Author's Note: and the plot thickens... XD

Thanks padfoot-rawr, superlc529, and shaolinqueen.

ENJOY!

----------------------------------------------------------

The next time he awoke the room was much darker. There was a dim light radiating softly to his right as he brought his hands to his eyes and began to rub them. He felt alot better then the first time he had came to. The pain in his back was nearly gone, only a mere ache now. That would probably change if he tried to move. He had more strength this time around too.

"Peter? Heidi?" He called out, his voice had more strength behind it as well. He dug his elbows into the mattress and began to pull himself into a sitting position. Aside from a twinge of pain from his shoulder blade there wasn't much more. He was relieved at the fact that he could actually do this on his own now.

"Heidi went home hours ago." Peter answered, as Natahn finally laid eyes on his younger brother. He was in the chair furthest from him, in the corner, sketchbook in one hand and pencil in the other.

"I'm going home." Nathan said starting to move towards the edge of the bed, swinging his feet over the edge. Peter was on his feet in an instant, looking alarmed.

"No you aren't ready yet." He said rushing over to him as Nathan tried to get to his feet but fell back onto the bed from a dizzy spell. Stood up too fast, He rationalized. He then felt hands on his shoulders, and he looked up to find Peter staring at him concerningly.

"I need to be with my family. Simon and Monty haven't seen me in days! And the election!" He growled with anger. He missed his boys, and his wife. The election was the last thing on his mind, but it couldn't help adding it to his list of reasons to go home.

"I'll let you go if you can take a deep breath without coughing." Peter said, standing his ground. Nathan inhaled deeply, but exhaling didn't go quite as planned. He started to choke, and cough, his arm instinctively raising to his chest pressing onto his chest, parallel to the area where on his back the gunshot was.

He felt his brother envelope him in an embrace, rubbing his back like he had done before. Nathan could do nothing except ride the painful hacking session out. Once again he was winded and aching again, the constant gnawing of pain beginning to creep back into the edges of his mind. With each breath he felt a hissing sound from his right lung, and felt it as well. The whole situation was uncomfortable.

"How were you able to draw the future?" He finally spoke up, asking a random question. Peter helped him bac onto the bed, into a laying down position.

"You know Isaac Mendez?" Peter asked, knowing he did. "Yea, he's dating the girl your pinning over." Nathan replied softly. "He can paint the future, I ran into him twice and Now I can do it as well." Peter explained to the best of his knowledge. Nathan silently breathed an 'Oh.'

"I've been trying to do it again, but I don't know how to access it." Peter sighed in frustration, picking up the leather bound sketchpad once more. He flipped it open and showed his recent excercises on the paper to his older brother.

"Maybe its' the future and you didn't realize it? You did push off the ones from before until they actually happened." Nathan suggested. He stopped at one particular picture and turned his head slightly to get a better view of it.

"Is that us?" He asked pointing to the two figures huddled against each other in what seemed to be a corner. There was a shadow casted over the two figures, only the faint outlines of the features showed through. The shadow was in a form of a man?

Peter hovered over his shoulder to see what Nathan was pointing out. "I don't remember drawing that." He said quietly astonished. It took up the entire 8x11 page of paper. He took the sketchbook from his brother and peered at it closely, inspecting the details. He was definitly the artist, he could tell.

"I think...that it's us." He said finally still staring at it. The two brothers where huddled up against each other, Nathan seemed to have his arms around himself, who was curled into a ball.

"What's going on?" He asked for no one to answer. Nathan watched him carefully as he dropped the book on Nathan's lap and ran his hands over his eyes and through his long black hair.

"Maybe those two men will come back for me and you just happen to be there?" Nathan hypothesized, as he started rubbing his neck in worry. This whole thing was far to bizarre.

"But it looks like your protecting me!" Peter shot back. Nathan sighed looking down at the sketch again. "Well I am your older brother. I am suppose to be the one protecting you anyways." Nathan replied simply, picking up the sketchbook once more.

"There's more." He said after turning the page to find another drawing. His confused face changed into a mortified one.

He couldn't even voice what he was seeing. What looked like to be himself lying in a pool of blood? (It was hard to tell when done in pencil). A right through the center of his head. His body was in the foreground, in an unusual position, his hands and feet were tied. In the background there were two figures. One on his knees and another standing over him with a gun pointed. Even if his back was facing him, Nathan knew that was Peter.

Peter stole the sketchbook away from him and looked at it. His confused expression also changed into the same one Nathan wore. He through the book down as if it burnt him.

"That can't be the future." Peter growled defensively.