Nigel's POV

I swore under my breath as I picked vegetable peelings off of my jacket. Just five minutes ago I'd been jubilant – the follow up article I'd written whilst hanging off the side of the hospital had been a huge success.

My brief, put simply, was to get the scoop of the year. To find out what was wrong with Abigail Tracy. All anyone knew was that she had been involved in a car accident somewhere and was in a stable condition. But everyone knew there had to be more to it than that. It was my job to find out what it was. And it was easier than I could have imagined. Some of the nurses in there have huge mouths and it doesn't take much to persuade them to open them.

It turns out young Abigail has a fever that is baffling her doctors. And from the photo I took earlier on it looks like the rest of the Tracy's are losing the will to live. The window cleaner idea had been a stroke of genius on my part. Who suspects a window cleaner is spying on you? No one. Not even the 'genius' who is Jeff Tracy. Or his sons for that matter. The editor had loved it – his paper had the scoop everyone else was waiting for and I got a decent pay check from the job.

It's amazing, even to me, how soon you can go from being amazingly happy to hopping mad in the space of a few seconds. Someone had stitched me up. They'd sabotaged my car, with what looked like garbage from the canteen and what smelled like...well, I don't know what it smelled like but it was awful. I must have looked like I'd decided to jump into the huge dumpsters round the back of the hospital. Who would have done this? My mind darted through a long list of people who would want to do this to me, or have threatened to do this to me. It's a long list but I couldn't think of anyone who would do something this childish to me. I sighed as I picked my leather briefcase up off the pavement where I dropped it when I opened the car door. It looked like I was spending at least one night in a hotel – probably more than that. I locked the car and started to walk into the city centre, searching for a decent hotel to spend the night in, still searching through the mental list of 'enemies' in my head.

Scott's POV

We were getting ready to leave when Abby stirred again. Don't get me wrong, I was so happy that she was awake but she didn't seem to be getting much rest. Not as much as she needed anyway. If anything, the bags under her eyes seemed to be getting bigger and darker. Her fever wasn't going anywhere either. She seemed to be getting sicker, not better. I walked over from the door and joined Virgil at the foot of the bed.

"Shh Abs, shh." Dad soothed, trying to keep her asleep. It didn't work though.

"Dad?" She asked, her voice thick with sleep as she slowly opened her eyes.

"It's OK sweetheart, I'm here."

"How are you feeling Abs?" John asked softly.

"My head hurts." She moaned quietly as she tried to bury her face in her pillow in an effort to get rid of the pain.

"Hey, don't do that Abby." Dad said as he gently lifted her face clear of the pillow so she could breathe.

"I'll go and get Tom." Alan said. He patted her hand and stood up from the bedside. She watched him go, her tired eyes following Alan out of the room. Her eyes stopped on me for a moment. Then, she tried to sit up.

"Woah, woah woah – what do you think you're doing?" Dad said as he caught her arm.

"Trying to sit up – I don't remember it being this difficult." I rolled my eyes.

"That might be because you're body can't support you yet you crazy person." John said as he, Gordon and Dad tried, unsuccessfully, to get our little sister to lie down and rest.

"Abby lie down." Gordon pleaded.

"No, Gordy I want to sit up." She said, fierce determination lining her voice.

"Yeah Abs and you will, eventually but not yet." Gordon said gently. I watched him carefully. He was going somewhere and for once, the telepathy that comes with being the oldest of six didn't help at all.

"But I want to sit up and talk to you guys normally. It's hard talking lying down." She croaked before she started coughing violently. Dad rubbed her arm gently, his face full of concern for his youngest child. Once she'd finished, her arm gave way and she fell the short distance back into the pile of pillows behind her.

"I know you do Abby but you can't not yet. I know how you feel. When I was in hospital after my hydrofoil accident all I wanted to do was sit up properly. I know it's dull lying down, staring at the ceiling but it's not gonna be forever. You'll be sat up a lot sooner than I was. Until then though, you're gonna have to draw on that never ending patience you seem to possess OK?"

Abby smiled softly and nodded. And then winced as the sudden movement of her head mixed in with the pain from her little adventure combined together as one.

"So, while we wait for Al to find his way out of the labyrinth that is this hospital – want to see something really funny?" We all smirked as Abby raised an eyebrow questioningly. Gordon pulled his phone out and showed her the video of the reporter finding out just what happens when you mess with the Tracy family. I wondered where he was now – he wasn't going to be able to use his car anytime soon. I was brought back to earth by Abby's laugh. It wasn't just a giggle this time. It was a proper laugh. It made me smile to see the smile on her face. It didn't reach her eyes yet but we had time to get there.

"Well that is a nice sound to hear." Dan said as he strolled through the door. He walked over to her and checked her temperature.

"Hmmm – I see you're still causing me problems though." She smiled weakly at him.

"Hey Gordon?" Abby asked as Tom prepared the next round of meds she would need.

"Yeah Abs?"

"What was that video about?" Gordon looked back at me and I shook my head slightly, telling him to tell her the barest minimum.

"Let's just say, he now knows not to mess with us, OK?" It didn't look OK at all but by this time, Tom had injected the meds through the IV in her hand and she was slowly drifting off. I smiled as she yawned and closed her eyes.

"Right boys, I think you need to follow Abby's example and head to bed." This was met with mumbles and groans all round which made Dad chuckle.

"I'll see you in the morning boys."

"Night Dad." Came the reply. As we walked down the bright white corridors, Virgil asked a question that had been on my mind for a while.

"I wonder where our friend is now."

What we didn't know then was that our 'friend' had checked into the same hotel as us.

I'm baaaaacccckkkk! I finally got my laptop working again - happy days! To make up for all the time I lost I'm going to try and update a few more times this week - try because I'm only in my third week of college - but try I will. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter :) xxx