"That was a close one," Alan gasped as the quartet pulled themselves from the lake, wringing their clothes out. Tom nodded, shaking the water from his glasses.

"I suggest we vacate this area before our pursuer makes an encore appearance," he said. The girls nodded in vigorous agreement and quickly left, but as Tom was about to follow them he felt a tug on his arm.

"Hang on a sec."

"Eh?"

"You're bleeding," Alan said; Tom glance down at his arms and his clothing, he found no cuts or blood stains anywhere.

"You must be mistaken."

"No, look." Alan led him back to the water for a brief moment, revealing a good-sized cut on Tom's forehead. Tom blanched; he knew he'd bumped his head on a rock when they'd jumped into the lake, but he hadn't felt any skin breakage or seen any blood.

"Obviously it's not a very deep cut, or else I'd have lost conciousness by now," he laughed weakly.

"Good thing Pop makes us carry a first aid kit," Alan said, digging around in his pocket. "I just hope it didn't get wet..." He found what he was looking for, inspected the contents, then sighed with relief. "Good. Now sit still for a moment, okay? This might sting," he said as he dipped a small rag into the lake.

"Considering the abrasion itself is causing no pain, I assure you that-yeowww that's cold!" Tom shuddered as the wet rag made contact with the broken skin. Alan barely reacted, just continued to wipe down Tom's forehead until the last traces of blood were gone, then unwrapped a gauze pad.

"You really got lucky, you know that? I've heard of people who end up with brain damage from this sort of thing," he said.

"Yes, or severe complications from hemmorhaging or even skull fractures. Our health education instructor recently showed us a film strip detailing the hazards of aquatic activities," Tom said. Alan grinned, cutting off a length of medical tape to create a makeshift bandage.

"Well, at least we know your brain wasn't damaged," he chuckled. Slowly, he applied the bandage, making sure it would stay in place and cover the wound completely. "There," he said with satisfaction, smoothing Tom's hair back into place.

"Thank you, Alan..." Tom felt his face grow warm. "It's strange. We're brothers, yet..."

"We're not normally this affectionate, I guess," Alan said.

"Quite likely due to society's overall conditioning of the male gender to remain distant and frugal with our emotions," Tom added. "Perhaps with strangers it makes sense, but I don't see why brothers should have to follow the same regulations."

"Yeah." Alan smiled, helping his brother stand and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "We're family. We're allowed to be cozy with each other, right?"

"Affirmative." Tom leaned into Alan. "...we should probably make good on my suggestion to vacate this area, though. I'm sure our sisters are worrying about us as we speak."

They left the wooded area, reunited with their worried sisters and continued in their search for the suspect.