"Looking good, Douglas," Donald praised, eyeing his brother's work on the Neural Retriever.

Douglas grinned, looking up from the helmet-like contraption. "Oh, thanks Donnie. I'm actually almost finished with the wiring – maybe 5 more minutes. How's it going with the program?"

"Good. The coding has been done, and I'll be able to upload it in a few minutes."

"Sounds like we might just have this thing fixed by the end of today!"

"Hopefully." A brief moment of silence followed as the inventors returned to their work. Finally, Donald said, "I wonder how the kids are doing on the mission."

"Speaking of, why aren't you monitoring them on the com. set?" Douglas asked.

"Leo broke a couple in his frenzy the last time there was a mission, and I hadn't gotten a chance to fix them." Donald paused to send a pointed glare at his step-son.

"Hey, that is not my fault!" Leo yelled from his Mission Specialist Desk, "You know my hands get clammy in high pressure situations!"

The billionaire just shook his head. "Anyway, we only had three working ones, so I figured Adam, Bree, and Chase could use them the most. Besides, I gave them instructions before they left, and they're pros. This is a simple mission. They should be able to handle it."

Suddenly, a huge blur raced into the lab, followed by a blast of wind. The blur stopped in the center of them room and was revealed to be Adam, Bree, and Chase.

Skipping the greetings, Adam urgently said, "Mr. Davenport, Chase needs help!"

The two inventors and one mission specialist turned their attention to the trio. They each called out Chase's name, and Donald was the first to move. He rushed around the cyber desk to his children, Douglas and Leo coming right behind him.

"Oh my gosh…" Leo mumbled, taking his first glance at Chase. "He looks terrible! What happened?"

"Lay him on the cyber desk, Adam," Donald instructed, his eyes darting over every inch of his injured son.

Adam followed orders, gently placing his brother on the consol. Chase moaned again, beginning to weakly writhe atop the table. Donald and Douglas approached his side first, followed by the teens.

"What happened?" Leo asked once more.

"After finding the last people in the building, Chase told Adam and me to bring them outside. He stayed back to scan the apartments for anyone we may have missed. A couple minutes later, we heard him scream through the com set, so I rushed us back into the building. Long story short, Chase's leg got crushed by a falling wooden support beam," Bree quickly explained.

"Is he gonna be okay, Mr. Davenport?" Adam inquired anxiously.

"He should be. I mean, his leg is probably broken, but that can be fixed. The only question is: do we take him to the hospital or try to operate here in the infirmary?" Donald turned to his brother. "What do you think, Douglas?"

Douglas didn't answer immediately; he took a minute to look over Chase carefully – his leg in particular. "Well, a hospital is good and reliable, but Chase is in a lot of pain. I don't want to keep him waiting for too long; the injury needs attention now."

"That may be true, Douglas, but can we successfully do the procedure ourselves?" Donald countered.

"I did complete two years in medical school. Although the needles weren't my strong suit, I did pretty well in the 'operating on a broken limb' area."

"So… you want to perform the surgery?"

Douglas nodded. "Yes. I'm pretty sure I can do it. After all, I am 'nurse practitioner evil.' Besides, I'll have you and Eddy to assist me. The convenience of doing it here at the lab is best for Chase. Besides, I do have some experience. I had to tap into my medical knowledge a bit when I fixed Leo's arm and gave him bionics."

Donald looked apprehensive for a minute. Was he really going to trust the man who, for so many years, had brought these kids nothing but harm? Donald glanced at his brother, who was staring intently at Chase. Donald squinted, observing the nature of Douglas' gaze. It wasn't cruel or evil; it wasn't jealous or vengeful. It was loving and concerned. Douglas was willing to dive into performing a surgery just to convenience Chase. That was the kind of person Donald could trust.

Donald nodded. "Okay, Douglas; I trust you. Let's do it."

Douglas nodded as well. Without another word, the older Davenport brothers picked up their youngest son and headed for the infirmary. Once they were gone, only Adam, Bree, and Leo remained in the lab. They all looked at each other as the adrenaline from the tense moment slowly passed.

Bree sighed, slowly removing her gloves. "Man, that was stressful."

"No kidding. I feel so bad for Chase. He's really hurt," Leo commented. "Hopefully it won't take him too long to recover."

"He will, though – right?"

"What do you mean, Adam?"

"Chasey will recover, right? I mean, Donald and Douglas know what they're doing; they can help him. He'll make it, won't he?"

Bree gave her older brother a small, comforting smile, placing her hand on his forearm. "Of course he will, Adam. Chase is strong. I'm confident he'll be able to recover."

"And I think we can trust that he's in good hands with Big D and Douglas," Leo added.

Adam sighed, feeling as if a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders. However, just as quickly as relief came, guilt showed up to toss that weight back on him. He frowned, and his shoulders fell.

"What's wrong, Adam? I just told you Chase is going to be alright," Bree said.

"I know, but… I feel guilty, guys. Chase wouldn't be hurt if not for me."

"Adam, this couldn't possibly be your fault. There's nothing you – or I – could've done about it. You weren't even there when the beam collapsed on him."

"Exactly – I wasn't there. And I should've been there. You know why I wasn't?" Adam stared hard at his siblings, giving them a chance to answer. When neither said anything, he continued, "I wasn't there because we weren't handcuffed to each other. And we weren't handcuffed to each other because I whined and complained and gave Mr. Davenport a hard time.

"I couldn't even get along with Chase for five minutes. All we did these past two weeks was bicker! And maybe if I had tried harder to make it work, Davenport wouldn't have given up on us. Then maybe Chase and I could've still been handcuffed during the mission. Then maybe I could've been there with him when the beam fell. I could've caught it or broken it or-or… something. Anything would've been better than what I was actually able to do – which was nothing!"

Adam's pace and volume only increased as he continued talking – to the point where he was all but yelling by the end. His heavy breathing was the only thing to be heard, as Adam's rant had brought a grim silence over his younger siblings. Bree and Leo's faces betrayed their shock and sadness at Adam's words.

In a much quieter tone, he finished by saying, "I… failed as Chase's older brother. I'm supposed to protect him, but I didn't; I couldn't – all because I was too stubborn to get along with my own brother."

"Adam, you didn't fail him. I saw you; I saw how scared you were when we first looked at Chase's leg. I know you were trying to do everything possible to help Chase. Don't focus on what we can't change. Focus on what you did do to help him," Bree said.

Leo nodded. "Bree is right, Adam. You're a fantastic older brother, and I'm sure Chase knows that."

"So, you don't think he blames me?"

"No way!"

Adam nodded solemnly, wiping away the few rouge tears that fell during his speech. He wasn't sure how reassuring Bree and Leo's pep-talk actually was, being that he still felt awful about the situation. At the very least, it calmed him down for now.

"Anyway," Leo said, "My mom is upstairs fixing dinner. The surgery will probably take a while. So, maybe we should go eat – and explain everything to mom."

"Sounds good, Leo. What do you think, Adam? Tasha's cooking always cheers you up. Well, food in general puts you in a good mood," Bree replied.

"That's true," Adam nodded, "But, I think I'm going to stay down here. I want to be here the second Chasey gets out of surgery."

Bree and Leo shared a worried glance. The former spoke first, saying, "Well, if that's what you want, Adam… We can't force you to come with us, but please don't worry yourself sick. Chase is going to be fine."

Adam nodded. Bree and Leo gave him comforting smiles before heading into the elevator together.