His first sensation was pain. The second was the clammy chill that felt like it had seeped into his bones.

As Marcos slowly dragged his eyes open, he realized he couldn't make sense of his surroundings. Nothing seemed familiar to him and if it wasn't for the small sliver of sky he could see through the debris overhead he wouldn't have been able to say for certain which way was up.

Standing water lapped at his thighs but the ferocity of the current had all but died away. Either he had been knocked out of the main flow or the worst of the flooding had passed. Whatever the reason, he was grateful. He only vaguely remembered being battered by the water after the soup kitchen broke free. He was lucky that he hadn't been pinned under the water by the debris. He wasn't sure where he was or how he'd managed to get there. All he knew for certain is that the danger of drowning had passed.

Now, however, a worse fate stared him down.

He was trapped in a pile of debris and balanced precariously among the ruins of a house. Marcos was fairly certain that he was no longer within the remains of the soup kitchen but beyond that he couldn't place it. He knew that it was daylight and a clear blue sky was shining overhead. Yet he was all but cut off from any view beyond the pile of broken wood and twisted metal that formed his prison. This, was not the worst of it.

The water level was still high. As it receded he knew the ruins around him would begin to shift and settle. The buoyancy offered by the water would disappear and there was every chance that his safe perch would become his coffin.

Despite this, his thoughts were drawn to Raphael. The boat had been perilously close when the soup kitchen broke free. He barely had a chance to take in what was happening before he had been pitched into the water. If the building had swung into the main current it could have clipped the boat and sent its occupants into the water. The thought of Raphael struggling to against the floodwaters made his chest tighten in agony.

But no. That couldn't have happened. If the soup kitchen had moved that violently he would have been caught up in it. There was no way he would have survived something like that.

Marcos clenched his fists. He had to believe that Raphael and the others had made it out unharmed. Dominic wasn't a bad pilot, he would have gotten them away in time. He couldn't afford to let himself think any different.

If Raphael was alive, then Marcos had to reach him.

He shoved at the pile of debris that had pinned him against the wall and tried to shift it. His surroundings groaned in protest as he struggled to free himself. The angle he was at made it all but impossible to gain any leverage. There was no way he was going to move it all by himself.

Growling in frustration, Marcos refused to give up. He began trying to dig individual pieces of debris out of the pile. If he could reduce the mass then maybe that would give him the edge he needed. But it was slow going and he was already feeling drained of energy.

He wasn't sure how much time passed before he heard shouting and the sound of a boat passing not too far away.

"Help! I'm in here, help!" Marcos shouted as loud as he could. His throat burned and he realized he must have coughed up quite a lot of water after finally getting pinned by the debris. Again he counted himself lucky that he'd managed to come to rest somewhere above the water line.

"Help!" he shouted and screamed until his throat was raw and the sound of boats had long faded into the distance. They hadn't heard him. He couldn't help but feel like his voice was being muffled by his surroundings. They likely hadn't been as close as they had sounded either.

Despair threatened to consume him, yet he wouldn't allow himself to succumb. Raphael was waiting for him. He had to make it to his omega. No matter what he couldn't afford to give up.

Time slowly marched on. Night returned and a chill filled the air. The search parties had likely ceased at this point. The only positive change was that Marcos was certain the water level had dropped significantly. If it kept up at this rate it would likely be completely gone within a week. Though the jury was still out on whether or not the change in water level was going to destabilize his nook.

At some point, exhaustion took over and he slept. He woke several times, shivering with cold, but there was nothing he could do to combat it. He always drifted back to sleep though it was more from the fact that he couldn't keep his eyes open than from any actual desire to rest. When daylight finally returned, he felt dazed and confused. His skin felt hot despite the fact that he had been shivering all night.

The water level had dropped to below his feet and it was now that he realized his was suspended above the ground. It was difficult to tell exactly how high he was.

Another search party passed by at some point though he nearly missed them because he had dozed off again. By the time he started shouting, they were probably too far away to hear. After that, things became steadily more confused. Day and night merged into one endless cycle of torment. He alternated between feeling cold and hot. His head was fuzzy and he felt like he was in a constant daze. At some point he felt both hunger and thirst but had no means of satisfying either.

A light rain one afternoon staved off dehydration, but he knew it was only a matter of time now.

He had given up moving the debris keeping him in place. It was physically impossible for him to free himself. His entire body was numb and he was certain he had developed some kind of infection or illness by now. The only positive was that the entire building hadn't shifted and crushed him yet. He hadn't been able to get the attention of the search parties and he had begun to lose hope that he would ever be able to.

His determination to reach Raphael at all costs was the only thing keeping him from giving in completely at this point. Yet somewhere in the back of his mind he had already determined that this was a losing battle. How long would his strength hold out? At this point, he knew it wouldn't be much longer.

The next time he stirred from sleep, it was daylight again. He could hear people moving around outside. They were wading through the water from the sound of things. It sounded like a family that had come back to check out the state of their home.

With every ounce of strength he had remaining, Marcos shouted. It was a wordless bellow that rattled his ribs and tore at his throat. The effort left him light headed and dizzy, but the shouts from outside gave him hope. He had been heard.

* * *

The hospital bed was warm and comfortable. The steady sound of the monitor nearby was strangely reassuring. Yet the thing that brought Marcos the most joy was the sight of the tall, pale-skinned, omega draped across his legs fast asleep.

As if sensing that Marcos had awoken, Raphael stirred and sat up. He didn't speak for a long moment, but stared at Marcos in utter disbelief.

"I thought I had lost you," said Raphael at long last. "I kept hoping, but every day that went by it seemed worse. I didn't..." His voice trailed off and he cast his eyes towards the ground.

Marcos opened his mouth to speak, but found his voice was rusty and unreliable. It took him a moment to clear his throat and wet his tongue before he could try again. "I almost gave up," he said at last. "I don't know how long I was trapped there, but the only thing that kept me from giving in and dying was the fact that I would never see you again. I couldn't bear that thought."

Raphael threw himself across Marcos' chest and buried his face against his shoulder. "I would never have been able to forgive myself," he breathed. "It took us five days to find you. After the first day, I started going out with them. We pulled so many people out of the wreckage and every time we found a survivor I prayed it would be you."

"You were out there, even with the floodwater still everywhere?" Marcos circled his arms around Raphael and reveled in the feeling. Having his omega's body so near to his own was the last signal he needed that his nightmare was over. They were both safe and alive.

Raphael clutched at Marcos' arm and released a deep, shuddering, breath. "The fear of losing you chased everything else away. I don't think I'm going to be hopping in a bathtub any time soon, but I think I've overcome the worst of it."

"I'm sorry you had to go through this," said Marcos as he gently squeezed the slender figure in his arms.

"You're sorry?" Raphael pulled away slightly and peered into Marcos' face. "I'm the one that hesitated. If I had just gotten in the boat with everyone else we wouldn't have had to go through any of this. It's because of me that you spent five days pinned against a second story wall. I've spent every single day for the last four days trying to figure out exactly what I was going to say to you when you woke up, but nothing sounded quite right. I just...I wanted you to know that I'm sorry for all of this and none of it is your fault in the slightest."

"Stop blaming yourself. We're safe, that's all that matters." Marcos reached out and caressed Raphael's face. Then he frowned. "Did you say four days?"

"Yeah, you passed out as soon as we got you out of there, that was four days ago. The doctor said you had a fever and were starving and dehydrated. He's been treating you, but he wasn't sure when you were going to wake up."

It was now that Marcos realized that Raphael looked ragged. There were deep circles around the omega's eyes. Just how long had he been sitting there keeping vigil over him?

"Look, there's something I've been wanting to tell you," continued Raphael. "I...I decided it the night of the storm actually. When I realized that I wanted to be with you no matter what and...and I wanted to raise a family with you. I wanted to be your omega and have your children."

Marcos felt a strange sense of calm settling over him. It robbed him of any ability to reply. There was nothing more he could say. He closed his hand around Raphael's and smiled softly as his omega.

"The thing is, so much time has passed since then. Enough that I was able to take real pregnancy test and find out for sure. It's just like we thought, I really am pregnant with your child." Raphael smiled weakly. "I wanted to wait until you got back to take the test and find out for sure, but Miguel seemed to think it was better if I found out sooner rather than later.

"But I started to get worried that maybe you wouldn't want to go through with it after all. After everything you've been through and now picking up the pieces and rebuilding after the hurricane. It's going to be a long time before everything gets back to normal. I can't imagine raising a kid is going to be easy in the middle of all of this."

"Hush," Marcos laid a finger on Raphael's lips, "don't worry. I can't think of anything I would like more than to be the father of your children." Just saying those words sent a bubble of pride rippling through him.

"Good," Raphael grinned from ear to ear. "I...your apartment ended up getting flooded. Guillermo and I went through most of it and saved what we could. He's a great guy by the way, Dominic introduced us." Raphael's expression had grown sorrowful as he spoke. "A lot of...a lot of your stuff couldn't be saved. Your mother's things..." his voice trailed off and he looked away.

Marcos felt his chest tighten once more. The pain wasn't quite as bad as it had been, but on some level it was almost like losing her all over again. He had been waiting for the pain to subside before going through her things. Yet, if he was being honest with himself, he knew that pain would never completely go away. Perhaps, this had been a blessing in disguise.

"Thank you, for saving what you could," said Marcos, squeezing Raphael's hand reassuringly. "I should have rehomed her things a long time ago. She would have liked that."

Raphael turned back to him and smiled softly. "Let me go find the doctor. Hopefully he'll clear you and I can take you home."

Home. The word made Marcos feel warm and safe. Yet there was a question that lingered. "Where's that?" he asked, doing his best not to appear too desperate. In all truthfulness, however, that's exactly what he was.

Raphael leaned forward and kissed him gently. "With me, of course. Unless you don't want to. I'm not going to force you to come home with me. I'm sure we could find somewhere else for you to stay." Panic had crossed the omega's face and he absently chewed on his lip as he avoided Marcos' gaze.

Relief flooded through Marcos. "For a minute there, I was afraid you were going to leave me somewhere else." His near brush with death had left Marcos feeling honest. He didn't care if he sounded desperate or pathetic anymore, all that mattered was that Raphael knew exactly how he felt. "I don't care where we go, all I want is to be where you are. Your face filled my thoughts and my dreams. You and you alone kept me alive. I want to be near you for as long as I possibly can. I want to fall asleep beside you and wake up with you in my arms."

"Marcos..." Raphael's voice was quiet as he looked back at the alpha. The threat of tears shone in his eyes as he smiled.

"You are my lifeline, Raphael. My very reason for living," Marcos continued. Now that he had begun this outpouring of his soul, he didn't feel as if he could stop until he reached the end. "All I need I have when I'm with you. Waking up and finding you at my side only confirmed that to me."

"Every day that you were gone, I felt like I died a little more inside," said Raphael. "I don't know what I would have done if we hadn't found you. When we finally dragged you from that wreckage, I instantly knew that I never wanted to be separated from you again if I could help it. I feel complete when I'm at your side."

Hearing Raphael echo his own sentiment made Marcos feel as if his chest was about to burst with emotion. He reached out and cupped Raphael's face in both his hands. "Raphael, I love you."

Raphael's tears were flowing freely as he replied, "I love you too."