A/N: Really sorry this is taking so long :( I will finish it but on my second year of my degree and it's really hard work, so only when i have time and this isn't my only story.

Can't be healed

Rat has been in Vince's gang for 3 and a half very long years. He joined their gang that consisted of Harry and Vince and was quickly integrated into their friendship and was soon trusted with the most important things. Harry was one of those things.

Rat was the one who entertained Harry on those long days where Vince did business and Rat was the one who brought his friend Nate to the warehouse soon after. The four of them were happy for the next couple of years. Everything was fine. It was the last year that the problems had been rising.

Things were changing. Where before Harry would ride on the back of Vince or Ray's bike when they went out for low key deals, Harry was left on his own in the warehouse, even if there was no threat of danger. Vince brought a new member Kev into the gang who quickly became his pairing partner. Harry was often overlooked by Vince, which suited Rat just fine as he turned a blind eye to Harry's escapades and merely smiled at the healing rumours. It seemed to keep Harry alive to help others, and if it prevented his suffocating from Vince then Rat could see no harm. Harry, although he didn't act it most of the time, was far from helpless, however changing forms to protect him as a last resort could be dangerous. So Rat tried his best to look out for Harry.

As a result of their close bond and his protectiveness waking up without the petite black haired youth curled next to him and Nate caused him a minor heart attack and he shouted enough to wake the dead. He almost ran out of the apartment naked before Nate yanked his arm back and threw him some clothes, what he would do without his faithful partner he doesn't know.

"Harry's gone!"

"I know Rat."

"He's not here!"

"I'm aware Rat."

"But why would harry go? Surely he knows it is not safe? Vince could have hi-"

"RAT! Get dressed so we can go find him! There are only so many places Vince will go, we'll find him, and Harry is far from helpless!"

Rat knew that but it was nice to be reminded, it stopped him panicking. Sometimes he wondered who really was second in command, especially in this situation where he found himself following Nate's commands like a lost puppy.

"We'll find him" seemed to repeat over and over in his head, along with an additional echo of "what if we don't?"

Harry awoke to a sore head. And a sore back he added as he mentally checked his health status. Come to think of it his knee was sore too. What had he been doing?

He was being carried, a familiar striding motion, oddly soothing. Wait familiar?

Shooting pain hitting the side of his head moved these thoughts out of his head. Ouch. He tried to remember where he was, he was with Rat and Nate. But he left because of an injured man. Katze! He thought triumphantly. But where was he now?

He was hit in the back and then darkness… and then the familiar footprints. Very familiar, once comforting along with that Vince smell. Vince. Why was Vince carrying him, was he hurt? He felt hurt, but he could still walk on his knee, he thinks. He struggles to open his eyes to see where he is and tenses at the darkness, now that he was thinking clearly he could feel a cloth over his head. What was happening? What was wrong with Vince?

Harry sent his magic lightly into Vince to see what was wrong and froze at the sense of foreign-wrong-pain that he received in return. From his brain. Harry cannot remember ever encountering this illness before, but he remembers in primary school the girl whose mother passed away from a brain tumour. Oh Vince, Harry thought in pain. And he couldn't heal him.

He was soon distracted with his own pain as he was thrown to the ground and the cloth was ripped from his head, and hand gripping his hair and forcing it back to look up at Vince, getting a good look at the pale and blotchy face full of anger directed at him. Then his head was yanked round once again to see Kevin on the bed. A very sick Kevin on the bed. Harry just knew this wasn't going to end well.

"Heal him" came the expected demand and Harry closed his eyes in defeat.

"Can't" he replied in a whisper, cutting off with a strangled whimper as the hold in his hair tightened, ripping a few strands from his scalp.

The "Can't" was repeated back to him in a deadly whisper that made Harry shudder in fear. One of the things he can remember from his friend's mother with the brain tumour was that she became violent before her death, and emotional pain would only add to Vince's wrath.

"Vince I can't, it's a natural illness, and it's progressive! It's not that I don't want it's that I can't!" the blow to the side of his face shouldn't have surprised him due to Vince's previous actions but Harry still trembled and pressed his hand to his face, staring a Vince in shocked hurt. He could barely cope with seeing his caretaker act like this after all these years, he wanted nothing more than to heal hi but his magic was telling him he can't.

Vince advanced towards Harry's shocked form threateningly and growled lowly. "I can make you. I promise I WILL make you heal him. Or you'll die trying." Harry back away as Vince advanced and slumped against the wall he had backed against in relief when Kevin started moaning and coughing.

Vince was by his pairing partner in a flash and supporting Kevin in a sitting position to allow him to cough properly, hoping to get him better. Harry knew from his view of Kevin and his instinct that Kevin would not survive, his magic could confirm it for him, but when Kevin started coughing up blood the verdict was fairly obvious. Harry Turned away from Kevin's painful coughing and Vince's anguished sobbing as his magic informed him of the countdown of Kevin's life.

Harry wept inside even if Kevin had never been a friend of his. He wept for Vince's pain and for his own pain. And he made himself watch the painful last moments. He watched the blood coughed up as Kevin struggled to bleed. He watched Vince try to encourage him, not understanding it was no use. And he watched as the cough stopped and the chest didn't move any longer.

Kev was gone, and as Harry looked at Vince's hate filled eyes, filled with the promise of pain aimed at him, Harry finally realized that Vince was gone too.

Vince's roar of pain and rage could be heard far and wide. Rat and Nate certainly heard it from their position of creeping around to the entrance of the warehouse hoping to take Vince by surprise.

"Well." Nate whispered. "At least we know he's here."

"Quick" Rat hissed back.

"What?"

"That's his fight cry, he's probably fighting harry!" Rat threw the warehouse door and ran in, taking in the scene as fast as he could process. The bed that usually housed a lounging Harry throughout the day had a blood covered Kevin on it, who looked too stationary to be alive. They looked up in time to see Harry change in mid-air to a majestic black wolf, with Harry's trademark green eyes. Vince started wrestling with the huge black wolf, the wolf biting Vince with all he could while Vince attempted to bury his handy knife in the wolf's thick slippery coat, which was proving difficult. Vince yelled profanities as blood poured from his shoulder wound and his nose cascading down his hand and causing him to drop the knife, distracting him enough for Harry to grip him and throw him into a chair, knocking him out.

"Harry?" Rat called out questioningly as he found some cuffs to secure Vince. Harry changed back to human and a tear-filled gaze met Rat's eyes.

"I have to go for a bit." Harry got out, arms wrapped round him as he trembled, tears streaming down his face. Nate circled round Vince and tried to hug harry but he darted out of their reach.

"I'll come back to the flat in a bit, I-I just h-have to leave for a bit." He turned and ran out the door quickly, too quick for Nate who reached the door in time to wonder what animal Harry had turned into to disappear so quickly this time. Rat sighed and continued to secure Vince, what had happened? Judging by Nate's expression they both would need to find answers and then decide what to do with Vince. One thing for certain was that their gang was at an end.

If Nate had looked closer outside the door he would have seen a small brown snake with green eyes escape down the street and around the corner to go find some shelter and just mourn.