A man with dirty blonde hair runs into the Space Needle, followed by a man in a white coat and a girl with curly, raven hair. The man runs up faster than humanly possible, his legs just a blur as he races against time to help save his baby sister.

He reaches the top, pausing at the scene in front of him. A beautiful girl, his baby sister, lays in Ben's lap, motionless and ghastly pale, as Ben holds her tightly, whispering to her that everything will be all right, even if he knows it may not be.

"Ben," Zack says softly, but Ben just sits there, looking at Liz even as Dr. Carr checks her vitals. He sits down next to his brother, patting his back awkwardly. "Ben, are you okay?"

Ben shakes his head slightly. "I broke my promise, Zack." he looks at his brother, disbelief and self-disgust etched into his features. "I couldn't protect her."

Sam Carr shakes his head, looking down at Liz. "I don't think you could have done anything. This girl's sick, and she needs to go to a hospital."

"We can't do that, what about someone finding out about us?" Ben tells him, then looks at him scrutinizingly, his instincts to protect Liz going into overdrive. "And who the hell are you?"

"He's with us, he knows who we are, and if he says she needs a hospital, he's telling the truth." Zack answers before Dr. Carr gets a chance. "I'll ride with you." he adds as Ben lifts Liz carefully, as if she might break at any given moment.

The girl follows, knowing that she can't make her presence known to her brother quite yet, that he's obviously occupied. She looks at Liz, lying in Ben's arm, and tears form in her eyes. She'll be all right. She has to, I've only just found them all. We can be a family again.

Harbor Lights hospital, 9 minutes and 17 seconds later...

Liz lies on a hospital bed as Dr. Carr administers numerous tests to try to determine what's wrong. He wasn't going to allow anyone in, but it was obvious that this Ben fellow would have gone crazy with worry if his girlfriend had been alone.

"Liz, baby, wake up," Ben says softly, and as much as Dr. Carr tries to keep patient-doctor emotional distance, his heart goes out to the young man. "You'll be fine, ok? I'll always keep you safe, I promise."

Sam walks out of the room with a nod to the young man, and heads to the lab to determine what's wrong.

Liz's PoV (yes, she's still unconscious)

What's going on? Where's Ben? I try calling his name, but I am a prisoner of my body. Blackness surrounds me, and I'm scared. I concentrate on feeling things around me, on trying to remove the blackness.

I can hear a soft beeping noise, which tells me that I'm either in hearing distance of an alarm clock, or I'm in a hospital. Probably the latter. I can feel a familiar, calloused hand holding mine. Just knowing that he's here makes it better. The thought of him watching over me sends a warm feeling through me, knowing that he will never let anything happen to me.

"Liz, baby, wake up." I hear him tell me, and I just hope that he knows that I'm trying. "You'll be fine, ok? I'll always keep you safe, I promise." he swears, and if I was awake, I'd probably be crying.

I love him more than I've ever loved anything in my entire life, and I trust him with my all. Baby, please know that I'm trying. Knowing that you'll be there when I wake up makes me want to more than anything in the whole wide world. I'm trying, Ben.

Zack's PoV

I can't believe that the first time I see my little sister, she's so sick. I'm the CO, it's my job to make sure that everyone's ok! I should have known that the doctor was not a good man, but I let it slip.

I messed up big time, and now Liz has to pay for my mistake. Max puts her hand over mine, and I try to smile. "She'll be fine, Zack. Don't tear yourself up. There's nothing you could have done, you know?"

I shake my head. "No, Maxie. I should have known that doctor was a crook. But I figured that he'd been good to her for so long..." I trail off, the hand that isn't under hers clenched into a fist. She wraps her arms around me.

"Zack, you've done more for us that I would think was possible." she says, leaning her head on my shoulder. "If it wasn't for you, I would have been taken away." she says, and I put my arm around her, hoping that she feels safer.

"I couldn't let them do that, Maxie. I could never let anyone get to you." I tell her, not able to tell her how deeply I feel about her. She's different from everyone else in our unit; she was the one who made me a person, not a soldier.

"I know, Zack." she says, looking up at me with those chocolate eyes of hers. "Thanks." she tells me, kissing me on the cheek and laying her head back down on my shoulder.

Maybe there's hope yet.

An hour later, Harbor Lights.

Dr. Carr walks down the hallway with a folder in his hand, not sure how to tell them. Zack spots him, and stands up, Max following his lead. He hands the folder to them, knowing that they'll probably want to see the results for themselves.

"How is she?" Max asks him as Zack flips through the file. "She'll be ok, right?" Seeing the look in Sam's eye, she grabs for Zack's arm, oblivious to anything else.

"Do you want to get your brother?" he asks, looking at the closed door. Max and Zack look at each other, then shake their heads.

"We can tell him after you leave, maybe censor it a little." Max says, looking at the door.

"The doctor that she was seeing didn't think before he gave her the virus." Sam says, and Max looks to Zack worriedly, noting that the muscles in his jaw are working furiously. Continuing, he goes on, "X5's have feline DNA, am I right?" he asks, and they both nod. "Well, as you probably know, felines go through heat." he explains, and Zack grows impatient.

"Listen, will you stop telling us what we know and start telling us what we don't?" he asks angrily, and Max nods.

"Liz has been taking a new, highly radical drug called NeuroSemita to suppress her heat cycles. She has never really been through one before, since she's been given the drug since the beginning of her cycles. She's going through a type of shock both from being off the drug and to her first heat, and her body doesn't know how to react to it. She's dropping loads of pheromones and her immune system doesn't know what to do. Add in the virus that weakened her in the first place, and I have a feeling we may have to put her into a drugged coma for a few days, to let her body recover from the shock." he says, and Zack's head drops.

"She'll be all right, though? After she wakes up, she'll be fine?" Max asks hurriedly, clinging to Zack's side as he puts his arm around her.

"After she wakes up, she should be fine. She may have a bit of memory loss, but she should be fine." Dr. Carr says, and Zack gives him a look. He nods, "Right, I'll let you be alone for a while. Call me when you're through, so we can give the girl some drugs."

"Her name is Liz." Max mumbles softly, seeking solace in a hug from Zack. "She'll be all right, she'll be all right." she keeps mumbling to herself, a silent prayer to the Blue Lady.

"She'll be fine, Maxie. She's just come home." Zack says, holding her against him and praying that what he says is true. He pulls away, grabbing her hand and looking at the closed door. "I should tell him."

Max swallows, nodding. "Yeah, we should." she says, ignoring his look at the word 'we'. "I'm not not gonna tell him."

She opens the door, peering in cautiously at Ben. He's holding Liz's hand, watching over her. I wonder if anyone would bother doing that to me. Max wonders, saddening at the answer that probably no one would. "Ben?" she asks, and he looks up, his face a mask, blank. But you can still see that he's hurting. "It's me, Max." she says, and he smiles softly, rubbing the back of Liz's hand absently.

"Hey, Maxie. I thought it was you." he says, trying to smile.

"The doctor came around." Zack tells Ben, and he looks up from Liz. He sighs, cracking his neck, a nervous habit. "It turns out that the doctor she was going to gave her medicine to suppress her heats, and she's in shock without the medicine in her system when she first started dropping pheromones." he looks at the file. "It says that she's still a week from her heat, but add the virus into the combo, and you've got a bad mix. Everything added up, and she's really weak." he says, and Ben shakes his head, not knowing what to say. "They have to put her in a drugged coma." he tells his brother cautiously, receiving a feral look. "Ben, there's no other way."

"Fine." Ben says quietly, shrugging and turning to face the bed. He looks back, struck by something. "Is there any way that we can take her out of the hospital? I just don't think that she'd want to wake up here." he says, and Zack nods.

"We can use my apartment." Max suggests, shrugging at the looks she gets. "My roommate moved out with her cop-boyfriend, and I have an extra room now. It's not much, but it'll do for now." she says, and Ben smiles.

"Thanks. From both of us." he says, and Zack raises his eyebrows, not knowing that they were this serious about each other.

"Well, I just got an apartment here, too. If Maxie wouldn't mind me bunking with her, you could have the whole place, for when she wakes up." Zack says, looking at Max.

"It's fine with me, probably better that you guys have privacy, anyway." she muses, turning towards the door. "I'm gonna go tell Sam."

Zack claps Ben on the back. "She'll be ok, Ben. She's made it through a lot worse than this." he says, "I'm going to call everyone."

Ben nods, "That'll be good. They'll want to know." he says, squeezing Liz's hand slightly as the door clicks shut. "See, Liz? Look how much we all miss you already. Especially me." he tells her, kissing her hand.

Liz's PoV

"See, Liz? Look how much we all miss you already." he tells me, "Especially me."

I'm going to be out of it for at least a week? That's a week of my life, just gone. Why does my immune system like crashing on me so much lately? God, it's verging on overkill...

I can't believe how much everyone is willing to do for me. I've never had that much support from anyone, excluding my mother. I can't believe that Zack was so willing to give up his apartment for me.

My family loves me enough to do all of this for me....I'm finally home.

Well, at least I would be, if I were awake.

A/N

SURPRISE!!! Max is back! And also totally a different chick than Liz. Hope you liked the surprise, as well as the chapter. This one was pretty angsty, but don't worry- I promise to have witty banter (well, to the best of my writing abilities) next chapter. Voice what you think! If everyone hates it, then I'll repost the chapter.

Ok, please, PLEASE don't kill me for not updating. I didn't do so for two reasons- 1, I didn't get any reviews for the last time I had posted, and 2- my parents decided to move into town (a whopping ten minutes away), so I'm busy packing and practicing for cheerleading, too.

To my readers- you guys are why I do this! Thanx for putting up with all of my crap!!!

Luv ya lots,

molly jeane