Disclaimers and everything else that should be read with the warnings will be found in chapter one.

~*~

"Wake up! Please, wake up!"

Darien opened his eyes to see the familar face of his brother Kevin and smiled. He was able to come back into the dream that he longed for once he awoke to Cammie standing before. "Kevin..."

"Darien! Oh thank God! I thought I was going to lose you there for a minute! What is going on with you? You are freezing to the touch and I couldn't wake you for almost an hour."

"An hour? I don't understand." Darien rasped out.

"I am taking you to the hospital, Darien." Kevin replied, picking his brother up and putting his weight on his shoulders as he walked down the attic stairs.

"Kevin, I don't need to go to the hospital. I will be fine. Just take me to Claire."

"What?" Kevin asked, stopping as he walked out the front door into the sunlight. "Claire who?"

Darien realized his mistake and tried to recover from his blundering mouth. "Claire Sammuals. She is a doctor I know." Darien felt the pain rush through him and leaned harder on his brother has he fought to stay awake. "I think you are right, Kevin. Please, take me to the hospital."

~*~

Kevin walked out of Darien's hospital room with the emergency room doctor on call that day. "What is his prognosis doctor?"

"He seems to be suffering from some serious infection. I won't know until we get his test results back though."

"What kind of infection would you think be able to take him down like this?"

"There are many viral infections to look at." The young doctor paused to choose his words correctly.

"His body is reacting in a very abnormal way, Mr. Fawkes. It could be a number of diseases that he could have caught at any time. But I think we are dealing with something more than that."

"Please, just tell me. I am a doctor as well." Kevin said, as he looked into the young doctors eyes and knew the news wasn't going to be good.

"The way his body is reacting to the virus. It is either very quick, and I don't think it is this option because your brother would be dead by now, or he was purposely infected with something."

"You think someone put something in my brother's body to make him sick?"

"I don't think it, Mr. Fawkes. I know this to be true. We found a needle marks everywhere. Most of them are old though. But there are at least six that are only two days old, give or take a few hours. Does your brother take drugs?"

Kevin looked at his brother lying on the hospital bed. "I haven't seen him in almost two years. He called me out of the blue to tell me that he changed his life around." Kevin stopped. "He was a thief."

The doctor looked at Darien then back at Kevin. "As far as I know, doctor... He was a thief not a crack addict. And there is no discoloration on his finger tips or around his eyes to prove other wise."

The doctor smiled. "You pay close attention. That is good." Then his smile turned into anther frown. "Then, he was purposely poisoned by something." The doctor turned when a young nurse walked up to the doctor, handing him a small stack of papers. The doctor opened it and looked up at Kevin with dreadful eyes. Handing the first sheet over to Kevin, the doctor turned to Darien and walked back into the room.

Kevin looked at the words on the paper and wanted to scream out loud! This couldn't be happening to his brother. He couldn't lose another family member to death's cold hands. But what the test results stated was in black and white and Kevin couldn't argue. His brother was dying.

TBC