I'm really sorry for the lack of chapter last week. Just ran out of ideas and didn't right anything fast enough.

Caboose wasn't sure why he was so afraid. Shadows flickered just within his sight, or maybe it was smoke. He couldn't tell. One of them grabbed his arm, and Caboose turned to look into green eyes.

"Church?" The shadow shook its head and the grip on Caboose's arm tightened until it hurt.

Allison! Allison!

Was it a thought, or did they whisper it? "Who?"

Allison. Where is Allison?

"I-I don't know... who..." Pain struck his leg, hot white pain that cut though the confusion and caused a scream.

Allison!

"Please, stop it! I don't know what you want!" He could stop them, right...? He just needed to be angry. How... he didn't know how to be angry. Not anymore. Had been able to once? Did it matter? He was defenseless.

Allison! Allison!

The pain greatened, but it wasn't just his leg. Across his shoulders, his stomach and chest. It was everywhere. They beat him, hissing and crying out as if they were the ones in pain. "Please!"

Allison!

And then nothing hurt, compared to his head. Nothing he'd ever felt hurt the way his head did then. He couldn't describe it, aside from the screaming. He couldn't breathe, or move. He was pain and that was all he'd ever been.

"Allison!" Caboose's scream was muffled by the pillow his mouth was pressed against. A moment passed until he could bring himself to sit up and look around, scared at every shadow in his room. Turning on the lamp caused them to flee, and Caboose's terror receded.

He rubbed his forehead -which still ached slightly- and wandered out of his room. It was dark outside his window. Did that mean it was still night time? Clocks made as much sense to him as books did. Not wanting to wake his parents, Caboose crept to the back door and peered outside.

"Freckles?"

The giant dog lifted its head, barking at Caboose sleepily. "I'll let you sleep," he muttered, wandering back inside. He was hungry, but his mum had told him not to cook things.

He decided to just wait in the lounge until his parents woke. Sleeping didn't really seem likely at the moment.

Tucker woke with Sister beside him. She was sprawled on her side of the bed, relaxed and peaceful. He took a moment to savour the lack of sadness on her face, before getting up. It was only seven, Tucker wasn't sure whether he wanted to go to school today. He just wanted Sister to be able to go if she wanted to.

It was still weird being in Grif's house. He kept noticing little things, like how ridiculously close together everything needed to make coffee was, that screamed 'Grif did this'. It wasn't hate that made it wrong. Fear, more than anything, that Grif would somehow wake up and find him in his house with Sister. Tucker was well aquatinted with Grif's protectiveness.

The oddness doubled when he spotted an 'e = mc2' mug. "Fucking hypocrite. Doesn't he have his own house?" Tucker fantasized briefly about smashing Simmons' mug. It would probably be really obvious who did it, however, so he decided against it.

Now with coffee for two, Tucker returned to Sister's room, placing the cups down before gently shaking Sister awake.

"I have coffee."

Mumbling angrily, Sister got up and accepted the drink, squinting at the bedside clock. "Why the fuck did you get me up this early?"

"I thought you might like to go to school."

Sister stared at him. "What the hell? Why would I want to go to school?"

"It'd be a distraction."

"Oh, right. Going to boring fucking classes, as a complete loner. Fun."

"You wouldn't be a loner. You'd have me."

"We're in a different year level, idiot. And don't go on about 'you have other friends'; no one wants to be friends with the fucking suicide girl.

Tucker sighed. "Alright. We'll stay here then."

"...Can we watch a movie?"

Rolling his eyes, Tucker agreed.

"Church! Where the fuck are my shoes?"

"By the door!" Yelling at each other from across the two-story house was so common, Church was surprised he hadn't lost his voice by now. Carolina flew down the stairs, red hair in a mess. He could have sworn she smirked at him when she somehow leaped over the high railing and landed in one smooth movement- barefoot.

He should have guessed his sister would end up doing something that took advantage of her scarily good physical skill. He'd just always pictured gymnast, not criminal.

"You going to ignore me today?"

Church's face reddened slightly. He'd been ignoring Carolina as much he could during the weekend, blaming her slightly for Tex joining Freelancer. "Uh...no."

"Good, 'cause that was getting really boring." She grinned, racing back up the stairs. Church returned to his coffee, happy that he had at least one person who would never hate him.

"Delta, did York give you anything yesterday?" Delta jumped, swiveling his chair to face Gamma, hoping his body would hide the computer screen.

"N-no. Why would you ask?"

Gamma rolled his eyes. " You're a horrible liar."

Compared to you. "I was given a USB." Gamma held out his hand for it. Shaking his head, Delta continued; "I would like to know why the head of Freelancer gave you a USB, first."

"None of your business."

"Yet I have the hardware."

Crossing his arms, clearly frustrated, Gamma glared at his brother. "I was requested to help Freelancer, more importantly Wyoming. Why he needs help is not of importance. Now, give me it."

Relenting, Delta grabbed the USB and tossed it -rather clumsily- across the room. Gamma caught it, and stormed out, continuing in his seemingly constant state of frustration.

Delta returned to his computer, and the files he had copied from the hardware. Quickly typing a note to remind himself to look into Wyoming's situation, he continued to look through the Insurrection files with increasing worry.

"Thanks Sheila!" Simmons called as he and Donut headed to their year-level building. Due to Sheila passing near Simmons' house on her way to pick up Caboose, she had taken to dropping off Simmons as well. While this often ended with Simmons awkwardly sitting beside Caboose, it was a lot less of a hassle than having to walk.

Both Simmons and Donut were jumpy as they headed inside. Donut kept going over every scary story he'd heard about Locus- most of them from Locus' brother, Felix. The fact Locus' own brother was terrified of him was a very bad sign.

"He's a senior, right?"

Simmons nodded. "He should be in the other side of the school. Let's just get to class as quickly as possible and try to stay in a crowd."

Donut nodded, and the two hurried inside. Sure, they'd dealt with Caboose and Tex well enough before, but that had been with Grif. Despite Grif's self-proclaimed laziness, the Hawaiian would happily enter a fight if it meant protecting his friends or sister. And there was also the fact Locus was at least two years older than Caboose, and a lot more painful.

"Seriously," Simmons muttered hoarsely under his breath as the two settled at a desk. "There are way too many bullies in this school."

"Can't even open a stupid locker!"

Wash looked up in confusion, startled by the frustrated cry. Caboose was fumbling by a locker nearby, obviously annoyed.

Stupidly, Wash walked up to him. "What's wrong?"

Caboose looked at him for a moment, key and lock in hand, before replying. "I don't... know how to open it."

Wash held out his hand, and Caboose moved back, handing him the key. In a few seconds, the locker was open.

"Uh... Can you teach me how to do that? Please?"

"How to... open a lock?"

Caboose stared at the ground. Wash couldn't not feel pity for him.

"Uh... Sure. Look at what I do." He took him through the process a few times, helping Caboose fit the key in and reminding him which way to turn it. By the time he finally managed it, the classroom was full, and students buzzed around them.

"Thank you so much mister Washingtub." Wash tried to correct the mistake, but Caboose pulled him into a bone-breaking hug.

"Y-you're welcome," he muttered when he could breathe again.

"Listen here pansies. I know yer are excited to be doin' all this girly stuff, but I gotta tell you stuff first." Sarge glared at his class, fuming clearly.

Carolina rolled her eyes and followed the class towards the old gym teacher, really not caring what it was they were doing this lesson.

"Alright. Now, for some god-forsaken reason, Vic's demanded I teach a gymnastics class." He looked around the students, as though expecting one of them to cry out in horror. When even Simmons stayed quiet, Sarge continued angrily. "Go pick somethin' to do and do it. Don' hurt yerself an' stuff."

"Reckon he's more pissed about Grif not being here, or having to teach a 'girl's' sport?"

Carolina grinned quickly at York, who had somehow managed to stand next to her without her noticing for at least thirty seconds. "Why on earth would Sarge be upset about Grif not being here?"

"He seems to love bullying him. Probably annoyed he can't put his frustration on someone else."

"True."

An awkward silence settled over the two. Carolina had barely spoken to the gang leader since South was captured, and had intended to continue doing so, but Flower's words from yesterday hung over her. When she actually looked for them, the signs of stress and sleeplessness were obvious on York's face and body language.

"So, uh... You want to go show off to the class?" York grinned hesitantly.

Before she could change her mind, Carolina lead York over to where a mat was set up, and several students were failing handstands and cartwheels. "How about I teach you?"

He grinned at the idea, something Carolina shouldn't have felt overly, stupidly happy about.

"My mum cooks better," muttered South. "And the best she can do is microwave baby food."

The muscled dude rolled his eyes and walked of, loudly locking the door. South was used to the dark by now; she'd seen the room when lit enough times that she could navigate well enough without sight. She tended to trip over Wyoming a lot, and he did the same, but at least they weren't tied to chairs anymore.

Keep being so fucking optimistic. You sound like North.

It was weird, how being captured by an enemy gang and being held there for around three days was what it took to get her to think positively.

"Three days, already going nuts." Wyoming was no better than her when it came to guessing how much time had passed, but they'd had the equivalent of three day's food, and she didn't feel starved.

It was kind of scary actually. They'd been well fed and hadn't been interrogated since they first woke. Tex had told them at least a hundred times the Insurrection were good at what they did. So South was pretty sure the good treatment wasn't going to end least she wasn't alone.

"Wake up asshole. Food's here."

Wyoming muttered sleepily from the other side of the room.

"Alright then. Eating your half."

She could hear it when Wyoming moved fast; his hands banging against the walls as he tried to feel his way to the door. Grinning, South moved back with her half of a sandwich, not wanting the Brit to crash into her in his haste.

Sure, being captured was scary as fuck. But South wasn't scared. Not at all...

His vision was blurry. His head hurt, in a way that made him regret even opening his eyes. Perhaps he should just go back to sleep. It would hurt a lot less.

No one was with him. The room was empty, aside from a few seats and the bed he was on, and all of it was way too white.

Needs some orange in here.

Grif decided to try to sit up, but his torso felt like very painful jelly.

Ok. No sitting. How about thinking?

He was pretty sure he was in a hospital. Wasn't sure why; his mind was taking a while to catch up to his body. Eventually he recalled the crash. And that Donut, Simmons and Sister had been with him.

Fuck! Are they ok?

He decided to just screw it and pressed the panic button by his bed, alerting the hospital staff that he was awake. Within a minute a female nurse walked in, obviously surprised.

"You're awake."

"No shit." Owowow why did his mouth hurt too? His gums felt like he was on fire and he was pretty sure at least two teeth were gone. "Where are Simmons and-" Fuck. Maybe he should just give up and go to sleep.

The nurse seemed to understand what he was asking, at least. "Franklin Donut was out for a day, though he recovered well and was admitted out Monday morning. Dick Simmons and Kai- your sister suffered only minor injuries from your crash. I assume they are all at school."

Grif grinned a little at hearing the nurse stumble over his sister's name, before actually registering what she said. They were at school? The crash had been Saturday. "How long... have I been out?" Ok. No more talking, ever.

"A little under three days."

Oh wow. Grif let his head fall back on the pillow as he thought about that. Also, holding his head up kinda hurt.

"Can you- fuck- can you call and tell 'em I'm up?"

"Sure." She walked off, leaving Grif alone.

He wanted to stay awake until Simmons got there. But fuuuck it hurt.

Been sleeping for three days. A few hours won't matter.

I'm proud of this chapter, despite the fact it took me twice as long as usual.