Anala slumped against the table top, her best friend, coffee, wrapped around her white fingers. She was tired after last night. She stayed awake just in case either of the two of them woke up screaming, wondering where on earth they were. Camille slept peacefully, bizarrely enough. There wasn't a peep out of her, but Moose was a different story.

He tossed and turned with the fire that blazed over his body. It was then, when he finally found sleep, that sleep itself became his enemy, and all the worry and the cold from the night before took it out on him. He coughed in his sleep, wheezy and full of pain, but he slept on. She kept after him with ice cold bags of water, and eventually, the heat on his face died down a little and he turned less and less.

She looked up to see Jacob come into the kitchen, yawning. "Heard you up last night," he said calmly. "I don't think anyone got a proper rest." She shook her head.

"Moose was bad last night. He slept through it all, but he couldn't stop coughing or moving. It was a wonder Camille slept at all," she added. Jacob stopped.

"She's been asleep for far too long," he stated, the hint of worry in his tone just enough to make her shake her head and reassure him.

"Don't worry, she's fine," Anala replied. "Kim and I checked her last night before she hit the sack. Only cuts and bruises, nothing else, no broken bones or sprains, no fractures of anything swollen." Jacob still seemed upset to her, so she laid a hand on his arm. "Don't worry. You know Kim: she was kicked out of college, yeah, but she still knows her medical theory enough to be sure of anything wrong."

"We're very lucky to have her," Jacob replied, sighing as he sat down quietly at the table. "But I still think we should wake her up."

"If we wake her up, Moose wont be too far behind," she commented, as she took the last sip of her coffee. "Well, I'll go find Kim and she'll give me a hand. You should go find Vladd. He was upset last night after seeing Moose like that."

"He's already up. He could help me try and calm Moose down when we wake him up too," he replied. "Should we ring Luke and tell him?" Anala stopped walking toward the door.

"I think we should," she replied. "And I think we should deal with the Samurai for this too."

Camille woke as soon as Anala tapped her shoulder. She jumped, her eyes wide, making the purple bruise just below her collarbone shine all the more.

"Wh-"

"Shh, sweetheart, it's just me, its just Anala," Anala whispered, holding her hands out for Camille. Kim stood a little ways off, still dressed in her PJs, and rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Where's Moose?" she asked, her voice standing on edge. She looked around her, as if dazed, until she saw Moose lying beside her, Jacob and Vladd standing over the cot on the opposite side, eyes darting between themselves. She started to breathe faster. "They said they'd get Moose- Oh God-" She started to cry then and there, her hands flying up to her face, the movement causing Moose to groan suddenly.

"Can we turn off the lights-'S too bright," he mumbled, his hand resting on Camille's arm, just as he opened his fever-bright eyes and saw her sitting slumped on the bed. "Whoa, Camille-" he sat up, bringing his arms around her. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't know what was going on-"

"They said they were going to get you," Camille mumbled brokenly into his shirt. "They said they wanted you-"

"Forget about me," he said heatedly, his voice rising an inch. "Forget about what they said- Who done this, Camille, who?" When Camille continued to cry into his chest, he forgot about asking her any question that ever came to his mind since last night, and just held her. He slowly rocked her back and forth, soothing her in whispers that reminded Jacob of last night, of how Moose had curled up beside her.

"It's okay, Camille, it's all over, I promise. I won't ever let that happen again, I swear," he murmured into her hair, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. Even Anala could see he was still tired after last night, even if he'd slept all night. The dark circles under his eyes stood out along his creamy skin, and as he pulled the blankets up around both him and her, she could see the strength was waning out of him. "Shh, Camille, shh," he whispered against her still, his cheeks still flushed with fever, yet his attention solely on her.

"Th-They said they were coming after you, and they'd get you after what happened in the World Jam, and-and when they saw I wasn't with you, they-" Moose's eyes widened in shock.

"The House of Samurai done this, Camille?"

Camille nodded against him, and his muscles tensed, looking to Jacob for guidance. "Why would they- Just because we bet them in-"

"The Samurai never play fair," Jacob said, shrugging his shoulders. "We should've known after they they tried to play dirty with all of us and the Vault." Moose bit his lip, waving his hand through Camille's soft brown hair.

How could anyone do this to her? She didn't deserve it. He deserved it more.

"Please, don't let them get you, Moose, please-"

"Shh, forget about that now, Cammie, just forget about it. Go back to sleep, okay?" he continued to soothe her, but she moved against him, placing both her hands on his chest and pushing him back.

"Forget about you?" she said seriously, her face contorted in pain. "You want me to forget about all of this-"

"No Camille, I don't, I don't want that at all," he began, just as she continued.

"You think that this is okay, that what happened to me is nothing- that they didn't try to-" she crumpled over him, crying as badly as he was trying not to break. He was failing miserably. He placed gentle hands on her shoulders, gently pulling her to him, as he couldn't sit up.

His throat was on fire and his voice was going. His eyes burned and his stomach churned. He was warm and all he wanted was to rest, but how could he, when his Chameleon was in so much pain?

"I'm so sorry, Cammie, please forgive me for not coming sooner, please- I didn't mean to- When I saw you lying there, I couldn't-" he gritted his teeth, his arms holding her to the point of making her snap in two. "I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe I waited for you at the dance, I should've come to your dorm, I could've stopped that, I swear-" he bit his lip. "I'm so sorry, Camille. I cant stop saying it- It's my fault, all my fault."

"It's not your fault, Moose, it's all of ours," Vladd said, breaking the tension in the room. His voice was tentative, as if worried that he should be speaking in the first place, but it was there all the same. "We should have known they would do something underhanded like this. And it may not have been just because of the World Jam. It could've just as easily been because Natalie is not part of Julian's family anymore. She left him behind."

Jacob turned and looked in wonder at the guy who barely ever spoke. "Vladd is right. Julian lost a lot because of all of us, and now he wants his revenge. He was coming after you, because you started it all for him."

Moose held Camille tighter as she drifted off into sleep, her body slowly untangling itself from around his body. "I don't want Camille hurt anymore," his voice sounded childlike. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

"Well, its part of being a family here, Moose," Jacob warned gently. His voice softened when he saw the defeated expression on his face. "No-one deserves this, it's just a Samurai's way of thinking. Those idiots don't know what they've done, because in their minds, they think its right."

"I'm really sorry guys, for how I acted last night- I just couldn't believe-"

"You acted normally, Moose,"Anala intervened. "We all felt the same way. The poor twins went to bed last night with a sister complex, thinking the worst would happen halfway through the night, and the Ticks actually considered going out and giving the Samurai a piece of their minds, which I wouldn't be opposed to right now," she added, a hint of annoyance in her tone. She folded her arms and stared into space with the fury of the devil in her eyes. "I just cant wait to put my hands around Carlos' neck, I bet he was the one-"

"Anala," Jacob gestured to Moose, who sat watching her, his face as white as a bed sheet. She immediately widened her eyed and held out her hands.

"It's okay, we wont head out or do anything," she filled in as fast as she could. "Not until you're both better and well."

Kim came to kneel before Moose as he continued to hold the sleeping form of Camille. She placed her hand on his forehead to test his temperature and coolly regarded him with her eyes.

"Temperatures up again," she noted. "Needs more rest, as per usual. How's the throat? You sound hoarse," she asked, her messy black hair tied back half-hazardously behind her head.

"It's not too bad," he replied. She cocked an eyebrow, before he said, "Hurts a little, but its nothing, really."

"And what about your head? Do you feel dizzy?"

"No, not really."

"Stop being so vague, please," she tapped him on the forehead, making him wince tiredly. He looked down along the bed sheets. "Go get some sleep, okay, kid?" She motioned to pick up Camille, but he held her resolutely.

"I'm not going to let her go," he said simply, and she rolled her eyes.

"Kid, as much as I know you love her, you're not helping by holding her like she's some rag-doll. You're practically falling asleep as we speak and you cant even keep up an argument with a voice that cant speak a sentence 'cos its about to go."

Slowly, he let her go, and Kim rested Camille's body right down among the bed covers, getting Anala's help as she pulled the covers up around her sleeping form. By the time Jacob had turned to Moose, he was already out for the count, still sitting against the bed board, his whole body pointing toward Camille as she lay comfortably against him.

Gently, so as not to wake him up, Vladd picked up the lightweight and pulled the covers up over him. He slept soundly, the faint rasp in his voice signalling the slight cough that hitched his breath.

"Sorry.." he mumbled in his sleep, and Vladd watched with dismay, as Moose allowed a tear to fall down his cheek, his face rubbed against Camille's.

A/N::Right, so this is a terribly moody 'fic. I had to push this one out in order to get it to continue... Do you guys still want me to keep going? It WAS meant to be a one-shot... God, I feel so sorry for the characters I write for... I seem to adore pain and death so much that all I wanna do is write about it... Please forgive me... ^^'

Oh! And a major thank you to everyone who said they liked this! I 3 you guys! :D

xxx