Chapter 4

Casey woke sometime later in pitch darkness. Heart racing, he murmured "Brax?"

"Heath," Heath said from the corner. "You ok?"

"Put a light on."

Heath stood, making his way to the door and switching the light on. Casey relaxed a little, pulling himself up to sit in the bed.

"Ok?" Heath perched on the side of the bed, studying him.

"Yeah. Did I wake you? Sorry."

Heath shrugged. "Not a big deal. Those chairs aren't comfortable to sleep in, anyway."

"Where's Brax?" Casey asked, glancing around.

"Kyle took him home to throw him in the shower and make him get some proper sleep."

Casey looked up sharply. "Kyle took..."

"Ricky offered to sit with Kayla; Brax asked her if that was ok, introduced them, and Ricky's just going to sit there and call for help if anything happens. Brax really needed to go home, Case, he's been with you or her for days."

"Days," Casey echoed.

"We got you out of there five days ago. The fever kept you down until..." he glanced at his watch. "Yesterday. You were really out of it, hallucinating and everything; Nate told us we should be ready in case something…Brax hasn't left the hospital until now. Nate put him in the doctor's showers once, that's it."

Casey nodded slowly. "You think I'm overreacting."

"Nah. Big bad thing happened. I get it."

He tensed up again suddenly. "What did you tell Ricky?"

"That it's a long complicated story and you'll tell her later, and for now she should just not touch the kid, just call for help if she needs it."

Casey nodded, easing back down. "You can go, if you want."

"And have Brax rip my head off? No, thank you. Want I should put the light off?"

"No!" Casey snapped without meaning to. Heath raised an eyebrow and Casey grimaced. "Sorry. No. It can't be off."

"You'll never sleep with it on."

"I can sleep tomorrow."

Heath shook his head, fiddling with his phone before rising to his feet. "That's no good."

"Heath..."

He flipped the light off, but his phone was shining brightly. He put it on the tray at the side of Casey's bed. "Enough?"

Casey considered it for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. That's good. Thanks, Heath."

"Uh huh. Get some sleep, Casey, or we'll never get Brax to leave again."

Casey smiled faintly, closing his eyes and drifting off.

Nate discharged him a couple of days later, but all that meant was that he moved out of his room and into Kayla's; she still wasn't coping well, and having Casey nearby made things easier for her. Brax made a token protest, but short of dragging him out, there was no way to make him leave, so he struck a deal. Casey was allowed to spend the days with her, but one of his brothers picked him up every evening and brought him home for the night.

Kayla accepted this the way she'd accepted everything else, without argument, though she clearly didn't like him leaving in the evenings. With Casey she talked as normal; if Brax or Kyle was in the room, she was a little more stilted but essentially normal; anyone else and she was silent, responding to direct questions with nods or head shakes and ignoring everything else.

"Casey?" she asked one morning. "What is that?"

"What's what?" he asked absently, glancing up from his hand of cards. Following her gaze, he grinned. "Ah. That is a window. You haven't looked out yet?"

"No, it keeps changing."

"Yeah, it'll do that. Come here." He took her cards out of her hand, tugging her off the bed and across to the window.

Kayla shied slightly when she peered out. "What's up there?"

"Sky. Maybe some clouds."

"I can't see it." She looked upwards again, cautiously.

Casey glanced over his shoulder as Kyle came in; dismissing him, he turned back to Kayla. "It's further away than the ceiling. It's blue, see? That's the sky."

"It's so big," Kayla murmured.

"Yep. And look here." He tugged her slightly to one side, into the pool of sunlight.

"Oh!" Kayla held up a hand, turning it over in the sun. "It's so warm."

"Yeah," Casey agreed, smiling faintly. "It is warm." Kyle shifted slightly, and Casey glanced at him before continuing "You have to be careful outside, because the sun can burn you, but in here is ok."

He left her playing with the sunlight and came back to join Kyle near the door. "What's up?"

"Nate didn't tell you?"

"I haven't seen Nate yet today. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Kyle said quickly. "He thinks Kayla's ready to walk around some. He figured having another body to help wouldn't hurt, and I'm free this morning."

"Where's Phoebe?"

"Sleeping in. She caught a cold, we didn't want to risk passing it on."

"Yeah. Cheers. Around inside, or around outside?"

"Whichever. The point is movement."

Casey nodded, turning back to Kayla; she was still playing with the sunlight, smiling. "Kayla? Want to go for a walk?"

"A what?"

"A walk. Out of this room. Just for a bit."

She glanced around at him, frowning. "Will we come back?"

"Yeah, of course. We're just going to have a look around."

"At what?"

"Dunno. Let's go look."

Kayla's eyes flicked towards Kyle. "Kyle?"

"Yep," Kyle said without moving.

"Are you coming?"

"Is that all right?"

"Yes."

"Great. Let's go, then." Casey dug a pair of hospital slippers out for Kayla, waiting while she figured them out.

"No shoes in the bunker?" Kyle asked under his breath.

"I did, she didn't."

Kayla looked up triumphantly. "Look, I got it."

"You did get it," Casey agreed. "Well done. Come on, let's have a look around."

They wandered around for a while; Kayla peered around curiously, but she didn't speak or make any decisions. Casey paused at every intersection, but she just waited for him to decide where they should go. Casey talked as they went, describing things around them. Kayla looked like she was listening, but he wasn't sure how much she was taking in, or how much she was actually understanding.

"Casey," Kyle murmured after a while. Casey glanced at him, following his gaze to Kayla; she'd stopped looking around, studying her feet instead.

"Hey, Kayla," Casey said softly. She looked up immediately, and he blinked. "Are you tired?"

"I am," Kyle said when she didn't react. "You walk fast, Case. Let's head back."

Casey nodded, glancing around. They'd managed to go mostly in a circle, so they weren't that far from her room; it took only a few minutes to get back, and Kayla climbed onto the bed and sat there, watching them.

"Are you tired?" Casey asked again.

She considered for a moment. "My legs hurt."

"You should have said something."

"Why?"

"Because we could have come back here sooner."

"Your legs hurt because we were walking around," Kyle told her. "If we'd known, we could have come back here earlier, and they might not be hurting as much."

"Do your legs hurt?"

"No, but I spend more time walking around than you do. I don't guess you did much walking around down there."

"No, it was very small." She looked at Casey. "Can I sleep now?"

"Yeah." Casey crossed to the window, tugging at the blind to cover it. "Go ahead. I'm going to talk to Kyle for a minute and then I'll be back."

Kyle let Casey usher him out; in the corridor he leaned against the wall, studying him. "You should go home. Get some rest. I'll stay here."

"I didn't think of that," Casey muttered.

"What, getting some rest?"

"No. I didn't think it would wear her out like that."

Kyle shrugged. "We'll know in future."

"I should have thought of it. I knew she didn't -" He broke off, glaring intently at the nearest wall.

"We're all trying to figure this out," Kyle pointed out. "This was a little mistake. We'll know in future. Go home and get some rest. I'll stay here."

Casey wavered. "Phoebe."

"She's just sleeping. She won't miss me."

Casey scrubbed at his face. "Yeah. Ok, yeah. Thanks."

"Yeah. Can you get home?"

"Yeah. Got the Ute?"

"Don't hit anything," Kyle warned him, passing him the keys.

"You're funny, Kyle."

"I'll see you later."

Kayla was already dozing when he went back into the room; she blinked sleepily, checking on him, rolling over to look at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly.

"Why is there no music here?"

"What?"

"Is it a bunker thing? Is it not allowed up here?"

"No, it's allowed. I didn't know you missed it. I'll sort something out, ok?" She nodded dreamily and he watched her for a moment. "Why didn't you ask Casey?"

"He didn't like it down there." She rolled back onto her other side, drifting off.

Kyle shook his head, grabbed the cards and a magazine and began laying out Solitaire.