Chapter 1: Nathan
Nathan was once again in the middle of a very important senate meeting when his telephone started blaring off. He stared down at his phone to see who was calling. Sure enough it said in clear bold white letters that it was from Peter. Nathan sighed in exasperation. He figured that his brother was probably in trouble once again, and that he was once again going to need Nathan to save his ass. That had been the case quite a lot with Peter, especially ever since he had gotten his powers. "I'm very sorry" Nathan apologized to the other senators, "I'm going to have to take this call." "Please take it outside than" One of the other senators suggested, "Than hurry back. We really need you." Nathan did as he was told. "Peter?" He asked as he got on the phone. "Nathan!" Peter said his voice sounded panicked and out of breath. "Peter?" Nathan repeated "You sound kind of weird"
"I need you!" Peter moaned heavily into the phone. "There's something seriously wrong" "Where are you?" Nathan asked. With Peter it was never clear where he was going to end up, as far as Nathan was concerned he may have very well been somewhere on the other side of the country. He held his breath hoping that was not the case.
"I'm at my apartment." Peter told him. "I need you to come over right away!" Nathan grinded down on his teeth, trying to hide his annoyance. "I'll come over at the end of my meeting" He said tightly. "You don't understand" Peter cried. "I NEED you" Nathan could hear him sobbing on the other line. He continued to grind down on his teeth. Peter could be such a handful. "I'll be right over than" Nathan said. "Please promise me you won't go anywhere, none of that flying out of the window or turning invisible crap you got that?" He didn't even give Peter a chance to respond "All right than bye" He said hastily than hung up.
As soon as he got off the phone Nathan returned to the conference room and began collecting his stuff. "And just where do you think you're going?" One of the female politicians asked "I'm sorry" Nathan apologized hastily. "I know its short notice and everything but I just got off the phone with my brother, I think he might be in serious trouble. I mean he sounded really weird on the phone just now." "Oh my god!" Exclaimed one of the other senators. "I hope he's all right" Nathan wasn't quite sure why this senator who hardly knew the first thing about him cared, but he supposed it was nice of him to show his concern. He nodded slowly at him "I'm sure my brother's going to be just fine." He said, he then began gathering his things. He apologized a second time for having to leave so soon.
There had been many times when Nathan wished he had been an only child. And this very moment was no exception. He had often times wondered who invented the genius concept of younger brothers and why he had to be unfortunate enough to have one. There were a couple of times when he almost felt like he hated Peter. Fortunately this wasn't one of those times. But he did think that his life would have been a lot easier if Peter wasn't always getting in the way of everything. He already had enough responsibilities with being a senator and with being a super hero. On top of that he also had a family to attend to. He hated the fact that Peter himself had to be yet another one of his big responsibilities.
He knocked on Peter's door. There was no answer. "Peter it's me!" Nathan said "Come get the door." Still no answer. If Peter needed him so much he could have at least answered the door. Nathan tried ringing the door bell. Still no answer. Nathan sighed heavily. Thankfully he had a key to his brother's house. He let himself in. Peter was sitting listlessly on the couch and was holding his hands to his head.
"What's wrong Peter?" Nathan asked instantly. Peter stared up at his brother his eyes were wet and red. "I have such a bad headache" he moaned. "That's why you called me here?" Nathan snapped, "You called me out of a very important meeting because you have a headache? Did it ever occur to you to take an aspirin?" This was very unlike Peter, Nathan thought to himself, he could be a lot of things, but selfish was not one of them. At least not usually. Peter continued staring at his brother. "Please don't be mad" He said.
"And why exactly shouldn't I be mad?" Nathan asked. Peter wrung his hands furiously as he tried to explain. "I didn't call you just because I have a headache."
"Oh?" Nathan asked. "That's not why you called?" He stared at Peter quizzingly "It's about my powers." Peter explained.
"Your powers?" Nathan repeated. Peter stared at him and nodded his head. "They're gone" He said sullenly. Nathan cleared his throat. "I'm sure they're not gone Peter" He said, placing his hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'm sure you just over used them or something, you're probably just tired out, you've probably once again tried to accomplish something that was way bigger than you. So what was it you were trying to accomplish this time?" Nathan was not exactly able to hide the exasperation in his voice.
"It's not like that" Peter cried "I haven't done anything to waste my powers. At least not recently I haven't" Nathan shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know what to tell you then" He said. "Look" He continued, "I'm sure this is not a big deal. I'm sure they'll be back in full swing by tomorrow." Nathan began heading for the door. "Please stay" Peter sobbed. "I need you!" His voice sounded just as strange as it had sounded on the phone. Nathan tried not to think anything of it.
"Look" He said, trying hard to keep himself contained "I know this might strike you as a bit surprising, but I HAVE a life. I have my job, I have my power, I have my family, I can't just put it all on hold because of you."
Peter stared up at Nathan. His eyes continued tearing up. Suddenly out of nowhere he began coughing uncontrollably. "Do you need a glass of water?" Nathan asked sounding annoyed though he wasn't sure what he was annoyed with. Peter nodded his head and continued coughing. It sounded awful almost as if he were coughing up his entire lung. Almost as if he were dying. Nathan could not bring himself to think such a horrible thought. He probably just had a bug, he assured himself as he turned on the faucet, and let the cold water flow into the glass.
"Here drink this" Nathan ordered as he thrust the glass into Peter's hands. Peter shivered a little bit as he grabbed onto the glass of water. He continued coughing as he held the glass to his lips. "Go on drink!" Nathan ordered. Peter took one gulp and began coughing even harder. Nathan pounded him hard across the back. Peter finally stopped coughing and began spitting up water. "You okay?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah I'm okay" Peter said. Wiping off his mouth.
"Well obviously not" Nathan said. He continued staring at his brother. He hadn't realized it before, but Peter appeared to be in a whole lot of pain. He wanted to take back everything condescending he had said about having a life. When he thought about it long and hard, he realized that while he had a whole lot going for him, Peter did not. He didn't have a job, or a wife and kids, and at this point he didn't even have his powers. And at this point he certainly didn't have his health either. Nathan sighed heavily as the uneasy feeling seeped through him. Peter really was suffering and it really scared Nathan because he couldn't for the life of him figure out what he was suffering from or what he was supposed to do about it. The two of them sat in silence for a really long time. Nathan continued staring at Peter. He appeared so vulnerable, hunched over with his head buried in his hands. He was almost so skinny that Nathan could see his rib cage. Had Peter always been that skinny? Nathan wondered in panic. Peter had always eaten like a bird and had always eaten very slowly. When they were kids, Nathan remembered that their mother was always trying to fatten him up and get him to eat more and to eat faster. As he continued staring at Peter, Nathan decided that his mother was right. At that point he decided, fattening him up did not seem like such a terrible idea. In fact at that point Nathan longed to literally pour Fettuccini Alfredo and all other kinds of their mother's most fattening Italian cuisine down his throat. Anything to get some meat on his miserable rib cage. The thought of their mother's cooking was making his mouth water. There was no way Nathan decided that Peter was going to be able to keep any of that food down. He had enough trouble finishing his glass of water. With every swallow he seemed to flinch with intense pain. Nathan put his hand on his brother's knee and gave it a gentle squeeze. Even that caused Peter to cringe in intense pain "You're in a lot of pain aren't you Peter" Nathan asked as if he were just figuring that out. As if it hadn't been something he was thinking about the entire time. Peter stared at him with his wet eyes.
"Usually I can heal myself" He cried, "When I'm in this much pain I mean." He continued staring at Nathan his eyes were wide. "Surprisingly here's the thing" He said, "It's not really the pain so much that's been bothering me." He swallowed hard. "I'm pretty much used to that by now, I mean it is a problem and everything." He fell silent yet again. "But it's not THE problem" He finally said. His voice sounded strangely flat.
"What is THE problem than?" Nathan asked. He couldn't help sounding a bit exasperated. Peter always had a way of wearing people down. He was actually very good at it. Peter let out a shaky sigh. "It's like this weird weakness I've been having" He explained. "What kind of weakness Peter?" Nathan asked. Once again his brother was being very vague. "I can't really explain it very well" Peter said helplessly. "I'm just weak, and I don't mean weak as in powerless I mean weak as in weak." Nathan sighed heavily. It was no mystery at that point that Peter was weak. It was in fact almost as obvious as it was that he was in pain. In fact since Nathan had been there he hadn't even moved from his slumped position. He was obviously too weak to move.
"Do you care be more specific?" Nathan asked he once again sounded exasperated. Peter continued staring at him confusedly. Nathan cleared his throat. "I mean the word weak is very broad. Weak ankles? Weak stomach? Be more specific." "Weak everything" Peter said staring up at Nathan. He then attempted to get up from the couch but collapsed to the ground immediately. "Peter!" Nathan said rushing to his brother's side "Can you get up?" "No!" Peter moaned, "No I can't"
"Are you like physically incapable of getting up or something?" Nathan asked. "Yes!" Peter said "Exactly! I'm physically incapable." Nathan rolled his eyes as he grabbed on to Peter's arm and pulled him up from the ground. He then put both hands onto his shoulders and stared meaningfully into his eyes. Not surprisingly Peter was very light, his entire body was trembling uncontrollably. "Do you want to explain what happened?" Nathan asked. Peter managed to sit himself down on the couch. His body continued trembling. "I can't" Peter moaned. "Please try" Nathan ordered. Peter wrung his hands furiously. "Well it's kind of like this" He started. "When I worked at the nursing home, I had a lot of patients who were given these medications for muscle spasms. They were apparently supposed to help release the tension and relax their muscles. Muscle relaxants I guess. Anyway the side effects were always really bad. A few of the patients actually over dosed on the drugs and it pretty much caused them to completely lose their muscle tone." He bit down on his lip. "I've never taken muscle relaxant drugs, so I wouldn't know exactly what it feels like, but I can now totally imagine what it's like. It's really scaring me." His breathing was becoming faster by the second "It's really weird," He continued "because I have no idea when or where I'm going to have an attack. Or how long it's going to last" Nathan nodded his head slowly. "So you pretty much feel like you've gone and overdosed on a bunch of muscle relaxants. Okay I suppose I get it."
"I didn't overdose on anything!" Peter cried. "I didn't say you did" Nathan said rolling his eyes. "I'm only trying to get a better understanding of what's going on with you." Peter appeared to be a tiny bit embarrassed by his defensiveness. "Right!" He said. He sighed heavily, "Well yes" He said, "That's pretty much exactly what its like." Nathan once again fell silent for a really long time. "How long has this been going on?" He finally asked. "How long have you been feeling like this?" "I don't really remember when it started, I think like some time earlier this week maybe. I didn't really think much of it at the time. The attacks were a lot less frequent." He than fell silent for a really long time. "Than it got to the point where they got so bad, that I really wanted to heal myself." He breathed heavily. "But I couldn't, because my powers were and still are officially gone." Nathan hugged Peter close to him. Once again both of them were at a loss for words. "To be honest with you Peter" Nathan finally said, "I'm not sure why you called me about all this. Very interesting decision I have to admit. Interesting choice. What could I possibly do about this? I can fly that's pretty much it. I sure the hell don't have healing powers." Nathan usually felt like he had things under control. He felt that he could always have his brother's back. But this time it seemed like his problem was way out of his reach.
"I don't know" Peter said. "I guess I was just scared, and I needed someone really bad, and you were the first person I thought of. I didn't want to be alone."
"Don't worry" Nathan assured him. "I know it won't help too much, but if you need me to stay here, I'm not going anywhere."