Disclaimer – Still own nothing.

AN - Updates are going back to either Saturdays or Sundays. This chapter, while still very Hal centered, goes more to the other characters thoughts and reactions to what is all happening. Please review and

Enjoy!

How terrible it is to love something that death can touch. – Albus Dumbledore

Matt sat in the chair beside the cot his oldest brother was currently sleeping on. Besides another two or three patients and some nurses, they were the only ones in the infirmary that had been set up in Fayetteville while they had been gone.

It took them almost an entire day before they reached the 2nd Mass. When they did, they immediately got Hal to the infirmary. While Anne started him on a line of antibiotics, Tom filled Weaver in on what all happened. After another 10 hours, there was still no change in his brother's condition, at least, not one that was noticeable.

"Hey Matt. He's still sleeping?" Matt heard his stepmom ask as she came over to them.

"Yeah." Matt replied. Hal had barely woken up since they left. He slept almost through the entire drive back, only waking up once, and that wasn't for more than ten minutes. It was staring to scare him, a lot.

"Don't worry Matt. Sleeping in long periods of time is normal when people are sick." Anne told him when she saw the worried look on the boy's face.

That look hadn't really left Matt's face ever since he first learned that his brother had been kidnapped. The one time it did was when they were first reunited. After seeing how badly Hal had been beaten though, it immediately came back and didn't leave, especially when they realized that Hal was sick due to an infection.

When Matt didn't respond, Anne squeezed his shoulder and moved more to Hal's side. She pulled out her thermometer, placed it behind Hal's ear and waited. When the device beeped, she pulled it away and checked his temperature. 103.1 degrees.

Anne put the thermometer back in her pocket and pulled her stethoscope from around her neck. Placing the diaphragm on her patient's chest, Anne listened to his heartbeat. Brow furrowing over what she heard, she took off the stethoscope and wrapped her hand around his wrist. She waited a long moment before she finally let go.

"He's getting worse, isn't he?" Anne looked up at Matt in surprise when she heard his question. The youngest Mason was staring at her with an expectant look, as though he already knew the answer.

"His fever is higher, but other than that, his condition hasn't really changed at all." The doctor answered honestly as she made her way back over to Matt, "If there is still no change in another few hours, I'm going to switch the antibiotics with a different one. We'll see if that works."

Again, Matt didn't say anything, though he did look more dejected than he did before. Anne crouched down beside him, not unlike she did when she was trying to comfort the boy's father.

"Matt, I promise, I'm going to do everything I can for him. You know that, right?" Matt nodded, but still kept his eyes on his brother. Unable to think of anything else to say, Anne quickly pressed a kiss on top of Matt's head and started walking away.

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Two hours later, Anne had one of the nurses get her an IV bag of a different antibiotics for Hal. As much as she wished and prayed for the one he was on would work, it didn't. The one that she had started him on better work because it was the only other kind they had. If it didn't, well, Anne didn't want to think about what would happen if the infection kept getting worse. Unfortunately, Tom, Ben, Matt, Maggie and Weaver were all waiting for her on the other side of the room.

"Well?" Tom said the minute Anne came to stand in front of them.

"I had to switch him to the other antibiotics. He wasn't responding at all to the other one." Anne informed them.

"And if this one doesn't work either?" Maggie questioned, not even bothering to hide her anger and fear at the situation.

"Well, then he'll become septic." Anne replied, trying to stay as professional as possible.

"What does septic mean? You never told us." Matt spoke up. The dark haired woman looked down on him, then at everyone else. When they first discovered that Hal had an infection, him becoming septic was practically a worst case scenario that she could get away without telling them. Now however, she would have to.

"I'm going to be brutally honest right now because I have no idea how else to say it. Sepsis is when the infection gets into the bloodstream. When that happens, it can travel anywhere in the body. It can get into the lungs, kidneys, liver. Once that happens, it can be extremely difficult to get rid of. Even before the invasion, it was hard to get rid of." Anne told them. Everyone's faces instantly paled at hearing that.

"Is he already septic?" Tom asked after a moment.

"No, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried that he's about to. I can't do any tests to confirm it, but his heart rate is starting to speed up and his blood pressure is dropping. It's very slight, but it is there." Anne replied.

"If he does become septic, and you can't stop it," Matt started, looking already very frightful at what the answer most likely was, "is he going to-"

"Yes Matt. It will kill him." Anne interrupted him. If she thought their faces were pale before, they were practically albino white now. Before anyone could say anything else, Maggie turned and stormed out of the room.

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Maggie kept walking until she ended up near the edge of their 'camp'. She sat down on the steps of one of the buildings, lowering her head into her hands. There was nobody else around and that was how she wanted it. She wanted to be alone right now.

She knew that her reaction might have been a little immature and dramatic, but she honestly couldn't take it anymore. After everything that had happened, from pushing Hal away after what she did to Karen, being separated for four months, terrified of what could've happened, being reunited only to fight about what was happening with Lexi, then with everything that happened with the spikes, it was too much. The look on Hal's face when he walked into the room was burned into her brain. Part of the reason she was so hesitant to starting a relationship with Hal was because she was scared that she was going to hurt him, and she did.

And now, he had been kidnapped by Pope and almost killed, only for them to think they were finally in the clear before all this happened. Listening to Anne tell her as well as her ex-boyfriend's family that he could die became too much. Maggie's pushed down emotions came up to the surface, threatening to overwhelm her and she couldn't break down, not in there, not with Hal's family. They were his family, not her, she had no right to scream and cry and break in front of them. Especially not with how she had hurt him.

"You okay?" Maggie heard Ben approaching her from behind long before he said anything.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" Maggie questioned, almost bitterly. With her having some of his spikes, she could feel his emotions and knew that he could feel hers too. She knew that he was terrified for his older brother, yet for some reason, was over here with her.

"You should be with Hal, and your Dad, and Matt." Maggie told him before he had a chance to respond to her previous question.

"I want to, but, there isn't anything I can do there. Just a lot of sitting and waiting. I have to do something. Thought maybe I could help you." Ben explained, sounding frustrated with how helpless they all were right now.

"You really want to help me?" Maggie asked, finally turning over to look at him.

"Yes." Ben responded instantly.

"Help me find a way to get my spikes out." Ben looked completely stunned and he stared at her, speechless.

"I get that you and Hal did it to save my life, and I'm grateful, but I can't keep doing this. These spikes, I can't think straight with them. I don't know what I'm truly thinking or feeling and I'm having trouble controlling what I do and because of that I-" Maggie stopped herself from finishing the sentence, stopped herself from saying how she hurt Hal, how the spikes were pulling her away from Hal and towards Ben, which she never wanted.

"You hurt Hal. And now you can't be with him even though you love him." Ben said simply, coming over to sit by her. When he saw the stunned look on her face he added, "It's not like it was hard to see. Everyone can see it. Everyone knows it."

Maggie didn't say anything. She simply moved her head to look down at the ground. The idea of getting the spikes taken out had already been on her mind for a while, but now, with the fear of losing Hal hanging over her, she knew she had to do it. If she was being honest with herself, she knew she was already in danger of losing Hal. Not to death, but with any hope of having a relationship with him again, of going back to the way they were.

She knows that he loves her, and she told him that she loves him, but if she couldn't truly make a choice between the two, he would eventually give up and find someone else. Someone who was actually worthy of him, someone who wouldn't break his heart. He wouldn't wait for her forever, and she couldn't expect him too. He deserved better than that.

"It was Cochise, he was the one who gave us the technology to put the spikes in your back, and it was Anne who did it. You should talk to them. Cochise is actually waiting for Dad and Weaver in the distillery." Maggie turned her head to look at the teenager again when he started speaking. He wasn't going to try to change her mind?

"It's your life Maggie. It's your choice. While Hal and I put my spikes in you to save your life, it wasn't what you wanted. If this is what you want, then you have my support. And I know you'd have Hal's too." Ben answered her unspoken question.

"Thank you, Ben." Maggie told him sincerely. She gave his shoulder a quick, comforting squeeze before she stood up and went to find Cochise.

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Weaver left the infirmary not long after Maggie did. He wanted to stay and support the man he considered his best friend and the man's family, but he knew they needed their space. Besides, there was still a lot that needed to be done if they were to move the 2nd Mass out soon to head to Washington. And since he knew that Tom needed to be with Hal right now, it fell to him to do it.

He was just about to head over to Dingaan to see if he had made any headway on the Espheni device they had found, the one that he hadn't told Tom or Anne or their family about given everything that was happening at the moment, when he saw the small group of soldiers he sent out on a patrol earlier making their way towards him.

"What did you find?" Weaver asked Butterfield, the head of the small group.

"Sir, we found the naval station. It's filled with soldiers and military equipment. From the sounds of it, they're part of the 14th Virginia division."

AN – For those who don't know, Butterfield is an actual character from the show. He was one of the people Weaver was talking to in Pope Breaks Bad right before he talks to Tom who was heading out to rescue Hal. He was also in other episodes according to Falling Skies Wiki. Next chapter will be up in a week, hopefully.