The silence in the van is heavy as everyone tensely watches Suho snoring lightly on Tao’s shoulder. Nobody cares to say anything and they are all worried about waking him, it is barely noon and already it has been a long day.

                I sigh and shift my grip on the wheel. The thickness of the air is almost unbearable. Beside me Kai plays with his iPod restlessly, while everyone else fidgets in their seats. Two minutes of silence with EXO is strange enough…but two hours?

                I finally clear my throat and glance in the rearview mirror expectantly. Ten faces turn to meet my gaze and I frown.

                “Sulking isn’t going to solve the problem.” I say quietly, trying not to wake Suho. Everyone nods but nobody speaks. I roll my eyes. Do I really have to do everything?

                “Anybody have something to say?” After a moment Sehun tentatively raises a hand. I nod to him in recognition as I turn my eyes back to the road.

                “Um…I was just wondering what the plan is?” he asks. Luhan turns around to look at him.

                “Go with the flow I guess.” he responds. 

                “We’re trying to get Joonmyun out of his shell. Hopefully he’ll open up to us since he hasn’t been talking to anyone else.” I add. Sehun looks apprehensive.

                “But he wouldn’t even look at us a while ago! How are we supposed to help him if he doesn’t pay us any attention and the only time we can get close to him is when he’s freaking out?” There’s a loud shush from Lay as Sehun raises his voice slightly and he ducks his head in shame.

“Well so what if he doesn’t want to look at us in the morning?” Zitao snaps.

“It’s not that.” Baekhyun interjects. Everyone turns to him and he shuffles awkwardly.

“He…well…”

“He hadn’t opened his eyes since they released him from the hospital.” Chanyeol says, picking up where Baekhyun left off. Shock shoots through my mind and I can feel a ripple of unease flicker through the van.

“But that’s…” Tao trails off.

“Three months.” Baekhyun finishes. I tighten my grip on the wheel and clench my teeth. This may be harder than we thought. Jongin gives me a slightly apprehensive look and I force myself to relax. It won’t do any good getting us all killed by my road-rage.

“Regardless,” I say “we still have to try.” There are some nods, and Chanyeol brightens.

“Yeah! And he did open his eyes when I picked him up!” he practically squeals.

“Snow White awakens when her Prince comes for her.” Chen says dramatically. Xiumin swats him.

“That’s Sleeping Beauty.” he scolds. Jongdae just grins cheekily.

“He doesn’t look much like a sleeping beauty though, that’s more your area.” he retorts. Xiumin looks stunned and everyone starts giggling.

“Besides,” Sehun smirks “that would mean that Suho hyung’s mom is a prince because Yeollie didn’t do anything.” The giggling gets louder and I crack a smile, glad the tense aura is gone. That is until Chanyeol gives up on biting his hand and starts howling outright. Everyone jumps as he starts slapping his knee, that giant grin plastered on his face.

Joonmyun whines and lifts his head a bit. Tao quickly covers his ears and glares at the rapper who stops, but still has tears running down his face. Luhan rubs Suho’s back until he falls asleep again. Baekhyun turns to Chanyeol with a glare and punches him.

“You idiot!” he seethes. Yeol just grins.

“You have tiny hands, hyung.” he replies. Baekhyun’s face turns red as the veins on his neck start standing out.

“I do not!”

“Yeah you do, and you punch like a butterfly.”

“No I don’t! And that doesn’t even make sense.” The vocalist says looking confused. Chanyeol just grins slyly.

“Butterfly fists.”

“Noisy giant!”

“Eye-liner freak!”

“Creepy-grin Yeollie!”

“Tiny-hands hyung!”

“Guys! Stop!” Luhan wails throwing his hands over his face. They fall silent but continue to nudge each other in their seats. I honestly have no idea how Suho stayed sane with these two around. I frown thoughtfully. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to talk to us anymore.

Suddenly D.O. let’s out a strangled exclamation and I glance back to see Chanyeol and Baekhyun in an all-out cat-fight. Baekhyun has the rapper by the hair and is trying to slap his face while Chanyeol is grinning and swatting his hyung’s hand away with ease. I glare at them through the mirror.

“You two stop that right now! Or do you want me to come back there and stop you myself?” I growl. They pause and look at me, a little twinge of fear in their eyes. There's a flurry of movement and they quickly sit back in their seats and stare at me innocently.

“Yes hyung!” they say together. I frown at them and shake my head.

“Anyways, back to the point…” I say, trying to get us back on track. Kai raises a hand.

“What is it?” I snap. He looks nervous, and I feel slightly guilty for being short with him.

“I was just wondering…what was that earlier? When he started freaking out?” Everyone goes quiet and Xiumin speaks up.

“It looked like some sort of panic attack to me.” he says thoughtfully. Jongin looks confused.

“I don’t think he’s had those before though…I mean, yeah he’s scared of everything. But there wasn’t even a bug around!” he says pouting slightly. They’re all nodding again.

“Maybe something happened that reminded him of when he was kidnapped.” Kyungsoo speaks up.

“Might be...” I reply. Kai frowns.

“But what happens if he gets another one of these…attacks? What do we do?” he asks. I shrug.

“Help him as best we can.”

“Maybe we should try to make sure there’s someone with him at all times, just in case.” Luhan suggests.

“And maybe try to limit things that may remind him.” Sehun adds.

“The trouble with trying to protect him is that we have no idea what might set him off. For all we know it might be pickles.” Chanyeol giggles and Sehun looks disappointed, but I had to tell the truth. We know next to nothing about what happened to him.

 “Another thing, if we try to shield him from what happened how is he going to work through it?” I ask. Even the troll stops laughing and looks thoughtful when I say that.

“Sehun, I understand where you’re coming from. But we can’t keep him from whatever it was. It already happened and he has to face it.” They nod, agreeing. I gesture towards Luhan.

“But we can be there for him. And I agree with Luhan, in case he has another attack one of us should always be close by.” I slowly ease the van into the parking lot. As I turn off the engine I turn around and make a fist.

“Come on guys…” Everyone puts a fist forward.

“We are one!” we cheer quietly. I give Suho's sleeping form a quick glance.

I really hope this works. 

____________

What is this? Wasn't I supposed to wait a few days? Augh...I just couldn't, I'm having too much fun with this! Besides, what else should  I do when I can't sleep? (Maybe work on getting a better job?) No! Bad conscious! Go away!

Anyways, sorry. I'm a tad hyper tonight...I think I scared some of the new hires at work. XD But here's chapter two! From Kris' POV. Sorry it's so short, but hey...I threw in some BaekYeol antics to make up for it. I hope you all like it. Chapter three will be up soon. Switching back to Suho. Yay for more angst! XD

See you all in the next chapter.

Tiny-hands hyung, fighting!