Flashback

He was fading – she could see it. He tried to hide it from her – pretty unsuccesfully though, but she knew he simply didn't want to disturb her. But he was – if he just would've told her what was wrong with him, she could at least try to help him. The one thing she suggested, which made him not tell her, was the fact that he possibly knew she couldn't help him, nobody could – not on this planet...

He was gasping all of a sudden, which caused her to turn around in concern and look at him. She could see surprise on his face and fear – deep, pure fear. But not for more than a second, not longer than until he realised that she was looking at him and had detected his discomfort. There was no use in his hiding from her and she was no longer willing to tolerate it.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing – I'm fine, just moved a bit to quickly... It's hot out here."

He was right on that one. They were outside in the middle of the desert in the afternoon of an early summer day. They had run out of water and therefore had made their way to one of the secret underground water reservoirs. It was hard work to get the water pumped up to the surface, especially with the limited technical help they had at hand.

But they had done this hundred of times before and although he liked to complain about it a lot – about the sand and the heat, the long walks and the hard work - he had always done it to simply tease her. He always managed to drive her nuts with his ways... and make her smile. He never had been completely serious about his complaints – therefore she knew that something was terribly wrong – he hadn't been complaining for even a moment today.

She suspected that he had been hardly concentrating on their journey to the water source – trying to hide his pain and his powerlessness. He had done pretty well – she hadn't realised until now, until he openly gasped out in pain.

"I don't believe a word you say! So stop lying to me and tell me what's wrong."

"Noth..."

The look she shot him right then made him stop in the middle of the word. He didn't dare to speak out the rest of it, but looked at her with empathy clearly visible on his face. He didn't need to say it, she already knew what he wanted her to know.

"I do know you don't want to disturb me and therefore you keep whatever is wrong with you a secret, but you're causing me even more worry by not telling me. You should know that – I already lost a family member because of not talking about what was wrong."

She hadn't meant to do it, but it had just been that easy. She had managed to make him feel guilty by reminding him of the circumstances that caused her mother's death. At least she had found a way to finally get him to saying the truth and tell her what was wrong with him.

"I'm sorry – I didn't mean to hurt you or lie to you... Being honest... I don't know what's wrong. I just don't feel well – dizzy kind of and I'm having difficulties breathing... It hurts."

She moved closer to him, giving him an intensive gaze – like she would be able to detect his problem, his illness by simply looking at him. If it wouldn't have been such a serious situation he would have grinned by the thought. But it was a serious situation and he didn't feel like grinning after all. He actually felt more like lying down and sleeping and never waking up again.

She reached out a hand and touched his forehead for a few seconds, before she pulled it away in a quick movement and gave him a very concerned look. He tried to look back reassuringly, but he had the slight suspicion that it didn't work all too well...

"You're burning up!"

"I already told you – it's hot out here."

"Don't fool around on me. You're having a fever! We're going to get you back to the house immediately, you need to get out of the sun and lay down. You need to rest!"

"But the water supplies..."

He tried to insist against her for he didn't want to ruin their long and exhausting work they had already put in this to get their water supplies back to an acceptable level. They couldn't go back right now, they had only half of their waterbags filled and that would only fulfill their needs for the next few days. He didn't want her to be forced to come back here on her own, it was too dangerous, especially if he would keep on feeling that sick...

"Don't worry about it, I'm gonna get some more water later. It's no big deal. Right now we should be concentrating on getting you back and locating the source of your illness."

"I'm not ill, I just don't feel all too well."

"Well, you look pretty much sick to me. Come on now!"

She lifted the already filled water bags and put them on her shoulders. Then she reached the empty ones to him and reached out an arm for support. He gave her a stop acting like a mother hen´ look, denied her help and went back up the sanddune they had come from to get the water.

Their way back would take about 1 and a half hours of climbing up and down several dunes before they would be back at the rocky surface their house was build at. They walked their way in silence, both concentrating on where they sat their feet at. Taking a wrong step could cause one to lose the balance and fall down the dune – although it didn't hurt much it at least meant delay and Thydia didn't seem to wish for any delay after all, she just wanted to get him into a bed.

They were about 300 feet away from their home when his strength finally left him. He had tried to fight against it and keep up on Thydia's pace, but it wouldn't work no more. Still he hadn't said a word, he didn't want to cause her any more worries. But breaking down to his knees with a blurred vision and gasping for air which he barely was able to breath in wasn't actually the best way to concern her no more.

She was there by his side almost immediately, helping him up back to his feet and giving him an angry look this time. Her voice however couldn't hide her true feeling of concern.

"Are you alright?"

"Obviously not, but you already knew that."

"Stop, okay. That's nothing to make fun of, you hear me! Not after all!"

Realisation dawned in him all of a sudden – she was afraid. Deeply fearing for his life and being afraid that she wouldn't be able to help him, that she would lose him to some unknown disease as she had already lost her mother.

"I do know that. I just don't want you to worry too much. It's going to be okay..."

He was lying and they both knew it, but she didn't wish to fight with him any more. She put down the water bags and put his arm around her shoulder. He didn't seem to be fully aware of what was going on as she helped him inside the house and into the bedroom to lay down.

"Thydia..."

"What is it?"

"I don't feel so good..."

She could feel tears rise in her eyes, but she managed to keep them behind. She didn't want him to see her in a weak state, didn't want him to see her fear. She helped him to lay down and he drifted off into sleep almost immediately. She held his hand for a few seconds before she moved back to the front door to fetch the water bags.

"I know dear, I know..."

End of flashback