"Will you leave your hair down?" asked Luke softly. "Don't feel...so much like a patient...when I'm talkin to a pretty girl...with her hair down."

Sara paused a moment in surprise...not having heard him talk that way before. Nodding a little she let her hair tumble back down past her shoulders.

"Okay..."

Luke swallowed as he watched her. "I...I don't think I can do this Sara..." he said softly.

"Don't think you can do what?" Asks softly as she sits down on the edge of the bed near him.

"Anything...anymore," began the dark-haired Duke sadly. "I'm hurtin'...everyone..."

Sara shook her head softly.

"Your not hurting everyone....your hurting yourself by only seeing things in a negative light...all you can see is yourself failing because that's all you believe you do...and no can tell you otherwise..."

Luke rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly a tear tracing down his ashen cheek. "How's Bo?"

"He's doing ok....its mainly the exhaustion keeping him unconcious like we said before...we're monitoring him closely to make sure no complications due to his head injury arise..."

She informed him gently.

Luke nodded, another tear slipping down. He drew his knees up to his chest burying his curly head against them.

Sara sighed and sat next to him more on the bed, rubbing his back softly.

"Hey now...where's all this coming from...we were doing so well yesterday..."

"I dunno...some days...I...I feel...like I can handle it....an...an...today...I...I just..." he didn't finish turning instead and wrapping his arms around Sara for comfort. "What's wrong with me?! Am I crazy?!"

Sara shook her head, smiling a little at the public affection Luke craved...before he wouldn't have dared even really touch her..apologizing if he accidentally did. This was a big move forward,

"No...yer not. Its different today because Daisy's here...you feel a need to impress her, show her your moving on when inside your not as moved on as you try and make her believe and it upsets you..."

"I ain't...goin anywhere...keep takin...steps back....," he said between sniffs.

"Now that isn't true at all...look what yer doing here...when we started you wouldn't have even attempted to shake my hand...and yet here you are activly seeking comfort...your talking to me...your crying without shame...Luke your taking massive steps forward but like I said because you have this huge mental block that only lets you see the negative of what you do, you cant see the progress and the good..."

Poor Luke didn't know what to think. All he knew right now was that the hug felt safe and he was as scared as he had ever been.

Sara kept rubbing his back gently, she would comfort him and be supportive but there were times when she knew he needed to be pushed a little forwards...when she needed to be firm and basically tell him to suck up but in nicer terms. She knew a lot of this was down to the fact that Luke was still hanging onto his Uncle, and that was something she needed to get him to let go of.

"Now...we can't sit here all day like this can we...people'll get the wrong impression..." She said with a small smile.

Taking the hint, he pulled away. "M'sorry," he muttered, looking down at his lap.

"Its ok Luke...but you know as well as I do that sitting her dwelling in these emotions for too long isn't gonna help now is it? We need t'get t'the root of this problem t'solve it...not stay stuck in the mud at one place...agreed?" She reasoned with him softly, showing him that while it was ok to feel that way, it was not ok to keep on dwelling in it for so long.

Luke sniffed nodding a little, wiping at his eyes. He wanted so much to show her he could handle everything... but it seemed he was fighting a losing battle.

"Your doing really well...you just tend to keep getting stuck at points that are harder for you to overcome...you need to accept when you do something right and move on thinking about that..the fact it was right...the fact YOU did it...not anyone else..."

Luke looked down at his feet. "Am I...gonna,,,get through this?" he asked softly.

"Course you are...its just a stage of grief that you're stuck in right now...everyone gets through it eventually with the right help..."

She reassured gently.

Luke sniffed nodding a little, hoping she was right, holding his stomach.

"You really are doing so well Luke...you've only been here a couple of days remember...your not gonna see improvement straight away because your improving in things you dont think matter..."

"Sara... I don' wanna be like this..." he murmured hanging his head, no longer the confident young man he had been.