Chapter 3: The Beginning Of A Nightmare

"Hey, stop! Ephram, seriously stop it! Oh, you jerk, you are so going down!" Amy screamed as Ephram sprayed her with water. "Ephram, stop!" She laughed, holding her hands in front of her in an attempt to halt the wet assault.

Ephram laughed at his friend as she helplessly guarded herself. Their cleaning job had started innocently enough. They had been silently washing and drying the dishes for about fifteen minutes when Amy had splashed Ephram in the face with a handful of soapy water. After that, a full- fledged war had erupted, leaving both the teenagers and the entire back room of Mamma Joy's soaking wet.

Once satisfied that Amy was sufficiently punished, Ephram returned the hose to its rightful place on the sink and sagged against the counter, laughing helplessly at the sodden girl who was evilly glaring at him through the thick strands of her dripping hair. After several minutes of breathless chuckling, the brunette made an attempt to gather himself together and stuck out his hand, offering a truce.

Amy smiled mischievously and stuck her own hand into his. "Ok, I'll forgive you this time."

"Good." Just as Ephram prepared to pull his hand out of hers, Amy's other hand snapped out from behind her back, grabbing a large water-filled bowl from the sink, and tipping it over Ephram's head.

For a moment, Ephram just stood in shocked silence, water droplets rolling down his face, his jaw somewhere down around his ankles. Then, he simply laughed and continued shaking Amy's hand. "That was a good one. I deserved that."

"Yes, you did." Amy couldn't get over how happy she was just standing in the back of the small diner, engaged in a water fight with her best friend. But then again, Ephram was always able to make the most boring of things into fun. She guessed that that was why he was her best friend.

Glancing around the room, Ephram noticed the disaster area that their fight had resulted in. "Uh, Amy, I think we just made twice as much work for ourselves."

Amy frowned as she surveyed the water on the floor, the counter, and everywhere else. The whole room had become one large puddle. Letting loose a great sigh; Amy retreated into the supply closet, quickly emerging with two mops. "Let's get to work."

Ephram took one of the mops from her hand and began the long tedious chore of mopping up a whole room full of water. Fortunately, they had finished the dishes before they started fighting so as soon as they were finished with this, they just had to wait for Nina to come back and then they could leave. Speaking of Nina, Ephram silently wondered what was taking her so long to get back. Mrs. Hamilton's house was less than five minutes away. Shrugging, he lightly coughed as he felt a tickle in his throat.

As Amy cleaned the floors, her nose kept itching. After a few minutes, she noticed that there was an odd smell in the room, and while trying to figure out what it was, she heard Ephram repeatedly coughing. Turning to her friend, she saw that he had quit traversing the floor and was leaning heavily against his mop. Concerned, she walked over to him.

"Ephram, are you alright?" She questioned, tapping him on the shoulder.

Ephram struggled to breathe as he replied. "No, I don't think I am." He was having a lot of trouble getting air in and it was beginning to scare him.

"What's the matter?" Amy was growing more frightened as Ephram's coughs became deeper and longer.

"I think that my asthma is acting up. I just have to get my inhaler out of my bag."

"Asthma?" Amy hadn't even known that he had asthma.

"Yeah, it's usually not a big deal. I don't know why it's so bad right now."

"Alright, it's ok. Where's your backpack? I'll go get for you." Amy said, trying to support her friend as he leaned heavily against the mop.

"It's somewhere in front." Ephram coughed out.

Amy helped him lean against the wall and quickly went to the kitchen door, grabbing the knob as she wrenched it open. The second she touched the handle, a searing pain ripped through hand but by the time the pain permeated her mind, it was too late. The door was open and Amy Abbott stood staring into the face of a nightmare.

A/N: Ok, I have to confess to only having seen about an episode and a half of Everwood when I started this story, but I became hooked. Due to my lack of knowledge, some of my facts may be wrong, so please forgive me. I do not know if Ephram has asthma in the show and if he does, whether Amy knows it or not. I just read in someone else's story that he did and decided it suited my story, so I used it. Forgive me if I'm wrong. Oh, and I'm sorry about the Mamma Joe's mix-up. I know that it's Mamma Joy's now, and I humbly beg your forgiveness and thank you for all the reviews, keep it up.