Itachi stared at his father for a moment, not moving away from where he stood. His father also stayed where he was. They both stared at each other. They both knew what talking would mean. Acknowledging what had happened was not something neither one of them wanted to do. And now, here at the hospital with Sasuke away… it felt too real. They hadn't gone through anything yet. The late nights, the screams, the tears, the depression… they knew what was coming and they didn't want to acknowledge it.

Kisame stayed between the two, not saying anything. But after a while, he got uncomfortable in the silence. He shifted from one foot to the other. He didn't want to look at either one them. If Fugaku found out what he and his son had just done –it was needleless to say that he would live long enough to tell his story. He knew Itachi wouldn't tell anyone but Fugaku had a way of finding things out. Every time Itachi and he got in trouble, Fugaku always found out the truth. This time the truth was that he had just taken advantage of his son when he was vulnerable, drunk, broken and complete damaged. I couldn't just say no.

Kisame cleared his through to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Is he… awake right now?" Itachi wasn't sure what he should ask. He didn't know if he had the right to know. If he was awake then it meant he wasn't the first person his little brother saw.

Fugaku nodded slowly. As if he had forgotten that his son was actually awake. The boy that laid in that bed was more dead than alive. "He is. Victor is in there with him." He said pointing to the door.

"Victor?" Kisame and Itachi both made a confused face.

"The umm… psychiatrist." Fugaku was finding it harder and harder to pull his thoughts together. All of the stress was getting to him and only the first few hours had gone by.

"Can I—" Itachi looked down, "see him?"

"As soon as he comes out… He is talking to him in private." Itachi could tell there was something off with the way his was acting and the fact that he was not in there with Sasuke.

"Why are you out here?" Fugaku didn't look at his older son. He didn't want to tell him that Sasuke wouldn't look at him or talk to him.

"The doctor is just doing his job. You can see him as soon as he comes out." Avoiding the question, Itachi noticed.

"What about mom?"

"She is at a friend's house. One of us had to get some rest so Sasuke would always have someone with him. Plus, I didn't want your mother here through the first few hours."

Itachi knew where his father was coming from. His mother would have cried or obsessed. Right now, a cool focused mind was needed to deal with all of this. God knew that neither Fugaku nor Itachi had that mind. He smiled softly at Kisame as he was thankful that he was here with him. Kisame might just keep them both from doing something wrong.

Fugaku saw the look between the two boys and frowned slightly. He knew Kisame was Itachi's best friend but that look was more than friendship.

"Where are you two coming from?" he saw them tense slightly and Itachi looked away from Kisame.

"Just trying to pull myself together. Kisame helped." Far too vague form Fugaku's taste.

"What kind of help did he offer?" he saw the taller man look guilty at the floor.

"Are you seriously concerned with where I was over Sasuke's well being?" Fugaku looked backed at the door sadly.

"I'm not letting anything else happen to this family and that includes you too. I want to know where you two were doing." Damn, he is good. Kisame thought.

Before anything else was said, Victor opened the door and everyone became tense. Victor walked over to where the three men stood.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Victor." He greeted both men. He immediately picked up on the tension between the three and picked up on the relationship between the two younger males.

"H-hi. I'm Itachi. Sasuke's older brother." It almost burned saying it aloud. It was almost a joke. What kind of older brother was he if he couldn't protect him?

"I'm Kisame… a friend of Itachi's." Fugaku almost shot him a glare when he said that after the pause. And Victor reassured his theory.

"I know that this whole situation is not something you have ever planned for but I am here to help as well as Dr. Gale." All three men still stayed awkwardly silent.

"My professional assistance is not just for Sasuke… This affects you as much as it affects him. I will schedule, later on, sessions where we can meet." Everyone now started at him and began to object.

"How about if you focus all of your energy on helping my son. We are fine and don't need therapy." Victor knew Fugaku would not enjoy the idea of therapy.

"We'll talk about this later on." He took a pause to gather everything he needed and turned towards the Sasuke's door. "Should we go in and try it again?"

Every one fell silent again and Fugaku looked down to the ground. Nothing could have changed with Victor's talk of a couple of minutes. Sasuke still hated him and he had the right to.

Fugaku saw his son's legs tremble and his hands turn into tight fists. What he didn't enjoy was that Kisame quickly took his hand in comfort.

"Let's go in."

TBC