Author's Note: I'm back! :) I'm sorry if this chapter seems a little blah, but I still need to get back into the swing of things. It's really more of an interchapter before we get back to the heavy stuff... I hope you enjoy it regardless.

X X X

Monday came too soon, at least for Josh. One moment it was Friday night, and the next moment, his alarm was going off. He groaned, and blindly groped around his bedside table until he found the offending object and violently hit the "snooze" button. Josh rolled onto his side, then pushed himself up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Glancing behind him, he looked to see that Drake was still asleep and that he hadn't woken him—ever since Friday night, Drake had taken to sleeping in Josh's bed, and Josh was content to let him, at least for the moment. He noticed suddenly that Drake was no longer in bed, and, scanning the room, quickly found that Drake wasn't there at all.

He quickly rose and bolted from their room, the same protective feeling he'd been having since Friday spurring him to feel the need to find Drake and keep him in his sight at all times. As Josh flew into the kitchen, he saw his parents talking quietly in one corner.

"Where's Drake?" he asked, not caring if he was interrupting something.

"He's taking a shower," answered Audrey. "He's insisting on going to school today." Josh sighed. He'd argued with Drake about it the night before when he'd found out that Drake was planning to go—everyone else thought that Drake would be pushing himself too hard if he tried to go, but he was adamant about it.

"I couldn't talk him out of wanting to go," said Josh, "but he kind of does have a point. He ditched pretty much all of last week, and it's not like he can avoid it forever, you know?" Audrey and Walter exchanged a worried glance. "Am I missing something?"

"Today isn't a very good day for this," said Walter after a long pause, "because even if he goes, we're going to have to pick him up early this afternoon to take him to the police station for his statement."

"Oh," said Josh, wondering why he didn't know about this already. "Did you tell him?"

"He knows," answered Audrey. "He still wants to go." Josh shrugged helplessly.

"I'll talk to him again, but I don't think it's going to do much good," he said. His parents nodded, and he trudged back up the stairs to continue getting ready for school.

Drake was back in their room when he got there, still damp from his shower. He was wearing older jeans, Josh noticed, that were far looser than his normally skin-tight ones, and he was wearing one of Josh's t-shirts. It was obviously too large, but not ridiculously so as it might have been before Josh lost weight.

"Hey, man," said Drake, and his voice startled Josh—he sounded far more cheerful than he had since before they even started fighting. "You don't mind, do you?"

"What?" asked Josh, just staring at him.

"Your shirt," explained Drake, gesturing to himself. "I just kinda threw it on."

"Oh," he said lamely. "No, I don't mind." Drake smiled, and Josh suddenly felt as if he'd been punched in the gut, seeing the honestly happy grin on his brother's face, however small it may have been. "Um, hey, this afternoon... do you want me to be there?"

Drake gave him a puzzled look. "You have class."

"I can have Mom and Dad pull me out," he said. "If you need me, I'd rather be there with you." Drake bit his lip, and then shook his head.

"No, it's okay," he said at last. "You should stay at school."

"Are you sure?" he asked. Drake rolled his eyes and gave him an exasperated look.

"Josh!"

"Okay, okay," he said, smiling himself. He had no idea what had put Drake in such a good mood, but he was—tentatively-willing to enjoy it while it lasted. He much preferred this Drake to the Drake he had been with all weekend, a sad, quiet shadow of his former, vibrant self. "Hey, are you sure you want to go to school?"

"Josh!" said Drake again, this time punctuating the rebuke with a light slap on the arm.

"Alright, I'll shut up about it," Josh said, laughing. "I promised Mom and Dad that I would ask you if you'd stay home again."

"Well, now you have. I'm still going," he said, and jumped over the back of the couch to land sprawled out along the cushions. He grinned lazily at Josh. "You have fifteen minutes to get ready now, by the way."

X X X

Josh worried about Drake during all of the hours they didn't have together, and he spent the few they did staring at Drake, watching him for any signs of... well, Josh wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he was so worried that Drake wasn't going to be okay, that he was going to break down again, that he ended up spending the day acting more nervous and fidgety than Drake was.

He asked Drake to eat with him and his friends, even though they were at the "nerd table," and Drake just shrugged and smiled at him. Josh didn't push it, and he didn't mention that he didn't see him in the cafeteria at all.

They went to chemistry together, and for the first time that day, Drake seemed nervous. Josh didn't know whether it was because of what had happened in there two weeks ago, or if it was because their parents were going to be calling him out of school that hour to go down to the police station.

"I talked to Mr. Roland before school today," Josh said casually as they waited outside the door.

"Yeah?" said Drake, not really seeming to pay attention to him.

"Yeah," he answered. "We're lab partners again." Drake's head whipped around, his eyes locking onto Josh's. He looked incredulous. "That is, if you want to be." After a brief pause, Drake smiled at him.

"Working with you or mumble-mouth Clayton? Gee, Josh, tough choice," he said, rolling his eyes. Josh grinned back, and the two entered the room together. They were heading back to their seats together when Mr. Roland called out to Drake.

"Mr. Parker, a word, please." Drake met Josh's gaze and shrugged, walking back to the front of the room. Josh reluctantly continued to his place and sat down, straining to hear what was being said between the two of them, though he was much too far away to be able to discern anything. Drake's back was to him, so he settled for watching Mr. Roland's facial expressions carefully. He saw him go from concerned to understanding, and then stern. Drake was shrugging, and then Mr. Roland was shaking his head, his expression one quite close to exasperation, and then Drake was heading back to Josh, a small smile playing on his lips again.

As Mr. Roland took roll, Josh quickly scribbled a note to Drake, knowing better than to risk being caught talking in his class. What did he want?

Drake rolled his eyes and wrote back: asked if I'm OK.

Josh hesitated for a moment, wondering whether or not he should ask, but eventually wrote it anyway: Are you? He passed the note back to Drake, who sighed and folded the note up and stuffed it in his pocket. When Mr. Roland turned his back to the class to write on the board, Drake leaned over to bump his shoulder against Josh's. He looked to Drake, then, and saw a small, reassuring smile on his face. He smiled back, and then opened his book, turning his attention to the lecture.

Twenty-five minutes into the class period, an aid from the office came in and wordlessly handed a slip of paper to Mr. Roland. Glancing at it briefly, he then held it up, eyebrows raised. "Mr. Parker, you're wanted immediately. You'll be leaving for the day." Drake, who hadn't even bothered to open up his backpack, threw one of the straps over his shoulder and headed for the front of the room. As he took the pass, Josh didn't miss the way he flinched when Mr. Roland squeezed his shoulder briefly.

The rest of the period, he found himself unable to focus on a single thing related to chemistry or, after the end of that period, anything related to Spanish. He found himself staring at the clock, willing 3 o'clock and the final bell to come faster so that he could get Megan and just go home.

X X X

Megan sat in the nurse's office, watching the hands of the clock move closer and closer to 3 PM, wishing that the end of the school day would come even faster. Her stomach had decided to tie itself into knots just after lunch, and she had been in the nurse's office ever since; although the woman had taken her temperature and found nothing to be wrong, she had taken one look at Megan's face and told her to stay until her parents came to pick her up or school ended, whichever she preferred. She knew that her parents wouldn't be able to pick her up for quite some time—they had taken Drake to the police station to make a report (her stomach hurt even more at the thought)—and so she decided just to wait until the end of the day, when Josh could take her home.

She knew why she was sick, though—she just didn't know what to do about it. Megan Parker was a person of action; she wasn't used to waiting around while adults took care of everything. She was frustrated, because this time, she couldn't make some evil plot that would return everything to normal. There was nothing she could do.

Megan was angry, too. She was angry with Josh for making Drake upset, and she was angry with her parents for not knowing that something was wrong with Drake and doing something about it, because even she could see that things were worse than one fight with Josh could cause, and she was angry with whatever bastard had hurt her brother—though that was actually the point: he hadn't just hurt Drake, he'd taken him away from them.

The Drake that she saw now wasn't her brother, not really. He was a shadow of the person he used to be. He was quiet and he didn't really smile much, and she'd noticed that whenever anyone touched him, he flinched a little—except for Josh, but Josh had long since become the one exception to Drake's personal space rules. And speaking of Josh, she'd noticed how all weekend, Josh hadn't let Drake out of his sight. He'd called in sick to work on Sunday to stay home with him, even though they didn't really do anything besides sit on the couch and watch TV. It had comforted her somewhat, though, to see the two of them attached at the hip again.

But that didn't mean she was just going to forget about the way Josh had hurt Drake. Not a chance.