Red did not sleep at all. He didn't even bother trying – he was too busy for sleep. Sleep is for the weak, he told himself silently again and again, as he went about checking up on all the horses and moving tack out of the way of the rain. Now that the front half of the barn was gone, there was a yawning gap where the roof used to be, and slanted raindrops continued spiraling downward and soaking practically everything in sight.

It was cold now too, because of the tree. Whatever warm air that had been trapped in the barn had escaped, and none of it could stay now, either. When Red had first started shivering, he'd tried to get a grip on himself, thinking that it wasn't going to help. Besides, it made him feel pathetic. But now he let himself shiver all his body wanted to. He was pathetic anyway, dragging his right foot around, half-walking and half-slithering, soaking wet from trying to move everything out of the way of the rain; and besides, if shivering was a built-in instinctual mechanism, there had to be some sort of benefit.

Red was soon forced to put all the mares except for Angelfire into the indoor ring. The ring still retained some amount of warmth, likely because of all the horses that were constantly moving around in there. It was a near-impossible feat to try and feed them, but Red somehow managed it by separating them out, tying them to different sections of the ring fence. The second they had all finished he untied the mares and unhooked their lead ropes, allowing them to run around all they wanted. Red could only pray that none of them would spook so much that they would try and escape the ring.

Bella seemed to be in most danger from this. Red noticed – he saw how frantic she made the others – and he quickly took her back out of the ring, leading her into what was left of the main barn. He put her in the empty stall beside Angelfire and hoped it would calm her somewhat to be in a stall by herself.

Unfortunately, Angelfire was no help in that area. She was crazier than ever today, and Red wished that he could move her somewhere safer and warmer – but that was impossible. At least, at first he thought it was impossible. He soon realized that the tack room was the warmest place to be, other than the indoor ring, and Red set about moving all the tack out of the way.

Once he had shoved the saddles to one side and everything else to the other, Red limped down and grabbed a large empty bucket, along with a pitchfork. He limped back to the cleanest empty stall and began to put whatever clean straw he could find into the bucket. When he had completed this task, he started to drag the bucket to the tack room.

Red was stopped in his tracks when the filled bucket accidentally slammed into his injured ankle. His ankle gave way with a spasm and Red was sent tumbling to the wet floor with a splash. He lay there in the rainwater for a second, honestly considering just laying here and giving up – and then the horses started to neigh again, and Red took a deep breath before struggling back to his one working foot. He dragged the bucket the rest of the way, being very careful about his hurt ankle, and dumped the clean straw onto the tack room floor.

There wasn't enough straw the first time, so Red took the bucket back out and filled it again. It was only after he dumped it the second time that he realized what an idiot he was being. There was no way a pregnant mare could lie down on this floor – no matter how much straw he laid down, it was still going to be hard as rock to her, and the baby could crack its head open the second it came out.

Red swallowed hard and abandoned this project of turning the tack room into a stall. Instead, he searched around until he found a dry blanket, and he headed over to Angelfire's stall with that in hand. He hung it over the edge of the stall, thinking that he should probably wait until she had the baby to put it on her. He didn't want to obstruct the mare in any way.

Angelfire was still pacing. Red watched her for a minute, feeling downright miserable. "You had better not try and give birth while it's only me here," he told her, his voice hoarse from lack of use. He cleared his throat before continuing. "You know I have practically no experience with helping a pregnant horse."

The mare tossed her head in response and whickered. Red shook his head and turned away. In the next stall over, Bella whinnied, and the geldings started it up again. The two stallions began snorting. Red looked around for a minute as the noise reached a deafening crescendo – and then he heard something that sounded suspiciously close to splashing.

Red hobbled over to peek into Barq's stall. The horse was moving around a lot – and it was no wonder. The bottom of his stall was covered in a thin sheet of rainwater. "Oh, Barq, I'm so sorry," Red said, as he set about clipping the lead rope onto Barq's halter. "How long has there been water down there? I hope it hasn't been too long."

He led Barq out into the aisle and attached him to only one cross-tie. Red patted Barq's neck and went around to check on all the other stalls. Barq's stall hadn't been the only flooded one: Dime and Nickel, both ponies, had been up to their fetlocks in water.

Red was running out of room to put the horses. He tied Dime to the other cross-tie in the hall and was soon at a loss as to where he ought to put Nickel. Red stood there with the pony for a minute before remembering the tack room makeover and deciding he could use that, as long as there was nothing edible in there.

He led Nickel to the tack room and tied the obedient pony to a leg of one of the counters. "Sorry, Nickel," Red told the pony. "At least it's a bit warmer in here." Nickel nickered back and nudged Red's shoulder. Red smiled half-heartedly at the pony and limped back into the barn aisle.

Red was right next to the tack box upon which he'd carefully placed his phone when his ankle gave way again. Red managed to seat himself on the tack box instead of lying on the floor this time. He wanted to roll up the right leg of his pants to take a look and see how his ankle was doing – if it was swollen or anything – but he was too ridiculously fatigued. His arms felt as though it took a mountain of effort to move them in the slightest.

He laid his head back against the wall, his eyes fluttering shut. Red had no idea what to do now except sit here, wait, and pray. So that was what he did.

A/N: I'm so mean to him. Sorry I haven't updated sooner; I kind of lost this story because I couldn't remember where I put it. Clearly I found it. ;) Well, reviews are fun, so give me one! Ugh. Sorry that rhymed. ;P And just because I'm such an updating fail, I'm going to give ya'll the next chapter, too.

DISCLAIMER: In the first chapter, as is the warning.