I woke up slowly.

The first thing I was aware of was Michael holding me. I could tell it was him. No one else touched me quite so gently, not even Kathy. Not to say that my wife wasn't gentle, but she was also down to earth in way that Michael was not and it made her gentleness more grounded. I loved that about her. When Michael was worried about me, his touch was a kind of soothing presence. Even when it was checking for injuries it seemed to convey the thought I'm here, we're going to be alright even when we clearly weren't. I loved that about him too.

All of these thoughts flitted through my mind as I hovered between the conscious and the unconscious. I can only attribute the soft sappy musings to the concussion I was surely suffering from. And the fact that one isn't really themself when they are just waking up.

If Judith heard me she'd surely quote one of Father's sayings about how when you first regain consciousness you didn't have your inhibitions up and could learn a lot about yourself. But she couldn't hear me. I'm in my head. Shut up, dream Judith. God, she's even irritating in my head!

"Would you please just trust your sister?" Wait, that wasn't in my head, and that voice definitely wasn't Judith's snide tone. It was... angelic.

My wife.

I think I smiled a bit as I relaxed into Michael's hold. Secure in the knowledge that I was with perhaps the only two people I would ever trust with my life. Secure in the knowledge that where ever we were, we were together.

I stayed like that a while. More asleep than awake. Until Michael moved. "Tis all very well for us to consider, but the question remains. Will he accept it?" Michael had tensed, rousing me more fully than a rooster's call. His arms tightened around me. "Will he accept me?"

"Will who accept you?" I asked groggily. I probably should have tried to sit up, but I was actually pretty content where I was.

"Fisk!" The siblings cried in unison. Suddenly Kathy's hands were on my face and her kiss was on my lips. I blinked up at her. God, she was beautiful. Drenched with rainwater that reflected the light off of her skin in a way that made her look unearthly. I smiled up at her.

"Did I do something right?" I felt Michael shift. I moved my eyes over to him and forced them to focus on his face. An uncomfortable expression was on it. He was most determinedly avoiding looking at me and Kathy. "Hey," I poked his ribs. "Stop not looking at me." That made sense, right? Not looking. Yeah. That made sense. I frowned. I wasn't usually this muddle headed...

Michael had obeyed my command a little too well. He was examining my eyes closely. Then he put his hand to the back of my skull. Despite his gentleness, I hissed in pain, pulling away from his usually comforting touch. "It's a concussion." He stated with certainty. Kathy made to stand.

"I'll find some herbs to-" I made a sound like protest and reached for her. She stopped and knelt beside me again.

"I'll go." Michael said, sounding resigned. He transferred me to Kathy, supporting my head and torso until she had me in her arms. But when he tried to leave he discovered I had a firm grip on the front of his shirt. He tried to remove it. I wouldn't release my hold on the shirt. "Fisk," he said gently, with the type of voice I usually associated with his Gift for handling animals. "Let go."

I would have shaken my head, but Kathy was holding it, and I didn't want to dislodge her. So instead I just glared at him and pulled him back down where he'd been sitting. Michael tossed a perplexed glance at his sister.

I don't really know why I was stopping him. I just knew that I was cold and muddy, my head hurt, and I didn't want either Sevenson running off until I was in a state that I could look for them.

"I think that we should skip the treatment and just get him straight to a healer." Kathy told him in a low voice.

"I'm worried that they will find us if we go into town." Michael muttered, staring at me in obvious concern. I glowered at them. So I wasn't behaving very logically. Why did I have to always be the logical one anyway? Michael seemed to come to a decision. Before I could do anything to stop him, he slipped off his shirt and stood up.

"I'll find some magica herbs." He said confidently. "Then we can take the horses to the healer a few towns over." I was busy gaping over the shirt, trying to figure out what had happened... So maybe I was a little bit concussed after all. "Talk to him until I get back. Don't let him sleep." Kathy might have nodded. I didn't see. I was busy trying to focus on Michael, who was suddenly leaning over me earnestly. "I'll be right back." I tried to grab him but I missed. Damn concussion. He pulled away and vanished into the trees. I looked down at the shirt in my hands.

"That was devious." I muttered. I looked up at Kathy. "When did Michael get devious?"

"After years of exposure to you, I'm surprised he's not worse." My 'loving' wife laughed. I smiled weakly. It still didn't feel right without Michael there. Kathy chatted for a while, talking about this and that. Pulling my (muddled) thoughts about a particular ballad or novel out of me. She even managed to wrangle a few truths about my past out of me, since I couldn't think of a believable lie. She must have realized the trouble I was having. My lies were either obvious or illogical, so I was stuck with the truth.

"Fisk," She said slowly. "Who do you love more? Me or Michael?" I blinked at her.

"I think I missed something." I said.

"Who do you love more? Me or Michael?" She repeated.

"That's what I thought you said." I frowned at her. I thought she knew this. "I can't answer that. Since I love you both so much." Kathy smiled.

"I think this is the first time you've admit you love Michael out loud." She told me.

"I'm concussed." I reminded her blithely. "Nothing I say can be used against me."

"But you do love Michael." She grinned. She tapped my nose. "You can't deny it."

"Course I do." I said drowsily.

"More than me?" She persisted. My brows furrowed.

"Why do you keep asking me that?" I demanded. "I can't compare them. Not anymore than you could your love for me and Michael or Michael and Benton. Or," I yawned. "Rupert and Meg. It doesn't work like that." I could feel myself falling asleep again. "I love you both far too much to even measure. And I can't compare them if I can't measure them." Kathy's blush was the last thing I saw and Michael bursting out of the trees with the magica herbs was the last thing I heard before the darkness reclaimed me.