There was a loud steady beeping noise beside her bed when Callas woke up. Her eyes blinked heavily to adjust to the light in the room, although it wasn't very bright, someone must have dimmed them slightly to be more bearable for when she woke up. The room was a pale eggshell colour with a horrible dark green line around the wainscoting and base of the wall, it was also oddly shaped with a dark green coloured door opposite her bed, it was left ajar, and Callas could faintly make out a bathroom sink and mirror. The last thing she remembered was seeing Reed with tears running down his face in their kitchen while he mumbled apologises to her. But, for what? She wasn't entirely sure. She also remembered that Will had been there. But her memory only went to that extent. Callas couldn't piece together anything. Such as; why he was there, how he got there, let alone what had happened while he was there.

     Soft snores came from both her left and right. Weakly, her head fell to the right. Seth was laying uncomfortably on a chair; his legs were over one arm of the chair while his arms and head hung off the other. His hoodie was unzipped and she could see a hot chocolate stain down his shirt, his overly worn-in vans tracked mud stains in the room as well. She blinked. Her eyes drifted to the loud beeping sound. A heart rate monitor was standing next to her bed, there were wires everywhere. She had a pulse oximeter attached to her forefinger like Henry did when she visited him in the hospital after the accident he was in.

     When Callas struggled to move her head to her left, she saw Reed on another chair. He had laid his head on the side of the bed, and his right hand was holding onto her left hand, rather awkwardly, as he slept. His work jacket was hung over the back of his chair. Her fingers twitched, her throat was too dry to say anything. Reed slowly pricked his head up at her movement, looking at her fingers before his eyes widened and he looked to her face. He whispered out a small 'hey' as he moved closer, brushing the hair from her face again. His cheeks were stained with tears and his eyes were puffy and red. Callas forced a smile at him, still slightly groggy from just waking up. She wanted answers, but she knew she had to wait. Reed could sense that she was still tired and told her to get some more sleep, but she couldn't, not now at least. With some discomfort, she sat up more, looking at the jug of water on the tray table at the bottom of her bed. Reed got up and poured some in a cup, handing it over before he sat back down, watching her with a relief stricken expression. The water felt ice cold against her throat, despite it probably being room temperature by the time she drank it.

     When Reed opened his mouth to speak, his voice still sounded rough from the night before. He swallowed before placing his hand on her leg, that was covered by the hospital blanket. "H-How are you feeling?"

     "Like I was actually hit by the road-train truck," Callas croaked out. She thought back to when she skipped school, deciding to go to the cafe instead and almost getting herself killed in the process when she thought closing her eyes while riding her bike was a good idea. Which she later realised was not the case, in fact, it was the complete opposite of a good idea.

     "What?" He furrowed his eyebrows, not fully understanding what she meant. To Callas, he didn't seem worried or shocked, which was understandable. That was possibly because he didn't even know that she had almost been hit by the truck in the first place, but Callas knew that if he did know about it, his face would turn red and steam would burst out of his ears before yelling in a panic over her.

     "Nothing." She shook her head.

     Reed breathed out deeply, clearing his throat as he raised an eyebrow, hoping for her to say something that would help him find Will. "Do you remember anything?"

     She held the cup in her hand, lowering it down to her lap. "Will was there." Reed nodded his head, shuffling the chair closer to her, thinking that maybe she'd say more on the subject.

     "Yeah," Reed replied. "Anything else?" His head shook lightly in anticipation.

     Callas continued to stare at the cup in her lap. "You kept saying sorry." Her eyes met his. "Why?"

     "I haven't exactly been 'brother of the year' recently, have I?" He sighed, asking rhetorically, sitting back on his chair. "If I could go back in the past and change every mistake I made, I would because I know that if I did I wouldn't have left you to deal with everything on your own. It was wrong for me to do that, I'm sorry I left you to carry that burden on your shoulders, Cal, I really am. I'll understand if you hate me, but I really hope that you don't because I don't think I could take that."

     "You don't think you could take that?" She scoffed.

     "Cal—"

     "I called you, more than once. I was so alone, for so long. I watched as Si collapsed, I watched as his hand went limp and fell to the floor. Anya couldn't stop crying, I don't blame her. I was the one who had to try and keep him alive. I had no idea what I was doing, I was terrified that I would mess up and make things worse. I've been alone for so long, and I hate it. The house doesn't feel like home when it's only Zeus and myself there. I jump at even the sound of the wind hitting the shutters. I make sure lights are on in the house because I'm scared of the dark again. I'm living in hell right now, Reed. I'm living and breathing my own personal hell and you couldn't even pick up the damn phone?"

     Reed sighed, tugging at his hair. "I know, I know. There's nothing I can say that will fix how much of an ass I've been to you, I know that. I promised to look after you and I swore that for as long as I lived you wouldn't get hurt, but I clearly failed an I—"

     "But you came back," she spoke quietly, interrupting his own self-loathing monologue. She was already tired of the fight that was beginning to emerge, her head hurt too much to continue it. Besides, she never did like fighting with Reed.

     "What?"

     "You came back to me."

     "Not fast enough."

     Callas watched him sadly. "You came back when I really needed you the most."

     "No. I didn't. I shouldn't have left. You needed me when Silas had the heart attack. Hell, you needed me at the bonfire. Anya made me promise that I wouldn't leave you, and that was exactly the thing I did. Why are you being so nice about it? You should hate me more than I hate myself."

     "I'm not exactly in a place of mind where I can risk hating you at the moment."

     "I'm a terrible brother."

     "Stop making me want to agree with you."

     "But you should!"

     Callas sighed. "I should." She nodded. "But I don't want to."

     "I don't deserve you." Reed smiled lightly, glancing over to Seth. "How has he managed to sleep through all of that?"

     Her eyes drifted over to Seth, who was still asleep. She thought he was about to wake up when he choked on his saliva and moved to sleep on his side, but he remained asleep. "I'm trying not to question my friends and their weirdness."

     "Speaking of which, they're outside," he told her as he stared at her phone screen.

     "What?"

     Reed looked up. "Oh, uh, Quil, Jared, and Paul have been texting you non-stop." He turned her screen around to face her. There was a long list of unread text messages, not only from Quil, Jared, and Paul but from Embry as well—but Reed seemed to ignore that fact. "Do you want me to let them in? Do you think he'll wake?" He motioned his head to Seth as he watched him snore quietly.

     "I think, if he was alive at the time, he would have slept through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

     "That's... accurate. Didn't I tell you to not be so specific next time?"

     "Yeah, and if I remember correctly, I said that I couldn't help it, and I also remember you condoning murder."

     Reed waved her off, turning her phone screen off, standing up, grabbing his jacket. "I'll let the dogs in, will you be alright if I see the old man?"

     "I'm sure he'll like that. They both will." Callas nodded back.

     Reed hummed, watching Callas look back at Seth before he pocketed her phone, moving towards the door. "Good luck handling them."

     "I'm sure if I wave a piece of bacon in the air I can control them," she replied sarcastically, glancing back at Reed, who opened the door. Her expression softened as she tilted her head to the side slightly, offering him a warm smile. "I love you."

     "I love you, too. I'll be back."

     "Okay, Terminator." She weakly saluted as he stepped out, allowing Embry to walk in first. Although Callas didn't miss the dirty look Reed gave him as they passed one another.

     Once Reed was out of sight, Embry puffed out some air, making his way across the room, sitting in the chair next to her before the others could. Quil walked in calmly after Embry, looking directly at Seth, but Paul and Jared tried walking in at the same time and got stuck in the doorway. Quil didn't bother looking back as he walked straight over to Seth, trying to discreetly dig through his pockets—no doubt for the money he lost at the dance and never got back—while trying not to wake Seth up. Callas turned back to look at the door, Jared, still struggling against Paul, looked rather annoyed and pushed Paul's back, causing Paul to fall forwards into the room, giving himself enough space to walk in and stand behind Embry. Paul grumbled as he got up and sat at the end of her bed, looking at Jared with squinted eyes. Embry reached over and grabbed hold of Callas's left hand, rubbing his thumb against the cold skin of her scabbed knuckles.

     "Hey," he mumbled with a kind smile.

     "Hey," Callas echoed.

     "So, live wire, how're you feeling?" Paul interrupted the small moment between Embry and herself, catching her attention.

     "Debatable."

     "Cryptic as always." Paul sighed, shaking his head while rolling his eyes.

     "I mean, I feel like I've just been tackled by the entire wrestling community, including Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, which is a terrifying concept to someone of my size and lack of muscle strength." She cleared her throat, understanding what Reed meant by her being so specific. "But it's only a small scratch."

     "With stitches," Seth mumbled with his eyes still closed. "Knock it off, Quil."

     Quil moved away with a huff, hitting the side of Seth's head, causing Seth to groan and sit up, rubbing his head. Embry looked away from the two of them and to Callas. "I didn't think it was that bad."

     Callas hummed and replied, "Yeah, I should be out of here today. At least I hope I am." She smiled lightly.

     "You don't like hospitals?"

     "Who does, Embry?"

     "Fair point."

     "Remember anything?" Jared asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

     "Bits and pieces. Do you know where Zeus is?" Callas raised an eyebrow at him.

     "Took him to Emily's, he's taken up the entire sofa," Jared told her. "He's fine, just hungry."

     "Ugh, Uley's place?" She groaned. "Great, now I'm going to have to deep clean Zeus when I get back home."

     Jared laughed. "He's not that bad."

     "Oh, don't get her started," Embry answered before Callas could. "Sam's her arch nemesis."

     "Why?"

     "Because he stole—"

     Callas glared at Jared. "He stole my brother."

     "—Yeah," Embry mumbled, motioning his hand to Callas.

     "Then you're really going to love what I'm going to tell you next," Jared continued with a faked forced smile.

     "What?" She eyed him carefully.

     "You'll be staying with him for a few days while we make sure that your house is safe."

     "Reed can do that while we are both at our house."

     "Mmm, no." Jared shook his head.

     "I don't want to stay with the milkman." Callas gripped the cup tighter, almost growling out her words.

     "The milkman?" Seth looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

     Callas waved him off, not bothering to explain herself. "Can't I stay with someone else? Like, I don't know, anyone?"

     "I don't make the rules." He shrugged, moving away from behind Embry's chair.

     "Let me guess, Uley does."

     "Yep." Seth nodded. "Gotta listen to our alpha."

     Quil slapped the back of Seth's head and spoke to him quietly, "Shut up." Seth rubbed the back of his head again.

     "But, Seth, I'm your alpha," Callas reminded him, albeit it was a joke.

     "Yeah, I just mean, you know, he's the oldest in our group so..."

     "Nice going," Quil hissed to Seth.

     "Ugh, guys, relax." Callas groaned as she laid her head back on her pillow.

     Embry cleared his throat, looking at the others. Jared and Paul nodded their heads and moved towards the door, walking out of the room. Quil sighed and followed after them. Seth didn't seem to want to move, but after having Embry continue to glare at him, he let out a groan, rolling his eyes before pushing his heavy body up from the chair, shuffling his feet across the laminated floors—spreading more mud around the already muddy ground—and throwing his head back with another groan. His left hoodie sleeve began to drop down his arm, his unbuttoned, plaid, button up shirt fell off his shoulder as well, Seth turned around to look at Embry as he yanked his sleeves back up to his shoulder before closing the hospital room door. Callas laughed quietly at Seth's actions. Embry shook his head, turning back to face Callas with a more serious expression.

     "What?" Callas asked as her small laugh died down, a worried look was left in its place instead. "What's wrong?"

     "Look, Callas—"

     "Are you angry with me?"

     "What? No! Why would you think that—?"

     "You just have a disappointed look on your face," she told him.

     "I'm not angry. At least, not with you."

     "With Seth? Don't be angry with Seth."

     "I'm not angry with Seth, or any of the others," he started. Embry rubbed the back of his neck as he sat back on the chair. "I'm angry with Will, for doing this to you." Callas nodded slowly, listening to him. "There's so much that you need to know, but Sam—"

     Callas scoffed. "Won't let you tell me?" She guessed.

     "No, Sam wasn't sure if it was the right time. But, after all this, I think he might be changing his mind."

     "So, does this mean no more secrets?"

     Embry raised his hands in defence. "Whoa, whoa, I never said that he would. I said I think he might be changing his mind. Don't hold me to those words." Callas let out a huff. "It won't be easy to take in or to understand. The guys and I, especially Reed, know that you'll want your space. Hell, you might even be angry with us. But we had to keep these secrets to keep you safe."

     "Look at what good that's done." She pointed to her forehead.

     "I know, and I'm sorry about that."

     "But it means no more secrets. Right?"

     Embry let out a sigh, his eyes scanned over her features as he rested his head against the back of the chair, rather than just his back. "I hope so."