Howie continued to stare down at the blood stain that had now pretty much fully soaked into the carpet of room 1506. He'd long shed every last tear he could manage to cry and his sobs had inevitably slowed to painful shuddering breaths. He leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples vigorously with the index fingers of both hands as he tried to rid his brain of the awful headache now upon him. He opened his eyes again momentarily and stared at the clock on the wall. 10:15 am. He'd been sitting in that exact spot on that couch for nearly an hour. It seemed to him that the continous stream of law enforcement officers in and out of the room were accomplishing nothing.

He watched as a young man walked into the room and peered down at the stain on the floor before looking over towards where he sat in his permanent spot on the couch and shaking his head sorrowfully before turning and walking out the door again. He'd always had the vision of the heroic police officers, running into the scenes and saving lives and protecting the innocent victims... protecting the bystanders... somehow feeling sorry for the family and friends. But it didn't seem to be the way things were. Everyone was a suspect in their minds. Everyone of them received questionable looks and none of them would be allowed to move or talk or barely breathe without permission until the detectives arrived to question them.

He sighed and closed his eyes again. He'd asked, no begged, numerous times for the smallest update on his friend. No one would let them know what his condition was. It was impossible to believe that someone they all loved and cared about... their brother... was stuck in a hospital somewhere, in pain and possibly even dying and they couldn't be there to comfort him. There was no one there for Aj.

He looked over towards the officer that had apparently been set up to guard him and rolled his eyes at the man. He'd asked for just one phonecall, the man had refused. If he could call someone, anyone... even a friend to let them know where Aj was... he didn't want him to be alone anymore. The man had crossed his arms at Howie and denied him harshly the simple request. Over and over again and again he'd been told they'd release them after and ONLY after they'd been questioned.

Howie didn't understand why any of them would even be considered suspects. They loved Aj... all of them. He was their brother and he knew in his deepest heart that none of them would ever dream of hurting their brother. He looked at the officer again... obviously this guy wasn't aware of that.

Howie thought back on the moment it had all happened. He'd been laying in bed in his own hotel room, staring up at the ceiling trying to fall back to sleep after a phonecall from his sister had woken him up. He'd heard the scream... he'd known immediately it was Brian. He'd jumped out of bed in nothing but his boxers and his t-shirt and torn through his hotel room, flinging the door open and flying down the hall. He would never forget the moment he walked through the door or the sight that met his eyes. It was horrible. Blood... everywhere there had been blood. Brian was screaming in the middle of the floor, his face pale, his eyes moist with tears. Howie had done the only thing he'd known in his heart to do, he'd knelt down on the floor beside his brother and held his hands tightly over the wound as blood gushed from the young mans abdomen. Blood mixed with sweat mixed with tears and the next thing he knew Brian had collapsed on the floor beside him and people were rushing into the room.

He opened his eyes quickly in attempt to erase the vision from his overly distraught mind. He needed to see Aj, to know if his friend was alive and okay. He needed to be in the hospital and not here in this hotel room sitting on a damned couch staring at a damned stain on the floor.

"Officer Finney?" He looked at the officer's name tag and asked in a voice so weak he barely recognized it as his own, "When can I go to my friend? I have to know if he's okay."

The man just shook his head and stared off in another direction... but he didn't balk or glare accusingly in his direction as he'd done earlier in the morning. Perhaps he was softening from the hour they'd spent sitting in the room together. "You can see him after questioning," He finally replied never looking over towards Howie, "the detectives are on their way up now."