Note: This chapter covers the same time period as chapter 1, but from Brendan's perspective. Things will move forward after this, I promise.

The guy had enough sense to make his exit before Brendan had to told him to go, and he had already forgotten his name when the door closed after him. Sam? Seth? Something with a "S" in it. Brendan was also pleased that lad hadn't asked if they could meet up again, like some of his randoms did – like picking up a bloke from the club and fucking them in somewhere convenient place would make a beautiful start for a relationship. If Brendan wanted to give a relationship go, he wouldn't look the suitable candidate from nightclubs.

It was good thing that Cheryl was away in that three day lecture thingy, something about accounting, staying over in a hotel and giving Brendan the privacy. Not that he minded that Cheryl was there, noisy and colorful, pulling him out from his thoughts. But it had been nice to be able to bring the bloke into his place, instead of going to the guys apartment or search for a hotel.

Brendan made himself a cup of coffee and filled a bowl with cereals, opened the TV and made himself comfortable in the couch. There was no hurry to make it into the office, they didn't have any appointments today and there was only some paperwork to be done and invoices to sent from their last gig.

He flicked through the channels before settling into a morning show. Not that he was interested about the gossips and mindless news, but he was just in time to see the cooking part of the program. It was his guilty pleasure, eating while watching someone prepare food, specially if the guy making it was as cute as the chef they had hired. He was so skinny Brendan had first doubted was he chef at all when he's first seen the show, but once he had seen how the lad handled the kitchen tools he was convinced. The lad had a massive grin on his face almost constantly while he talked even tho Brendan could tell he was nervous, but there was nothing fake in his excitement over the dish he was making.

The camera zoomed into chefs hands while he was cutting the veggies and Brendan could easily imagine those long fingers wrapping around his dick. The guy was gay, it had been a big announcement some time back, even when Brendan had already known about it before that. He had always been good picking up things on people, that's why he was so good at what he did, and there was something in the lad which had made it obvious to him and surprised that no one else knew. There had been some rumors about the chef dating the sports guy from the same show, Brendan remembered now, but he couldn't remember how that thing had ended.

Still, there was nothing wrong with some filthy daydreams, was there, Brendan thought while hardly focusing on what the guy was talking about because his mouth was more interesting to look at. When the chef was done the camera zoomed out so both the dish and the guy were on the shot, and Brendan tried not to think how the man who he had picked last night could have been easily passed at this lad when it was dark enough. Brendan knew he had a type and this man, Chef Ste as they called him, was like straight from his fantasies.

He had no interest to keep on watching once Ste was off screen, even when his friend Anne was working on the same channel – well, Brendan was hardly interested in celebrity gossip and recent clothing styles, was he - so he turned the TV off and hit the shower. He was just putting on some clothes when his phone rang.

Anne, it said on screen. What a coincidence.

"Hello gorgeous."

"Good morning to you, handsome. I assume I didn't wake you up?"

"Nah, I have been up for a while now. Are you good?"

"Oh, yes, yes I'm fine. But actually, I didn't call just for a chat, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Anything for you." Brendan sat on the bed. "What is it?"

"I have this friend, Ste, who works with me." When she said the words Brendan's inside made a sudden twist and he was glad he was sitting down. "He's been running into some, how'd you say it, eager fan and doesn't really know how to deal with that. I was wondering if you could give him some advises?"

"Yeah." His voice sounded weird so he cleared his throat. "Yeah, sure, I can talk with him. Are you busy today? Cheryl is out so you could bring him over to our place instead the office. Would make it all less official." He hoped he didn't sound as keen as he felt. Having that lad from his fantasies in his apartment – he felt embarrassed how excited it made him.

"That sound lovely. It will make it easier for him, poor lamb, he's been quite shaken with it." Anne must really like the guy, because she sounded genuinely worried.

"You coming now?"

"I still need to shoot my bit, as you would know if you'd ever watch it that I'm not in until the end, but we could come straight after?"

Brendan smiled for her teasing tone. "When ever it suits you. I'll be here."

"Great. See you soon then. Kisses!"

"Bye, Anne." He ended the call. Well then, who would have known this would happen. He stood up and went back to his dresser for shirts. Brendan was always very precise how he dressed up but suddenly he really wanted to make a impact. It made him feel silly as well to put this kind of an effort, but he tried to tell himself that he needed to look good for potential new customer. When he looked himself in the mirror he was pleased what he saw, despite the telling signs of white hairs in his beard he knew he looked good.

It was around midday when the doorbell rang and released Brendan from anxiously trying to make himself busy with paperwork. He told himself to act professional when he pushed the door open.

He greeted Anne at first and got a hug from her before turning his attention to man she hand brought with her. He was even more gorgeous in real life, even when he was looking nervous as hell, or maybe that was part of his charm. His eyes were big and blue, and his lashes looked longer than on the TV screen, and Brendan had to fight not to stare that mouth of his.

They made through their introductions and Brendan liked the way Steven's skin felt against his when they shook hands and how the lad kept looking straight at him. Once Brendan indicated they should move inside and Steven walked past him he could catch his scent too, it was mixture of spices from the kitchen and something earthy, and it suddenly made Brendan feel very hungry in more physical way.

Anne went straight for one of his couches but Steven remained standing and looking around. It hit Brendan how overly feminine the place looked after Cheryl's decorations, and felt the need to explain. Somehow he wanted to make clear he lived with his sister, not with a partner. "Saves me the trouble for looking a place of my own, because I'm often spending nights with my clients... Not that way, of course." To his relief Steven let out a nervous laughter and Brendan lead him to sit down before he'd made another awkward joke.

After he got Steven settled down he asked about his problem. It seemed at first that the lad just had a case of a very eager fan which Brendan had dealt with before, but when Steven gave him one of the letters he had received his opinion changed. It annoyed him that anyone would sent this kind of poison to Steven and he could understand why the lad was so shaken about it. It seemed like the harassment had got worse after the lad had announced his sexuality which didn't surprise him, because if the sender was gay themselves they could have assumed it was an invitation for them to amp up what they saw as a relationship.

For a second Steven looked unsure when his sexuality came up, like he was half expecting Brendan telling him to leave. It told him a lot about what kind of past Steven must have had, and Anne was quick to jump in but Brendan cut her off before she could say anything. Through their conversation Brendan had tried to think what was the best way to proceed, and how to do it professionally – He had to admit to himself how insanely attracted he was to the young man sitting on his sofa looking vulnerable and hot at the same time. But there were very clear memories in Brendan's head about a similar case years before. Young lad in trouble and how Brendan had been drawn to him. Where it had lead. How it had ended. He shook the memory away from his head and tried to focus on the current situation. What Steven needed was someone to look after him and not someone trying to get into his pants.

He made his proposal of watching after Steven from the distance and felt relieved when the lad agreed to it. At least he could hang around the lad for a couple of days, and he was pretty sure this was nothing more than a case of some weird loner who had lot of unhealthy fantasies of a TV persona. Brendan tried not to think about how he too had his own fantasies about Steven, at least he hadn't actually harassed the poor lad with his imagination.

He did speed up the process then, with the ready files for contracts which just needed to be filled out with details. Steven was answering to all his questions more surely now when Brendan had agreed to help him out, and he could see glimpses of some of that confidence he had on screen when cooking.

"You have security in your house already?" Brendan asked when Ste had told him his address. He knew the area, it was nice and secure place to live.

"Yeah, there was one ready when I moved in, just changed it on my account or whatever. Just the basics, I guess, and the camera on the front door. I don't know much about it, actually." Steven looked bit embarrassed.

"It's alright, I send someone in first thing tomorrow to check it out and see if it needs to be upgraded."

"You won't come?" Brendan was almost certain Steven sounded disappointed.

"I'll be watching over you rest of the day. It would be better the less we're seen together, and if someone is watching your flat they might recognize me later on. So it's better if it just looks like you have a guy check up your security system, yeah?"

"Alright." Steven nodded. They finished finalizing everything, and then Anne said they should probably get going. Brendan walked them to the door.

"I know it's hard, Steven, but try to act normal. If we are lucky we'll soon catch the guy who does this to you and that'll be that." When Steven shoot a nervous smile towards him and turned to walk down the stairs giving Brendan the view of his backside he couldn't stop himself thinking how the faster they catch the guy and got the situation settled, the sooner Steven would stop being his client. He tried to banish the thought with picturing Vincent instead as a reminded how things could go wrong, but it was like his dick has a mind of it's own. Anne gave him a knowing look before rising to her toes to kiss him quickly on the cheek, and then strode after Steven, leaving Brendan to his own conflicted thoughts for the rest of the day.

::::::

For the next few days Brendan felt like he got to know Steven very well even from just watching him afar.

Firstly he was a very hard working. He had given Brendan his usual weekly schedule which seemed pretty busy. Not only he had his live shows in the studio from Tuesday to Thursday there was also a bit he filmed to Friday's longer episode beforehand, usually on Thursday after the live show ended, and alongside that he did work with a restaurant called Tony's too. Brendan kept an eye on him when he left to the studio early in the morning, spent few hours in before exiting again. Brendan would have loved to see what happened behind the scenes, but following Ste inside wasn't part of his current job description so he got himself a coffee and tried to look casual while watching the small crowd gathered in front of the studio.

Most of the cast and crew used the back side of the building to get in, it was more secure with parking lot surrounded by tall fences and special code to get inside the gates, plus there were lot of security cameras and a guard who kept the most eager fans away who tried to sneak in. The front of the building was more public, whit majority of fans hanging around there, and sometimes some of the cast members arranged the car to come and pick them up from front instead, so they could go and give autographs and take pictures with people supporting them. Or if there were someone bit more famous as a guest they made a short appearance there as well for good publicity.

Steven didn't have a car but he seemed to be one of those lower case TV personas who managed to move around without too much fuss. It still made Brendan's blood run cold to see the lad walk or take a public transport to work. That was another thing Brendan learned from him, that Steven was very humble. He dressed smartly when he went to the studio, with clean polo shirts and chinos, but Brendan also saw him walking around with tracksuits and hoodies. In that nice neighborhood of his Steven looked he was a council rat in a wrong area. Somehow it made Steven more charming in Brendan's eyes – the lad didn't much care what others might think of him.

Some nights Steven went to Tony's to do his shifts. The restaurant looked nice and classy, but not too posh, and it closed at 11 pm leaving Steven plenty of time to get back home and have a good night sleep before heading to the studio next morning. Brendan was worried of Steven taking the bus at that time of the night, there were plenty of things what could happen for a lad like him in those late hours, but the days went by and Brendan couldn't see anything suspicious around him.

Third thing Brendan learned was that Steven was a great dad. After his shoot in the studio and before getting into Tony's for the evening shift he took another bus (seriously, Brendan was pretty sure that owning a car would make life so much easier for the lad) to the further side of the town where his kids lived. Steven had explained that to Brendan during their conversation the first day they met, he had an ex and two kids with her. Steven had said it carefully like expecting Brendan to judge him, another sign that not everyone were very accepting with his sexuality, but Brendan hardly could say anything bad about it. He had his own failed marriage and two sons born from it, so he knew exactly what it was like to be young and confused or straight into denial, doing what everyone else did before one day waking up to the reality.

Usually Steven took his kids in the park with him, sometimes alone, sometimes the mother, young skinny blonde joined them. They had a girl and a younger boy, both more or less blond and very lively judging the way they kept sprinting around and had tons of energy. Brendan kept his distance but one day he couldn't stop himself and had to sneak a bit closer, sitting in a bench near by pretending to read a newspaper while in reality he tried to catch up the conversations Steven had with his kids. He was always fully invested to them, hardly checking his phone but instead chatted and took part of the games like a big kid himself, laughing a lot. Brendan had never heard a laughter like that, like someone strangling a donkey, but the more he heard it the more he started to like it. He couldn't help but admire the way Steven was so natural with the children, and it made Brendan's heart ache with regret when he thought his own sons and how distant he had been with them.

Overall, the more time Brendan spent watching Steven's everyday life the more ordinary he seemed, like any other lad of his age juggling with two jobs and a family, only difference being that Steven's other job was on a TV. But at the same time when it seemed like there was nothing special about him, Brendan was fully aware that there was something in the lad which made him drawn in to him, something that made it impossible to look away and which made Brendan wake up each day excited with the thought that he could see Steven again. Each night he called for Steven's number and they went over the events of the day, or more likely, how nothing had happened. Brendan enjoyed hearing Ste's voice, even when he sounder bit wary like he was holding himself back for some reason. It was still one of the best moments of Brendan's day, and he was wishing he would have more to report so they could keep on talking. After the call Brendan drove back home and tried to relax with a glass of whiskey while Cheryl chatted about her day, but his thoughts always circled back to Steven. More than once he had woken up with a boner after a night full of dreams of him.

As the days went by it was clear that who ever was watching Steven wasn't doing it in very public way. Brendan had memorised the faces of the regular fans crowding the studio's yard and hadn't seen any of them following Steven around. If it was up to Brendan he would gladly follow Steven around rest of his life, but he didn't want the lad pay to him for something which was quite frankly pretty useless. Brendan was starting to believe it was just some random crazy person who had weird fantasies and had picked up Steven as his subject. If the letters were the only threat they could deal with that by simply destroying them unopened. Steven hardly needed someone to walk as his shadow for that.

There was also something more selfish boiling in Brendan's belly. He had his strict rules for not getting too involved with his clients, but the more he saw from Steven the more he wanted him. Not just for those fantasies he'd had on him before, and which he now felt quite embarrassed about, no, but because of the reality of that man was much more intriguing than any of those thoughts Brendan had during late nights to get him off. For the first time in ages Brendan was drawn to something else than just the idea of warm body next to his. He wanted to know more about Steven, have a regular conversations over their thoughts and it was weird. He had never wanted that before, not properly. Not even with Vincent.

He needed to go through the situation with Steven, and see what he was thinking about it. Then maybe, if Steven was up for it, they could go out, like normal people.

Going out, Jesus. Something Brendan had never done with another man. The thought made Brendan both excited and scared.

::::::

Steven had informed Brendan that he had a photo shoot in his house for a book, and that he wouldn't be leaving his apartment for the whole day. Still, in the morning Brendan found himself parking his car on the road Steven lived in for a little further, and kept an eye of the front door. Around ten there were two cars parking nearer to his flat and small group of people emerging from them, with boxes and bags full of gear and made their way indoors.

Brendan passed the time by going through the notes he had from this case and really didn't come across anything what would look suspicious. Now he just needed to figure out how to break this change of plans to Steven.

When it seemed that the photo shoot would really take up the whole day and it would be completely pathetic from Brendan to sit in the car all that time, he decided to check up one more thing before closing the case.

He started the car and drove to Tony's. Place seemed busy because he had hard time to find a parking space, but finally managed to find a spot and walked in the restaurant. The indoors matched the classy outside, lot of black, simple furniture and almost every seat was full with people eating their lunch. From the other side of the room wall had a opening where you could see the kitchen and the chefs at their work.

"Hi, welcome to Tony's, would you like to get lunch or make a reservation?" Young girl dressed in white shirt and black vest greeted Brendan.

"Neither, actually. I would like to have a word with the manager, if that's alright."

"With Mr. Hutchinson?" Girl looked curious but remained professional. "If you wait just a moment I check if he's free. Who can I say is asking?"

"Mr. Brady." Brendan watched the girl make her way to the kitchen. Few minutes later she returned with a man who was wiping his hands in the apron.

"Mister Brady? I'm Tony Hutchinson, the owner. You wanted to see me?" They shook hands. Brendan estimated that Tony was few years older than he was, and his first impression of him was reliable. Good.

"Pleasure to meet you. I was hoping I could have talked with you in somewhere more private?"

"Yes, of course. I'm due to my break anyway. Would it be okay if we step outside so I can get a bit of a fresh air?"

"That's fine." Brendan let Tony show the way and followed him through the restaurant to the door which said "Staff only". Behind it was a short corridor with few other doors which seemed to lead to the office and cleaner's closet, and then there was another door leading to the back yard. It was small but cozy, there were few benches and a small table with an ash tray, and it looked like a place where the staff would come and have their breaks.

"So, Mister Brady, what it is that you wanted to talk about? I'm not in trouble, am I?" Tony said it jokingly but Brendan could tell his mind was thinking all the possible scenarios.

"Nothing like that, no. My name is Brendan Brady and I work for Steven Hay." He took out his business card and handed it to Tony. "He's hired me because of some nasty incident and I have been trying to figure out who would be behind it. I was wondering have you seen anything suspicious while Steven has been working here?"

"Ste? Having a problem?" Tony stared at the card with confusion. "No, there's been no troubles in here. Only thing I can think of is when there's people coming for dinner just because they know Ste works here and sometimes ask if he could come join them for a photo or something. It can be bit distracting for work but it also brings out some new customers to have a TV chef working here, you know." He let out a little laugh and got serious again. "Ste is a good lad. I don't know anyone who would want him any harm."

"No customers with a grudge from getting a raw chicken with their meal, then." Brendan said and for a second Tony looked almost outraged by the thought before realised that Brendan was joking. "How well do you know Steven outside work? Any ideas does he had some old enemies? Possessive ex's?"

"I've known Ste since he was a teenager. He's come long way from the lad I met first time. He used to have a rough life but it's all past now, since he started to work with me he's done nothing but improved himself. As for the ex's, I guess you know about Amy? She's hardly any danger to him."

Brendan nodded. "Yeah I've seen her. No one else then?"

"Well, there was Noah, but what I gathered he's the one who dumped Ste so I don't see why he would hold anything against him. But Ste didn't talk about him much, or any other...partners."

"I see." If Brendan remembered correctly the sports guy on the telly was called Noah, so the rumors about him and Steven dating had been true. He felt a rush of anger in his belly. "If you don't have any other idea which might help me to get in the bottom of this, I appreciate giving me a minute of your time."

"Honestly that's all I can think about. Ste is always so kind to everyone, any bad incident would be easy to remember." Tony took a step towards the door to lead Brendan back inside but stopped and looked at him frowning. "Is he in a deep trouble? He's never said anything to me, and I'm his mate. I would love to help him out."

Brendan could see the man really cared for Steven. It was good to see, Steven needed lot of supportive people in his life.

"Just some harassing which he asked me to check out, but so far it seems it's nothing more than online bully or something. I would appreciate if you'd keep this between us tho, just in case."

"Of course." Tony nodded and walked Brendan back through the corridor and restaurant to the front. "I hope I was at least some help, even tho I had not much information to give you."

"You have my card, give me a call if you remember anything else." They shook hands, said their goodbyes and Brendan walked back to his car. Everything was pointing more towards the fact that who ever it was sending these letters wasn't anyone who Steven was interacting daily. Just some lonely weirdo who had a fixation of Steven. Nothing to worry about too much.

::::::

Brendan had something to eat before driving back to Steven's street. His timing was lucky, he hadn't been parked longer than 10 minutes when his apartments door opened and the crew started to carry their gear back in the cars. Once they were all packed in and started to drive away Brendan dialed Steven's number.

He picked up straight away. "Hello?"

"Okay, Steven?" Brendan greeted. "I assume the photo shoot is done now? You free for a wee chat?"

"Um, yeah, I have nothing now."

"Good. Can you meet me in the cafe, the one down the road?" Brendan had visited the place several times during the past week and liked it, it was usually pretty quiet and would be perfect place for them to meet and talk.

"Now?" Steven sounded surprised.

"If you don't mind."

"I'm on my way."

Brendan walked to the cafe and tried to tone down the excitement he felt. Even when he had seen Steven every day and talked to him through the phone they hadn't met up since the first day, and having a coffee with him made Brendan uncomfortably giddy. Jesus, he was grown man, and acted like a teenager.

He got two coffees, loaded his own with three sugars but then realised he had no idea how Steven liked his. There was one thing he hadn't learned during this week. Brendan took the coffees to his usual table near the window, so he could keep an eye of the street and see when Steven would arrive. He didn't have to wait long, he had barely sat down when he saw Steven approaching. He was dressed up more smartly than he usually seemed to during his free time, but it must have been the clothing they had chosen from the photo shoot.

Brendan stood up when Steven got in, and wasn't sure did he want to shake his hand for being polite or to be able to touch Steven now when he was right in front of him. He was even more gorgeous than Brendan remembered, all high sharp cheek bones, big eyes and plump lips which seemed to demand Brendan's attention. He struggled to keep an eye contact instead.

When they had sat down Brendan offered Steven his coffee, and kept an eye when he went back to front to get what he needed to it. Splash of milk and two sugars.

"I'll remember that next time." Jesus, how obvious was he? He cleared his throat and took the conversation to other direction, asking Steven how he had been and had he been encountering anything suspicious. While listening to his replies Brendan found his gaze constantly drifting back to that mouth of his, the way he bit his bottom lip when he seemed nervous, or how he licked it every now and then. It was mesmerizing.

He wasn't that surprised when Steven told he wanted to quit his TV career. Boy really didn't seem like someone who was hungry for fame, like Anne was for example, he didn't push himself to every event where his picture could have been taken to the gossip section. Even judging by his show Steven really loved making food, but not so much making it in front of cameras. Brendan wondered how he had ended up there in the first place.

Brendan forced his thoughts back to the moment and explained Steven what he had come up with during the week and how he didn't see any point of him continuing following Steven around. His reactions to the news were quite surprising.

"You mean.. You don't want to go on working for me?" Boy looked sulky and offended, but also scared.

Brendan tried his best to explain the situation to Steven, but he still felt that the lad didn't like what he was hearing and it was confusing. Usually his clients were glad if Brendan had informed them that there was no real danger, but Steven acted like his world was ending.

"It's just, I have been feeling lot better this past week, when I have known you are watching over me."

That hit Brendan in the chest and he was desperate to make Steven understand how much this all meant to him. "Hey. Listen to me. I'm not abandoning you. I'm just saying what I think we should do now, in this particular situation. If it changes, if there's something new, then we rethink it, yeah? You can always, always call on me if you need to. Okay?" He had leaned closer over the table and could catch the scents of spices and herbs from Steven, just like before. This man was teasing all his senses, even his mancunian accent sounded sexy to him, but it was clear that Steven was too upset for Brendan to throw out any cheesy Well now when I'm not technically working with you anymore how about we have a drink sometimes. It would help his flirting a lot if Steven wasn't being pissed off to him, so he needed to let the lad to calm down.

Steven nodded his head and Brendan leaned back. "Good lad," he murmured and couldn't tear his eyes off Steven. It gave him hope that the boy wanted him to stick around, maybe he wouldn't think him as a old creep when he would finally suggest them to meet outside work.

"So, what now?" There was new tone on Steven's voice, he almost sounded cold and Brendan could sense his annoyance. He needed to thread carefully.

"Now, I'm gonna walk you home, and then you are going to think about what I have just said. I call you in the morning to see how you are, and how you want to continue this. Okay?" And in the morning, once Steven was hopefully more calm, Brendan could approach him with other subjects.

Steven rose up with haste and left the cafe without saying a word. Brendan trailed right behind him, and to his own surprised he liked Steven's annoyance. So far he had only seen Steven when he had been scared and unsure, or happy and playful with his kids, and it was good to see him to have this side too. Steven basically told him to fuck off with very polite way, but Brendan insisted to walk with the short distance back to his apartment. For one, he enjoyed seeing the way Steven's bottom lip was pouting, and for a while Brendan was able to imagine what it would be like to walk him back home after a real date.

He really wasn't recognizing himself anymore with all these thoughts.

Brendan watched Steven to scramble with his keys while trying to unlock the door to his flat. Once he succeeded Brendan wished him a goodnight and only got a grunt as a reply before Steven slammed the door shut. It made Brendan let out a laugh; the lad really was acting like a sulky schoolboy but somehow it just made Brendan's dick throb even more eagerly. He was already looking forward to call him in the morning and being able to talk to him again.

::::::

The noise was waking him up. It took him a second to realise it was his phone, and he was squinting the dark, trying to locate it based of the sound and the screen which had been lighten up. After a few attempts to grab it from the nightstand he finally managed and there was Steven's name flashing on the screen. He answered.

"Steven?"

"Brendan. I need you." It was nothing more than a sob and Brendan was instantly awake, scrambling off the bed. Something had happened, something bad.

"I'm coming." He didn't stop to search clothing, just ran out from his room and downstairs clutching the phone to his ear. "Steven, what is it, what's happened?"

There was just sounds of Steven crying and gulping for breath between his sobs. Brendan grabbed the keys to his car and to the apartment from the bowl near the door, slid the first pair of shoes in to his feet and ran out from the apartment to his car.

"You need to tell me Steven, where are you? Are you at home? Steven?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm home. Brendan, please."

"I'm on my way." He strapped the seat belt and start the car, juggled the phone between his ear and shoulder while made his way to Steven's place. "Can you hear the engine? I''ll be there soon. You need to talk to me, Steven. Tell me what happened."

"There was... A noise. He was here. Brendan, he was here."

Jesus. Brendan's heart was racing. He was an idiot, such a fucking idiot. Just hours ago he had told Steven there's nothing to be worried about and now the boy was panicking and crying because something bad had happened. It was like Vincent all over again. How could he have been so blinded by his own lust? He pushed the accelerator and cursed how slowly he still seemed to move when Steven needed him.

"I'm almost there, just... He's not there anymore, is he? Are you okay?"

"No, he's... But there's... Please be quick."

His sobs were dying down, which hopefully meant that Steven was starting to calm down and that there was no direct threat to him now. Brendan still speed up and was glad the streets were almost empty during that time of the night. He kept the line open and kept murmuring calming things, It will be alright, I'm almost there, Just keep talking to me, Steven, and he wasn't sure was it more to calm Steven down or to himself. Few minutes later Brendan parked right in front of Steven's apartment and ran up the stairs.

"Steven? Steven, it's me, it's Brendan. It's okay, let me in, it's Brendan." He pounded the door with his fist. It seemed it took forever until he heard someone walking to the door and unlock it.

Steven looked small like a child in his pajamas, his face pale and kinda blank, like he hardly could see Brendan at all. Brendan couldn't help himself and took a hold of his face, stoked his thumbs on those cheekbones and tried to make Steven focus on him.

"Are you okay? Steven, what's happened?"

Steven turned and pointed to the hallway. There was a box on the floor, bit smaller than a regular shoe box, and there was something else too, spread out like the box had been dropped. It was little pieces of something, something that looked like meat.

"Jesus. Alright, Steven, come here." He wrapped his arm around Steven and guided him inside the apartment. It was the first time he had been there, and the first door from the hall lead to large room which seemed to be combined kitchen and living space, bit like what they had in Cheryl's place. There was two large sofas in the other side of the room and Brendan lead Steven to sat on the other one.

"You okay? I get you something to drink, okay? Sit here."

Steven seemed like he hardly even heard him, but made a small nod. Brendan stroked his cheek one more time before going to the kitchen area. All the tools and machinery was neatly on their places, and he grabbed the electric kettle, filled it with water and turned it on. He made a few guesses with the cupboards before locating the one with coffee and several different brands of teas in it. He chose one in random, at this point the main thing was to get something warm inside Steven.

While the water was boiling Brendan returned to the hall and took a closer look the things on the floor. He could spot little legs and parts of entrails, and even the rat's head had been neatly cut in two from the middle. There was a note too, and Brendan carefully held it from one corner not to leave prints all over it, and read the message inside.

He had been so stupid indeed. The stalker had been watching them. He had seen Brendan walk Steven home and it had caused this violent reaction, changed his behavior from just letters to something worse.

This was all Brendan's fault, he had put Steven in danger. Just like he did with Vincent.

He stood up, fished out his phone from his pocket and called the police. While he was talking to them and giving the information he made Steven the cup of tea and took it to him, and because the lad had barely moved since he left him there Brendan took a blanket from the other sofa and wrapped it around him. The police were quick to arrive and Brendan went to open the door for them.

The other officer started to take pictures and Brendan told him where he had been touching and where his prints would be. Then he returned to look how Steven was doing, when the the younger officer was asking questions from him.

It seemed like the tea had helped Steven to calm down and come back to himself a little. He still looked pale, and tired, but at least he was answering the questions which was more than what Brendan had got out of him.

He was feeling sick from the stomach thinking how his behavior had caused this. He had been so driven by his own selfishness to speed up closing the case that Steven had to suffer from it.

Not anymore. Steven was all that mattered, and what Steven needed from him was for Brendan to protect him until that insane bastard had been caught. Brendan wouldn't let anything harm him, or leave the lad out of his sight for a second from now on.

"He's been having these letters for a while now, but this is something new. There's a security cameras near the door, if you want to see the footage." Brendan said to the officer when it seemed like Steven was getting tired of talking.

Officer turned his attention to Brendan. "And you are?"

"Brendan Brady." Without even realising he had made his way in front of Steven, as to shield him from what ever might come to his way. He might have not been able to keep Vincent safe, but he wouldn't let anything happen to Steven, not as long as there was any breath left in him. "I'm mister Hay's bodyguard."