THE past week has been the longest in the last 17 months for Liam Maskey and Billy Mitchell.
Since the Docklands bombing in London they have been working non stop to talk to the 23 cross community groups in some of the toughest enclaves in north Belfast.
"We have been grabbing groups in and saying let's not panic. Let's continue says Liam, a nationalist community worker in the area."
He has built up a friendship and works closely with Billy, a community worker and secretary of the "fringe" Progressive Unionist Party.
"The first thing is that nothing has changed," says Billy. "If it was right for Liani and me to work together last week, it is right this week."
They have come too far to turn back in their efforts to build links between communities that were sworn enemies.
"The biggest fear is if the loyalists ceasefire doesn't hold. Then we're back to the real stuff and the only people who are going to suffer are the working class, not the wealthy of north Down or Strangford," says Billy.
He acknowledges that it has become more difficult. "Until now I didn't have to defend what I was doing. I was talking to Sinn Fein and people didn't mind. The peace was a baby, and we had been working with that baby for 17 months it was beginning to walk. Now it has been cut off and it's like a bereavement. I don't think I've got over the shock yet."
"The past 17 months kept us out of the nightmare of the past 25 years," Liam says.
"Friday night brought back the nightmare of the Shankill Road and Greysteel. I believe that, although there is fear that it could break out again, the biggest fear is to go back to what we had."
That apprehension is reflected by WAVE, a cross community support group for the bereaved and traumatised.
Since last Friday they have had an 80 per cent increase in calls from the families of people killed in the Troubles, including a lot from people who had been bereaved 20 years ago.
"People are really scared that it is going to happen again and that they will lose somebody else," says Sandra Peake.
According to Anne Carr, co ordinator of Women Together, people had taken the peace for granted and now realise what they had.
"Before the ceasefire people, were afraid to speak out, to admit that they have a prejudice and to talk about it. They don't want to go back to the past."
Kathleen Feenan, of the Falls Road Women's Information Group, says that "all the women are very angry, very sad and very disempowerd and very worried about their children".
For some the changes have started already. One north Belfast teenager's life has totally changed since last Friday.
Her father works in the building industry, and her brother is a taxi driver, both vulnerable.
Her boyfriend is a Protestant and she hasn't seen him since last Friday. She wonders when she will again.