Oh boy, what a day. It had taken hours to get it through those cops thick skulls that Casey was innocent. Heath walked into his room and flicked the light on.
"Man that's creepy!" Shit, he shouldn't have said that, but Murphy was right there asleep on his bed. The rock star stirred and opened his eyes, a sleepy smile settling on his lips when he saw Heath. Phew, he hadn't heard.
"Leah kick you out?" Heath asked.
"No, I fell asleep waiting for you...how'd it go?"
"Like it usually does with cops, answering the same questions fifty times until they finally believe exactly what you told them in the first place." Heath sat on the edge of the bed, glad to be able to let his guard down now the police interrogation was over.
"So Casey's alright?" Murphy asked from behind him and Heath felt Murphy's fingers trailing down his back, it was a comfort to have him here.
"Yeah, he's been cleared," Heath sighed with relief. He turned to look at the man on his bed, his eyes meeting Murphy's bright blue ones and just for a moment it seemed unbelievable that he could be here and looking at Heath so...something, and Heath was suddenly so glad that he was. It was nice to have someone to come home to.
"Come here," Murphy said, inviting Heath to lay down with him. Heath stood up and flicked the light off and climbed onto the bed, settling down in front of Murphy. He felt Murphy's arm slide around him and then he felt warm breath on his neck and his skin tingled where Murphy's beard brushed his shoulder.
"You were hot today you know..." Murphy pressed a kiss to Heath's neck, "...the way you mouthed off at those cops and then stepped up and took control." Now Murphy's hand was under his singlet, sliding up his stomach.
"A sucker for a bad boy huh?" Heath said as he felt another kiss.
"Yes, the bad boy thing totally does it for me..." Heath liked where this was heading. He rolled onto his back and in the soft light provided by the street lights he took a moment to take in the hungry look on Murphy's face. "The control thing does too..." Holy fuck, Heath didn't need to hear any more. He pulled Murphy down, crushing their mouths together. Heath seized control of the kiss completely, giving Liam exactly what he wanted and what followed left no room for Heath to consider that control isn't always about force.

xxx

It was already light when Liam woke. It was Monday and his turn to take the early delivery at work. Holy shit! He was late! Liam flew out of bed and threw on yesterday's clothes. He hadn't meant to stay all night. He tried not to disturb Heath but failed in his haste.
"I'm late for work," he told Heath, who was grumbling about being woken for no good reason. Liam tried not to look at him too closely, tried not to think about last night too much, so he'd actually be able to walk out the door.
"Don't I get a kiss goodbye?" Heath asked, just to make Liam even later for work but really, who could refuse that, when Heath looked all sleep-tousled and adorable. Liam stopped by the door and came back. Leaning over Heath with one knee on the bed and his hands pressed onto the mattress on either side of him. He leaned down and kissed Heath, like he'd never get to kiss him again.
"Now I gotta go," Liam said pulling away, satisfied that he'd snogged Heath senseless, and that he would have no more trouble from him as he left.
"You better never forget to do that again..." Heath said, watching Liam dazedly as he left.

xxx

"They've got nothing Case. Keep it together and they can't do shit." That was Brax's statement to Casey when Heath entered the room. Wait a minute...
"Huh, you did do it..." Heath said proudly and they both turned to face him. Brax's face fell but Casey looked ready for a fight.
"So what?" Casey said angrily.
"So I'm proud of ya mate," Heath said, patting Casey on the back, "it took guts and you got away with it."
"Really Heath?" Casey said scathingly, "this isn't something you should be happy about, I fucked up-" Heath saw a flash of blue between the curtains and clapped his hand over Casey's mouth. Seconds later a knock at the door drew their attention. Heath grabbed Casey's arm and motioned for him to stay silent. He pushed Casey into the kitchen, out of sight of the door, as Brax answered it.

"Is Casey home?" came Ratface's voice.

"No," Brax lied effortlessly.

"Do you know where we can find him?"

"Na, sorry."

"This is serious Mr. Braxton, new evidence has come to light and we are going to charge Casey."

"Oh yeah, what evidence would that be?" Brax asked skeptically.

"We have CCTV footage placing Casey at the scene of the crime, we'll give you until five o'clock this afternoon to get him to the station." Fuck, maybe Heath shouldn't have been so quick to congratulate Casey. His eyes met Casey's, his little brother's fear evident and Heath knew there was no way he could let them lock Casey up.

"Understood," was all Brax said before Heath heard the door click shut. They waited until they heard the cop car leave before any of them spoke.

"Pack a bag Case, I know a place we can hide out," Heath told his brother. Casey was not the type to survive in prison, they need to get outta here, but Casey just stood there. "Now Casey!" Heath's raised voice shocked Casey into action and he started for his bedroom.

"You can't be serious," Brax said, "he can't run for the rest of his life."

"At least he'll have a life. How long do you think he'll last inside?"

"It's outta the question Heath. He has to hand himself in. If he cooperates there's a chance they'll be lenient, it is his first offence..."

"It's a chance I'm not willing to take. Anyway, why do you get to decide? He's my little brother too and I say he's better off getting away from here." Heath and Brax glared at each other, both sure they were right and both unshakably stubborn when Casey's welfare was on the line. As caught up in their argument as they were, neither of them noticed that Casey had been listening to the whole exchange.

"It's my life, don't I get a say in it?"

"No!" They both barked at him. Casey looked angry for a moment but then he took a deep breath and calmed himself, seemingly deciding that letting his temper get the better of him wouldn't help.

"Look, I appreciate what you're both trying to do," he said and Heath didn't like the defeated tone his voice had taken on, "but I think Brax is right, I can't run forever, I have to face this."

"Casey please, you don't know what it's like in there..." Of the three of them Heath was the only one that had done time, and it was something he never wanted Casey to go through.

"I know it won't be easy, but it's the right thing to do..." Why couldn't Casey have thought about the right thing to do before he set a building on fire? Heath wanted to argue further but it appeared that Casey had made up his mind. It seemed so pointless that Casey was going to end up in prison for getting involved in a fight that didn't even concern him.

"What'd you even do it for Case?" Heath asked, struggling to make sense of all this.

"I wanted to help..." Casey said quietly, dropping his gaze to the floor.

"Help who? You ending up in juvie doesn't help anyone..."

"You!...and Brax, I didn't want either of you to end up in jail...or worse." Oh God. Casey's done this for them. He would end up in prison because of them. Talk about a kick in the guts.

xxx

That goodbye kiss had been playing on Liam's mind all day. And the look on Heath's face as he'd walked out the door. He headed over to Heath's place after work, hoping that maybe they could pick up where they'd left off. His reception though wasn't quite what he expected when he walked in the door. Maybe the fact that Heath hadn't been in to Angelo's today should've tipped him off.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Heath barked at him, knowing full well that Liam had been at work all day, and implying there was something Liam could've done to avoid that. Well Liam supposed he could have, but he kinda needed to be there if he wanted to get paid.
"Work."
"Have you heard about Casey?"
"No, what about him?" Liam had a bad feeling about where this was heading.
"The cops came 'round here carrying on about new evidence and the silly little bastard turned himself in. They're gonna charge him with arson, he'll do jail time over this." Christ, it had always been in the back of Liam's mind that Heath or Brax could end up in jail one day, but never Casey. Heath and Brax had worked so hard to make sure Casey had had the opportunity to stay on the straight and narrow, so that he wouldn't get tangled up in their world...
"Why'd he do it?" The look on Heath's face was like Liam had just hit him, and Liam was sorry he'd asked. He didn't wanna cause Heath anymore grief over this.
"He...he did it for us..." Heath said as though he was having trouble comprehending it. "He thought Jake was gonna come after us so he got in first..." Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck! How had they let this happen? Heath shoulda kept a better eye on Casey, shoulda protected him. But then, Heath had been away when Casey had done this... He'd let Casey down and there was only one reason he hadn't been here... Heath didn't like the way Murphy was looking at him, he didn't deserve to be comforted over this. He'd screwed up and, and...
"I shoulda been here!" Heath ranted at Liam, "not mucking around up the coast with you!"
"Heath," Liam attempted to soothe him, "you couldn't have known." Liam reached for Heath, intending to pull Heath into his arms and comfort him, but Heath batted him away.
"It doesn't matter! He's my little brother," Heath said, his voice was quieter now, "he can't go to jail." The look on Heath's face was heartbreaking, it was a pleading look, as though Liam could do something to prevent this and he wished he could, but there was nothing he could do. Liam tried again to hold Heath, and for a moment he thought Heath was going to let him, but then he tensed and pushed Liam away. "No! It's your fault I wasn't here!"
"C'mon Heath, that's not fair," Liam said, hoping to calm Heath down, he had a horrible sense that Heath was slipping away and that scared him. "Brax was here, he didn't stop him."
"So if Brax couldn't do it, I wouldn't have had a chance?"
"That's not what I meant. I just mean there was nothing anyone could do. Look, I'm not going to fight you on this. I'll come back when you've calmed down." Liam didn't want to risk making Heath angrier, this wasn't like other fights they'd had and Liam was worried that he might say something to push Heath away for good if he didn't leave now.
"Don't bother coming back!" Heath called to him as Liam walked out the door. Heath's words cut deep, but Liam just had to take the chance that this was one of those times that Heath didn't mean what he said.