I didn't mean to hurt you

Chase's eyes fluttered open, and a small smile appeared on her face. "You're here.." She said softly, an odd, tired smile still on her face. "I thought you had gone... I was afraid.." She said slowly and then stopped. "No... It's alright.. you don't have to apologize Calvin.. I'm sorry... I freaked out...You don't have to... to be upset.. " She said softly, looking at him and smiling again, an extremely lopsided smile, but it was a smile. "It's alright Calvin.. Calvin. have you slept?!" Chase asked, waking up more fully now, and leaning forward, her hand finding his again. She pulled on his hand weakly, trying to pull him up onto the couch with her, but to weak to actually pull him up.

"I missed you... I missed you a lot.. while I was gone.. I had a lot of time to think... in that little house.. and.. and I realized that, that, I couldn't live without you... Calvin.. I missed you so much.. please... don't push yourself on my behave.. please.. go sleep." she said sitting up and interlacing her fingers in his again. "I will be here when you wake.. I won't leave again.. I promise... I promise Calvin.. go wash up.. go sleep... I'll find something to eat really fast.. and try and sleep again.. please Calvin." She said pleadingly, looking up at him and smiling her lopsided smile again. "Go rest Calvin.." she said gently, and smiled at him again, hoping to calm his nerves, and let him rest. He looked as though he hadn't slept all night, and she felt horrible, she had probably kept him up all night on accident.

Relief overwhelmed Calvin within an instant; Chase was well enough to speak, and to smile - oh, how that smile warmed Calvin's heart. "Your OK..." he whispered and returned her smile with a tired blink of his eyes, though it did not become apparent until he repeated those two words for a second time that he was assuring himself of that fact as well. Calvin had begun to crumble beneath the weight of the stress that had so suddenly plagued him that evening, but as he watched her breath evenly, he felt that the exhaustion and fear had been a small price to pay for the survival of his dear friend. "Your OK..."

“A bit,” Calvin replied honestly, for he had, indeed slept, even if it had only been for an hour. He hadn’t had the time or the heart to sleep, but that was not something that Chase needed to worry herself over; he’d only lost an evening’s sleep, which could easily be recovered in the afternoon.

“Did your nightmares sto”- Calvin began, but was interrupted towards the end of his question when Chase took hold of his hand, and gave him a weak tug. There was no power behind the pull, but there wasn’t any power left in Calvin either, and so he tumbled forward and onto the small sofa with Chase with a bewildered look on his face. “Oh gee, I’m sorry – did I hurt you? I lost my balance…” he apologized quickly and began to examine her bandages once more in order to make certain that he hadn’t caused any of them to bleed again. Suddenly, however, Calvin remembered that Chase had shed her shirt at one point that evening, and quickly averted his eyes. “I uh…” he began, but he didn’t seem to be capable of speaking any longer.

Calvin hugged his long, gangly arms to his chest so to make room between the two of them, his cheeks red hot, and glued his eyes to a bit of the couch that was located just inches above Chase. “I can- I can get you – uh - one of my shirts, if you’d like,” he offered, stumbling over his words innocently.

“I will be here when you wake…” Chase told him, and suddenly, Calvin felt as though he himself had downed the sleeping draught that he’d offered Chase. He had not been able to rest due to the fear that Chase would die (No, stop it! Stop with that word!) disappear when he was sleeping, and thus, upon being comforted by Chase, the walls that Calvin had put up between himself and his exhaustion crumbled to dust, and his eyes began to droop. “I can’t sleep yet, your hurt, you need my help….” he explained, but his voice was growing steadily quieter as he spoke.

“I’ll make pancakes with rainbow sprinkles in a minute…” he told her with a sleepy smile, “You can have as many as you want…”

Chase smiled carefully and nodded to Calvin. 'Yeah.. I'm okay.." She said softly, and smiled at him, hearing him say it again, only that time he seemed to be telling himself that she was okay. Suddenly he tumbled onto the couch with her, and she realized that he was just as weak as she was. Chase immediately started to fret. "Oh Calvin! Are you okay? I.." Chase stopped when she saw his face get horribly red, and she looked down, realizing she didn't have a shirt on. Her face went just about as red as his, and she looked away from Calvin at the same time he looked away from her. "Erm... sure... I guess.." She said crossing her arms over her chest as he did also. Chase flushed as red as her hair but when she saw just how tired Calvin was, she forgot her embarrassment. "Calvin.." She whispered and moved closer to him, forgetting for the moment, her near nakedness.

"Go lay down.. I'll make pancakes, I'll be right here... okay? I'll be right here... for you.." She said and reached out, taking hold of his hand again, drawing it away from his chest and interlacing her fingers with his. Chase smiled and sighed, attempting to move, but unable to get up, her legs were wobbly and she didn't have enough energy to take her own weight just yet. "Calvin... you need to sleep... please... just lay down.." She said and then moved so she was sitting on the couch in a normal position, and patted her lap. "I'd get up.. but erm... I can't." She said with a small shy smile, and then looked down at her lap. Her pants were pretty bloody, but she wasn't about to take those off too... but what else could she do? Glancing around, Chase quickly grabbed a blanket, and half covered herself, as well as her lap so that he could rest his head on her lap without getting blood in his hair, or having to bad a view of her bra..

"Calvin... Thank you.." She said softly, smiling at him and looking up at the room. "Thank you so much.. I could never repay you for your kindness towards me.. ever." She said and smiled looking up at the room again, her face red, and a small smile on her lips.

“Yup, I’m fine,” Calvin replied hastily in an attempt to convince Chase that his sudden decrease in strength was not something that she was to be concerned about. He did not sound very convincing, due to the unnaturally – for Calvin - lazy way in which he nodded his head, however. “I’m just a little out of practice,” he explained simply, with one tired eyelid closing before the other, as though his brain was so worn that it could not command both halves of Calvin’s face simultaneously. He wore a contented smile, however; he’d made Chase ‘all better’, and this had been his only goal when she’d so suddenly arrived, her skin checkered with bruises…. It had truly been a traumatizing sight for Calvin; he could swear that his heart had broken, but as he listened to Chase’s voice, which was slowly beginning to return to its usual tone, he could feel his own healing process beginning.

“Try not to move too much, Chase,” Calvin warned her, for he was not entirely certain that he’d managed to heal every one of her internal wounds, and he did not wish for her to suddenly find herself incapable of breathing correctly, or something equally as important. “I did my best, but I don’t know…” he began to explain, but his words trailed off when he realized that they were far too negative for his liking.

Oh, how Calvin wished that he could just hold her close and never let her go again...

A part of him was still experiencing guilt; despite Chase’s words, Calvin could not seem to convince himself entirely of the fact that Chase’s injuries hadn’t been his fault. Perhaps, if he would have done more to contact her, he could have brought her back to the flat before anything had happened…

This thought process slowly became visible on Calvin’s face, but Calvin became aware of the fact, and quickly returned his expression to one of relief for Chase’s sake. “Are you feeling alright?” he asked her out of concern, “You aren’t dizzy are you? Can you see alright? Are you having any trouble breathing?” he continued, making his way down a mental list of symptoms.

Calvin accepted Chase’s offer to move his head to her lap, gently resting his head against her legs, but he never seemed to put the full weight of his head on Chase’s lap as he laid there; Calvin’s every touch was so cautious that it made it seem as though he believed Chase was made of glass. His long, shaggy brown hair fell over his face as his breathing slowed, and he slowly began to give into his exhaustion.

“I…” he began to speak with a sudden determination, as though he'd had an epiphany, “Chase, I….”

Calvin lost consciousness before he’d finished his sentence.

Chase smiled softly at Calvin, knowing he was tired, and feeling pretty tired still, but a lot better now. It was like her mind was immediately starting to sort through the bad thoughts in her head, and block them out. Every bit of torture, every fleck of pain wasn't as sharp, as painful, every moment of loss, of horror, of fear, was slowly feeling less real, and more like a dream, as her mind tried to spare her from insanity. Chase smiled at Calvin though, and held onto his hand tightly, her smile slowly turned to concern, as his face showed just how afraid he had been, just how guilty he felt for Chase's abduction. "Calvin.. it's alright.." she said gently, moving a bit closer to him, and smiling at him gently.

When he started to ask how she felt, she knew she had to lie for now.. she had to tell him she was fine, why? He needed to sleep. In reality, she couldn't see a thing out of her right eye, and it felt like it had simply closed and wouldn't open again, but she knew it was wide awake and staring, she could even feel her eyelid blink over it, but she could see nothing. She wouldn't worry about that though.. he needed to sleep, he needed to rest, and her eye could come later, there couldn't be any MORE harm done to it.. and if she couldn't see out of it later? Well.. that was just a price she paid for making sure Calvin didn't kill himself in an attempt to save her.

When he finally rested his head on her lap, Chase moved so their interlaced fingers were resting against his chest, and her other hand went to gently smoothing his hair back, he started to say something, and Chase leaned in a bit to hear, but his words trailed off and he fell asleep before he finished the sentence. What had he been about to say? She wasn't sure, she'd ask him when he woke up though.. Chase softly started to hum a lullaby, gently smoothing his hair, and looking down at his peaceful face. She hoped he wouldn't have nightmares... so she tightened her grip on his hand, and gently let herself doze off, wondering if Reid was watching, wondering why Jack had left so quickly.. wondering why someone could be so evil, but she slept peacefully, and didn't wake for a long, long time. Her hand still interlaced into Calvin's.

“Calvin – Calvin, watch this!” Fauve called over her frail, little shoulder from where she stood at the public pool’s edge. Her small toes were curled around the rubber siding in a way that suggested that she was quite frightened of jumping over the edge and into the cool water below, but she’d also requested Calvin’s attention as she prepared to jump, and therefore, had not yet decided against doing so. “Cal!” she hollered once more, stealing his attention from Kitty, whom he was holding carefully. “Yup!” Calvin replied, shifting in his chair before moving his eyes in Fauve’s direction. He’d been wearing a natural smile – until he’d come to the realization that Fauve intended to recklessly throw herself over the pool’s edge. In an instant, Calvin set Kitty down in Chase’s lap, and darted towards Fauve, calling after Fauve frantically, “No, no, no, Fauve! Don’t; you’ll get hurt!”

Fauve skillfully sprung into the pool, and returned to the surface once more, as she had many times before that afternoon. Calvin, on the other hand, had lost control of his shoes as they glided quickly across the wet tiles that made up the poolside, and continued over the edge immediately after Fauve. His head disappeared underwater, but unlike Fauve, his head did not appear seconds after. He never had learned how to swim…

“Calvin?” Fauve shouted as watched his distorted form from her position above the water, her smile slowly fading as she came to the realization that something was wrong.

“What did he do?” Thierry asked as he paddled his way towards Fauve, matching Fauve’s expression of concern despite himself.

“He fell over! Does he know how to swim?” Fauve replied before ducking underwater once more, so to get a peek at Calvin with her goggles. Theirry followed after Fauve, forcing his body towards the bottom of the pool despite the resistance of the water. It was there that they found Calvin, his long hair dancing about his face as he frantically swatted at the water around him, his eyes wide.

Acting hastily, the two children grabbed hold of Calvin’s arms, and began dragging him towards the surface once more. It seemed that, when Calvin was involved, all children were forced to take on the role of the adult while he got himself into more trouble than any child ever could…

Calvin gasped, having used up his supply of oxygen. “I can’t swim!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, earning several concerned looks from a group of muggles near by. “Your fine, Calvin!” Thierry corrected him, sounded somewhat aggravated by the older man’s accident. He just couldn’t go a day without nearly killing himself, could he? “What about Kitty and Chase? They are still OK, aren't they?” Calvin asked seriously, though he continued to move his arms and legs about in a ridiculously spastic manner.

Both Thierry and Fauve looked in the direction that Calvin had come from in search of their mother, and their younger sister, only to find that their chairs were empty, and their belongings were nowhere in sight. “Calvin…” Thierry began, causing Calvin to look up quickly; something was not right. “Calvin, where is Mom?” Thierry continued as he and Calvin pulled themselves out of the water simultaneously. “Where did Mommy and Kitty go?” Fauve asked, following after them.

Calvin started towards the very chair that he was certain Chase and Kitty had shared just seconds before. His heart sped up as he came to the realization that he’d turned his attention from Chase, something which he’d promised himself he would never again do, and that both she and her daughter had disappeared once more. “Chase?” Calvin called, but his own words were muffled by the sound of his heartbeat in his ears. “Chase!?” he repeated, spinning on the spot so to make certain that the pair hadn’t simply wandered off to the other side of the outdoor pool…

“Chase? Kitty?” Calvin asked the air before his face… but not even Thierry and Fauve knew how to reply to his panicked words – or so he had assumed, until he became aware of the fact that the ‘twins’ were no longer anywhere in sight. “Thierry – Fauve!” Calvin called, but he received no answers.

His family had disappeared once more, leaving him alone to assume that something absolutely dreadful had happened to them.

Calvin sat upward in a panic, his eyes still clouded with sleep as they flicked about the room in search of Chase. Very slowly, reality began to creep into Calvin’s thoughts, reminding him of the fact that he’d been lying on Chase’s lap when he’d fallen asleep, and that he hadn’t actually seen the children in a very long time. In an attempt to return his breathing to normal, Calvin brought his cupped hands to his face, and dragged his palms along his face slowly.

He dropped one of his hands to his side, and was slightly startled when his fingertips met with Chase’s. A smile graced his face immediately; Chase was present, and was, as far as Calvin could tell, still healing.

Calvin glanced towards a digital clock that sat upon the coffee table that he’d put to so much use earlier that morning, and read the device hastily, feeling as though he’d been asleep for a year’s time. 12:56 it read. He’d slept for six hours. Calvin extended his long, scrawny arms, stretching the pair of limbs as far as he could on the small sofa; he needed to rid his bones of the sleep that still weakened them so that he could return to work, caring for Chase. He flexed his fingers, watching them as they rolled fluently, but a few seconds after he’d ordered them to move; it was a symptom of spending too much of his own energy on healing another. He had transferred quite a bit of his own healthy into Chase, and he was only just recovering from it. Calvin yawned, shaking his head back and forth a couple of times so to make certain that his thoughts were not slowed by the exhaustion that still plagued him.

“Hmm, I’m hungry,” he whispered to himself after having received a complaint from his stomach. "I'll make those pancakes now... Yummy!"

"Calvin!!!" Chase spun around on the spot, freaking out. "Calvin! No... where are you?" She sobbed, lost in a swirl of what looked like snow. She could see nothing but white, and what she could see only went as far as she could reach. "Calvin! Where are you?!" Chase spun around and could feel tears going down her face. Suddenly a face loomed out of the blizzard, and Chase stumbled backwards, hit something and fell over into a large drift of snow. Felix Barker stood in front of her, smiling down at her. "Hello Fen..." He said, grinning. Werewolves surrounded them in the snow, and Chase sat staring up at Felix.

The dream changed.

She was strapped to a operating table, and Felix Barker stood over her, a large metal rod in his hand. "This will hurt." He growled, and Chase yelled out loudly.

Chase felt Calvin sit straight up, and she woke with a start. Small tears in her eyes, realizing that Calvin was just waking up and stretching. She attempted to raise her arms, but she was sooo sore, she could barely get her arms above her head. She frowned slightly and watched Calvin, as he felt her fingers, and looked at her. "Hello.." She said softly, and smiled, before she frowned and yawned largely. "Pancakes? That sounds good...I'm.. so.. so hungry.." She said, and leaned over to him, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "Thank you Calvin.. I... I... just thank you.." She said and blushed hard. "If you could.. could you grab me a shirt.. of yours.. I erm.. lost mine a while ago.." She said blushing again, and staring at her lap, and brushing a strand of hair out of her face, glancing at him, and smiling again. "Thank you.."

Once more, Calvin’s freckled cheeks flushed when Chase’s lips met with the skin of his face. It seemed that, no matter how many times Chase greeted Calvin in such a way, he could not control the way in which he reacted; as Calvin stared back at Chase with a lopsided smile upon his face, a high-pitched squeak escaped his throat, and leapt through his parted lips without his mind’s permission. He had intended to reply to Chase’s greeting with one of his own – something along the lines of the usual “hiya!” – but his mind had abandoned him in his time of need, leaving him with an empty skull and a handful of butterflies fluttering about his stomach. Calvin opened and closed his mouth a few times for good measure, before lifting his right hand to wave shyly at Chase.

Calvin’s momentarily blinded eyes were once again granted permission to see, and his eyes met with a pair of tears, which had begun to slide from Chase’s eyes, and slither down her cheeks. Calvin’s eyebrows rose, and he quickly remembered what he’d been taught about the English language during his time in elementary school, “Chase? What’s wrong?” he asked her, but quite suddenly, Chase smiled in his direction, and he momentarily considered the possibility that he’d imagined the tears.

He nodded in reply, and returned her smile, “Okie Dokie!” For hours, Calvin had craved a sweet, colorful pancake, but it seemed that his body had only just decided to grant Calvin permission to stand from the sofa, and to head towards the kitchen; finally, his energy supply had been replenished.

Chase mentioned a shirt, and Calvin turned on his heel, doubling back towards his bedroom in reply. “Do you want a yellow shirt, Chase? You told me that it you loved the color yellow when I first showed you the flat,” he called to her from where he stood in the doorframe of his bedroom, as though the color of the shirt that he chose for her was the most important detail in the world.

Chase just couldn't get over Calvin's reaction to when she kissed his cheek. He flushed, and lost all sense of words for a long moment, and it made her just want to kiss him on the cheek all the more. She smiled and shook her head. "Bad dream.." She said simply, looking at Calvin, a small smile still on her face, and she wiped her tears away. "It's fine, It's fine." She said smiling at him happily. "Yes.. a yellow shirt is fine... some shorts too maybe? Mine are a bit.. messy.. I can clean up my clothes while your making pancakes!" She said and glanced down at herself, sitting on his couch, (Which had quite a bit of blood on it) in bloody shorts, and only in her bra (Which was also bloody). She could see that at one point, Calvin must have tried cleaning the blood off, because in some places, it was smeared, and nearly washed off.

She frowned and felt some pain flash through her, and she bit her lip, rubbing her eyes, knowing that it wouldn't help the sight in her eye. It was still gone, completely gone, and it felt so wrong, like she was missing something on that side, and she kept turning her head that way, in case she was missing something. Chase could feel small tears on her cheeks, and tried to wipe them away before Calvin got back, not that she could really tell if he came into the room. She could feel tears running down her face, and she had to wipe them away more quickly, laying down on the couch, and sighing slightly, waiting for Calvin to come back with a shirt and some shorts.

“Yellow, yellow, yellow…” Calvin sang to himself as he attempted to find a shirt of that color in the mix of clothing that filled his wardrobe, his eyes examining each article of clothing with a determination that made it seem as though he’d gone color blind, and that he had to concentrate with all of his mental force in order to determine the color of each shirt that he tossed to the floor behind him. Suddenly, Chase’s life depended on Calvin’s ability to search through his clothing, and to find something yellow. “Hmmmm,” he mumbled, his large, brown eyes flicking over every piece of fabric that he came into contact with.

Calvin gasped, pulling his head from the drawer that he’d been digging through; with each second that had passed, he’d moved his face closer to the drawer, and had eventually stuffed his face into the dark space, momentarily depriving himself of oxygen. He shook his head, tossing his hair from his face so that he could examine the shirt in his hands for one last time, just to make certain that he hadn’t been mistaken when he’d assumed that it was, in fact, the right color. Sure enough, it was a yellow, short-sleeved, v-neck shirt. Calvin grinned to himself, proud of his accomplishments – but he had yet to locate a pair of shorts for Chase to wear.

The wild grin that Calvin wore slowly became a disappointed frown, however, when Calvin remembered an important piece of information; he did not own a pair of shorts. Due to the fact that the flat was always chilled, and the uniform that he wore to work was not a casual one, Calvin had never found any reason to own shorts. Reid’s closet was also lacking the particular article of clothing – though, that did not stop Calvin from rummaging through his flatmate’s wardrobe franticly in search of a pair anyway.

At last, looking defeated, Calvin returned to the sitting room with the shirt that he’d found in his right hand. He resembled a puppy that had failed his master as he dropped the shirt on the sofa beside Chase, his eyes never moving from his feet. “I’m sorry Chase; I don’t have any shorts.”

Apparently, it had never occurred to him that a pair of his full-length jeans may have fit her. He was quite thin, after all, and chances were that Chase was not in any mood to be picky about the clothing that she was dressed in – but Calvin was relatively one-track, and therefore, had given this possibility no thought at all when he’d been asked to find something specific for Chase.

“The shirt has SpongeBob on it, though. It is one of my favorites…” he told her, hoping to make up for his failure, only just looking up from the floor. However, what he saw upon returning his eyes to Chase, he found to be far more important than the previous issue; Chase had begun to cry again.

Calvin darted forward, kneeling beside her with a desperate look upon his face; something was wrong, and he needed to fix it. He’d promised Chase that he would make everything better, and as a result, he could not let it go if she had even the smallest scratch left in her skin after he’d finished healing her. Calvin gently returned his fingertips to the skin just beneath her eyes, wiping at the tears that had formed there. “I’ll help, Chase. I’ll help…” he promised eagerly. “Let me help you.”