Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. If I did, I would probably be an expert on Japanese culture, which I am not!

Author's Note: I know, I know, I am such a liar. C&W is not finished yet, and yet here is the second chapter! I just do not feel comfortable making you all wait more than a month for an update when I already have the next chapter written. So, I hope this chapter was well worth the wait. One of my biggest complaints about C&W was how much of a pain it was to try to create great brotherly moments between TK and Matt without it seeming forced. This story has really allowed me to explore that, and I hope you all enjoy the brothers as much as I do. The story really focuses on all of the digidestined, but there really isn't any doubt that TK and Matt kind of shine above the rest.

There was some confusion as to the ages that I mentioned in the previous chapter, so here they are again in more detail. I know there are different beliefs of ages and that the ages change from country to country, so here is how I've always interpreted the ages. In season one, TK and Kari were 8 years old (with TK being younger than Kari by several months); Izzy was 10 years old; Tai, Sora, Matt, and Mimi were 12 years old (with Mimi as the youngest); and Joe was 13 years old. In season two, it takes place 4 years later with TK, Kari, Davis, and Ken at 12 years old; Cody is 10 years old; Yolei is 13 years old; Izzy is 14 years old; Tai, Sora, Matt, and Mimi are 16 years old; and Joe is 17 years old. This fic takes place 3 years after that with TK, Kari, Davis, and Ken at 15/16 years old (depending on where their birthdays fall) and in their first year of high school since in Japan, many of their high schools start at grade 10; Cody is 13 years old; Yolei is 16 years old; Izzy is 17 years old; Tai, Sora, Matt, and Mimi are 19 years old and in college; and Joe is 20 years old. I hope this better clarifies things for everybody! I know that these ages aren't believed by everybody or even used in every country where Digimon airs, but hopefully this helps to put us all on the same page.

Also, a quick shout out to Ultrawolfie who said, "Hope the a**hole gets his butt kicked by Matt." Not only did you make me laugh, but I hope that I delivered enough to satisfy you and the rest of my readers as well!

Enjoy!


Chapter Two

Kari knew that the second that Kira had the ball, they were going to score. He wasn't the main shooting guard for nothing, after all. She didn't waste any time to start cheering, and she was echoed by the rest of her dance squad and the gymnasium. To her left, she heard Minami, one of the other dancers on the squad, shout, "We are so going to win!" She opened her mouth to agree with her when she saw the tallest boy on the court, Number 37 of the opposing team, still moving toward TK. Kari lost her smile. The halftime buzzer sounded. TK had relaxed, thinking the play was over. Kari couldn't even warn him.

It happened like it was in slow motion. Number 37 slammed into the blonde digidestined, like a flyswatter hitting a fly. Kari's chest felt tight, but she found herself unable to move. Even if she had been able to find some mobility, she was too far away to do anything other than watch. The referees were blowing whistles, hand signals were being tossed around, but Kari didn't hear or see any of them. That snapping sound that she heard when the guy who had to be 120 kg at least slammed into the Child of Hope could have only been bones breaking.

TK's body jerked as he was slammed into. Painful resounding snaps echoed in Kari's ears as he hit the wooden floor of the gymnasium with a sickening thud. Number 37 landed painfully on top of him.

TK!

Her legs were carrying her forward in a fast sprint even as her mind seemed ready to shut down in shock. It took all of the willpower that she had to not give in and attempt to spare herself from the sight that she knew would be waiting for her ahead. She ran faster than she ever had before, faster than any time she had been running from crazed digimon. Her feet staggered beneath her only once during her sprint as she fought down the overwhelming fear over the fact that her best friend wasn't moving to get back up.

Kari pushed past the stunned players. Yoshio actually stumbled as she shoved past him and fell backwards, unable to break himself out of his horrified daze well enough to catch his footing. The guy that had blindsided TK was getting up, smugly, and completely unscathed. Kari ignored him in favor of dropping by TK's side. At some point during her sprint, she dropped both of her dance fans. She had beaten the coaches to the blonde; they were now jogging across the court toward the two of them.

"TK," she whispered hesitantly, as if her words would break him.

He looked awful and that realization alone made most of the color in her face drain. His right arm was twisted awkwardly under his body and bent at a painful looking angle while his neck was tilted so that his blonde tresses splayed out against the maple wood floor. His eyes were shut, and his face was deathly pale.

Unshed tears were gathering within Kari's eyes, but her gaze was nothing but icy as she turned to look at Number 37. He was still wearing that same smug smile, obviously proud of what he had done. That smile was quickly wiped off his face, though, when a fist came out of nowhere and clocked him across his jaw.

x X x

Matt leapt to his feet. Patamon screamed in his hands, which was luckily drowned out by the still confused crowd who were shocked as to what had just happened. A shaking hand quickly moved to clamp over the little digimon's mouth as realization spread throughout the crowd, filling the gymnasium with a stunned deafening silence.

"Oh my god," Nancy tearfully gasped.

He wasn't getting up.

Why isn't TK getting up?

Even in the bleachers, the crack had been heard. No one could have missed it after the other action had stopped. The play had been over; the halftime buzzer had officially sounded. And the sound continued to echo through Matt's ears.

Matt was used to seeing his brother and even his friends get hit and thrown to the ground time and time again. It was the nature of playing sports; people tended to get a little rough. Even though he had seen it many times before, he still winced anxiously and waited with baited breath for them to bounce back up and shake it off. And they always did, every single one of them.

Hadn't it only been a little over two months ago that Davis had been subject to some jerk deciding to aim for his ankle with a kick instead of the soccer ball he had been traveling with? He had completely broken his ankle that day, but even then, after having his legs swept out from under him, he still managed to sit up through his pain and wave at the crowd with a large grin on his face.

But none of them had quite been blindsided like this before. Not after a play was over. TK wasn't going to be getting up this time.

"Tai," Matt spoke, his voice shaking. He had not even been sure if he was going to be able to get his vocal chords to work. "He's not getting back up."

Why isn't he getting back up?

He wasn't even aware that he was moving until he had managed to get past his parents, both of whom were still too shocked to move. Only one arm was holding Patamon now as he took the aisle stairs two at a time and he rushed to get to his brother's side. He was no longer covering the little orange Digimon's mouth, but Patamon seemed to have gotten his emotions under control. For now, anyway.

Whether anyone was following him, he couldn't say for sure. His focus was zeroed in on his brother as he watched Kari reach TK's side and fall next to him. He couldn't see his brother very well, but he could see the way that her face lost color. He felt his panic rise as Kari adopted a look that could only be described as absolute fury as she turned to look at the offender that had hurt his brother. That confirmed the overwhelming brotherly instinct that told him that something was very wrong. Kari never got angry and especially not with that much passion, unless something happened to her family or one of her friends.

Matt dropped to his knees on TK's other side and let out a small whine. He had dropped Patamon at some point, but luckily everyone was too focused on TK to notice as the small little digimon managed to gently glide to the ground and then moved to nuzzle closer to his partner. Matt wasn't sure if he should even venture to touch his brother at the moment. He looked so small and frail laying there.

The sudden crack of a fist connecting with someone's jaw tore his eyes away from his brother's broken frame. Number 37 crashed to the ground with the force of the punch; more whistles blew and more hand signals were thrown around; but Davis wasn't done with him yet.

"Why don't you attack someone who's actually facing you, coward!" Davis yelled as he jumped forward to grab the front of the guy's jersey in his fists.

He lifted him halfway off the ground before he was rearing back a fist to punch him again. This time, he went down with him as he dug one of his knees painfully into his chest. Matt briefly wondered where DemiVeemon had gone.

"What was that!" he shouted into his face as he punched him again. "You couldn't outplay him while the game was actually going, so you decided to take him out! That play was over, you son of a—"

Ken was there, wrapping his arms around Davis's chest as he attempted to haul the outraged boy off of the taller basketball player. It took the combined efforts of Ken, Masato, and Kira to finally manage to pull Davis away from doing further damage. Number 17 was now standing between his teammate and Davis, and Matt growled, deciding that Number 37 hadn't gotten a good enough of a beating. He was halfway to his feet when he felt a calming hand land on his shoulder.

He looked up to find Tai standing there, looking solemn and just as angry as Davis, but he was holding it in unlike the younger gogglehead. Matt understood that look, though, without Tai having to say a word. Now was not the time for fighting. They had more pressing matters at hand.

That did not stop the blue-eyed man from pinning Number 37 with his frostiest glare. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Davis finally stop struggling against Ken and the two basketball players, though he knew that the boy was nowhere near calm. One of the referees had finally made their way over to Number 37 and was conversing with him. Another referee was in the middle of flagging down the paramedics that stood on the sidelines for very rare occasions such as this. Seeing that slightly smug smile back on the jerk's face that had decided to use his little brother for a bowling pin, Matt almost took that moment to just completely ignore Tai altogether and wipe it off himself. But as if being able to read his mind, he felt Tai's grip on his shoulder tighten, and his resolve faded away.

The basketball coach was ushering everyone off of the court as the paramedics jogged toward TK's fallen form, but Matt just reached out to hold onto his baby brother's hand, not wanting to be away from him. Even Kari, who looked ill at the thought of leaving TK's side, was moving to stand as she gathered Patamon and Gatomon (who had escaped Tai's hold to offer the other digimon some much needed comfort) into her arms. Everybody was retreating to the sidelines, but Matt couldn't move.

"Son, you have to let the paramedics do their job," the coach said gently from his left.

Matt could see that the rest of the digidestined had all made it to the floor of the gymnasium as well. They were all standing with the rest of the basketball team, their faces shining with worry. He could even see Shinji Yoshida, whom TK had been joking about since the beginning of the year as the guy that was secretly plotting to "take him out," pale-faced and angry over what had happened.

"TK," he whispered weakly, tightening his grip on his brother's hand even as the paramedics moved to bend over him.

"Matt," a gentle but firm voice said to his right. "Let your brother go so that the paramedics can help him."

He turned to see his father, Hiroaki Ishida, standing there. He had a grave and slightly ill look on his face. Nancy, who stood several paces behind him, looked far worse.

"Dad, I—" can't was going to finish that sentence when he felt someone suddenly grab his arm.

"Matt, come on."

Tai. Had it been anyone else, Matt wouldn't have hesitated in hitting them in that moment. However, as he looked up at his best friend for nearly a decade, he knew that Tai wanted nothing more than to help. So, he let go of TK's hand and allowed Tai to drag him just far enough away to give the paramedics some room. He didn't dare try to get him to backup further, for which he was grateful.

The paramedics were wrapping a cervical collar around TK's neck and were gently turning him over to strap him onto a backboard. He felt his throat go tight, or maybe it had been tight the entire time, as tears began to prickle at the corner of his eyes. He hated this. He wanted to do something. Anything.

TK had never been seriously injured before. Sure, there had been several close calls, most of them having to do with the Digital World. He remembered hearing many of the stories afterward about how his little brother had nearly drowned while trying to get to Odaiba, or about how he had nearly fallen to his death just to be saved in the nick of time by MagnaAngemon, or about how he and Kari had foolishly raced ahead of the group just to be thrown out of the sky by the sheer power of BlackWarGreymon's first appearance. Every story and every instance that he could even recall from when he had been there was enough to make him want to lock the younger boy in a room and never let him near anything dangerous again, but Matt knew that TK was a digidestined and that wasn't just something one could hide from.

Being a digidestined just naturally meant that danger and near death experiences came with the package. But this? This was so painstakingly normal, and Matt knew that he couldn't just call up Gabumon and have him fix it for him. That wasn't how this was going to work this time, and he wasn't sure if he could handle that.

The paramedics were loading TK onto a stretcher before they started to wheel him out of the gymnasium. Matt immediately moved to follow, jogging after them, not wanting to let his brother out of his sight. Behind him, he could hear a dozen pairs of feet following. Somehow, Nancy Takaishi had managed to get ahead of her oldest son and was quickly conversing with one of the paramedics as they walked out into the chilly winter air and out to the ambulance. He caught the note that only one person could ride with TK in the ambulance, and he jumped forward.

"Mom, please," he begged.

Nancy immediately looked torn between not wanting to leave her baby boy and not wanting to separate the two brothers. She looked at Hiroaki, who studied her for a moment before nodding at Matt. The blonde sighed in relief and was about to climb into the ambulance when he hesitated and turned back toward the other digidestined who had followed them out. He walked up to Kari and gathered a trembling Patamon into his hands. Sora rubbed his arm comfortingly before he walked back over to the ambulance and climbed inside, taking TK's uninjured hand into his own.

"TK," Patamon whined quietly.

The paramedic did not even bat an eye, obviously thinking the small voice had been Matt. He ran his thumb comfortingly over his brother's knuckles, but whether he was trying to comfort his little brother or himself, he wasn't sure. He looked out toward the rest of the digidestined, unable to keep a brave face for them.

"We'll meet up with you at the hospital, Matt," Tai said immediately, letting him know that he wouldn't be alone.

"We'll all be there," Joe echoed, a grave look on his face.

The others nodded at this assessment as if they had managed to somehow talk about it beforehand.

Nancy was smoothing out TK's hair frantically, as if that would make all the difference, before placing a kiss to his forehead. "I love you, TK. Everything's going to be okay. Your brother's going to be right here with you. So, don't you worry about a thing." Her voice was wavering as she spoke, disrupting the air of calm that she was obviously trying to exude in front of both of her sons even while one was unconscious. Reluctantly, after one last kiss to TK's cheek and one that she spared for Matt as well, Nancy stepped out of the ambulance.

"We'll be right behind you," Hiroaki promised as he put a comforting arm around Nancy's shoulders.

And then the ambulance doors closed.