*Big shout out to DHARKE: again u made me blush, lol   I love ur hilarious comments! Please let there be no more 'computer troubles', they're too nerve-racking and time-consuming, lol    Uhm, Billy or Terry? Actually I – oh no no, see yourself ;o)    I excuse whether the last sentence of the 3rd chapter was a bit misleading, but I'm sure u know which name it really was, don't u? lol  Tell me and u'll get some colourful Quality Street's, ^ . ^ And as I said, I'm sorry, but it's gonna be confusing due to all the changes. Like Tod alive etc. Let's just imagine it was George Alex had a dream about. I know this is like on the cheap, but there are so many things that are based on the first part, that I cannot completely leave out the connection. And one more thing: George's quote is taken from the original script.*

Chapter 4

~°~.~°~.

Carter yawned and played around with his cell, checking the messages he had received during the last hours, then frowned. Was that thing broken? Why did he only receive half a message from one of his assistants? Could some throwing down on the ground now and then actually destroy such a phone? Stupid thing. Then he remembered the meaning of the letters and numbers shown on his display. He was obviously far more shocked by the whole scene than he ever would confess.

  ~°~.~°~.

The pain had become unbearable and he would've screamed if he had enough breath. Tod's powers grew weaker each second. He could feel his eyes being nearly crushed out of his eye socket. The tube wound tighter around his neck each time he tried to loosen it. With a last ounce of strength he tried to get hold in the slippery tub, but again failed. The dizziness in his head increased and the outlines of the bathroom faded from his view as darkness started to surround him, the pain started to vanish and soon had disappeared.

~°~.~°~.

"What the hell are you doing in there??"

Carter had followed Alex to the bathroom, who was now trying to open the door, but it was locked from the inside. Repeatedly he knocked against the wood. "Tod? Are you okay? C'mon, open the door. Tod??" But they didn't hear anything form the inside. "Tod? Open the door or –"

Alex jerked back as a something black missed his nose only by an inch and crashed against the bathroom door, making the wood around the lock splinter. Carter only had to kick against it one more time and the door swung open. "Shit", he whispered as they caught sight of Tod's lifeless body, his face nearly violet. Without any word they ran towards him, Carter cutting him off the tube with his ever present switchblade, then helping Alex to lay him on the floor, who immediately started with resuscitation. Startled from all the noise, Clear had entered the bathroom as well and now ran back to the phone to call the ambulance.

~°~.~°~.

In Carter's eyes they had been in too many hospitals during the last weeks. They were waiting for Alex, who was in Tod's room at the moment, alone with him, since the doctor had only allowed one person to visit him. As the paramedics arrived, Alex and Carter had already managed to reanimate their friend, though he was still unconscious as he was brought to the hospital. Now the painkillers they had given to him calmed his pain, but the questions in his mind wouldn't disappear. His brain worked on low flame, but still there were thousand things he wanted to know. Had to know. If only his voice wouldn't be so croaky due to the injuries the tube had caused.

"You really shouldn't talk", Alex said for the fourth time during the last two minutes, causing Tod to grin weakly. "Is it …. when I …. wasn't on board …. and Clear …. did I …."

Alex forced himself to look him straight in the eyes. This was exactly what he had been trying to protect Tod from during the last years. And now it had caught up with his best friend as well. He tried to smile. "You shouldn't worry bout that right now." His words missed their target, which he could see as Tod began to sit up in his bed, shakily, but refusing to let Alex help him. He tried to take a deep breath, but instead, twisted his face in pain. "You're keeping me off you all of the time!" His words came out slowly and some of them could hardly be heard, but he continued, his voice gradually becoming hoarser. "Ever since that fucking plane crash! And then, even more since the last time. Fuck, I can damn well look after myself; I don't need your protection!" He frowned. "Well, most of the time." But you won't get rid of me this time, you hear me??" Tod folded his arms. "You will always have my friendship, Alex. No matter whether you want it or not, you will always have it."

Alex smiled, but before he could say something, Carter, who had entered the room behind a strict looking nurse who had decided that her patient needed his sleep now, answered sarcastically: "Yeah well then congratulations; welcome to the team!"

~°~.~°~.~°~.~°~.~°~.~°~.~°~.~°~.

"Why do all of this people have to die when it's us it wants to get?" Tod asked the next day. He still had difficulties to speak, but clearly felt better. Alex and Clear had stayed in the hospital overnight, refusing to leave though the nurse had assured them a dozen times that she would call them if there were any changes. In the meanwhile Carter had been in his firm for a while, but had left as soon as possible. He didn't went straight back to the hospital though. He had spent a long time just sitting in his car in the subterranean garage, staring at the display of his cell, constantly pressing one of the buttons as soon as the light started to become paler. It was only a short message, the same one he had looked at right before they had found Tod. One of his assistants had obviously wanted to remind him of the meeting they had that evening. Asking the corresponding person about it, he had only received an uncertain smile and the way the man shook his head told Carter that he really had no clue what he was talking about. So he had kept staring at the letters and numbers. Meet. w. H.-Corp. 8 pm. Paradoxically each of the abbreviations took an entire line as if somebody had pulled them apart as far as possible, so he had to press one of the buttons to see the end, which consisted of one single abbreviation. The one he always used for today. Tod.

This time Carter had waited until the display became completely dark as a voice at his side made him start. But it had only been one of the security officers wondering if he was okay. As soon as he had left him, Carter illuminated the display one more time and started to press some more buttons until he received the desired question: Are you sure you want to delete this message? Without any further thought, he had pressed the first option. Yes. With a sigh he had let his cell fall onto the seat beside him and then started motor.

Tod frowned. "I don't get that."

"That's the way it goes. You were meant to die there, as well as them. Just because you escaped, doesn't mean that they're saved as well. It's not like the last time."

The bewildered expression on Tod's face made the other's laugh. They had spent the last two hours trying to explain him the consequences of his accident. The ones beside the pain in his neck.

"But do you really think it was because I missed the plane?" Tod wanted to know and wanted to kick his own ass the next moment. Though many people died in accidents at home – being strangled by a tube wasn't that ordinary. Though – "Why wasn't it after me the last time? You remember? I got that stupid flu two weeks before our trip to Paris. So I was meant to be on that flight as well."

Clear shook her head. "Your time wasn't over then."

"So how do you know it should've been?"

Carter gave him an are-you-really-that-stupid look, before he said:" Remember the tube? That's how you know it."

Tod gave an unnerved sigh. This was like a nightmare. The same nightmare Alex, Clear and Carter had already gone through two times, so it surely would be easier for them to see the signs, to escape Death's new design, whatever it might be this time. Alex had told him that there was a new plan each time. The first time the 180 survivors had been killed following the order they should have died in the plane crash. Whenever Death had failed to kill one of them the last time, it had simply started to kill innocent people that had been near them, the more the better. Innocent. He snorted at that thought. Weren't they all innocent? Surviving had been their only mistake. The main of all human instincts. And now they were punished for that. Tod was sure that he had the stubbornness to fight this intangible creature, but he didn't know whether he had the power. Admittedly, the others had already beaten it twice, but looking at all those people who didn't, he wasn't sure which side he would belong to.

"What fucking God would do this?" he mumbled, thinking of what Alex had told him about George's words as he had entered the plane. Gazing at a crying baby, whose parents had done anything to calm down, he had decided that they were not having any severe turbulences or worse during the flight. "Good sign", he had said. "Younger the better. It would be a fucked up God to take down this plane." Seeing a young man suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in the first row, he had added: "A really fucked up God." But the plane had crashed down. No question of money, age, helplessness or anything else, all of them had died. Tod frowned. "Didn't they tell us that He was good, during that Sundays in church when we were ten?"

Carter raised his hands. "Don't look at me! I've never been in any of them fucking churches. I only liked to chase them well dressed little punks afterwards."

Alex rolled his eyes, knowing him and Tod had been his favourite victims. "This is far beyond that God they presented you there, so you wouldn't be too afraid of life and the world in general, for they gave you someone to believe in, who made up the rules and that all of it would make sense in the end. But in reality it's exactly like Liz said; there is no infinite plan that cannot be changed."

"So?"

Alex shrugged. "We have to stay together, find out what the new design is about and then beat it again."

Tod gave an uncertain laugh, then a wince. "Ouch. Sounds easy."

Carter smirked. "Oh, don't worry, it is", he replied ironically.

Alex turned to Carter. „And since you have the premonitions now, I expect you to be available all of the time and tell us every single detail about what you see, no matter how unimportant it might seem, got that?"

"Forget that staying together, Browning. We are a bit older than the last time, you know? All of us have jobs and I'll do a fuck hanging around with you guys while my firm goes down the tubes."

"That wordplay was intentional!" Tod complained, his voice no more than a whisper at that time, so they decided that he needed a rest. Since Clear had come back earlier from her conference than she had planned to, she was the only one with free time and therefore stayed at the hospital, causing Alex stomach to turn though he knew it was best this way.

"Be careful", Alex said to Carter as they left the hospital and went toward their cars, both of them sports cars.

Carter smirked. He reached for the door, but then stopped, uncertain what to do. "Alex?"

A bit irritated by the way Carter's voice sounded he turned round to face him, having a dreadful foreboding, as Carter obviously evaded the eye contact as if there was something he was afraid to tell. "What?"

The next second Carter smirked as usual as if nothing had happened.  "I still can't believe you have such a cool car. Seems as if there was still hope for you."