Tired?

"Alright... so...." Leo wipes his mouth with a napkin after finishing off his chicken sandwich at the little diner.

The morning at the auto shop had been crazy with more customers than they could handle and cars were backed up, waiting to be worked on. There had hardly been any time to talk or banter, but come lunch time, the crew had been ready for a break. Heading out in separate vehicles since Leo had to make a stop before hand, he and Ryan had met for lunch as planned without hardly seeing each other that morning at all. Now that he was done eating though, he wanted to take advantage of the time that was left.

"...You're quiet today," he muses. He takes a sip of his pop, leaning forward on the table a little bit. Though not having had time to talk to her earlier, throughout the meal, he'd felt something just a little peculiar in the air. Ryan was good at hiding her feelings sometimes though, so he wasn't sure if it was his imagination, if it was still just leftover stress from the day before, or if it was something else. "You look tired."


Jade laughs at Katie, her face flushed. "I'll work on that," she teases, throwing Dan a sidelong glance.

Jason's eyes are still a little wide from Dan's comment, and try as he might, color still seeped up the back of his neck. He immediately shuts off any embarrassment so Katie doesn't feel it, even though he knows that she'll feel that much and figure out just what it was that he shut off from her.

"Exactly!" he agrees with Dan. "Woman's a menace, look at her!" He scoots his chair a couple inches from Katie, anticipating a slap to the arm at the very least.

Clint is grinning from ear to ear and he shakes his head at Katie. "No ants. Felt like a sledgehammer." He leans down to rub his shin. "Your boyfriend kicks like a mule."


Ryder can't help but love it every time Thirteen nuzzled into him, and tonight was no different. Smiling, he reaches into his jacket that was hung on his chair and pulls out the camera. "I did, actually. Let's take a few without them knowing it."

He turns on the camera and lets Thirteen see the screen too. "When we get back and get all the pictures printed, you can put your favorites in your rainbow album that your dad gave you, then we can get another album for all the others too." He had a feeling she was going to take more than what the little album would hold, but he didn't want her to have to choose only a small number. He wanted her to have as many as she wanted no matter how many albums it took.


Mick exits the kitchen and looks again to the small group as they laughed. They were having so much fun. He really didn't want to spoil it for them. He needed to see both Jade and Dan, and he really had missed his daughter... but tonight... maybe he should just leave them be. They were enjoying themselves and it wouldn't be fair to him to step in and ruin it. So instead, he slips out the back door and heads for the house.


Eric pries his eyes open, staring into a very dark and blurry room. The pain was almost unbearable. Yesterday when he'd almost been run over by a horse and had cut his injured leg on a fence, he thought he'd done a pretty good job of doctoring it himself. It had bled a lot around the severe bruises and had hurt like the dickens, but he'd cleaned it and bandaged it himself and gone on with the day. By last night though, he'd laid out ice packs down his leg and all day today it had throbbed. Figuring it was just normal though, he hadn't done anything differently.

But tonight, he knew something was wrong. His whole body felt hot and where he'd cut his leg yesterday, it was swollen and red even around what was already bruised so badly. He didn't want to think he'd gotten an infection, but he knew that's what it had to be. And if he already had a fever, it was a whole lot worse than he would want to admit.

Reaching for his glass of water, his hand fumbles and the glass falls to the floor with a thud on the braided rug, spilling the water everywhere. Eric groans and lets his aching head fall back into his pillow. With his eyes still closed, he gropes for the phone and feels the buttons without having to look. "Angel?" he mumbles groggily. "I promised... if it got worse I'd tell you."

He bites his lip thinking he might pass out from the oncoming wave of pain. "I think you better.... better come take a look while I can...." He swallows the want to cry out as the next wave came. "...still think at all."