Love, friends, and a family

Claire is 19 Shane is 20

A year after Rachel Caines amazing book bite club.

Enjoy! And PLZ review!

Chapter 1 Confusion and symptoms

It was summer, and Claire had just finished classes. It was a warm and sunny. And nothing could penetrate her good mood.

Or so she thought.

"Mocha please" she said to the man in the coffee shop. His name tag read DON. As she handed him her 5 bucks she heard a familiar arrogant laugh somewhere behind her. She turned around and to her distaste she spotted Monica Morell, queen bitch of Morganville walking towards her regular cronies hanging on her elbows. Sighing she started to walk away. "Hey Claire! Over here!" Monica yelled. She carried on. Monica hurried up to her and grabbed her arm. "Hey! Talking to you bitch!"

"That's more like it" Claire replied and raised her eyebrows at Monica's hand. She let go. "What do you want?"

"Just thought we could talk, y'know have a chat. Familiar with it? Or do you and your boyfriend just make out?"

"Wow one of your lower insults. You've just about reached infant level."

"Look will you just come already bitch? If I had a choice I wouldn't go near you if you were the last person on earth bitch. But I don't. So will you get your ass over here and walk?"

Claire started to retort sarcastically "oh, wow. You really have a great knack with the - "then she stopped. A massive wave of nausea crashed over her and she clutched a hand to her mouth. Shoving past Monica and the monicettes she dashed for the bathroom. She made it just in time. Shuddering violently she phoned eve.

"Hey what's up CB?

Claire explained what had happened. "And I don't feel good right now. I think it was something I ate. Can you come and pick me up?"

"Sure sweetie I'll be there in five mins." She hung up. Suddenly the nausea came again and she puked. When she was done she walked out to the car park and spotted eve's big black hearse turning the corner. She opened the car door. "You ok?" eve asked.

"Yeah" she replied. "Let's go home. I need to lie down" and just when she'd been in a good mood

It was evening, and Claire finally felt able to eat. She walked down stairs and into the kitchen. She looked into the fridge to see if there was anything she wanted. Eggs sound good she decided, and got out the frying pan. Just as she'd put two eggs in the pan, Shane came in. he dumped his bag on the table, looked around, spotted her, rushed over and wrapped her in an embrace. He stroked her hair in a rhythm. God he felt so good she thought, and snuggled deeper into him, taking advantage of his warmth. "Eve called and told me you were feeling like crap. I came as soon as I could. I'm so sorry you feel terrible." She looked up at him at smiled weakly. "I'm fine really" she lied. He stared into her eyes.

"No you're not." then slowly grinned wickedly, leaned forwards with his mouth close to her ear and whispered "but tell you what. If you stay in bed and be a good girl, I'll be your nurse." Then with a smile he took hold of the pan and said "now go lie down and I'll bring you your dinner" he paused and grinned again "before I end up doing more." Well that sounded interesting, but she sighed and went to lie down on the couch. However as she leaned down for her books she heard him call "and don't study! You need to relax!" damn it. he knew her too well. Annoyingly, when she was ill, Shane was fairly strict.

The sickness carried on however, she only actually puked usually in the mornings/midday. However she hid the sickness from the others, especially Shane. She walked up to her room, carrying her dinner of eggs with her. Shane and eve were at work, while Michael was at guitar lessons so for once she was alone on the house. It felt somewhat peaceful. She was studying when she heard the front door open and close. "Anyone home?" it was Shane. "She got up, ran down the stairs and kissed him. "hey" she whispered.

"Hey" he brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "Miss me?"

"No, I was didn't even know you were gone"

He tickled her and she squealed running away, hoping to find safety in the lounge. He followed and tackled her so they ended up sprawled together on the couch. Laughing and gasping for breath she kissed his cheek and got up to grab a coke from the fridge. "So how was work?" she said as she tossed him one. She sat next to him. He sighed "it was crap. I got into a fight with Joe the junior manager and I dropped a knife and cut my arm. He showed his white bandaged arm to her. But then something weird happened. Well Of course she didn't like that, but for some crazy reason, when she looked at his arm, then at his face, she burst into tears.

"Claire?" Shane was shocked. "What's wrong?"

She sobbed "you…arm"

"Claire?" sometime in between that, Michael and eve had come in and they were all staring at her. "Claire, its ok, it's not that bad, don't cry!" Shane said utterly baffled and pulled her into a hug. She saw him look up at Michael who didn't say anything. Claire coughed and relaxed. "I'm sorry. I think I'm just tired" hearing that, she felt Shane relax a little and she saw Eve shrug. However, Michael continued to look at her. She smiled weakly at him and he turned away. She was glad of it because in truth- she didn't have a clue what just happened.