Frank pottered through his quiet apartment as he sleepily headed to the kitchen to grab himself some breakfast. It was already past noon, he noted with a dull shock. His sleeping habits had grown a little slovenly whilst he and his brother were once again on enforced sick leave. It was fine, he'd sort his body clock closer to the time when they were due back in the office. Right now he was absolutely a-OK with being lazy. He leaned back into a huge, toe curling stretch, wincing slightly as his still aching muscles protested his movement.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he reached up to the cereal cupboard, grabbing at the muesli. He half grinned to himself, shaking his head as he knocked over Joe's emergency box of Froot Loops. His brother had insisted he stocked 'real cereal and not that rabbity crap' for the frequent nights he ended up staying over and demanded feeding come the morning.

Frank bent down to grab a bowl when something dropping through the letter box at the front door of his apartment caught his eye. He raised an eyebrow as he realised it was an envelope.

Padding forward to the entranceway he bent down and picked up the white, nondescript mail from the floor. A flourish of writing showed it to be for the attentions of himself and his brother. Thoroughly confused as to why he would be getting mail addressed to both he and Joe, Frank peered through the peep hole of his door and saw nothing but an empty hallway beyond. Shrugging he opened the envelope, his blood running cold as he saw what was inside.

It was a simple card by all appearances. Completely white and devoid of decoration save for the silhouette of a black...and very obviously dead rose. Not entirely sure why it had chilled him so much but trusting his instincts, he opened the card with trepidation.

Get well soon

- D x

Frank closed the card slowly, looking up with unfocused eyes, receiving the message loud and clear.

This wasn't over.

Ok, so I am finally actually done this time! Like I said previously, the epilogue was something of an accident and a way to round off the chapters..but I quite enjoy the possibility of revisiting the family in the future.

Thank you so much to every one who has reviewed this story. It's the longest one I have written and was a bit of a mammoth task (especially since I failed to actually plan the whole plot from the beginning as usual and winged my way through huge chunks of it...I need to get out of that habit). To all my guest reviewers, thanks as well, I can't actually reply to you personally.

I hope you enjoyed the ride!