Kimi jumps at the sound of someone thrashing at the front door. It's late. So late that were their parents home, Kimi would definitely already be in bed. Uncurling herself from the couch, she presses pause to stop the movie and pads to the hallway where she almost collides with Chuck.

His face is paler than usual, which is an incredible feat in itself. His green eyes are wide with alarm, "What should we do, Kimi? Call the police?"

In response she strides forward and pulls open the door. Chuck lets out a pained kind of squeak. He's sure that one day Kimi's going to give him a heart attack, he just knows it.

They're both surprised, shocked even, when they see that Tommy's stood on the porch with Lil DeVille.

"Hey guys," Tommy gives his friends a crooked almost hopeful smile. "Could you help me out?"

Chuck moves forward to take Lil by the other arm but Kimi frowns, "Are you sure the cheerleader wants to come inside the house of a vampire? I could bite her at any point."

Tommy throws her a look, "Kimi, this is serious."

She scoffs in response, "And my feelings aren't?"

"Kim." Chuck says in an unusually clipped tone and instantly Kimi's silenced. She knows that when Chuckie shows any kind of assertion it's best to just listen.

When Kimi looks at Lil properly she can see that Tommy's right, this is serious. Usually Lily DeVille is the queen of cool and she certainly wouldn't be allowing Tommy to drag her inside the Finster's house without protest. Something's very wrong.

"Okay." Kimi chews on her lip and takes in the appearance of Lil's smeared make-up, tiny dress and sobbing chest. "Come up to my bathroom."

The guys follow her upstairs with Lil unsteadily between them. It seems as though the cheerleader is in some kind of trance. Carefully they sit her on the closed toilet seat and then all three teens stair at her worriedly.

"What do we do?" Chuck asks and Kimi can almost feel him fretting beside her.

Kimi turns to Tommy and narrows her eyes, "What happened?"

He shrugs, his eyes not leaving Lil, "I just found her running. She'd been at Tyler's party I guess."

"Most people don't come home from a party in this state, Tommy." Kimi points out and then shakes her head, "Why was she on her own? Isn't it standard procedure for popular kids to travel in packs?"

"I don't know!" Tommy, unusually flustered, pushes a hand through his hair and sighs. "I tried to ask her about a hundred times but she wouldn't say. I offered to take her home but she screamed at me no. I couldn't take her to my house, my Mom would consult a thousand different books about raising teenagers. I knew you guys had a free house."

Kimi nods as Chuck bounces from foot to foot.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Kimi takes a deep breath, "Right, you two need to go and find Phil. I'll stay here with Lil."

"I'm not going anywhere, Kimi." Tommy says with a shake of his head.

"Yes you are." Kimi says firmly and looks to Lil for some kind of agreement. To her amazement, Lil nods lightly. "And you should probably get Dil to offer you some kind of alibi if you're going to stick around. We don't want Didi panicking."

Tommy begins to relax a little; he likes plans of action. And Kimi's right, he can't have his Mom getting wind of this.

"You want us to get Phil?" Chuck asks for clarification. He hasn't spoken to Phil, nor Lil actually, for years.

"Of course I do, he knows Lil better than anyone." Kimi says causing Lil to scoff. Kimi ignores her, "He's her brother, he'd want to know."

Tommy and Chuck can't argue with her, they'd both want to know if something had happened to Dil or Kimi. Reluctantly they agree to go, with a long lasting look back at Lil.

Kimi clicks the door closed behind them and perches on the edge of the bath. When she awoke this morning, she never believed that her day would end up this way with Lily DeVille acting like a zombie in her bathroom.

After a moment of indecision she takes some make up wipes from the packet on the shelf and carefully leans in towards Lil to begins to wipe away the streaming traces of mascara. Lily watches her quietly, distracted from her thoughts for a minute by the beauty of the moment.

Lily starts to cry again but for completely different reasons. It all sort of crashes over her; the guy she thought was good boyfriend material turned out to be a jerk and the girl she ridiculed and called a vampire is looking after her.

"I'm sorry." She whispers in a low tone.

Kimi chooses to ignore the comment, there's not exactly time to go over old wounds. Instead she strokes Lily's hair and looks her straight in the eye, "What happened, Lil?"

Chuck wrings his hands and shakes his head at the foreboding sight of the house party. Every window in the house seems to be thrown open causing the sound and atmosphere to spill out into the street around them.

"Come on, Chuckie," Tommy says jerking his thumb to the front door which is helpfully wide open.

Chuck lingers by his truck, "Gee, I don't know, Tommy,"

Tommy slugs him on the arm, "Now's not the time to be a scaredy-cat. It'll be fine, Chuck, two minutes."

"How do you know that?" Chuck shoots back, "I've heard all kind of strories; rituals and initiations...I don't want to do a keg stand."

"No one's doing a keg stand." Tommy says in a firm kind of tone before stalking away.

With little choice of what else to do, Chuck follows on after him. They cross the littered lawn and let themselves inside the house that seems to be throbbing with noise. Chuck groans that the electronic screeching sound coming from the stereo but faithfully delves deeper inside.

They try the lounge first, as it seems to be the busiest room in the house. There, everyone is dancing against each other or even lying against one another on the couch. Chuck and Tommy squint around for Phil but there's no sign so they move to the thankfully quieter kitchen. Cups and bottles litter the countertops and the whole place reeks of alcohol.

Tommy spots Tyler leaning against the doorframe nursing a cup and scowling towards a young girl wrapped in the arms of some jock. Knowing that Tyler is a friend, or at least a team mate, of Phil's, Tommy strides over.

"Hey, um, Tyler?" Tommy calls out.

The blond haired boy turns and a flicker of surprise passes over his features, "Oh, Pickles, right?"

"And this is Chuck, we're looking for Phil." Tommy says clearly. "Phil DeVille."

Tyler pulls a face, as though he may be more intoxicated than he'd thought. "What do you want with Phil?"

"It's important." Tommy pleads, "It's um,"

"A family emergency." Chuck supplies from behind him.

"Yeah," Tommy nods, "So do you know where he is?"

Tyler blinks a couple of times and then shrugs, "He went to check on Megan a while ago, she's in one of the bedrooms upstairs."

"Right, thanks." Tommy says and Chuck nods nervously.

On the first floor, after trying three doors (a bathroom, the wrong bedroom and a closet) Chuck and Tommy find Phil. On the bed a girl Tommy recognises to be Megan is passed out and snoring loudly. Phil is stood by the window, staring out of it blankly.

Tommy coughs and Phil starts, turning sharply. When he sees Tommy and Chuckie he almost laughs, because there's no way anyone would have invited the pair of them here. Then his stomach sinks a little because they both look kind of worried and their parents are all friends...what if something has happened to his Mom or Dad?

"What are you two doing here?" He asks but it comes out as more of a spit.

"It's Lil." Chuckie says in a rushed tone causing Phil to frown.

Tommy steps forward, "I found her out running, she's really upset. Something's not right."

"Out running?" Phil shakes his head, "She's downstairs, with Chance."

"Actually, she's at my house with Kimi." Chuck corrects.

"Kimi?" Phil scoffs, "But they don't even like each other."

Tommy nods, a little sadly, "Which kind of proves the point that something is wrong. So are you coming?"

Phil mutters something under his breath and then rolls his shoulders, "This had better be good, for me to be seen leaving this party with you guys."

Lily is wrapped in Kimi's black and white kimono style dressing gown, sat on the cool tiled bathroom floor when the boys burst back into the house.

"Kimi?" Tommy calls out and takes the stairs two at a time. Chuck and Phil follow, Phil's eyes gazing around the house he used to haunt regularly as a young teenager.

Kimi appears on the landing, her eyes unusually wide.

"What is going on?" Phil asks, throwing his arms out in frustration. On the ride over to the house he hadn't managed to make much sense out of Chuck and Tommy's ramblings.

Chewing nervously on her thumbnail, Kimi squints up at Phil. She hasn't spoken to him for the longest time, it feels almost unnatural. "She's really scared, Phil. But she won't tell me what happened."

Seeming frustrated, Phil pushes past Kimi and charges into the bathroom, "Lil...what's going on?"

At the sight of her slightly younger brother, Lily covers her face with her hand, "Get out of here, Phillip!"

Phil grits his teeth and throws a look back at his old friends, "Someone had better tell me what the hell is going on, only this is all completely weird!"

"We don't know what happened." Kimi kicks back, "But Lil's pretty upset so maybe you should stop shouting."

"Right," Phil reaches fro Lil's arm to pull her up, "Well we're going home."

"Ouch!" Lil hisses and snatches her arm back. She clutches it to her chest and lets a tear roll free.

Phil's demeanour changes quickly from irritation to concern. A flash of alarm crosses his eyes, "Chance. He hurt you?"

"No!" Lily answers so quickly and firmly that Phil retreats from the idea. "It was, I fell in my heels and I think it's broken, my wrist,"

"You'll be out all season." Phil mutters, as though that's the most important thing in the world. Lily realises that to him, sport kind of is his whole world. She gulps, remembering again Damien's threat.

"Yeah. It sucks." She swipes a finger under her eye to wipe away the tear. "I, um, can I have a second with Kimi?"

Phil throws his head back in slight irritation but nods, "Sure. Whatever. Then we should call Mom and go to the hospital. She is going to freak out."

"Yes! Thanks, Phillip! You've been really helpful!" Lily shrieks.

"You know what? I don't even know why I had to come over here, Lillian!" Phil snaps in return.

Chuck put his hands on his head, "Stop it! Just stop."

Kimi sighs and places herself on the floor by Lily and kicks Phil out of the room. Once she hears the boys grumble their way downstairs she leans in towards Lily, "What are you hiding, Lil? Did something happen with Damien?"

"Do you remember when we were little?" Lily says in a soft voice, "And Tommy was scared of nothing and Chuckie was scared of everything?"

"Sure." Kimi shrugs, "They haven't changed you know, they're still that way."

Lily leans back her eyes clasped shut, "I feel like I'm Chuckie; afraid of everything."

"Why?" Kimi asks.

"Because you can't control anything, no matter how hard you try to have everything in order and be on top you don't really have any control." Lily says in an airy tone.

Kimi licks her lips and throws a little prayer out to some kind of God. "Did something else happen?"

Lily keeps her eyes closed, "I may need to get a test...you know."

"Oh." Kimi nods, "Yeah, sure."

"Kimi, Phil cannot find out about this, no one can know." Lily shudders.

Sighing, Kimi holds out her little finger for a pinky promise. "Don't worry, your secret's safe."

Lily squeezes her pinky around Kimi's, "You're too nice, you know, Kimi."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Kimi notes.

"No." Lily shakes her head, "It's amazing."

"We should go." Kimi advises and helps Lily to her feet.

They find the boys downstairs standing awkwardly together by the door. They all seem kind of relieved when Kimi and Lily join them.

Phil nods at everyone, "Well, see you then, I've got it from here."

"You've been drinking." Tommy cuts in a little scornfully, "You can't drive."

"I'll take them in the truck." Chuck nods, realising his responsibility as both a sober party and the eldest.

"I'm coming too." Kimi says and sends a slight smile to Lily.

"And me." Tommy assures, "I'll take my bike."

Lil glances over at him, "Can I ride with you?"

...