I'm sorry this has taken ages. My break from writing was longer than I thought, but I'm glad to have time to do so again. I've had so many ideas for these two since November, especially with their new and upcoming storyline, so I hope to have those written up soon.

Anyway I hope you like chapter two.

Cal made his career choice at a young age.

Ethan knew his before he was aware of it.

The right choice? Maybe. But once they'd taken it, it was their life.

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

― Mae West

It became normal to see Cal attached to his brother, with little chance of tearing him away.

"Caleb," His father called one morning. He'd taken a day off and planned to spend it with all of the family. His wife though, had claimed that was not quite possible as Ethan had turned out to be unwell, so it would just be him and Caleb, "We're going."

Cal had no answer. He was stood looking over his brother, wrapped up in a white blanket with a teddy bear to his left. He didn't want to wake the finally sleeping baby, whose crying had kept him up with worry for part of the night.

"Caleb!" The elder son could hear his mother saying something about not shouting for Ethan's sake. It didn't matter anyway, for the loud call had woken his brother and Cal had to momentarily shut his eyes to quell the anger he was beginning to feel towards his father. It seemed to increase along with his age.

"Leave him be." His mother's voice was raised now and Cal shut the door to Ethan's room in the hope of blocking out part of the argument, and hopefully a lot of the noise.

"It's alright, I'm here," Cal assured, taking a hold of Ethan's little hand, "Your brother's here."

There was a moment of peace, of tranquility.

"Get your shoes on." The door opening put an end to that.

"No," Caleb answered defiantly, still not having let go of Ethan's hand, "I'm not going."

"Caleb, get downstairs and-"

"Oh, be silent or go downstairs by yourself." Mrs Hardy interrupted as she pushed her way past her husband and picked up her crying child, a hand momentarily resting on Cal's shoulder before she did. For a moment there was silence, except for her gentle cooing to the little boy.

"Are we going or not?"

"What do you think?" Cal just watched his parents exchange, "Why don't you just go for a drive, Cal can stay here with Ethan and I."

Strangely, his father left without a word, but the starting of the car engine was enough to show what he felt.

Caleb watched his mother as she looked out of the window, rocking Ethan. He walked over to stand at her side and followed her eye line. The street was peaceful, more importantly, the sky was peaceful. Ethan had stopped crying, seemingly having fallen back asleep and Cal smiled.

"We should put a chair here," His mother began after a moment, "It seems most peaceful, it might even have helped calm your brother."

"It would be nice," He replied, "We could all sit together and look out," He knew he would like that and he hoped Ethan might too, "We could have a window seat."

"That's a nice suggestion." Cal liked his mothers praise.

By the time Mr Hardy returned, Cal was in bed, his mother having put him there when Ethan once again moved into a state of unrest. He listened to their distant chatter and attempted to make out what he could, but the longer he stayed in bed, the closer sleep pulled him. He looked to his calender where a date was circled: the date of Ethan's birthday, his first birthday. Thirteen days.

Sleep hooked his eyes and he fell asleep looking at the calender.

When he woke in the morning, it was to a quieter household. His father would be at work, but his mother had created a habit of bringing him breakfast in bed in the summer holidays. Of course the five year old knew this would change as she also had Ethan to care for now, but it was unusual for her not to wake him. He got up, and ventured to the hall. Immediately he headed towards Ethan's room and sure enough, he was right to have done so, for his mother stood there, peering down at Ethan with a slight edge of worry to her eyes.

"Mum?" He asked, as he poked his head around the door.

"Oh, Caleb, I'm sorry I should have woken you."

"It's alright," He stepped further into the room, stopping next to Ethan's cot, "Is he alright?"

"Your father says not to worry," "He's sure he'll be fine."

"I heard you last night," He hadn't, well he'd heard their mutterings and for once wondered why they could't have raised their voices over their concerns for his little brother, "Sort of."

"He's fine, Cal."

"What if he's not?"

"It's not like you to worry." She was right, he wasn't an easily worried child, though his brother was the epitome of his life now and worry was something which applied to the younger.

"I worry about him."

"He'll be alright," She answered, "He's got you, after all."

Cal nodded, "I'll always look after him," He would keep that promise, "He's my brother."

"He is indeed."

By the evening, Cal was sat with his Aunt. She'd brought some sweets around with her - a usual occurrence when she visited, since Cal was old enough to eat sweets - as well as some DVDs. Cal wasn't watching them, nor was he eating the sweets. His Aunt had fallen asleep and the silence of the house was almost deafening after near on a year of Ethan's presence.

He left the living room, unable to bear the ridiculous child's film (he knew he was a child, but he no longer felt like one what with his new responsibilities of having a brother to care for) and travelled upstairs. The nursery room was silent as a Cal ventured inside he looked around and wondered what these walls would one day be changed to when Ethan was older and had likes and dislikes of his own. It took a while to move the ottoman chest to be by the window, but once it was done, that was where he sat. The night sky was dark and filled with few stars and in all the time he sat there, he only noticed to. The moon was recently new, so there was little of it to be seen and the deep blue behind it reminded him of the dress his mother had worn out the first time his parents left him in his Aunts care. She wasn't much like her sister, but Cal saw something of his mother in her.

He couldn't sleep.

The conditions weren't right anymore, because there would be no crying tonight, no waking and getting up to see whatever the problem - or lack of - may be and it upset him more than it possibly should. When he finally did fall asleep, it was on new conditions. He sat reading over and over, whilst holding the teddy bear that permanently sat in Ethan's cot. He remembered shopping with his mother the day she chose it; he'd helped.

Waiting was the hardest thing, or felt like the hardest thing he'd ever done up to this point.

His father had been wrong. Ethan was not 'alright' and something more was wrong as his mother had decided when she called her sister, demanded she looked after Cal, phoned her husband to tell him to stay at work after his shift as she would be joining him when she brought Ethan to the hospital, and left in a taxi with the one thing Cal really valued out of everything he'd ever had. Ethan was not his 'families' as such, he was 'his'. He was Cal's little brother and no one else could ever hold that title, nor take it away from him and he would be dammed if he let them.

So he waited.

He waited and watched for any sign of the sleek black car he one day wished to own.

He waited all night, even if he was asleep for half of it.

When he woke, it was to his mother's calming presence. She was sat beside him on the make shift window seat and beamed when he woke.

"Come on sleepy head, lets get you ready."

"Where's Eth?" It was his first question; the most important question.

"He's alright, darling, he's in the hospital, your father stayed so I could come home and get you."

"He's alright?"

"Yes," She answered, desperate to make him believe her, for she knew he hadn't yesterday and rightly so in the end, "Yes, he's fine."

"Really this time?"

"Really this time," Cal breathed a sigh of relief, "Come on, lets go and see him."

He nodded and took her hand.

Their Aunt came too and spoke in earnest conversation with Mr Hardy once they reached the hospital. Cal didn't want to know what they were talking about. It didn't matter. His mother led him straight to Ethan ad released his hand only when they where in the room. For a whole day, Cal was unmovable. He'd brought with him the bear and placed it next to his brother, taking a hold of the almost one year old child's small and delicate hand, watching as his little brother gripped his fingers around his thumb, with no signs of letting go.

"Hey, little brother," It seemed a sensible way to begin, "I'm glad you're alright." His mother was smiling the whole time. For never had she thought Cal would take to having a sibling this well, after all she knew many who hadn't, but it seemed her boys weren't the same.

"He had a fever," His mother told him after a few minutes silence, "Nothing to worry about now though, they're sure he's alright."

"You said dad thought he was alright."

"Well, your father was wrong and that's what I was telling him last night."

"I'm glad you did." He answered before looking back to Ethan.

Hours had passed when his father left to drop his Aunt home. His mother left the room briefly to say goodbye to her sister and see them out to the car and it was in those minutes that Cal made a promise, a decision on his life.

"I'm going to become a doctor," He paused for a moment, thinking over his words without them even registering, his mind on autopilot as to what he was going to spout out, "I'm going to be able to look after you by myself, we won't need anyone else," Ethan's small grip appeared to get tighter, though that could always have been Cal's imagination, "It will be you and me, Eth."

At that moment, nothing was going to stop him, no matter what might come his way later.

There you go, chapter two. I'm sorry it's really late in terms of when I first uploaded this story, but now I'm back I hope my updates will be more regular than they have been the past few months.

I hope you liked it and thanks for all the support on my other stories, I'm glad you all like them and Ethan&Caleb as much as I do. x