Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to htfrjolenz for inspiring me to write it.

Chapter 29: Training and Bunnies

Davy swung the training sword with all his might. He and Willow had been training in the basement for several hours now. He felt dizzy and weak, but he pushed through it. He couldn't stop now. He couldn't give up now. He had to keep going. He had to get better. For Micky and Mike. For Ginny and Rose. When it was time for him to go up against Robert to free his friends, he had to be ready. There was no other option. His sword connected with Willow's and the metal clanged. Davy pushed against her, but she didn't lose her footing. Instead she dropped to the ground and kicked his leg. He fell to the ground and hit his head. His vision blurred for a few seconds, but he ignored that, too.

"You weren't on guard, Davy," Willow said out of breath.

"Sorry," Davy answered. "I'll get better."

"Do you need a break?" Willow asked. "You hit your head. Again."

"No," Davy said getting up. It was the fourth time he'd hit his head. Two of those were from Willow's practice sword when he failed to block her. They were dulled, not sharp, and not as heavy as a normal sword, so it wouldn't do as much damage. "Let's go again. I can get this. Eventually. Somehow."

"You need practice, experience, and intuition."

"Right, so the practice I get here. The experience part, I won't get until it's time to fight and I don't know if I have as much intuition as you. You guys were born into this and doing this your whole lives."

"The intuition comes with practice. And there's a certain amount of intuition innate in everyone."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes. You use intuition to assess every situation. Before a fight, you need to assess your foe and use your intuition in the fight."

"Assess your foe?"

"People fight in different ways. Some prefer agility, others prefer brute force. What would you do against an agile foe?"

"Run away."

"Davy, seriously. Close your eyes and put yourself there. A man comes at you fast. What do you do?"

"Ok." Davy closed his eyes and imagined a large man rushing at him quickly. His first instinct really was to run away, but he pushed past that. He'd have to change his fight or flight response. He'd have to fight. He thought for a few moments, watching a man run at him in his head. "Knock him off balance."

"Right. An agile fighter doesn't have firm footing. His weakness is his footing. You go for the legs. Knock him off guard. I'm gonna run at you. Knock me over."

"Ok." Davy stood firmly while Willow backed away. When she rushed him, he dropped to the ground and moved to kick out her legs, but he stopped just before his foot contacted her knee. The sudden stop caused him to fall over as Willow pushed him over. "Davy, you had me! Why didn't you take me out!?"

"I couldn't hurt you. If I kicked out your knee, I would have really hurt you."

"Ok. Fine. Now, what about a brute attacker. He uses his force to come at you. All his strength. What do you do?"

"Um. Not run away, right? Use his strength against him. But I'm not sure how."

"You have to be agile. A foe is coming at you with his full strength. His footing is always firm. But if you duck out of the way when he uses all his force to swing at you, he'll fall over."

"Ok, so we practice that?"

"Later. Take a break. Drink water."

"I'm fine."

"Water. Now." Willow was forceful as she walked over and grabbed a water bottle. When she tossed it at Davy, he tried to catch it, but couldn't. He quickly bent over to pick it back up. Willow smiled at him as she drank from her own water bottle. When he stood back up to drink, he felt dizzy. Knowing he was probably getting dehydrated and couldn't stop now, he quickly drank the bottle before throwing it in the trash with all the others he'd drank that day. His arms felt weak and shaky, but he ignored it. He had to keep going. He didn't notice Willow coming up behind him to blindfold him.

"What's this?" Davy asked as she put a soft tennis ball in his hand.

"You need to learn how to focus. On everything around you. I want you to take this ball, count to ten and throw it at me. See if you can hit my head."

"Ok. One. Two…" Davy continued counting but listened carefully. He knew what she wanted from him. Her feet shuffled and he focused. When he counted to ten, he threw the ball off to his left about 45 degrees.

"Very good, Davy. That was really close. Why didn't you throw the ball behind you?"

"I knew you wanted me to listen to where you were. I didn't think you were going to stay in the same place. You want me to listen."

"Very good. Try again. Count to ten." They practiced this for another hour before he finally heard the ball make contact with a body.

"I got you this time!" Davy said excitedly.

"You did," Willow answered. "You got my arm. Not my face, but that's ok. We'll do this again tomorrow. It's getting late." Willow came over and took the blindfold off. Davy got really dizzy and almost fell over. He had to take a step back to keep himself from falling. "Davy, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"I'm fine." Davy's nose suddenly felt wet and cold.

"God, Davy. We need to get you to Piper."

"I'm fine; she's not here."

"Upstairs." Willow wrapped her arm around Davy and helped him up the stairs. For a moment he thought about pushing her off, but he realized soon his legs were weak, too. He couldn't really support himself very much anymore. It actually became clear to him he wasn't fine. Something was wrong. He felt hot, dizzy, tired, and weak. And now his nose was bleeding. When they got upstairs and into the kitchen, Piper and Peter were just walking in the door.

"Shit, what happened!?" Piper asked dropping a small messenger bag on the counter and quickly rushing over to them. Willow helped Davy into a stool next to the island counter.

"We were training," Willow said. "I think I pushed him too hard."

"I'll be ok," Davy said. "Just need rest."

"Why is his nose bleeding?" Peter asked, terror gripping his voice.

"I don't know yet," Piper said. She was in front of Davy now, looking into his eyes. "Davy, can you follow my finger?"

"Sure," Davy answered. She held a finger up in front of his face and moved it to the left first, then up, right and down. His head was pounding now.

"I broke him," Willow said.

"You didn't break him," Piper said.

"I'll be fine," Davy said. "I just need to rest."

"What's he saying?" Peter asked. The question made Davy freeze.

"Davy, your speech is slurred," Piper said before Davy could react. "Your reactions are slow, but they're still functioning. Squeeze my fingers." She put her hands out with all but two fingers on each hand curled into her fist. He grabbed each of the two fingers and squeezed as hard as he could. The effort made his head hurt more.

"What's that mean?" Willow asked.

"Did he get hit in the head?" Piper asked.

"A few times," Willow answered.

"How much water has he had to drink?" Piper asked.

"I'm not stupid," Willow said. "I made sure he drank a lot of water today. He had at least 8 bottles."

"But you were training him all day?" Piper asked.

"Yes, we need him," Willow said. "We're down a man with my father's death and we need him if we're going to make it right and find his friends. I told him we'd stop when he needed to! I told him not to push himself too hard!"

"Davy's got an issue with stubbornness," Peter said. "He doesn't always know what his limit is when his friends need him. He's gone up against Chinese mobsters to save me and Micky."

"Guys, it's nothing," Davy said. "I'm probably just really dehydrated. I just need rest and water." Davy reached for a bottle of water sitting on the island, but he fell instead. Piper reached out to stop him from falling, but she was a little late. Before he blacked out, he felt his head make contact with the edge of the counter. The last thing he heard was the three of them calling out his name.


Mike had woken up a few hours ago and told Rose, Micky and Ginny what he'd seen. It was getting late now and they'd just eaten a dinner of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The bread was getting stale and they had used the last of it. Robert usually made sure they at least had food, even though it was generally the same thing. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Mike was really getting tired of the food and he had to force himself to eat. When he tried, he often felt like throwing up. Rose was lying down next to Mike and Ginny was cleaning a bit of sweat off Micky's forehead. Micky was now looking at his feet and giggle a little.

"What's so funny, Micky?" Rose asked.

"The bunnies," Micky answered.

"What bunnies?" Mike asked.

"They're dancing around my feet," Micky said.

"He's hallucinating again," Rose said quietly to Mike.

"They're cute," Micky said. "They're tickling my feet. They're purple and fuzzy."

"Purple?" Mike asked laughing a little. Micky seemed like he was high, but he wasn't in pain and Micky seemed to be enjoying himself so Mike wasn't concerned. Even a little bit of enjoyment for Micky was good for now.

"Purple and fuzzy," Micky said laughing.

"Ok, Micky," Rose said. There was no harm in letting this hallucination entertain Micky. Until Micky's face contorted in pain and he started screaming. Mike and Rose scrambled over to Micky to try and help him.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked.

"Get them off!" Micky cried. "They're eating me!"

"What are?" Rose asked. "The bunnies?"

"Get them off!" Micky screamed.

"The morphine must have worn off," Ginny said.

"We have more morphine," Mike said. "We should get him another dose."

"Yes," Rose said. Mike grabbed the bottle of morphine they'd hidden in the bathroom and came back over to Micky. Rose grabbed Micky's arm and stretched it out so they could put in the needle.

"What is that?" Micky asked when he saw the needle and jerked away. "Get that away from me!"

"Micky, this is medicine," Mike said.

"It'll make the bunnies go away," Rose added. "I promise."

"Make them stop?" Micky groaned.

"Let us give you the medicine," Ginny said softly caressing his cheek. "They'll stop." Micky nodded and held his arm out. Mike found a vein and injected the morphine into him. Ginny whispered in Micky's ear softly as Micky started to calm down.

"See?" Rose asked. "No more bunnies, right?" Micky nodded and began to relax even more.

"Why don't you get some sleep," Ginny said. "It's late."

"You still love me, right?" Micky said. He sounded very drowsy and his speech was slightly slurred.

"Of course I do, stupid," Ginny laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. I will always love you."

"Even though I left you?" Micky asked.

"You didn't leave me," Ginny answered.

"This is all my fault," Micky said.

"No, it's not," Ginny said. "You couldn't have known anything was wrong. I don't blame you for anything. I love you and I always will." She leaned over and kissed him. When she pulled away, Micky was smiling.

"That felt good," Micky said.

"I love you, Micky," Ginny said. "Now go to sleep, ok? You'll feel better. I promise."

"You won't leave me?" Micky asked.

"I'm not going anywhere," Ginny answered. Mike got up while Ginny ran her fingers through Micky's hair trying to get him to relax enough to go to sleep. He walked over to the bathroom and put the needle and morphine back in it's hiding spot. Rose walked up behind him.

"I don't get it," Mike said quietly. "An hour ago he was sane."

"The morphine was dulling the pain," Rose said. "It must have helped draw him back into reality, too. When the morphine wore off and the pain came back, his mind made up an illusion to explain it."

"Purple fuzzy bunnies, though?" Mike asked. "That seems really random."

"Not as random as you'd think," Rose said. "When he was four, there were a lot of rabbits running loose not too far from the house. You know how quickly they procreate. And you know how much Micky loves animals. Anyway, he would sneak out at night to go see them. Robert caught him and told him if he kept doing it, the rabbits would eat his face off."

"That's a horrible thing to tell a child!" Mike balked.

"Yeah, well, that was Robert," Rose said. "Mom found out when he had nightmares and told him that Robert was teasing him. Robert slept on the couch for like a week."

"So the bunnies stuck in his head," Mike said.

"The pain started coming back as a tickle, so he saw them dancing around his feet," Ginny said walking up to them. "Then it got worse."

"Why purple?" Mike asked.

"It's my favorite color," Ginny answered. "His mind is mixing memories from his childhood and memories about me. He's feeling guilty about all this still."

"I could tell," Mike said. "He never really got over you. He loves you more than anything. He did a few unhealthy things to try and fill the void left behind when you died."

"Robert's trying to convince him this is his fault," Rose said. "It'll hurt him more than anything else Robert can ever do to him."

"We can't let him convince Micky of that," Mike said.

"No, we can't," Ginny said. "It's getting really late though. We should all get some sleep."

"You two sleep," Mike said. "I'll stay up a bit. Keep an eye on Micky."

"You sure?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mike said. "Not very tired after that little memory trip."

"Ok," Rose said and kissed Mike. Mike enjoyed the kiss and felt that familiar tingle sweep through his body. Mike smiled as Rose and Ginny walked over to their beds. Ginny curled up against Micky and Rose curled up in Mike's bed. Mike walked over and sat next to her, but leaned against the wall. Rose grasped his hand and squeezed. She was holding him for comfort. Micky was already asleep and it didn't take long for the girls to fall asleep. Mike's head was filled with thoughts. He wasn't sure what any of the memories of George meant and he was worried about Micky blaming himself for their capture. He didn't know what he was gonna do, but knew he'd have to figure out something soon.