Chapter 14

"Come on, Hank, we got to get home. Nownownownownow!"

Hank laughed at his now 10 year old brother. "Birthday boy can't wait to get to his spoils, huh?"

"I'm doing better than you! Remember when you turned 10? I still remember when you turned 10."

"That was not my fault."

"Sure it wasn't."

"Well why don't you go home by yourself?"

"It's too far! Leg broken remember? Something about you dragging me up on the roof and sending me hurtling to my doom?"

"It was not that bad!"

"It wasn't as bad as when you hospitalized me for a month. But it was bad. And seriously, you'd do better on crutches than me. No arm muscles, remember? These things are tiring."

And despite the fact that Hank was doing his best to look indifferent, he could barely quell the rising in his throat. Because it was his fault. And he was so so lucky Don wasn't dead that he didn't have any right to make him suffer anymore. Don shouldn't be hobbling along on crutches, especially not on his birthday. He shouldn't have been hospitalized, or have to hide his tears every night because he didn't want anyone to know just how much his leg hurt.

Only Hank knew about that, from when he'd accidentally walked in on Don squeezing a pillow to death. Don had looked up, eyes wet with tears, and his quiet words, that he hadn't wanted anyone to worry, had broken Hank's heart. No. Nothing else would happen to Don no matter how mundane, especially not on his birthday

"Fine, fine, I'm a sucker for birthday boys, okay?" Hank scooped Don's light frame into his arms. "Let's go home, huh?"

"Yeah. And Hank? I chose to go up there. It wasn't all your fault."

And Don believes it, Hank knows. But it was his fault. Don followed his example, and was hurt because of it. No, Hank blames himself, and rightly too. And Don's sweet face looking up at him only serves to twist the knife.

"Maybe you're right Don." He says it to ease Don's feelings, to make sure the boy thinks that Hank has somehow forgiven himself for what happened, when in reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. "Maybe you're right."