Visiting Atkinson Morley Wing at St. Georges Hospital on a Monday afternoon, Alex had not expected to see a face from his dim and distant past. His destination that afternoon was to visit Daragh Murphy, who was recovering on the Belgrave Ward on the First Floor. In Main Reception, at the front of the queue for information was a tanned and still very fit looking Jerry Harris, Tom's older brother. For a second, Alex thought about heading straight to the stairs but curiosity got the better of him.

"Hi, Jerry"

The brown haired man frowned before recognising the person before him. "Oh my God, Alex Rider. Fuck, its been ten years. So, you heard about Tom's accident."

"Err, no. I'm here to visit my friend Sorcha's dad. He had a heart attack on Saturday."

"Right, Sergeant Harris got up close and personal with an IED. He's had part of his chest wall reconstructed. Metal cage type thing. He's out of ICU and on Caroline Ward. It looks like he'll get medical discharge. Mum's ecstatic and guilty about being happy that Tom's out of the line of fire. So, what happened to you, stranger?"

So, the estranged friend of Tom Harris told Jerry a very condensed version of events since the shooting incident at Brookland. The last time Alex had seen Tom or any of his family.

Da was surprised to see his first visitor of the day, the strange young man who had waltzed in and out of his family's lives in 2007-2008. "My prodigal son returns. Sorcha was so happy to have tracked you down. I hear you have found someone special."

"You look awful, Da. Here, I brought you a book to keep yourself occupied."

The man unwrapped a copy of the Legends of Irish Boxing. "A book I actually might read. Glory days, to think I was quite the boxer myself when I was a lad. Come and sit, tell me all you've been up to since Declan let you go. If I had been on site, I would have sent you back to the yard to do small jobs and deliveries, not give you your matching orders. That boy never thinks things through." The fifty-five year old from Newry watched to see the changes, Alex looked fit and healthy, but there was still a great weight on that boy's shoulders, the past still casting a shadow on the present.

After tea, jokes and much banter, Alex left before the Murphy's arrived en masse after four thirty. Two floors up, Alex ventured into Caroline ward to see the critically injured Tom Harris.

….

Tom had first been in hospital in 2005, he fondly remembered his two nights at St. Dominic's in Swiss Cottage; which was a millions times better than the NHS or the Army Hospital. He wished he could afford the luxury of that private hospital. It had been ten days since the new guy in their unit had stepped on that booby trap, killing himself and injuring three others on patrol that fateful day. The full force of the blast had hit a structural support shielding Tom from the shrapnel, his body armour and helmet had saved his life but the blast had caused the building they were in to collapse, a concrete pillar crushing his left side. His arm was still wrapped in bandages as was his chest, complete with drain and the boredom of weeks recovering in hospital were his immediate future. He was stuck in bed when he would have preferred Helmand Province to laying on his back in bed in London. He loved being a grunt. Made it to Sergeant, working on promotion to Lieutenant the hard way. His plans of a life as a career soldier curtailed by this injury. No wonder the shrink was prescribing him anti-depressants, only the bloody tablets weren't happy pills. He was a million miles from happy, his friends all on the other side of the world and his mother fussing him like he was ten.

From his bed, he could see the nurses station and the hall. The TV was off and the others in the ward were dozing or reading. Daytime TV sucked and Jerry had gone to collect their mother after she finished work.

He listening in as his name was spoken by a tall bloke in the hall to the duty nurse, Louisa.

"Afternoon Sergeant, I see you've taken up my old job of saving the world."

"Fucking hell! Its Alex bloody Rider. So, I have to nearly die for you to come and see me." he said snidely.

"Well, I did talk to your mum in June 2002 after Jack died in Egypt, she threatened to take out a restraining order against me and I did write to you until my eighteenth birthday. She's not here, so I can talk to you. Don't take it personally, I've been out of touch with everyone since 2004, except for Sabina for roughly 10 minutes three months ago when I told her to leave me alone. I talked to Jerry when I saw him downstairs, he told me you've been playing GI Joe and I told him my life story since leaving Chelsea. While you were in Italy; I went to California with the Pleasures and I went nuts. Five months in the funny farm, self harm, anorexia, then I fucked off completely. I know you post stuff on Sabina's Facebook page, so you have read her blog and the fact I walk my own path, with no interference from the Bank. I fell out with Edward because he was sending reports about my lack of progress to Tulip. I know I'm completely self centred, but I have the excuse of untreated extreme paranoid depression. You never wrote or called, did your mum threaten you too?"

"I was used to you disappearing, only difference was that you really did it. You came back to London when I was in Harrogate. We lost touch. So, you have no friends, I take it."

"I've move often, but I am not without friends, just no one I knew before my 18th birthday. Clean slate and all that has worked for me. I'm actually dating someone seriously, moving in together soon, thinking of getting hitched. Actually seeing a shrink again, so I'm coming out of the cold, so to speak. You must come and meet Si when your fit and well again."

"Funny name for a girl, short for Simone?"

"No, Simon. He's a photographer."

"You're a poofter?" Tom practically shouted and laughed. "Didn't see that one coming, Rider. Makes sense, you being crazy and all. No woman would want you."

The nurse then came in, "If you are upsetting my patients. You have to leave."

"I was just going. Bye Tom, see you round, I told Jerry where I'm working, if you want to stay in touch."

"No, chance you fucking homo!"

…..

Jerry listened as his younger brother ranted that the boy he had idolised for years was in fact gay.

"I could have told you he swung both ways when I met him in 2001. He had a bit of a crush on me, all that blushing and staring. You told me about his on-off thing with Sabina. What's your problem with him coming out?"

"Alex isn't queer, wasn't I should say. He was a proper bloke, he like sport, football, playing video games. He wasn't into anything like fashion or musicals. Was he lying to me at school?"

"When we talked downstairs, it sounded like he fell in love and came out, all fairly recently." Jerry leaned back and stretched, knowing the nurse was watching him in a similar way fourteen year old Alex had watched him. The dark haired man in his late twenties was still eye candy and knew it. He would get that lovely lady's phone number later. He was happy playing fast and loose. "Get over yourself, Tom. Alex's sexuality does not mean he changed personality. Sounded like Si was an alright, as in not typically gay as well, just a bloke. Not every gay man fits the stereotype of being into musicals, transvestism, acting effeminate and screwing anything not tied down." In four days, Jerry was going back to Italy, just far enough way from his crazy, uptight family.

….

Si listened to his lover describe his hospital visits. The elder Mr. Murphy accepting Alex, warts and all and his old school friend cutting ties immediately. The sad truth that being out and proud, meant you found out just who were open minded and who were bigots, living in fear that your life would infect or affect them.