Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone except my imagination. All stories are for fun. I like to share them.

Summary: Jeff is really worried about the most important person in his life. His friends try to reinsure him it's his fault. But they can convince him and he almost loses himself in his doubts.

Rated T for language, mentioning from Incest and same-sex relationship. Light sexual activities.

I hope you'll enjoy me little story. Just let me know how I did.

Almost gone!

Jeff paced back and for in the waiting room of the hospital in LA. His thoughts were running wild.

'How did this happen? How could he be so reckless? What was he thinking? What if he doesn't make it?'

"No, no! Stop thinking that way, Jeff!" he said to himself. "I need to call daddy! He probably doesn't know what happened yet!"

Jeff left the waiting area and told the nurse that he needed to make a phone call. He said, "Miss, excuse me. I'm going to go outside to use my cell. Is it possible to smoke out there?"

The young nurse told him, "There is a big ashtray to the left of the door and a bench, Mr. Hardy. But I need you to fill out these forms for the treatment of your brother. This is important!"

Jeff grabbed the papers and sighed "Okay, Miss! Please let me know right away when his surgery is over."

The nurse looked at him and nodded.

Jeff walked with hanging head to the exit and as he was outside he looked around. "Ahh, over there!"

He walked to the bench next to the ashtray and pulled out his cigarettes. Again his thoughts were of tracks. 'Matt, why? Why the fuck did you do that? You can't leave me that way. I need you and your advice. Oh right … I need to call daddy.'

He took his cell out of his pocket after he lit his cigarette.

It rang. Jeff was so nervous. How was he supposed to tell their dad what happened to Matt? He was fighting back some tears and swallowed loudly. He took a deep breath as he heard his dad answering the phone. "Hardy."

"Dad, daddy it's me, Jeffrey."

"Hey there, Jeffro! What's wrong? Tell me, son. Did you have a fight with your brother again? It is going to be okay as always." Gilbert chuckled. He was used to that Jeff would call at unholy hours to tell him little things. Things they were important to him but nothing serious. All those things could be fixed with a couple words and a good night sleep. Nothing that would turn the world upside down. How little did he know this time?

Again he took a deep breath and said, "Daddy, listen to me."

Gilbert was shocked as he heard how serious Jeff was. His youngest son wasn't usually that serious. "Jeffrey, tell me what's up. You're worrying me."

"Daddy, Matty was shot and it's all my fault." He started to cry. "Daddy what am I going to do if he doesn't pull through? Tell me, what..."

"Jeffrey, stop saying such stupid things. How did this happen? And where are two anyway?"

Jeff sniffed and told his dad. "We are in L.A. We had a show here. Everything went well and we wanted to join the guys in a close by club. We met up with Jay and Adam and some others. We had fun, we danced and laughed. And then … Then there was that guy. We didn't know him. I was dancing a little with Adam. You know Matty doesn't like to dance as much as I do. But that guy started to hit on me so hard it was disgusting. He forced himself on me. Adam tried to get him off me. But that dude was surprisingly strong and he pushed him down onto the floor." Jeff cried so hard now he couldn't speak without sobs and sniffs.

"Jeffrey, it's okay calm down. Keep going, son. What happened then?" Gilbert talked in a soothing voice so that Jeff wouldn't know he was worried sick. Gilbert knew that he could lose both sons at once. He knew that Jeff would have a really hard time surviving if Matt wasn't going to make it. Again he told Jeff to keep talking.

Jeff took another deep breath so he could calm himself down. But the memories in his head were so graphic. He could almost touch Matt so clear were the images in his head. "When that guy pushed Adam to the floor Matt came over to me and told that guy to let go of me. But he refused to let me go and told Matty that he was going to fuck me till I didn't know me own name anymore. Sorry dad, I should have skipped that information, shouldn't I?" Jeff asked because he wasn't sure how his dad could handle stuff like that. Gilbert really didn't mind a proper explanation. So he said to Jeff. "Don't worry Jeffrey. It's not a big deal. I want to hear all the details." Jeff continued after the words of encouragement. "Okay! After he was hearing that this guy started to piss Matt off even more. That's when Matty grasped his wrist and pulled me to his chest. And he told the dude that it would be better if he just left. Matt was so calm after that, daddy. He told him that I choose me bed partners by myself and if I said no it means no! Then he helped Adam back up. As he turned back to the jerk, he started to hit Adam and Matty. Adam was lying on the floor again and I tried to help him. Matt stood in front of us and told Adam to get the security guards. I stood still close by but Matt signified me to move back a bit. He tried to calm that jerk down and pushed him a little away. Not to hard he didn't fall or anything. Matt talked to him and said. 'Come on, take it easy, man. No one is hurt yet so just let it be.' And all of a sudden that dude pulled a gun out and pointed at me and said, if I won't go with him nobody is going to have me. The guy pulled the trigger without a warning. Daddy it happened so fast. Matty jumped in front of me and the bullet hit him. "

Now Jeff couldn't hold back the tears anymore. He looked down on him. His shirt was bloody and sweaty. Matty's blood. He touched it and a wave of compunctions ripped through him. Jeff cried and sobbed. "It's all my fault. Everything just because of me!" he repeated over and over again.

He heard his father on the phone, "Jeffrey stop that and hang in there. I will take the next flight and be there in the morning."

"Thanks, daddy!" Jeff gave Gilbert the address from the hospital in L.A were Matt was treated. He closed his cell and pulled out another cigarette. He was about to lite it as he saw the young nurse running towards him. He stood up and walked towards her with panic welling up in him. His head was screaming 'No, no, no…don't tell me. Please!'

"Mr. Hardy . . . Do you know the blood type of your brother?"

"Yeah, he has B negative just like mom and me."

"Thank you!" The nurse was on her way back as Jeff caught up with her and asked. "Why do you need to know that? What happened?"

"I don't know exactly but there are some intricacies. I need to tell the doctor the blood type right away." The nurse said without slowing down.

"No, Matt, you can't do that to me! Don't leave me!" said Jeff has he found himself back in the waiting room. For the first time he looked at the clock that was hanging there. 2 o'clock in the morning. He couldn't believe that all of this happened just an hour ago. It felt more like 10 hours. He put his head on the wall in front of him. "Matty!" He whispered trying to hold back the tears that started to fall from his eyes.

Time was passing by. Jeff had no clue what he had done the last 90 minutes. When he heard the door opening and turned around with tired eyes. There where his friends Jay and Adam. They had explained everything to the police so he could ride in the ambulance with Matt. Jay walked up to him and pulled him in a hug. "How is Matters?" asked Adam as he came close to his best friend's little brother and his lover. Jay gave Adam a certain look and said. "How are you, Jeffro? You're hanging in there! We brought you a clean shirt. Come on change and pull of the bloody thing you wearing. The officer said that you have to answer some questions as soon as you are up for it."

"Thanks for the clean shirt. I don't know! They aren't telling me a thing! The nurse asked me for Matty's blood type over an hour ago. She said there were some complications! I can't answer anything as long as I don't know how Matty is doing." Jeff told his friend while he changed into the clean shirt. There was a short silence and then broke Jeff down in Jay's arms. "Matty, don't leave me! Why did you do that?" Jay started to rub Jeff's back and told him soothing words of comfort. "Jeffro calm down. Matt is going to be okay. He is the strongest bastard I know. And you know why he did what he did! He loves you and don't want you to get hurt!" "Yeah, Jeffy. Listen to the smart words of my sweet pie. Matters is going to be kicking some serious ass in no-time! You know Matt would take a bullet for all his friends but especially for you. Jeff, you are his baby brother, the most important person to him."

Jeff knew that his friends wanted to cheer him up but all those words did the exact opposite to him. Adam and Jay didn't need to point out that all of this happened because Matt loved him. "It's all my fault. If Matt wouldn't love me so much than that wouldn't have happen!" Jeff started to cry again.

"No Jeffrey, don't think that way!" a dominant voice said. The three young men turned around and Jeff choked. "Daddy!"

Jeff walked up to his father who waited with open arms. He took his youngest son in his arms and petted his head. "Come on, Jeffrey. You know that he would have done it anyway. Even if you wanted him to love you less. He is your big brother and more." Their father, Jay and Adam knew the truth about him and Matt. Jeff held on tightly to his dad. "So stop saying things like you don't want him to love you or that he is not gonna make it. The reason why he saved you is the same reason why he's going to pull through." said Gilbert and gave him a weak smile.

"Dad, how come you here already? It is less than two hours ago that I called you." asked Jeff as he realized that his dad couldn't be here if he would have been home in North Carolina. "I was in Long Beach to visit my friend Chuck. So I told him what happened and he gave me his car. We got some things in order and I drove here." is all what Gilbert said. "Thanks for coming to us, daddy" Said a moved Jeff.

"Anytime son!" his father told him with his warm southern smile.

The time was just crawling. Jeff was losing his mind. He wanted to know how his Matty was doing. "Damn it. Why the fuck aren't they telling us a fucking thing?" busted Jeff out.

"Jeffrey Nero Hardy, watch you language or I am going to birch you in front of your friends. I don't care. That is not how your mother and I raised you. And I know your mum was much better in raising you two than me. But believe me I did my best."

Jeff blushed in shame. "I know daddy. And I am sorry but I am so worried. I would never say that you did a bad job. Look at us we are good and honest adults. You did a great job raising us."

"Thank you, son."

"Dad, do you think it's a bad sign that they don't tell us a thing?" ask Jeff thoughtfully. Jay got up from Adam's lap and pulled his friend in a hug. "Jeffy, they don't tell us a thing because there is nothing they need to tell us." Gilbert and Adam nodded but Jeff wasn't so sure.

Then all of a sudden the door opened and the nurse came in with a weak smile and looked at the four men. She addressed Jeff because she knew he was a relative to the patient Matthew Hardy. "Mr. Hardy… The doctor will be here in a couple minutes he just finished the surgery. He only needs to clean himself a bit and do some final check-ups."

Jeff wasn't able to say a thing. His father stood up and told the young lady "Thank you" with a sweet smile. That smile stunned the young nurse and she smiled back and return to her work.

Jeff just stared into the air. 'The surgery was done. The doc needs to clean himself. WTF! No, no, no please, please don't!'

Gilbert saw that his son was imaging the worst case. He didn't know why Jeff was always doing this to himself. He touched his shoulder and gave him a stern look, "Jeffrey, stop that! Right now."

Adam and Jay didn't know what was going on. Thick tears started to burn down Jeff's face. "I can't daddy! I am going to lose him. I know he didn't make it. I just know it. And it's all my fault!" Adam and Jay walked up next to Jeff and hugged him tightly. Adam on the left and Jay on his right side. "Jeff, your dad is right. You need to stop assuming." said Adam. "You only hurting yourself!" added Jay. Gilbert touched the cheek of Jeff's face and smiled at him "If Matt figures what you doing to yourself he will be mad at you and you know it!"

Jeff saw the doctor coming in and straightened himself up and gave Jay and Adam a sign to let go of him. Jay went over to Adam and put his head in the bigger man's chest. He was always very emotional just like Jeff. Adam pulled his lover in a close embrace and told him soothing words. Adam smiled weakly at Jeff because he knew that Jeff wanted nothing more than to do the same thing. Except he wanted it to be Matt's chest.

The doctor approached the four men and asked with tired eyes "Dependents of Matthew Moore Hardy?" All four men stepped up to him and he recognized the young man with the rainbow hair who was with his patient as he came in. The middle-aged doctor saw that this young man started to shake. He searched for the hand of the eldest man in the room who he assumed to be the father of the two young men. He cleared his throat and said "Matthew is a hell of a fighter. The bullet went right through one of his kidneys and I needed to remove part of the damaged organ. We were almost done when he had a circulatory failure." Jeff's heart stopped in that moment and he didn't want to hear the rest. He was going to lose his sanity right there in this very room. All he could think was to be in Matty's arms and die himself. All of a sudden he felt his father's hand squeezing his own and he saw that he inhaled deeply. The doctor continued his speech. "Please let me finish. Like I said there was this circulatory failure. But my team and I didn't know why this was happening. After a couple seconds of shock I figured that the blood loss was too much for a man of his size. But there was the next problem we didn't have time for a blood test. So the only hope I had was you, young man." He pointed at Jeff and spoke. "I prayed to god that you would know the blood type of your brother. I didn't want to image if you wouldn't have known. But after the nurse told me what blood we needed there was only a little of respond and I wasn't able to tell why? So I asked my assistant what he thought. He looked at me and all he said was 'We are missing something!' and so I reopened the wound to look around very closely and there it was. Another bullet! It didn't hit any important organs but it was very close to the abdominal artery. We needed to be very, very careful as we removed it. And just like I said in the beginning Matthew is a hell of a fighter. I didn't want to inform you before I was sure there would be anymore complications. Right before I came to see you he opened his eyes and he asked me 'Is Jeno okay?' I didn't know what he meant by that but I nodded. So he went back to sleep."

Jeff dropped to his knees. 'What did the doc just say? Matty almost died and all he could think off was if I was ok?' After Jeff got his thoughts in order, he said "That is insane, he is hurt so bad and all he wants to know is how I am doing?" Adam helped him back up and Jay got Gilbert to sit down on one of the chairs because he was shaking in relief. Adam and Jay looked at each other and said in union to Jeff. "No Jeff, that's not insane it's called L-O-V-E!" He looked at them and smiled and turned his attention to his dad. "Daddy, are you okay? Do you need something?" Gilbert shook his head. A moment later he looked at the doctor and asked him. "May I see Matty? Please, I need to see him, as soon as possible."

The doctor saw in Jeff's eyes that he was serious. "I rather have not so many visitors to see him right now. He still needs to rest. But I would say he could have one visitor for a few minutes." Jeff jumped and pulled his new hero to his chest to say. "Thank you, thank you for saving Matty's life."

"Jeffrey would you let go of that man. You're going to hurt him or leave him without room to breathe!" said Gilbert. "I know you are happy but don't break him."

Jeff let go of the doc only to see that he took a couple of deep breathes "Sorry I didn't mean to hurt you!" he said with blushed cheeks. The doctor smiled "It is fine. Matthew lies in room 1508."

Jeff sped down the hallways not caring that someone yelled behind him to slow down. He didn't care about anything right now except to see his Matty! As he reached the room he waited a split of a second to catch his breathe. He opened the door very quietly as he walked in and closed it behind himself. He moved closer to the bed and was shocked to see Matt so pale. Matt was never pale and all the machines around him. The lights, the beeping and the cardio line of his heartbeat. There was an IV with blood in his left arm and an oxygen tube in his nose. But the worst was his in bandages wrapped abdomen. Jeff felt tears to fall out of his eyes and he didn't even try to fight them because he knew he would lose that fight. He fell to his knees in front of Matt's bed. He put his head on it and pulled Matt's right hand to his face. "Matty … I … love you." That's what he told him between his sobs. He cried for a while but then he felt a familiar hand on his head and heard the most beautiful voice. "That SoB of a doc lied to me! He said you are okay, Jeno. What is it? Tell me!" Jeff was shocked. "Nothing, Matty! I am just so happy. You were almost gone! How can you think about me? You must be in an awful lot of pain. And I am mad at you at the same time. How could you do such a reckless thing like jumping in front of a gun? You could have been killed. You almost died. Do you know what you put me and daddy through the last couple hours! Matty… I love you so much and all I could think off was he's gone. He is going to die and it's all my fault." He talked without breathing in and out. The words were leaving his mouth faster than ever before.

Matt pulled Jeff up next to him on the bed or at least he showed Jeff to lie next to him. As soon as Jeff was next to him took Matt him in a tight embrace and pressed his lips onto Jeff's! "Jeno, I love you too and that is the reason why I would take a million bullets for you. I would do anything as long as you don't get hurt. You are the most important person to me and I am sorry that I had you and dad worried about me. I am really sorry. But like you said I was only almost gone. I wouldn't leave you that way. But tell me, did that guy hurt you?" Matt smiled as he placed another kiss on Jeff lips. This time Jeff kissed him back franticly and totally ignoring his big brother's question. "Matty, I thought I can never do that again with you!" said Jeff as they broke the kiss to catch some air.

Matt winced in pain as he tried to sit up. "No Matty. No moving around till your doc allows it. And you are going to follow every order he gives you. I want to take you home as soon as possible. You got it?" Matt smiled as Jeff pushed him back on the bed. "Yes sir! I love you. Don't you ever forget that?!"

Jeff bend down to capture Matt's soft lips in another passionate kiss. He was very careful so he wouldn't hurt Matt. He heard a knock on the door. Jeff moved his head away from Matt and set in an unobtrusive way on his brother's hospital bed. "Yes!" he answered already knowing who it was. "Oh Matthew you are awake." The doctor said smiling. "You gave us all a big scare. Jeffrey, I need you to leave now. You, your dad and your friends are all allowed to see Matthew in the morning. But he needs to get some rest now. So say your goodbyes. I'll make my round and when I am back in about ten minutes I don't want to see you here anymore. Ok?"

"Yes, sir. You won't find me here. But you promise that we all can see Matt in the morning."

"I promise. If Matthew sleeps now for some hours I couldn't see why not! But Jeffrey when I say in the morning that doesn't mean 6 a.m." replied the doctor with a smile. Jeff looked at him and asked. "Did my father made you say this?" The doc started to laugh "Kind of. He told me that you can be an early bird. So I just need to make it clear. Matthew needs to sleep at least 5 hours and it is already 4 a.m. So I would say you can all come over around 11 a.m. That should be enough time to let him sleep and get his bandages renewed."

"Thanks again, doc." smiled Jeff back.

The doc went back to his round and closed the door. Jeff looked down to his beautiful brother.

"You heard the doc. You get some nice hours of sleep and I will be back. And remember I will always be in your dreams. So you won't be without me. Just like you are in my dreams." said Jeff as he bend down to kiss Matt another time. Matt enjoyed the caring kiss of his beloved brother but he was confused. "Jeno, what friends was the doc talking about?" "Matty, who is your best friend?" asked Jeff. "Next to you, Adam. And you know that! Why would you ask me that?" And then Matt realized what Jeff was trying to tell him. Disbelieve was written all over his face. Jeff thought it was so cute. "He is outside? He came to see if I am okay?" "Of course Matty! He loves and cares for you and Jay does the same thing. Right now they're keeping our dad company. So and you need to sleep now!" he pressed his lips again to Matt's. He moved them then from his mouth to his nose and finally to his forehead. "Good night and sweet dreams. I love you, Matty. I'll see you in a couple hours!"

Matt breathed Jeff's sent in and locked eyes with him. "I love you too and I wish you sweet dreams as well. Say greetings to Adam and Jay and give dad a hug from me. I can't wait to see you in the morning. But please get some rest yourself." He put his right hand to Jeff's chin and pulled him down for the bittersweet goodbye kiss.

And once again he said. "I love you, Jeno!" "I love you too, Matty." said Jeff as he was about to leave.

The end!

OMG! What did I do? I shot Matty. Shame on me for scaring the shit out of Jeno.

I hope you enjoyed to read the story as much as I had fun writing it.

Please leave comments and critics. I really want to know if my writing is decent. I do apologize for wrong punctuation. I am not a native speaker even though I know that is a lame excuse.

Free your imagination and fly with it!

Hugs to all of you!