A/N: At the risk of sounding like a record, broken or otherwise, I love you guys! Your reviews just rock! Here's a quick update for you!

Riley

Sometimes being alone is nice. When you're alone, you can pretty much do whatever you want. What do you want to do tonight, Riley? Well, I'd like to run over to the library and do some research on time travel for that comp. project coming up. Then maybe head over to the student center and trick the TV into picking up Comedy Central in time to catch Scrubs. Then go back to the room, type up a paper, and hit the sack.

Then there are times when it's not so nice. What do you want to do tonight, Riley? Mostly I'd like quit running dialogs in my head. Geeze.

But it wasn't really a big deal, though. A few more weeks, and I could quit lying low. Everything would come out in the wash. Kent would be history, and I could tell Ben everything, 'cause Ben really liked history, anyway. And if he wasn't totally put off by the fact that I'd lied to him (something I refused to count on), then maybe it would be okay to…I don't know…be his friend. Like normal people did. I figured if he was desperate enough for a friend to find one in me after everything I'd managed to screw up in a few days, he must need somebody pretty badly. And he'd already done so crazy much for me…it was the least I could do.

It was the week before Thanksgiving break. So everybody was pretty much itching to get out of there. We just had until Friday. Then it was a week off for Thanksgiving. Then two more weeks of classes. Then the semester was over and everybody left for Christmas. Three more weeks until it was over. And one of those weeks, Kent would be gone for Thanksgiving. I could do two weeks in my sleep.

The first few days of the week went by pretty uneventfully. I saw Ben a bunch. He didn't just smile and wave. After classes on Monday, we went to lunch. Then grabbed a couple snow cones. Heh. And I had to tell him like fifty times that I was okay. Nothing happened. I hadn't even really run into Kent. I went into the room after he'd gone to sleep and got up before he did. And then on Wednesday, we met up with Paul and Melanie for this thing at their church. Paul did the music, and he said they could use a bass player for their praise band, which worked out really well, because I happened to play the bass. Go figure.

Kent showed up a couple times and tried to make me miserable. Stupid stuff. He did wind up finding my prescription, but it didn't really matter, 'cause I'd already recovered to the point where I was pretty sure I didn't need them anymore, anyway. And I guarded my inhaler with my life. I think he was getting antsy because I think he'd planned for me to have caved and dropped out, and with the end of the semester so close the fact that I was still around didn't fit in with his plans. But…that was my plan.

It was Thursday. I was going to the cafeteria to meet Ben for lunch after my eleven o'clock. Usually I pay more attention. Guess I was having an off day. I jumped as a hand landed on my shoulder and already had the "Geeze, Ben," on my lips before the hand tightened and spun me around to come fact to face with anti-Ben. "Hey, Poole."

"Kent." I had to talk myself out of being truly startled. "As horrible as it is to see you, I've got somewhere I'm supposed to be, so…"

"Listen to me." The fingers dug in further. He sounded different. "I just need to talk to you for a minute."

"Pass." I shot a look around to see if anyone was watching—no one was—and tried to pull out of his grasp. Nothing doing.

"Poole, I've got something to say; you're going to listen." His usual cool, condescending smile was gone. And that scared me a little. "Tomorrow everybody leaves for break. You're not going to come back."

I gave him my best clueless grin. "That's cute, Kent. Seriously, I have to go…"

His other hand whipped around and clamped down on my other arm with a shake that shut me up. "You're not listening to me. I'm going to say this once, you little freak." His voice was low and truly dangerous. "You're going to swear to me right now that tomorrow you are going to leave and never come back."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't do that, I swear to you I will make sure your life is not worth living. So you're going to go to the business office, and you're going to tell them that you're not coming back. You're going to sign whatever you have to sign, and you're going to haul your worthless butt off this campus, and I am never going to have to think about you again."

I pretended to look disappointed. "So…does this mean you're not wearing the friendship bracelet I gave you for your birthday?"

He growled, hands going painfully tight. "Drop out!"

I raised my chin and met his glare head-on. "Drop dead."

Desperate eyes widened in surprised anger. He wouldn't hurt me, though. Not in broad daylight. I knew that much. I saw him take a deep breath through his nose. "Where are you going right now?"

"Lunch."

"Skip it. We need to talk."

"I'm meeting someone there."

He snorted and started walking, hand still doing a great impression of a vice around my upper arm. "Yeah, right."

I resented that. But I had more pressing issues to worry about. Mostly the one hustling me in the opposite direction of the cafeteria. "Kent, let me go. I'm serious." I dug my feet in, but he yanked me forward. I'd have some ugly looking bruises around my arm, I knew. Good thing it was sweater season.

"Don't make a scene. Come on. I just want to talk to you."

"Kent…"

There was a sudden movement and I almost lost my balance as the hand around my arm was suddenly wrenched off. I looked up to see a blur of blue sweater and familiar cord jacket and had to blink as Kent found himself pinned between the brick wall of the sci building and the fists of a really, really mad old guy.

"Whoa…what the…Who are you?"

"Ben Gates. Been waiting to meet you, actually. Now I want you to give me one good reason why I shouldn't…" One hand fisted in Kent's jacket tightened. The other loosened. Oh, shoot.

"Ben! Stop!"

I grabbed at his sleeve and pulled him away, stepping between them and backing Ben up with two hands on his chest. The guy wasn't looking at me, though. He was looking at the guy behind me with the most furious expression I'd ever seen on his face. "Take it easy."

Kent spoke up from behind me. "Whoa, man. We were just talking. What's your problem?"

Ben took a step forward, and I pushed him back again. "Hey. Quit it. Knock it off, Ben; I'm fine. Everyone here's fine."

His jaw was clenched so hard it looked like it would shatter. "This is the guy isn't it?" He was nodding while he spoke. "This is the guy."

"Ben, stop. Calm down." I turned around and looked at Kent who was glaring at Ben and straightening his jacket. "I think it would be a very good idea if you left right now."

"What'd you do, Poole? Go out and buy yourself a body guard?"

I gave half a laugh. "What, for you? You give yourself way too much credit, Bishop." Man. I really can't let someone else have the last word.

With a final glare and a headshake, he raised his chin and walked, bringing his hand back to rub the back of his head, and I wondered how hard Ben had pushed him into that wall. Complications. I closed my eyes and turned slowly to look at Ben. He was watching the guy go. I stepped into his line of sight, dropped my shoulders, and grinned like nothing was wrong. "So. Lunch? It's tuna melt day, right?"

He finally looked at me. And he still looked really ticked. Geeze, what the heck did I do? "Riley. You want to tell me what that was?"

I blinked. "What what was?" He glared. I tried again. "Nothing. Talking. We were talking. Like he said."

"He had you by the arm, Riley. I saw your face. You really believe I'm going to buy that was just two friends chatting it up?"

"I never said he was my friend."

"No, you wouldn't, would you?"

I dropped my gaze and bit my lip. He really was mad at me. Great. Fantastic. Brilliant. But I could salvage this. Trusty fallback number one: "I'm sorry."

I heard him sigh. It was a frustrated sigh. Not what I was going for. "No, I'm not…mad at you, Riley. I'm mad at that guy. I'm worried about you."

Oh. Well. Trusty fallback number two: "It's not a big deal…"

"Riley." He cut me off and waited for me to look up at him. I sighed through my nose and raised my eyes, 'cause I knew he actually wouldn't speak until I did. "This is a big deal." He looked ticked again, and I thought maybe I should scratch number two off the list and just stick with old faithful.

"Sorry."

"For what?"

I blinked. For what? What kind of a question was that? It wasn't enough that I was just sorry? I had to know what I was supposed to be sorry for, too? There was just no pleasing this guy. He'd just shot down both of my trusty fallbacks. I silently mourned the death of old faithful. If sorry wasn't going to work, I was fresh out of ideas. "I…um…We're going to…miss…lunch. If we don't go. And…it's…tuna today, you know. ...Yum." One of the lamest deflections in the history of the entirety of my life.

I started walking toward the cafeteria. To my relief, he fell into step beside me. "What'd he want?"

"I don't know. Just said we needed to talk."

"You didn't want to go."

"He's a boring conversationalist. Nothing like you. Tell me that story again. The one about the, what was it? Oh, the reason Lincoln decided to grow that beard he had. That one was fascinating." That got a little grin out of him. I swear the guy knows the weirdest stuff about history.

"Because you fell asleep the first time?"

"I'm sure the climax was much more exciting than the intro."

"How about we switch things up and you tell me a story?"

"Sure. Once upon a time…"

"Riley."

"This is how normal people start their stories, Ben. Once upon a time, there was a king named…Briley. Who was handsome and loved by all. He had a personality clash with a peasant named Tent, who was dumb and/or lowly. And King Briley's…historian, Fen, blew it all out of proportion."

He didn't look impressed. Maybe a little amused. But not impressed. "So how does it end?"

"Uh…they all lived happily ever after? Except for Tent who got eaten by the Loch Ness Monster—proving she does in fact exist—at the end of the semester. And then came the living and the happily ever after and all that jazz. And, I don't know, there was probably a sunset for our intrepid heroes to walk off into or something. The end. I'm hungry."

It may be hard to believe, but I made that whole thing up on the spot. Yeah. I know.

"Sure Fen didn't just throw a rock at his head?"

That surprised a laugh out of me. "You weren't really going to hit him back there, were you?" I was kind of curious.

He paused for a moment, and instead of the "Of course not" I expected, he said very simply, "Conceivably."

I stopped walking, a little stunned. He kept going. "Conceivably?" I called after him. "What kind of answer is that? Ben? You don't say 'Conceivably' to a question like that. Hey!"

"And by the way, 'fen' is actually a word that is the equivalent to 'swamp' or 'bog.' That's not insulting at all," he called over his shoulder.

What the heck? As I jogged to catch up with him, I couldn't help but grin a little. He almost hit a guy.

NTNTNTNTNTNTNT

That night Paul invited a bunch of people over to his house for a game night type thing. I got an invite.

We ended up playing Apples to Apples, which I'd never heard of but was a really fun game. I got to meet his wife and kids, too. They were really nice. His wife, Jana, made this dip that was intensely good. She found out I "had pneumonia" and decided the best cure had to be to feed me within an inch of my life. Which I didn't actually mind, because everything she insisted I eat was crazy delicious.

There were three kids. Two guys, Brennan and Collin, and a girl, Rachael. Brennan was a year younger than me. Rachael was fourteen. Collin was eight. Melanie was there, too, and the guys from praise band. So I spent an evening I should've spent working on a paper for Philosophy sitting in a warm home on an overstuffed couch between Ben and Melanie, laughing way more than I'm used to because was Ben trying to cheat by guessing who put down what card, and then there was Melanie teaming up with me against Ben and Paul taking like five minutes every time he took his turn, to which his kid, Brennan, complained "It seriously takes him less time to do 200 pushups," which I had no trouble believing at all.

As I left, Paul hugged me. I'm not a big hug guy, but Paul was definitely a big hug guy, so I let him. "Take care of yourself, kid. Happy Thanksgiving."

"Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving."

He grinned and took a pretend swing at me. "Keep your hands up."

I ducked and smiled back. "And swing from the shoulder. I got it." He clapped me on the shoulder.

"You're all right." I'd grinned. I was feeling pretty all right.

Ben dropped me off in front of my dorm like always. I went and tugged on the main door. It was locked, which was weird because they usually don't lock the doors until midnight, and it was like half past ten. I shrugged and headed around for the back. If that didn't work, I'd have to go around to the security booth and call the RD. If no one was there, I'd call Ben 'cause he'd be mad if I didn't. As I approached the back, I thought I heard a sound behind me to my right. I started to turn, but it was too late. There was a sudden explosion of pain at the back of my skull and everything turned a blinding white then went scary black. I don't remember anything else.

Ben

I saw him disappear around to the back after the front door didn't work. I frowned. That was odd. These buildings weren't supposed to be locked up, yet. I cut the engine and got out of the car, following him around the side of the building. What I saw made my heart jump up into my throat. A man had come up behind Riley, and as I watched in horror, he smashed the kid over the back of the head. I will never ever forget that sound as long as I live. The dull thunk followed by a short cry that seemed to be ripped from his throat and cut short. Then Riley's body landed on the grass without hardly making any noise at all. I felt my blood rush to my face as I shouted, "Hey!" and started marching forward, not completely sure what I was going to do.

The man turned, eyes widening in surprise. Bishop. "You."

I kept walking toward him, clenched fists raising. "You."

He looked frightened for a moment; then his face hardened, and I saw a flash of metal and realized what he'd hit Riley with. It was a handgun. And its barrel was pointed at my chest. He held it on me, eyes like stone. "Stop. Don't move."

I forced myself to pull up, coming to a stop a few feet away. "What, you're going to shoot me?" I'd never heard my voice sound that way. I was seething.

"Don't make me."

"You keep going with whatever this is, you're throwing your life away."

His hand tightened on the gun as a small tremor ran through him. "You take another step, you're doing the same thing."

"Listen to me. You're going to lower that gun. I'm going to take my friend. And then I suggest you run." Not that it would do much good.

He let out a breath through his mouth. "I don't think you realize what you're dealing with, Mr. Gates." Two men stepped out of the darkened overhang of the doorway. One I recognized as the orangutan from class. The other I'd never seen before. He was tall with dark hair and gray eyes. The orange one also held a gun. The dark one didn't look like he needed one.

"This wasn't part of the plan, Kent," the orange one said through his teeth.

" Qué vamos a hacer?"

"Shut up. This…this works." He motioned toward me with his gun, looking like he was desperately trying to improvise. He had the appearance of a man who was in way over his head. And those are the times men become the most dangerous. "You want him? You carry him."

I looked down at the unconscious form on the ground and tried to keep my voice level as I met Bishop's eyes. "What do you want?"

The hammer was pulled back with an audible click. "I want you to do what I say before someone gets hurt. Move. Now."

I slowly reached down, mind spinning with questions, and pulled Riley over my shoulder. He was dead weight, but I could feel him breathing, and I prayed he had his inhaler with him. I hefted him up and stood glaring, waiting for further instruction.

I was hustled to a car where I sat between Riley and the tall one, Riley's head on my shoulder. This was not a college prank. This was something much, much bigger. And much deadlier. I looked down at my friend's face. He was oblivious, it seemed, to everything. What have you gotten yourself into, kid? I wondered, trying to will my heartbeat to slow. And why couldn't you tell me?

Riley

As my mind started clawing its way toward consciousness, the first thing that ripped into my awareness was how completely awful I felt. Every time my heart beat, it was like taking a mallet and slamming it down right on the pain center of my brain. Nobody told me pneumonia comes with headaches. This sucked. Plus, I don't know if it was just the pain, but I felt really nauseated and just sort of miserable. And cold. It was really cold. I wasn't sure where I was, but I bet if Melanie was there, she'd have that Lion's Choice soup. I don't know why I knew this, but it seemed logical. Like if I got my eyes to open, she would just be there and have that soup, and it'd be hot and make my stomach less rebellious. And I wouldn't even have to say anything because Ben would know I have a headache, because even if he didn't really know how many fingers I had behind my back, I swear the guy's part psychic because he always just knows stuff.

I realized my legs were the coldest. They were on something hard and freezing because the cold just sort of seeped up through my jeans. But the top of me wasn't that bad. My back was against something warmer and kind of soft. It was all very disorienting, and I kind of wanted to go back to sleep because there's usually not much too disorienting about being unconscious save for the occasional nightmare. But if Ben and Melanie were waiting with soup and Tylenol, it would be rude to keep them waiting. And I needed to tell Ben that wherever we were was too cold.

I managed to pry my eyes open into slits. Wherever we were was dimly lit with a kind of yellowish light, but even that much made my head mad the same way a knife through my skull would probably make my head mad. I shut them tight and groaned. Then I heard a familiar voice right by my ear. "Hey. You waking up?"

Ben. He was there. And he'd have pills or something. I tried to sit up, but something was holding me down. Whatever it was got tighter, and I started struggling, trying to get it off. But then Ben's voice was back. "Easy, Riley. It's just me. You took a pretty nasty blow to the head. How you feeling?"

I convinced my eyes to open again and stared around the room. This wasn't my dorm. It wasn't even Ben's apartment. We were in a small concrete room, basement probably, a bare bulb on the ceiling as the only source of light. I realized Ben was sitting back against the wall. I was propped up against his chest, his arms wrapped around my torso offering some relief from the really low temperature of the room. I felt panic start to build. Something was really wrong.

"Riley?" Ben sounded worried. Why was he so worried? He jostled me a bit. "Hey. You still with me?"

Oh yeah. He'd asked a question, hadn't he? But how I was feeling seemed pretty unimportant at that moment, though. So I answered him with two questions of my own. "What happened? Where are we?"

"We…" He sounded like he almost didn't want to tell me. "We're in a basement several miles outside of town. You were attacked on your way into your dorm last night by your roommate and two other guys. The orange one from Gilbert's class and a tall guy who spoke Spanish. I surprised them. They had weapons."

My breath quickened. Oh shoot. This couldn't be happening. No. And Ben was here…they got Ben. "They took you at gunpoint?"

"I'm fine."

I shook my head and sat up and away from him in a panic, making the pain in my skull intensify as the world spun dizzyingly.

"Whoa! Whoa, easy, big guy. Calm down."

I shook my head, which was indeed a bad idea. "No. No, I have to…I'm sorry, Ben. This is all my fault. I didn't think…Ben, you're not supposed to be here!"

The room tilted to one side, which was really confusing until I realized that I had been the one tilting to one side, but the arms were back, and I got pulled back against his chest. My lungs hurt. "Easy. Slow down. We're going to be okay. You have a concussion. You need to just be still for a little while. Breathe, buddy."

He sounded so…infuriatingly calm. "Ben," I breathed. "You can't be here."

"You're here," he said, like that was an argument.

"This is my…"

"Riley. We're both here. I want to get us out. So shut up and tell me what's going on."

"Can't do both," I retorted automatically.

"Riley."

I sighed and dropped my head, glad he was behind me so I wouldn't have to look at him. "I'm…so sorry," I whispered. "This is my fault, Ben."

"I doubt that," he answered gently. "What are those guys after?"

"I didn't think…I didn't think he'd go this far. But he's not…not a murderer. He's just a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar." That had to be true. But now he was carrying guns? This was so messed up. I hadn't even known Kenny and Juan were in on it. I'd miscalculated hugely. And it wasn't just my life anymore. It was Mister…geeze, it was Ben's.

"Tell me what happened, Riley. Please."

I shut my eyes. I'd dragged him into this. He had to know, now. "Kent...he had a scam going with his friend, Jason. Jason worked in the school's bookstore. He was a good hacker, and he managed to get into the system and change the prices on textbooks. Every textbook that was purchased for this semester went through that bookstore. By raising the prices a few dollars, they managed to accumulate…I don't even know how much. Probably thousands. We've got over ten thousand students here. If each one bought five books for this semester, and Jason tacked on an extra ten bucks per book, that's half a million right there. It could be more."

I felt Ben stiffen. "Why is he after you, Riley?"

I sighed. "I…I overheard Kent and Jason talking about it. I didn't really know what to do, so I sent an anonymous tip to the administration, and they caught Jason because they could tie him directly to the problem, but he wouldn't talk so they had no idea what happened to the money. Jason got kicked out and arrested. The faculty kept it quiet, hoping to find out who Jason's accomplice was. I had no proof that it was Kent. But I figured out the money had to be hidden under his student account. Just sitting there. But now he can't withdraw it because it would be like signing a confession."

"So he's after you because he knows you got Jason caught and you know about the money?"

"No, he doesn't know it was me. Nobody does."

"Then why…"

"Because I'm his roommate. The accounts for a private room and a semiprivate room are coded differently. If his account got switched to a private-housing account with the bank, he could disguise the funds easily enough by dividing them up and labeling it as outside scholarship money. As soon as that happened, he could transfer it to an outside account. Nobody would know."

"And housing is permanent until semester ends," he realized.

"Yeah. If someone's roommate drops out, though, then that person has two options. He can either find a new roommate, or accept an increase in housing charges and pay for the now-private room. The only way he gets off is if I drop out."

"Which is why he's been torturing you."

"He thinks I'm just some idiot without a clue. He doesn't know I know. I guess he expected me to give up and pack it in a long time ago. Not counting break, we've got two weeks left. At the end of the semester, when everything gets paid off and everything has to be accounted for, they'll find the extra money. There's no way he can hide that much in a regular student account."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked quietly.

"I…didn't want to get you involved." Fantastic job on that one, Riley. Top notch.

He paused for a long time, and I suddenly wished I could see his face. Because then maybe I'd know what he was thinking. Probably that he'd made a huge mistake. No way was I worth this. He was probably realizing that. I took a deep breath and sat up again. "Look…"

I almost jumped in surprise as he caught me around the shoulders and guided me back down. "Quit moving around, will you? You're fine. Now let's just think this through. We're going to figure something out."

I found myself having to take a deep breath as stupid tears I blamed on the concussion heated my eyes up. What was it going to take for this guy to walk? I kept telling myself it was coming, and he kept proving me wrong. I was getting way too used to this. "Yeah," I swallowed. "Yeah. Okay."

"And from here in, I need to know everything. Not just the stuff you think I can handle. If you have a problem, I want to know about it."

"Before we end up being held against our will by three gun-wielding, antisocial MIT undergrads again? 'Cause I swear this doesn't happen as often as you might think."

"Tell me you get my point."

"I get your point. I really didn't think it would go this far, Ben. I didn't mean…"

"I know. It's not your fault."

"What are we going to do?"

"I'm not sure. What do you think Kent's plan is? What are we doing here?"

It was a question I was really scared to think about. I knew Kent was a jerk. Knew he could care less about me. But I truly did not think he'd pull something like this. I figured when it became clear he was going to get caught, he'd run. I guess it was naïve or something, but seriously. What was he going to do?

"I don't know. What time is it? Is it morning?"

"Yeah. About 6:30."

We heard some noise outside the door. Footsteps on a wooden staircase. "Can you stand?" Ben asked quickly.

I nodded, and he used the wall to lever us both up. My vision swam for a second, the pounding in my head getting impossibly worse. I thought I was going to be sick. "Take it easy. Close your eyes and just breathe," came the whisper from beside me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took his advice. "Psychic."

"Geek."

I gave half a laugh right before the door opened. Ben had his hand on my forearm. I guess in case we had to run or I decided to pass out. Kent, John/Juan, and Kenny came in, and I would've had to be a complete moron not to see the guns tucked into their waistbands. I swallowed. "So which one of you hit me?"

"That would be me." Kent said. He was cool and calm again. He believed he had me. Oh wait. He did.

"Really? Don't you usually get the Orangutan to do that sort of thing for you? Kenny, that doesn't insult you?"

"It is my turn," Kenny growled.

"Take your best shot, Schweetheart." He and Ben took a step forward at the same time.

"Come on, now, gentlemen," Kent said blithely. "Poole, you may be wondering why I called this secret meeting."

"Let me guess. You want me to drop out?"

"Always did think you were the bright one."

"Trust me, I did, too."

"So you'll do it, then?"

I bit my lip. Didn't look at Ben as I shrugged. "Let my friend go, and I'll do it."

Kent gave me a look. I don't know what Ben did. I still didn't look at him. I did feel his hand tighten on my arm, though. "So he can go to the police?"

"Hey, bringing him along was your idea, not mine. Just drop him off somewhere. Take me back to school. I'll go to the office and do whatever it is you want me to do. Then I'll get his car and go back for him. Everyone wins. No one gets hurt."

Kent seemed to chew it over for a minute. Then he looked at Kenny and nodded to him. Kenny gave a crooked grin and took a step forward. Oh boy. This was probably going to hurt. John grabbed Ben as he tried to move forward, and Kenny had nothing stopping him from landing a vicious uppercut to my stomach. I doubled over as all the air was ripped from my lungs, and I staggered till I felt my knees hit the floor. I couldn't breathe.

"Hey! What the heck was that? Come on!" I could hear Ben shouting. But my lungs wouldn't work. Two hands caught me roughly by the front of my jacket and I was back on my feet and jerked back into the wall.

"Or here's a better idea." Kent's face was inches away from mine as I struggled to get air into my lungs, thinking dying probably couldn't feel a whole lot worse than this. "You're going to do exactly what I tell you to do. You don't get to throw around orders this time, Poole."

I finally managed to get a few mouthfuls of air to starving lungs. They were well-spent on "Kenny, you're the…psych major. Tell me, these sort of...deep-seated issues. Is this…healthy?"

Kent's eyes turned to steel, and his grip tightened. He told me very plainly. "I'm going to hurt you."

"I understand that." I really did.

I braced myself for the pain, but instead of Kent's grip going tighter, he released me completely and I had to catch myself on the wall. I looked up at Kent as he backed his way toward Ben, eyes cold and never once leaving mine. What was he doing? A sudden sense of dread knotted my stomach. "Maybe you'll care more if it's someone else's pain." No.

He turned around and swung his fist, catching Ben right in the jaw, snapping his head around. No! "Stop!" John held Ben's arms as Kent hit him in the stomach once. Twice. Another head shot. "Kent, stop!" I tried to get there, to stop him. Kenny stepped up and caught me. I fought. "Leave him alone! He didn't do anything!" I threw my head back and felt it connect with Kenny's mouth. The guy's grip slackened as he swore. I didn't hesitate. I ran toward Ben. I was inches away, when I got pulled up short and flung around. I didn't even have time to put my hands up.

The blow landed like a sledgehammer below my eye, hard enough to cut the inside of my cheek across my teeth. I don't remember falling. I remember landing, though, as my head rang and my mouth filled with blood.

It was a miracle I managed to hang onto the frazzled edges of consciousness. I heard Kent grab onto Kenny and push him against the wall. "You idiot! You weren't supposed to touch his face!"

"Little punk just busted my lip open!"

"He's going to walk into the office looking like that? What, you think no one's going to notice?"

I couldn't really move, but I couldn't hear Ben. And it scared me. I spit out blood as a wave of nausea washed over me. I was going to be sick. No fighting it this time. I managed to force myself up on my hands and knees before my abused stomach rebelled and I retched hard, my stomach cramping all up. When I was finally done, I rolled over away from the mess. Kent and Kenny were sending me disgusted looks as Kenny tried to slow the blood running from his freshly split lip. Juan looked indifferent. Ben looked…hurt. I had to get over there.

Kent looked at Kenny. "We need to talk."

Kenny nodded and motioned to Juan or John, or whatever the heck his name was, and the Spaniard followed them out. As soon as the door clicked shut, I crawled over to Ben. I was shaking really bad all over and could feel the scared sweat trickle down my back, despite how cold the room was. Ben was pushing himself off the hard floor, leaning back against the wall. There was a cut across his bottom lip, and his face was starting to swell up. I reached him and stopped just short of touching him. What if he was hurt inside? "Ben. Ben, I'm so, so sorry. I'll…I'll do what they want. I'll do it."

He reached up and swiped clumsily at a tear on my face I'm going to say had to have been forced out from being sick. "Are you okay?" he breathed.

I had to shut my eyes. Shut 'em tight. Guy just took a beating for me. For me. No one had ever, ever done that for me before. And Kent was right. It hurt way worse than anything else he could've done. I shook my head. "Ben, what are you doing here?" I whispered as my eyes got hotter and wetter. I didn't cry. This was crazy. I didn't cry. "You're not supposed to be here." He wasn't. It was supposed to just be me. I could take it. Whatever they wanted to dish out, I could take it and had probably taken worse. But watching this guy get hurt because of me…I didn't know how to take that.

"Open your eyes, Riley." I did. He was looking at me. I could see pain around the edges, but through and through there was a strength and conviction there that I didn't even know what to do with. But I couldn't look away. He held out his hand. "You and me. We're in this together. We're going to make it out okay. It's going to be fine."

I found myself nodding as I took his hand and we shook before I found myself in a hug I didn't really have the heart to pull out of. "Okay," I whispered into his shoulder. "Let's draw."