ZEDD

If we don't find Thomas soon, I swear I will level this hospital and take Alundra down with it! So far, the only thing keeping me from doing it now, aside from my absolute fear for him, is my mother, Dar and Pina. Although as a small measure of revenge, I'm certain that my pacing is starting to irritate the hell out of them.

Dar is dealing with the hospital's security and coordinating the search. Which is for the best, really, as I'm positive I'd have choked someone by now. Worthless idiots the whole lot of them. How hard is it to find one half naked, fully terrified half-breed? Tell me how hard?! One of the guards pulls Dar aside and speaks to him quietly. I'm not really paying attention until Dar snaps back at him and he scurries away. I spin on my friend. "What?"

Dar doesn't look happy. "Zedd - he's not in the hospital."

"They're just being lazy and haven't looked everywhere" I growl. "Tell them to look harder before I start picking them off as target practice!"

"As amusing as that would be, they're not however being lazy. They've checked the security leads. He's left the building and very shortly after we started looking for him too."

"No!"

"Why didn't anyone question him?" Does it honestly matter right now, Mother?

"Apparently he swiped an RN uniform and strolled out calmly enough that no one thought to." Son of a-

"He is a clever little thing, isn't he." Again, not helping, Mother!

"Dar, we've got to find him! Hell only knows what could happen to him out there!"

Mother steps in once more and unfortunately this time I can't hold back my anger and fear. "Calm down, Zeddic. Once he calms down and thinks, I'm sure he'll realize-"

"As long as it isn't too late! Mother, I promised him I'd never take him to a hospital again. Between that and him being restrained when he woke up, I'll be lucky if he ever-" I stop abruptly, attention diverted by the suddenly reopened bond. Oh hells, wherever he is, he's terrified and panicked to the point that he's about to snap. If I lose him now, I may never get him back again. "Thomas."

I follow the pull not all that surprised when the others follow, even Alundra. Come on, Thomas, where are you? Once outside, I move faster silently begging him to hang on and hoping he can feel me well enough to know I'm on my way. Suddenly, I see him - and the reason for his panic and terror. My father stands between him and a group of people. A small shift in the wind and I can smell lust from at least one of them, no doubt in my mind it's the male closest to him that looks to be trying to coax him away from Father.

"I'm warning you." The annoyance in my father's voice is clear enough even with the distance between us.

"Oh come on, what's Zeddic gonna do? Last I heard he was Annwyl's plaything again."

I can't help the growl that comes out and am not all that surprised to hear it echoed by Pina and Dar. I am a tad surprised however to hear it from Mother and Alundra as well though. Mother and I call out for our respective mates simultaneously.

"Thomas!"

"Kerch!"

Glancing back at us, Father shakes his head before again addressing the male before him. "You heard wrong."

Reaching them in record time I for the moment ignore the group, finding them to be very little threat and swiftly take Thomas in my arms, intending to kill the one male after I get my mate settled. "It's okay, I've got you. I'm here, love. You're safe now. It's all right." Uncertain who I'm trying to convince more, him or myself, I barely keep from suffocating him with how tightly I've got him held to me.

"Zedd, sorry."

"No love, I'm sorry, just please, please don't run off like that again. You scared the hell out of me and many people were almost beheaded because of it." Seriously, ten more minutes and the heads of the security personnel would have literally rolled.

Still keeping my main focus on my mate, I however don't miss the sound of some rather nasty and mocking laughter from the group. "That's not a mate, Kerch. That is a pet - and a damaged one at that." Feeling Thomas physically flinch at the insult, along with mentally pulling more into himself through the bond, I apparently do indeed need to deal with this moron first it seems.

Before I can move I hear the sound of flesh striking flesh and a quick glance shows me that Mother has gotten right in the speaker's face as he holds his no doubt stinging cheek. "Do not ever dare to refer to my new son as someone's pet" she hisses. "For all the power that my son still holds, I promise you that you will fear me more once I've finished with you!"

"Mara-" Father's voice holds a note of caution, however it's hardly needed as should the already wounded idiot dare to try and lash back at her, I will snap his neck before he can even make contact.

"Not this time, Kerch."

He sighs. "All right. If you must, then I'm with you."

I return my focus to my mate. "Thomas, love, it's all right. I'm here. You're safe. I'll kill those idiots as soon as I can bring myself to let you go." Getting no response now, I feel my worry mounting. "Did I say I was sorry? Because I am. I'm so sorry I broke my promise to you, but I swear to you we had no other choice." He's not looking at me, doesn't even seem to be hearing me. Have I lost him so completely already? I hear the fight break out. As much as I'd like to join in, preferably with Thomas at my side, I have to trust that they can deal with it - until they call me.

Suddenly, Thomas does react to something. "Mara! No!" I swiftly look around to see my mother picking herself up from the ground, bruise already forming on her pale cheekbone. My mouth falls open as she throws herself back into the fray before I can even consider reacting, first shot smashing into the mouth of her attacker. Mother can fight? I watch carefully, still holding Thomas close. Not only can she fight, but apparently this isn't the first time that she and Father have fought together based on the way they're tag teaming their opponents. The soft whisper at my side, along with the surge of depression, gains my attention. "My fault. She's hurt because of me. I'm too weak. My fault."

What now? "Thomas, no. Look. She's all right. She's fighting very well actually."

"Just - give up, Zedd. I'm a burden and a liability. I'm just - done. Lock me away somewhere and move on with your life. It'll be better that way. It's how it should have been."

Damn it! Every time he has one of these episodes, he falls into this mindset. I don't know how to make him see that these setbacks are temporary and small - especially with how much better he's gotten. I hold him all the tighter. "I'm not giving you up, love. Not ever. I love you."

"Whatever you say, Zedd." This passive response makes me want to shake some sense into him.

"Don't do that, Thomas, please." He still won't look at me, but in fairness, he seems to be rather focused on the nearby battle. "Talk to me."

"There's nothing to say and I don't want to fight." I'm about to answer him when I realize that the fight is winding down. I turn my attention to the others. The ground is littered with unconscious and barely conscious bodies – thankfully none of them connected to me. I raise an eyebrow at something I've not seen in a long time - my father grinning hugely at Mother before he kisses her soundly.

I barely catch what he says to her. "I'd forgotten how much fun that could be. Remind me to tell you later – for now though I think we need to have a little talk with Jax and his wife about a few things."

Looking surprised, Mother's expression no doubt matches my own as she questions Father's statement. "Jax?"

"The one that you hit works with him, he made some rather unsettling remarks that require our attention." Did he now.

Mother nods as all five of them return to us. "Zeddic? Is he all right?"

"No." I shake my head sadly. "He-" I can't bring myself to repeat his request so I just shake my head again.

Mother kneels down next to us and runs her fingers through his hair. "Tommy? Son? Look at me. What's the matter?"

Slowly, he raises his eyes, gaze locking on her bruise and wincing as he does. He speaks softly. "I'm sorry, Mara, so sorry. You got hurt because of me - because I was weak." His gaze flickers to Pina, Dar and Alundra. "I hurt all of you because I was weak. I'm a burden and a liability that none of you should have to deal with - especially not Zedd. He was right. It makes him look like he's gone soft when he has to take care of me and that makes things dangerous for him and Dar and Pina. Zedd should just - lock me away so he doesn't have to worry about it anymore and just go on with his life."

Mother sits back on her heels, looking thoughtful, but it's Father who speaks first. "Well, I'm rather surprised at you, Tommy. I know you're still rather young, and a bit of one for dramatics, but I didn't think you a coward until now."

I open my mouth to snap back, only to realize that Mother is nodding in agreement. "It is the coward's way out. Especially for someone who has saved my son's life more than once at the risk of his own."

Thomas protests, "I've never been in any real danger when I've taken care of Zedd."

Dar cuts in. "No, of course not. Getting in a swordfight with Annwyl to free Zedd - not dangerous."

"I was just faster than he was."

Pina steps in next. "Standing toe to toe with Bezeroa and his twenty guards that were threatening to make us all pets in the best case scenario."

He shakes his head. "Bezeroa is all talk - especially once his guards turned on him."

Alundra exhales loudly. "Wow, forget one for dramatics, you my dear are downright annoying as hell. Tell me, why are you so damned determined to believe that you are worth so little? Why are you so willing to let one small setback like this take over your life?"

"Because it's not one small setback, it's one of about fifty! Every time this happens, it puts them at risk! I can't keep doing that! And what the hell would you know about setbacks anyway?"

"Oh, nothing really. Just that I've only been able to walk again for the last two hundred years or so. I lost the ability for about five hundred years - and the doctors thought that I'd never ever walk again." Silence falls as this sinks in for all of us. "I know all about setbacks that put people in danger, Tommy. On my bad days, when my body doesn't want to cooperate, people can die. There are very few people that can do what I do because they don't have the knowledge. It's really easy to just sit down and give up when it happens, but if you were really that kind of person, you'd have never been entrusted with powers."

"Certainly none past the first set that were forced on you" Father tells him.

"Not to mention I highly doubt the bond would have even taken if that were the case" Mother adds seriously.

Before anyone can say anything else, Thomas begins to shiver violently, teeth chattering. "We need to get him inside."

"That might not work." Shaking his head Father apparently knows something we don't if he of all people is refusing to take him back into the building.

Alundra touches his face lightly. "If you hurry, you can take him home and settle him there. I'll be along shortly with his medication."

Father removes his jacket and hands it to Mother, who helps me wrap it around Thomas. "Come on, boys" she says gently. "Let's go home, get Tommy a very quick bath and some food and into bed so that he can rest - and so can Zeddic - finally and properly."

I stand and pick him up as he really looks at me for the first time since he woke up. Somehow I'm not all that surprised at the weak scolding I get from it. "You should have been taking care of yourself, Zedd. I'm not worth making yourself sick for!"

Behind me, Dar mutters, "Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black."

"Stone throwing in glass houses" Pina agrees.

"Shut it, you two. This is different."

"How exactly is it different, Thomas?" I challenge in my turn.

"Because at the castle once you all fell ill, there was nobody for me to fall back on to help out. Here I'm the only one that got sick apparently so you could have watched over me in shifts if it were necessary."

Father sighs. "Tommy, remember I told you - sense of responsibility."

My mate sighs in return. "I know." I feel him slide further into his depression, but why? What did my father say when he found Thomas that's making this worse? "I have it too, Kerch." Another heavy sigh and he allows himself to settle against me.

Once back at my parents' house, Mother heads for the kitchen as I take Thomas to our room. "We'll get you a quick bath, love and then you can relax in bed until Alundra gets here with your medicine and some food."

He shrugs but gives me no other response. I keep talking to him as I run the water, help him bathe, redress him and settle him in bed. He doesn't react to any of it. I can feel that he's aware of it all, but he's choosing not to respond in any way. I don't know what to do to break through this - self imposed barrier. I grab a quick shower myself, returning to the old habit of dressing for bed. When I return to the bedroom, I find him curled up on the far side of the bed, facing the wall.

I climb in and pull him into my arms. He doesn't do anything to help me, but he isn't fighting me either. "Thomas, please, I'm sorry. I know there's nothing I can do to make it up to you, but I swear there was no other choice. You were going to die if we didn't take you to the hospital." And this is where it could get really ugly. "Your fever got so high, you became violently delusional, thus the restraints. The first time your temperature started to come down and you were somewhat lucid, I took them off of you without waiting for Alundra to check you first. They were off for less than half an hour when it shot way up again and you attacked us all, fully intent on killing us. Alundra was so pissed off that she switched you to the locking ones so I couldn't let you out again and chance you becoming a danger to more than just us."

His soft statement startles me. "And now I've put you in more danger than I ever have before. You were worried about the Rangers' teasing getting out and making you look bad. I've done worse than that. I - misbehaved in public so that people could actually see you have to take care of me. Rumors are rumors and there are those that will doubt things that people haven't actually seen. There was a whole group of people that saw you with a weak mate that you've gone soft to take care of. And they don't seem like the type to keep that kind of information to themselves."

"They won't say anything, Thomas, or they risk it getting out that my parents kicked their asses - without my help. My parents are rather powerful people themselves, love, even without powers like we have."

"It doesn't matter. I've still made things worse for you. I never wanted to do that to you, Zedd."

"I know that, Thomas. And as you said, when it happens, we - together - prove otherwise. Also, you didn't misbehave, Thomas. Pets, toys and children misbehave. You, my love, did not."

I can feel him becoming slightly agitated. "Whatever you want to call it, Zedd, I did it. All because I can't get my shit together and get over what the hell happened to me. I'm pathetic."

I sigh and play one of the cards in my rapidly dwindling mental deck. "Thomas, don't make me call Dulcea. I think she'd be fairly angry that you seem to already forgotten her words of advice." He falls silent for some time - long enough that I think he's fallen asleep. Softly, I say, "Thomas?"

"Do whatever you think you have to do, Zedd." Damn it, not the response I was after. "Hell, maybe she'll strip me of my powers and I can go back to being what I should have been after all - useless."

I feel like I've been punched in the gut. "Thomas-"

"And maybe then the bond will just dissolve and you'll be safe."

Now I just want to be sick. "No, Thomas, that's not-"

He cuts me off. "I'm tired. I'm going to sleep now."

No matter what else I say, he doesn't respond to it in spite of the fact that I know he's not asleep yet. I hold him a little closer, hoping against hope that as he gets better from his illness, so too will his mental state improve.