Pogue was the first one there, digging ruts into the ground with his bike and almost laying it down as he stopped. He hopped off, feet moving awkward and too slow for his worry, pulling off his helmet and dropping it in the leaves as he knelt by his friend.

"Reid."

He'd never seen him like this. Never. Tears and hoarse almost-screams and hitting what had to be Chase, face down in the mud. It was unsettling from the start.

"Reid, man, he's dead. Come on." He pulled him up and it wasn't until he did that he realized Reid had been using the whole time. Branches that moved out of synch with the wind. Leaves sliding along the ground with the movements of non-existent snakes. Power rippled along his arms and shoved at him, pushing him away and pulling him closer at the same time. "Reid! Stoppit, man!"

"I can't!"

Pogue braced himself, fought his way to Reid and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him as gently as he could. "Reid, you have to stop. You have to stop."

Reid's hands came up to his elbows, fingers digging into his arms until it hurt. Pogue hadn't seen him cry since he was eight. Since they were children beating each other up and laughing about it later, going fishing, camping out. All kinds of memories flashed through his mind as he wished they were anywhere but here.

He was still trying to get Reid to calm the fuck down when Tyler drove up with Caleb jittering in the front passenger seat. He almost jumped out before the truck had stopped, and Tyler didn't even bother to turn off the engine. They were all around Reid in a heartbeat, as close as they could get. Wasn't close enough.

Caleb's eyes got wider and wider with every gulping sob Reid made. "What the hell happened?"

"That's Chase..." Pogue pointed to the body on the ground. He was still focusing on trying to get Reid to stop flailing about with arms and power, so it was Tyler who blurted it out first. Reid could only make chuffing noises, trying to speak and never catching his breath.

"Holy shit. Chase willed him his power..."

Everyone stared at Tyler, then Reid. Caleb made some kind of a strangled noise, Pogue didn't even think it was a word. He looked as pale as any of them. Reid looked like he was going to be sick.

At least he'd stopped using. Pogue thought.

Tyler stepped into the circle they had made around him, grabbing hold of Reid's shoulders and looking as though he was going to shake him. Pogue tensed, ready to stop him if he tried. He'd been about to do it a few seconds ago and in that time had decided that shaking was the approach to take, but Tyler had apparently come to the same conclusion. No shaking, just holding on and looking at him. Trying to find Reid behind the black eyes.

"Reid." Caleb whispered it. They were all too afraid to speak.

Pogue took a step forward. There was a second when they all thought something monumental was going to happen, something like an explosion or a lot of screaming or blood streaming down from his eyes. Reid only crumpled forward into Tyler's arms, though, and then they were all swarming him. Holding him tight, holding each other. Holding on because right now each other was all they had to hold onto and the world was turning upside down and inside out and they didn't want to let go.

It was Tyler who first whispered it, into Reid's hair. "What are we going to do about Chase?"

"Leave him." Caleb's voice was hoarse, and unforgiving. "Screw it, leave him."

"Let's get out of here," Pogue agreed. They were going to find him anyway, and even if they did figure out that the four boys had been there no one would be able to prove that anything had happened. They'd been there. Reid had panicked. They took him home. Chase had died of natural causes.

As natural as anything that happened to them.

Caleb drove home. Tyler sat in the back with Reid; Pogue would have been with them but he wasn't leaving his bike behind. No idea how Reid had gotten into the woods. Right now, he figured if Reid had drove, his car was the least of his problems, but Pogue hadn't seen it around and somehow he had the idea that Chase had gotten them out there.

Why had Reid even gone with Chase? He wanted to ask, wanted to know bad enough that tears stung his eyes as he sped home and he had to pull over for a second to clear his eyes and his head. Why had this even happened? Why had it even started.

Be reasonable, he told himself. If Chase had wanted to will Reid his power, it wouldn't have mattered where he'd been. It would have found him anyway, drawn into him, infused him, filled him up to overflowing and maybe it would have been someplace worse. Someplace dangerous. The headlines from the newspapers he and Caleb had found flashed through his mind again. He could have gotten someone killed.

They weren't taking him to Reid's Dad, he realized, following the truck. Probably for the best; Reid's Dad would have a fit if he knew what was going on. Caleb was taking them to his place, not knowing what else to do. Evelyn wouldn't tell the others, hadn't even told them about Chase the first time around, and they could hide him there. Try and help him regain control. Attaboy, Caleb. Pogue hugged him silently in his mind for that.

Caleb pulled the truck up. Pogue parked the bike and vaulted off of it, yanking off his helmet and running towards them. Reid didn't even stumble out of the truck, he fell out of it and spilled his guts all over the gravel.

"Reid!" Pogue was on his knees in an instant, and almost back up as quickly. It smelled rancid, fouler than vomit usually smelled. "God, Reid..."

"Get him inside."

Caleb spoke; everyone moved. In the end Reid couldn't make it under his own power, Caleb had to scoop him up into his arms and carry him like a baby. Good thing Reid was lighter, smaller. Even so they almost didn't make it. Tyler walked up by his head, Pogue by his feet. All of them carried him in the end, over to the couch, laying him down.

"What happened?" Evelyn sounded shocked, the first emotion Pogue could remember hearing from her in years. Months, at least. And she sounded sober, and while he never would have said anything in front of Caleb he was cynically glad for that.

"Chase..." Caleb swallowed. Objects in the room rattled, and Pogue closed one hand over his fist.

"Caleb..."

His hand opened under Pogue's. Things stopped moving, but Tyler and Evelyn were both looking at him and wondering if they would have to take care of two people today, not just one. He didn't even have to look at them to know that.

"Chase willed Reid his power."

That was Tyler's voice, clear in the soft daylight through the windows. Bless him.

"Chase did what?"

"Willed him his power. Don't know why. Don't know what happened, but he called Tyler to come get him. Wanted us to come get him." Pogue's words came on staccato breaths. All three boys looked down at their friend, brother, curled up on the sofa and heaving with nothing left to throw up, not even bile. Too weak to throw up blood.

Pogue knelt by his head and started running his fingers through his hair, the way he had when they were little kids. Reid whimpered. It cut through all of them, made Tyler stand a little closer to Caleb, as if the oldest boy could make everything all right again.

"Is there anything we can do for him?" Caleb asked. He wasn't looking at anyone; Pogue thought the question was directed at his mother. None of them knew the answer.

"We can make him comfortable," Evelyn started to do just that, grabbing a pillow from off of one of the couches to prop it under his head, finding a throw from somewhere. "We can help him to keep from using..."

No one was sure they could do that. Pogue didn't even know who among them dared to think they could.

"I don't..."

Reid was talking. Tyler and Caleb bolted around the couch to kneel down in front of him, as Evelyn wisely stepped back. For a second foreheads and noses collided as they all tried to hold onto each other at once. Caleb got to him first, which surprised Pogue a little. It wasn't like him to grab at, to hold on like that.

"'m scared."

"I know," Pogue ruffled his hair again, one hand over his head where it was tucked between Caleb's cheek and shoulder. "We're all scared."

"But we'll figure this out," Caleb whispered. One hand rubbed over his back, his body curled around Reid's where the younger boy lay sprawled, half on and half off the couch. "We will. I promise."

Reid's hand crawled over Caleb's shoulder and his fingers laced through Tyler's and squeezed his hand hard enough that Pogue heard it creak. Tyler didn't say a word. Brave boy. Pogue's hand kept smoothing through those blonde strands as though it could make everything better. It had a couple of times. But this wasn't a failed test or a missed opportunity to ask Sue Lewiston out to the movies.

Someone was crying, and he wasn't sure who. Quiet sniffling noises. It could have been him and he wouldn't have noticed till the wetness started seeping over his cheeks. He pressed his forehead between Caleb's and Reid's, one arm around Tyler's shoulders. Breathe. Just breathe. It would all be okay.

Reid's fear was spiky and it was infecting them all. A thousand points on a thousand worries, the terror that came from having too much and all at once. He had heard some stories from Caleb, nothing direct, but enough to be able to translate from Caleb Danvers-speak to real life. Reid would have all of his, all of Chase's, all of his father's. Who knew how far back they'd been pulling that same stupid shit.

And now Chase was dead, and. Pogue shivered, realizing. That bloodline was well and truly gone, now. No one left to carry it on. And Reid had his power.

His fingers dug into Tyler's shoulder, feeling the other boy's arm slip around his waist. One arm around the other around the other around the other. All together, breathing together, crying together. But Reid was breathing easier now, and he hoped it had something to do with them being there. He hoped. Maybe.

Behind them there was the little clacking sound of metal on wood. Evelyn, and a tray of... something. Water, maybe. He hoped. This wasn't something for the wives or mothers to get involved in, though, this was Covenant business. Power business. She didn't have any power. She couldn't understand.

"We'll be okay," Pogue murmured, deep and soft.

"We'll be okay."

"We're gonna be okay."

Reid nodded a little. He'd stopped sniffling, somewhere in the huddle. It was a start. It was a tenuous grip on something, he didn't know what they had, but they needed to keep on having it.

Caleb shifted a little, pulling Reid off the couch and into his arms, kneeling on the ground. They all shifted with him, more or less gracefully, if nothing else knowing how to move around each other and strong enough to stay upright until they had settled again. Reid's eyes flickered open, blue, gray, he couldn't tell in this light but it wasn't black. Thank god, not black. Pogue curled his head against Caleb and Reid's shoulders and started to cry.

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