Summer was vaguely aware that someone was calling her name. She wasn't quite awake yet and tried to return to her dream. It had been something pleasant. Fields of gently rippling grass, dotted with purple and yellow wildflowers. She could even feel the breeze on her face.

"Summer!"

Okay, she was officially awake now. Turning over, she opened one eye reluctantly to find Seth peering down at her. "I'm up," she said croakily. "This better be good."

"It's Laura. We can't wake her up. She looks really sick."

Instantly alert and worried, she threw the blanket aside and followed him a few short steps. Laura was slumped down on a chair, her feet propped up on a small end table. Sam was crouched over her while Elsa and Jeremy stood by, looking helpless.

"What happened?" Summer asked.

"I don't know," Sam replied, anxiety written all over his face. "She was fine last night. Then this morning, she wouldn't wake up. I tried calling her name. Shaking her. She's totally out of it."

Judith rushed into the room, carrying a large reference book. "Let's go over her symptoms again," she said, flipping a couple of pages. "She has a fast pulse?"

Summer regarded the unconscious girl closely. Her skin had lost its usual glow, looking pale and listless. She seemed to be breathing abnormally fast and occasionally shook from tremors, as if she was cold.

"Yeah, it's pretty fast," Sam answered.

"Fever?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so. She actually feels too cool. And look, she's shivering sometimes."

Judith was murmuring under her breath, as her finger followed down the page. "Rapid pulse and breathing...low temperature...chills...pale." She turned to another section of the book. "Does anyone know if she's hurt herself recently?"

"Actually, she said something yesterday about hurting her leg," Elsa spoke up.

"That's right," Summer said. "I saw her limping yesterday. But she said it was nothing."

Sam knelt down to pull up the hem of one leg of her jeans. As the wound was revealed, almost everyone emitted a collective gasp. The angry, red cut on the side of her calf was swollen and leaking pus.

Summer's lip curled downwards as Seth voiced her exact thoughts.

"That's nasty," he whistled, flinching as if in empathetic pain.

"Definitely infected," Jeremy said, stating the obvious.

"I think she has blood poisoning," Judith reported, looking down to consult the book again. "It's also called septicaemia and judging by her symptoms, I think she's developing septic shock."

Sam slowly stood up again. "What does that mean?"

"Her blood pressure and blood flow are getting too low. It may cause vital organs to fail. The brain, kidneys, liver..."

"There must be something we can do," Summer interrupted, appalled by what she was hearing. After everything they'd been through and now this. It wasn't fair.

"I...I don't think so." Judith looked both flustered and defeated. "It says the infection has to be treated quickly to prevent it from spreading to the heart and lungs. We need antibiotics. Penicillin. I just don't see how we can pull that out of the air."

"And if she doesn't get treatment?" Sam asked softly.

Judith shot him a level gaze. "I think you know."

Horrified, Summer leaned into Seth for support and he placed an arm around her shoulder. Poor Laura. She didn't deserve this. Tears sprang to her eyes and she blinked, trying to maintain her composure.

Sam, however, wasn't as subtle. "Well, we can't just accept this. We can't sit here and do nothing," he railed.

Jeremy crossed his arms across his chest. "What, exactly, do you propose we do?"

Sam started pacing back and forth, tossing out ideas as they came to him. "There...there must be a pharmacy around here somewhere. They would have penicillin, right? We just have to go out there and find it somehow."

"Oh, absolutely, that's not a problem," Jeremy said, in a mocking tone that made Summer want to slap him. "We just have to find it, hmmm?" His voice instantly changed to exasperation. "Do you comprehend the fact that we're buried in twenty feet of snow out there? What you're suggesting is impossible. Besides, wasn't it your father who explicitly told you to stay indoors?"

"I'm not going to stand here and watch Laura die!" Sam barked, looking close to breaking down.

Jeremy held up a placating hand. "Look, I understand how upset you are. It's a terrible shame. It really is. But this girl doesn't stand a chance."

Sam bit his lip and turned his back on all of them, as if he wanted to shut them out or more likely, to hide his despair.

Jeremy opened his mouth to say more but Elsa quietly spoke up first. "Put a sock in it, Jeremy."

He looked mortally offended. "But..."

"I mean it," she hissed fiercely. "Otherwise the precious Gutenberg Bible is the next log in the fire."

Silently applauding Elsa, Summer watched sadly as Sam plopped down on the chair next to Laura. He held one of her hands, rubbing it gently as if trying to keep it warm.

Seth grabbed a couple of nearby chairs so he and Summer could sit and talk with Sam. They said nothing, waiting for their distressed friend to speak first. It took a while but he finally did. "I was so happy last night," he told them, one corner of his mouth turned upwards at the pleasant memory. "The happiest I've ever been in my life. I told her how I felt and she feels the same way about me. Can you believe it?"

"Yeah, I can," Summer replied honestly.

"There's gotta be something we can do." He remained insistent on that point, unwilling to give up hope.

Seth offered his opinion. "Sam, as much as I hate to agree with Mr. Uptight Bigmouth over there, I think he's right. Trying to find penicillin in some buried pharmacy would be like...like trying to find that blue diamond necklace after it got dropped in the ocean."

Summer narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You know, like in Titanic? We were just watching it last week."

"Oh, good one," she scoffed.

But Sam seemed to inexplicably perk up at that analogy. "Titanic," he exclaimed. "Seth, that's it! You're a genius!"

Seth smiled with some uncertainty. "Why, thank you. But, uh, how so exactly?"

"That ship that's stuck out there. It must have medication on board. It's our best shot."

"I suppose that's possible, yeah," Seth conceded, though he didn't sound entirely convinced.

With one last look at Laura, Sam stood up. "I have to give it a try. I know Dad said not to go outside but I think he'd understand."

Seth got to his feet as well. "I'm going with you."

"Yeah? Thanks, man."

Getting a little ticked off that she seemed to be excluded from this conversation, Summer followed suit. "I'm going too."

"No," both boys said in unison, as if they shared the same brain.

"Why not?" she shot back.

Sam gave his reasoning first. "It's too dangerous."

"Oh, please!"

"And you know how you hate to get wet? This is worse. Snow, ice...I mean it's seriously cold out there," Seth advised.

"Cohen, don't patronize me,"Summer said in a low tone, hands on hips.

Seth widened his eyes, giving his best innocent look. "I wasn't." He turned to Sam. "Was that patronizing?"

"Well, the bit about hating to get wet might have been, yeah," Sam replied.

"Thanks," Seth said sarcastically. "Anyway, we just don't know what to expect out there. I don't want to worry about you."

"You don't have to. I can take care of myself," Summer insisted. "Laura is my friend too. The more people you have searching the ship, the better."

But they were already reaching for their coats and turning away. "Forget it, Summer. You're staying here and that's final," Seth commanded.

Summer was left open mouthed and sputtering as they ran out. She couldn't believe Seth Cohen was giving her orders. What was up with that? And why was she obeying them?

Elsa came over, looking curious. "What was that about?" she asked.

"Oh, just my boyfriend deciding to become macho-man and get all protective. Puh-lease! Someone needs to watch his ass," Summer fumed. "Sam got this idea that maybe there's penicillin on the ship that we saw yesterday. They're going to look for it." She paused and looked at Elsa hopefully. "Would you come with me?"

"Oh, I...I don't know. I couldn't..."

"It's okay," Summer cut in quickly. "You don't have to. But I'm going in."

-------------------------

It looked like a winter wonderland out here. They were surrounded by pristine, sparkling white snow. However, it hardly felt like a wonderland. The wind was sharp and bitterly cold, seeming to cut right through his thick coat. In fact, it was probably about as icy as the reception he expected to get from Summer upon his return.

Seth knew that he'd pissed her off royally. If looks could kill, well, he would have been a dead man. But he stood by his decision. He was only concerned about her safety. Somehow, he would make it up to her. Perhaps an extra long story tonight featuring their favourite equine hero and heroine. Or when they got back to Newport, he'd take her shopping.

If they got back to Newport.

What if Sam's father didn't make it? They were being careful to ration out their food supply but for six people, it probably wouldn't last for more than another day. If they were stuck for much longer than that, they would definitely suffer from hunger pains.

On the plus side, Seth had told his father where they were. Maybe he was trying to figure out a way to get to them too.

"Seth, come on!"

He raised his head and saw Sam already at the base of the ship. Lost in thought, he'd been lagging behind. He picked up the pace and firmly told himself to focus on the present. They had to help Laura now or she wasn't going to make it, period. That's what he had to concentrate on.

After catching up to Sam, they made their way up the metal staircase. It was steep and slippery, so they were careful about their footing and didn't rush. Once up top, they crossed the short distance to the nearest door. As Sam reached for the handle, Seth half expected that it would be locked. But instead, it swung open easily.

"Great! It's open," Seth commented, stepping forward.

He almost stumbled into Sam's back when he halted suddenly, bending down. "Yeah, it's open," Sam repeated. "That's strange." He fiddled with the lock for a moment and then straightened up again. "The lock is broken. Like it's been tampered with."

"Maybe it's just broken and they never got around to fixing it," Seth said. "What difference does it make? It's open, right?"

"Right."

Sam continued on, with Seth at his heels. Without the wind chill factor, it was slightly warmer inside. It was quiet, but not completely soundless. Seth could still hear the whistling of the wind outside and every so often there were metallic groaning noises, as if something shifted in protest. Looking around as he walked, he fervently hoped that they wouldn't witness anything grotesque, like dead, frozen bodies, for instance. He really didn't think he could handle that.

But no corpses littered their path. Perhaps the ship had been docked for a while at port before the tidal wave had arrived, so no one had been aboard. That made sense. In any case, it appeared they had the place for themselves.

They investigated the first few rooms they came upon but they were all sleeping quarters. Sam hesitated when they came to an intersection with another corridor, so Seth turned to the right. "Let's try this way."

He pushed open the first door he saw and froze in his tracks, taken by surprise. So much for his belief that they were alone on this ship.

At the creak of the door opening, the body turned around, eyes wide with equal surprise at the unexpected intrusion. Seth took in the scene with one sweeping gaze – the cupboards left flung open with items scattered on the floor, the bottles of pills and vials of medicine lined up on the counter and most telling, the wild-eyed look of the guy who was staring back at him.

"What is it?"

Sam's curious voice came from behind and Seth stepped into the room. "We've got company," he stated.

The stranger pointed a trembling finger at them, motioning towards the door. "You guys get outta here," he ordered, though his voice didn't sound at all commanding. In fact, he appeared nervous and jittery, a light sheen of sweat on his face despite the relative cold.

"Look, a friend of ours is really sick," Sam explained, his voice low and calm. "All we want is some antibiotics. Penicillin. Can we take a look?"

"No!"

"You can take anything else in here. Morphine, cough syrup, whatever. If there is penicillin here, it's not going to give you any kind of buzz," Sam pressed on, trying his best to sound convincing.

But the guy wasn't being very agreeable. "No way! We found it first! Get your own stash."

Seth was growing impatient. There was no point in attempting to reason with this loser. "Dude, you know what? There's two of us and one of you. We don't want to hurt you but if you don't move out of the way, you're going to regret it." Okay, that sounded pretty good. He arranged his features in what he hoped looked like a threatening scowl but the moment was ruined when he belatedly realized something. "Wait a minute. Did you say 'we'?"

As if on cue in a well-rehearsed play, Bad Guy Number Two made his entrance from an adjoining room with a squirming Damsel In Distress caged in his arms. Oh, perfect.

"Let go of me, you meathead," she spat out.

"Summer," Seth moaned. "You followed us?" He should have known. He should have expected it. And yet he hadn't seen this one coming.

She ignored the rhetorical question and also stopped her futile struggles, as if deciding to conserve her energy. Besides, she didn't stand a chance against this guy. He easily outweighed her by a hundred pounds. Other than the fact that he physically looked more intimidating than his friend, Seth got a bad vibe from him. He just looked more menacing somehow. Of course, the fact that he had one thick arm around Summer's waist and the other around her neck might have had something to do with it.

"Well, well, well," drawled the mean guy. "Looks like we've got a party going on here. What's up, boys?"

Sam tried his reasoning approach again. "All we're looking for is penicillin. Our friend is going to die without it and we're running out of time. Please, that's all we want."

"Well, now, that sounds reasonable enough, doesn't it, Dave? Except then you'll be wanting some painkillers. And then you'll decide you need the food I found back there."

"No," Sam stated emphatically. "Just the antibiotic. Then we're gone. You can have everything else."

"Even your cute little friend, here?"

Seth felt a chill run down his back at the man's smile. The guy was cold and completely in control of himself. He wasn't shaky, sweating and nervous like his pal Dave. That made him all the more dangerous. Seth had never started a fight before. He'd been the punching bag on the receiving end countless times, yeah, but instigating a challenge was new to him. He desperately hoped Sam could throw punches as well as Ryan. "Let her go," he said slowly and clearly. "Unless you want your ass kicked."

The man burst out laughing, which was not the effect Seth had been hoping for. Perhaps that had sounded more cheesy than tough.

"Good one, kid. Let's see you try it." In a smooth, quick motion, he withdrew a hidden gun and aimed it at Seth's head.

Whoa. In a reflex action, Seth raised his hands, his heart thudding madly in his chest. Not good. Definitely not good.

"Hey, take it easy!" Sam exclaimed, taking one step back.

"That's it, you've got the right idea," the man encouraged. "Just walk away and you don't get hurt." He glanced at his slack-jawed friend who hadn't said a word since he'd come into the room. "Dave! Put everything in your bag now. We're going."

"Okay, okay." Dave picked up his gym bag and started tossing the bottles in. In his haste or clumsiness, one vial smashed on the floor.

"Be careful, for fuck's sakes!"

"Sorry," Dave said meekly, continuing to load the bag a little more slowly.

Seth took a step forward. Why, he didn't know. Like he thought he could take the guy while he was distracted, or something. The sound of the hammer cocking was impossibly loud and rang in his ears.

"You want to take me on?" the man inquired softly.

Seth stared down the black barrel, gulping. "Just let her go," he pleaded again.

The man sighed. "You know, you're really starting to annoy me now. You're like a broken record. Not that a kid like you even knows what a record is." He closed one eye as if he was taking careful aim.

Seth debated whether he should hit the floor or try to tackle the guy. In the split second before he could make up his mind, Summer decided to speak up.

"Hey, birdbrain! If you think I'm actually going to let you take me anywhere, you're dumber than you look."

Oh, God. It took every ounce of Seth's will power not to groan out loud. What was she doing?

But the man took the bait whole. "Oh yeah?" he snarled.

"Yeah," she stated defiantly. "You've got the I.Q. of a warthog and the breath to match."

"Summer," Seth warned, his fear multiplying when the guy started swinging the gun around towards her temple.

Then things happened so fast, it was hard to comprehend. First, Summer threw both hands up to deflect the arm that held the gun, pushing it high in the air. A single shot fired and blasted through a small window, shattering the glass outward. Then she seemed to twist his wrist, bending back his whole arm at some unnatural angle. The gun fell from his slack fingers, clattering to the floor. Beneath the man's howls of pain, there was an unpleasant snapping, crunching sound that made Seth wince. The guy was on his knees but she still wasn't done with him. A swift and brutal kick to his groin sent him writhing to the floor in a magnificent display of agony.

In the meantime, Sam had grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and pummelled Dave in the head with it, knocking him out cold. He immediately began searching through the bottles. Seth hadn't even lifted a finger and the villains had been taken care of. Cool.

He noticed Summer drawing her foot back for another kick and he actually reached out to stop her, thinking she was aiming to truly finish him off. "Look, he's passed out already," he pointed out. "Show a little mercy."

"Mercy?" she repeated incredulously. "He was going to kill you and probably Sam and then have some fun with me. He doesn't deserve mercy." She stopped and took a breath, seeming to force herself to calm down a little. "Anyway, I wasn't aiming for his head or anything. I was just going to bruise a few ribs. You know, to make sure he wasn't going to follow us anytime soon."

Seth stared at her. "You're scaring me. How the hell did you do what you just did?"

"Six months of self-defense class. Daddy's idea. Good to know it wasn't a total waste of time." With admirable nonchalance, she picked up the gun from the floor and walked over to the broken window, tossing it outside.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side," Seth muttered.

Summer smiled at him sweetly.

"I found it!" Sam cried triumphantly, holding some bottles in the air. "Penicillin!" He placed them in the gym bag and slung the strap over his shoulder. "Okay, let's go."

"Wait. The food is just in the next room," Summer said. "We should take some back with us."

Sam hesitated as if he was going to start arguing, but instead he nodded. "Okay, but let's make it quick. I'm worried that we've already taken too long."

As she led the way, Sam added, "By the way, very impressive moves, Summer."

"I know," she said over her shoulder.

She sounded quite smug and Seth couldn't fault her for that. Very impressive indeed. It made him think about the time that she had dressed up as Wonder Woman. Wow, she really could have put the moves on him. Definitely did not want to get on her bad side.

Working quickly, they stuffed as many cans as they could in the bag and made their way back outside. It had stopped snowing but the wind was still strong and picked up the loose flakes on the ground, twirling them around. They walked as quickly as possible, knowing every minute counted for Laura.

Seth looked ahead and was relieved to see they would soon be at the entrance of the library. That's when he noticed something odd. He couldn't feel the wind anymore. Snow that had been caught up in the gusts sprinkled slowly and gently back down to the ground. Weird.

Sam had stopped in his tracks, looking up to the sky. Seth followed his gaze and saw a ring of clouds that opened up to reveal a circle of beautiful blue sky. It reminded him of something – like being in the eye of a hurricane.

Now that wasn't a good thought.

Sam was apparently having the same premonition. "Guys, this isn't good. Run!"

Summer slipped her hand into his and they began to run. One would think that by now, he would be an old hand at running. This fleeing for your life thing. But that was not the case. Skateboarding was fun. Biking was okay. Running. Totally. Sucked.

Finally, they were inside the library. They kept up the sprinting pace. He was seriously out of breath but he made himself keep going, legs pumping like mad. It was getting colder. The air was literally getting frosty and he could hear the crackling of stone right behind him. Now really, what kind of temperature could freeze stone in less than a second? He didn't want to find out.

The last time he'd ran for his very survival, he'd made the mistake of looking back. He didn't make the same mistake again. Instead, he focused on Sam's back, following close behind. They burst through the door of their little sanctuary and Summer had the presence of mind to slam it shut behind them.

Elsa, Jeremy and Judith all looked up in surprise at their alarming entrance.

"Books! More books!" Sam shouted, making a beeline for the fireplace. "Don't let the fire go out!"

They all jumped to the task, starting a feeding frenzy into its hungry mouth. Seth watched in dread fascination as the wood of the closed door began to glaze over with an icy frosting. It rippled across the adjoining wall and partially onto the floor but there, it seemed to stop.

The fire was blazing so hotly now, they all had to stand back. They had done it. Even the particles of ice on the floor were starting to recede now, though the far wall and door remained encased in frost. Seth noticed that the piles of books in the room were higher than he'd last seen them. The stock had been replenished while they'd gone to the ship. Good timing.

"What was that?" Summer exclaimed. She spoke to no one in particular, simply venting her disbelief.

"At least we know my dad was right about staying inside," Sam offered, as he ripped into the gym bag. "How's Laura?"

"No better. No worse," Judith answered.

"Well, guess what we found," Sam said, lining up the bottles on the table. "Penicillin. I just hope we're not too late."

A/N: So, melissa, you survived your own 'Day After Tomorrow' experience! Glad you're okay. I've experienced blackouts (was just about this time last year, actually) but nothing like a hurricane. Did you notice there were no wolves in this chapter? Happy? LOL! I didn't like that whole sequence in the film either. It was contrived and obvious. So when I was planning my version of the story, I knew I would replace the wolves with something else. Of course, I don't know if my version is any less contrived but I had to have some kind of conflict on the ship. So that's what I came up with. Better or worse than the wolves? I'll let you (and everyone else) decide.

To SparkingDiamond: For the record, I liked Luther and his dog too but I didn't need another secondary character so unfortunately, they bit the dust.

To everyone else: Thanks again for the reviews. We're heading into the home stretch now.