Cynthia sat by Mark's bed holding his hand, watching him closely, as he slept peacefully. They said that he would only be around for a few hours. Cynthia wasn't crying anymore. She had moved past that stage. Now, she just rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb like she used to when he was little. On the other side of the bed, Jane stood up. "When things get worse, let me know, okay? I'll be back in a flash. I've gotta let work know what's going on." She said solemnly. Cynthia nodded, as Jane walked out of the room, rubbing one of her eyes.

"Your dad wanted to be here. But when we heard about it, it was too late. He was already off at work. He'll be back soon though, honey. And he'll say goodbye. Okay?" She told his unconscious body. Cynthia's hair was disheveled, her eyes red, and light-less. This was her baby. He wasn't doing well. You should never have to bury your own baby.

Jim walked in as Jane left, Jane looked up and wrapped him in a hug. James squeezed her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. He let go and she went on her way. Jim pulled up a chair next to Mrs. Hunter. He lowered his wand and the tray of coffee lowered into his lap. "I got coffee, sorry it took so long, a few doctors wanted to pull me aside and see if I was a psychopath." Jim shuddered. The healers had almost hooked him up to a massive machine to test his brain waves.

"It's just the way you like it." He held the cup with the letters 'M.H' we scrawled on with sharpie marker out in front of her. He couldn't believe this was happening. His best friends was dying and there was nothing he could do about it. He hadn't taken Mark's drink and consumed it himself. His father could have cared less and his mother and Little Nette would probably be indifferent.

He took a sip of his coffee, but everything he put in his mouth tasted like dirt, everything would be bitter until mark pulled through, but at this point, it would seem nothing would ever be sweet again. He couldn't even remember how long he had been in this room. The white walls and tiles were driving him nuts, he wanted to smash a massive hole in the drywall with his fist.

"This is all my fault, I could have stopped it, I should have known there was something fishy about the drinks." James thought out loud, sinking down in his chair.

Cynthia sat there in silence for a few moments in the early morning. She had already sent off the letter to Alice, knowing it was the least she could do. She said a quick thank you when James rejoined them with coffee. She didn't have the appetite to drink coffee. She looked at her baby boy. He still looked the same when he was a baby when he slept. James took the blame for the situation, and she shook her head slowly. "No one could have seen this coming, James. Really. Don't beat yourself up over it."

They sat in silence for a few moments, Cynthia slowly rubbing her baby boy's hand. "You know, when Mark was little, whenever he woke up from his nap I would ask him what he wanted to drink, knowing he'd gurgle or something. But one day, when I asked him what he wanted to drink, he looked at me, and he said, 'Carrots.'" Cynthia smiled. "And so, every day, I would make carrot juice. And when he got a little bigger, and got better at speaking, I asked him why he loved carrots so much, and you know what he said to me?" She paused and looked at James. "He looked me in the eyes, and he said, 'Carrots support optic growth and repair.' He told me he never wanted glasses, so he'd eat carrots." Cynthia shook her head.

"That's when we realized he was destined for great things."

James smiled and put a hand gently on her shoulder. "I remember the first time Mark and I met. We were in the same preschool class or kindergarten, and while all of the other kids were stuffing there faces with cookies and running around like crazy children, and I was sitting on top of the slide, and I saw Mark sitting in the corner of the playground, munching on carrots and reading Winnie the Pooh." Jim laughed a bit.

"I remember walking over and asking him what his book was about. He told me it was about a talking bear and aparrently I was intrigued by this, so i sat down next to him and he read to me and shared his carrots. It sounds silly, but the entire time I sat there, I was thinking how much longer until this chapter was over so I could go back to playing with the other kids, but I'm glad I sat down that first day, because we sat and Mark would read to me and explain the plot of every book he brought in."

James began tearing up, even though he had promised himself he wouldn't. "Damnit Mark, why did you have to go and be the best man a guy could know." He wiped his cheek, trying to hide it from Mrs. Hunter.

Mrs. Hunter smiled. "I remember picking him up that day. He told me that he met the protagonist of his life. And that he didn't know the boy's name, but he knew he was a protagonist." Cynthia shook her head. "He loved you James. From the day he met you, he thought you would be his best friend." She paused. "And I knew it too."

"Remember when you took on that year eight kid when you were in year four because he picked on Mark? I remember he came into the house with a smile on his face next to a cut, and when I asked what happened, he told me James saved him." Cynthia looked over at James. "Just because this is the end of his story doesn't mean it's the end of your story, James. You've gotta be the protagonist. For Mark. And you've gotta thunder on no matter what."

Salty water streamed through his teeth. "A protagonist, huh?" James smiled and patted Mrs. Hunter's shoulder. "I remember that day, I felt bad because mark had a cut, I walked home with a bloody nose and a black eye that day, I was missing a back tooth too." Jim smiled. "That kid was big too." James said, remembered the kids tubby fist as he was slugged several times.

"I'm still hoping he'll pull through, he's stronger than I could ever be, he needs to be around for our next chapter in life, i can't finish my story without him."

For the second time that night, Julie arrived on the third floor of St. Mungo's. This time, she was more agitated and in the midst of an identity crisis. The conversation she'd had with Victoria, her sister as she had found out, was playing on repeat in her head. Over and over and over.

She dismissed the thought of being someone she wasn't supposed to be, and made her way towards Mark's room. Once she got past the mediwitches, she stood outside Mark's door, rocking back and forth on her heels gently. Silently, with her head slightly bowed, she made a deal with God. If this didn't work, she would be okay. But he would have to help her be okay. That was her promise. The thought to ask for it to work didn't cross her mind, because she found it so easy to dwell on the negative at the moment.

Lightly, she stepped into the room where Cynthia and James were sitting by Mark's bedside. "Sorry for interrupting," she immediately blurted, realizing they were in the middle of a conversation. She stood there, frozen like a deer in headlights. Julie didn't know what to do with herself. She was shivering from being out in the cold so long just a few minutes ago, and she was tearing herself up on the inside with the grief that threatened to make a showing soon. "I just, umm. I was out, meeting... a umm, woman. Woman, a meeting for the antidote..." Her words were short and sharp, but she had stumbled over almost every single one. This wasn't the Julie they knew, this was someone completely different. It didn't take much to realize how much of a mess she was.

"He's not going to make it, James. As much as we want him to, he's not going to. The poison was too good, it was too strong, too big a dosage. His story is over, and we'll have to learn to move on." She said, closing her eyes, and holding his hand tighter. "But we'll make it through. We always make it trough." She explained.

Julie then walked in speaking in utter gibberish. "What honey? Say that again?" Cynthia asked, standing up when she heard antidote. "What lady? Where? When?" She fired the questions wanting her baby to get better.

Julie took a few steps forward, trying to clear her mind as she did. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the antidote securely sealed in the small vial she was holding. Carefully, she held it out to Cynthia, not wanting to mess up and do something stupid.

Mackenzie, you can't run.

She winced at the voice in her head and shook it off, looking back up from the vial to Cynthia. "Knockturn alley. A little past midnight. I got this from her." Julie said, giving the vial to her future mother-in-law, or so she was hoping at this point.

"Victoria And-" Julie said, her voice choking off the end of the last name.  "Andrews." She said hurriedly, feeling as if she was going to pass out. "She's the one that poisoned Mark. The girl with the pink ribbon..."

Before she could fall over, Julie sat down in the chair on the wall, staring blankly at the floor. Her pink dress was ruffled beneath her, the cloak wrapped tight around her shoulders and falling loosely over the chair's edges. "My pink ribbon, family... she's after my family."

Can稚 run from family. 全pecially not me.

"I can't run," she whispered to herself. "She'll find me. And Mark." Her hand dropped to her stomach in fear, the other hand gripping the chair. It probably looked like she was nauseous to the people around her.

She looked back up at James and Cynthia, rising to her feet. "We have to save him, Mark. I love him. He can't die, he needs the antidote now." Julie said, babbling her words still but articulating enough that she was understood. "The whole thing, it will save him. I know it. It has to. It can't not save him, mon dieu."

Jim took his jacket off to put it on Julie's shoulder, she looked utterly frozen, but she looked as if she had something rather important on her mind. Mrs. Hunter was really putting him down, but he still had hope, and it was in a small vial in Julie's hand. "What are you waiting for?! Give it to him!" James was panicking, Mark didn't have enough life in him for them to stand around.

"Vicky, pink ribs, whatever, just...Give him the antidote!" Jim hysterical, he was almost shrieking like a girl. He would pass out from anticipation if mark didn't have the contents of that vial in his system within the next ten seconds. "She can't find him if he's underground! Just....agh!" James collapsed in his chair, he grabbed his coffee from his floor and sipped it fervishly.

Julie snapped back into reality, still feeling like a very small child without her mother, lost somewhere where she couldn't find her way out. Slowly, her hearing faded in and out and she was aware of James' jacket around her cold shoulders; bare, pale shoulders compliments of the strapless pink dress she was in.

She didn't know what Cynthia was waiting for, so almost like a robot; she went to stand up, taking the vial from Cynthia's hand. With an odd, breathtaking gracefulness, she crossed the room and reached out for Mark gently, tilting his chin up and pouring the blueish antidote into his mouth.

The room was silent as she closed his mouth, pinching his nose so that the antidote had nowhere to go but down. She couldn't look at the two other people in the room, and at some point she'd have to explain her erratic, odd behavior. But they hadn't reached that point yet. No one was going to worry about little Julie when there was a dying man in the room. A best friend, and a son. This was his show.

"Caffeine stimulates the cortex of your brain and heights the intensity of mental activity. With added high levels of anxiety, the intensity can produce unpleasant effects." She said calmly to James, her eyes never leaving Mark's face as she waited. And waited. For something. Anything. Maybe for him to wake up? To be healed?

To die?

Mark's fingers twitched. Then they twitched again. His brain started to boot back up, as he slowly opened his eyes, feeling incredibly weak. He looked up to see his girlfriend, his best mate, and his mother all looking down at him. He lifted a hand lazily and waved. "Well, hello there." He said with a smile, trying to sit up. He looked over to his mother, who looked like she had been crying, and now had two hands over her mouth.

"My baby boy. He lives to see another day." She said, stifling back tears, as she hugged him closely. He loved his mother's grasp, and the tightness of her hug.

"Well, this is a nice surprise. You know, not being dead or anything like that." He said with a smile, as his mother helped him into a sitting position.

Jim waved away Julie's comment and looked at Mark, waiting for any sign of life. Then, a few jerks of movement and Mark Hunter was among the living once more. James jumped out of his chair and his empty coffee cup made a hollow thud as it clattered to the floor. James was at Mark's bedside in a blank of an eye. He looked at him oddly, then dismissed his thoughts of a dream and grabbed Mark's cheeks and kissed his forehead. "HAHA! Don't ever do that to me again you carrot munchin son of a b-" James looked at Mrs. Hunter.

"Whatever! HAHA!" Jim let go of Mark's noggin and began dancing to soundless music. He grabbed the doorknob out into the hall. He put his back to the almost empty hallway. He bounced on his toes and back flipped into the brightly lit hall. He had to find Jane. He looked both ways and ran in the direction he was pretty sure she went it. He skidded on the floor and grabbed the door frame.

"I needed one last look." James pointed at Mark, who smiled weakly. "Yup, you're alive." James sighed and went sprinting down the hall. "JAAAAAAAANNNNNNNEEEEE!!!!!!" He ran down the two flights of stairs and into the lobby, she wasn't any where in sight. He raced out onto the street, it was as dark as night and he could barely see. But, there she was, standing by a lamp post.

He ran up to her, grinning like an idiot. She had tears in her eyes. "No need to cry Jane my darling! MARK HUNTER LIVES!" He yelled, he couldn't believe this was actually happening. He grabbed Jane's face and kissed bother her cheeks. He grabbed her hand, "Letsgoletsgoletsgoletsgo!" He pulled her back into the hospital.

He couldn't believe it, he just couldn't believe it, just inches from death, Mark Hunter had come back from the undead for another round with death.

Julie leaned against the wall, a sigh of relief escaping her lips. She watched the flurry of commotion, and decided on the fact that the entire world could probably have heard James' cries of joy. She made sure to stay out of the others way; Cynthia was most important here because this was her son who is playing on death's playground.

And of course James would take up the spotlight because once he was happy, there was no room for anyone else to share his stage. She didn't think the man could be any more dramatic, and pondered the thought of him going into theatre.

A nice surprise, it was better than a nice surprise; it was the best thing ever. This was like a really late Christmas present, even better than a ring; just Mark himself, alive and hopefully going to be doing better in the next few days. After all, they had a little 'it' on the way; as if that wasn't stress enough, Julie knew who her real family was.

She watched James practically throw himself out of the door, running off and screaming for Jane. Julie relaxed, the tense muscles practically melting as she watched Cynthia help Mark sit up. He was going to be okay, he was going to be absolutely okay.

Mark laid in the bed, watching his best friend ecstatic about seeing him better, he couldn't contain his smile. His mother fussed around the room smiling, as she neatened things up. Mark sat up, reaching out to Julie. "Come here, Julie." He extended his arms wanting a hug. He was so happy he was okay. Everyone was okay. Everything was going to be okay. But before he could say anything else, Jane rushed into the room, hugging him. He felt hot tears hitting his shoulder as he patted her on the back.

"We were so scared. So, so, scared." Jane explained. He finally disengaged from the hug, smiling.

"Well, I'm okay now. And we're all okay, okay?" Mark explained. Jane nodded slowly.