Raphael! The blankets, don't forget the blankets!" Lupita called back to Raphael as he crested the top of the stairs. The second floor of the soup kitchen was crowded now. People huddled together, fear evident on their faces. Babies and children cried and parents tried to hush them.

"R-right!" Raphael answered as he turned back. Murky brown water sloshed against the lowest steps. It was already higher than it had been when he'd started up the stairs. Fear clenched at his heart and scratched at his lungs. He could barely breathe at the thought of having to wade back through the already thigh high water. But he couldn't afford to hesitate. The last of the dry blankets were sitting in a box on a table on the far side of the room. Without them it would be a long cold night.

Miguel was busy trying to help one of the young mothers with her children. Logan had been tasked with trying to find places for everyone to sleep. Lupita and the other volunteers were likewise engaged. There was no one else.

Biting back his fear, Raphael plunged down the stairs into the water. The moment he felt the cool liquid splash around his legs, his heart nearly stopped. Memories, fear, arguments, anger, pain, frustration, and paranoia all crowded towards the front of his brain. All of it was enough to send him hurtling towards blind panic.

Raphael clutched his hands into white knuckled fists and bit his lip until he tasted blood. The pain was enough to make him focus. He could collapse into a puddle of fear later. For now, he had a job to do.

It was the middle of the night. Just a short while ago the soup kitchen had been silent. Most of the people gathered within had been asleep. Even Raphael had begun to doze despite the sound of the wind and the rain outside. It wasn't until water had begun seeping under the front door that chaos had erupted inside the building.

By the time they had gotten everyone relocated upstairs, the water level had climbed. Raphael had managed to situate himself on the stairs, passing supplies up to those waiting above and keeping himself well out of reach of the water. Somehow, however, the volunteers responsible for grabbing the supplies had forgotten the blankets before retreating back upstairs.

Now, armed with only a small flashlight, Raphael found himself surrounded on all sides by his greatest fear. But he couldn't think about that right now. All that mattered was his mission.

Heartbeat pounding in his ears and adrenaline flooding his veins, Raphael charged towards the table where the box of blankets still sat, barely above the water's surface. Halfway across the room, he tripped. His feet tangled up on an abandoned cot, hidden beneath the surface of the water. Before Raphael could react, he found himself submerged fully. Water closed in above him, the murky darkness only added to the fear as he splashed and grasped at the air around him.

He was going to die.

That thought shoved itself firmly into his brain. He was going to die here, killed by the thing he had spent his life living in fear of. He would never get the chance to see Marcos again or actually figure out what it was he wanted. The baby that was most likely beginning to grow inside of him would die too. This would be the end of them both.

A jolt of desperation shocked Raphael back to his senses. The baby. His baby. No. The baby that he and Marcos had made together. He and his alpha. This was why he couldn't allow himself to die like this. He needed to push this fear away. Death was not an option here. He had to make it out alive. He had to see Marcos again and tell him how he felt.

Raphael managed to catch his feet under him and stand once more.

"Raphael!?" A flashlight beam illuminated him from the direction of the stairs. "What happened? Are you okay?" It was Logan.

"I'm fine..." Raphael coughed. He must have inhaled some water when he'd gone under. His lungs burned with the effort. "I tripped on something. I'm fine." He repeated. The fear of drowning was still burning through him, but it had been replaced now with something else, something grander. A desire to not only survive, but to thrive.

"It sounded like you were dying the way you were splashing around down here." Logan sounded concerned as he hovered uncertainly on the steps above the water.

Raphael ignored his comment. He could explain later. Right now he just needed to finish what he came down here for. "I lost the flashlight," he muttered. "Can you shine that over here?" Raphael pointed in the direction of the box of blankets.

"Yeah, here."

With Logan's help, Raphael quickly retrieved the box from the table and started back towards the stairs. He thought he might have been imagining things, but the water seemed higher now than it had been before. If it kept rising at this rate, how long would it be before they were forced to climb out onto the roof.

"So much for being above the flood level," Logan said as Raphael finally reached the safety of the stairs. He took the box of blankets and carried it upstairs ahead of Raphael.

As soon as Raphael reached the second floor, he found himself draped in a blanket and pulled towards one of the space heaters that they had managed to save from the water. It was running off of a small bank of marine batteries that had been stored on the second floor just in case they were needed.

"What happened down there?" asked Logan once he and Miguel were finally able to join him. They both looked concerned that their new friend had somehow managed to nearly drown in three feet of water.

"I just tripped over a cot or something," said Raphael as he extended his hands towards the heater. His clothes clung to his body uncomfortably and he caught himself wishing he had brought another outfit to change into. The water wasn't supposed to get this high. He could still feel it closing in around him, enveloping his body in its clammy embrace and threatening to steal his breath away.

"The way you were thrashing around it looked like someone was holding you under," commented Logan. He was fiddling around with a can of chili and a can opener but seemed to be having trouble getting it started.

Raphael glanced towards Miguel who seemed equally interested. He had removed Valentina from the sling across his chest and cradled her gently as she sleepily suckled on a bottle.

All around the room, people were trying to get comfortable. The nearness of the floodwaters, the pounding of the rain, and the howling of the wind filled the room with a sense of uneasiness. Yet with everyone camped out on the floor, or crowding into the small bedrooms, a strange feeling of camaraderie had begun to link them all together. They were surviving here. Trying to do their best to overcome what the elements had thrown at them.

"I...I nearly drowned when I was a kid." Raphael stared into the glow of the heater and tried to avoid the eyes of his companions. He didn't like telling people he was afraid of water. They lived on an island surrounded by water. Rain, storms, floods, even waves and tides were part of their everyday lives.

"I've been terrified of water ever since...I...I don't even have a bathtub in my house. So when I tripped and went under..." Raphael let the sentence hang. His ears were burning with embarrassment.

"Why didn't you say something?" Miguel sounded appalled and when Raphael looked up at him there was a frown on his face.

"That would've been a handy detail to know ahead of time," agreed Logan. "I would've switched jobs with you or something. You didn't have to force yourself to do that." He shook his head and clapped Raphael on the shoulder. "This is a group effort."

"How am I supposed to come out and say something like that?" Raphael protested. They made it sound so easy and maybe it was for them. Coming out and just telling people about his problems wasn't the way he usually handled things. Other than Pearl and Marcos they were the only people he had ever actually told about his fear.

"It's fine," said Miguel as he began tucking Valentina back into her sling. "We're all on the same page now. If there's any reason to head back to the first floor, one of us will go. Meanwhile, can you please help Logan with that can? Watching him struggle is driving me nuts."

"I've almost got it." Logan continued to try and open the can.

Raphael reached out a hand for the can opener and Logan reluctantly handed it over. "Have you never used one of these before?" he asked as he opened the can with practiced ease. He passed it back to Logan.

"I never really had much opportunity," Logan shrugged. He grabbed a spoon from a nearby box and handed the can to Miguel. "Dinner is served."

Before Raphael could say another word, Logan produced another can and handed it off to him.

"I'm an orphan," Logan continued. "I spent most of my life on the streets fending for myself. Lupita is the closest thing I've got to family. The more domestic arts of cooking and stuff are pretty much lost on me. I tried to surprise Ramos with dinner the other night and ended up starting a small fire in the kitchen." He chuckled to himself. "We ended up getting a pizza instead."

Raphael realized he had grossly misjudged Logan. There was a harsh background hidden behind that pretty face and tousled hair.

"Since we're sharing life stories, I guess I might as well chime in." Miguel seemed more than happy to share.

"We already know most of it," Logan interjected. "I'm sure you've been to the New Year's day festival before, right Raphael?"

Raphael swallowed hard. "I mean...I know about it. I read about it in the paper..." his voice trailed off at the incredulous looks from his companions. "It's just that it's on the beach," he quickly continued. "Being that close to the ocean makes me uncomfortable. I get panic attacks if I stay out there too long." He looked away. They must have thought he was completely pathetic.

"Okay, so you at least know that they hold a barbecue contest every year, right?" asked Miguel, with surprisingly little judgement in his voice.

Raphael nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Great!" Logan seemed thrilled. "So Miguel here is one of the island's champions. He and his husband were rivals at it for a long time. Then last year a new challenger arrives, but Miguel breaks his arms and can't prepare for the competition. So he and Dominic are forced to team up for any chance at winning."

"Thank you for telling my story for me," muttered Miguel.

"Your baby isn't really all that old..." Raphael said as he looked up at Miguel. "I...I don't know how to ask this..."

"You want to know if she was planned or not," said Miguel. There was a slight smile on his lips as he spoke. "The thing is, she wasn't. Dom and I were still figuring things out when I found out I was pregnant with her. Then I nearly lost her before she was born. It was a pretty stressful time for us."

"But you wanted kids?"

"It was something I had thought about eventually, maybe, one day." Miguel shrugged. "Still, a baby didn't figure into our plans. We'd wanted to open a restaurant and get our lives settled before we reached this point. She kind of threw a monkey wrench into those plans."

"But you don't regret your decision?" Raphael knew he was being nosy but he couldn't help it. His personal revelation when he'd fallen in the water was still stuck in his head. He wanted to be with Marcos and he wanted to raise their baby together. That didn't mean that he wasn't still full of doubt.

"No." Miguel's response was almost instant and completely devoid of doubt. "Valentina, Dominic and I are a family. Whatever happens next in our lives is something that the three of us face together. I can't imagine my life without either of them now."

"For what it's worth," said Logan, "I was never sure kids were something I wanted. Sometimes I'd think about it, but now that it's something that's actually happening to me...I was kind of freaked out at first. If I didn't have Ramos I don't think I would actually be going through with it. But when I'm with him I can see a future where there's three of us together." Logan sounded almost wistful as he spoke. "I want to raise our child together and give them the childhood that I didn't get."

"Does that answer your questions?" asked Miguel as he tilted his head inquisitively towards Raphael.

"I...I think so. I've still got a lot of questions, but..." Raphael trailed off. There was still so much he didn't know. Overcoming the life that he had grown up in and pouring himself into building a bright future for his baby seemed almost like a fairy tale.

"So." Logan's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Who's the father?"

Raphael recoiled slightly. "Was I that obvious?"

"A little." Miguel nodded.

Before Raphael could reply, an unsettling groan rattled through the wooden frame of the soup kitchen. The sturdy, old building had begun to protest against the abuse of the floodwaters. The three companions exchanged worried looks as murmurs of concern rattled through the refugees.

"Logan!" Lupita's voice barked across the room. "Find that radio now!"

The building shuddered.