There was a type of peacefulness that came with sleep, it was very different peacefulness with death- so why were the two so often compared? Sleep was never infinite, it was never final and it was never completely peaceful. Death was often violent, terrifying and painful- it was final and it was saddening. They brought different emotions and were clearly very different. Yet, as he lay there propped up on pillows, he looked like he should be lying in a coffin not in a double bed. He wasn't moving, he couldn't move, he was quiet, he had nothing to say. The only life-like thing about him was the gentle rise and fall of his chest and the faint whistling of the air between his teeth.

Something else that the dead didn't do was wake up. Something the living did too well.

Cal poked his head around Ethan's bedroom door.

'Okay?'

'Yeah I suppose. You?'

'Pretty good.'

'How's the head?'

'Honestly? I feel like I've been hit by a truck.' His tone was light and warm.

'Try attacked by the floor.' Cal smiled. It was nice to see Ethan talking in such high spirits.

'Shouldn't you be at work?' Cal frowned.

'What the hell have you done? Open your mouth.'

'What?! Why?!'

'Just do it!' Cal approached Ethan who obediently opened his mouth.

'What?!'

'Is there any particular reason why your mouth is dyed blue?'

'Oh... Right...' Ethan was clearly embarrassed. 'Well... Robyn brought around a care package style thing when she dropped me off. It had some sweets, some films and some books in. There were some Skittles and she'd left the package by my bed so I could reach them... And... You were taking so long to get up and I didn't feel well enough to go downstairs and sort myself out with breakfast. So I've been eating Skittles...'

'You sound like a 6 year old eating sweets for breakfast!'

'So? You're the one who only just got up!'

'Hey! It's only-' Cal checked his watch. 'Okay you may have a point about me being up late but-'

'So I'll have two slices of toast please- one with chocolate spread and one with peanut butter. Thank you!' Ethan smiled a sarcastically sweet smile. Some times it was fun to be the injured one.

Cal returned with Ethan's breakfast half an hour later.

'Here you go- exactly what you asked for as well as a glass of orange juice and a banana.'

Ethan pouted grumpily.

'What?' Cal struggled to keep a straight face.

'I don't want no banana!' Ethan's voice mimicked that of a young, and grumpy, child.

Cal couldn't cope anymore he burst out laughing. Soon the two brothers were both laughing uncontrollably. Tears rolled down Ethan's face as he clutched his sided, as if he was desperately trying to stop himself falling apart.

'It wasn't even that funny!' Cal sighed.

'No but it's not exactly been easy recently. We both needed to let off some steam. Thanks for my breakfast though.' Ethan tear aged his pillows before tucking in.

The phone started to ring.

'Just let it ring. If it's important they'll leave a message.' Ethan mumbled through a mouthful of food.

'If it's important I need to answer it.' Cal stood up and ran to the phone.

'Hello?'

He covered the microphone and mouthed to Ethan 'The hospital.' Ethan nodded- this probably was important and did warrant the interruption to his breakfast. He was just finishing his banana when Cal hung up and made his way back.

'They want us all in for a meeting.'

'Who's all of us?'

'Ian, Lofty and you. You're supposed to bring someone with you and you can't drive so I'll take you.'

'Do you know what it's about?'

'Nope. Just that the police have made a discovery at the cave. Now hurry up and get dressed- they want us there in 20 minutes. I'm going to grab some breakfast for myself.'

'You don't have to come you know!' Ethan called after Cal.

'I want answers. I'm coming.' The reply was instantly shouted back.

'First of all: hello to you all. Nice to see that you're all doing well.'

Connie glanced around the room at the six faces staring back at her. She had called a meeting of the three staff injured in the cave collapse after receiving some information. They were all told they could bring someone for support if they wanted- Ian had brought Jess, Lofty had brought Robyn and Ethan had brought Cal, or more Cal had brought himself. Cal wanted answers more than anything in the world at the moment. He had become increasingly irritable and was constantly on his laptop trying to work out how the cave collapsed.

'Over the past few months we have been trying to establish what went wrong and why. Teams have been trying to reconstruct the cave to be used for training purposes one again. They dug out a large part of the cave and have found a body.' Six mouthed simultaneously sucked in a sharp intake of breath. 'The body was identified as William Harttens, an ex-member of the SAS and a close, personal friend of a certain Samuel Collins.' Two more gasps. 'He lead your training didn't he?' Jess and Ian nodded. 'Well he has been arrested for the murder of Mr Harttens. They have also found the remains of explosives around the cave.'

'You think someone did this on purpose?!' Cal burst out but was quickly silenced by a glare Connie.

'Mr Collins has admitted that he rigged the cave so it would collapse and hide the body of Mr Harttens. He claims that he didn't mean to injure you. Any of you. Apparently there was a delay in the charge. A very long delay. It was supposed to go off when the first training exercise had finished.'

'How didn't we see it?'

'I have absolutely no idea. I don't know where it was in the cave either. Also- I haven't finished. You weren't supposed to see the body. I don't know what he would have done if you did but I do know that he wanted someone to have a feeling of triumph about escaping death. That's not all. You fell because someone compromised your rope. Specifically who is the million dollar question. They think it was Mr Collins because you said "Would you look at that!" And due to the paranoid freak that he is he though you'd seen the body. He cut part of your rope while Jess wasn't looking, while she was otherwise engaged, you didn't help matters by fidgeting. You fell, the trigger was pressed but nothing happened. An ambulance was promptly called to avoid it looking suspicious and Ethan and Lofty went down to get you. Then the delayed explosions went off and the cave collapsed. You know the rest.'

An uncomfortable silence had settled.

'Wow.' That pretty much summed it all up. It was a crazy mess that one man had caused killing another man and leaving three more severely injured.