons too. Since the helicopter had crashed, she'd seen how precious life could be. It seemed strange for a doctor in emergency medicine to think like that, but it had always been a scientific process to Lily. It excited her (in an intellectual way) to determine what was wrong with someone's body and to fix it. She didn't care particularly about the patients as people.

But something had changed. She and Louise had worked together to bring the baby back to life. The baby had become important to both of them – and now she had seen that Lofty was important to Dylan. Lofty was depending on Dylan in the way that the baby had depended on Lily and Louise.

Lily tried to think how she'd have felt if she and Louise had been too late to help the baby. The thought was devastating. Dylan had known Lofty for much longer than Lily and Louise had known the baby.

And wasn't Lily's job to save lives?

Therefore she would do everything she could to save Lofty's.

The door was clear. Robyn's anxious eyes met Lily's. "Shall we open it?"

On another day, Lily might have pointed out that there didn't seem a lot of point in standing here and not opening it. Today, she just nodded and reached out a hand towards the handle, hoping Robyn wouldn't notice the shaking that seemed only too obvious.

They could both hear it now: sounds from within the room. Groans. Moans. And was that a scream?

Lily's heart was pounding, but she refused to be beaten by fear. She pushed the door open.

It hit something hard, only opening a few inches, but it was enough for Lily to peer through the gap.

What she saw left her speechless with horror.

Lofty watched as the room seemed to grow darker. He could feel his eyes starting to close. He fought to keep them open, but he'd been lying here for so long and he'd heard nothing.

No sign of anyone at all.

He'd thought, once or twice, that he might have heard Dylan's voice, but he hadn't been sure if it was real or not. It probably wasn't. It was a sign of a tired, pain-filled mind. A mind that could fight no longer.

He felt so tired. If he slept, the pain and worry would be gone.

Lofty's eyes closed.

He forced them open.

No! He wouldn't sleep. He couldn't be sure exactly what was wrong with him, but sleep could be dangerous.

But he was so, so tired.

Lofty closed his eyes again.

Rita knew she'd lost him.

She'd known it even before he bolted. His eyes had filled with panic and he'd slowly started to back away from her. When she'd tried to soothe him, he'd screamed: "Go away! All you ever do is lie!" In the moment of frozen shock that had followed, he'd fled.

Now, he was somewhere inside the ED and Rita could only hope he hadn't got into Resus. In his current mental state, anything could happen.

She couldn't blame Iain for his anger. He was right. She'd lied to him about Mark and she'd lied to him just now. She hadn't thought of it as lying: it was more a kind of role play, if not the kind they'd usually indulged in. Iain, in his mind, was clearly in a different place and time from Rita, so she'd entered that place and time as a way to bring him back to the present.

But now he was in the present, he knew that what she said hadn't been true. And now he could no longer trust her.

Rita stopped outside Resus and looked inside. There seemed to be three patients in there, along with Dylan, Ethan, Elle, David and a few other nurses. One of the patients was Cal. She couldn't see much of the other two. There was no sign of Robyn or Louise, but perhaps they were elsewhere.

Or injured, thought Rita, as she allowed the smallest sliver of fear to enter her heart. Or…

She'd left without saying goodbye to them. At that time, she'd have been happy never to see them again. Although their anger towards her was understandable, that didn't make it any easier to bear and Rita hadn't wanted to see that look in their eyes ever again.

Now, Rita would have given anything to see the derision and contempt in their eyes once more. At least then she would know they were alive.

Robyn saw Lily freeze as she stood in the doorway. Slowly, the doctor withdrew from the door and turned to face Robyn, her eyes wide, her face twisted into an expression of shock.

Robyn was terrified. "What is it, Lily?" she asked softly.

"I don't think you want to look," said Lily.

Robyn wasn't at all sure she wanted to either. She heard a loud sound coming from the room and found herself clutching at Lily's hand in fear. "What is it? Oh, he must be so hurt! We've got to go in, Lily! No matter how bad it is."

"I'm not sure they are hurt," said Lily.

"They?" echoed Robyn. "Is Max in there too? Lily, you've got to let me see!" She put her hands on Lily's shoulders and moved her roughly aside. Robyn closed her eyes for a moment and thought to herself: Please don't let this be too terrible.

She looked through the gap just as a scream rent the air.

"Max?" said Robyn, shocked. Then she recognised the woman straddling him. "Zoe?"

"I told you that you would perhaps prefer not to see," said Lily.

Robyn knew it was weird and disturbing, but her eyes were riveted. She was glad Max seemed physically okay – though she couldn't vouch for the state of his heart when Zoe went back to America – but she hadn't expected to see this.

Zoe climbed off Max, displaying much more than Robyn had ever wanted to see (though probably no more than she'd already accidentally seen) and turned round, presumably with the intention of sitting beside Max.

Instead her eyes met Robyn's. "Robyn!" she gasped in relief. "I'm so glad-" Then she remembered her nudity and tried to put one arm in front of her breasts, the other lower down. "Sorry. We… didn't expect to be disturbed."

Max had grabbed something from the floor – which looked like a dress to Robyn – and covered himself with it as he stood protectively in front of Zoe. "Hey. Um… Zoe's back."

"I noticed," said Robyn.

"I'm glad you found us," said Zoe from behind Max. "I know we weren't exactly making much effort to get out, but there's a big crack in the ceiling and we didn't think we'd get out of here alive."

Robyn tried not to think about another kind of crack she'd just seen. "Are you hurt?"

"Just a bit bruised," said Max. "And to be honest, most of that was probably caused by… actually, as you're my sister, I don't think I'm going to finish that sentence."

"That sounds like a good idea," said Robyn.

She heard Lily's voice from behind her. "Is Lofty with you?"

"No way!" said Max. "I like to think I'm open-minded, but I really prefer to keep Zoe to myself."

Robyn decided not to remind Max how difficult that could be.

"Hold on," said Zoe. "Did you say Lofty's here? And he's missing too?"

"He texted Dr Keogh a while ago, but he only just saw the text," said Lily. "We began searching, but Alicia has been seriously injured and taken to Resus. Dr Knight has a head injury and Dr Hardy was trapped with Dr Munroe, so Dr Keogh had to treat her. We're very short of doctors."

"Not anymore, you're not," said Zoe. "Max, where's my dress?"

Max looked down at the garment he was holding. "I don't think I can give it to you quite yet."

"Lily and Robyn, please get on with looking for Lofty," said Zoe. "Max and I will make ourselves presentable, then Max will help you and I'll head to Resus to see what I can do."

Robyn felt almost like crying. It was so good to have someone take charge and think rationally. Even if the person in question did happen to be naked. "Really, Zoe? You're sure you're not too badly hurt?"

"Honestly, Robyn - and I promise you I'm not being inappropriate - I haven't felt this good for a long time," said Zoe.