Shane was sat all alone in the waiting room, apart from an older lady who was crying. After a while Shane went over to her, he didn't know why but he felt drawn to her. She looked up at him; her eyes were full of pain. 'He's dead,' she said shortly. She took his hands and got him down on his knees, clinging onto him. Shane embraced her, 'Who?' He enquired. 'My husband...' she broke into tears again but fought them. 'For 67 years we've never left each other's side... and now, he's gone... and I'm all alone' 'Oh, I'm sorry.' She looked up at him and wiped her tears, a small smile forming on her lips. 'Don't be. And thank you for listening.' She rose and left.
Shortly afterwards a doctor came into the room. 'Sir?' There was no response from Shane who was deep in his own thoughts staring into space. Who was that woman? 'Sir? Sir?' The doctor waved a hand in front of his face and he finally snapped out of it. 'Yeah?' he replied. 'Are you a relative of Nicky Byrne?' Shane nodded, 'Yeah, I'm his boyfriend.' The doctor rose his eyebrows but didn't say anything, although Shane knew what was going through his head right then, and he could see the man recognised him. 'How is he?' he asked shortly, he couldn't stand the way the young doctor was staring. The doctor sprung back into action, 'Oh, sorry Sir. He's out of danger for now.' 'For now?' The doctor elaborated, 'We've checked him and it seems he's only infected by a flu virus. But he's quite sick so we're afraid his immune system isn't working correctly.' Shane looked at the doctor. 'We have a hectic workload, none of our immune systems work correctly. When we get the flu it's usually quite bad.' 'I'm sorry Sir, it mightn't be that easy. We're gonna do a HIV test.' 'What? But...' 'We just want to be on the safe side. It mightn't be near as serious.' Shane took a deep breath and nodded, 'May I see him?' 'He needs to rest, but I'm sure a short while won't do any harm. Come with me.' Shane trailed after him and they stopped outside Nicky's room. 'You can stay 15 minutes, he'll need to sleep.' Shane nodded and went in.
Nicky was facing the wall but turned around as Shane came in. He stood inside the door for a while, Nicky looked a lot worse in a hospital environment. Shane wasn't even sure what half the stuff in the room was good for, realising he'd very rarely done any hospital visits. He'd never even stayed overnight in a hospital himself. 'Come over here,' Nicky said, realising Shane didn't look like he was gonna move without an invitation. Shane made his way over and carefully sat down on the side of the bed. Nicky took his hand, and for a while neither of them spoke. 'They are going to do a HIV test...' Nicky said finally. Shane nodded, 'I know.' Nicky looked up at him. 'What if it turns out positive?' 'People can live over 15 years after being diagnosed as HIV positive,' Shane replied. 'Yeah, but how Shane? Because they take tablets 6 times a day for all those years. And anyway, I haven't even turned 30 yet. If I'm diagnosed now I'll be lucky to live through my 40th birthday.' Shane knew he was right. 'I don't think you should worry babe... they haven't even done the test yet, let alone diagnosed you.' Nicky sighed. 'I know. But I have a bad feeling about this...' Shane didn't reply to it. Jeff's words echoed in his head. "I won't have to lay my hands on Nicky again, I have it all under control." What had he meant
