I will do proper thank yous at the end, I do owe you guys a lot for encouraging me to get this story down onto file! For now, thank you to my reviewers, Ylva, Phantomgirl96, Lilly, Peacexfreedom, MacGaulyver, Kaylee and Emma :-) Also, just to promise, I'm aiming to complete this story pretty soon, I know what's gonna happen to Rex hehe ;-)

Asleep

Chapter 6

The cold of the garage concrete slowly seeped through, numbing Rex until he woke up from where he'd fallen asleep on the floor in front of the cupboard, the dusty beams of sunlight through the window attesting to it being morning. Above him the naked lightbulb still shone, and then there was a harsh click of the light pull and it blinked out. On the floor beside him the torch lay, its batteries dead.

A pair of hands grabbed him by the arms, pulling him up. "Rex?" Six demanded him to wake up.

"Wha—?" his teeth chattered so much that he nearly bit his tongue off. Six guided the teen back into the house and half-carried him up the stairs to his room, dropped him onto his bed.

Holiday's warm hands touched his forehead and he heard her gasp. "Dave, he's freezing! Put some water on to boil and turn up the heating." She began arranging the blankets around him, then called out, "Grab the blankets from our room, they'll still be warm."

Lowering her voice, she talked to Rex alone now, her voice threaded with distress. "Why did you sneak out, Rex?" Rex could only half hear her though. "Were you running away?"

He might've mumbled something but it was indistinct and she sighed and pushed away his blankets, replacing them with warmer ones and re-tucked him in. "I wouldn't blame you," she whispered miserably. "I ask too much of you. I just can't let her die."

Six came in with an armful of blankets. Holiday began wrapping them around Rex. He could smell the soft scent of Holiday's perfume, a citrusy kind. "Is he awake?"

"He's only half-conscious," she said quietly, pushing back a stray strand of her black hair. "He must have been in the cold all night. We'll have to warm him up slowly. Is the hot water ready? Do one cup of tea and add a drinking straw."

"He is lousy at drinking tea without burning his mouth," Six agreed stoically and left the room to obey Holiday's orders.

Holiday wasted no time, reaching under Rex's bed and pulled out a black holdall. She unzipped it with trembling fingers, shot one look at her watch. "Five minutes," she murmured and dug into the holdall, took out a slim black case. She clicked it open to reveal a needle and a half empty vial of clear liquid. She checked Rex, peeling back one eyelid and he didn't respond, he'd fallen back to sleep. She heaved a regretful sigh then rolled back the jacket sleeve on his right arm to above his elbow. There were two healed marks there, and now she pressed the needle between the marks, slid it in and emptied the needle's contents into Rex's veins.

Rex jerked awake at the prick of pain even though his body was tired, and the needle jerked painfully. Holiday made a small sound of alarm and grabbed a piece of dressing from inside the holdall, pressing it to the wound before she removed the needle.

"What's in that?" Rex asked dizzily.

"You don't remember?" she whispered, pain crossing her features.

"No. I don't." For the first time ever he wasn't afraid of admitting his fears, that he was dreaming, or that he might have blacked out. He was more worried about what Holiday had injected into him.

"Please, you'll have to wait," Holiday said softly, and put the needle back into the case, raising her head and saw Six standing in the doorway, about to drop the mug of tea. "Sandra?" he demanded. "What have you just done?"

"Antibiotics," she said but even Rex could tell she was lying.

He watched her steadily. "I can tell when you're lying, Holiday. What was really in that needle?"

Rex pulled his wrist away, clamping his hand around his elbow to staunch the thin flow of blood down his skin. Six grabbed Holiday and pushed her against the wall. "What was that?" he demanded of her.

She closed her eyes and turned her face away.

"Tell me!"

"Please," Rex flexed his arm painfully. "Holiday, what the heck did you just inject into me?"

Holiday shot him a startled look, then that look changed to horror. Rex didn't pay too much attention to that though as the injection mark had just started bleeding again.

"Rex, just keep applying pressure to it," Six ordered. Rex obeyed, pressing the dressing against the crook of his elbow. Six picked up the needle case. "You, sit down," he ordered Holiday.

She obeyed, looking down at the floor in obvious shame.

Six turned the case over in his hands, his fingers stopped on a dark label. He raised it to the light and read the name there. "Fell," he said finally, his brow creasing in anger. "Holiday, have you been talking to him?"

Fell…Rex struggled to remember who that was, it rang a bell but not a recent one.

"Yes," Holiday whispered.

"Why?" Six yelled, then threw the needle against the wall in anger. "He wanted to ruin this, he wanted to dissect Rex. How could you continue his work? How could you use something from Fell on Rex?"

A tear rolled down Holiday's cheek.

With a cold rush of fear, Rex now remembered. Dr Fell was the Providence scientist who'd wanted to dissect him when Six first found him, when they'd first found out that he could cure EVOs.

"How did he find out about Rex?" Six demanded. "We don't hunt EVOs any more. He can't even cure EVOs any more!"

This whole world made no sense to Rex. "Yes I can!" he yelled triumphantly.

"No you can't," Holiday whispered in shame.

There was silence between the three of them as her words sank in.

"Last night—" Rex began, just as Six stated, "That needle. You just injected him with—" then they both shut up.

"It paralyses nanites," Holiday whispered.

Rex looked down at his elbow, feeling sick. As though responding to his thoughts, the wound throbbed a bit more, and then he peeled away the dressing, as more blood oozed out, but it was kinda more like pink. "Um, Holiday?" he asked faintly, raising his arm for her to see.

"Your nanites…" Holiday moved towards him but Six pushed her away. "You've betrayed him," he reminded her. "You've betrayed me."

"This…oh god, it's so complicated," Holiday pressed her knuckles into her forehead. Her eyes were still full of pain as she looked at Rex and then at Six. "I don't even know where to start!"

"Have you injected Rex with this before?" Six said finally.

"Yes," she said. "Rex told me to."