I don't own Rugrats

Phil knew that he wasn't okay. He knew he wasn't close to being okay. But he still tried to help Tommy and Chuckie. "Hey, where's the bag with the water?" he called over to Chuckie.

Chuckie stood up so quickly that he hit his head on an overhanging branch. "Ouch! Err...it should be with the food over by the fire."

Phil shook his head. "It isn't."

All three boys looked at each other. Tommy broke the silence first. "Well, I heard a stream back there. Phil, why don't you and I get some water from there?"

Phil nodded and retrieved the metal pans that were supposed to hold food. He knew that water was more important then food. The walk to the stream was slow and quiet. Phil didn't look at Tommy until they got to the body of water. He saw that it was deeper then he had expected.

"I'll go out." Phil volunteered, remembering Tommy's fear of the water. Before his friend could say anything, he hopped into the raging current.

Phil stayed at the bottom as long as possible, finding that the water soothed his aching head. He pushed off the bottom and two seconds later, he was above the water, grinning at Tommy like a maniac. "That was the best time I had all trip."

Tommy didn't look pleased. "Get in here, Phil!" he shouted, "You could have just gotten it from the side!"

Phil took his time getting to shore, explaining as he went. "Yeah, but in the middle, the water's colder." Which was not true. He'd just wanted to go into the river.

Tommy hauled Phil onto the hard ground. "Why I ever brought you on this trip, I'll never know!" Tommy raged. "I can't believe you!" he said smacking Phil on the head. Then realizing what he'd done, he started apologizing. "Oh, Phil, I forgot. I'm so sorry."

Phil held his head, again curling into a little ball. In his mind, holding his head was necessary. It would keep his brain from flying everywhere. A moan escaped him. He just wanted this pain to end. He wanted it to go away.

He wanted to die.

Phil retained enough presence of mind to hold onto the trays of water as Tommy pushed and tugged him back to camp. He didn't remember much, except for Tommy screaming for Chuckie to help him. The pain had started to subside, and he felt good, kind of floaty, the last thing he remembered was somebody tugging the water out of his hands.

"What are we going to do about Phil?"

Tommy looked warily from Chuckie, who had asked the question, to Phil, who was still out cold in the tent. "I don't know, Chuckie. We need help-Phil needs help. I don't know what might happen if we keep going on like this."

Chuckie nodded in agreement. He got up and added dry leaves to the fire, making the smoke billow higher. "A signal-for Phil."

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