A few minutes later, Hank made his decision. He gently lifted Mike off the ground, then set off through the woods, carrying his wounded friend in front of him.
The hours passed slowly, and Hank kept up a steady stream of chatter to keep Mike awake. He moved as quickly as he could without jarring the injured man.
Hank established that they needed to go back the way they had come, but he was beginning to feel disoriented, and quickly realized that they had long since left the trail. I have no idea where we are. He thought wearily. He needed to clear his head.
He stopped and laid Mike on the ground, then knelt beside him. "What say we rest for a little while, pal?" he said, trying not to show the anxiety building inside him.
Hank honestly didn't know what to do. The sun was setting, it would be dark soon, and here he was lost in the woods with his best friend, who was in desperate need of medical attention.
As nighttime descended upon them, it brought with it the chill of the mountain air. Mike shivered as a gust of wind passed over them. Hank removed his overshirt and laid it over Mike as well as he could. He knew he could handle the cold better than Mike could right now.
It was too dark to travel now. "We'll stay here tonight." Hank told Mike. "We'll find help in the morning."
"Please, Cap." Mike gasped. "I'm…so…tired."
Hank knew what Mike was asking. "No, Mike." He said firmly. "I can't let you go to sleep. You know that. You've got to try and stay awake. Focus on something else. Uh…" he thought for a few seconds. "Tell me about when you were a kid. You've never really talked about it much."
Mike nodded. "I've…wanted to be…a fireman…my whole life. I…used to…imagine…driving one of the rigs…someday."
The night wore on as the two men exchanged stories. Hank did everything he could to distract Mike to make sure the younger man stayed awake. Of course this meant that Hank couldn't get any sleep either.
He found himself growing tired, but didn't allow it to show. The cold night wind whipped against his bare chest, chilling him to the core, but he didn't care. He had to stay strong, for Mike's sake. It was up to him to get them both out of this alive.
Seeing that Mike was starting to drift off, Hank once again nudged him gently to get his attention. "Mike," he said softly. "There's something I want to tell you."
"What?" Mike asked sleepily.
"When I was a kid," Hank began. "I was an only child. I always wanted a little brother. I begged my parents to give me a little brother, but they didn't want any more kids. Whenever I played with the other kids in the neighborhood, I was always the leader. I used to imagine what it would be like to have a little brother to be my assistant, my second-in-command. By the time I was a teenager, I had given up on the idea, I figured it would never happen."
He smiled. "But I was wrong. That wish came true when I was assigned to 51, when I met you." He placed his hand on Mike's shoulder. "You've become like that little brother I always wanted. I trust you, Mike. You've proven yourself to be the most reliable, hardworking man I've ever met. I couldn't ask for a better second-in-command."
Hank swallowed the lump in his throat. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Mike. I've come to rely on you when things get tough. I've never been able to figure out how it is that I can be freaking out about something, and you can stay so levelheaded."
"It's because," Mike replied with a weak smile. "I'm not…a paranoid maniac."
Hank laughed in spite of himself. "I guess that's it. But it's your levelheadedness that keeps me from going over the edge. If it weren't for you, I'd probably lose the rest of my sanity." He added, referring back to Mike's comment earlier that morning.
"Don't die, Mike." He pleaded. "I need you, little brother."
A/N: I wrote this chapter because I got to thinking about how the fans say that Johnny and Roy are like brothers, and I started thinking about Mike and Cap's friendship, and I realized that if the writers of the show had shown it more, it could have been the same thing.