In which Ally is dead, and Karlo is not okay.

Ally wasn't surprised when he had a call from Karlo that evening. "How was the funeral?" He asked tentatively.

"I fucking hate her." Karlo hissed. "First time I'd seen her since she kicked me out, and I wasn't ready for it. And I couldn't even shout at her, and lords it was awful."

Ally could hear the scowl on Karlo's face, and smiled to himself. "Why did you go?"

"Hal said it was awful not to. But she was awful to me."

"She was." Ally agreed. "You want to come round?"

"Please." Karlo muttered.
_

Karlo sighed, looking up at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. "Ally?" He whispered.

"Yup?" The other boy asked, at his side in an instant.

"Why?" Karlo whispered.

"Why what?" Ally asked, noticing the expression on Karlo's face. "Hey, if you're doubting yourself, don't, okay?"

"Why not?" Karlo hissed. "If I wasn't, me, then we'd all be one family, and this whole shit probably would never have happened."

"You can't know that. And you're amazing as you are, I wouldn't have you any other way." Ally muttered.

"Thanks?" Karlo asked, before smiling.

"Oh shhh." Ally muttered, smiling back. "What do you want for dinner?"

"I don't mind." Karlo muttered.
_

Karlo was writing. He usually left it to the other two, but when times got rough, he would pick up his pen and just let the words flow.

Ally glanced over his shoulder. "It's good. I can almost hear the Snow Patrol." He smiled.

"Shut up." Karlo muttered.

"It's very Tolly." Ally continued. "But I'm not sure he'd like being called a sleeping prince. Who's the guy that's gotta kiss him?"

"It's a metaphor, Al." Karlo laughed. "But honestly. I wish," He stopped. "I wish he'd just wake up."

Ally nodded. "I know." There was a pause. "Anyways, dinner's ready if you want some." He smiled.

"Thanks." Karlo muttered. "Can we-" he stopped.

"Eat it up here, avoiding my family? Sure." Ally smiled. He reappeared a few minutes later, carrying two plates. "Here." He smiled, sitting on the floor next to Karlo. "Hey, are you...?"

"Shut up." Karlo hissed, wiping his eyes angrily.

Ally pulled him into a hug. "Hey, it's okay. Crying isn't a weakness. And you've had a tough couple of days."
He could feel Karlo's body shaking slightly as he fought back the tears. "You can cry, I won't think any less of you. Boys can cry, you know."

Karlo snorted slightly. "Easy for you to say."

"Yeah, suppose." Ally agreed. But Karlo kept his arms wrapped around the other boy, so Ally knew that he still wasn't okay. "Karlo, it'll be okay." He muttered. "He'll be okay."

"You don't know that." Karlo whispered.

"Hmm." Ally muttered. "No one can know that. No one. You can't be sure of that. You can't be sure of anything. That's just how life is. But it's so much better than not."

"It's not life. Not this." Karlo hissed.

"Shh." Ally muttered. "You have blood pumping though your veins, okay? That's life. You're one up on me."

"Fate of a 2nd gen." Karlo muttered.

"Or 3rd or 4th." Ally smiled, noticing a slight change in Karlo's body language. He had to hang onto it, to keep Karlo smiling. "You're still alive, you have a life. You can't hate that fact."

"Ally?" Karlo spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Why?" Ally smiled.

"Because I hate it when you're right."

Ally smiled, hugging Karlo closer. He could hear the other boy's heart beating against the stillness of his own chest. "I'm always right."

"Fuck you."

"Yeah, you do that." Ally muttered quietly, smiling.
Gradually, Karlo broke the hug, before turning back to his plate. Food at Ally's house had a high blood content, otherwise the whole family- step parents, step sisters, and Ally alike- would have ceased to exist. But that didn't mean that Ally didn't enjoy a good pizza or fries like a regular kid.
After a while, they curled up together in Ally's bed. "Karlo?" Ally asked.
Karlo 'hmm'ed sleepily.
"When are you coming back to school?"

"Dunno." Karlo muttered. "But I might as well milk this."

"You know that's not a good thing." Ally replied.

"Alright, mom." Karlo smiled sleepily.

Ally lay awake, one arm around the other boy, listening to him breathing gently as he slept. "If I was your mom," Ally whispered, "You'd have had the best childhood ever. Not the crap you got dealt."

It seemed to Ally that he had just gotten to sleep when he was woken by a screech. "Ew!"

"Grow up!" Ally muttered sleepily to his younger sister, who'd covered her eyes with her hands. "And learn to knock."

Karlo sat up, rubbing his eyes. He was wearing one of Ally's t-shirts, and it was a bit too large for his slight frame.

"School!" The young girl squeaked, before running out of the room.

"Maybe it's the fact that you've not got a top." Karlo mused, glancing at Ally's bare skin. "So her mind instantly- stupidly- jumped to sex."

"I've got a top." Ally smirked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Karlo hit him. "Shut up!"

"So, are you coming or do you want me to drop you home?" Ally asked, rolling out of bed.

"Well, you want me to come."

"Always." Ally smirked.

"'Equipment issue'." Karlo muttered. "What has gotten into you?"
Ally shrugged, smiling.
Karlo shrugged back, and stood up. "Alright then. Lend me a clean t-shirt?"

"Sure." Ally said, throwing one at him.
Karlo caught it, and not before long they were off to the torture that teenagers call school, Karlo muttering in complaint every other minute of the way.

Nat was so preoccupied that he almost collided head on with two boys coming the other way in the corridor.
"Sorry." He muttered, not paying attention.

"Nat?" Karlo asked, "ye okay?"

"Fine." Nat shrugged.

"Like I believe tha'." Karlo muttered.

"Any news?" Nat asked.

"No." Karlo replied. "Hal's wi' him now, he'll call if there's any changes."

Nat nodded, and hurried off to his lesson.
Ally looked at Karlo. "Hey, however much of a mess you think he looks, you're level with him."

"Hm?" Karlo muttered.

"You need a shave, man." Ally said, before he smiled.

Karlo smiled privately to himself, but quickly dropped it. "I don't wanna be here." He muttered, shifting his bag onto the other shoulder.

"It'll be okay." Ally muttered, kissing him lightly before heading off to class.

Karlo watched him until he was around the corner, and then headed off to the music room rather than the chemistry lab.
He put on his headphones, pulled up his favourite playlist, and started drumming along to 'smoke on the water'.

Nat drummed his pen against the desk. He was jittery: stressed about Tolly on top of his normal worries.
Bending down to get a fresh piece of paper from his bag, he could feel his side bleeding under the many layers of bandages.
Nat winced, and stuck his hand up. "Can I go to the medical office?"

Once out of the classroom, he sighed with relief and headed towards the one room that he knew would be practically deserted.

"You're not okay." Karlo decided as he walked into the music room.

"No shit." Nat muttered, dropping his bag and sitting on the floor, knees drawn up to his chest and his head in the crook of his elbow.

"You're bleeding." Karlo spoke up.

"Leave it." Nat muttered.
Karlo looked at him with concern, but put his headphones back on.
After a few more minutes of sitting on the floor listening to Karlo drumming away, Nat spoke up. "So if you're dead- how do you get it up?"

"Well you're forward." Karlo smirked. "Don' go cheating on Tol now." He paused. "An' I don't."

"By 'you' I meant Tolly." Nat replied, a smile hiding at the corner of his mouth.

"I didn' want t' know tha'." Karlo decided. "He's my brother." He hit the cymbal, before holding it still. "But, t' answer your question- we're no' dead. No' all o' us. Ally is, for example. When he was turned, he died. But sometimes ya can turn someone withou' killing them. That's what happened t' my great great grandfather or something. Which is why I can exist. An' Tolly."

"So if I wanted to kill you?"

"Depends. Decapitating always works. Depending on how much blood they've drunk, it may be th' only way t' kill an alive. It's definitely th' only way t' kill Ally, though, an' any un-dead like him." Karlo paused. "But don' ya dare try kill him else I'll kill ya."

Nat nodded, thinking. "So how much blood has Tolly drunk?"

"I knew tha' was wha' this were about." Karlo muttered. "An' I don' know, ya tell me. How much o' ya has he had?" Karlo paused. "Actually, don' tell me."

"You mean I could have saved him if-" Nat stopped.

"No." Karlo said firmly. "Ya wouldn't have been enough on ya own. An' Tolly has principles anyways."

"Thanks." Nat muttered, sitting in silence for a while.
He spoke up again, after a bit. He forced himself to sound happier as he talked. "Hey, if you need a lesson in trimming beards, then I'm happy to help."

"Jeez, I know I need a shave. Ally already told me. I've just been a bit preoccupied, you know?" Karlo smiled. "But thanks for the offer. I'll hold you to it one day." He looked at the boy still sat on the floor. "You don't need to pretend to be happy, though. Right now. I can see that smile is forced. It's okay to worry about him. But I promise you, he'll be fine. He's broken both his arms about twice each, his nose -which is why it's a bit squiffy if you look at him straight on- and he once shattered his leg in 7 places and it still healed okay. He'll be fine. Everything will be okay."

"That's why he sometimes limps after a long day." Nat muttered, looking slightly shocked at Karlo's list of Tolly's past injuries. "But that's not the same as a coma."

But Karlo had put his headphones on and was no longer listening. He knew the truth, knew that he may never hold a conversation with his older brother again. He was just trying to reassure Nat, by lying to him. Because that was the best was help him, to not break his heart.
Everything was not going to be okay.
_

Too many times, Nat faced the full moon alone, scared, and with no one to patch him up after. Doing so made him realise how much he had relied on the idea that Tolly would always be there for him. Be there to look after him.

Tolly hadn't shown any signs of waking up, and Karlo felt like he was going mad. He had always thought that his older brother would be there forever to pick him up and dust him off when the going got tough.
And it was tough then, and there was no Tolly to help him.
He had tried to look after Nat for Tolly, but the older boy started to revert back to the silent, too- strong- and- stupid- to- accept- help, brooding kind of person he had been when he had first walked into school.

Nat had spent his human days at school, keeping an eye on Karlo for Tolly, and visiting the boy in hospital. But in all the times he had been there, nothing had changed.
Nat leant over the lifeless body in the hospital bed, and kissed Tolly slowly. "Come on. Wake up." He hissed.
Nothing happened.
"That always works in books." He muttered.

Nat sat back in the chair, thinking, and trying not to cry.
There didn't seem to be anything he could do to help Tolly.
A thought struck him suddenly, and he pulled out his pocket knife.
He watched his own blood drip into Tolly's mouth.
Whilst there was no visible difference to the sleeping man, a glance at the monitors told Nat that Tolly's heart had sped up slightly.
Nat smiled to himself, waited for his blood to stop dripping, and stood up. He knew what he had to look for now.
A nurse who looked suitably supernatural.

He hurried out of the room, only to collide with a man coming the other way.
"You okay, kid?" The man asked, looking at Nat worried.

Nat nodded. He hadn't been called 'kid' in a long time.
He took a moment to look at the man, noticing the name on his white coat.
"Is that your lab coat?" He asked critically.

The man sighed. "Technically it's not a lab-" he caught Nat's eye. "Yes."

"Do you know Tolly Gardonal?" Nat asked hopefully.

"Bartholomew?" The man asked, and Nat stored that information away to ask about at a later date. "Why?"

"Come with me." Nat grabbed his sleeve, and pulled him into Tolly's room.
And Inigo Gardonal found himself looking at the sleeping face of his nephew.
Nat turned to him. "He needs blood."

"Kid, I'm not sure I can authorise a drip." The man said. "I'm a surgeon on loan from another hospital, and this isn't my case."

"I didn't mean a drip." Nat muttered. "You know who he is, right?"

Inigo nodded. "My nephew and a decendant of the lords of Gardonal." He muttered, thinking. "You think the blood can help him?"

"It's worth a shot, right?" Nat asked.

Inigo nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
He paused at the door. "And go home, kid. Sitting with him won't make whatever happens occur any faster. Have a shower, get some sleep. You'll be told if anything changes." Inigo smiled. "It's obvious that you care about him, but you'll not be any help to him in that state."

Nat nodded, unwilling to leave Tolly alone in the large hospital. But he stood up, and turned to leave. "Wake up for me, okay?" Nat found himself muttering, as he took a last look at the boy in the bed.

Karlo lay on Ally's bed, his head on the other boy's knee. Karlo's eyes were pinned on the ceiling, but his mind was occupied with the tune Ally was gently strumming. "I think I get it." He nodded, making Ally smile, and lean down to kiss him. "I'd have to be careful that the drums wouldn't drown you out though-"

Ally cut him off. "Shut up and enjoy the song."

"Sorry." Karlo smiled, unable to stop tapping gently on his knee.
Ally grinned, noticing the movement. Though everything, Karlo had remained the same- still drumming his way through life. Drums had always been a way of escape for him, a way to forget the world around him. Karlo had drummed when his mother had turned hateful, drummed when his father had taken him and left. And he drummed then, with his mother dead and his brother in a coma.

Karlo started as his phone rang, and Ally passed it to him.
"Fuck." He muttered, unable to recognise the number, and handed the phone back to Ally.

The other boy didn't even need to ask, and declined the call for him.
The phone kept ringing. Ally glanced at Karlo, who nodded, before he picked it up.
"Is that Karl?"

"Karlo." Ally corrected. "And no. Is it urgent?"

Karlo could just hear the next few words. "If my nephew's there, can you ask him what blood type works best for Tolly?"

"What?" Karlo asked, sitting up and taking the phone. "Inigo?"

"Yes." Came the reply. "So, what's the answer? I'm on a tight schedule here, kid."

"Well he's B neg."

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh." Karlo smirked. "Werewolf." There was a silence on the other end of the line. "But otherwise O positive - I think."

"Thanks."

"How's Marc-" but his uncle had already hung up.

"Uncle, huh?" Ally asked, smiling at the scowl on Karlo's face. "Which one?"

"The one Da doesn't speak to." Karlo muttered. "The surgeon. But he seemed to know about Tolly and yeah."

"Yeah." Ally agreed. "Maybe he can sort it out."

"Doubt it." Karlo muttered, lying back down. He was silent for a while. "I hate not being able to do anything!"

Ally jumped at the outburst. "It's okay." He whispered. "No one can do anything. We can only hope."

"Hmm." Karlo agreed. "I just feel so useless. I can't save my brother, or even do anything slightly decent."

"You're fucking amazing." Ally whispered. "You can rap all of Trench and that lot, you know all the words to 'It's the end of the world as we know it', and can sing them at speed. And you drum better than Xander and my playing and singing. You can understand people and you're so kind to everyone even though you're upholding the Redford image. And when you smile it's like the sun is shining, even on a cloudy day. Don't ever say you can't do anything because you do so much and have so much ahead of you. Don't ever put yourself down. You saved me, you've gone through so much, and you deserve a happy ending because of who you are. You're amazing, and don't ever think otherwise."

Karlo smiled slightly. "Thanks."

"Any time." Ally replied, smiling back. "G'night."

"Night." Karlo whispered.

Karlo was woken up by his phone ringing. His step mother, Ella, spoke quickly, and didn't waste her words. "Hospital. Now. He's waking up."