"Chris?" Matt was shocked and confused at the same time. What was his brother doing here, and how did Chris even know he was here?

"Yeah, I heard you got yourself blown up, and stopped in when you were in surgery, but I figured it was only fair that you were lucid when I showed my face." He offered a shrug and a grin, as if to say his presence wasn't a big deal. Yeah, right.

"Did you see him?" Matt turned to Emily; she'd never mentioned his brother showing up.

"I didn't know if he was coming back, so I didn't want to mention it."

Matt turned back to his brother, not sure what to say, then blurted out the first thing on his tongue. "So, how'd you know I was here?"

"Emily tracked me down and called me at work. You can imagine what a surprise that phone call was…" Chris had to wonder if this could have been more awkward than it was.

"You called him? Why?" Matt demanded, not pleasantly.

"Because I thought you might like to see him." Emily wasn't put off by his tone, she knew he may not be happy about it, at first.

"We haven't spoken for over five years, you know that, why would I want to see him?" Once again, Matt didn't hide his anger.

"Because you almost died, Matt." She bit back at him.

"So? That's supposed to make our issues go away?" He spit.

"No, that's not what I'm saying. I just-"

Matt cut her off. "You don't know what happened between us, you had no right to call him."

"Because you won't tell me." She was trying not to be angry, but he was making it very difficult.

"It's none of your business!" She'd barely finished speaking when he yelled back, and then Emily had had it for the moment.

"Chris, would you excuse us for a moment?" She turned to him, and asked politely.

"Uh, sure. I'll wait outside." He left them, closely the door behind him.

"Not my business?" Emily turned back to Matt.

"It was a long time ago, before I knew you." He tried to explain what he meant to her, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Matt, do you love me?" Maybe it was that she was irritated at the moment, or maybe it was because she nearly lost him, regardless, Emily was feeling brave.

"What? Yes, of course." The words tumbled out of Matt's mouth before he even realized that they'd never said it before, so she really had no expectation of hearing it.

"That's good, because I'm hopelessly in love with you." She confessed, watching his eyebrows rise.

"Don't look so surprised, I figure that should have been pretty obvious the last few days." She smirked.

"It's just after Mexico, I didn't really expect to hear you say that. At least not anytime soon."

"I'm sorry for that, I got scared."

"Yeah, me too." They were quiet a moment before she returned to her train of thought.

"You should understand that since I am hopelessly in love with you, everything that involves you is now my business. Including feuds." She looked at him pointedly.

"I appreciate that you care, Em. But, me almost dying isn't going to fix the past." His voice was soft, an attempt to get her to understand his feelings on the topic.

"I know that, but…when I woke up in that theatre, came to this hospital, when I saw Frank, and Cheryl and Lia. It was sympathy in their eyes Matt, some concern, but mostly sympathy. I was scared to death whenever I saw one of them, absolutely terrified that they'd tell me you were dead. You don't look at someone like that unless…unless you know something bad happened.

And, then when I finally knew you'd be alright, I thought about who needed to be called for you, and of course your brother came up, and I just…I thought how much worse it would be if we hadn't been speaking at the time. If we'd argued and not spoken for a week, if I thought for even a minute that I may have wasted even a few days I could have had with you. I barely held it together that night Matt, I don't think I could have, if things had been different. I don't want you to ever have to feel that way." After she finished her long-winded explanation, her teeth automatically attacked her bottom lip, as she waited nervously for him to respond.

"Thank you." For a moment that's all he said, too stunned to say anything else. More so than her confession of love had, her words here made Matt really realize how frightened she'd been, and how much she did really care for him. He was about to pull her toward himself again, but thought better of it, and instead leaned up, and met her body halfway, hugging her as tightly as the bandages would allow. She pulled back after a moment.

"So will you talk to Chris? Or at least tell me what's so horrible that you can't talk to your only living relative, aside from your Aunt Shirley?"

"Yes, you're right as usual. Five years is…sad."

"I'm going to get him. Do you need me to hang around?"

"I always need you around." He told her cheekily.

"Cute, Matt. I'm supposed to meet up with my parents, but if you need a mediator, I'll reschedule."

"No, I'm too laid up to kill him, and Chris wouldn't attack somebody defenseless."

She rolled her eyes at his joke, and left to get Chris, returning with the awkward man only minutes later.

"Okay, I'm off to prove to my parents that I'm still in one piece. Call me if you need anything." Emily gave Matt one last kiss, walking out of the room, praying both men would be in one piece when she returned.


"So…" Chris tried to start a conversation.

"So…" Matt was at as much of a loss as his brother.

"Emily is really something else." Compliment his brother's choice of girlfriend, seemed safe enough.

"Noticed that did you?" Joking, joking could work.

"I get the feeling she could talk Hitler out of World War II."

"At this point I'd have to agree with you." She'd gotten them to talk to each other, hadn't she?

Chris laughed lightly. "Really, she's great, Matt. I'm happy for you."

"Thanks, I'm actually crazy about her," Matt admitted. "You married yet?"

"Me? No way man. I learned all my skills with women from you, Bachelor Extraordinaire, at least you were." Chris grinned at memories of learning to exude the charm, his brother insisted the Flannery men were born with.

"Dating different women all the time can be great, but I have to tell you, already having the one that drives you wild is so much better." Matt had enjoyed his years of one-night stands, random hook-ups, and having several female friends with benefits, but that life was for twenty-somethings. Chris was on his way out of twenty-something hood.

"As long as I can say I'm in my twenties, I'm going to keep the Flannery charm working."

"How do you think I got Emily?" Matt joked, grinning.

"Somehow I think she's too smart to fall for the Flannery charm alone." Chris grinned back, teasing his brother.

"I suppose I have a few other merits to offer, and great sex." Chris laughed at his brother's comment, enjoying that it wasn't too terribly awkward yet.

"So, are we going to talk about five years ago?" Matt finally asked.

"Almost six now, Matt."

"Yeah, I suppose it is. We need to talk about it, if we're going to try to be friends again Chris."

"So, who's starting?"

"I don't regret calling you an ungrateful little bastard." Matt wanted to make that clear off the bat.

"Okay, I guess you are," Chris sighed, bracing himself. "I didn't think you would, and I don't regret not going to dad's funeral."

"He was your father, Chris. He deserved you presence there." Matt looked at his baby brother sternly.

"See, that's what you never got, Matt. He was never a father to me."

"He raised you, put a roof over your head, clothes on your back, and food on your plate, what else were you looking for?"

"A guy that actually did those things." Chris answered quietly.

"What are you talking about?" Matt was confused now, and a little irritated.

"He put a roof over my head, but he didn't raise me, Matt. Aunt Shirley took me to get clothes when I needed them, and you did the grocery shopping because dad was either working or drinking."

"You were too hard on him, Chris. He lost his wife, the love of his life, he was suffering. Maybe you don't understand, because you were only six when mom died, too young to get it, but it hurt like hell." Matt looked off toward the window, not eager to relive his mother's death.

"Maybe your right. But, the opposite applies to dad. You were 12, you had a dad, you remembered what he was like before mom went. My image of dad is a guy that was never around, or drunk and yelling when he was," Chris paused for a moment to breathe, "you were never mad at him?"

"I suppose I was a little angry as a kid, since it fell to me to take care of you. Getting you to do your homework was a pain in the ass, up there with getting you to eat broccoli. I think I was more angry with you though, and mom."

"I suppose you hated me because I existed, but why mom?" Chris wondered.

"I didn't hate you because you existed, I hated you because you couldn't take care of yourself. And mom, she died and left us. I blamed her for dad being a depressed mess, and having to play parent to you. If she hadn't died, dad would have been fine, you would have had a mother." He shrugged, as if it wasn't as big a deal as it was.

"Fair enough," he paused, thinking, "Matt, did you ever think that maybe I wasn't ungrateful, I just wasn't grateful to him? Because I was, but I had no reason to be to him."

"He's your father, Chris."

"That's like saying a kid conceived from donor sperm should be grateful to the guy holding a Playboy and jerking off into the plastic cup."

"Okay, first that kid wouldn't be here without that guy and his plastic cup; second, I think dad did a bit more for you than donate sperm."

"Maybe, but it wasn't much, Matt. The person I should be grateful to is you. You raised me, dad was just the guy that supplied money, screamed occasionally, and passed out on the couch often."

"Maybe so, but Chris, he was your father, it was his funeral, you should have gone anyway."

"I was 23 and pissed Matt, out on my own, and glad to be rid of the old man. I was too angry with him to give him the satisfaction of mourning over him, even if I lost my big brother because of it."

"If I forgive you for bailing on the funeral, will you forgive me for hitting you?" Not long after Matt had called his brother an ungrateful bastard, he'd back-handed him, something that had weighed heavily on him over the years.

"Yes, I forgave you for that years ago," Chris paused and grinned, "But, I still don't regret not going to the funeral."

"And, I still don't regret calling you an ungrateful little bastard." Matt smiled.

"We'll just say that's repressed anger from when we were kids coming out." He laughed.


I'm still wondering if the show will ever tell us the issues between Matt and his brother, but in the meantime, I decided to go with something that could potentially apply to the characters' history, rather than the cliche, 'both in love with the same woman' thing. Besides, Matt has Emily, so it would be kind of irrelevant at this point right? Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing!