Author's Notes: This is my own tweaking of the current epidemic storyline. While I like the idea and the drama it would lend to, I don't like where it might be headed. So, I've done it my own way. A few notes to be made:

1) There are cast changes because I write with certain people in mind. Emily is Amber Tamblyn. AJ will be Sean Kanan. Carly is Tamara Braun. Lucky is still Greg Vaughn.
2) Stefan Cassadine is not dead, and nothing happened starting at Stefan trying to kill Emily.
3) Diego Sanchez is still in town and he was not the stalker.
4) AJ Quartermaine is not dead and he had nothing to do with the kidnappings.
5) Luis Alcazar is not dead. He returned to Port Charles months back, and is in a relationship with Elizabeth Webber. On that vain, other couples will include: Jason and Sam, Carly and Lorenzo, Emily and Nikolas, and others.
6) Make sure to pay attention to the chapters denoting Wave. First Wave and Second Wave, possibly Third Wave. These chapters will let you know exactly whose illnesses, relationships and drama that this story will focus on. Others will appear, but these will be the main focuses of the story.

If you have any other questions about the story as it progresses, please feel free to ask. And now, on to the story.

Sam McCall was a strong woman. She had survived a mother that hated her, a negligent father, abusive boyfriends, and a stillborn birth. She had found her way out of a raging fire and held guns on the heads of the five families. When it came to survival and strength, Sam was at the top of the heap. Yet, she couldn't manage to stand up straight without holding on to the wall.

Sweat poured down Sam's head, and she wasn't able to stop it all from falling into her eyes. The sweat stung and she rubbed her eyes. She threw both hands to her face and her body bumped against the wall. She slid down to the floor and was unable to make herself stop. She was sick, and Sam would have sworn she had a fever higher than anything she'd ever had before.

This was the wrong time to be sick. Danny was coming. She and Jason were, once again, in heated baby debate. An illness would just screw things up. Though, things getting messed up was pretty much par for the course. It happened so often that she'd come to expect it. So, it figured that the one time she didn't think about it was the one time that it actually happened.

"Jason!" She called out for him, and it had to be delusional. She didn't just call him randomly to get up off the floor. She was strong enough to do that for herself. Besides, Jason wasn't there. He was going to get Danny, wasn't he? Or had he already gotten him? Were they upstairs, showing Danny his room? The room that, at one time, was going to be Lila's? Or were they waiting for her at Kelly's?

"Jason! I can't--" Sam stopped and shook her head. She felt her body sliding to the side. Why couldn't she get up? "Jason," she muttered weakly, "I can't get up."

Cameron Webber sometimes cried, but Luis Alcazar had never heard the boy whine before. He was sure that Elizabeth would have said that her son whined a lot, but Luis couldn't remember a time that he would considered it as such. He would have called it an intense plea for affection. But this, right now—this was definitely a whine.

Luis knew that this wouldn't impress Elizabeth at all. Granted, he was almost positive that he was beyond the impressions point. She was as taken with him as she could possibly be. She had, after all, left her son in his care. Yes, there were guards around and Audrey Hardy's number had mysteriously appeared programmed into his cell phone, but for the moment, for all intents and purposes, Luis was the immediate caregiver for little Cameron.

As caregiver, Luis assumed that he should take the boy to the hospital. His fever was growing rapidly, and the whines were becoming less shrill and more pained. Not that he had avoided taking him before. Elizabeth would probably be grateful that Luis was so paranoid as to bring Cameron to the hospital for a slight fever. However, the actual action of getting him there grew harder the more tired that Luis became.

Sweat dripped from the line of his hair to ooze down his face. He wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand. Sweat started to dry and congeal against his hand and he shook it away in disgust. Luis bent to lift Cameron, and suddenly, the boy was heavier than he remembered. Luis's knees buckled, arms started to give way, and he had to force himself back to his feet.

Cameron gave a small, strangled cry and Luis held him tighter. Carefully, he made his way towards the door. He should have called to have the car brought around, but he knew he wouldn't have been able to hold Cameron with only one arm. He would just have to call from the lobby. Leaning against the wall perhaps.

"Don't worry," he muttered as Cameron started to shiver against him, "you'll be with tua madré soon. I promise you that." And as soon as he handed the boy to his mother, maybe Luis thought, she might have a free arm to hold him up as well.

"Diego, don't argue with me. You're ill. You need medical attention."

"I'm fine." Diego Sanchez waved his father off, pushing weakly at the hand that tried to touch his forehead. "Carly's expecting you."

"I think she'll understand. If it were Michael or Morgan, she would be just as quick to postpone our date."

"And Michael would be more than happy to let her. But I'm not Michael, Pop. I'm fine. Just go."

Diego started to cough and his body was thrown forward. He folded his arms over his stomach and leaned forward. In the back of his throat, he thought that something was going to rise. It would have had to have been bile, because there was no food that he could choke down. Even soup seemed to get caught in his throat and he had to spit it back out.

Lorenzo touched his back, and Diego was glad he was there. The two had their differences in the past, but the fact that he was actually there meant something. He may have been arguing with him, trying to get him to leave, but Lorenzo was still there. Diego was more important than Carly, and he'd never thought that would happen. He never thought he'd get any higher than secondary to Luis.

But still—

"I'm fine, Pop. Just go."

"You're not fine, so be quiet." Lorenzo put an arm around Diego's waist and lifted him from the bed. "You're weak. This cough is getting worse by the second, and you're burning up. You're going to the hospital, Diego, so don't fight me on it."

"But, Carly—"

"I'll call her from the car. Right now, you're more important than a date that can be rescheduled. We're going to the hospital, and that is final."

The launch from Wyndemere to the Port Charles mainland was the longest ride that Nikolas Cassadine had ever taken. Wrapped in a thick comforter, Nikolas huddled in a corner of the boat, trying his best to stay warm. The February air was nowhere near as cold as the chills that ran through his body. Even if the sun were to suddenly rise and heat the air to 80 degrees, he still wouldn't have been able to get warm.

Nikolas tried to remember how he'd gotten so sick. He could barely remember the onslaught of the illness, let alone how he could have contracted anything. Maybe it had come on slowly. Maybe the virus had crept up on him so slowly that he couldn't remember a progressive timeline. Or maybe it was like he vaguely remembered it. One second he was fine, sitting across the table from Emily, and the next, he had tried to stand up and promptly fell to the floor.

"We're almost there." Nikolas could just barely hear Emily's voice, but what he could hear soothed him as best it could. Her hand touched his head and her touch seemed to vibrate against him. "Hold on, Nikolas, we're almost there."

"C-C-Cold…" His teeth chattered. The rows clicked against one another. He wished he could pull the words together to tell Emily how much he appreciated her doing this. How much he loved her. But, his consciousness was fleeting. He floated in and out of a rational state so much that he couldn't form more than one word at a time. More than one syllable was asking a lot. "L-L-Love…"

"Hush." Emily moved around him. Eyes closed, Nikolas couldn't see what she was doing, but he could feel her careful and tentative movements. He felt his body lift then lower. His head rested on a pillow, and it took him a minute to realize it wasn't a pillow at all. It was her Emily's lap. "You'll be okay," she said as she softly rubbed his head. "The ambulance is waiting at the pier. You'll be okay."

"Thank y-y-y-" It wasn't happening. He wasn't going to get the entire thing out, but she knew what he meant. She had to know. She always knew.