Author's Note: Hold the phone, I've updated! No way! I apologize profusely for the ridiculously long delay in getting this chapter up. I know I said in chapter six that this would be the last chapter, but unfortunately that has turned out to not be the case.

Chapter Seven

Dwayne's parents looked relieved to see Portman--wheelchair, pale complexion and all. Orion wheeled him over to Dwayne's bed as everyone filed in behind them. Portman immediately introduced himself to George and Kathy Robertson. "I'm glad you're all right," George said as they shook hands.

Portman thanked him and then nodded down to his friend. "How's he doing?"

Kathy sat at the edge of her son's bed with a gentle hold on his hand. "He has a concussion, but aside from that, just scrapes and bruises. His body temperature was at 91 degrees when he came in, but it's back to normal now."

The teenager nodded approvingly as he listened. "You think he'll be awake soon?"

"That would make us feel better," George replied. "There's no reason why he shouldn't be awake."

"Good." Then he asked his coach to wheel him over to Fulton. As he neared his best friend, he gulped . Fulton's face was bruised, cut in some places, but there were no stitches as far as Portman could see.

He greeted Ellie, expecting her quiet return. They'd met many times before. He didn't even have to ask before Ellie began filling him in; Fulton had a head wound, obviously, and, as with everyone else, a concussion. He'd sprained his right knee and ankle but not too seriously. Again it really was just a matter of when he would wake up.

As he rolled over to Guy, Portman was already feeling better. They were all banged up, just like he was, but even with the cave-in they'd all come out fairly okay. They'd thought they were going to die but now they were going to be fine. His nerves and his bad feeling about the situation were calming.

Connie had taken a seat next to Guy, who also had bruises on his face, and even what was visible of his arms. Portman frowned as he noticed Guy's left arm in a sling. "He dislocated his shoulder," Connie informed him, but said nothing else about it.

Portman knew it had happened in the cave-in. His own body was sore--the longer he was awake, the more he felt all the aches, all the bruises. Apparently Charlie and Guy had caught the worst of the collapse. "But he's doing okay?"

Orion spoke up here. "His body temperature dropped a lot lower than the rest of yours did, but it's come back up. The doctor said his concussion was pretty mild. They think it's possible he was the one who was awake before the rescue."

Portman questioned him about that, curious to know everything he could about what had happened beyond what he remembered. Bombay filled him in on what was known--the cave had collapsed, no one knew they were in it until rescue teams heard someone calling. No one knew for sure, but given that Guy's head injury wasn't as bad as the others, it was more likely he had been awake. Portman wanted to ask why Guy wasn't awake now if that were true, but he held his tongue so as not to upset anybody. Then, as the thought occurred to him, he looked around for Guy's father.

"Where's his dad?" he asked. When he saw the look that came to Connie's face, and that same expression on both Bombay's and Orion's faces, he realized the startling answer.

"Not here," was all Connie said. Tension filled the room. Dwayne's parents, and Portman's parents as well, looked shocked. Everyone else looked uncomfortable, and as Portman looked around to his teammates faces, he realized that some of them knew the story and some of them didn't.

"Well, where's his mother?" Kathy Robertson asked.

"Not around," Averman replied, speaking for the first time in all this. "Believe me, she cares about Guy even less than his dad does." He sounded, even looked, strangely protective of his unconscious friend, and Portman noticed that Goldberg, Connie and Averman had all taken spots at Guy's bed.

"All right, back to bed, young man," Edward interrupted the tension. He nodded back to the door to his and Charlie's room and Orion, looking thankful for the cue, wheeled Portman's chair back to the other room.

While the doctor was checking Portman out, both Charlie and Fulton woke up. Portman used his "resting time" waiting for Fulton and Charlie to be checked out, but afterwards both he and Charlie wheeled themselves into the other room.

He and Fulton slapped five, the manly way to express relief over each other. Fulton too had seemed anxious on how the other two were doing but didn't quite seem appeased when told that Dwayne and Guy should be awake soon. Portman nodded to him his understanding--after what the five had just been through together, they both wanted to make sure they had all really made it through. Fulton seemed to appreciate that he understood. Charlie appeared to understand as well, because although he looked satisfied when his mom assured him that they were all fine, he didn't partake in trying to convince Fulton of it.

Everyone else's spirits rose significantly. Averman was making jokes, his rare serious side gone as he got the entire room rolling in laughter. Casey kept her hands on her son's chair, looking like she was just reveling in the fact that Charlie was okay, awake and talking. Portman looked to his own mom, who looked like she wanted to force him back to bed. He was grateful at her restraint and to show it he sent her a warm smile.

Everyone became quiet when Fulton asked Portman and Charlie if they remembered the cave-in.

"No, not at all," Portman answered, looking to the captain of the team. "I didn't even know it had collapsed until my dad mentioned it."

"I kind of remember it. It's really vague," Charlie put in. "The ground started shaking. I remember hearing the rocks falling, but that's about it."

"I can't believe none of us were hurt worse," Fulton said. He looked at his mom, who'd been watching him quietly. "Or killed."

"Darn lucky, that's what that is," George Robertson spoke up from the side of Dwayne's bed. Portman looked over to him and his wife--they had been listening to the conversation but were still looking uneasy and concerned. "God sure was watching over you boys. Still is."

The conversation continued in a lighter tone after that, no one bringing up the avalanche or the cave-in. Averman eased up on his jokes and let Bombay tell a few amusing stories about the kids he rounded up for the Junior Goodwill Games every year. Then Julie asked Michele about some of the kids she tutored, and Michele happily shared some of those stories, too.

A nurse came in then and told them she bringing in food for the patients. Portman's stomach rumbled loudly at the thought of food--he hadn't eaten in over eighteen hours. He didn't even care if it was typically gross hospital food--he just wanted something to put into his system.

Right as Portman was chowing down on some rubber mystery meat, Dwayne started to stir, getting everyone excited again. The cowboy opened his eyes to his parents and looked confused.

"What are y'all doing here?" he asked, blinking. His parents laughed softly and then his mom explained that he was in the hospital.

"Hospital?" he asked, blinking some more and looking around. "Hey, y'all," he said with a grin.

When reminded of the avalanche, his eyes widened. "Oh, yeah!" He then launched into great detail to his parents about what had happened--how Guy was supposed to meet Connie but Dwayne had talked him into checking out the cave first; how Fulton had pulled Guy back into the cave right as the avalanche was coming down, and how they'd spent hours in the dark getting colder and colder, with Fulton's watch to remind them that time was passing slowly.

For everyone who hadn't been there, this was significantly more details than they'd known. Before, it was all speculation at how the boys had ended up in the cave and what had transpired, how long it had been before the cave collapsed. None of them had any real clue what being trapped in that cave had been like, even though they'd all wondered. Dwayne was addressing his parents as he told the story, but he had the entire room captive to his spin on what happened. If Dwayne hadn't been such an avid storyteller, the mood would have dropped at the reminder of the terrible thing that everyone had just went through, but Dwayne's enthusiasm and pleasure at having survived kept it up.

When he'd finished telling the story, he looked around at everyone and furrowed his brow. "Hey, where's Guy?" When Adam and Russ moved out of his view of Guy's hospital bed, Dwayne frowned.

"He's okay," Ken insisted. "He's just the last one to wake up, that's all."

"Yeah. An hour ago, you were all still out," Michele added.

Dwayne looked to Fulton, Charlie and Portman, but instead of reassurance he got understanding. That provided him no comfort.

Everyone had been sure that within the hour, Guy would be awake and alert like the rest of them. When that didn't happen, Fulton could feel everyone getting nervous. Edward and Jill Portman finally insisted on taking their son back to his room for some rest. Dwayne's parents headed to the cafeteria for coffee, promising their own son they'd be back soon and asking him to try to get some sleep. Connie began biting the nails on her right hand, something Fulton had only seen her do before a big game. Russ and Ken sat on the couch that George and Kathy had been on; Russ leaned against the wall staring off into space. Ken turned his back and stared out the window. Bombay kept starting up a pace in front of Guy's bed but would catch himself and sit back down.

Charlie had joined Connie, Averman and Goldberg next to Guy and had been quite adamant to his mom that he didn't need rest. Casey then decided to get some food for herself, as well; Orion, Ellie and Michele joined her.

Fulton observed Connie, Charlie, Averman and Goldberg as they sat together next to Guy. They five of them had all been friends nearly all their lives, had shared more together than anyone else on the team. Fulton remembered being a kid and wishing to have something like that. He'd seen the district five hockey team, and although they'd all been terrible hockey players, they'd also all had solid friendships with each other. Now that he did have that with them, he wanted to demand a wheelchair for himself so that he could be closer to them. His own bed was several feet away. But it felt pointless, and, though he really knew better, almost like he would be intruding, especially with Bombay sitting at the end of the bed. The six of them were the surviving original members of the district five hockey team that had turned into the Ducks.

Deciding to leave it alone for the moment, Fulton turned to Julie, who was sitting in a chair between his bed and Dwayne's. She was silent, her face nearly impassive. When she noticed him watching her, she looked at him and smiled.

"I drank coffee last night," she said to him as an ice-breaker.

"Really?" he replied. "Wow, you must have been pretty desperate for some juice."

"Yeah. It wasn't half bad."

"Not half bad? The last time you tried it you literally spit it out on the table."

"Ken makes a better cup than you do."

"Ah, Wu-Man defeats me again."

They shared a laugh, which in turn felt awkward because they were in the middle of a huge room and no one else was laughing. Luis, Adam and Dwayne were engaged in a conversation of whispers. The huddle at the other end of the room remained completely silent.

TBC

Author's Note: I am so sorry this wasn't the last chapter! You guys deserve for me to finish this at last; I actually wrote this a while ago and then forgot I had written it. I do have scenes for chapter eight written already that were a part of this chapter, but I had too much that I still wanted to do/was trying to do and decided that it really needs another chapter. So, hopefully, the next chapter will be the last one. As I am getting transpired to write this fic, I very much doubt it will take me so long to get it up. Let's all cross our fingers on that. Please drop me a review and let me know what you think of this chapter. Reviews are always encouraging! Hint, hint. LOL.

Oh, and in response to a review from the last chapter: While I am not a shipper, I do appreciate the friendship between Fulton and Portman. I see them as being best friends, but do not personally think it was out of character for Portman to not go to Fulton first at the end of chapter six. He went to Charlie first because Charlie was the closest one there.