Megan woke to a dreary morning. The temperature had dropped suddenly from her early morning walk and it now rested uncomfortably in the low to mid 40's. Freezing rain was pelting her windshield as she drove into Cam's driveway, but instead of Cam exiting his front door his mother greeted her.

She rolled down her window and asked in confusion," Cam not up yet Mrs. Murdoch?"

"Megan," Cam's mother smiled, "we've talked about this before, please call me Caroline."

"Sorry Caroline, let me guess Cam's dragging his feet again." Megan hoped.

"No I'm sorry dear he's under the weather he'll be staying home today."

Megan couldn't hide her concern. What the hell could be wrong with him? She went to get out of the car to see for herself, but Cam's mother stopped her with a gesture of her up turned hand.

"Megan dear he's sleeping soundly right now and you're going to be late. Why don't you check up on him after school? He should be up by then and feeling a bit better."

"What's wrong with him," she asked tentatively?

"Oh it's just a flu dear." His mom assured her.

She chuckled then and patted her shoulder through the open window. She probably thought that she was being a silly teenager in love, of course she did; how could she know Halfbloods don't get sick with the flu?

Megan didn't want to leave without figuring out what was wrong, but what choice did she have? So she thanked Cameron's mom and backed slowly down the driveway.

On the way to school she played the radio way too loud trying to drown out her thoughts. None of her crew had missed a day of school due to illness since their enlightenment. What was she going to say to the guys?

She needn't have worried about them being concerned, because Trav and Kyle quickly negated her worries, as they tried to convince her he was just playing hooky.

"Yeah," Kyle laughed, "He's probably hold up in his lab right this minute coming up with the perfect solution to our weapons problem."

Megan wished and not for the first time that cellphones would work for them she would so love to text him right now to confirm what they thought was true, but she'd just have to wait until after school.

Sometimes being magical really sucked.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After training she skipped swim and drove right over to Cam's, but when she knocked on the door nobody came to answer it. She went around to the back but Cam's curtains were drawn and he didn't answer the door when she knocked for what seemed like forever. She cupped her ear with her palm and listened for any sounds on the other side, but there were none. She couldn't tell if Cam was there and sleeping soundly, or not at home at all.

The rain was falling in earnest now and she was soaked to the bone by the time she got back in her little beetle. She cranked the heat feeling a chill for more reasons than the cold. What was happening? Where was Cam and why was he sick?

She pulled out of the driveway and headed for her lonely condo. Hoping against hope that her step-monster wasn't there she could not imagine having to face her right now when she felt so vulnerable. She barely noticed when the doorman greeted her and riding up in the elevator a senior tenant kept looking at her from the corner of her eye until she finally asked her if everything was alright. She had just mumbled a reply. She let herself into the condo and much to her relieve found it empty, but for Simmons, who was working furiously in the kitchen preparing a meal that smelled heavenly, but Megan had no appetite.

She greeted him but kept walking when he asked about her being home early. Her heart wasn't up for small talk at the moment. She went straight for her adjacent bathroom and stripped off her soaking wet clothes. They clung to her desperately which frustrated her to no end. It was hard enough to undress with crutches let alone while her clothes were attached to her like a second skin.

She growled in frustration throwing her crutches across the room and flopping on to the floor. She wanted to be the kind of girl that cried because, god knew she felt like it right now, but it wasn't in her nature. So she ran a bath instead, and let the beads of sweat that formed on her body in the steam filled room be the tears she could not cry.

Sinking into the bath she thought back to the last time she'd cried, at her mother's funeral. It had been a cloudy miserable day too. It was like the world cried out its loss too with thunder, lightning and high winds. But now that she knew who her father truly was, she had to wonder how much of that had had to do with her father's feelings.

When Megan's mind tried to hearken back to the horrible day she lost her mom she told herself to smarten the "f' up. She was so not going there today. So she soaked instead.

When she got out of the tub an hour later it was nearly 7pm she knew that everyone in the Murdoch Clan should be home by then including Cam's father. She knew her best bet would be -- if she couldn't get in touch with Cam – was to ask his father what was going on. He was a fullblood; he would understand her concerns.

She phoned and Maddy picked up.

"Murdoch summer home," she crowed over the din, "Some're home, some're not!"

Megan had to chuckle despite her worries, "Hey Maddy is Cam up?"

"Nope he's still sleeping, but I don't know how he can sleep in this chaos?" She laughed.

"Is your dad home then? "

"Nope he's working late. Do you want me to wake Cam?"

"No, no," Megan hurriedly replied, "let him sleep I'll try again later."

Megan placed the walk around phone back in it charger and sat down hard on the uncomfortable couch.

"Is Miss alright," Simmons' asked again from the kitchen where he was plating her food.

"NO Miss is not alright!" Megan barked, but promptly regretted taking out her frustration on him. She wasn't her step-lunatic after all.

"Sorry that was rude." She said as she sagged on the couch and sigh. "I'm just worried about someone."

Simmons put down his cloth that he was using to wipe the top of the counter and said, "Would you like to talk about it? I've been told I'm a good listener."

What could she say to him: I'm worried about my boyfriend, because we're preternatural beings that don't get sick and he's sick.

Instead she said, "It's okay I'm just worried." She said with a deep sigh.

"Would Miss like to eat something? Dinner is served; it might make you feel better."

"No thanks Simmons. I'm not hungry. Could you just put it in the fridge for me I might have it later, and sorry for the trouble," she said as an afterthought.

"It was no trouble Miss." He turned away with a sad look on his face as Megan thought and there it is the pity she evoked from almost everyone she met.

Her life story could be summed up as such:

'You poor dear 'followed by the piteous looks and the so-called thoughtful phrases like 'you're such a trooper ' with the patronizing pat on the knees or shoulder and don't forget her favorite cocking head to the side with a sigh finished with a 'you're an inspiration'.

Megan looked at her watch and noticed that it was now 7:30 so she tried again. And again a half an hour after that until she finally got in touch with Mr. Murdoch around 10pm.

This time Caroline had answered the phone and had given the phone to her husband a little bewilderedly.

"Mr. Murdoch," Megan blurted out as soon as he was on the line, "How is he? What's wrong with him?"

She could hear Mr. Murdoch leave the kitchen and exit through the sliding French door to the raised patio. He slid the doors behind him closed before he said anything, but the words that came out of his mouth chilled her to the bone.

"I'm sorry my child to tell you that Cameron is very ill. I'm doing everything I can, but he won't be back at school for the foreseeable future, not until I can find the help he needs."

Megan heard the hitch in his voice and her heart sped up in her chest.

"What's wrong with him Mr. Murdoch? Megan pleaded squeezing the phone a little harder than necessary.

"He seems to be in the process of rejecting his skin. You may not have been aware that it happens sometimes to halfblood Selkies."

"No Cam told me it sometimes happens, but he also told me that his skin was his grandfather's, so it would very likely not happen to him." She said in a strangled voice.

"That's true, and he might still come around. I'm consulting some of the best and the brightest and we're all looking for a solution." His father finished.

"What happens if he rejects the skin?" Megan choked out. Her back screaming at her with the tension she was holding in. She could sit to have this discussion. Why wasn't she sitting?

Malcolm cleared his throat seeming not to know what to say. So she pressed, "please tell me."

"Megan you're far too young to have to deal with these things. Just please let me get back to helping him."

Megan interrupted him. She knew it was rude and disrespectful, but frankly, she didn't give a shit. The love of her life was sick and she deserved to know what to expect.

She growled out, "tell me."

"If he rejects his skin I'm going to have to find a place to lock him up, because after a few days I'm not going to be able to stop him from going to the sea and without his skin he can't breathe under water."

Megan sat down then. The phone nearly falling from her grasp. Her shocked brain was trying desperately to grasp what that would mean.

She stammered out, "D-d-does that mean what I think it means?"

"I'm afraid so dear." His father sighed.

She could hear the surf crashing on the shoreline in the receiver from his father's phone and she cursed it. The sea would take the only person that loved her over her dead body.

"No way I'm letting that happen!" she ground out.

"Me either dear, but right now I'm dealing with the most pressing problem which is trying to lock him up for his own safety without his mother thinking I've suddenly lost my mind."

"And," he added, "if he continues to sleep his days away like he did today then she'll be dragging him to the nearest hospital for a battery of tests which won't help things in the least."

"I'll have to petition the council for a changeling which could take weeks and I don't have that kind of time, "Mr Murdoch growled in frustration.

Then she thought: oh shit Cam's going to kill me, and she almost didn't say anything, but what choice did she have?

"Mr. Murdoch I think I have another solution that won't take that long."

Megan told Cam's father all about his double, but she left out the why they had created him. She wasn't that stupid. She'd lied and said they just wanted to see if it could be done.

She also said she might have another solution to his problem and she would call him back in a few minutes and he quickly hung up, but not before breathing a huge sigh of relief.

She called Lauren and explained what was happening. She asked her then if she could use the extra room Cam 2.0 was using to keep Cameron locked up and she quickly agreed.

Tears pricked Meg's eyes at how generous her friends were. They really would do anything for each other.

After getting off the phone with Lauren, Meg quickly called Xander and said:

"Xan I've got a favor to ask . . ."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That night after picking up Cam 1.0 and his father and dropping him off at Lauren's, she quickly picked up Cam 2.0, then she and his father deposited him in Cam's bed as a decoy for his mother. They then drove back to Lauren's house where Mr. Murdoch promptly installed state of the art locks on Cam's new bedroom door. He was on the second floor yet Mr. Murdoch was taking no chances. He installed bars on the second story window as well explaining all the while, when Meg gave him a horrified look that the call of the sea was impossible to resist. She had clutched at Cam like a lifeline the whole time. He'd been too delirious to know she was there.

When Megan drove back to Sea Cliff drive she was shaky and feeling heart sick. She dropped Mr Murdoch off a few doors down from his house for his morning swim. He told her he would be staying with Cam most days and evenings from now on and not to worry that he'll find a solution.

She didn't want to give him any false hope so she neglected to tell him that she was going in a few minutes to explore some solutions of her own.

As he walked up the driveway and past the house to head to the beach, Megan turned the car around to head to the airport.

She had someone of her own to petition . . .

****************** THANKS FOR READING********************

I hope you all liked this chapter -- What's going to happen to Cam? Well it sure is a good thing they had that extra Cam just lying around. Hey?

Who do you think Megan has to petition?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

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