I didn't mean to hurt you

Chase felt a small smile cross her face. "You forgot to turn the stove off." She said and shook her head, giggling slightly, but she was forced to stop because it hurt. But she saw the pain on his face. "You hurt yourself? Calvin!" She said moving closer to him, and then shook her head. "I'm not hurt, just shaky is all okay?" She said and smiled at him, shaking her head sadly. "I'm just a little weak.. are you okay? Calvin.. maybe we should order something.. or.. get Reid.. I mean... both of us aren't doing to well are we?" She said frowning and then reaching forward to gently brush some of his now wet hair out of his face. "We need to relax a bit.." She said smiling ,but her breath caught in her throat, when suddenly Calvin lifted up the front of her shirt to check on the bandages. She leaned backwards slightly, suddenly very much aware, just how close they were.

It seemed her breathing was coming in shallow gasps, and she was extremely red in the face. His fingers were gentle, and she looked down to see that the wound was pretty much healed, just a little puckered, an outline showing that there HAD been a wound there, but nothing to horrible, she had worse scars elsewhere anyway, but still.. he was gently touching it, and she was getting even redder in the face. Her eyes locked onto his, and she smiled slightly at him, suddenly aware at how close their faces were, why was this suddenly such a big deal to her? Because he was a wonderful person? Because she was lonely.. because she lov.... no.. she couldn't love him! she just.. couldn't... if she did, if they... bad things happened to the ones Chase loved.. horrible, bad things.. and she just couldn't.. couldn't see him hurt, so she tore her eyes from his and gently lowered her shirt again.

"No.. I didn't get to eat any of the pancake.. I was to worried... about you.." She said softly, here eyes flicking to his and away again. "Erm.. could you.. well.. can you help me up? I don't think I can get up on my own.. my legs are still.. very wobbly.. I mean.. I just can't" She frowned and then sighed. "Lets eat.. then.. if you could help me into the bathroom.. I"ll get washed up.. and we can go from there.. I'm a bit shaky.. but.. Calvin?" She said, and then smiled at him softly, her eyes catching his again. "Thank you.. for everything... we'll get this cleaned up.. and we'll forget about Felix Barker.. and.. and.. everything bad that's happened okay? We'll be okay." She moved closer to him, and put her arms around his neck, hugging him gently, small tears leaking out from behind her eyes, before she pulled away, and smiled at him, starting to attempt to get to her feet.

“Sorry, I-I didn’t mean to startle you,” Calvin apologized when Chase gasped, his cheeks once more a shade of red that matched Chase’s fiery hair. It was as though he was constantly being pulled in two different directions; one moment, Chase was simply a patient that he was treating, and who he could examine without it being odd in the slightest - but then there were those moments when Calvin would suddenly awake from this mindset, and would find that he was close enough to Chase to feel her warm breath on his skin. It was dizzying; looking up at Chase’s eyes, to suddenly realize that those soft-colored irises of hers were only inches from his own. Calvin smiled, but it was a smile that looked rather like the goofy, squiggly line that artists often drew on cartoon characters when they’d come face-to-face with a lover. “Uh…” Calvin squeaked, but he could not bring himself to say any more so long as she was so near.

The words which Chase spoke during that moment of Calvin’s weakness sounded rather muffled, due to the loud, thumping sound of Calvin’s heart in his ears, but he managed to force out an understandable reply or two in order to make certain that Chase did not assume he had ignored her, such as “you should eat breakfast”, and “I’ll go get something to mop this water up with in a minute.” It was not that Calvin wouldn’t listen to her words- such an action would be rather out of character of the young man, after all- he just couldn’t decipher the plain English that she was speaking.

Calvin shifted on the spot, getting rather irritated with his inconsistent senses, and focused on the conversation that he was a part of. He swallowed and blinked simultaneously in an attempt to concentrate. Calvin couldn’t even remember why he felt the way he did, but it seemed that he could not step down from cloud nine. With every minute, Chase’s presence had an increasing effect on Calvin.

“Yeah, sure,” Calvin replied, having understood a good portion of the things she’d said after he’d leaned backwards, and had put a bit of distance between the two of them. “Of course! I just need to”- Calvin winced, and stood, struggling with his fresh injury, though it was nothing compared to the pain that Barker had inflicted upon Chase –“I just need to stand up. Up we get,” he continued, offering Chase his assistance as he wrapped one of his gangly arms around her, helping her to stand once more as well.

“Easy now…”

Calvin walked forward slowly, supporting both his and Chase’s weight with each step. He watched Chase’s feet so to make certain that he was not forcing her to walk quicker than she was capable – which had been a mistake on his part; as Calvin neared the sofa, leading Chase forward, his knee connected with one of the coffee table’s thick legs, and he tumbled onto the ground once more in a heap of water drenched clothing and shaggy brown hair.

The plate of food that Calvin had balanced on the sofa slid over the edge – which Calvin instinctively caught; he'd made the food that remained on the plate for Chase, after all. “Wow…” he breathed, holding the heavy plate just inches above his face, having astonished himself. “That was lucky…”

"It's.. It's alright..." Chase managed to stumble out, eyes locked on him, her breathing still pretty shallow, until finally he stood up, and wrapped his arm around her. It was like heat radiated through her entire body, from his hand and outward, making her cheeks go the same shade as her hair. She smiled when he helped her to her feet, and she had to lean on him slightly, wincing as he helped her back into the front room. How had she gotten so far on her own?! It was obvious she had been so scared for Calvin she had forgotten her own injuries, and gone to help Calvin, but just before they had actually gotten to the couch, and Chase was horribly weak, and extremely tired, but suddenly Calvin collapsed.

"Calvin!" She gasped, falling to her knees beside him. He was holding the plate of pancakes, and she gently lifted it out of his hands. "Lets eat Calvin.. lets get some strength back up.. get cleaned up.. we need... we need to do that okay?" She said, slowly getting onto the couch, and helping Calvin onto the couch as well. "Calvin.. eat up okay?" She said and picked up the fork, and started to eat, ravenously, but she could barely eat as much as she wanted to, for almost immediately, she started to feel sick, she was to fully. She pushed a barley eaten pancake at Calvin, and hugged herself. "To much.." She said softly, shaking her head, and looking at Calvin. "Eat up.. finish it.. then help me into the bathroom.. please." She said, rubbing her temples, and muttering slightly. "I'm not feeling well now.." She said softly, leaning back on the couch, and letting her head fall back, her face contorted.

Calvin took a seat beside Chase on the sofa, as he’d been prompted to, and remained there, sitting in a hunched position with his forearms rested against his thighs, his eyes never leaving Chase. He’d glanced in her direction, concerned, when she’d begun to complain of her suddenly uneasy stomach; he’d begun to wonder if it had been because of his syrup-soaked creation that she felt ill, despite the fact that there were many other aspects that could have contributed to her sour stomach. Pancake mix, water, butter, syrup, sprinkles, Calvin thought to himself, listing off the ingredients that he’d included in the meal; perhaps he’d made a mistake somewhere along the way. Calvin took hold of the plate when he was offered it once more and curled his fingers around his fork, but at that moment he only had eyes for Chase. It seemed that he just couldn’t keep her feeling well for much longer than a few minutes…

He obeyed Chase’s orders and began to cut at the pancake with his fork, sliding the plastic eating utensil underneath the cake, separating its syrupy underside from the plate. “Yum, yum, yum…” he whispered, incapable of preventing the words from leaping from his tongue; Calvin very much enjoyed sweet treats, and even though he knew that he should be paying Chase his full, undivided attention, the sugar that he was piling into his mouth was rather distracting. Calvin grinned to himself, revealing his sprinkle-coated teeth for a moment.

Within five minutes, Calvin had managed to stuff an entire box’s worth of pancake within his mouth. His stomach complained, but it seemed that Calvin was powerless against the meal, and had no choice but to finish off the entire plate. He extended his arms and set the plate down on the coffee table before him, appearing quite happy to have filled his stomach – or, rather, over filled his stomach. “All done,” he announced, sounding quite similar to a child at that moment. He slid his sleeve along his mouth, wiping it clean of any remaining stickiness.

“I’ll go get your towel now,” he told Chase, returning his gaze to the redhead, offering her a smile. He jumped from the sofa, and darted off towards his room to fetch Chase her towel. “I’ll help you up,” Calvin added, calling from his bedroom in hopes of preventing her from standing on her own again.

Chase watched with a small smile as Calvin literally devoured the rest of the pancake, as she leaned her head back against the couch, her eyes never leaving Calvin's face, which was now sticky and covered in syrup. She watched as he lay down the plate, and then left to get a towel, yelling over his shoulder that he would help her up. She sighed and leaned her head back, feeling sick to her stomach, but suddenly she wasn't sure if it was because she had finally eaten, or if it was because of something else. She lifted her head up, and frowned, her hand going to her stomach and feeling it for a long moment. It wasn't sickness.. it was butterflies, something she hadn't had in a long time.. But.. why did she have butterflies? Maybe because she knew that she was going to have a hard time cleaning up.. and Calvin.. Calvin would have to help her more then she was willing to tell herself she needed help.

Chase blushed without even being able to see Calvin, as she sat there, staring at her hands. She wasn't feeling nearly as lightheaded now.. and to be honest, she felt pretty good, nice and full, and happy, well, once she was clean she'd be REALLY happy, but she had an obstacle to face in order to get clean, and that was the fact that she could barely stand by herself, let alone get undressed.. and get into the shower, before she could get into the bathtub, and wash, before getting BACK out of the tub, and getting dressed, oh it felt like it would take years.. and it was so much to do on her own.. She was nervous, and the butterflies were freaking out in her tummy.

Unlike the yellow shirt that Calvin had searched for within his wardrobe earlier that afternoon, the towel that he’d promised Chase had been rather easy to locate, as he’d only just stuffed the fluffy thing into a drawer the day before, when Chase had first arrived. It’d been laundry day, and he had only just finished transferring his clothing from the dryer to his bedroom when his beloved friend had appeared in the middle of the sitting room. It was rather unbelievable, how normal Calvin’s day had been before she’d apperated to the flat on such a state…. Calvin had gone from sorting socks and folding towels, to bringing Chase Moor back from the brink of death in the blink of an eye.

Life's twists were quite surprising...

Calvin draped Chase’s towel over his shoulder, and began to rummage through his things in search of something that he himself could changed into. He would wash Chase’s things while she showed, he’d decided, and would clean himself off after she’d finished. A good cleaning charm would do the trick on the blood stains that had spread across Chase’s clothing. Calvin winced; good ol’ charms. They never had agreed with him; not since that accident with a cheering charm in his very first year at Hogwarts, at least. He located a shirt, a pair of his close-fitted jeans, his Super Mario Brothers boxer shorts, and a pair of brightly colored socks. He was set.

Humming to himself – it was quite difficult to hear precisely what tune Calvin was humming, due to the high pitch that he was using in order to do so, but if one were to listen closely, it did sound quite a bit like the Pacman theme… until it shifted to something entirely different just seconds later – as he walked back out to sofa. “Here you go, Chase!” Calvin exclaimed, offering her the towel, and then his arm once more, so that he could lift her from the couch. “Upsie dasie!”

Calvin stumbled to his right as he attempted to shift his weight, once again balancing both his weight, and Chase’s. It was not too difficult, due to the fact that neither he nor Chase weighed much; It was finding a rhythm to walk to that was the trickiest. Calvin gasped, having come to a sudden realization, “Have you ever seen how the people inside of those fake, Chinese dragons have to walk?” he asked Chase excitedly. With the enthusiasm that he was displaying, one would have assumed that his late goldfish, Pacman, had come back to life. “They shout out what foot they are going to use, and everyone uses that foot. We could do that, to make it easier for us to walk!”

“Left!” Calvin called out, and, remaining true to his word, used his left foot to move forward. The bathroom was not far from the sitting room; only a hallway and a door stood between the pair and their destination, and with Calvin’s new system, they were sure to be successful. Calvin grinned at Chase, looking downward at her for a moment before he took another step.

“Whoop!” Calvin cheered when the door’s handle was within his reach. He gave it a turn, and pushed the door open, helping Chase through the doorframe. “Ha! We did it!”

OOC: I hope you don't mind the slight godmodding I did in this post, love...

Chase felt herself get up slowly, and holding onto her towel, she was surprised at just how weak she really was. She stumbled against Calvin, and had to rest her hand on his chest, before she was able to right herself, and her eyes slowly drifted up to his, her breath catching, but she nodded to his words. "Okay.." She said and took a step to the left, carefully, stepping carefully, making sure as to not hit anything, and having to concentrate extremely hard on her feet, and not falling over, having to lean almost all of her weight onto Calvin, she thought she had strength, but it was like her feet just didn't want to keep her upright, and she and Calvin wobbled down the hallway the entire way.

Finally though, he pushed open the door, and she stumbled in, reading out and resting her hand on the toilet, putting the lid down, and sitting down on it carefully. "Alright.. now. the next problem.. Calvin.." She said and glanced down at herself. She was still wearing her short shorts, which were bloody and nasty, she was wearing his sponge bob shirt, and was completely barefoot. Newly grown toenails and finger nails, no blood, but lots of scars and little tiny criss crossings, as though someone had taken a tiny blade, and simply scratched her there, not left gouges that had been repaired by Calvin. "I don't think I can..." Chase felt herself blushing madly, and she had to look down at her toes, wiggling her toes weakly, surprised at how little they actually moved, and she stared at them in fascination for a moment, before looking at the wall across from her. "I don't think I can actually... get undressed.. I mean.." She coughed nervously, and ran a hand through her hair. "I can get my.. under.. stuff off I think.. but.. erm.. I can barely stand.. if I could.. get you to help me stay upright.. and just.. let me...I mean.." Chase was blushing hard, and she finally looked up at him. "I can get undressed, and then I can take a bath.. and.. erm.. maybe need your help.. to get me out again.. I'm so weak.. it's surprising... I just.. I thought I had more energy then I do! But I don't!" She said, near tears, embarrassment ripping through her, and fear that she wouldn't be able to heal completely again. Afraid, and confused, and embarrassed, she didn't know what else to do, but the tears came, even though she didn't want them to.

It had been rather obvious, considering the fact that Calvin had to support her weight whenever she needed to stand, or to walk, that she would not be able to undress on her own before getting into the tub, and that, feeling compelled to help Chase in any way possible, that Calvin would have to assist her in doing so. Calvin had been handed several different opportunities to mentally prepare himself for the task at hand before the pair had actually reached the bathroom, and yet, he had remained oblivious the entire time – or, until Chase spelled it out for him. Chase needed to get undressed before she bathed, but she had not yet recuperated enough to do so on her own, and that was where Calvin came in.

Suddenly, butterflies began to peel themselves from the walls of his stomach, and started to flutter about within him. Feeling left out, his heart began to dance, too, and within seconds, Calvin felt as though he would faint...

He did not, however; he remained in the doorway, his posture revealing just how shy he had become when everything had clicked in to place.

The longer he looked back at Chase with his wide, puppy dog eyes, the more evident his wariness became, and so he stepped towards her, stopping when they were a mere couple of inches apart, his freckled cheeks ablaze.

“It’s OK, Chase,” Calvin comforted Chase, having found his voice when he’d spotted the tears within her eyes. “I’ll help you,” he added, but the statement did not have the desired effect, due to the fact that he’d begun to stumble over his words. “Hey,” he spoke as he gently took hold of her hands, stooping down so to meet her eyes, “your OK. You are still healing; I wish I could work faster, but I’m not used to healing others anymore. You will be fine, it is just going to take a while,” he explained in an attempt to calm her; anything for his beloved Chase.

Chase was so embarrassed, upset, and confused. But, she was trying to sort out her emotions, sitting there, in front of Calvin, in his bathroom.. her hands clasped in his, her eyes sparkling with tears. "I know it'll be okay! Well.. I hope it will be anyway.. I mean.. you've done so much for me.. and now.. now I'm just going to embarrass us both.. I'm not the most.. lovely site to look at I bet.. wounds and scars, and and.. all that crap.. it's just insane... I just don't like it at all! Calvin.. I don't know how to thank you enough.. I don't know... I just want you to know.. and I don't know how to say it!" She said shaking her head.

Chase let herself be overcome by emotion for a second, leaning forward and resting her head against his shoulder, wincing slightly, but not caring much. She was thinking hard about things that she felt these days. The odd fluttering feelings, the heart pounding moments when he was close.. the static electricity that passed between them every time they touched. It was unlike anything Chase had felt before, and she had to admit.. she didn't know what to make of it. Every other time.. this feeling had felt so.. dark.. so heavy, like it weighed her down in the long run. At first it was nice, happy, and carefree.. and in the end she was like a lead ball on the bottom of the ocean.. but Calvin.. he was like a breath of fresh air in a much to crowded room. He was like a balloon next to a weight, and she was the weight, afraid of pulling down the balloon beside her.

But Chase knew what she was feeling.. and for some reason, she knew what she had to do.. to see.. to understand, if he didn't.. if he didn't, she may as well go crawl in a hole and die right now.. She might as well just give him Kitty and run.. run away for ever, and ever, and never come back.. because this was her chance.. her last chance.. her only chance left.. to make her life turn the right way, to do what she should have done so many times over the last couple of months.. to fix what was wrong, and to make him feel like what he was doing was alright.. so Chase did the only thing she knew how to do in a situation like this.

She kissed him.

“N-no, Chase…y-you’re beautiful…” Calvin replied; though he could not steady his voice for long enough to prevent himself from stuttering as he spoke. His nerves were getting the better of him, it seemed, preventing him from putting any other emotion behind his words than the fear that he was experiencing; he had never before been so bold around Chase. He had grown used to his mind repeating that line during the occasions when Chase had moved a bit too close to him, or when he’d watched her laugh heartily, throwing her head back to chuckle at the sky - but it took a great deal of bravery on his part to speak the thought aloud.

Calvin swallowed, calming himself as Chase rested her head atop his shoulder; he too needed a moment to himself in order to right his jumbled thoughts and tangled emotions. Calvin’s sudden inability to keep himself from trembling no longer had anything to do with the task at hand; the realization had simply set off the explosion that had been threatening to detonate for months. So many emotions Calvin had kept to himself... How many times had Chase kissed Calvin on the cheek, or had held him close, forcing him to swallow his nerves, and the fact that his heart ached for her.

He did not mind, of course, but it took far more control than Calvin could ever have imagined. The feeling was foreign; never before had Calvin’s stomach flipped in the way that he did whenever Chase smiled in his direction, or the terror that he’d experienced when he’d seen her, bloodied and broken…

Chase lifted her head, tearing Calvin from his thoughts. He smiled sweetly at her, ignoring the deafening sound of his heart thudding rapidly beneath his blood-stained t-shirt. He held her hands softly within his own, cradling her fingers within his palms, before he opened his mouth to speak once more, “I’ll run the wat”- but he stopped abruptly in the middle of his sentence, having noticed the fact that Chase had begun to near him slowly. He dropped her hands, his arms having gone numb, and stared wide-eyed at her, as though she were an alien… but he did not move from the spot, and suddenly, Chase’s lips met Calvin’s.

He was electrified by her cautious kiss. The electrical charge sparked at his lips and slithered downward to his stomach, where it then lit fire to the butterflies that had once fluttered within him.

It took him a moment to realize what, exactly, had happened to make him feel that way. Chase kissed me. She is kissing me. Calvin’s mind informed him, but these words were lost in the flurry of thoughts that had started up within his head.

Calvin’s arms slowly moved upward on their own, but they remained half-extended at each of his sides due to the fact that he did not know where else to put them. He flailed the pair of appendages for a moment – but it was not long before the power of Chase’s kiss forced him to hold them still once more. He looked so awkward, kneeling there as Chase kissed him, unsure of what he was supposed to do...

Without asking for his permission, Calvin’s eyelids slowly drooped over his eyes, and his lips began to respond to Chase’s… but he was forgetting something. His lungs had begun to feel heavier within his chest, but he could not quite place why. His mind was screaming the answer at him, of course, but he could not make sense of anything that ran through his mind at that point. Breath! Breath! Your forgetting to breath! It screamed, only to be ignored.

He’d been given a warning, but he had failed to respond to that warning, and so his body crumbled beneath him; he'd fainted.