Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination.

Angst lies ahead, next one hopefully soon.

Echo: 7 Water Works.

There was no wake up call from Fossil, and too much tiredness in the room to be able to wake up early. Therefore Howard was not surprised when he woke satisfied to find that it was three in the afternoon. Well they had gone to sleep at about four in the mourning.

Bollo and Naboo were already awake and had un-tangled themselves from the bed. Naboo was pounding some strange looking beetle husks into a paste with some spinach that Bollo was handing to him, the TV was on quietly in the background showing a Colobus marathon.

"Alright Howard?" Naboo asked without turning around. Howard made some sort of affirmative noise.

"What are you making there Naboo?" He asked in a business-like manner, not wanting to get out of bed yet and disturb Vince.

"Well, don't tell Vince, but this is for his hands, it's that stuff I put on it." Howard wrinkled his nose, yes; Vince would definitely refuse the healing ointment if he saw the odd combination of dry deceased beetle shells and weird liquid seeping spinach. Yes, that would certainly go down a storm.

"NO!" Howard leapt about a foot in the air from the scream next to him. He swung around in panic to see Vince panting heavily head and eyes flying around to scan the room before he realized where he was.

"Vince you okay?" Howard asked breathlessly, Vince spun round on the bed to see him, finally relaxing slightly before collapsing back down, eyes closed.

Howard saw Vince's nod, but his eyes were still tightly shut, and his pants had turned shuddery. His gaze washed over Vince, who was now making small gasps of discomfort.

He was tense and trembling slightly, and his hands were held just above the covers, as if even the small pressure hurt. Howard glanced over to Naboo and Bollo, who were also looking on nervously.

"Vince, you sure you're okay?" Vince's eyes rolled open slightly and he struggled to sit up. Once he had managed to swing his legs over the side of the bed he let out a trembling breath.

"It hurts everywhere." Howard swallowed at Vince's heavy and strained Voice, and swiftly looked over to Naboo, who had come scrambling over. Vince gasped particularly thickly.

"It even hurts to breathe." He choked out. Naboo frowned and slid Vince's dressing gown off his shoulders, his face turning to a look of pain.

Vince's chest and back were both heavily bruised and scraped, something that neither they nor Vince had noticed last night, probably because of the painkillers Naboo gave him.

Bollo gently placed a hand on Vince's back, only for him to flinch away.

"Vince in bad way Naboo." He grunted unnecessarily.

"Naboo, don't you have any potions or lotions?" Howard asked desperately.

"No, he's maxed out."

"Maxed out? What?"

"He can't have any more magic ointments, it could make his hair fall out." Naboo stated matter-a-factly, to which Vince gasped and reeled back in horror, only to moan and hold his hands near his chest as if in pain.

"Well there's got to be something!" Howard pushed, hating seeing Vince in discomfort.

"A bath?"

"A bath! Naboo, it hurts him to breath, not to move!"

"Actually, that does hurt too." Vince mumbled out quietly.

"Well it's not my fault that you forgot to pack the normal drugs! I'm not a vending machine you know!" Naboo defended, looking at Howard as if he were an imbecile.

"Yeah, Howard an idiot." Bollo affirmed, and Howard huffed.

"I wouldn't mind a bath actually." Vince announced, and the shudder he gave left no one in any doubt as to why.

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Howard felt like crying, he felt it so powerfully that he couldn't even form tears, but knew his voice was shaking when he talked.

"Its alright Vince, I swear its alright. Look, see?" Howard swished his hand hopefully through the warm water in the bath, stopping instantly when Vince flinched and gagged slightly.

Vince stood about a meter away from the bath, white as a sheet, looking at it in an expression akin to fear and betrayal, eyes transfixed on the harmless see-through solution.

"We can put some bubbles in it, you'd like that wouldn't you?" Howard tried desperately. Vince finally met his eyes, shame evident in those suddenly dull eyes.

"I'm sorry Howard, I can't-" Vince's next word was deformed as he chocked out a sob; hand over his mouth as he dropped to his knees, trembling.

"Vince, Vince its ok, don't cry, please." Howard pleaded, dashing over to his friend. He dropped down next to Vince and tried to hold him, only to be suddenly pushed away as Vince stood up violently.

"No Howard! It's not fucking okay!" Vince yelled at him, really yelled. Howard gaped up at him as he clenched his fists, looking strangely dwarfed by the dressing gown.

"Vince?" He questioned cautiously, standing up slowly to try to not evoke a reaction. He eyed Vince carefully until the other man caught his gaze.

"Stop it!" He yelled again, making Howard jump.

"Stop what? Vince you're not-" After Vince's reply he was glad he had been interrupted, and not said 'making sense'.

"Stop looking at me like I'm crazy! I'm not! I don't want to not like the water! It's not like I fucking asked for this!" Vince's screams cut through Howard, preventing him from being able to reply from shock rather then hurt.

"You're still doing it! Ah!" Vince shouted in frustration and stormed out of the room, nearly knocking over Bollo and Naboo, who had been cautiously approaching the commotion.

It was a couple of second before Howard remembered to follow him out, seeing the other two also standing and gaping like fish as Vince stood clutching his head in frustration, coming dangerously close to ripping out his hair.

"Vince what's going on?" Howard asked more forcefully, not knowing why Vince had blown up.

"What do you thinks going on?! I, he-" Vince flustered desperately, trying to find the right words or phrase, his voice rising in pitch. "Fucking blood Howard! Blood! Everywhere! I can still feel it, all slippery and slimy and thick and cold." Vince muttered darkly, tremors wracking his body as he pulled his hair viciously.

Vince's eyes looked like a wild caged animal in that instant as he breathed desperately.

"Why? Why? Why Blood? Was I that wrong, too wrong? So wrong, sick and wrong!" Vince ranted and yelled bending double in mental torment, eyes closed tight as if to keep out the images.

The others didn't know what to do; they'd never seen Vince actually loose his mind before, not like this. The world seemed to die a little more, the light darken, as Vince fought his mind. It suddenly occurred to Howard what Vince was saying.

"Vince, this isn't your fault, there's nothing wrong about you."

"It is my fault." Vince moaned, still bent over, Howard breathed out impatiently in disbelief. Vince had to begin to understand this concept.

"How, how can any of this possibly be your fault? You said yourself that you didn't ask for this!" Vince shook his head violently at Howard words. Naboo was looking appalled at Howard's harsh tone, but he didn't care, sometimes people needed to be smacked back to their senses. He didn't blame Vince for this at all, of course not, but he was sick of this place and sick of that bastard that dare say he was Vince's father, and sick of what had been done to Vince. And Vince could only recover when he stopped blaming himself.

"You didn't want to be taken from the forest, you didn't do anything wrong when you tried to escape! He abandoned you, abused you, made you too afraid to eat, got you sick and hurt! He ignored you unless you dressed right, he would hit you over it! When you got pneumonia he didn't only not take you to the hospital, he told you it was the flu! And you could've died from it!" He paused for a breath, seeing Vince's wide staring eyes.

"He tried to kill you Vince, down in a hole, drowned, killed other people too! So how on earth, can any of this even possibly be your-"

"I'm STUPID!" The room stopped dead at Vince's tortured scream. Howard, Naboo and Bollo stared at Vince in shock and sadness that mirrored the broken tears from Vince.

"I never learnt any better, even when I was away from here, I didn't even think that something might be bad about the way he treated me. I was too stupid to see that he didn't want me, didn't love me!" Vince screamed through his tears, unable to hold back the pent up emotions. "I'm too stupid, and I never even thought that there might be some reason why he gave me away, why he brought me back." Vince chocked, voice harsh from screaming as he continued, turning from anger to just sounding broken.

"He told me, and I never thought about it, never remembered it. The day I woke up here, he said I was too fragile, too stupid to survive in the forest, that I shouldn't have survived in the forest. He said tha- that it was wr- wrong, that I'd gone wrong, and that's why he left me there." Vince's voice was near a whisper as the three onlookers stared onwards as Vince's eyes widened with recollections of the past.

"The only thing he ever said about her, was the only thing she'd ever said to me. She'd held me and, and I didn't react to anything." They watched in horror as Vince's world came crashing to a stop around him.

"'He's not right Jacques, I don't want him. He's too stupid." Howard felt sick at what he was hearing, about the woman that could only be Vince's mother. For some reason he'd pictured Vince's mother as a sweet woman who would've cared for her precious son if not for his father, or death during childbirth or something. Not a deranged person, not the person who had condemned him to this life of terrors, to a lifetime of being 'stupid'.

"How could I fight that, the mother always knows right? That's what animals do, the one that's too weird, too fragile, too stupid, they kill it. Nature's always right isn't it, that was why he brought me back, cos Brian prevented it, he needed to finish it, said it wasn't fair to keep me, it wouldn't be fair on me, cos I could never achieve, or be happy, or have a normal life." Vince broke into tears again before continuing.

"I always knew the reason he brought me back, but I was too stupid to remember why, so I thought it was to take care of me instead of to finish me off." Vince took a shuddering breath and looked up to meet the three shocked pairs of eyes.

"I was even too stupid to work that one out, so wasn't it partly my fault too? Because, I was too stupid to save myself, wasn't I?" Howard, Naboo and Bollo looked on as Vince dissolved into broken tears.

So that was it, this innate, ingrained belief that he didn't deserve to live, a belief that his own mother let loose as his death sentence. That was why he allowed it to happen, stayed in this house and with Bainbridge without resistance. Partly because he believed that it was for his safety and it was done out of love, and partly because of what he couldn't even remember, but was also told to him in a way every day, that he was too stupid to live, that he wasn't meant to. That was why they had all seen that Jacques still cared, maybe even a small part of him deep down did still love Vince, even though he also had been programmed into believing he was wrong. And why it had taken this long for him to take the final step into actually actively trying to kill his son, rather then hoping he would die quietly in a corner and out of sight. That one dinner party he wouldn't hear Vince's dimmed cries from his room.

It wasn't Vince's dad, but rather his mum that had sold this family into corrupted doom. A mother's dislike for her child was the reason Vince was messed up, broken, damaged and hurt. That was the reason this mansion was no more then a huge death trap.

Howard blinked from his thoughts, and shared a glance with Naboo that showed he'd come to the same conclusion. He turned to see the crumpled figure of Vince on the floor, his thin frame wracked with painful tremors as he cried his world out.

Howard walked slowly over to Vince and knelt next to where he lay curled on the floor, looking back at Naboo he got a soft smile of encouragement, one he appreciated to no end, even Bollo gave a small nod, although it was probably out of impatience.

"Sometimes Vince, we don't know to save ourselves, or we can't, if we've been put through too much, damaged too much, or even too set in our ways. But that's why we have friends, and people to be with, so that even when our world stops turning, someone can let theirs stop to help you start yours. Vince, you chose to talk to me when I went to your room that first time, you chose to hold onto that pole and get out of that hole, you chose to walk away from him during yoga, chose to yell at him in the forest." Howard took a breath to swallow back his sobs as Vince turned his head to him slightly.

"Vince, that very first day we met, you chose to go down those first few steps with me, to get out of Bainbridge's house. And when he found us in those mountains, and when Bainbridge tried to shoot me, you chose your life over the one they tried to end, and you were prepared to save mine, even though you'd been put through hell." Howard was aware he was crying.

"Vince, even though this is about as fucked up and crap as it can probably get, back then you chose to live, to get out from that place. And there's nothing stupid about that, that's taking control, and that's smart Vince, oh so smart, and about as brave as it gets. You mean the world to us three Vince, and we're all in this together, cos we care, and we'll stop our worlds for you, you just have to want your world to start again. And if you want that, then that's worth everything. You don't deserve to be treated like this Vince, you're not stupid like you think, even if you never will win awards." Seeing the desperate hope in Vince's eyes he continued.

"Nature never wanted you dead Vince, just a few messed up human beings."

Howard held his breath as best he could as Vince looked down before chocking out another sob and smiling softly.

"Oh Howard, what would I do without you guys?" Howard beamed and pulled Vince gently into a hug as Bollo and Naboo came over as well. "I don't wanna be here, do this, alone." Vince sobbed out sadly. "I'd miss you all too much now." Howard smiled at Vince's simple logic; there was nothing stupid about that.

"I know Vince, we aren't going anywhere, you've just gotta help us, alright?"

"I will, I promise." Naboo patted Vince's back gently, mindful of the bruises.

"Bollo not going anywhere, someone gotta save Vince from Howard." Everyone except Howard laughed, until Naboo squeaked.

"Vince your hands! The splints must have broke!" Naboo cried out, gently snatching the limbs and un-wrapping the bandages to reveal the nasty looking goop, and several broken splints.

Vince flinched as he wiped the goop off, but otherwise there seemed to be no harm to them, the cuts remained small and the bones were still mending.

"Bollo get a basin." The gorilla grunted, but was stopped by Vince.

"No, I, I wanna try the water again." He turned nervously to Howard. "Sooner then later right?" Howard and Naboo offered large smiles to the nervous shy one, and Howard helped a wobbly Vince up.

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It had gone surprisingly well. Vince had allowed his hands to be washed and taken care of in the sink, and they were wrapped back up in the waterproof bandages.

He even managed the bath, surprising even himself, although he had insisted that they stayed with him, behind the curtain of course.

When first getting into the bath Vince had tightly grasped Howard's hand. However once submerged in the water he let out a squeak of surprise, and sounded shocked when announcing that it was actually nice. He had held onto Howard's hand for about a minute more before he decided that he was all right on his own.

After he had finished he even persuaded the others to leave the room whilst he got out and dried, and let the water empty.

As Vince sat at the edge of the bath, watching the slightly bubbly water swirl down the plughole, he felt strangely peaceful at the repetitive image it created. It was as if a slight weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and even though he still had an almost painful sense of foreboding, there was at least a little bit of light left, because he wasn't alone, and wouldn't be again.

::That was quite hard to write for me... as evidently I've never been nearly drowned in blood/trapped down a hole. So I'd love to know what you all think.

::Thank you for those magic reviews, you're all amazing and totally inspiring for me.

::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo.