All usual disclaimers apply.

*-~*

On the way back to the hospital, Dwayne had fallen asleep as he sat. They had stopped by at a store and Jake had gotten something to drink and, after that, he had fallen asleep sitting on the passenger's seat. As he slowly started to wake up once more, he frowned slightly to fight away the drowsiness that seemed to be lingering in his mind. His head was leaning against the window, and it was until now that he started to feel once more the coldness that had always been there but he hadn't noticed before. Opening his eyes slowly, he blinked a couple of times to get rid of the blurriness and looked out the window. Everything that was around them was snow, though. Snow and more trees that didn't seem to end. Frowning, he sat up and turned to Jake, who was still driving as he smoked. "Where are we going?"

Jake turned to him quickly before back at the road. "The hospital, don't you remember?"

"This.isn't the way to the hospital."

"How would you know? You never leave."

At that, Dwayne frowned slightly and turned back to the road. That was true. Besides, maybe they were taking a shortcut.? Dwayne stayed silent, just watching the road and sometimes closing his eyes. His eyes seemed to be closing by themselves, for some reason, and he couldn't help but wonder if all those nights that he had stayed awake were the reason why he was sleepy now. As he started to nod off, the abruptness of the sudden stop made him open his eyes and once more look around but at what he saw he frowned. They had stopped in front of some sort of cabin. A shack, it looked like. "Where exactly are we?"

Jake turned to him and smirked, starting to get out. "Your new hospital. Now come on, get out."

"What?"

"Get.out. Didn't you hear?" When Dwayne got out after some hesitating, Jake got out of the car and followed him inside. The cabin was practically empty; it barely had a couch and raggedy curtains. Inside it was just was cold as outside, but Jake took off his jacket after locking the door. "Make yourself comfortable, 'Mr. Johnson'. It might be a while before my other guest wakes up." With that, Jake left him in the 'living room' before heading over to another room and shut the door behind him.

Still frowning slightly, Dwayne sat down on the couch. Where was he.? It was obvious that it was out in the middle of nowhere, but why was he in that cabin? Why had Jake brought him there? He would have thought that they were there to get something that he had forgotten, but it was obvious that that wasn't it. Sighing, he leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes.

"No, leave me alone!"

Dwayne opened his eyes and stayed there without moving. Had he imagined that? It had been some sort of muffled voice, and he didn't know where it came from. Next, there were some thuds heard before a loud smack was heard. It wasn't the sort of smack that someone would hit some sort of object; it was flesh against flesh. And it had been hard, too, because it seemed to echo throughout the lonely cabin and bring it out of its stillness and silence. Dwayne was about to close his eyes once more, not able to fight the drowsiness, but the small sound of sobs were heard again followed by some sort of glass breaking. Frowning, he got up again and tried to follow the sounds as quiet as possible and, when he reached the door where Jake had gone in he knew that it all came from there. But there were only sobs heard now and, still frowning, Dwayne opened the door. At the sight in front of him, Dwayne's eyes widened slightly before he tried to frown. "What the hell are you doing? Why."

Jake was standing, already smoking another cigarette. A woman was on a chair; sitting but tied up so she wouldn't be able to leave. Her hair was messy and covering her face, but it was obvious that she was crying because of the way that her body shook with each sob. "What, Dwayne? Why is she here?" Jake smirked and started walking towards him. "Why, we're just going to have a little reunion here. Just the three of us. And you, my friend, are the main attraction to all this."

Dwayne took a step back, frowning and looking at Jake in disgust. What the hell kind of a man was he? "What are you talking about?"

"Well, you are famous. When your little friend finds you gone, he'll want to find you. And then, because of you, the whole thing that happened here will be on the news. Thanks to you, I'll finally be able to prove what sort of fucked up people operate that freak show of hospital." Jake turned to the woman and smirked. "Especially one that is being led by Dr. Lisa Waltham."

When Jake said that, Dwayne could feel himself drain of color. He recognized his voice. He had been the one that had always talked to him. It hadn't been him imagining it; it had been Jake all along. He wasn't crazy after all; it had all been Jake.

.::.*.::.

"Daddy! Dad, can I go wake up Uncle Dwayne now? I want to open my presents!"

Kurt and Karen had been asleep on their bed; Kurt on his stomach and with his arm around his wife while Karen slept on her side and cuddled close to Kurt. Even with the thermostat, the house felt cold; but the ice on the window explained why. The temperature must have dropped more than what the meteorologist had predicted. As Kyle barged his way in the room, Kurt sighed and moaned as he fought the sleep, "It's already eight, Kyle?"

"Yeah, Dad! You told me that we could open presents at eight, remember?"

Karen, still with her eyes closed, talked, "We barely remember, sweetheart; it was three in the morning when we told you. . ."

Kyle grinned and jumped on the bed to wake them up. "Come on! Let's go open presents now. . .!"

Kurt sighed and started to sit up. "Ok, bud, go get your Uncle Dwayne." As he heard his son's cheers and his running to Dwayne's room, Kurt lay back down on the bed and rested his forehead against Karen's shoulder. "It's still early."

At that, Karen laughed lightly and caressed his arm. "I know, but it's Christmas, Kurt. Every Christmas it happens. Let's just be glad that Dwayne's here and we were able to sleep 'til now; this is actually pretty late for him."

Chuckling, Kurt turned to his wife and kissed her lightly. "You're so smart."

Karen grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back. When they pulled back, Karen grinned and whispered to him, "I know. . ."

"Dad! Dad!!"

At Kyle's urgency, both Karen and Kurt got out of bed; their heart beating quickly and praying that what they had talked about last night hadn't happened. Could Dwayne really have hurt himself? Killed himself? When they got to the room and saw that the only person in the room that had been in the room had been Kyle, Kurt frowned. "Where is he?"

The boy, grabbing the note, hurried to him and handed it to him. "He's gone, Dad; he left."