Caleb glanced at his watch before he pushed himself to his feet wearily. Reid and Pogue were going to kill him for pacing again, but it was the only thing he could do as he couldn’t sit still for more than five minutes without feeling antsy, without twitching or becoming fidgety. Pacing calmed him, quelled his nerves only slightly as his thoughts raged out of control in the silence. Then again, maybe the caffeine wasn’t helping his system… god knew that was just about the only thing that was keeping his heavy eyelids from closing on him.

Caleb hated the hospital; of course he hadn’t hated it before, but he had seen too much of them lately. First with Pogue not but three days ago and now again with Tyler… the rhythmic sounds of his shoes against the tiled floor filled the silence as he thought on this. Bad things kept happening to him, to them and nothing was ever coincidence; Caleb had learned that from an early age. Everything meant something.

Now, Tyler was sick, really sick. Of course in the beginning, the boys shrugged it off… it was a cold, nothing more; Tyler would get over it. But now, things had taken a turn for the absolute worse and it couldn’t have been something so harmless as a cold. Something awful had happened to Tyler and now he was unconscious, unable to tell anyone about it. Caleb murmured a curse as he let a hand cover his mouth for a moment, concealing a yawn that just about twisted every other feature on his face.

Caleb remembered even now as he picked up the phone while he had been out with Sarah; the disparity on the other end of the line clear as Pogue told him about what happened to Tyler. It hadn’t taken more than that… by the time Caleb had hung up with Pogue, he was shifting his Mustang into gear and peeling his way to the hospital like nothing else mattered. Correcting his own thoughts, Caleb’s eyes flickered; that’s because nothing else mattered. Here, now, Pogue, Reid and Tyler were what mattered, they were his brothers, his family.

‘It’s eleven.” Caleb murmured almost absently as he turned toward Reid in mid-pace, his mind elsewhere entirely. Something had to be causing this, something had to be wrong, Reid was right… they never got sick like this, ever. Suddenly, Caleb felt a surge of anger overtake his entire body, and he fought to regulate its hold over him.

“What the hell is wrong with him? Why is all this happening now?” Throwing himself down in the nearest plastic chair with almost too much emotion, Caleb took a moment to breathe. “There’s something going on here. It’s too coincidental for it to be real…”

Caleb hoped he didn’t sound like a raving lunatic, because somehow, he knew Pogue was already expecting an outburst like this from him. Letting a hand wash over his face, Caleb slouched in the chair, allowing his anger to ebb away slightly in the silence before he peered at the others.

"Reid's right... Pogue, when was the last time you were sick? Because I sure as hell can't remember the last time I had the flu, let alone getting whatever Tyler has."

Caleb knew he wasn’t helping Tyler by getting all hot and bothered about this, but truly he felt helpless and so far, Caleb couldn’t think on any other way of dealing with it. They were truly in the dark on the whole situation, Tyler was the only one who knew what really happened and he hadn’t regained consciousness to say anything. Either that, or Mrs. Simms had holed herself up in that room like it was judgment day and hadn’t bothered to tell the boys that Tyler had woken up.

Caleb seriously doubted the last of the thought; Mrs. Simms knew how much Tyler meant to them and even if they all got into a spot of trouble some of the time, she wouldn’t keep them from seeing him, especially not now… she really was a nice woman.

"I am going in there! And I'd love to see them try and stop me!"

At the outburst, Caleb’s head jerked up toward Reid and as the short-fused blond stood, Caleb quite literally jumped to his feet, blocking Reid easily.

“Reid, no, you’re not going in, none of us are, not yet. You really think barging in there is going to help?” Caleb hissed, his best attempt at a whisper as he couldn’t help but glower at Reid. “We’ll be kicked out as soon as we try and don’t think that hospital security is not going to jump on the chance to get us out of here”

It was true; the whole time they were here it seemed as if hospital security sent the same overweight guard to prowl the lobby even though the only people there had been the three of them. Several times, the guard had taken extra measures to go out of his way and shush them if they became too loud, or to complain loud enough for them to hear, about the mess. To the guard, the three were just teenage boys that made his job so much harder as opposed to sitting behind a desk and monitoring surveillance screens.

Reid wasn’t going to like this, he knew… but Pogue was right. They would be kicked out and they could prove to be completely useless if they were kept outside the hospital in general.

Caleb knew what he was starting the minute he made the decision to stand and block Reid, but he knew he had to do it. If Reid did what he always did when Caleb told him 'no,' something was about to go down and Caleb was fully prepared for it as the air turned electric between the two.

However, when it seemed inevitable that things were close to turning physical, a voice interrupted the moment quickly. Turning, Caleb came face to face with Mrs. Simms who stood at the edge of the hallway that led to Tyler's room.

“Oh, are you boys still here?” Mrs. Simms questioned quietly, the surprise in her tone as evident as the dark, bruise-like bags lurking just beneath her usually bright eyes. Caleb felt sorry for her as he looked her over; she looked completely worn out and beaten down, Tyler was her only child… her baby, but in a way, he knew how she felt. Tyler was their baby as well after all in some ways. “It’s nearly eleven… your parents must be –”

Stepping away from Reid, Mrs. Simms’ presence seemed to have diffused the situation between Caleb and Reid immediately.

“That’s fine Mrs. Simms,” Caleb heard himself murmur softly, his tone lightening severely as he spoke with Tyler’s mother, “they know we’re here.”

Taking a moment to look each of them over, Mrs. Simms clutched her purse tightly as tears welled in her eyes. “Well, that’s nice of you boys.” She mouthed, clearing her throat as her gaze fell to the floor. “I have to go home for the night, but you boys should stop in and see him. He would like that…”

As if she could take no more, Mrs. Simms turned abruptly for the elevators, and clicked her way to them.

The boys however, wasted no time in starting down the hall to Tyler’s room.

Caleb wasn’t sure who got into Tyler’s room first because by the time Mrs. Simms had finished speaking, they were all down the hall before anyone could say anything else.

Now, as Caleb stood in the room, he felt sick. This dark room, filled with machines beeping and whirring, could not belong to Tyler; it could not belong to someone who was so sick that they needed to be here. Caleb had promised to take care of them, and like Pogue a few days before, he had failed to keep Tyler out of harms way. Slowly, Caleb was failing to fulfill what he had told himself he would when they were younger, slowly everything was falling apart and Caleb could do nothing about it.

Stepping as lightly as he possibly could, Caleb approached the bed and listened to the things Pogue was saying to the youngest boy, the one who lay so close to death, so sick and so utterly helpless. Even Reid’s voice had a hint of something in it, a hint of something that sounded almost wrong; it was a tone he hadn’t heard in Reid’s voice since they were kids.

Suddenly, Caleb was listening to something different, something much softer as Tyler spoke up.

"...leb, s...s..ry..."

Smiling a meek little smile, Caleb looked down upon Tyler… he wasn’t sure if he could speak without his voice cracking, so he hoped Tyler could see the forgiveness that overwhelmed Caleb at the moment. However, Caleb had never blamed Tyler for anything, and as far as he was concerned, Tyler needn’t apologize for blaming Caleb for what had happened to Pogue.

“It’s ok Tyler. We’ll find a way to make this better.” Caleb assured in an almost whisper that threatened to break his ever solid demeanour, the lump growing in his throat making it difficult not to cry. Grasping the small railing attached to the bed, Caleb took a moment to control the emotions that threatened to over take him all at once.

Anger; someone was doing this to Tyler… and that someone must have had an absolute death wish because when Caleb or either of the boys got their hands on them they wouldn’t be living long to regret what they had done. They wouldn’t even have time to see what the hell was coming for them. Taking a breath, Caleb pushed the thought back with difficulty; usually he was above absolute violence… but this had never been the case, no one had ever messed with one of his brothers this badly.

Confusion; they didn’t know what to do. Caleb didn’t know what to do. This is what he was here for; he kept everything running smoothly like he had done for years. Caleb was supposed to look after them, all of them… but he couldn’t fight what he didn’t know.

Sorrow; Tyler wasn’t fighting well against whatever it was that he was fighting. It was bad, and it was winning but not from lack of trying on Tyler’s part. Now, he was alive with aid of machines… letting his eyes fall away from Tyler on the bed before him as his vision became slightly blurry, Caleb’s eyes washed over something that caught his attention.

Tyler’s mom must have brought it for him as an idle comfort because Caleb had seen it in his room back home; a picture of the boys at summer camp when they had been about ten. A small, weak grin spread about Caleb’s slightly parted lips as he remembered the memories that accompanied the picture; that had been one of the best summers of his entire life.

Caleb saw it then as memories of childhood flashed through his mind. The three of them instead of four, Tyler wiped completely from the picture slowly as his image faded. The memories of biking and hiking, fishing and swimming in the lake, sleeping in the cabin and daring Pogue to eat the disgusting food in the mess hall. Suddenly, there were only three of them, only three baited lines, only three stories about the girls they met and only three distinct laughs. Caleb’s grip tightened exponentially upon the plastic railing, as the audible sound of his skin sliding against the surface reached his ears.

Whoever was messing around with Tyler did have a death wish, and suddenly, Caleb vied to fulfill it. If anything happened to Tyler, he wasn’t sure he could handle himself, he wasn’t sure he could be the one to tell the others not to do anything. No, he wouldn’t. Caleb would be the one leading the head-hunt and the thought frightened him minimally.

“I promise we’ll make this better Tyler.” As he spoke, Caleb could hear the change in his own voice, could feel the anger rising to new heights. He could feel the corners of his eyes stinging with angry tears now, somewhat thankful that it was too dark in the room for anyone to see anything.

The name itself made Caleb practically twitch when it fell, strangled and muffled, from Tyler’s paled and chapped lips.

Chase.

“Chase” Caleb felt his own lips forming the letters, his throat quaking as the sound of the syllables left his lips.

“He thought he could get to you through me because I'm the weak link.”

Caleb gripped the railing on Tyler’s bed until his knuckles were white, until he could no longer feel the blood pulsing to his muscles that controlled his grip. Releasing the railing, Caleb pushed himself away from the bed, every nerve ending in his brain revved up to find and kill Chase with every bit of magic he could ever possibly muster.

“God dammit!” Caleb swore loudly, his voice a deep growl as the lights above his head flickered, he should have known it was Chase. “I should have known!”

From the moment the boy transferred in, from the moment they had met him at the party down at the Dells, it was painfully obvious Chase had an interest in the group of boys like no other person had before. First he moved in on Kate and Sarah and then he moved in and threatened Caleb’s spot as Spenser’s freestyle. Of course, Pogue had been paranoid when he saw Chase moving in on Kate, so he fought with her more often… eventually they broke up and Caleb knew Pogue blamed Chase for that.

Now Tyler was mysteriously sick, Caleb had lost control of his powers and the other boys, according to Pogue three days prior in this same hospital, were getting headaches and nightmares. Suddenly, everything seemed so clear that Caleb wondered why he hadn’t seen it before… why he could have been so thick as to not look beyond their little group. Ultimately, he was paying for his narrow-minded advances to the situation now.

Caleb wanted to hit something, he wanted to put his fist through the wall, he wanted to break something, and that something was going to be Chase. That is… if Pogue and Reid didn’t get to him first. If they got to him first, there would be nothing for Caleb to handle, nothing for him to aid in.

Instead, Caleb let an exasperated groan leave his lips as his hands curled into tightly balled fists, flexing them momentarily before he stretched his fingers out. Running his hands through his hair, Caleb laced his fingers together before he let his hands, settle on the back of his hot neck; they had to find Chase… however, talking him out of killing Tyler wasn’t the first plan of attack.

Grinding his jaw, Caleb began to pace in the dark once more.