Part 4

Will reached out to grab Caleb's hands as some unseen force yanked him away from her. Behind him she could see Phobos pulling Caleb towards him. She tried to follow, but couldn't seem to make her feet move…or her wings. Will raised her hand to fire an energy bolt at Phobos but nothing happened. Phobos turned to her with an evil smile as he jerked Caleb through the air like a puppet on an invisible string.

"Caleb!" Will screamed as Phobos released him and he went flying through the air. Caleb slammed to the ground with a thud a few feet from Will, but she still couldn't reach him. Caleb turned his head toward her and held out his hand. Tears were flowing freely down her face as she reached her hand out to him…and hit a wall…

A startled Will quickly sat up in bed, gasping for breath. She brought her hand up to her face to wipe away the tears and looked around her dark bedroom. It had been a dream… She reached over to turn on the lamp on the nightstand, and noticed that it was only two o'clock in the morning; at least she had gotten some sleep. Will untangled the sheet that had wrapped itself around her legs, and climbed out of the bed. She quietly made her way to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face before staring at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. Her already fair skin looked even paler. The dark circles under her eyes were really starting to stand out, and her eyes were looking dull and lifeless.

With a sigh Will quietly returned to her bedroom, doing her best not to wake her mom. She shut the door behind her and then sat at her desk, pulling a small notebook out of a drawer. Then she flipped to an empty page and wrote down the details of her dream. After she was finished she turned back to the front of the notebook, counting the entries in her dream journal. Seven dreams…seven dreams in seven days, and while the details varied the gist was always the same: she had to watch helplessly as either Phobos or Cedric killed Caleb.

It had been seven days since Will and Caleb had returned to Earth, and seven days since she had slept through the night. Caleb wasn't sleeping either, she was sure of it. Although she was probably the only one who had noticed, as he seemed to be better at hiding it than she was. Irma seemed to be the only to notice how tired she was.

Caleb…they had spent the past week avoiding being alone together, so far successfully. She had hoped that her feelings for him would go away, but they hadn't. So now she was just ignoring it.

Will sighed again as she put her dream journal away. With another glance at the clock she reached over to her backpack and pulled out her history book. That's enough sleep for tonight, she thought to herself, might as well study. Thank God it's Friday.

00000000000

That afternoon the Guardians and Caleb met at the Lin's restaurant. Caleb had been trying to get them to discuss their next trip to Meridian, and their next attempt to save Elyon. As usual, Cornelia changed the subject as soon as Elyon was mentioned, but the others changed the subject back. Will just sat quietly, avoiding looking at Caleb and Cornelia sitting next to each other. Seeing them together bothered her more than she liked, especially since Cornelia seemed a lot more affectionate to him than she had been for months. Will just couldn't get the feel of his lips on hers out of her mind; and it didn't help that every time she glanced at him she would discover that he was watching her.

Caleb gently pulled his arm out of Cornelia's grasp as he tried to catch Will's eye, but she was doing her best to avoid him. He was worried about her; he could tell she wasn't sleeping, but then he wasn't either…

"Hey!" Hay-Lin exclaimed. "I think we should go practice."

The others looked at each other, and Will glanced up meeting Caleb's eyes.

"Practice?" Taranee asked.

"Yeah, we haven't done that in a while. Maybe it'll give us some new ideas," Hay-Lin explained. "Right now we just seem to going around in circles."

Cornelia, Irma, Taranee and Hay-Lin discussed it for a few minutes before deciding that it couldn't hurt. Will didn't particularly want to; she was afraid that in her sleep deprived state she wouldn't be able to control the power level of her energy beams, but she was too tired to argue. They gathered their belongings and headed to the secluded area near the river where they typically practiced. As they walked the exhausted Will lagged behind, and after a while Caleb slowed down until he was walking beside her, allowing the gap between them and the others to widen.

"You're not sleeping, are you?" he quietly asked, and Will simply shook her head. "Me either. Nightmares?"

Will glanced at him and nodded. "You, too?"

Caleb shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, and slowed his pace a little more, allowing more space between them and the girls. "I keep seeing you being smothered by Cedric. He's killing you and I can't do anything to help. All I can do is stand and watch," he answered quietly.

Will looked over at him sadly and met his eyes. "That sounds about right," she replied. "Except in mine, he's killing you."

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Caleb opened his mouth to speak again. "Will…I…" he started.

"Hurry up, you slowpokes!" Hay-Lin yelled, interrupting Caleb.

Will smiled at him once more before catching up to the others.

000000000000

Practice that afternoon was uneventful…thankfully. Will managed to get through it without destroying anything, of course that was because she hadn't tried. She knew that she was tired enough that she wouldn't be able to control it. Will was also a lot more distracted by Caleb than she would've liked. Even though he pretended to be looking at other things she could feel his eyes on her. On the other hand, she was watching him just as much.

This whole ignoring how she felt about him wasn't working as well as she had hoped. She couldn't keep him out of her mind.

When practice was over the girls gathered their things and headed home as a group…except for Will. She hung back saying that she would see them tomorrow. Caleb wanted to stay and talk to her, but Cornelia grabbed his arm, and he didn't know how to get away without being suspicious.

"What's going on with Will?" Taranee asked curiously once they were about a block away from her.

Caleb glanced at Taranee out of the corner of his eye. Apparently her behavior hadn't gone as unnoticed as she had probably hoped.

"She said she couldn't sleep last night," Irma replied. "And she broke up with Matt this morning," she added as she looked at the others.

"What?" Taranee asked in disbelief, and stopped walking.

Cornelia released Caleb's arm and stepped closer to the others, while Caleb stood in silent shock. Will had broken up with Matt? Because of him? Maybe that meant…

"You're kidding!" Cornelia exclaimed. "Why?"

Irma shrugged. "She just said it was something she had to do."

The girls gathered around Irma wanting to know all the details. They were so busy asking questions that they didn't notice Caleb turn and head back towards Will.

When reached her she was sitting on the ground, her back against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her eyes were closed, but if her nightmares were as bad as his, then he doubted she was really asleep. She really was beautiful, he thought. Caleb stood over her watching for a minute before saying anything. "Hey," he finally said quietly.

Will opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Hi," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

Caleb sat down next to her, and reached out to rest his hand on her knee, but pulled back. "Have you been sleeping at all?" he asked.

Will shrugged. "A couple of hours a night. What about you?"

Caleb rested his head against the wall and laughed slightly. "I would kill for a couple of hours of sleep." Between the nightmares and his anxiety over his feelings for Will he wasn't sleeping at all. He was quiet for a few minutes as he nervously played with a button on his coat. Will leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. This was the closest they had been to each other in a week, and the feel of her next to him was making his heart race. He turned his head to look at her. "You broke up with Matt?" he said, making it a question.

Will sighed and opened her eyes, but didn't raise her head. "Irma has a big mouth," she stated calmly.

"Why?" he asked. Will shrugged but still didn't look at him. "Because of me?"

"No," she answered quickly, but after a moment she continued. "Well, not completely. I've wanted to break up with him for a few weeks, but I couldn't." She shrugged again. "What happened with you just made it easier."

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to break up with him?" If he had known then maybe…

"Because it doesn't matter," Will answered, shaking her head. She turned and met his eyes. "It doesn't change anything." Though she wished it did, but Matt was only part of their problem, she thought.

Caleb pushed himself up from the ground and began pacing, agitated by her response. Her break up with Matt made a big difference. Without Matt the only thing keeping them apart was Cornelia. "It changes everything!" he exclaimed.

Will rapidly stood in front of him. "What does it change, Caleb?" she yelled. She met his eyes, seeing the pain flash through them, and instantly regretted yelling at him. "We still can't be together. You're still with Cornelia," she continued quietly.

"I'll break up with her."

"And tell her what? Even if you do break up with her how can we be together? She's one of my best friends, Caleb," Will replied, almost on the brink of tears. "How could I do that to her?"

Caleb walked away from her, taking a deep breath. Why did this have to be so hard? She was right, but…that didn't change the way he felt about her. After a few minutes he stepped over to her and gazed into her eyes. "I can't stop thinking about you, Will," he whispered. "I tried, but… Maybe the…situation brought our feelings to the surface…but they've always been there."

Will pulled her eyes away from his, and stared at the ground. "I know," she whispered. "What are we going to do?" She raised her eyes to meet his again.

Caleb reached out and took her hands as he stepped closer to her. "I don't know… But, it's always been you, Will. You were always the first one I thought about…the first one I worried about…the first one I went to when I needed help."

Will smiled at his words; that was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever said to her. She raised herself up on her toes, pressing her lips against his. Will released his hands and gently ran her hands up his arms to his shoulders. As she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, Caleb wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her against him.

Their lips moved slowly against each other, gently kissing as if they had all the time in the world. Caleb gently ran his tongue along her lower lip, and Will opened her mouth against his. After an unknown amount of time the kiss slowly ended and they separated, but kept their arms around each other.

"Wow," Will whispered.

Caleb grinned and nodded in agreement.

Will looked around them, surprised to discover that it was getting dark; they had been there a lot longer than either had thought. "We should probably get going," she suggested quietly. "Mom will kill me if I'm home late. We'll talk tomorrow…figure everything out."

Caleb nodded as he leaned down and quickly kissed her. "I'll walk you home," he offered.

Will shook her head, telling him that it wasn't necessary; joking that she could always blow something up if it bothered her.

Caleb laughed and released her. "I should probably go find Cornelia anyway. It's time for us to have a talk."

Will nodded and they headed in their separate directions. Neither one saw Irma hiding around the corner.