How mad are you on a scale of 1-10? I'm sorry I haven't updated, I've had the shittiest writer's block. -le sigh- But I'm back now, even if the chapter does kinda suck.

Covenant is not mine.

Wednesday 1st November, 2006

Something was off. I could sense it as Caleb crossed to the poolside, his face grave. Okay, so his face is always grave but this was worse than normal. Reid pulled himself out of the pool and came to stand with us. Caleb leaned in, "McCoy's dead."

"What?" Reid's voice pretty much let out what I was thinking. What I was feeling was another matter was surprise, horror, confusion but also elation. A relief of some kind of hold I didn't know he'd had over me.

"Good." I couldn't help myself, I had to say it. It was good. He deserved to die. I just regretted it hadn't been me to do it.

"I suffocated him." Okay, that was not what I'd expected.

Stunned silence. We all knew that Caleb would do whatever it took to protect his family but this was something no-one could envision him doing.

"Okay, I'm supposed to be the one that does stupid, rash things." Reid piped up, "Not you. So who are you and what have you done with Caleb?"

I couldn't help thinking that poolside, in the open, wasn't the best place to be having this conversation.

"Let it go Reid. Later." I told him, he stared at me like I'd grown another head.

"Who died and made you Caleb?" He was in a mood. Well. Crap. I just glared at him. "Oh god, you've swapped bodies haven't you?"

"No!" We say at the same time.

"Is that even possible?" I continue.

"We wouldn't Use for something so stupid anyway." Caleb muttered, his eyes on the pool and not on Reid.

"Doesn't sound like such a bad idea..." Reid wondered aloud, Caleb glared at him, I wondered if he did it just to provoke him sometimes.

"Reid." A low almost-growl. Caleb stared at him.

"Leave him alone." Tyler said, taking a protective step in front of him as if that could protect him from the downright pissed looks Caleb was shooting him.

"Tyler, we have to talk about this sometime." Caleb said, "Reid has a problem."

"No I don't!" Reid exclaimed.

I shoot a look around, "Not here guys." I tell them, an almost begging edge to my voice.

Caleb growled softly and nodded. Reid looked like he wanted to argue. Cay grabbed his arm and maneuvered him towards the locker, "We were ill." He told Tyler and me.

Tyler looked at me with worried eyes and stepped forward with clear intention of following them. I touched his arm, "They'll be fine. C'mon, I'll race ya." I point to the pool, it's a shitty attempt at distracting him and he agrees but I can see it in his eyes that he hasn't subjected. He's still worried as hell and I know the feeling, I wanna rush after them too, we rarely ever let Reid and Caleb fight it out on their own. It could end in serious injury, I have to trust Caleb'll know when to bring it to a stop after Reid's vented his anger.

I sigh and climb into the pool, Tyler into the lane next to me. "breast stroke?" I ask. It's Tyler's swim and my purpose in suggesting it is to give him practice and a better chance at winning than if it was butterfly, anything to uplift Tyler's spirits right not is good. He nods wordlessly. "Three, two, one" I say and at that we push ourselves off and we swim back and forth. Tyler pulls ahead easily and I'm okay with that, my usually competitive nature subdued. I lose myself in thought as I swim, it's over, he's dead, he's never coming back, I never have to deal with that again. As we stop a smile crosses my face and I see Tyler smile back. I climb out of the pool and grab a towel. Tyler does the same.

We head into the changing rooms and shower and change hurriedly without another word. It's not exactly needed. We both know the only thing on out minds is finding Reid and Caleb and making sure they're both okay. We scour the campus, we phone them, we try the rooms but there's no sign of them anywhere. Caleb's car is gone though which leads me to wonder if this whole thing wasn't some sort of excuse for them to go do something alone, something dangerous or against the law.

Tyler looks worried as he looks around again as if they might appear from somewhere, it's getting dark and there's still no sign. "C'mon Ty." I say, my voice calmer than my thoughts, "We'll go back to the dorm, they'll call or come to us or something." I sound braver than I feel and I gently usher Tyler back to my dorm where we, again, sit in silence. He stares out of the window, I watch the clock and occasionally try calling again.

Kate arrives with dinner for us and is shocked to find only Ty and I in the room, I explain quietly so as not to freak Tyler out by going over it again. She seems to understand but looks understandably freaked at 'Caleb's a murderer'. Who wouldn't? She settles next to me on my bed and joins in our silence, it's a little more comforting with her there, at least for me.

There's a noise from the hall and we glance at each other, it's the sound of voices, quiet voices but unmistakeably Reid and Caleb's. Then a female voice. I jump to the door and peer through the eye-hole, I can't see anything which means they're just not standing directly in front of my door. Bummer, I wanted to spy on them. I open the door a crack. They're talking to that Demi girl from Halloween. I feel Tyler's eye's on my back waiting to be filled in.

I turn to look back at him and shrug, "They're out there, they're talking to the new girl."

Tyler stares at me for a second, "They blow us off and don't call us for hours to spend time with some girl?" He asks, his voice strained.

"I don't know. Maybe they only just met up with her." Maybe I'm making excuses for them.

We wait another two minutes before they actually walk in. We stare at them expectantly. "Sorry guys, we got caught up."

"Doing what?" I ask.

"We fought, then we talked, then we walked."

"'You walked'?" I repeat in disbelief.

"Yeah." Okay, it's official, they're hiding something from us. I glance to Kate and then to Tyler and shrug.

"Okay." If they don't want to tell us, they don't want to tell us.

Reid kisses Tyler's forehead then sits at my desk and opens up my laptop "I'm using this."

No 'Do you mind?' or 'can I?' That's not how Reid works. I just nod and lie back on my bed, Kate curls into my side. Caleb sits on the end of the bed. Which is a refreshing change from him sitting in the corner all the time. I have to give a small smile at that. "Hi, Caleb."

"Hey, Pogue." He looks like he's humouring me and he really doesn't want to talk. I take this hint and relax back, holding Kate gently. She rests her head on my chest, I stroke her hair without really thinking about it, staring at the ceiling until my eyes close and I drift off to the sound of Reid typing frantically, I wonder briefly what he's writing. Then the typing slows to a steady rhythm and turns into the beeping of a heart monitor. I open my eyes again, I'm in the hospital, I breath in that awful disinfectant smell. I recognise the scene. It's the moment I woke up in the hospital after Caleb's birthday. It's nighttime, all is quiet save the beeping of the machines. Caleb is sitting next to me, wait, that never happened. This should be the moment that I wake up screaming and Kate walks in, isn't it?

Caleb doesn't seem to have registered that I'm awake, he's still watching me with a furrowed brow. The door opens and I look up expecting Kate but what I see scares me, it's not Kate, it's Chase, Caleb looks at him and gives a smile, a smile I've never seen him wear before and for some reason it chills me. I struggle back in the bed, pressing myself as far away from Chase as possible but he just shakes his head at my actions and walks to my bedside.

His hand flies out and he's holding my nose and mouth at once, I can't breathe, I struggle but his power is washing over me, Caleb's eyes are black too but he's certainly not trying to help me. I flail, trying to inhale more and more air as my heart beats faster as I get more stressed but I can't, I can't breathe. Caleb's hand brushes through my hair, "Shh, it'll all be over soon." He mutters soothingly. I try to jerk my head away, nothing happens, I fade into blackness.

I jolt upwards, forcing my eyes open, dislodging Kate from my chest, breathing fast, sucking in lungfuls of air as though I really have been oxygen deprived. It takes my brain a few moments to register I'm awake so when Caleb's hand reaches for me I shy away quickly. He looks at me, worry flitting across his face. I realise this is the real Caleb and not the dream. I allow myself to relax slightly."Just a bad dream." I explain to the eight eyes that are watching me.

"It's okay, it's over." Caleb tells me, I can see he's still a little freaked out by my refusing to let him touch me, I've never pushed him away before but he's getting over it, he knows I was still in post-dream haze, right?

His words bring an echo back into my head. It'll all be over soon.