CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Brendan watched the two police officers walk off then turned to the nurse, "Nurse, could I make a phone call, I wanna speak to my son"

The nurse did his obs and shook her head, "You need to rest"

"I've done with resting...I don't have a phone...just get one of those payphone things on wheels will yah? And some change for it if I say pretty please...", he put on one of his charming smiles, the nurse relented, "I'll see what I can do..."

"Good, off you trot love..."

Meanwhile, Cheryl was booking the flight tickets back to Belfast, "Ste said he'll go, bless him...but that's IF he finds him"

Nate made ready their luggage to leave in the hotel foyer, "Look...lets just get home and then you can put things in prospective"

Cheryl looked at him, "This ALL started because of me..."

Nate knew what was happening. Cheryl with one of her guilt trips, "Chez..."

She tapped her chest at him, "I should confess to the police...tell them the whole ugly truth, that Daa was going to hurt Bren...what HE did to him, tell him what a total VILE & disgusting bastard he was to him"

Nate sighed, "It'll all come out"

She shook her head at him, "Yes, I do know that"

He reached for her arm, "and Brendan didn't want all that, did he?"

She waved her hand at him as she looked out for the cab, "It doesn't matter babe...HE protected ME all my life from HIM"

"What about us Chez...if you were to do this...our life"

"What about Bren's life...he has NO life...it's not fair, it never was", she then went out the doors to the approaching cab, Nate shook his head in despair and wheeled out the luggage.

John-Paul rushed up to Ste at Manchester airport. It was a last bid attempt to stop Ste doing something he was going to regret, "Please don't do this!"

Ste was aware of the people around him staring in their direction because of his boyfriends desperate plea, "I have to"

"But what can you do? There IS nothing you can do!"

Ste could see that John-Paul was practically begging him not to get on that flight. But all Ste could think about was Brendan and what state he was in, "he NEEDS me"

John-Paul wasn't going to give up that easily, "But he has his sister...", he reasoned, "she can help him"

Ste was torn. John-Paul and him had got so close in the last month or so, but his feelings for Brendan was something else. When Cheryl had called him she had been so desperate. Brendan was in a bad way after escaping the hospital. The thought of him hurt and alone.

"She said he's in a bad way...that he might die, you can DIE of sepsis you know"

The tannoi was calling for the last time for the flight to Cork, "what about us?", John Paul asked, taking Ste into his arms. Ste felt like he wanted to recoil but let himself be held by him, "Just because I am going to him, it doesn't mean things will change for us", Ste whispered into John-Paul's earhole.

"So you say"

Ste pulled away from the embrace and picked up his holdall, "I'll call you when I get there"

John-Paul could see that he was getting nowhere with changing his mind, "Okay...if it isn't too much of a inconvenience"

Ste didn't like his boyfriends attitude, "You need to grow up"

"and you need to sort your priorities out mate"

Ste backed away towards the escalator to the departures, "as I said...I'll call you"

In Hospital, Brendan was on the phone to Eileen, "Look...I'm in Cork...yes, it was stupid of me to escape, but they were not gonna transfer me...at least now they can lock me up here somewhere"

He rolled his eyes, "Eileen I just want to see the boys...if they lock me away when I get out of hospital, I might not get the chance to...thank you...you won't regret this...thank you"

The nurse came forward, "You finished?"

He hung up the payphone on wheels, "Yeah...she's gonna bring the boys down to see me"

The nurse tried to look like she was interested, but wasn't and Brendan picked up on it. He just pulled a face at her as she left the ward. Just as he was settling back for a doze, he saw the police officers return, "Ohhh here we go", he muttered.

"Mr Brady...you are all over the news"

Brendan looked up with a flash of a grin, "Am I? And there's me thinking I'm not that interesting"

The first officer came forward with a pair of handcuffs, Brendan eyed them up with a frown, "Seriously? I've only just got rid of the last pair"

She clicked them on his wrist to the bed rail.

"We'll be back tomorrow to ask the clinicians when you can be released"

Brendan was all ears, "Then you'll have to lock me up in a prison here?"

"Looks like it"

Brendan laid his head back on the pillow and smiled all pleased with himself. It felt good to be back in Ireland. Back home with his boys. And it was closer for Cheryl to visit too. It was all good.

Until he felt the loss of Steven. He was across the seas now. And there he must stay.

Ste in fact had just landed on Irish soil. After getting lost at arrivals, he managed to find the taxi rank out front of Cork Airport. He dragged his holdall behind him and banged on the window of a cab, the window wound down, "Excuse me mate...can you take me to the hospital?"

The cab driver threw his newspaper aside, "What's wrong wit'ya?"

Ste pulled a frown, "Huh?"

"You want me to take you to hospital?"

"No no...I'm visiting someone, I'm not ill..", he rolled his eyes and got into the back with his holdall. As the cab pulled away Ste leaned forward and said very sheepishly, "I take it there is the only ONE hospital in Cork is there?"

The cab driver nodded looking back at him like he was some kind of loon, "Real sick are they?"

Ste leaned back in the seat and smiled, "Lets just say someone is gonna get a nice surprise"