PEACE BETRAYED--ANNIHILATION

          It was as they reached the curtained off section that he heard his husband.  He was arguing with someone, insisting that he was fine.  Reaching up, he pushed aside the curtain, stepping into the room.  His eyes swept the ward, saw those of his family that had been injured.

          Finally, his eyes landed on his husband.  Rodolphus stood, almost swaying.  He was arguing with Sebastian, who stood before him, a brow arched.  In the bed beside his lay Rabastan.  He too was arguing that he was fine as he attempted to get out of bed.

          "Rodolphus Declan Lestrange, that will be quite enough from you," he barked out, drawing more than a few pairs of eyes to him, including Rabastan's.  "Your argument, my husband, would be a whole lot more convincing if you were not completely white of face, and swaying where you stand. You, my love, are going to get back into that bed.  Right NOW!"

          Rodolphus' head turned, his sherry eyes zeroing in on Roark as soon as he began to speak.  His face, already very pale, went nearly white, listing alarmingly to the right as a suddenly grinning Sebastien leaped forward to catch him as he began to go down, swamped by waves of nausea and dizziness.

         "Idiot," Sebastien said, assisting him back into his bed as Roark hurried across the room.  "I told you, Dolph, you have a severe concussion, NOT to mention several broken ribs and more than a few badly strained muscles.  I just fixed that shattered wrist, your broken arm, and your leg.  I swear..." he shook his head as he drew the sheet and light blanket up.

            "Between you, your brother," he glanced over at Rabastan, who froze at the look in his eyes, settling back against his pillows, "my brothers and cousins," a sharp glare was thrown at Kili, who was even now, getting out of his bed.  "KILI MATTHEW!" he shouted, "you get back into that bed this INSTANT, young man!!"

          Then he whirled to glare at the man who was attempting to get out of bed.  "DAD! Don't you fucking DARE!  I'm surprised you can even move given how badly you've wrenched your back.  I swear by Kobol, I need to invest in more restraints--"

          As he looked around the room, he suddenly began to laugh.  He just couldn't help it.  He laughed, and he laughed until...just as suddenly as he had begun to laugh, he began to cry,

          And cry hard.

          There was a scramble by several to attempt to get out of their beds to go to him.  Only to fail.  Harry had gotten up from Rabastan's bed to hurry across the room to him.  Drawing him into his arms, he bent his head to murmur to him, hands moving up and down his back.

          That was when Ethan and Roan appeared, each hurrying across the ward.  "We've got him," Ethan said sternly.  "BEDS! NOW!" he ordered sharply.

          Severus was up from where he sat beside Dacian, pulling a crystal vial from an inner pocket that held an amber liquid.  Roark was leaning heavily into Harry, his crying not easing one bit.  "Alpha?" Ethan asked.

          He gave a nod.  "He needs it now," came softly as he pulled the stopper.  "It's going to be the only way he can stop this spiral and hopefully repair those shattered shields and walls."

          "Ethan?  Severus?"

          "It's bad, Dad," came the answer as Severus went to Roark, murmuring to him softly, sifting fingers through his hair, getting him to raise his head and drink the potion.   "Now that we know all of you are alive and safe, he will hopefully be able to start pulling himself out of this downward spiral he's been in since standing on the bridge and watching his premonition come to be in all its horrifying detail.  Then we were told Grayson had been killed..."

          "Last straw so the speak," came his whisper as the Alpha blocker began to work, shutting his gifts, including his empathy, down.

          Completely.

          "Better now?"

           He shook his head as he pulled free of his brother.  "All I need now is time, to be back in Rodolphus' arms...to be surrounded by my family.  You can go back to Rabastan.  The Alpha blocker is working."

          He moved then, going over to Rodolphus' bed, and climbed in, sighing when his arms wrapped around him.  "You are all far too stubborn for your own good."

          "You're a fine one to talk, young man," Gabriel told him, watching him settle himself, his eyes slipping closed.

          From one micron to the next, he was asleep.