The steady, easy rhythm of the car's tires against the road and the darkness of the night lulled her into a false sense of peace and contentment. She had just closed her eyes and let her head fall back to the headrest behind her when the car's driver glanced in her direction and gave a small sigh.

" What exactly are we doing here, Case ?" Ashleigh asked with her eyes back on the road in front of her. " Why are we going back ?"

Casey blinked and shook her head to clear the fog of sleep that was threatening to overtake her. " We're going to save him, Ash." She answered simply.

" I understand that much. But what else ? Are you going to tell him about the baby ?"

" Not until I know he's okay."

Rusty leaned forward from his spot in the backseat to join their conversation. " But you are going to tell him ?"

Casey nodded. " I think so."

Ashleigh gave her a look meant to scare her and Rusty tsked at her from over her shoulder.

" Okay I know you both think I should tell him. Your opinions on the matter have been noted and filed. I get it. He should know. He deserves to know. But I'm still not sure he'd want to know."

She stretched out and adjusted herself in the crapped seat until she was comfortable. She was so grateful that Ashleigh had agreed to come with them. She had driven the first half of the distance, Ashleigh had insisted that she let her take the second half. It was easing up on five in the morning. They'd been driving all night and she knew now she never would have been able to stay awake for the entire drive. She would have either had to let Rusty drive (shiver), or pull over until morning.

" Have you thought about what you're going to say to him ?" Rusty asked quietly.

" Not really. I guess I'll just wing it." She shrugged.

" No one can get him to talk about what's bothering him. We've all tried."

" But none of you are me and he has never been able to resist me for long. I'll get him to talk. I'll find out what all this is about." She answered, sounding much more confident than she felt. She was pretty sure he had spent her last few months at Cyprus intentionally avoiding her. It was the only explanation for the fact that she hadn't so much as caught a glimpse of him since Spring Break. Usually, even when they weren't together they ran into each other, whether it was while in line for coffee or at Dobbler's or a party. Normally he turned up sooner or later. She wasn't really sure how to take that. She knew he was angry over their breakup and hurt, just like she was. But it wasn't like him to wall himself away so completely. Something about that felt so final to her, like he was making a great show of letting her know that this time, it was well and truly over between them.

Her hand went to her stomach on its own and she realized that now things were never, ever going to be truly over between them. Cappie would be in her life forever now whether she wanted it that way or not. There really wasn't a question in her mind about telling him. Of course she would tell him. The question now was when, not if.

She let her eyes fall to the front windshield and her breath caught as she saw the campus coming into view before them. They had made good time. Traffic was light and the weather was wonderful. The drive had only taken them nine hours instead of the normal ten. Some of that was due to Ashleigh's heavy foot on the gas pedal, the rest had been luck.

" Where to ?" Ash asked as they entered the campus.

" Go to the house." Rusty suggested. " That's where I'm staying."

" I called Rebecca before we left and she said she'd have a couple of rooms ready for us at the ZBZ house." Ash informed her right before the panic set in that she hadn't made any plans at all about where they were staying.

" Thank you." She nodded and gave her a grateful smile.

Ashleigh rolled her eyes. " I swear when we're old and gray I'm still going to be trailing after you carrying your heart medicine and blood pressure pills." She teased.

" But you always do such an awesome job of taking care of me." Casey replied with genuine appreciatation.

" I know." Her best friend beamed at her brightly.

They pulled the car up in front of the KT house and Rusty jumped out of the backseat. Then he went to the trunk and grabbed his bag from where it was stowed.

Casey glanced around the seemingly peaceful, albeit falling apart exterior of the house and her eyes paused on the corner window in the third story. He was probably right there, laying face down on his full size bed, sheets rumpled around his feet, chest bare, wearing only a pair of boxers. Her first instinct was to jump from the car, dash up the stairs and barge into his room. But she stifled it, not knowing whether he would really be alone in that bed.

" I'll go up and check on him. Stay right here. I'll be back." Rusty said, leaning his head into her window as he shouldered his heavy bag.

She watched him disappear inside the house and kept her eyes there until he reappeared a few minutes later with a look on his face that said everything was not nearly as peaceful as it seemed.

" He's not here." He announced as soon as he was within hearing range.

" Where is he ?" Ashleigh interjected.

Rusty snatched opened the backdoor and slid inside quickly.

" Student health center."

Both girls turned to him immediately for an explanation.

" They think its alcohol poisoning."

" Are you serious ?" Ashleigh asked, her eyes wide with shock.

" Beaver said he started shaking and his lips turned blue. Then he sort of passed and stopped breathing." He explained quietly.

Ashleigh turned back in her seat and started the car quickly.

" Yeah," Casey turned back as well and sighed heavily. " He certainly sounds ready to be a father."

" Don't do that, Case." Rusty told her with a hand on her shoulder. " Give him a chance."

" All I'm hearing lately is that Cappie is completely out of control. This just confirms it."

" Just talk to him before you make a decision like that."

Casey nodded in response but said nothing as her eyes drifted to the passenger window and she spotted a beat up old blue jeep parked at the back on the KT house. It's hood was crushed in and buckled as if from an impact with something solid. She remembered Rusty telling her about the incident with the tree and she averted her eyes from the proof of that story. It was too much for her to take in, the sight of Cappie's jeep mangled and broken with a tree shaped dent decorating the front of it.

" Drive faster." She mumbled and was surprised when the car began to speed up. She hadn't realized she'd said it out loud, but obviously Ashleigh heard her.

The smell of sickness and disinfectate permeated the air. It was so heavy the taste of it sat on Casey's tongue and she nearly gagged from it. Of course that was nothing new, just about everything made her gag recently, but smells were the worse. One unpleasant odor could send her tender stomach rolling instantly.

She fought off the urge to vomit and continued down the hall to the room number the lady at the front desk had given them. Normally he would have been sent to the local hospital, but since alcohol poisoning was a dangerously common occurance on a college campus the facilty was adapt at treating it.

She found the numbers she was looking for and paused outside the door, squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath.

" Are you okay ?" Rusty asked from behind her. " Do you want me to go in with you ?"

She shook her head. " No, I've got this. Just give me a few minutes. I want to talk to him alone."

" We'll be right here if you need us." Ashleigh reassured her as she squeezed her hand for a moment before dropping it.

" Be nice." Rusty added as her hand came up to push the door opened.

Casey turned to face him and let her hand fall. " Be nice ?" She asked incrediulously. " I have no intention of being nice. His entire problem is people are always nice to him. Too nice. It's time for somebody take control here. He isn't a child and you're all doing more harm that good by being nice to him."

Rusty shrank back at her outburst but Casey realized she felt a little stronger because of it. She snatched hold of that anger and wrapped it around her as she entered the room.

He was laying on his side, an I.V. Running into his left hand and a tube wrapped around his nose delivering oxygen. The quiet beeping of a monitor that displayed all his vitals played throughout the room, it's steady beat indicating that his heart was beating as it should, now.

She came to his side silently and brushed a strand of hair from his brow, trying to find her anger once again as she looked down at him. All she could really find was pity and remorse. He looked so beaten, not physically. Physically he looked find, perhaps a touch pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes telling her that he hadn't been sleeping, but otherwise he looked fine. But there was something about his posture, even in sleep that looked so dejected, so worn that it made her chest hurt for him.

His eyes fluttered opened slowly as if he had felt her staring at him and he blinked sleepily as he tried to bring his hand up to his face. He stopped the movement when he felt the pull of the I.V. In his arm and shifted instead, turning from his side to his back slowly as if the motion was painful.

" Casey," He asked groggily. " What are you doing here ?"

" The better question would be, what are YOU doing here, Cap ? What the hell ?"

He forced a smile to his face as he struggled to sit up. " I guess we got a little carried away last night."

" A little carried away. Do you understand where you are ?" She spat angrily.

He huffed and used his free hand to brush the face from his eyes. " Yeah, I get it. I know. Now maybe you can tell me how this is any of your business."

She took a step back, struck by his words. " You're trying to kill yourself, of course that's my business, Cappie. You'll always be my business."

He shook his head and straightened his shoulders. " No, I'm not. We said everything there was to say to each other. It's done. You shouldn't be here."

" Yeah, well I am here and you'll just have to suck it up and deal with it." She returned having no problem finding that anger now. " I know exactly why you don't want me here."

" Why is that ?" He rolled his eyes dramatically.

" Because I'm one of the few people in your life that will tell you that you are behaving like a spoiled, irresponcible, idiotic child."

" Yeah, well that's what I am right ? An irresponicible child."

" I never said that. You're the one so determined to not grow up." She spat. " Maybe it's time to tell you that it's going to happen to you whether you like it or not. Life has a way of making it happen. Pretty soon this whole thing is going to start to look ridiculous." She paused dramatically. " Oh wait, I'm betting it started looking ridiculous already, right about the time your friends had to unwrap your vehicle from around the trunk of a tree."

He sighed heavily and muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like her brother's name.

Casey crossed her arms over her chest and gave him her best withering glare. " He's worried about you. Don't you get it. Your friends are worried about you. I remember a time when they looked up to you. You were like a God in their eyes. Now all that's in their eyes is pity."

" So let me get this straight, you came half way across the country to what ? Yell at me ?" He countered though it was a lame attempt. She could tell by the look in her eyes that some of what she was saying was getting through.

" I came half way across the country because I care about you. I came because you need to listen to someone and none of those guys are going to tell you the truth. For God's sake, Cap, last weekend you crashed your jeep. This weekend you ended up here. What's on the agenda for next weekend ?"

" I'm flattered that you're taken such an interest in my activities but I don't need your help. I'm fine. It's fine." He told her.

She cast her eyes towards the bag of fluid hanging from a pole beside his bed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it looks fine."

" Okay," He conceded. " Maybe things are a little out of control, but it's nothing I can't handle. I've got this. I don't need you coming in to mother me. I have one of those."

Casey snorted and tightened her arms around her middle. " Yeah, I've met her."

" What is that supposed to mean ? Are you insulting my mother now, too ?"

" I'm just saying that perhaps if she had kicked your ass when you were younger, maybe you wouldn't be here now."

" At least she let me be who I am. I pity your kids having to live with a control freak like you." He shouted.

Casey staggered at his words, tears that she refused to let him see stung her eyes. She wanted to argue. She wanted to tell him that he was wrong. But no words came. Instead, she turned on her heel as quickly as she could and ran for the door.

She heard him calling her name as it swung shut behind her.