It was almost four days before they were both awake at the same time. Virgil had only needed one pin in his leg and an extra pint of blood. John needed surgery to move two of his six broken ribs out of his lung cavity. Between the surgeries, the sedation and the check ups it took them a while to get into sync.
Two patients with such injuries wouldn't usually have been put in the same room, but a combination of Scott's natural charm and the reputation of International Rescue bent a few rules. There was a mostly constant flurry of family members in and out the room: partly for security and partly to ease their own worry. The doctors had to order them out at night to ensure the two were given time to rest, which gave the opportunity for the first private conversation since their rescue.
"How's the leg?" John asked, fiddling with the line that was still feeding fluid into his arm.
"About the same as your ribs probably." Virgil was being very, very careful not to move it. Not to avoid pain right now but to avoid disrupting any of the surgeons' careful work. "I'm sorry about that by the way."
"I told you before, don't worry." John shifted slightly with a small wince, which didn't do much for Virgil's guilt.
"But if I'd had a bit more control you wouldn't be in nearly as bad a state." Virgil stated.
"And if I hadn't wanted to go to that damn observatory this wouldn't have happened in the first place." John countered.
"You can't blame yourself for an avalanche!"
"Then you can't blame yourself for a bad dream."
"You were the one who managed to send a signal to get us out."
"You were the one who managed to pull us behind that hut – we would have been swept away otherwise."
Virgil didn't remember that, though he supposed it could be possible. They had been running, and what with all the confusion... maybe John was telling the truth and maybe John was just trying to make him feel better. Virgil knew better than to ask: John was a master at giving away no more than he meant to, a key skill when trying to keep a rescuee calm when all might not be going to plan. And as much as he might hate the thought his brother was lying it did make him feel better.
Realising they were at an impasse – neither would let the other accept blame or go without due credit – Virgil decided to leave it. He would lie back and do everything the doctors said to get out of there as soon as possible. He wasn't about to start an argument about stubbornness when it was that stubbornness that had kept them both alive.
They were told they were lucky: no hypothermia, no infection, no pneumonia, no frostbite. Battered and bruised, with mild concussion and low body temperatures but they walked away from the hospital a few days later. Sort of. Virgil used crutches and John couldn't lower himself into a chair without assistance, but they walked away to fly another day.
Thank you all for reading and for your reviews - they really helped to keep me motivated to finish this.
I'm not really happy with the ending - this is far from the first version and it was starting to frustrate me so I just wanted to get it wrapped up. I may rewrite at some point if I get some inspiration...… but for now, thank you and I hope you enjoyed!