Hal sat in his bed, staring at the door and wished his baby brother would hurry up already. Everyone told him he had been asleep for a month and a half but he knew he hadn't been sleeping. He didn't remember much about the mission they went on but there were pieces of memories from during his coma.

He remembered voices and hands mostly. People talking to him, asking him to wake up and they held his hands, pressed kisses to his face and played with his hair. It had felt nice and kept him calm in the dark nothingness he had been trapped in.

He knew his family had been there, he had heard his Dad reading to him, one of those classic novels he had insisted on saving. Anne would move him around a bit for tests and would take gentle care of him, sometimes singing while she worked and if Hal could have smiled he would because he so loved hearing her sweet voice float over him, pausing just for a second to kiss his forehead.

Ben was the honest one, he would talk about what was happening with the war and the new aliens and how everyone was doing, knowing that Hal would want to know everything.

Maggie was quieter than the rest, missing him the most he supposed because of how much time she usually spent with him. Maggie would visit him mostly at night and talk for a little while before crawling onto the bed and curling into his side to just lay with him a while in silence before she fell asleep. Maggie came to Hal as a retreat from the war and Hal felt like he was helping her even from his comatose state. He just wished he could hold her like he used to.

And little Mattie would hold his hand and talk to him about before the invasion. Stuff like "Do you remember that one time I fell out of our backyard tree and I broke my arm but we had to keep it a secret because Mom kept telling me I wasn't allowed to climb it? You carried me all the way to the hospital." Matt would ask Hal to wake up the most and it broke his heart every time because he hadn't even been able to squeeze his hand back.

"I really miss you Hal."

But now he was out of the coma and waiting for his little brother to get back from his bathroom trip. Hal didn't like to be alone now that he was paralysed and it was Matt's turn to spend time with him. They usually just talked about stuff and it was a lot more interesting now that Hal could reply.

The kid finally came back and sat down beside his big brother again, smiling and holding his hands behind his back.

"Guess what I just found." The boy looked so pleased with himself as he presented a dirty, slightly wilted flower and held his prize out to his brother.

"Wow thanks Mattie it's…..pretty?" The kid laughed and shook his head.

"It's for you to give to Maggie. She looked a little sad today and she said she was gonna come visit you so I thought you could give it to her to cheer her up."

Hal smiled at the curly haired boy in front of him. Matt always noticed things like that and now he was letting Hal be the one to fix it because he knew it would make Hal feel better too.

"Thanks Bro that's a great idea. Hand it over. Do you know when she's coming?"

Matt picked up on of Hals limp hands and carefully curled his older brother's lax fingers around the stem, the red flower drooping slightly in his hold.

"She should be coming soon. I'll come visit you after dinner and bring you something to eat."

Matt hugged his brother before grinning at him again and running out the door leaving only a few minutes of quiet until the door swung open.

Maggie walked in looking deflated and worn out but stopped in the middle of the room when she saw the flower in her smiling boyfriend's hand.

"Where did you get that Mason? You started walking and didn't tell me?" She was smiling cheekily and Hal smiled back as she came and climbed on his lap, straddling him on the bed.

"Matt found it and thought I could give it to you to cheer you up, he thought you might have been a bit upset today. Is everything alright?"

"He's one hell of a wingman that Matt." She tangled her fingers with his free hand and squeezed it tight while using the other to pull the flower from his curled fingers, tucking it behind her ear instead.

"I'm okay it was just a long day and I missed having you there." She sounded melancholy as she said it and leaned forward to lay against Hal's chest wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face into his neck where she could hide from everything for a while.

Hal wanted to wrap his arms around her and rub her back like she liked but settled for pressing a kiss to her head.

"Aw I'll be back out there soon enough Mag's and then we can get those 'his and hers' grenade launchers like you wanted."

That made her laugh and Hal smiled at the sound, watching her as she sat up again on his lap, a smile lighting up her entire face this time.

"Oh yeah? We'll go on a romantic date to blow stuff up?" She leaned in, hands pressed to his chest and kissed him as he nodded.

While Hal couldn't move he could still feel everything. Like Maggie's weight on his lap as she kissed him and her hands running down his chest to snake under his shirt and press against the planes of his back. And while Hal couldn't get his hands around her he could certainly kiss her back and so he did until Matt came in and groaned at the sight of his big brother making out with his girlfriend.

"Eww Hal!"