Author's Note: Okay, so this takes place in the summer of 2008. While the show never showed a security guard for the band, I created Brendan Hopkins, same age as Nat, who is in charge of the band's security at all functions. Brendan is trained in karate, so has some experience in fights and quickly ending them. However, in this scenario, it might not be enough…

Nat and Alex left the party at around 10 PM. They had been at a middle school dance, with the rest of the band. Everyone one else had gone home, except for their security manager, Brendan. Brendan followed the brothers in the shadows, keeping a safe distance for them and ready to protect them from harm at a moment's notice. As they walked, Alex started teasing his brother.

"So I noticed that you and Rosalina needed to get a room there at the dance," he said laughing. "You two seemed very comfortable with each other."

"Oh shut up!" Nat said, barely managing to suppress a grin.

"Awww…look. Brotherly teasing, how cute," said a gruff voice from somewhere in front of them. Nat and Alex stopped and found themselves face-to-face with three thuggish looking teenagers. Before they knew it, one of them had thrown Alex to the ground and grabbed Nat and put him in a chokehold.

Alex screamed out "BRENDAN! HELP!" With that, the teens laughed until Brendan appeared out of the shadows with a determined look on his face. Though it didn't show it with his body structure, he was trained in karate and could easily defend himself.

"ENOUGH!" he shouted. "Let him go!"

"Come and get him you coward!" replied the thug holding Nat. "Get him!" he shouted to his friends.

The two other thugs started approaching Brendan. One got closer to him and ran up to him with his fist raised. As he ran up to Brendan, Brendan calmly leaned down and punched the attacker in the stomach. He then grabbed his attacker by the back of the shirt and kneed him in the chest and threw him to the ground. The other thug walked up to him, and before he could attack, Brendan struck. Brendan kicked him in the stomach, and then did a roundhouse kick to the head, not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to incapacitate his attacker. Brendan then swung a left hook at the thug, which hit the thug's head, and the thug fell over.

Brendan then cautiously moved to the thug holding Nat. The thug glared at him before throwing Nat towards him. Brendan grabbed Nat and quickly laid him on the ground before turning back to his opponent. The thug swung at Brendan, aiming for his head, but Brendan calmly moved out of the way and elbowed the thug in the back. The thug let out a bellow of fury and pulled out a pocketknife from his pocket and advanced to Brendan. He tried to attack Brendan, but Brendan grabbed his hand and the two struggled to gain the upper hand. The thug slowly turned his hand to make the knife come closer and closer to Brendan. Eventually, Brendan was overpowered and the knife made brief contact with him, cutting shallowly into his abdomen.

Brendan let out a cry of pain and punched the thug back with as much force as he could. The thug staggered backward, dropping the knife. Nat, who had recovered from the chokehold, kicked the knife away and Alex jumped on the thug from behind and took him down, knocking the thug unconscious. Alex got back up and joined Nat where Brendan lay, having collapsed from his injury.

"Brendan! Are you okay?" Nat said in a desperate voice.

"Nat…get help…..hurry…..please," Brendan said weakly.

"Alex, get on the phone and call the police! Have them send an ambulance and call the band and tell them what happened!" Nat yelled at Alex, struggling to keep tears out of his eyes.

Alex got up and made his phone calls while Nat sat with Brendan, who grabbed Nat's hand.

"Nat….Don't blame yourself…..It wasn't your fault….I made that choice to step in….you're one of my best friends…..I would do anything…..for you," he said struggling to get some of the words out.

"I'm sorry Brendan!" Nat said, tears now falling from his eyes. "Stay with us please! Hang in there!"

Brendan laughed weakly. "You now how strong I am Nat. But this time, it might not be enough."

"No!" Nat cried. "I know you. You can make it!"

"We'll see. Let me close my eyes for a moment. When the ambulance comes, I want you and Alex to go with me."

"Of course!" Alex walked back over, knelt next to Brendan and held his other hand.

"Brendan, thank you for saving us. Please, save yourself from this pain! We can't live without you!" Alex pleaded.

"I'll be okay Alex," Brendan whispered. "Now, let me rest until help arrives."

After five minutes, the police and ambulance arrived. The police revived the thugs and took them into custody while the EMTs placed Brendan onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. The driver then began to race to the hospitable. Nat spoke to the EMT who remained in the back with him, Alex, and Brendan.

"How is he?" he asked, struggling to keep the pleading out of his voice.

"I think he'll be fine. Where he was cut wasn't too badly damaged, so I think once they perform surgery on him he'll be fine," the EMT replied.

While the ambulance rushed to the hospitable, Alex called Cooper and told him what hospitable they were going to and to have the rest of the band meet them there. He and Nat stood next to the unconscious Brendan the rest of the way to the hospitable, both worrying about what was going to happen to their friend and bodyguard.

Fifteen minutes later, the ambulance arrived at the hospitable. The driver rushed Brendan inside while the other EMT escorted Nat and Alex to the waiting room, where the rest of the band, Jesse, and Nat and Alex's dad sat anxiously. When the arrived, the entire entourage ran up to them and they fell into a group hug. After much hugging, where many tears were dropped, the group sat down while Nat and Alex explained the attack.

"Is Brendan going to be alright?" Rosalina asked, tears rushing down her beautiful face.

"They are fairly certain that the wound wasn't to deep and that he'll be okay," Nat said before sighing heavily and sitting in a chair next to Rosalina and Alex. He sat crying into his hands, while Alex wept on Nat's shoulder. After a few moments, a doctor came out and spoke to them.

"We are going to have to perform surgery on Brendan. He should be alright, but the surgery could take several hours," she said.

"Thank you, doctor," Sonny said, thanking her for everyone else, who seemed unable to speak.

For the next two hours, the group sat in silence. At one point they all held hands and silently prayed for their injured friend. As the minutes ticked off, their restlessness became evident, as everyone started shifting around uncomfortably in their chairs. Eventually, all the kids fell asleep while Sonny and Jesse stayed awake and waited to hear news. Finally, the doctor stepped out into the waiting room.

"It is all right! Brendan is going to be just fine!" she whispered. "He wants to see all of you soon."

Jesse thanked her and she and Sonny walked around and woke up members of the band. When everyone had woken up, Jesse spoke to them.

"Brendan is going to be fine! He wants us to go see him now, so let's go!"

The group let out a scream of relief and they proceeded to walk to Brendan's hospitable room. They entered the room, and found Brendan lying upright on his bed as if nothing had happened. All at once, they ran up to him and began hugging him and thanking him. After a few moments of this, they all stepped back and Nat spoke to him.

"How are you feeling man?" he asked.

"Pshhhh….." Brendan said, waving his hand in a "whatever" fashion that made everyone, especially Thomas, David, and Qaasim, laugh. "I'll live. Just had a small cut in my abdomen that shouldn't take too long to heal."

"Nat and I really appreciate what you did for us back there, Brendan," Alex said. "I don't know what we would have done without you."

Brendan laughed. "Probably would have peed yourselves," he said making everyone laugh again. "There was a reason that I did intervene and I'm glad I did."

"Why's that?" asked Nat.

"I was protecting the closest thing I have to another family. You and Alex are like my brothers and I would do anything to protect the both of you and the rest of the band. I love all of you like my family. You are all my best friends."

With that he held up his hand in a gesture that clearly meant he wanted to all of them to join hands with him. The whole group grabbed onto his hand and when they all did so, Brendan put his other hand on top.

"I promise all of you, I will always be there for you when you need me. I will continue to protect all of you to my best ability always. I love you all," he said.

"And we love you," the group echoed.