A/N Thanks to ReRe04, Raven4Darkness and dexter for reviewing chapter 3.(Incidentally, I just want to say that I don't really think Spinner is an ass. He just has the uh...tendancy to not think things through very well, to not really ever forsee the consequences of his actions,and to often do the wrong thing before he does the right thing.)

I was disappointed to find that Ellie was gone by the time my feet were solidly on the ground. I'd hoped to talk to her at least a little bit about what we should do. It didn't seem right that we not do anything. I stared up at Marco's window for a few moments, still not really feeling right about leaving him alone up there.

But, I guess that's what Marco wanted.

And obviously Ellie was going to do what he wanted. So…I supposed I should, too.

Still hungry, I headed to The Dot.

"So how's Marco?" Paige asked as soon as I walked in the door. No kidding. Didn't even wait for me to order a burger or anything. It was like she and Hazel were just sitting there waiting to pounce on me the moment I got there. They looked at me expectantly.

"Um…" I couldn't tell them what Ellie and I had discovered. Could I? I mean…Marco hadn't wanted Ellie to call the police, which meant that he probably wouldn't want anyone else to. And Paige would totally tell everyone if she found out. Which meant that it would probably get reported. So, I couldn't tell them. "He's…pretty much stuck in bed." Not a complete lie. Okay, so he was really more on the floor beside his bed. But he was stuck.

"So why isn't he answering the phone?" Paige asked, frowning. "Or returning Dylan's calls?"

"He isn't supposed to talk." I realized right after I said it that I probably shouldn't have divulged that information. Indeed Paige's eyebrows went up. "Because he's sick." They went back down and she nodded. And that was the end of it.

For Paige anyway.

I myself had a lot of trouble getting to sleep that night.

I couldn't understand why Marco's parents would suddenly go psycho. I mean, Marco was pretty much everything that a parent would want, wasn't he? I mean he's incredibly smart, creative, reasonably athletic--not like he was the school jock or anything, but he wasn't like totally inept--popular, and probably the nicest guy in our school. And not that I think about such things, but I know several of the girls think he's really cute. So what more could his parents possibly want? The answer sat somewhere in the back of my mind, but I couldn't quite pull it out.

It made no sense.

None.

And what was up with removing everything from his room? I mean…take the phone, annoying, but sure. Computer, yeah, can see the point. But his clothes? What was up with that? There was no reasonable explanation I could come up with.

I rolled onto my side and stared at the clock. It was almost one in the morning and I still hadn't slept at all. I was really tempted to go wake my mom and ask her what I should do. But then she'd know and she'd probably tell me that what we should really do is call he police. That really seemed like what we should do. But Marco didn't want that.

I flopped over and buried my head under my pillow hoping that if it were completely dark I could fall asleep. Never mind that it wasn't light that was keeping me awake.

It just kept coming back to the big questions of 'why?' and 'what now?'

The next time I looked at my clock it was half-past one. I had to do something. That's all there was to it. If I just left things alone, I would continue not sleeping. So, it was time to become Spinner Mason, Man of Action.

The next thing I knew, someone was knocking on my door. I must've fallen asleep after all. I rolled over and saw that it was shortly after two. Who was knocking at this hour? And how did they get inside?

I shot upright in bed and stared at my bedroom door. "Who's there?" I called cautiously.

Whoever it was knocked again and I became aware that it wasn't coming from the doorway, but the window.

I looked over and was startled to see Ellie Nash staring back at me.

Maybe I was still asleep and this was going to turn into one of those dreams. I smiled and started to settle back on my bed only to hear her knocking louder. I should probably let her in, huh?

I got up and unlocked the window, sliding it open.

"You're sleeping?" Ellie asked, accusingly as she slipped gracefully inside.

It was two in the morning, what did she expect? I shrugged and flopped back on my bed. Let the good dreams begin! I closed my eyes and settled back, waiting.

"Get up!" Ellie growled at me a few moments later, scooping my jeans and a t-shirt off my floor and tossing them at me. Hard.

"Ellie…?" I scratched my head, and yawned. Guess I was awake after all.

"I can't believe you can just sleep!" she brought me the rest of the way out of my daze.

"It's two in the morning," I justified, still half asleep.

"Are you going to help me or not?"

"What are we supposed to do? Marco won't leave and he won't let us call the cops," I replied, tiredly.

"So…we have to make him come out."

"In case you forgot, there's a chain on his door."

"You're just going to give up?" she challenged. "You're going to let his father…" She stopped short of what it was that we both suspected his father had done. Like me, she was apparently having trouble wrapping her head around that one.

"What are we supposed to do, El?" I asked seriously. "I want to help, but there's nothing we can do if he won't leave."

"We take him some clothes, for one," she replied, the fight fizzling from her voice. "And food. I don't think he's getting enough."

See, I had tried to tell her that earlier, but had she listened? No. She just glared at me for suggesting I go get food! Now see who's the dumb one?

"All right," I agreed, getting out of bed again. I pulled on the clothes she'd thrown at me while she started pulling open my dresser drawers and pulling out stuff. Finally she settled on a long sleeved black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. A pair of jeans that were going to be way too big, I might add, but I supposed they'd be better than nothing. I grabbed a belt from my closet and handed it to her.

She gave me a weak smile and accepted it. "Thanks."

I nodded. "My shoes are going to be way too big," I informed her, looking into my closet again. "If we're going to convince him to leave, we'll need to find him some shoes he can actually walk in."

She nodded, and looked deep in thought for a few moments. "I'll meet you there. Pack some food and meet me over there," she whispered, handing the bundle of clothes back to me.

Before I could even think of arguing, or suggesting that we wait until morning, she was out the window again. Hadn't the girl ever heard of using the door? I would have let her out downstairs!

I sat down on my bed, wondering for a few moments if that had really just happened. . Nobody was ever going to believe me that Ellie Nash spent the night in my room. Well, okay, that she spent like five minutes in my room in the middle of the night, but still, nobody was going to believe me.

I smiled to myself as I lay back for just a moment, psyching myself up for the run over to Marco's.

In hindsight, that was probably a mistake. The next thing I knew, it was almost five-thirty in the morning. I hadn't meant to fall asleep. I scrambled from bed and grabbed the stuff for Marco. Trying not to wake my mom, I headed quickly down to the kitchen and raided the fridge for anything and everything I could find that I could give Marco. Leftover meatloaf, leftover green beans (hey, at last I wouldn't have to eat them), and all sorts of other things that I could throw into a bag.

It was almost light out by the time I got to Marco's. There was no sign of Ellie anywhere outside. I considered knocking on the door, but thought better of it. They'd probably never let me in to see him if they actually answered the door.

So it was back to the damned trellis again.

I was getting better at it. A little. Or would have been if it weren't for the extra stuff I was carrying. I managed to get up to the window, and peeked in.

It turned out I wasn't the only one of us to fall asleep.

I grinned at the way Ellie and Marco were curled up together. If it weren't for the fact that Marco was gay, I would have sworn…

I almost fell backward off the trellis.

Mr. Del Rossi was giving me a strange look, but I just flashed a smile back.

"He rather spend time with this…Dylan boy, then go out with this Hazel?"

"She's not his type?" I suggested, sounding hopeful that he'd buy it.

He seemed to get a look of understanding on his face. But I could se that he wasn't exactly happy with my answer.

Crap.

This was all my fault.

I was such a dead man.

A/N: This story has been really strange for me to write, and I think that it's going to be a lot shorter than I originally planned on. It's beenmuch harder formeto write about such a serious subjectwhile trying to keep writing in the style ofhow I see Spinner on the show than I thought it would be. Thanks to those who have reviewed, it's very appreciated and keeps me motivated to keep working on it. So, I may wrap this one up in the next chapter or so, but if the interest is out there, I may write a companion story told from either Ellie's POV or Marco's--or possibly will rewrite this story so that there are alternating chapters from Ellie's and Marco's points of view. Anyhoo, if you're reading, please review and let me know what you think! Thanks!