A/N: Sorry for mistakes, no time to edit, just got to keep writing for NaNoWriMo. It's a bit of a filer but enjoy.

Chapter 6

They found her slumped and leaning against the wall at the front of the house. Tom and Alfie discovered she was breathing deeply before Tom quickly opened the front door to call for Will. They were carrying her into the living room with Tom holding her arms and Alfie had her legs. That was how Will saw them, on the way to the main room as he made his way down the stairs as fast as he could with his prosthetic.

"How is she? I think I'm getting deja vu," Will said, "Finding an unconscious woman on the floor, and me trying to heal them. Well, Lexi fell from exhaustion and we aren't really sure about what happened to Yelena but Mallory will want to know. She's been going mad with worry, the past 24 hours have been stressful for all of us."

Will checked Yelena and had come to the conclusion that she had been hit hard across the face and then fell, hitting her head as there was a bump on the back of her head and she must have been tied up, judging from the marks on her exposed wrists and ankles. She might have had a concussion but he wanted to let her sleep for a short while until Mallory arrived half an hour later. Mallory reacted similarly to Silas when greeting his beloved.

Yelena woke up to a bang from a door against a wall. Her eyes flashed and she sat up quickly but she had a painful headache that made her clutch at her head.

"Mal," Yelena said, "Mallory?"

Mallory and Will immediately came by her side and the others in the room crowded over. Will checked her eyes and assessed her condition with a few normal questions as Mallory held her.

"Okay, you seem fine, no concussion but take it carefully for the next few days, no brutal workouts or going on any of our night trips as The Cloaked Red," Will said smiling gently.

Yelena looked happy to be home and with Mallory, "Thanks, Will."

"No problem but take it easy," he said. As soon as he was done Silas came into the room with Lexi, they greeted Yelena and Silas asked for Tom to fetch everyone to come into the living room as he nor Will wanted to move her from the comfortable sofa.

When everyone showed up Yelena began to tell them what had transpired between the meeting she didn't end up going to and then her meeting with Nate (in which Lexi listened intently), where he had punched her in the face making the chair she was tied to fall over, injuring her head.

She then said, "He wanted me to give you a message."

"What is it?" Silas asked anxious.

"'She needs vampire blood to survive the transition, only a drop will do'. I'm pretty sure he was referring to you, Lex. I'm surprised I remembered that," she said.

Eventually Mallory lead Yelena back to their room where they settled in quietly. Back at the living room the 11 of the occupants were debating over their course of action, some were saying there should be an attack to this Nate person that was terrorising their lives (Jenny), another said that they would do no such thing and that they could all deal with the situation in a diplomatic manner with no need to fight or hurt anyone (Lexi).

The tension was building, with Yelena's recent kidnapping and her message, so Lexi said, "Everybody, stop. We can sort this out later because right now I'm tired and I'm sure all of you are feeling the same way, we can debate over this tomorrow."

"You're right. Come on, dear," Silas said, putting his arm around her shoulder.

Everyone began to look as tired as Lexi and Silas felt so they agreed and made their way out the door with the main couple leading.

"I'm just going to check up on Yelena and Mal," Lexi smiled kindly.

"All right, see you in a few minutes," Silas said and he kissed her forehead and went to the master bedroom.

Lexi made her way to the other couple's room, she knocked on the door and heard a voice consenting her to enter. She peered her head in and saw that they were on the floor of the room playing cards and were using old buttons and other small objects for currency.

"Hey, how are you two doing?" Lexi was now in the room and leaning on the door.

"I think we're good, I'm strong and I can pull through this, I've had worse," Yelena said and at this Mallory shook her head.

"I'm not sure that's a reassuring thing," Mal said as Lexi watched on.

Yelena shrugged and then looked to Lexi, "Hey, you want to join? Just look for a few buttons or something like that."

"Sure, I'll just get some stuff and be back in 5," Lexi replied and she left the room.

She then walked to her own room, told Silas that she would be spending time with the girls before going to bed and she grabbed a small bag of sewing supplies. She quickly changed into suitable sleep-wear and then she made a quick trip down to the kitchens to get snacks and drinks and then headed back to Mal and Yelena's room. She knocked again and they let her in, they were still sitting opposite each other but shuffled to make room.

The next hour or so was spent playing cards, gambling shamelessly with both buttons and small objects of worth such as pins. Finally when they all got too tired to carry on the games, Lexi retired back to her room where Silas was reading one of her many novels he must have picked up from the shelf on the other side of the room.

"Hey, you had fun?" Silas asked.

Lexi was already dressed for bed and too tired to go through her night ritual to go to the bathroom so she crawled into the comfortable bed and curled up next to Silas and mumbled out, "It was great, we should do it more often, Jenny would like it." The last few words were hard to understand.

Silas slid in the bookmark to the novel in hand and placed it on the bedside table. Lexi was already asleep when he faced her and he slipped into unconsciousness just as fast.

The next morning Silas woke up peacefully, with the sun shining decadently through the windows and in warm sheets. He murmured his beloved's name but he didn't get a reply, he stretched out his arm expecting to find her but it was a vacant space.

He opened his eyes to be free of Lexi. He frowned and sat up, he quickly got dressed and found out it was only 8 am and went down to the kitchen to see if Lexi was there. She wasn't. Around 10 o'clock he started to get even more worried, she wasn't anywhere to be found and he was starting to get agitated over her disappearance. He supposed she could have been at work but he called in and they reported back to him that she hadn't checked in with them.

However, just after mid-day Lexi came stumbling through the front door, swaying with every step she took. The first person to spot her was Silas, who was pacing greatly distressed but he was filled with relief as he saw her but then concern as she seemed to reach out to hold onto the wall. Her hand almost made contact but missed and she tripped, landing on her side. At this point Silas was rushing forward and had just made it to her as she collapsed onto the rug. Silas examined her breathing before scrutinising her state, she was covered in cut and bruises that littered her body, he could tell by the way she winced unknowingly as he scanned her for other wounds. He discovered that a bone in her left arm had been broken with the cry she sounded as he held it up and pressed down, she had some other lacerations that would clearly need stitches as soon as possible because she was on the rug she loved so much and was bleeding out onto it.

Once again he required Will to help heal her, he didn't want to leave her alone so he shouted for someone in the house to come and as he didn't know who was currently in the home he simply bellowed for help and Mason and Jenny were the first to get to the front of the house. They had both looked down in horror over Lexi's body and Jenny jumped into action, bouncing up the stairs to fetch Will, less than a minute had passed when Will and Jenny came back down the stairs with Will's medical supplies in hand.

"Quick, what first?" he addressed Silas.

"Her cuts, they need to be sewed up, we can't let her bleed out. She hasn't got long," Silas said panicking as Will calmly stepped into his role as doctor and asked Silas and Jenny to hold down on the deeper gouges while he threaded the needle. He took out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and cleaned away the drying blood and the wounds. The he started to sew together the closest cut that was on her arm, that had begun to stop its bleeding and then moved onto another on the under-side of her right leg. Will worked quickly and efficiently until he had to fix her broken bone in her arm, it seemed like a clean break but he would need to re-set the bone which would cause a great amount of pain on Lexi' behalf, even more so than the stitches he had just given and having gone through what she must have done to acquire those injuries, Will wasn't keen on inflicting more pain. So he looked to Silas who gave a nod but before he would set the bone. He took another bottle out of his bag, slightly smaller than the rubbing alcohol and opened her mouth, pouring what must have been a good two mouthfuls and making her swallow first. Will took in a breath and made a jolting movement that pushed the bone into place. Lexi gave a high pitched shriek of suffering as he did so, not making his job easy, but she soon fell asleep from soreness and pain.

Will looked weary as faced Silas, "I suggest she is put, carefully, into her bed for at least a month's rest, from her 'vampire' experience to the stress of Andrew's death and Yelena's kidnapping to now this, she isn't to do anything but recover for a month, at least. Doctor's orders."

"Yes, of course, absolutely," Silas agreed, although he knew he wouldn't let Lexi do anything for the next three months if he could help it, "Would two of you mind helping me take her to the bed? And thank you, Will. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there, sincerely."

"I know, just get her comfortable now," he said as Jenny helped him up.

Silas smiled grimly back to Will and then with Tony and Mason, they carried Lexi up the stairs and into the master bedroom where they laid her softly on the bed.

"Thanks, guys," Silas said. The two men nodded and left Silas with Lexi.

Back down at the front hallway where Lexi had just been lying down on the rug, Will was collecting up his medical supplies bag and Jenny was helping.

"You were really brave, healing Lexi like that," Jenny began.

"No. Don't start on that bullshit. I am here to do what I do. She was dying and I helped her, that's all I care about," Will said.

"Okay, I just want you to know," she replied.

"Well, I do and there's nothing to talk about," Will ended.

"Yeah. Right, um, do you want me to take the bag?" she asked.

"Yes, please. If you would, thank you," he said briskly and he made a start to the staircase and consciously too it step by step, taking consideration of his prosthetic which he had more or less thrown aside when he was down on the floor by Lexi.

Jenny walked up the stairs the same time Will did, and with him when they reached his floor, walked him to his door. He opened it and gave an indication for her to enter, she had never really been in too many of other people's' rooms and was slightly surprised to see the room cluttered with objects of all kinds, she was expecting this out of his roommate but not Will as he seemed to be more organised and orderly around others and his room didn't reflect that. At that moment Will's roommate wasn't there and it was just the two of them.

"This is it for me. Anything interesting?" he asked.

"A little," she said and then delicately tread through the clothes on the floor to the doorway, "See you at dinner."

He nodded and but was somewhat disappointed to see her leave.

In Lexi and Silas' room Lexi was fast asleep while Silas lay by her side restlessly. In his mind he was trying to think about the possible perpetrators, Nate, the man that had taken her before was a clear suspect but other than that he couldn't think of anyone else. Lexi was a loveable person who made friends everywhere she went, no matter their race, sexuality or gender, it was one of the reasons she had so many connections with people and why they were able to talk to Aurelia and Alexei about her 'vampirism' and the ideas behind it. So Silas couldn't think of a reason why anyone would want to hurt her, including Nate because as far as he was concerned he didn't think Lexi knew him before he kidnapped her and so he couldn't come up with a for anyone willing to cause pain to Lexi. This meant that the attack on her was most likely a mugging that didn't end well and with Lexi being beaten up, this made him frustrated and angry. He wanted to hurt the people that had hurt her but if he ever did then it would easily upset Lexi as she had too much compassion in her to do something like that.

Silas had missed too much work lately and was considering quitting and selling off the business but he would still need and income, something to do during the day and besides, he liked working at the garage too much to leave permanently. He then decided to take official time off, he was sure his assistant and the other employees would be able to handle the workload, if not then he could simply step in when needed.

Silas left a bell on the nightstand which Lexi could ring if she woke up, even though it was very unlikely but he wanted to be there for her, so he left the door to their room wide open after checking and bolting the windows and shutting the curtains.

He went down to the kitchens to join the others for dinner as he would have to tell the others of what happened to Lexi. He and Lexi were very keen on keeping everyone in the household an active part of the events and developments happening so that no one would be excluded or on their own. Of course, people had their own personal secrets that would never be shared unless the secret keeper would decide to tell others, in that case, everything would be dealt with one by one.

At last when he got to the kitchen people were eating and talking about Lexi's incident, with Will and Jenny sitting next to each other off to a side where they didn't comment in the discussions. He passed through the door and a hushed silence fell over them all. Walking to in front of the people he started to give a general explanation and when he got round to the end he said, "I'm not sure why she was attacked but she is home now and we are going to do everything we can to aid her in her healing. And yes, I will asked her of her account of what transpired to get her into a state that she is in now. So for now, finish your meals and go back to your usual activities. We'll all be fine."

Silas finished talking and then everyone else started discussing what he said. Then he went to get a portion of the food and sat down with Will and Jenny.

"Are you doing okay?" Jenny asked him.

"Yeah, I'm actually fine, a bit shaken up over Lex but just more worried about her than anything," Silas said truthfully. He ate his dinner with them and when done he left the room with the pair and went upstairs to each of their rooms.

He had a fleeting thought about Jenny and Will but he dismissed it as he summarized that it would be totally insignificant and not mean a thing to with either of them. So he soon got to his own room to see Lexi still peacefully asleep.

The days passed slowly, just as they did when Silas had first waited fofr his beloved to wake a short time ago but after day 3 Lexi awoke uneventfully. She was still very sore from her injuries but she was relaxed and calm when she woke up with Silas beside her, it was just before dawn as she could see out of the window where the morning light was beginning to seep into the clouds. With her eyes still closed she tried to lift her arms and even though in pain she successfully did so and reached out to place it on Silas' chest.

"Silas," she croaked out and gave a painful cough, "Silas, wake up."

He mumbled something and then seemed to realise that Lexi was awake.

"Oh! Lexi, you're awake," he exclaimed and sat up, "How are you? What do you need?"

She twitched her lips into something resembling a smile and gave another small cough.

"I'll be back in a moment," Silas said recognising what she wanted him to do.

She lay there after watching him leave and looked to the ceiling. There was an interesting pattern of swirls, coloured in cream paint, she followed the direction of them with her eyes as they twisted and turned around, she got to the corner of the room when silas came back in with a glass of water in hand and some bread from the kitchens.

"Here, drink up," Silas was now by her side and had lifted her head and shoulders against him and held the glass to her lips, she drank contently until it was completely drained. On the topic of drinking her mind wandered off to the other liquid that she quite recently wanted to devour, blood.

Now that talking wasn't as painful, she said, "Silas, I.. I need… blood." She finally said the word and looked away from his face, marginally ashamed.

"No, no it's fine," Silas said trying to reassure her, once again he brought out his dagger from the bedside table and delicately made a laceration into his hand, this time deeper than last and lifted it closer to her lips, allowing her to drink deeply. It was less than a minute but she pulled away and smiled gently to him, his blood still on her lips and coating her teeth.

"I'll get you some more water to get rid of the blood," he sat up again, putting pressure on his hand and slid out of bed.

Lexi wanted to wipe the blood from her lips but she was too tired to move, even after feeding. She thought about that word, 'feeding', she didn't like it but it was a more suitable term to refer to her drinking Silas' blood to live but she wasn't sure if she needed to drink blood or if it was more of a desired thing, and she didn't know how frequently she would have to 'feed' from her beloved. They all still didn't know very much about her state or how strong her restraint would be because most of the past stories and myths included the fact that 'vampires' would lose control and kill, but so far she hadn't attacked or murdered anyone to her knowledge.

Silas came back refreshed and with a damp towel in hand, he came to her and let her drink another glass of water and then took off the blood staining her already red lips.

"You'll what happened," Lexi began, but Silas then interrupted her.

"No, I don't, not yet at least. It's going to be better if you tell everyone at once, that saves you from repeating it and going through it again as little as possible and you would have the people most important to you surrounding you. I understand the situation but you need to rely on other people other than me, that everyone in the house are more than happy to be there for you, for anyone."

Tears welled in her eyes but she didn't cry, just pulled herself closer to him, while the damage done to her still paining her movements.

Only a few hours had passed when they next awoke, they got dressed and adjourned to the living room where all household members were seated, told to be there at this time. Lexi walked in with the support of Silas and started to tell her version of the events.