Sarah and Tommy were side by side in the hall, Sarah's head rested heavily on her brother's shoulder – Tommy had the letter still clutched in his fist. Neither of them had any idea how long they had stayed silently like this, it could have been hours, the same information doing laps around their minds.

'We should…we should…get going.' Tommy stumbled breaking the silence that consumed the house. 'We need to get back to the hospital. They'll be wondering where we are.'

Tommy pushed himself up from where he sat, he opened the overnight bag in his hand examining his fathers belongings, 'I still need Dads razor…maybe he'll need more than this…'

Sarah gazed up from where she had slumped, she couldn't comprehend Tommy and how he could be so calm, 'Tommy!'

Her brothers back was disappearing down the hall towards their parents bedroom, looking at where he had been sitting she saw the letter crumpled on the floor. Reaching for it instinctively she flattened it out and returned it to the envelope.

'Tommy.' She called again, raising from the floor she traced his steps down the hall entering the room she watched him as he rifled through drawers haphazardly and switched between the master bedroom and en suite with no focus.

'Tommy' she walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, looking aimlessly at the tie he held in his hand. 'What are we going to do?'

Such a simple question, Tommy had been asked that questions thousands of times before by countless people. What are we going to do about the delivery? What are we going to do about the movie tonight?

None were quite as life changing as…What are we going to do about our baby brother's suicide note?

Tommy rested himself on the edge of the bed letting out a heavy sigh scrubbing a hand across his face he looked up at his sister and whispered, 'God Sarah how could we not know?'

Wrapping an arm around Tommy's shoulders Sarah steadily rubbed the middle of his back, she had only just found out this information herself and here she was dishing out support and comfort to him.

'He didn't know how Tommy. How do you talk about something like that?' She wondered herself what she could have done, if there had been any signs she could have picked up on sooner.

Silently tears were falling from Tommy's eyes; Sarah couldn't remember the last time she had seen Tommy crying. 'He went for lessons when he was…what Sarah…nine…nine years old Sarah…all those years…nearly ten years and he never told a soul.'

Sarah squeezed her eyes shut against the image, Justin was their baby brother, when he was nine she would have been in her twenties already graduated college, in a job, living in her own apartment.

Kitty was away at college on the East Coast visiting during the holidays, Tommy had begun working in Ojai with her father after dropping out of college and Kevin was still in high school living in the family home.

Every one of them had a strong bond with Justin when he was young; they felt protective of him more like parents than siblings. And yet this was going on – all the time they had spent together, family occasions they had shared…and nothing, not one word.

Giving his face a final gruff rub and a wipe of his red eyes, Tommy took Sarah's hand in his own and carefully looked her in the eye, 'We're going to have to tell Dad.'

In the starch white hospital room, the steady beeping was beginning to irritate Nora Walker. The noise signalled that her son's heart was still beating in a steady rhythm – so she supposed she should be grateful but still the constant sound invading her thoughts was getting rather annoying.

She sat by the bed in a large blue winged back chair, the leather on the arms showed clear signs of wear and tear from the years of worry induced abuse. In her left hand she clutched the limp and pale hand of her youngest child.

Behind her William paced a trail along the floor at the end of the bed, the same path over and over, door to wall along the length of the glass windows – never changing or ceasing. He hadn't spoken more than a few words since returning from the relative's room.

The nurses were coming every fifteen minutes, using polite smiles as they entered, working around the bed checking monitors and various medical equipment. Before they left the added a few notes to the clipboard hanging on the end of the bed, avoiding the gaze of the parents of the guant boy lying in the bed.

Nora's thumb traced a circle over and over on the back of Justin's hand, she waited desperately for any sign that he was waking up. So far there had been nothing not a twitch of the hand or flicker of the eyelids – just a still form in a still room.

Reaching over the bed Nora brushed a stray hair from his forehead and whispered the question that had still to be answered 'Oh darling…why?'

Tommy and Sarah hadn't spoken since those words in the bedroom, they were walking along the white hospital corridor hand and in hand heading back toward the relatives room. Toward the hardest thing they had ever had to do in their lives.

Pushing open the door Tommy led the way, still not releasing Sarah's hand. The four heads in the room shot up as the door opened – Saul eyes filled with worry, Kevin and Kitty still showed the evidence of tears.

The last face was a surprise to Sarah – Joe. She rushed straight into his arms, the tears flowing into his shoulder as he softly stroked her hair. Tommy folded his arms tightly across his chest and willed himself to speak to his family, 'Any news?'

Kevin's eyes darted away from his brother's watching as Joe tried to comfort Sarah as she wept. Kitty pulled her knees up to her chest on the chair a hand playing with her blonde hair.

'Nothing yet. Your Dad came along a while ago just to say there was no change as yet.' His Uncle Saul had always been the voice of reason; he paced the room throwing an empty coffee cup into the trash bin near the door.

'What took you so long?' Kevin's voice broke as he spoke, hoarse and rough from the previous bouts of crying.

Tommy's eyes glanced over at Sarah, her shoulders still shaking with her sobs as Joe 'shushed' her softly. 'Just took a while…to eh…pack up everything we needed.'

Motioning toward the bags he had in his arm, placing them on an empty coffee table and shoving his hands deep into his jeans pockets.

'And the rest?' Kevin again, in any other situation Tommy would have teased Kevin about his sixth sense but today it was something he wished wasn't so highly tuned.

Sarah stopped long enough to come back to Tommy and lift the dog eared letter from the side pocket of the bag. Holding it tightly in her hand she turned to face the others, Tommy placed his hand on her shoulder letting her know he was there with her.

'We found this…'

William leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his son's forehead, carefully avoiding the intubation tube which protruded unnaturally from his mouth. Giving his wife a lingering pat on the shoulder as he passed by he steeled himself for the walk back to the relative's room.

Already the trip had become something done on autopilot, straight ahead past the nurse's station, quick left then right; follow that corridor to the door on the left.

This time the journey was met by a rather unexpected ending, outside the room he was met by the sight of his brother-in-law and two uniform police officers scribbling furiously on notepads.

Quickening his step William was by Saul's side, gripping in his forearm to make him aware of his presence. Glancing up quickly Saul caught William's eye, he was caught off guard by his sudden presence, he hadn't been fully prepared for what he was about to do.

'What's going on Saul?'

'William…I…the police…'

'Mr Walker?' The middle aged policeman looked William up and down assessing the mans movements, 'I'm Officer Muir. I've been assigned to your son's case.'

'I don't understand. This has nothing to do with the police – it's a family matter.'

Officer Muir glanced at the two men, catching the Uncle's strained gaze he understood instantly that this father had no idea of the events which had been uncovered.

'Mr. Walker perhaps you would like to have a seat.' He gestured toward the row of plastic seating which had been screwed to the wall.

'The doctors have said that my children can visit – just for a little while. I think I should do that just now – you don't need to be here as I said this is a family matter. Thank you all the same.'

William broke away from the conversation and opened the door to the relative's room; he had expected his children to greet him. At least enquire how their brother was – but they all just looked up at him. Not one spoke or stood they just gazed at him, something William couldn't place was in their eyes and he turned back toward Saul.

Removing the evidence bag, the letter had been placed safely in an evidence pouch, labelled and sealed for protocol. He turned it over a few times in his hands and braced himself to speak.

Officer Muir took the father by the arm and led him down the corridor a little, 'I really think we should speak Mr. Walker.'