The room was silent for all that it was filled with people.

'John, where's Scott?'

'I – I don't know. He was gone when I woke up.'

Sally Tracy loved her boys with all her heart. At one point she thought that the longed-for daughter would be Jeff's, but four attempts had yielded all males once again and she had made do. She'd not replace any of them for the world.

And now that she'd lived parts of three days without one of them Sally could say that with conviction.

Her boys could be just a little bit dumb sometimes. She couldn't fault them, really. It had been an…adrenaline packed 'adventure' for them all and there was no wonder none of them – even the most medically trained among them – were thinking straight.

She disentangled herself from Gordon and Kayo, patted Jeff on the cheek and left to find a nurse. Scott's whole bed was missing, telling her that he'd been wheeled off for some test or something. Sally bit her lip as she walked the corridor to the nurses' station on this floor.

Scott being whisked off during the night/early morning didn't necessarily bode well.

The rest of the family, comforted by the thought of all being together in their eldest brother's room meant that the wish had been undone, chatted quietly among themselves. They all wanted to talk to Kayo, but she had planted herself firmly between Jeff and Virgil and stayed there. If Jeff could feel occasional shivers as she recounted feeling like she was dying then waking up in the hotel, he could certainly understand that.

Eventually his Ma returned with a doctor. Everyone stood up as the doctor entered, and Jeff internally winced when he saw how serious the man looked.

'I am here to update you on Scott's condition.'

'Thank you, Doctor.'

'As you know, for the last several days Scott has been in a coma. His responses have been minimal to any and all stimuli.'

Jeff swallowed. He remembered the discussion. Just before the Hood had come they had been talking to him about taking Scott off the life support. With no changes for several days they didn't hold out much, if any, hope of him waking up. And even if he did, it was highly likely Scott would have suffered some kind of brain damage from the injuries, the surgery and the coma.

And now this, whatever this was.

'Last night Scott showed signs of being in respiratory distress. We took him straight down to be scanned and found a blood clot in his left lung. Normally we would treat such clots with anticoagulants only, but due to Scott's overall health issues it was decided that surgery would give him the best outcome. We performed a catheter-directed percutaneous embolectomy and are treating him with systemic heparin. He'll stay in the ICU until the 18-hour time slot is over, we'll remove the catheter and all being well Scott will be back here tonight.'

'I – I slept through all that?'

The doctor turned to John and regarded him thoughtfully.

'Yes, you did. Some of the nurses felt that we should have taken you as well, but knowing who you are we figured you obviously needed the rest. We did scan you with a portable Medscanner just to be sure there was nothing wrong. It flagged up exhaustion and dehydration, so we let you sleep.'

'Thank you, Doctor.'

The man smiled at John before he continued speaking.

'I do have some good news to offer.'

The room perked up, markedly so. The smile on the doctor's face became wider.

'It seems that the procedure has done Scott some further good. He is now breathing unaided.'

There was a clamour of voices and the man held up both hands to stop them speaking.

'He's not out of the woods yet, and there's no way to tell the long-term damage, if there is any, but it is the first positive sign of recovery since he was brought in. Give it a bit and you can go visit him, two at a time only please. I'll send one of the nurses down to escort you.'

There were relieved grins and handshakes for the doctor. There may even have been a couple of not-so-dry eyes. Once the man had left Jeff held up his hands for quiet.

'We will organise a visiting schedule as usual. But while we have this time and we are all together, I think it's time we talk about what happened.'

There was some subdued noises, but no one disagreed. The family settled about the room, John and Grandma on the chairs, and everyone else either on the floor or against a wall. Jeff waited until everyone was settled, drinking in the sight of everyone gathered together. Well, not everyone. Kyrano was missing, but that wasn't a surprise since he had not been present before.

Yesterday. The reset of the wish had also wiped out those three days of horror, but Jeff could see the lingering aftereffects. There was an ache in his heart as he grieved the loss of Lucy all over again, and he knew that the others would be the same.

Yesterday, though, Scott had been for all intents and purposes dead, the doctors had been that blunt with him alone.

Yesterday the Hood had shown up and offered…Jeff shut the door on that thought. It was one they would need to talk about, and if he was honest Jeff had no idea how to move forward from this.

Talk about the Devil and he appears. That's what they say. And as if by thinking on him had conjured his worst enemy, the door to the room opened and the Hood entered. The room fell silent at the sight.

This was not the Hood they knew. He was not wearing that ridiculously showy robe and costume. But nor was he wearing that sharp suit that seemed his only other attire.

No – this man was dishevelled. Dressed in plain slacks and a worn shirt, the man was wild-eyed, almost panicking. He scanned the room but ultimately his gaze settled on Jeff.

'You!'

That one word was dripping with venom – and something else. With a start Jeff recognised it was fear. He stood tall as Gaat entered the room, pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.

'You! Look what you did! Look what you did!'

Belah Gaat was shrieking and shaking. Jeff had no idea what the man was talking about, but as the gun was waved about he wasn't going to risk saying something that could be misconstrued and trigger a worse scenario. He also knew the power of silence. Given the time, Jeff knew the Hood would explain what the hell he was going on about.

'Gone. It's all gone. My money! My empire! My powers! Everything is gone!'

Ah, well, that explained it. Although…Jeff wasn't sure how his own wish had undone the Hood's life. He watched as the man struggled to gain control of himself, but eventually Gaat did pull himself and the gun steadied in its aim on Jeff's heart.

'You have taken everything from me. Again!'

And he pulled the trigger.

There was shouting and screaming but all Jeff was conscious of was the lack of pain. He'd unconsciously closed his eyes as he saw what was about to happen.

Which meant he missed Kyrano's appearance in the doorway and didn't see him jerk his half-brother's arm resulting in the bullet missing Jeff by a whisker and embedding itself in the wall.

It may only have been 30 seconds, but they were the longest of Jeff's life. When he did open one eye, it was to see his best friend holding the Hood in a firm grip, with his arm bent up behind him and doubled over. The gun was on the floor, and as he watched Gordon rushed forward to scoop it up before coming over to stand beside him.

'You never did finish your lessons with the monks, did you?'

The words were spoken with Kyrano's customary quiet calm, and everyone relaxed. Jeff let out the breath he'd hadn't realised he was holding. But the Hood wasn't going to let go that easily, thrashing about in a futile effort to get free. Kyrano held his brother fast.

'What are you talking about?'

'The Dreamstone. It was created by Dolos, or Dechalafrea Ero, the gods of lies, deception and chaos. Yes, it will give the user what they want but take that which is most precious to them, but this is not all. It will take from the offerer the same. You coveted power over your enemy, to see him destroyed and with nothing. And so shall you have.'

The Hood howled as security finally flooded the room. Everyone watched as they handcuffed him and marched him out. The sigh of relief that the man was gone was more than audible.

Kyrano gave Jeff a small smile, but Jeff strode across the small gap and enfolded him into a firm hug. There was the merest hint of reservation before Kyrano responded in kind.

'It has been too long, my dear, dear friend.'

'It has. I am sorry I have not been around.'

'The past is the past. If the last three days have shown us anything, it is that it should not be revisited, except in our memories.'

'Agreed, old friend. Agreed.'

There were murmurs of agreement around the room.

Releasing Kyrano, who immediately made his way over and stood shoulder to shoulder with his daughter after bestowing a gentle kiss to her forehead, he scanned the room. Almost everyone he loved was here.

Jeff cleared his throat.

'I owe each and every one of you, and the others too, more than just an apology. I put us all through hell over the last three days and I will never be able to make that up to you.'

He held up a hand for silence as everyone started talking at once.

'No – I mean it. It doesn't matter why I did what I did, it was foolish and it has caused so much hurt and grief and I will never, ever be able to change that, to rectify it. I can only beg you forgive an old man who couldn't bear to lose another member of his family.'

Jeff looked at the floor, cheeks burning from shame, and watched as a fat tear dripped off the end of his nose to splash on the floor. A wrinkled hand gently lifted his chin and his Ma was there. She said nothing, but she pulled him in for a surprisingly strong hug. It was followed by John, then Virgil. Pretty soon they were all there, hugging Jeff and each over.

A discrete cough broke the group apart. Jeff wiped his eyes to see the promised nurse.

'Who wants to come and see Scott first?'

They insisted Jeff went first, and that he spent a good amount of time there, for which he was grateful for. He knew how close his boys were. He knew that he'd be having long, in-depth discussions with each of them over the next few days, but for now his eldest needed him.

Time passed as Jeff sat there, holding Scott's hand. He told Scott all the things he should have done over the years, things that he had regretted not saying during the last three days. How proud he was, what a great man Scott had turned out to be, how thankful he'd stepped up while Jeff was unable – both after Lucy's death and when he'd been shot out to the Oort cloud.

How much he loved Scott.

There was the lightest of squeezes to his hand.