Disclaimer and stuff are in chapter one. Also, I just gotta say, liz_Z you're the best! If you weren't Beta-ing my stuff, I'd have so many grammatical errors that no one would read it. *Hugs* Thanks, from the bottom of my heart. Now, on with the fic. I hope this chapter has enough torture for anyone reading. I'm trying my best.

~*~

Sea of Glass 5/?

Darien looked at the plain gray wall in front of him. He could name every detail about it. He had seen it enough to get the basics down whenever he was getting his counteragent shots, but now, now he had spent the better half of a day staring at it off and on. He heard the sound of the Keep door opening and waited to move his head until the person was in view. "How was the air?"

"What?" Hobbes asked.

"The air, how was it? You said you wanted to get some air and then you left."

Hobbes gave a weak smile. "Yeah, the air was fine."

"Better out there then it is in here I'm sure." Darien pointed out, noticing that something was wrong with his partner. He was acting strange, almost distant. As if he were in another world and Darien was just in his way. "Okay Hobbes, spill the beans. What's going on?"

"Hmm?" Hobbes asked, snapping out of his thoughts once again.

"Now I know' something's wrong. You just went off to Lalaland while I was in the middle of talking to you."

"Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind."

"I couldn't tell." Darien wasn't sure if Hobbes had ignored him or just not heard him, because a minute later his partner still hadn't replied. "Hobbes? Earth to Hobbes? Snap out of it."

"You wanna go outside and get some fresh air?" Hobbes asked, looking around the Keep for something.

"What?"

"I asked if you wanted to..."

"I know what you asked, Hobbes. How the hell am I supposed to get outside? Did you forget that I can't walk?"

Hobbes turned around and walked out of Darien's eye shot. "Hobbes, I wasn't trying to get snippy with you, it's just that..." He said, thinking Hobbes was mad at him and decided to leave again. His partner came back before he could finish his sentence.

"Claire brought in this wheelchair. She thought that it'd be good for you to get out and see the sun before you started to look goth."

Shock registered on Darien's face, then he finally spoke. "No way, there's not a chance in hell that I am going outside. Not in a wheelchair."

"Fine then, I'll carry you."

"You'll what?"

"You heard me." Hobbes retorted.

"I don't think I did. It sounded like you said you'd carry me, and I know you didn't just say that."

"You said so yourself, it's stuffy in here. And fresh air will do you some good."

"No, I'm not going outside. Not like this." Darien replied, his voice cracking a little bit.

"I'm taking you outside," Hobbes bellowed, "and that's the end of the conversation!"

"No it's not. I don't want to go outside. I don't... I don't..."

"Don't what? Don't want people to see you like this? Well, sooner or later you have to except it. You're paralyzed, Darien, and nothing you do is gonna change that!"

"I know that!" Darien yelled back, trying to match his partner's tone. "You don't think I know that?"

"Then grow up! You can't hide in here forever!"

"No, I can't. But I can hide in here as long as I want! And right now I want to hide! You have a problem with that, Hobbes!?!"

The Keep door opened and Claire walked in, hearing the yelling match from outside. She was about to ask what was going on, but was stopped as she saw it for herself.

"As a matter a fact I do!" Hobbes said, pulling the wheelchair close to the counteragent chair.

"Hobbes, what are you doing?"

"Taking you outside." Hobbes reached underneath Darien and started to pick him up.

"Hobbes, please, I don't want to go out there." His voice rasped, and his eyes started to water as tears began to form. "I don't want anyone to see me like this."

Hobbes ignored him, and placed him in the wheelchair. He felt bad for what he was doing, but he knew it had to be done. He started to fix the legs of the wheelchair to support Darien's feet so they wouldn't drag on the ground.

"Bobby," Claire said, walking over to him. "What are you doing?"

"Taking my partner outside."

"Bobby, he doesn't want to go out there. Can't you wait until he is ready?"

"No."

"Please." This time it was Darien who spoke.

Hobbes' only reply was the sound of the wheels of the chair as it started to roll out of the Keep. A tear dropped to the ground as the door opened and the chair rolled out into the hall being pushed by Hobbes.

TBC