Jimmy ran up the steps to Ellie's apartment ready to burst through the door and rescue her. Not hearing anything horrible happening inside, though, he decided that protocol should be followed and instead he knocked and called out, "Ellie? Is everything okay in there?"

Purely out of habit, Marco got up to open the door. Unfortunately, he was unable to grasp the knob. He began fuming again, annoyed at his inability to do even simple things. He just needed to find some place to sit and not move. If he didn't move, maybe he not being able to touch anything would stop PISSING him off…

When Ellie heard Jimmy, she jumped up as fast as she could and threw the door open. "Jimmy, come in. I need your help badly."

"Of course. What's going on?" he asked, really concerned. He looked around but saw no sign of attack or anything.

"Jimmy, Marco was here. I know that sounds completely crazy, but it's true. We have to help him, Jimmy. He is so scared he needs us."

Jimmy frowned with concern. "Ellie, Marco's…dead," he told her carefully, even though he knew she already knew that. She was the one who'd told him first. And since then he'd seen the body to prove it.

"I am not dead," Marco grumbled crossly, folding his arms across his chest and scowling at Jimmy.

"Jimmy, he is here. In this house. Right now. I talked to him and he said that he wasn't dead. I don't see him now, but…that doesn't make it not true. He was here. I am sure of it. Don't you believe me?"

Jimmy gently took her arm and led her over to the couch. "Ellie, I'm sorry, but…I've seen his body. There's no way he's still…" he shook his head, peering at her with concern. "Why don't you sit down. I'll get you some water." He noticed the blanket on the couch and thought that perhaps he had the answer. "You don't think you might have fallen asleep maybe?" he asked gently.

Marco went to Jimmy, trying to control his temper. "Jimmy. I'm right here. I'm alive. You have to believe her!"

Jimmy's eyes narrowed as he felt unnaturally cold.

Ellie grew frantic. "No, Jimmy. He was here. I swear it!" She found herself on the verge of tears again, hating herself for it, but not able to control it. "Why won't you believe me? He isn't dead! He was here!" She tried to calm down before she convinced him that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Jimmy cautiously put his arms around her to comfort her. It felt a bit awkward since he wasn't really a good friend, but he was Marco's good friend and he knew that Marco would want him to be there for her. "Ellie, Marco wouldn't want you to be so upset."

Marco's scowl deepened. "What would you know?" he snapped.

But Jimmy continued, "He was hurt really badly, Ellie. If he had lived...I think it's for the best that he didn't have to suffer."

"What do you call this?" Marco asked, getting angrier.

"He'd want you to let go," Jimmy concluded gently.

Marco's eyes widened in panic. She couldn't 'let go' he needed her help! "No, Ellie don't listen!" Marco shoved Jimmy away from her and was startled as it actually worked. He chewed his lip guiltily as Jimmy fell backward. "I'm sorry!" he winced, feeling awful. He didn't even know why his temper was so out of control. He wasn't like this. But he was cold. And scared. And Jimmy was trying to kill him! Maybe not knowingly, but in effect!

Jimmy looked around, more than a little spooked. One moment he was hugging Ellie, the next he'd landed on his butt, and he had no idea why he'd fallen. It was like a huge gust of wind had suddenly hit him. "What…was that?" he asked, shivering from the chill in the air.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked, leaning down to help him up. "You are probably right. It's most likely just…wishful thinking. It just felt so real!" She threw his arms around Jimmy's shoulders, desperately needing comfort.

Marco shook his head feeling just as desperate if not more. "No, don't listen to him. It's not wishful thinking. I'm right here!"

"I just don't know what to do now that he's gone. Every second that passes…it gets harder to breathe. I just want to go to sleep…so that I don't have to think about it. But everytime I close my eyes, I see him die all over again. What do I do?"

Marco felt worse as he listened to her admit what she was feeling. He wanted so bad to comfort her. At the same time he wanted to yell at her for giving up on him. "I'm not gone. I'm right here," he insisted again, wanting to cry but no tears would come at all. He was just left with the extremely unsatisfying feeling of being on the verge of tears.

Jimmy hugged Ellie harder. "I know. It's going to hurt. We're all going to miss him. He was…an amazing person. But he wouldn't want you to hurt. He'd want you to let him go. Move on. Remember him the way he was, not….what happened to him."

Marco shook his head again. "Please, Ellie, don't give up on me," he pleaded, moving closer, encircling her with his harms, though he couldn't quite touch her.

Ellie shook her head sadly, pulling back slightly. "You're right. I need to let him go. I just don't know how. He' was everything to me. He was my best friend. My soulmate. He was…my sun. The center of my universe and my entire world revolved around him," she paused briefly, feeling horribly empty as she admitted this. "Would you mind staying for a little while? I am just really scared to be alone right now."

Marco felt warmed by her words, which was amazing considering the intensely bitter cold. "Oh, El…you were mine, too," he murmured, once again feeling the annoying sensation of needing to cry but not being able to do so. He wanted to take away her pain. He wished he could tell her how much she meant to him as well. "I'm still here, El. I promise I won't leave you. Ever. Just don't give up on me." I tried to lay his head on her shoulder, keeping his arms around her. The lack of real contact only made him feel depressed. Why was it that he could somehow shove Jimmy, but he couldn't simply hug his best friend?

"Of course I will," Jimmy agreed, though he found himself sneaking a peek at his watch. He really did want to be there for Ellie, but he felt guilty that he'd just left Hazel hanging. Ellie needed him more, though, and Hazel had others with her. He'd call her a little later to check in.

He shivered as the cold seemed to surround them. He stooped down and picked up Ellie's blanket to wrap around her. "Want me to make some coffee or hot cocoa or something?" he suggested as he tucked it around her.

"That sounds great, Jimmy. Thank you so much for staying. I know that I'm not exactly the most pleasant person to be around when I'm like this…or ever." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Are you sure that you don't mind being here? I don't want to keep you if you're busy or something."

Jimmy smiled at her, though he was concerned about her comment. "I don't mind at all. You shouldn't be alone. And you've been through some bad things," he searched for the right thing to say. "You don't have to be 'Miss Congeniality' all the time for people to like you. You're okay, Ellie Nash. Otherwise would Marco have adored you?" he took a chance with that, knowing it was a gamble to bring him up. It could make her feel better, or might completely backfire and make her more upset.

Ellie sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's just that I have a tendency to depress people. Sometimes I'm too intense for people to handle." She smiled wistfully. "But that never bothered Marco." She looked down sadly. "He just got me, you know? I don't think that anyone will ever understand me like he did." She looked up imploringly. "Tell me something. Something that you remember about him. Something that I never knew."

Jimmy had to think. Ellie'd spent so much time with Marco that he wasn't sure he did know anything that she wouldn't know. But he still laughed as he thought of the night that Marco and Spinner were over at his place shortly after Marco came out. Spinner was being a total idiot as always. He smiled as he told Ellie about that night. How Marco had gone out of his way to help Spinner even though he was being a complete jerk. And then Spinner's near death by popcorn. "So there Spin was totally choking and Marco's literally having to chase him to try and save his life..." Jimmy trailed off, only now starting to really feel the impact of Marco being gone. "There Spin was being a total creep to him and he still went out of his way to help him. That was totally Marco..." He looked over at Ellie. "How about you? What are you going to remember best about him?"

"God, there is just so much. It would take all night to sum up everything that I will remember...and miss. My favorite thing about him was his humanity. He just cared so much. He had a kind of passionate energy that just transcends everything." She became pensive. "Transcends time even. I still remember when we were at Ashley's house one night. It was shortly after me and him first started 'going out'. When he followed me upstairs to the bathroom and confessed that he might be gay. He was so confused...so scared. Towards the end, he had just come such a long way. You could look at him, and not even believe that he was still the same person that he was a year ago. He became so comfortable with who he was. I am really going to miss him," She said sadly, fighting back tears yet again.

"No, you won't. Because I'm right here," Marco reminded her, even though he know by then that she couldn't hear him. He smiled, though, at the things they were saying about him.

Hugging Ellie again, Jimmy nodded. "We all will. But he'd want us to remember him as the bright and brave guy we knew him as, not grieve." He also couldn't help but wonder if maybe Marco was the lucky one in this scenario. He'd died, but he'd had his best friend and his boyfriend right by his side, and it happened fast. With all the…things going on, Jimmy wasn't so sure that the rest of them weren't going to just have a lot of suffering before they all were killed off. One by one. He quickly released Ellie from his embrace, hoping his pessimism didn't show. But he wanted to get out of there before he said anything depressing. She didn't need his fears added to her own. "Now I'm going to get that cocoa. I'll be right back."

He showed himself to the kitchen and started looking for the ingredients. While the milk was heating, he called Hazel just to let her know where he was and why.

"Jimmy, you might see if maybe Ellie could come here. I'm scared and I miss you. And…I think we need someone to help with Dylan. He's really upset."

"Okay...I'll see if she's up for it. I'll call you back in a bit." He hung up the phone as the hot cocoa finished heating and he took a couple mugs back out to Ellie. "Here," he offered one of the mugs to her.

"Thanks," she accepted the cup from him. "I think that I'm just going to go back to sleep now," she said after a few minutes. "I think that is the best thing for me to do now." Forever, but I don't say that out loud. "You can go back to your girlfriend now. I don't want to hold you up."

"You're not holding me up," he replied, sipping his own cocoa. "I'll stay for a while. Hazel's fine. She's over at Craig's with everyone." I almost suggested to her what Hazel wanted me to, but she really looked exhausted. When she woke up, then maybe I'd suggest she go talk to Dylan. They're the two who were closest to Marco and it seemed logical that they could help each other cope.

Ellie nodded, laying down and covering up tightly, trying to rid herself of the icy chill that continued to surround her. She yawned and closed her eyes. "Do you think that maybe it is at all possible that Marco really is still alive? Maybe not here, but…somewhere. Maybe in some other time, he is still alive and we're all still safe and happy. There is nothing hunting us down and trying to kill us and burn our world…" the second the words are out of my mouth I realize just how absurd this whole thing really sounds. "Maybe I'll just go to sleep and when I wake up I will realize that I dreamed all of this. I will wake up and go to school. Then I'll find Marco and tell him about this insane dream that I had…" she trailed off as she feel to sleep.

Jimmy smiled sadly at her suggestion, wishing that he believed this were all a dream. He was sure that if it were, though, he'd have made himself wake up by then. "I'm sure he's out there," he told her, even though it was clear she was no longer hearing. "Somewhere reserved for the best of us."

Marco smiled bitterly at that idea. He would like to think that if he were dead, it wouldn't be anything like this. He turned back to Ellie, kneeling by her. He let his hand hover over her, and went through the motions of stroking her hair. "I promise, El, someday you'll be able to tell me all about it. We'll be able to laugh about how you all thought I was dead and…I swear, El, I'm going to figure this out and get back to you."

Ellie's eyes opened, she wasn't sure how long she'd slept. She scanned the room frantically. "Jimmy?" she called groggily.

"I think he's asleep," Marco informed her out of habit, motioning over to the chair where Jimmy was dozing lightly. He sighed, remembering that she couldn't hear him.

Ellie stood up and stretched for a moment, then walked over to the kitchen and opened the drawer where she kept her prescription aspirins. Her head was starting to hurt again from earlier. She turned on the water and filled a glass. After taking a few pills, she stared at the bottle, thinking again of Marco.

She was supposed to stop what happened. That was why she set up the chemicals and sent him after Jimmy and Hazel. But that hadn't worked. "Maybe the vision was trying to tell me that in order for Marco to live, I had to die," she thought, knowing it sounded totally insane, but…it was a possibility.

She reopened the bottle.She couldn't live without him anyway, so would it really matter if it didn't work, she asked herself as her thoughts went to a very dark place. She supposed it really wasn't surprising considering the darkness that was now sweeping over the town…maybe even the world. Did she really want to be around to witness all the rest of her friends getting killed? Especially when the one person who kept her strong was gone? She fought back more tears again. It seemed that she was doing that a lot lately.

Marco had believed enough in the 'mission' to die for it, so what made this any different? She felt ashamed of herself for not being strong enough to continue his fight, but she just couldn't fathom another day without him. Especially when the whole world was so fucked up. She looked back over to Jimmy and noticed that he was still sound asleep.

"Marco," she called out to the empty room. "If you really can hear me now, I just want to apologize for this. I know that it isn't what you would want, but it is the only thing that I can do. I love you." She picked up the bottle and glass and walked into the bathroom, locking the door in case Jimmy woke up.

When she got there, she started thinking about how crazy this idea really was. It wasn't her. She wasn't suicidal. What was she doing? Then she remembered the way Marco had looked when he'd died. She remembered how upset Dylan was. She remembered every detail and the pain washed over her again, just as fresh as it had been when it happened. She looked into the mirror and studied her disheveled appearance. She wasn't really sure if she could go through with it, but she knew that if it actually worked, she would be able to escape the grief that was weighing her down every second. She opened the bottle and poured a small amount into her mouth. She drank from the glass and poured a few more pills in, repeating the process until she felt too sick to stand any more without vomiting.

Marco stared wide eyed. No!

When she'd apologized to him, he'd gotten up and followed her. Locked doors couldn't keep him out. "Ellie stop!" he cried out as she started taking the pills. "No! Don't!" he felt like he was about to burst from the pressure of the tears that want to but can't be spilled. He was so upset by what she was doing, but was powerless to stop it. He tried to grab the bottle away from her, but his hands only went straight threw it. He grew frantic. Why? Why could he throw some things, but now when he really needed he couldn't grab that stupid little bottle?

Desperate, he ran back to Jimmy, unhindered by the door. It still felt icky going through walls and doors like that, but at a time like this, he didn't care. "Jimmy! Wake up! You have to help Ellie. Please, do something! I can't!" Marco yelled at the sleeping boy, but Jimmy didn't respond. Marco tried to shake him, but his hands went right through.

Marco hated this! He hated himself for not being able to do anything! He rushed back to the bathroom and was horrified to see that she'd almost finished the whole bottle. He was so angry at himself for being so useless that he slammed his fist against the mirror, somehow shattering it. He stared at it for a few moments in frustration, then yelled out in frustration, grabbing again for the bottle. This time, he managed to hurl it across the bathroom effortlessly. It was too late, though. The damage had already been done. Ellie was already in deep trouble.

He had to do something. But there was nothing to do! He had to figure out how to get Jimmy's attention. Turning to go back to the other room, he found himself in a helpless rage. He slammed into the bathroom door, which instead of letting him walk through it suddenly was offering resistance. Not now! He slammed himself against it harder, furious now. The rusted hinges splintered from the door and it fell, crashing to the ground. He blinked and stood back, unsure how he'd done that.

"What was that," Ellie asked, not sure if she was dreaming again or not.

Jimmy woke to the sound of a large crash. He was on his feet immediately, tense and expecting the worst. "Ellie?" he called out, looking around wildly for her.

"Jimmy, over here," Marco called to him frantically.

Jimmy noticed the bathroom door had been torn off its hinges and rushed to examine it. Instead, though, he spotted Ellie, standing in the bathroom looking extremely pale.

"Ellie? What happened?" He looked around the bathroom for a clue.

"Look down," Marco hissed in Jimmy's ear, frustrated that he hadn't figured it out. He grabbed at Jimmy's head and tried to force him to look down.

Jimmy felt dreadfully cold as something seemed to force him to look down. Maybe it was just instinct, though it felt almost physical. He spotted a pill bottle lying on the ground and looked up, startled. "Ellie, you didn't…"

"What do you want?" she asked sickly. "I didn't do anything," she said as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over her and she sat on the floor next to the sink. "Just go away. I'm fine," she whispered weakly.

"No. You're not!" he picked up the discarded bottle. "The pills, Ellie. How many did you take?" He gaped at her for a moment then realized he really didn't need her to say. He already knew the answer. Too many. She'd taken too many. "You need to throw up. We have to get them out."

"No. I don't want to," she mumbled. "I don't want you stopping me. That is why I locked the door." She looked at the door and noticed for the first time that it was kinda missing. "What did you do with the door?" she asked highly confused.

"Sorry," Marco apologized sheepishly, though he wasn't really. It got the help she needed. Once he was back in his body, he'd come back and fix it. Or get Dylan to, maybe.

"I didn't do anything to the door. You did that…didn't you?" It really didn't matter. "You need to throw up, El. Do it or I'm calling an ambulance." Which he should really do, anyway, he realized, though he suspected the ambulance services were extremely busy tonight. And a suicide attempt would probably be down on their priority list. Jimmy gripped Ellie under her arms and maneuvered her over to the toilet. He held her hair back.

"Come on, El. You need to do what he says. I want you to live," Marco whispered stroking her hair.

When Jimmy mentioned the ambulance, Ellie began to panic. "No ambulances, please," she begged brokenly. "I just want to sleep for a little while. Then I will do whatever you want, okay? I just need to sleep." She was starting to have trouble holding her head up, so she lay down on the floor to keep from falling. She could feel her eyes drifting shut involuntarily. "It's so hot in here," she whispered weakly. "Could someone open a window?"

"No, Ellie, you can't sleep!" Jimmy tried again to lift her, but then realized he wasn't going to be able to do this on his own. She needed an ambulance. Now. "Okay, Ellie, hang on. Don't fall asleep on me," he hurried back to the other room, grabbing his cell phone. Despite his suspicions that it would do no good, he dialed 9-1-1.

It just kept ringing.

A/N: Hope you're enjoying the story so far (okay it's a bit dark, but hey.) The following authors have contributed to the past two chapters: Marco, Jimmy, Craig, and other characters as needed by Chaos and Ellie by Serenity.