Title: Road to Recovery

Summary: Before Nightlife. What happened after Cal came stumbling back from Tumulus. Niko's POV.

I could see it as if it were still happening. Cal clawing at the ground, the Grendel dragging him back towards that… thing. I raced towards them running as fast as I could. I was close enough to see the scratches and puncture wounds on Cals' face and arms. I was almost there, in my mind I had already committed to killing the monster and freeing Cal. I was only a few metres away when they went through the rip, but it might as well have been a mile. Cal was gone where I couldn't follow. The rip closing around him, pulling him through a portal to god knows where.

I stood in shock the sudden silence deafening. I'd failed. Failed to do the one thing I'd promised himself I'd never stop doing. Protecting Cal. I had protected him his whole life. From our mother, from the other kids at school, from that mad dog, but most of all I had to protect Cal from himself. But now he was gone and my life's purpose was gone with him.

I sank to the ground the wet grass quickly soaking through my jeans, it had started to rain but I barely noticed. I didn't know what to do. I just kept starting at the empty space where Cal had been dragged through. The trailer was on fire behind me but I didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. The junk of a car stared at me, mocking me. So close. I'd been so close to getting Cal free of this life, free of our mother. Now it was all for nothing. He was gone.

No! I refused to accept it. Cal had never let me down and I refused to consider that he would now. Cal would return and I would wait right here until he did. If he didn't return? Well there was no point in going on without my little brother.

So I sat where I was and stared at the spot where Cal had disappeared, and I waited.

I don't know exactly how long I sat on the ground. I'd gotten hungry at some point but it had been easy to ignore my rumbling stomach. I wouldn't have been able to keep any food down anyway. Which was why when the air I'd been staring at for at days started to rippled in front of me I thought I'd finally started to hallucinate. Then the air began to form into a small grey ball of light, and started to get bigger. It looked exactly like the portal that Cal had been dragged though, but it wasn't Cal that came out.

A wild creature shot out through the opening and lunged at me. Despite the fact that I'd been sitting in the same position for hours on end I still reacted flawlessly grabbing the creature's arm as it reached me, flipping it's body onto the ground with a thud and pinning it there. The creature thrashed around fighting my hold for a few moments before suddenly freezing, breathing hard, but I wasn't fooled and I wasn't letting this thing up.

Then the creature opened his eyes and looked at me. People say that eyes are the only thing about a person that never change. Right now I was looking into eyes that I'd know anywhere. They were Cal's eyes. My first thought was a murderous one. What was this monster doing with Cal's eyes? Then it spoke. Just a whisper but that was all that was needed.

"Nik?" It was said with such a mixture of emotions. Sadness, disbelief... hope.

I couldn't believe it. This thing, this filthy crazed looking thing was Cal. I let up my grip staring down at my brother in shock. Now that I looked closely I couldn't believe how I'd missed it. There were differences, the hair that was once short now hung down to his shoulders, his shoulders broader than they were two days ago, but he was Cal.

I once again grabbed him by the arm, and he quickly latched on to me while I helped him up from the ground. I was shaken up on the inside but Cal was visibly shaking all over. Whether from the cold or from emotions I didn't know, but the cold I could fix.

"There's warm clothes in the trunk." I said to Cal as I lead him to the back of the car. When I tried to take Cal's hand off my arm to open the back he got a wild look in his eyes and his hand tighten its grip even harder.

"Hey, it's okay." I tried to speak as calmly as possible, "I'm not going anywhere." But he wasn't listening, still shaking and gripping my arm like his life depended on it... or maybe his sanity. I grabbed him by the chin and forced his head up making him look me in the eyes "I'm not going anywhere." I repeated forcefully.

Cal looked at me for a beat before slowly nodding his head. This time when I tried again to remove Cal's hand I met little resistance.

Quickly pulling the first bag that I could find I ripped it open. Cal's clothes were inside, but after a quick scan of my brother, whose eyes never left my face, I realized that they wouldn't fit him anymore. Grabbing a bag that I knew held some of my old clothes I pulled out a worn sweatshirt and a pair of pants.

I handed Cal the clothes "Put these on, you'll warm up."

It took awhile for my words to sink in as he stared at the clothes in confusion for awhile before slowly starting to put them on. While he was otherwise occupied with his task at hand I needed to make sure he was okay.

He startled as I put my hand on his shoulder locking eyes on me like a frightened animal. I kept my hand where it was and just looked back at him, needing him to trust me. After what seemed like minutes he slowly lowered his head and went back to pulling on the clothes.

It was as I was checking him over for any obvious signs of injury that I remembered the blood that I'd seen on him when he's was dragged through that portal. I pulled up the sleeves of the sweatshirt Cal had just finished putting on.

"I saw blood" I stared at his arm in disbelief. "When they took you. I saw blood on your arms, your neck." My fingers traced over the small puncture wound scars on his arms and then the ones on his neck, they were long healed.

It was then that I understood. I'd been sitting in the same spot for days waiting for Cal to come back from wherever the Grendel's had taken him. While for me Cal had disappeared days ago, he had clearly been gone a lot longer than that. The time difference explained away all the differences in Cal's appearance.

"Jesus, Cal, it really is you." I pulled him into a bone crushing hug, never wanting to let go again.

"Caliban." He whispered in reply. I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. I hated the name he insisted on, and I refuse to call him that, but that didn't matter now. I knew that there was probably a long road ahead until Cal was fully recovered, if he ever did, because god knows what those Grendels did to him. However if Cal still had the sense of mind to insist on being called his full name, then he wasn't as far gone as I feared. It meant that beneath that filthy skin, and behind those vacant eyes, my brother was still in there somewhere.

"We need to get out of here." I said releasing Cal, "They're probably right behind you." I left him standing there as I put the bags back in the car before shutting the trunk. I walked around to the passenger door opening it before looking back at Cal.

He was staring at the burnt down trailer. I slowly walked back to him. "Come on, we have to go." I said softly, there'd be time to mourn Sofia later. I lead him to the car and sat him down in the passenger side making sure he had his seat belt buckled before closing the door and jogging over to the driver's side. I slide into the driver's seat and turned the ignition. I let out a sigh of relief as the car started then turned to Cal who was staring blankly out the window. Cupping the back of his head I said "We are going to be okay." He slowly turned to face me, a helpless look on his face, "You are going to be okay." I added giving his neck a squeeze.

That said I put the car into gear and drove off. I had no idea where we were going. If they'd been following Cal before they took him then they probably new about my dorm room, so that was no longer a safe option. We'd stop off at a motel along the road somewhere were we can get some sleep. Right now we needed to get as far away from this place as possible. After that I'd figure something out. One thing was for sure, I was going to make sure I was always there to protect Cal, and I was never going to fail him again.

TBC