AUTHOR'S NOTE:

A big thank you for the wonderful support so far. Thank you: Gillian Kearney Fan, Fanfiction.79, Guest, BluePeacock, Thay, hilly and brittanynay for your lovely reviews. It means a lot to me and thank you to the readers. :)

Enjoy this next chapter. :)

Chapter 2 – Big Brother's make mistakes

Brax sat on the couch before school, bouncing his six month old baby brother on his lap. Heath stood back and watched, he wanted desperately to play with Casey too, but Cheryl had warned him not to pick up Casey without supervision because he was too young to handle him properly.

"Darryl, have you got everything ready for school?" Cheryl yelled.

Brax was having just too much fun with baby Casey, he just longed for the day to be over so he could play with him again. Brax loved the baby so.

"Yeah Mum!" Brax yelled and pulled a cheeky smiling face at baby Casey.

"Well get a move on boys! I ain't having social services get on me back because my boys don't go to school," Cheryl said as she walked into the living room.

Brax gave Casey a kiss on his soft baby hair and placed him back in his bassinet. Brax rushed over to Heath, and gently slapped his arm.

"Come on mate, grab your bag," Brax instructed and grabbed his own school bag and Heath followed suit; glancing at Casey as he followed Brax towards the door.

"Bye Mum!" Brax yelled.

"Bye boys; behave yourselves!" Cheryl yelled.

Brax closed the front door and wrapped his arm around Heath's shoulder, only for Heath to shrug him off.

"Brax, I don't need you holding me while we go to the bus stop. I'm not a baby; it's embarrassing. I'm a big brother too," Heath said with determination.

Brax laughed. Ever since Casey was born and Brax told Heath he'd be a big brother Heath had been trying to act older and mature; or so he thought.

"Nup, you're still my little brother and I'm gonna look out for you," Brax asserted.

Brax finally took his hand away from Heath when they reached the bus stop. The two didn't have to wait long before the school bus approached and they hopped on, sitting next to each other on the way to school.

At school the boy's parted ways to go to their own classroom, but by the end of the day Brax was waiting at the school gate to head home with his little brother.

"How was school today, mate?" Brax asked, as they rode home on the bus.

"It was okay. The teacher made us do some stupid spelling test though," Heath complained.

"Yeah; and how did you go?"

Heath shrugged, "I got some right, but some were real hard," Heath explained.

The bus pulled up just a few streets away from the Braxton home and hoping off, Brax and Heath made their way home.

"Hi Mum!" Brax shouted, as he walked through the door.

Heath slung his bag on the floor and watched as Brax walked over to Casey in his bassinet.

"Hi little Champ," Brax smiled.

"Darryl, can you come and help me in the laundry, with the washing and folding of the clothes," Cheryl requested.

"Sure Mum; Heath sit down and do your homework, okay."

Heath groaned but grabbed his homework sheets and sat down at the table in the living room.

While Brax was in the laundry room helping his Mum, Heath kept turning to smile at Casey while he doing his homework. Casey was playing with the toys dangling above him with a smile upon his tiny face.

The happy baby cheered the middle brother up, making for a much better distraction than doing stupid homework, or so Heath thought.

Casey kept reaching his arms out and kicking. Heath listened and glanced around, but Cheryl and Brax were busy. 'It can't be that hard to handle you,' Heath thought, as he put his pencil down and walked over to the bassinet.

"I bet you'd like to play huh, and get out of there?" Heath whispered; gently touching his fingers along Casey's chest.

Casey waved and flapped his tiny hands in the air. Heath smiled and carefully picked Casey up from the bassinet. 'This isn't so bad. I can hold him,' Heath thought. Casey was pretty light; at least for now.

Heath sat down on the couch and held onto Casey's wrists just like Brax had, and bounced Casey on his lap. Baby Casey gave a gurgling smile.

All the excitement of playing and Heath feeling like a big brother, made Heath lose focus and Casey's weight became too much. Casey slipped off Heath's legs, and the older boy couldn't hold on; losing his grip on Casey and causing the baby to fall two foot from the floor.

Casey immediately started to scream and Heath stared horrified, quickly kneeling down over his brother.

"Casey, please stop crying; I didn't mean it," Heath panicked. He didn't know what to do.

"Casey please, it's okay; big brother's here. Come on Casey, you'll get me in trouble for playing with ya when I wasn't supposed to," Heath pleaded.

Heath was too terrified to touch his baby brother because he didn't know how to handle him properly and safely. The more Casey cried the more scared Heath became. 'What if I really hurt him?' Heath panicked.

Tears threatened Heath's eyes and he gasped when he turned around to see Brax and Cheryl rushing towards him and Casey.

"My baby; what's going on!?" Cheryl demanded, grabbing baby Casey from the floor and rocked him in her arms, in attempts to comfort the youngest.

"I...I didn't mean to hurt him," Heath stuttered, shifting his gaze between Cheryl and Brax.

"What were you doing?!" Cheryl demanded, as she stared down at her middle son and cradled the baby in her arms.

"I...I only wanted to play with him," Heath whispered and took note of the disapproving look on his older brother's and Mother's face.

"Casey is just a fragile baby Heath and you've been told not to handle him on your own. You are an irresponsible child and you are lucky there seems to be no physical injuries on him," Cheryl scolded sternly.

Heath felt hurt and spun around; quickly racing out the back door.

"Heath!" Brax called out to his brother watching him disappear.

Brax was torn between chasing after Heath, and letting him cool off.

"Mum, why did you say that?" Brax asked and approached Cheryl and Casey and gently ran his hand along Casey's soft head.

Casey had since settled his crying.

"Don't start with me Darryl. That boy could have seriously injured your brother."

"Yeah but he didn't Mum and maybe he had a reason for handling Casey," Brax tried to defend.

"Darryl, Heath knows he is to come to me, or even you if something is wrong with the baby; not to handle things himself and he clearly explained he only wanted to play with Casey," Cheryl's words stopping any more protests from the oldest Braxton.

Brax sighed and decided it was best to go find Heath and so walked out the back door to search for the distraught boy.

Brax walked down to the end of the road to a vacant block of land where a lot of people in the street dumped their unused appliances. Brax and Heath used to play there before Casey was born. Brax walked over to some large hollow pipes and half knelt down, looking inside.

"Thought I'd find you here," Brax said softly.

Heath gave a sniffle. He had his knees at his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around them.

"Leave me alone," Heath mumbled.

Brax crawled inside and sat beside him.

"I said leave me alone," Heath repeated.

"Not happening, mate. You know you shouldn't run off like that," Brax said firmly, but in a caring big brother way.

Heath shrugged. "I'm not meant to do a lot. I'm an irresponsible child," Heath mumbled Cheryl's words and wiped his eyes.

Brax gave Heath's shoulder a squeeze. "Come on Heath. Don't be like that. Mum didn't mean it."

Heath sniffed, "I didn't mean to hurt him. I wanted to play with him and be a good big brother like you."

"Aw Heath; you are a good big brother, but what also makes a good big brother is listening and doing the right thing to make sure the younger brother is safe," Brax explained and gently rubbed Heath's shoulder.

"Look, maybe I'm to blame too; I shouldn't have been playing with Casey on my lap like I was this morning; that only sets a bad example for you."

Heath glanced up at Brax, listening to his words and making connections on him as a big brother and Brax as a big brother; they make mistakes.

"Will I be allowed to play with Casey ever again?" Heath mumbled.

Brax smiled, "Yeah of course you will mate, but just with me until he's older, okay?" Heath nodded.

"Let's go home," Brax encouraged.

Heath was hesitant, but Brax had his younger brother by the wrist and guided him out of the pipe.

When Brax walked through the back door still holding Heath's wrist, Heath looked down ashamed when he noticed Cheryl sitting on the couch with Casey in her arms.

"Mum: Mum, I'm sorry," Heath whispered.

"Heath, come here," Cheryl ordered quietly, so as not to wake Casey.

Heath approached his mother and sat down on the couch. "Is Casey okay Mum?" Heath asked.

"He's fine Heath." Cheryl pulled Heath towards her in a quick hug.

"It was an accident I swear," Heath explained.

Cheryl stroked Heath's hair. "Still, you need to do as your told Heath. Casey is very vulnerable and could get seriously injured."

"I promise I won't ever do anything to hurt my little brother again; I love him Mum," Heath promised; leaning up to look at his baby brother.

Cheryl smiled and gave Heath a light slap on his thigh. "Off you go."

Heath got up and ran towards Brax who was watching from the kitchen with his arms folded.

"I didn't ruin our baby brother!" Heath beamed.

Brax smiled, resting his hand on Heath's shoulder. "See I told you it would all be okay. You're a good big brother," Brax announced, causing Heath to smile.

"You finished your homework mate?" Brax asked.

Heath shrugged, "No."

Brax gave a small frown towards his brother. "Go and finish it 'ey. It'll be dinner time soon."

Heath sat back down at the table to finish his homework, giving a final glance towards his baby brother asleep back in his bassinet. Scribbling on his homework papers Heath couldn't get the thought out of his head; he was going to prove to his Mum and brother that he would be the best big brother and help look after Casey and protect him, no matter what.