"I've watched you slowly winding down for years
You can't keep on like this"

Speeding Cars-Imogen Heap

May 15th.

The smell of coffee wafted from Izzy's kitchen. Matt was thankful for Izzy's forethought. He was up all night in thought about TK. Matt knew this was right and it was a long time coming, but after last week, he was nervous for how TK would react.

Matt looked out at the rest of DigiDestined in the living room. He wondered how much they knew about TK's troubles. His eyes fell on Kari. The two were inseparable. If anyone knew, it would be his brother's best friend.

He shook his head, walking into the kitchen. The mugs were stacked beside the coffee maker, allow Matt to help himself to one. He poured himself a cup, neglecting any cream or sugar in favor of black. He wasn't drinking it for the flavor; he was drinking it to exist.

Matt stopped his sip at that thought. He had sounded just like his brother: drinking to survive. While there was a stark difference between their choice of drink, the thought alone was enough to startle him. He looked down at the coffee and sighed.

Rejoining to group in the living room, Matt sat down on the arm of the couch, unable to drink his coffee anymore.

"Aren't we missing someone?" Mimi voiced, looking around the group.

The rest of the DigiDestined looked around, trying to solve the mystery of who was missing.

"Hey, where's TK?" Cody asked.

Matt felt their eyes fall on him, as if he was his brother's keeper. He winced, realizing he had become TK's keeper.

"Um..." He trailed off, rubbing the back of his head. How could he tell them what was going on gently? No one would ever expect this from little TK. "I told him to come in a half hour."

Tai's eyebrow furrowed, a frustrated look coming across his face. "Well, what did you do that for?"

Matt sat down his mug on the coffee table and jumped up from the couch, beginning to pace. He bit his lips, trying to find the words to say. He was never the word person, despite being in a band. TK always had the right words to say. And even if Matt did know what to say, he didn't know how to say them. This was personal and delicate.

Tai noticed how upset Matt looked, not having seen him this nervous since they lost TK back in the Digital World. It scared his best friend. "Matt, is everything okay?"

The blonde sighed, continuing to walk around the room. With every footstep he took, he got more nervous. He started playing with his hands, cracking each finger. He exhaled loudly and stopped by the TV stand. "You all love TK. You've never treated him like he was a little kid, even when he was so much younger than us. You let him stand his own ground and fight like the rest of us."

The older DigiDestined nodded, agreeing with Matt's statement.

Matt looked out on the balcony off into the city. He couldn't look at them or he would remember the young, lively little kid TK once was. "Well, TK's gotten into a lot of… adult trouble."

Sora eyed the older boy, annoyed with how cryptic he was being. "What do you mean by 'adult trouble?'"

Matt licked his lip, squinting out into the sun. "You have to promise me that when I tell you this, you won't look at him any different way." He turned his attention back to the living room, putting on the most serious face he had. "I'm serious, guys. This is still the same TK we all know and love. I need you to remember that."

The group was officially concerned. Matt was always one to remember how important friendship was to them, but if he had to reiterate that their view of TK shouldn't change, then it was something life-altering.

Another deep sigh came from Matt's mouth. He wished he could just come out and say what was wrong with his brother, but it felt like a betrayal. Any time TK was too drunk to leave a house, any time he was too drunk to go home, Matt was always the one to be there, the only one. Matt wasn't even sure the DigiDestined his age knew what was going on.

Tai interrupted his thoughts, "Matt, if there's something wrong with TK, we want to help." His arm swept across the room, including the rest of the group. "TK's part of the DigiDestined and we're always there for each other."

Matt gave an uneasy nod. He knew what Tai said was true, but it was still hard to admit it, even to himself. But these were TK's friends and they deserved to know. He exhaled again.

"Lately, TK has been… partying a lot more than usual." He licked his lips, relieved to have gotten even that smallest bit of information out. "I've been called to pick him up from numerous parties. He drinks way too much for a rebellious seventeen-year old."

Matt had to look at the ground to avoid seeing the faces of their friends. He didn't want to see the moment their thoughts about his little brother changed into some horrible, alcoholic monster.

"He's been drinking almost lethal amounts of liquor. I know; I've calculated," Matt continued. "I'm honestly surprised he hasn't had alcohol poisoning yet."

The room was quiet, taking in Matt's news. No one had ever expected TK to be the drinking type. Joe broke the silence, "How long as this been going on?"

The blonde just shook his head. "I'm not sure. I've been getting these calls for a few months now, but who knows how long before that." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I know his average number of shots is anywhere between ten and fifteen. The boy loves Bacardi more than anything."

Matt had to sit down, returning to the arm of the couch where he had started. He had never seen his brother drink, but the description alone put his mind into overdrive. He could picture his little brother knocking back shot glass after shot glass and shot-gunning beer cans. The image alone sent a shiver down his spine.

Cody handed Matt his coffee mug, to which Matt gave a curt nod in thanks. "I had to know more about what was happening to him. I went through his room." He threw his face into his hands, holding his head up on his knees. "I knew it was an invasion of privacy, but I had to know. I went through his closet, his desk, and under his bed." His knee started to shake, forcing him to lift his head back up. "He had three empty bottles of vodka and rum under his bed. Two were full in his closet. And his desk held at least four empty flasks. When I opened them, they were still wet, freshly used, and reeked of alcohol, not that I expected anything less."

He paused, trying to take another sip of the coffee. Dropping a bomb like this was hard enough for him to take in, and he had lived through it. He looked around, noticing the concern and uncomfortable expressions on their faces. It made him feel a little better, but not enough to ease his worry about how they would treat his brother.

"A few nights ago, I knew I couldn't keep this up," Matt continued, his knee still shaking. "He called me. He was scared. He said he needed me to come get him. When I asked where he was, he told me he was at home." Matt's face cringed. "I felt better thinking he was just a social drinker, but he was home, alone. I found him curled up on his bed with half a bottle of vodka in his arms. The room smelled of liquor, vomit, and weed. It was a trash heap."

Matt felt a hand grab his knee. He looked over towards the owner of the hand: Tai. He stopped jostling his knee and gave Tai another curt nod. Matt rubbed his eye, trying to get rid of the memory as he told it. "I don't even want to describe the condition I saw him in. He cried to me. He said he felt like he was dying, but… he begged me not to wake up Mom."

The sting of tears hit his eyes, something that was so unfamiliar until that night. The thought of TK like that made his heart break. "I… I didn't have a choice," Matt weakly exclaimed, looking at his friends for support. "I had to tell our mom. He wasn't okay; he's not okay."

For the first time that day, Matt realized that he hadn't said TK's name once when telling the stories. He questioned why, even though naming his brother specifically was necessary. But still, it was an interesting choice of wording.

Matt sighed, calming down from his outburst. That wasn't like him. He was calm, cool, and collected. He was the unfeeling, bad boy type. That's the character he always played on stage. But this was reality, not one of his band's concerts. And TK was more important than a gig. TK had a problem bigger than an out-of-character experience.

TK had a problem.

Matt realized why he never said his name: saying TK's name made the situation real.

Matt licked his lips and let out another audible sigh. "What I'm trying to say is…" He trailed off again, picking together the perfect words TK himself would have penned. "My brother needs help. This isn't some case of teenage rebellion. He's doing this for a reason."

Davis interrupted his thought. "Well, then, we'll help him! That's what friends do, right?"

Matt had to give a small smile for the younger boy's enthusiasm. It was refreshing to hear out of this pity-party he was having. Matt shook his head. "This isn't like the Digital World. We don't have some evil villain trying to destroy us all. This is TK's battle. We can't do it for him. He has to do it himself." He clasped his hands together and surveyed the room, taking in every concerned look and emotion-filled gaze.

"My mother and I decided the best thing to do for TK was to send him to rehab. I'm taking him tomorrow. This is his intervention."

AN: I decided to make this a back-and-forth past-and-present style upload. The date at the top of each chapter will tell you whether it is a flashback or the present time. Sorry if there is any confusion in the future.