Up and up we went before I landed softly on the bed. I could no longer endure the throbbing. The smarting jabbed once more before the coolness left my hand and I passed out into darkness.

Something cool and soft was placed on my forehead... my feet were free of my shoes and my legs placed gently down.......a soft touch stroked my hand to my fingers... a painful jab in my arm...was that my cry?......a hand held my own.... a warm cover placed over me......another cool sensation on my forehead... soft voices in the distance...whispering...my hand was held again... the black shadow drew me back in and took me to it's centre.

The faint dawn light seeped in between my eyelids waking me. I opened them slowly, waiting for the smarting to hit, but there was nothing. No pain and no sign of soreness at all, my head felt clear. My eyes were a little hazy and dizziness stopped any sudden movements.

The soft hue of the early morning filtered through my window and I lay for a moment taking in my bearings, my body a little numb still.

My right arm ached like hell. I felt down and found a small plaster in the inside of my elbow so I yanked it off, my skin perfectly clear underneath. I wondered what it was there for. Had I needed an injection for some reason? Surely Mum had advised Daisy that I needed to sleep off a headache more than take drugs.

I tried to move my arm but my hand was weighted down, wrapped in one much larger.

Morgan had brought a chair close to the bed, his body bent over so his head was resting on the covers facing me. He was still fast asleep, and his short blonde hair glistened in the early morning light. Singular strands had fallen over his forehead which shimmered like strands of beaded glass.

While I sat motionless I was caught between my reluctance to wake him, and my need to stretch. My reluctance diminished as I began to remember.

Lucie. He had been with Lucie.

I blinked unexpected tears away as I looked down at the softness of his skin, and the perfect lines of his kindly face.

How could he have wounded me so deeply, so quickly?

Yesterday I had wondered about what love felt like. Now the warmth that emanated from his energy was invigorating me, I could feel the pulsing absorption into my skin and up through my veins.

But as of now, he was not my friend and had no right to hold my hand this way.

In my confused state I slowly withdrew it from his grasp and edged towards the opposite side of the bed. I got up, and found my slippers and dressing gown from behind the door, steadying myself from wooziness, before closing it softly behind me and heading down the empty corridor to the stairs.

In the kitchen I made a cup of camomile tea and wandered into the garden to watch the day break. The air was fresh on my face as I walked across the lawn, soft and forgiving under my steps, and sat on Daisy's bench.

My ears were keener than before, as if my senses had shifted precedence. I could hear the insects buzzing around opening blooms, and the lawn sucking on the heavy dewed grass. The birds began their early morning calls, chirping beautiful sounds across the waves of air, and everything else was still.

Taking in the quietness I drank slowly keeping my eyes closed to listen harder. I draped my hand over the side of the bench and rubbed my fingers into the grass. There was nothing that needed my help. It was a tingly nice feeling, content almost.

Beyond the house to the kitchen I heard sounds. I hadn't the energy to scan the house for people but someone was trying to be quiet, my astute ears picked up the soft footfalls which were coming closer. I guessed he might follow me.

I began to observe the garden, as the sun began to rise above the walls and the golden shreds began their morning ritual of warming the earth. What was shade began to colour in the sunlight.

"Hi," the soft masculine voice purred.

I didn't look in his direction, afraid that my crazy emotions may betray me. I continued in my forward fixation.

"Hi," I whispered back.

He sat down, but kept a space between us.

"How are you feeling?" his calming tone whispered and his concerned voice was lovely.

"I'm okay," I said and looked at him for the first time, I couldn't resist. "No residue of headache at all, just tired."

It was difficult to breathe suddenly and my stomach plunged into the depths of my gut. My blood started racing, no, charging around my body.

To my embarrassment my cheeks flared up against the coldness of the air so I fingered my loose hair drawing a lock across my face.

I didn't want to feel this way. I wanted to hate him again.

"Daisy gave you a mild pain killer if you're wondering about your arm," he whispered.

"That will explain the plaster, but it wasn't necessary," I answered in defence.

"What do you remember?"

"Being carried upstairs, then nothing."

"Aiden said that you fainted, he brought you home. While you slept you were murmuring things. You got quite agitated at one point, and it took all of us to hold you down and to stop you from thrashing out. You calmed after the injection. I stayed in case you woke and needed anything. I hoped you wouldn't mind."

I shook my head in answer. "I was thrashing? And what was I murmuring?"

"Well, I did like the way you almost hit Aiden. It made me laugh. He must have really annoyed you, which for Aiden is not difficult to do. And as for what you were saying, it was all gibberish, I couldn't understand anything, sorry."

We were still whispering I realised. Somehow it didn't feel right to speak loudly in the quiet serenity of the morning.

"Do you get headaches a lot?" Morgan asked.

"One a week, sometimes less. At the moment more," I sighed.

"Do you note down when they occur? Is it after eating a particular food, or an allergy to light?"

"No, but believe me when I say I've seen enough doctors. The headaches are purely random."

"So what happened yesterday when it started?"

I tried to think back to the last memory I had. Aiden had upset me with his talk of betrayal.

"I was just chatting to Aiden, nothing special."

"What did he say?" Morgan was leaning towards me, I noticed. His arm was now resting on the back of the bench. His fingers were closer so I tried to edge away.

"It's all a bit hazy, I can't remember," I lied.

I continued to avoid his gaze and I began to sense his discomfort with it.

"Rose?" he whispered more sternly.

"Yes."

"Have I done something wrong?"

I paused, I wasn't ready for any confrontation yet. "No."

"I didn't scare you when you woke up?"

"No, 'course not." I said quickly, and giggled nervously at his ludicrous question.

"Then why won't you look at me?"

As he spoke he stretched his fingers and stroked my arm. This was exactly why I couldn't look at him, he was making me feel more than I'd like. But it was a straight forward question which at the moment I couldn't answer.

Why didn't I look at him? But the answer soon followed like a thunder crack. I was scared of these feelings, and I had no experience with this. My almost monosyllabic answers had not been by accident, I just couldn't think properly at the questions he was asking. It was difficult to form words, or even utter them, such were my damaged feelings.

I avoided his last question and stood up, looking at him fully. No, he was too enthralling.

"I'll see you later," I managed to mumble. He called after me but I ran across the lawn to the house, dumped my cup in the kitchen sink and ran upstairs to my room.

The chair was still in place beside the bed and I imagined him again as I had this morning, sleeping gently.

I dragged my fingers to my head pulling them through my hair. A thousand thoughts fluttered around my head. I felt as if I was being pulled and pushed at the same time in the inertia of it all. I wanted to sit down but I knew I would stand up again if I did. What was I doing? Why did I feel so confused?

I was so restless now there was only one thing I could do, I needed to run.

Daisy popped her head around the door just as I was heading out. She was over the moon at my rapid recovery and hugged me gently.

I asked her about Henry. He was now in an army hospital receiving treatment. The police had thought it wise to keep him out of sight for the moment. They were considering opening up the cold case file again on him and Agatha Millard. As yet, Henry hadn't talked except to say that he had been held underground. No mention of 'by whom'.

Daisy apologised but a scheduled meeting would keep her away for a while but she promised to return later to check how I was, and also explain about the security, the army, the tracking, everything. I couldn't be mad at her any more and when she left she kissed my cheek and held me in a tight embrace, calling me her 'Angel'.

It was moments like those when I really loved Daisy. Sometimes her frequent absences made me question whether I was important to her, her life was so busy. But I felt reassurance in her hug that she cared very deeply.

The run had been great. I had stretched all the aches from my muscles and filled my head and lungs with clear air. I felt energised and fresh again.

As I walked into the house, the phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi Rose? I wanted to find out how you were," Mira said in her bubbly voice. "Are you feeling better? We were so worried."

"I'm feeling all right. What are you up to today?" I breezed back. Mira's happiness was contagious. It was nice to talk to someone who had such a carefree disposition.

"I'm working with my dad today; he's got some interesting plans of the town. I thought it might help your research," she answered with an excited tone. "Will you be at Jez's later?"

"I don't know. I've nothing planned as yet. I'm going to call him in a minute, see what he's doing."

"Okay, sounds good. I've just spoken to Hannah, she's at her mum's work today, bored out of her head, but she says Hi and hopes you're okay."

"Thanks. I'm really sorry about ruining the picnic."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Hannah and I filled them in about your headaches. They're fine about it."

"You're sure? It was pretty embarrassing."

"Totally fine. It's a shame Aiden had to come and spoil the fun though."

"I know, lucky for me he had a car though, otherwise someone else would have to have left early," I surmised.

"We wouldn't have minded. Was Aiden okay with you? Did he upset you?"

Was she probing now? I couldn't tell.

"No, he was really nice. He carried me up to my room and left."

"Wow, he's so different when he's around you. I couldn't believe it when he turned up yesterday just to see you."

"Mira, what does Aiden do to be so unpopular?"

"He does a lot of 'chores' for his grandfather. Mostly clearing up the messes in his grandfather's wake. Bullying people, demanding money for outstanding debts, he's a law unto himself. I've heard rumours that half the shops pay him protection money, and when they can't pay, he gets violent. I've also heard that when Charlotte Mandle couldn't pay the rent, Aiden and his buddies literally threw all of her belongings out the window. He didn't even let her pack but just dumped everything on the front garden."

"That's terrible!" I said.

"And, another time, when they were knocking down some houses to make way for the community hospital, the last people to leave wouldn't go. So he and his group broke down the door in the middle of the night and 'removed them'. They were left in their night clothes in the street, it was dreadful. And Ben Deverill denied it when they complained to the Council. Because they wouldn't move out, they had no entitlements. Ben's nasty too, I don't know why Daisy doesn't see it, she's so friendly with him."

"I don't know either, but Daisy's her own person, I guess."

"Maybe you're the one to tame Aiden after all," she giggled. "Jason likes him, he says the works tough sometimes, but he gets along with him okay. I don't think he does the violent, punching stuff. He works somewhere else," Mira continued. "Anyway, Rose, someone's just walked in, I've got to go so I'll see you later, okay? Bye."

"Bye, Mira, I'll catch you later," we hung up at the same time.

I was still reeling from the conversation. Could Aiden be that bad?

So Mira was working, and I tried to call Hannah a few times but there was no answer. I phoned Jez instead. It rang once and he answered, glad to hear from me. He'd found out some new information so could I come over soon with Morgan? I sighed and said I would.

My legs were a little shaky after the run so I headed upstairs for a shower. Afterwards I lay on my bed. The soft music from my CD player had lulled me into a light sleep, and the warm heat of the sun through my windows warmed my skin. I had never been a daytime sleeper but the headache yesterday, and the run earlier had zapped me of energy.

I came around at the knocking on my door.

"Rose, are you in there?" Morgan said quietly.

"Yep. Hang on," I said, and clambered off the bed.

At the door Morgan was dressed head to toe in black biker leathers. He looked at me awkwardly.

"Jez phoned me, and said you were heading over sometime. I'm going there now so I could give you a lift?" he said, his voice even.

I paused. I could distance Morgan enough for the time being.

"Okay, just give me a minute to grab my stuff," I said, shaking fingers combed through my hair.

"I'll be out front, wait for me there," and he was gone.

With my bag slung across my chest I waited for Morgan to arrive on the porch. The deep rumble of a bike approached and when the gates opened, my jaw dropped. Morgan wasn't riding any bike. It was one of those super bikes that you see on a sports channel. The frame was covered completely in black shielding and the wheels were three times as wide as Hannah's moped. It was an amazing sight.