Thanks to Mrs. Nikki Slater, maritinkerbell, Be My Penguin, Little TinkerBell Girl, Ivory Nightshade, I is Human Banana, xoMirollie246, and Angelic Chocolate Fairy for reviewing! I appreciate the reviews, so thank you. I'm sorry I've taken so long to get Chapter 9 finished. I'm horrible, I know. Sue my jar of almonds.

Angelic Chocolate Fairy: Don't have nightmares! Have dreams about your yummy future hubby! I know I do. Thank goodness for my clone machine, eh? Heehee. Clones may not be the original, but are still hot.

XoMirollie246: Yeah, sorry I made it all confusing. I changed my plot between chapter 4 and 5, so chapter four became kind of pointless, but was already up, so I had to work it in somehow. So...yeah. I do that too much, I know. I apologize. I'm trying to stop, it's a bad habit. I'm glad you like it anyway, though!

I is Human Banana: Interesting name. I like it. And thank you very much. I appreciate the compliments. And of course, long reviews always rock. I have a tendency to babble or stray from the topic when I review...heehee. And I'm glad you like the alternate Twilight scene. That was hard. I hated killing Jesse. And no, Qain isn't AU Paul. Paul died in the AU reality with everyone else Suze/Saben loves (sniff, I hated killing him too.)

And actually I didn't find 'the Ring"that scary. Actually I found it kind of boring. Heh. And I haven't seen the sequel yet. I don't even know if I want to. Hmmm.

Be My Penguin x3: An obsession with the Muffin Man, eh? Sweet. I have an obsession with hot, shirtless guys. We won't go into that, though. evil cackle Ahem.

So finally, without further ado, Chapter Nine.

Ch 9: Love to let you down

I don't know why I did it, but I kept the note. I read it over and over again after I got home and showered. After much heated argument, Saben finally "convinced" Paul we should all go our separate ways until Hector found the disease. Paul, however, thought we should stick together. And while I agreed with him, crawling into my own bed was nice after such a strenuous evening. According to my clock (not that I could believe it) I'd only been gone roughly four hours; therefore I was home shortly after curfew. Andy bought my excuse of traffic by the hospital. Which relieved me, seeing as to I didn't have it in me to argue about anything. Being electrocuted/stun gunned takes a lot out of a girl.

Even so, I awoke about three hours later. My room was mildly lit; not by stars, but rather by the aura of a visitor. She was sitting in my window, much like Jesse use to when he was a ghost. You know, staring off into the distance with a peaceful look on their face? Yeah. That.

The ghost didn't seem to want my help. If anything, she seemed content the way she was. But she was interrupting my sleep. Which is possibly why I came off sounding ruder than I meant to be.

"What do you want?" I croaked. My throat was seriously dry. Does that mean I drool a lot? Ew. Whatever.

"I am here by request,"she answered softly, not bothering to look at me.

"Whose request?"

"Saben's."

"Right," I tried to sit up, but it deemed a challenge when pain shot from my head to my feet. Bad move, Suze. Bad move. Gah.

"She has ghosts watching all of you."

"All of us? Why?" I yawned.

"To make sure you are safe. And so she can warn you when she needs you."

"Great. I'm gonna"–yawn–"go back to sleep now."

And then I did just that. Ok, so I probably passed out, in all reality, from pain. But minor detail.

Which would explain, why when I woke up, it was Sunday. According to my mom, both she, Andy, and Doc–I mean David, had tried to wake me, but I wouldn't budge. It didn't help that I was still sore as hell. Sore, for what would be another four days. Oddly enough, for four days no one else became infected.

I called Jesse everyday to see if they'd learned anything. Other than he was being stalked by a ghost named Jacoby. My "protector" was Amira. Jesse said he met her when Saben was still Saben and not...me. Um, yeah. I only semi got it myself. Paul called me and complained (at first), about his ghostly companion. But when he realized the ghost wasn't going to leave, he gave up, and decided to play cards with him. Which I admit, disturbed me. This was very un-Paul like. He's normally a "I'll exorcize your ass then!" type; Not the "cigar and cards" type. But then I found out "he" was a "she" and that was enough to know why Paul wasn't being so Paul-ish. Maybe now he'd understand why I choose Jesse over him.

For two days life was uneventful. School was boring, home was boring, Jesse's kisses were still heaven...ahem. Nothing new. Until Wednesday.

Father Dominic was escorting Adam to his car, after a healthy discussion about how one more detention would get him suspended, when out of nowhere, a black blazer barreled down on them. And didn't miss.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" I gasped when I walked into the ER room. I rode in the ambulance with Father Dom (after telling a few white lies about him being my uncle cough), but the nurses made me stay in the waiting room once we got there. Jesse arrived a half an hour later, looking rather pale. A little over two hours later, we were aloud to see them.

"Hey, Suze," Adam smiled from the bed, where he lay with his leg in a sling. His face and arms were covered with scabs and his lift wrist was covered with a cast. "Come to kiss me and make me feel all better?"

I relaxed a little at his calmness. "Very funny, McTavish."

But then I saw that Father Dom's bed was hidden by a curtain.

"How is he?" I whispered.

"Little make up, and new hair do, some hot babes and he'll be good as new."

"Adam."

"Fine, fine! I swear. My humor is so wasted," he rolled his eyes. "I overheard my nurse, who is a babe by the way, tell another nurse that he broke some ribs and has a head injury. That's why he won't wake up.

"He won't wake up?" Jesse asked from behind me.

"No, that's why the curtain is closed."

Father Dom was intentionally hurt and someone has to pay. But who, I don't know. Anyone would be good right now. I mean, at least Adam can talk to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pissed that he's hurt, just not as hurt.

Jesse and I visited with Adam for a few more minutes before we had visitors. Mind you, only Jesse and I could see them. Jesse directed them to a corner where Adam couldn't see him, and could listen to what the apparitions had to say.

"Does your boyfriend always talk to himself like that?" Adam asked me with a smile. I guess even if he couldn't see Jesse, he could hear him.

"Of course. It's a major turn on for me, you know," I smirked back. Jesse turned away from the ghosts and whispered in my ear.

"It's time."

It didn't hit me at first what he meant. Usually "its time" means someone's having a baby. But I don't know any pregnant people, so that was ruled out. But then it struck me.

The antidote had been located.

Within twenty minutes we were at Jesse/Saben's house. Paul was already there and waiting on the porch. I wondered why Saben hadn't let him in, but then realized her car wasn't there so she probably wasn't home (Duh, I know).

"Where's Saben?" I asked no one in particular.

"I don't know, she only called me and said to meet you all here," Paul stood up as Jesse unlocked the front door. I followed Jesse inside and took a seat on the couch. The same couch I'd made out on with Jesse, only a few days ago. Paul took a seat in one of the arm chairs, while Jesse got us drinks (soda, people...so-duh). He'd just handed me my diet Coke when the front door burst open and in stormed Saben, looking like hell. Her hair was a mess, her shirt was on inside out, and she looked like she hadn't slept in days.

"I'm going to go take a shower," she muttered and headed for the stairs.

"What the hell happened to you?" Paul demanded as she threw a bag she had with her down by the door.

"None of your damn business," she snapped.

"What do you mean none of my bus–"

"I was taking one for the fucking team, okay Paul!" she yelled, then took off up the stairs, two at a time. Paul got out of his chair and preceded to follow her when a hand, out of nowhere, pulled him back down.

"Not now, Slater," Hector growled. His expression was stony and agitated. Something was wrong. "She's had a trying couple of days and doesn't need your snide ass remarks to add to it."

Whoa. Hector said ass. Man he must be pissed. I've never heard Jesse say that before. At least not in English. Heh.

"What has she done that's been so trying, huh? A bake sale? A garage sale? A car wash–"

"She kept Qain busy while I looked for the disease, alright!" he growled once again, his grip on Paul's shoulder tightening substantially. The house shook a bit with the force of Hector's rage.

"What do you mean she kept him busy? Screw him?" he laughed sarcastically. The house shook even harder. A few pictures on the wall fell off, and the windows rattled in the panes.

"She fucked that bastard?" Paul yelled.

"Oh god," I whispered.

Oh man. I wouldn't have been able to...and then done it again..and...THAT. I mean, with Jesse, eventually, yeah. But with a ruthless killer, no matter how good looking he is? Hell no. That's just way to creepy. Geez.

No one complained that Saben took nearly and hour in the shower. No one said anything when she came down stairs with her skin looking red and raw from scrubbing and scalding her skin. No one said anything about her slight wobble either.

"Hector found te disease," she informed quietly, as she took a seat in the arm chair beside Paul's. I could tell from the puffiness of her eyes she'd been crying in the shower. "It's in a cave down at Big Sur. He has it booby-trapped in case anyone should try and go in and steal the vials. We'll have to compensate for the weight to prevent him for being alerted."

We all nodded but avoided eye contact with her. Well, the others did. I couldn't help myself. I had to. And when I did, she seemed to break.

"I know you all think badly of me for what I did. Well, more so than before," she sniffed. "But I did what I had to do in order for this to work. At least it wasn't in vain right?" she faked a small laugh in between escaped tears. Silence ensued for a few minutes as she tried not to cry. Paul was at least considerate enough to hand her a tissue. I was about to muster up something comforting to say when my cell phone went sounded.

"Hello?" I asked curiously. Who could be calling? It was too early for Andy to be griping about me being late for dinner. My mom was still at work. Jesse was here with me so—

"Susannah Simon?"

"Yes."

"This is Laura Benley from Carmel Hospital. I'm calling in regards to your uncle."

My breath caught in my throat. "What about him? Is he okay?"

"I'm afraid I have some bad news," she continued on with words that cut so deep with pain that I couldn't breath. I dropped the phone on the floor. Muffled "Hellos" could be heard coming from the carpet. Jesse picked and hung up the phone for me.

"Susannah?" his soothing voice said as he put his hand on mine. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head in disbelief. This couldn't be happening. Not to them.

Not to me.

"Susannah, please."

"It's begun hasn't it?" I looked at Saben, tears now staining my cheeks. She didn't even ask what I was talking about. It was like she already knew.

"Susannah."

I averted my attention to Jesse. His face was contorted with worry as he looked into my eyes, searching for the answers.

"Father Dom and Adam–" I paused to compose myself. "They've been infected."