When they finally make it to Mark's house it wasn't nearly as close to Jeff's as Mark had made it sound. It fact it was so far out of town that Jeff had fallen asleep during the drive to get there. "We're here Jeff."

Jeff suddenly hears a car-door slam and dogs barking. Jeff winces his eyes "Are we finally here?." He asks to nobody.

Mark had already left the confines of the car and was now heading indoors.

Jeff takes the time to look around, Mark's house was old. Really old. "Man, I thought my apartment building was bad."

Mark's house was falling apart, His paint was chipping and there was quite a few big pieces that were barely hanging onto the house's structure. "What a fixer-R-upper." Jeff whispers.

Mark stands near the screen door which had holes in it by the way. " Are you gonna come inside."

Jeff follows Mark indoors. It was just about as bad as outside. But Jeff could see why he would want it, He had the surroundings to himself, There was no other houses near-by that Jeff could see. Just alot of bare land and trees.

"There's a small pond behind that brush there." Mark stats. I guess he must have noticed me looking around.

"I know it's not that nice to look at, But it has some sentimental value to me, More so then any pretty house I could buy." He explains.

"Why don't you take a load off, I've gotta get these dogs fed before they decide to feed on us." Mark laughs while carrying out a large bag of dog-food over his shoulder, His muscular shoulder. Jeff wished he wasn't in such a rush.

"I'll fix you something to eat if you can just wait a few minutes Jeff." Mark hollers over his shoulder.

Jeff walks over to the side door "So you don't have a backdoor?." Jeff asks finding it rather odd to have a side door.

"..Nope." Mark replies while struggling to keep the dogs from jumping up at him.

"... I can help you, If you want me too. I'm feeling better." Jeff stats while taking notice of the dogs outnumbering Mark by 6.

"..No that's fine. I have to do this by myself all the time." Mark explains but as soon as he says it, One of the bigger dogs must have overheard him and was insulted because out of the blue, He charges Mark and Mark loses his balance, Falling to the ground and watching as the bits of dog food spill out the bag. Mark hits the dirt and curses. He soon looks up at Jeff who had taken to standing beside the fallen big man. "Sorry for cursing." Jeff lifts up the dog food bag, Only tilting it upright. Jeff struggled to even do that, The bag was much more heavier then he had anticipated.

"Let me get that, It's too heavy for you." Mark says as he finally gets up from off the gravel and dirt.

Jeff waits for Mark to get over to the bag, As Mark places his strong hands over the bag, Jeff lets go.

"It's okay for cursing, My dad does it all the time."

Mark winces at Jeff for he had lost his sun-glasses during his fall.

"Well he shouldn't." Was Mark's only reply.

Jeff walks over to where Mark's shades were and picks them up. Mark lifts up the bag and walks it over to the spot that he had gotten it from earlier, Right by the back door, well side door. Jeff still found it unusual to have a side door exceptionally so close to the front of the house. Why was there even a front door for.

"Here you go." Jeff says as he hands over the shades to Mark. Mark dusts off his hands on his dark blue jeans.

It was rather hot outside and Jeff could see Mark's shirt getting tighter around his body.

Mark thanks Jeff and grabs ahold of the glasses but instead of putting them back on, He places them on Jeff.

Jeff laughs and takes them off "I don't want to break them." Jeff says to Mark as he hands them back yet again.

Mark reaches into the door, He places them up on a built in-shelf, One that looked new.

"Did you build that?." Jeff asks.

Mark nods as he ushers the dogs back from the door.

Jeff takes a seat next to the stove, It was a pretty small kitchen. I guess it was right for one person though.

"So what do you wanna eat?." Mark asks.

"Um, What do you have?."

" I can fix Eggs, Toast, Grilled cheese."

"Do you have jelly?."

Mark takes the two steps to the small fridge, And I mean small, This thing was shorter then me.

"..Yep." He says "So you want Jelly toast?."

"... Yes please."

Mark looks back at Jeff "Nice manners kid." He says with a smile. Jeff smiled back.

I don't know what's going on but I feel so comfortable with him, I really have no idea what's going on inside my own head. Isn't that terrible.

"So you live here by your-self." Jeff asks as he watches Mark standing by the toaster.

"Yep, Just me and the dogs." He replies.

Jeff nods "How long you been living here?."

Mark grabs the jelly from out the fridge "Um.. Well I grew up around here." He places the Jelly jar on-top of the small counter space. "But I moved away when I was young, Didn't come back here until a few months ago." He stats.

"Where did you live during the time you were away from here?."

Mark grabs a plate from out of the cabinet. " Around the Texas area."

"...Texas huh.. I bet it's hot over there right now." Jeff says

Mark just nods.

Jeff stands up and looks around and then focuses out the small window, You could see directly where the dogs were. "So did you just get those dogs or did you bring them back with you from somewhere in Texas?." Jeff asks.

"Do you want my whole life story kid." Mark asks as he nods for Jeff to come sit down.

Mark takes a seat himself and sets the plate of Jelly toast in front of Jeff.

"I don't mean to pry, I'm just curious."

"It's alright kid, I was just picking. I had one dog that I had brought back with me from Texas but well the rest were already here, Not too many people come out this way so I guess they just picked this place as their home land."

Jeff nods while watching Mark speak "So their strays."

"I guess so."

"How's the sandwich, I know it ain't nothing fancy, Anyone could fix it." Mark apologies." I usually have more food then that but I haven't had a chance to go shopping." He explains.

"It's fine." Jeff stats with a shy smile.

It continues like that for awhile, Just back and forth yammer. Jeff was showed around the house and Mark promised him that he would be shown the pond before they left.

"So you have no t.v. huh?." Jeff asks

"Nope, I've got a radio though." He stats.

Jeff wriggles his nose at that. No t.v. I'd be drove crazy out here in the middle of nothing with no t.v. to watch. Is he serious.

Mark and Jeff head down to the pond just before dark.

"I used to fish over here."

"Oh really."

Mark nods, He could almost envision himself as a little boy, Glenn right behind him, Holding onto his shirt because mom and dad told him too, Just because it could be slippery around the pond area and they wanted to be extra careful because if anyone fell in it and as little as Glenn was at the time, It would have been really hard to see just where he was once he went down.

It still looked the same too, Mark didn't come down this way much. It was just too painful. Not that the house didn't have painful memories because it sure as hell did but alot of the memories that he was faced with at the pond were of his little baby brother, Those were the hardest. He was the big brother, He was supposed to keep his baby brother safe. His parents always used to say that they intrusted me with his safety. They said it each time that me and Glenn went off to play or if they left the house for a few hours with me in charge. I can't get the noise of Glenn's screaming coming from our shared bed-room, The smoke coming up to the ceiling, It was foggy I couldn't see what was in-front of me. I just heard his screams. I heard my parents telling me to get him, To get your baby brother. I couldn't do anything. I was so scared of my own safety. I kept yelling for my dad to help me but they were stuck inside their room, They couldn't get out. Later on once I got older, Paul had told me that they had tried to bust the window out, They were trying to escape the blaze but lost consciousness from the smoke.

"Yeah, When I was a kid. It was a really long time ago." Mark whispers, His sentence trailing off. He was in his thoughts now. The flashbacks were coming to the surface like a tirade.

"We better get back to the house." Mark says as he begins walking back, Not even waiting for Jeff.

Mark feels better once he's away from the pond. "So are you about ready to go see your dad or do you wanna stay a little bit longer, I could call him if you want me too.. I don't want him to be worried about you.. Jeff. Jeff." Mark turns around and he doesn't see Jeff. "Jeffrey!, Jeffrey. Where are you. Jeff." He shouts as he begins running. He nearly tripped over Jeff's still body. The grass was so high that Mark didn't notice him.

"Jeff, Jeff are you alright, What's wrong. Jeff." Mark repeats

Mark feels Jeff's forehead, It was hot. He quickly grabs him and places him in his arms carrying him to the house.

Jeff wakes up almost 5 hours later, It was now dark and it was storming out side pretty bad.

Mark was right beside him once he realized that Jeff was awake. "Hey kid, You have another fever. It went down some though."

"What happened, All I remember is being outside looking over at the pond." Jeff whispers.

"We were heading back when I noticed you weren't beside me, So I turned around and well, I stumbled on you. You must have passed out from the fever."

Jeff nods "Were am I now." He asks

"My bedroom."

Jeff's eyes go wide. His bedroom, I'm in his bed.

"How did you get me up here?." He asks a rather stupid question but he just wanted to hear Mark say he carried him. If only I was awake when it was happening so that I would have had the experience of having his arms wrapped around me. Why do I keep thinking like this?, Somethings wrong with me...

"I had to carry you in here. I wanted to take you to the hospital again but being that it's such a long ways away, I figured it just be for the best, if I nursed you myself." Mark explains

"You know how to nurse?." Jeff asks

"Well no, But I know how to get a fever down."

"What if I needed more care then just that?" Jeff asks

Mark stops in mid-word "I don't know." He stands there staring at Jeff unable to say anything.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out." Jeff whispers.

Mark grabs the rag that was ontop of Jeff's forehead. "I'll get this more wet for you."

Get me wet. WHAT!. What the hell is wrong with me. Jeff fights his own thoughts.

Mark was in the bathroom when he sees Jeff running past him from the bathroom mirror. "You okay."

Jeff threw up all that jelly and toast.

After he was through he sat there on the floor "I think I need help back to bed."

Mark places the rag on his shoulder as he walks over to Jeff, He holds him up and helps him to the bed.

"...Thanks." Jeff whispers.

Mark smiles and places the rag back on Jeff's fore-head.

Mark sits there just staring out the window. A cup of freshly brewed coffee sits on the nightstand for him.

Jeff slowly falls back into a deep sleep.

"I'll be here if you need me Jeffrey. Hopefully your feel better when you awake." Mark whispers to the sleeping boy.

It turned out to be a long night for Mark.

Jeff would wake up throughout the night,He would drink some water that Mark had been sure to have near the bed and there were a few times that he had something to eat, Soup that Mark had made during the time that Jeff was asleep the second time, and he threw up a few more dozon times but after a few minutes he would be knocked out to wake up a few hours later to do it all again.

Jeff did get over the fever the next morning but Mark was up all night nursing Jeff that he never did wake up during the whole Morning, Afternoon. Jeff didn't wanna wake him anyways, He liked it here and Mark just looked so cute sleeping, So cute in fact that Jeff sat there watching him sleep in that small chair all morning long, Only leaving to use the bathroom. He did eventually get hungry so he fixed him some left-over soup and when he was eating, He noticed that one of the dogs were whining, He couldn't eat knowing that they were hungry too but without anything to eat so he feed them, Of course he couldn't lift the bag but he got a large cup from out the cabinet and feed them that way, They only knocked him down about 8 times during the time he was out here with them, But afterwards he felt good about it. Afterall I didn't think Mark would have liked it if I had let his dogs starve. Plus I wanted to see that look on Mark's face when he got up and noticed that I feed them, Even if I was cheating with the cup. Hell I tried to lift that bag, I'm just too weak. Mark would understand. Jeff thinks.

Mark finally awakes noticing Jeff out of bed, He jumps up and goes down the creaking stairs, Jeff heard it and knew that Mark must have been up "There's no way of sneaking around here in this place." Jeff says with a smile "Did you have a nice sleep." He asks. Mark smiles "Sure did, Are you feeling better?." " I sure am, I reheated your soup, Do you want some?." "I need to get out there and feed the dogs." He replies. Jeff smiles wide "I already did that." Mark looks at Jeff "You did." Jeff nods, He was still smiling.

Mark nods "Well thank you." "Your welcome." Jeff replies.

"I guess we'd better get you home then huh, You've been away from your dad for what, Two, Three days now.".

Jeff's smile fades.

TBC

A/N: So you've got two chapters to read, I was in a writing frenzy! =D I hope that you like it.