For as long as she could remember Susan Heffley had always believed in God. She didn't quite know why, she just knew that she did.

Her parents had never been religious and she had never been on the receiving end of anything particularly miraculous or spectacular but there had never been any doubt in her mind that there was someone or something watching over her.

Some people found her devotion to her faith unnerving, always searching for some sort of catalyst, not truly believing that someone could just believe because they wanted to and not because they had been brainwashed.

Even holding her comatose son's hand she believed. Even watching her eldest son leave home for two years for no apparent reason she had believed. Even weeping by her father's casket she had believed.

So it could have been said that if anyone was deserving of a miracle it was Susan Heffley. Even so as she got down on her knees and bowed her head in the hospital chapel she wasn't really expecting anything to happen. And it didn't, when she lifted her head nothing had changed and as she returned to her son's bed she accepted that nothing had changed there either. Oh well she thought, maybe god was transcendent after all or maybe he was just really busy with people who needed him more at the moment, it didn't matter, she didn't blame him.

She stared at her sons seemingly sleeping face and realised with an unpleasant jolt that it was the first expression of pure peace she had seen on his face in a very long time. She studied his features intently, determined to ingrain every last detail into her memory just in case he… she never got an opportunity to look at him properly again.

He was such a handsome boy and with his pale face and shock of dark hair he was incredibly striking, she knew it wasn't just motherly love talking, she had heard the young girls giggling and whispering when he walked past, it was a pity he didn't take any interest in them whatsoever.

Out of all her sons, she held a soft spot for Greg, she wasn't sure why, maybe because after the nightmare that was Rodrick she hadn't expected to have a child who was so very wonderful, he was polite and attentive, his grades were fantastic and although he could be clumsy and gullible, it only served to highlight the innocence of his heart.

A single tear dripped down her cheek and onto the pale blue bed covers. As she looked him over she knew that Greg Heffley had been absent for a lot longer than three days and she swore that if, when, he woke up she would bring him back properly, back to when he was happy.

She rested her head on the edge of the bed and closed her eyes, she was exhausted but she refused to be anywhere but right by his side. She gave his hand one last squeeze before slipping into a fitful sleep.A sudden, barely there twitch against her hand slammed her back into consciousness. Another twitch, Susan Heffley's hand reached for the call button. A low pained groan, so quiet she might of imagined it. Another twitch more violent this time, as his body convulsed to the left, this time the groan was not quiet at all.

"Greg, Greg honey, calm down. You'll be alright, just calm down."

Cerulean blue eyes opened painfully slowly and the confusion and pain in them sent a stab of agony to her heart. But he was awake, her boy, her baby was awake and the only thought in her head was thank you god thank you. Susan Heffley had gotten her miracle.

Greg listened in shocked awe as his father calmly informed him he had been hit by a truck. He could practically hear Rodrick's silent laughter from across the room.

"W-what, are you kidding me, dad how is that even, I don't …?"He tried to get his head around the fact but it just didn't make any sense, it was like wading through treacle, slow and frustrating, not to mention humiliating. Greg suspected his confusion had something to do with the high levels of morphine being pumped into his blood stream.

"Can you really not remember it at all?" Greg tried to concentrate on that day but everything after storming from the house was a snowy noisy blur. He shook his head, wincing at the soreness in his neck. His father placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, while a young woman with mousy brown hair scribbled furiously on his chart. When she spoke her voice had a nasal brittle quality that put Greg in mind of fingernails down a chalk board.

"Well, Dr Moody says that if we can get you out of bed within the next few days and then slowly progress to walking around the ward, you should be home in next to no time, I just need to take your blood pressure and then were done here." Walking? What were these people on, he had only woken up a day ago and now, the minute they knew there was nothing life threatening wrong with him they wanted him out!

"Oh that's brilliant news isn't it Greg? Will you be okay on your own for a bit I need to go and pick your mother up, it took enough to get her to go home at all, if I'm late bringing her here she won't leave!" Greg nodded, faking a smile as he watched his father walk out the door.

The minute he was gone he made a noise of distress and slumped back onto the pillows, might as well lie back while I still can, he thought bitterly. He knew it was a necessity to get walking but he was scared of the pain he knew would come with it and the fear made him childish.

The young nurse gave him a sympathetic smile, he only scowled in return, it was her job to deal with grumpy teenagers he reasoned as her face fell slightly at his disdain.

"Mr Heffley, I know it sounds like a lot right now but your injuries will only get worse if you sit on them!" When he made no effort to respond she advanced on him with the blood pressure cuff. As she strapped it to his arm he noticed that her attention seemed …elsewhere? Or he realised as he followed her eyes to the corner of the room, her attention was most definitely somewhere.

But it most certainly wasn't on her job; no it was on a very Rodrick shaped somewhere. He almost laughed, wouldn't that just be the icing on the cake if Rodrick seduced his nurse!

She wasn't nearly pretty enough for him in fact with her watery eyes and mousy hair she was really rather plain, but Rodrick had never been particularly fussy about what he was putting his dick inside.

Greg burned with the injustice of it all, On top of ruining his chances with Holly, embarrassing him in church and practically being the reason he was in hospital he was now compromising his medical care by getting off with his nurse, well that was just fucking awesome.

"Julia?" It took Greg a moment to realize that Rodrick was not only talking to his nurse but seemed to be on first name basis with her. Wonderful. "I don't know much about medicine but isn't that supposed to go on his upper arm not his elbow. "The nurse giggled in an embarrassed way, securing the cuff on his arm with an over dramatic and spectacularly lame flourish. Greg wondered if even Rodrick would stoop this low.

"Yes, very amusing Julia, I'm sure your supervisors would be splitting their sides to hear that you can't even perform a basic medical check. Next time pay attention to your patient and not his brother hmm?" Stunned silence filled the room, both Julia and Greg momentarily silenced by the undiluted venom in his voice.

It was a tone Rodrick only adopted when he was murderously angry. A tone he was sure many people didn't even know existed. Greg almost felt sorry for the nurse being on the receiving end of Rodrick's wrath. Almost, but not quite. The young nurse flushed a violent shade of red and mumbled her apologies, Greg could have almost sworn she applied a little more pressure than was needed to his arm but then again, he was hyper sensitive to touch at the moment and it didn't help that literally every inch of him was marred by nasty purple and yellow bruises.

"All-all fine here, I'll be back in two hours to check on you again. I'll err leave you to it then." Rodrick let out a low chuckle as the girl fled the room and Greg was reminded once again of how inherently evil Rodrick was. Still, he had sort of helped him out back there, and even though he was about 85% sure Rodrick had turned on the nurse more for his own amusement rather than Greg's well-being, it had still been an almost nice thing that Rodrick had done.

"Thanks for that, I appreciated it." Rodrick blanched and raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Greg smiled internally relishing in being able to break Rodrick's composure even if it was at the risk of his own pride.

"Seriously, you're thanking me? Clearly the doctors forgot to check for head trauma."

"Very funny Rodrick, I said thank you, take it or leave it, I couldn't care less. I just want to sleep right now." To prove his point Greg closed his eyes and pulled the flimsy blue covers up round his chin.

"You've done nothing but sleep for the past four days, from what I remember you were always an annoyingly chirpy early bird." He could hear the smirk in Rodrick's voice, apparently goading someone in a hospital bed was not beyond his moral boundaries. If Rodrick even had any.

"In case you hadn't noticed it's been two years. People change. Besides I just got hit by a freaking truck; I think I'm allowed to be a little bit lazy right now." Rodrick didn't say anything for a long time and Greg's words, so laced with implications hung thickly in the air. He squeezed his eyes tight shut wanting to pluck the words out of the atmosphere and shove them back into his stupid careless brain.

"Yeah I guess so. Doesn't feel like so long to me. Maybe time moves faster in Florida. I'm going to the cafeteria to get a coffee, you want anything?" Greg said nothing, pretending to be asleep, it was easier that way. Rodrick heaved a sigh and Greg heard the sounds of a chair being pushed back and rubber soles squeaking on the linoleum. He waited until he was sure Rodrick was gone to open his eyes. His throat felt tight and the edges of his vision grew hot and blurry. He tipped his head upwards in an attempt to stop the tears that had gathered in his eyes from falling.

That was the first vaguely civil conversation he'd had with his brother in 1 and a half years and it had made the hollow in his chest ache like nothing he'd ever felt before. He hated his brother. He hated every fibre of him from the unruly hairs on his head to the chequered slip-ons adorning his stupid size 8 feet. But by god had he missed him, and now he was back, he still missed him, because it was different and it was wrong and it was ripping him apart from the inside out.

And he couldn't tattle on Rodrick for causing him this kind of hurt because no one would ever understand and how could he expect them to when he didn't even understand it himself.

A yawn escaped his lips and he realised that he really was very tired. Sleep came to him soon after that swallowing his worries and wiping the pain away.

Although Greg had never been one for rash judgements he felt safe in the knowledge that after one week in hospital he now despised the place with all his heart. It was too white and too clean and in his opinion it didn't matter how many hang in there kiddo posters you plastered on the walls it was still fucking miserable.

During the day he was bored out of his mind, apart from when he went on his walks and then he was too busy concentrating on not fainting to have any sort of thoughts that weren't one foot in front of the other, but at night, all he could hear was crying. Sometimes it was a tiny baby screaming at the top of its lungs, others it was a little kid on the ward sobbing in pain. The specifics didn't matter all he knew was it bothered him a lot. So naturally he was completely delighted when he was discharged.

"You'll need to go home in an ambulance but I didn't think you'd have any troubles with that, most of our younger patients find it quite fun. You're under 16 so your mother will have to ride in the ambulance with you." The nurse, who had been looking after him ever since the Rodrick incident four days ago, beamed at him and Greg wondered how many horrible things she'd seen today to make one patient going home make her light up.

Greg had decided straight away that he liked her and her presence had made the torturously slow journey's round the ward bearable. He decided he would send her a thank you card or something when he was recovered. Once his mother had finished her tearful thankyous, which took a substantial amount of time, and had phoned his father who was at home with Manny, a problem made itself evident.

A problem which manifested itself in the form of Rodrick. His brother, who had been sitting in the corner being quiet as he had done for most of the time he had spent in the hospital, cleared his throat and stood up.

"So if mom's going home in the ambulance, who's taking the car home and how am I getting back." His mom shot Rodrick a cold look, one usually reserved for bad behaviour, clearly she didn't appreciate Rodrick stamping all over her happy moment.

"Your father can pick you up, it'll be fine!"

"We live 100 miles away from the hospital, he'll have to drive here to get me and then he'll have to drive back again to get the car, that's kind of stupid. Why don't I drive the car home?" Ah there was the ulterior motive he knew so well.

"Oh no, no, no. There is no chance you are driving that car 100 miles young man, you're not insured to drive it and I've seen the damage you do to that van! You can come with me and Greg in the ambulance." Rodrick looked furious.

"I'm afraid that's not possible Mrs Heffley, there's only room for one additional person in the ambulance. Why don't you drive home and your son can take your place in the ambulance with Greg?" Suddenly Greg didn't like the nurse so much anymore.

"Well, I suppose that could work, you'll make sure he's okay, won't you Rodrick?" Greg considered staging a loud protest, but he knew it would be ignored. A look of pain crossed Rodrick's face and Greg could see the internal battle, keep up the act and be a good son were locked in fierce combat with really not wanting to help.

"Yeah sure, I'll go with him, mom. You don't need to worry." The look the nurse and his mom gave Rodrick was nauseating. So was the ten minute journey on a stretcher from his room to the ambulance. Every bump made him hiss in pain and the prospect of a journey with Rodrick made him want to hurl. The paramedic, a bulky man of about 40 who had a thick Brooklyn accent, lifted the stretcher into the ambulance and strapped everything in.

"Don't want you sliding around in here, do we. Who's riding with him?" Rodrick gave a nod and the man gestured to a black seat near Greg's head. As the doors slid shut and his mother disappeared from view, Greg wanted to cry, whenever he was left alone with Rodrick bad things happened. Correction, bad things happened to him, Rodrick always came out unscathed.

Greg didn't have long to dwell on his self-pitying thoughts however as the ambulance began to move, the pain was everywhere, in every fibre of him making him want to cry out, he kept his mouth tightly shut and tried to employ some of the breathing tricks he had been taught when he had broken his foot at camp 3 years ago. But oh god it hurt, he couldn't help but let the tiniest whimper of pain escape. Rodrick, who had been staring out of the window, leaned over him slightly, an unreadable look in his dark eyes.

"What's wrong?" Rodrick's words sounded wooden and forced. Greg dug his nails into his palm hard enough to draw blood. He said nothing, he knew if he opened his mouth he wouldn't be able to hold back from crying.

"Greg, I asked you what was wrong!" Rodrick's voice had an edge to it; He hated being ignored. A hand pressed into his shoulder causing the pain to amplify. He let out a strangled sob, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Rodrick snatched his hand back, clearly not expecting such a strong reaction. But the floodgates had been opened and Greg couldn't stop the sobs that wracked his small frame. Rodrick looked mildly panicked, not used to seeing his brother cry when it wasn't at his hand. A small frown made its way onto his face.

"Stop digging your nails into your hands, you're making yourself bleed."

"Like you c-care!" Rodrick rolled his eyes

"I'm your brother. You need to calm down" Greg closed his eyes and took deep breaths, they were on the freeway now and the pain had subsided a substantial amount, he managed to get his sobs under control and now they were little more than occasional hiccups. He could get through this. Suddenly the driver braked abruptly and the pain came back in full force. His eyes flew open and with our thinking the grabbed Rodrick's hand in a death grip. He dug his nails in and Rodrick hissed. Realizing what he had done Greg let his arm fall limply to his side. Not a minute later he felt Rodrick's warm hand lock with his again.

"I'd rather you dug your nails into me than yourself. Mom would kill me if she thought I hadn't looked after you properly." Oddly enough having Rodrick's fingers around his own, whilst being totally weird, was comforting and he was soon calm enough to speak , it felt wrong to break the silence but how long would it be before he had his brother alone and In a halfway decent mood? Probably never. He decided to test the waters.

"Since when do you care what mom thinks? Maybe you just can't stand to see me cry, I am your baby brother after all. "Rodrick glared at him but made no move to release his hand.

"Don't flatter yourself and if you tell anyone about this, the pain of being hit by a truck will be like getting a massage compared to what I will do to you." Although Rodrick was threatening him, Greg was pleased, he preferred this Rodrick, the real Rodrick to the simpering suck up he turned into around everyone else. In a fucked up way he felt almost privileged that he was the one Rodrick revealed his true nature to.

"I'm terrified, really, I am." Greg quipped. Rodrick brought his face closer.

"You should be."