A/N: Um, none really. Oh yeah, sorry about the "yo-less" Todd. I'm not used to writing him. Plz forgive me.


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It was a Wednesday when I got the call. It was during lunch break, and the receptionist came over and told me I had a call. I followed her to the office, and took the phone from her desk.


"Hello?" I asked.


"Lance, it's Tabby. Something's happened. Todd's in the hospital."


"What? What happened?"


"I don't know. Can you get off from work? We'll wait for you outside the school." She said.


"I'll be there in fifteen minutes." I hung the phone up, and turned to the receptionist. "I have to go, tell Mr. Callor I'll explain later."


I ran out the door to the jeep. I jumped in, turned the switch, and floored it. I flew down the road at least 20 miles over the speed limit. I arrived at the school without coming across any cops, and with the others in the car, I slowed down some. I arrived at the Bayville hospital ten minutes later. I walked in the lobby, and asked the nurse at the desk about Todd.


"Are you a relative?" She asked.


"I'm his guardian, now where and how is he?" I said, my impatience showing through.


"Room 216, second floor. The doctor should be with him." She replied curtly. I found the elevators and headed upstairs. We found the room. The others went in, while I stayed outside the room with the doctor.


"How is he?" I asked.


"Well, he has two broken ribs and a sprained ankle. The rest is just minor abrasions. It appears that he was in fight. He was found by a student unconscious in the school parking lot. Would you know anything?" He asked me.


"He's gotten beaten up before, just nothing this bad. It's all my fault. I told him to fight back against Duncan, and it was working. I guess he was right. It's no use to." I said quietly.


"If you can find somebody who witnessed it, you can press charges." He told me. I shook my head.


"It wouldn't do any good. Duncan's a rich kid. And captain of the football team. His dad would probably get him off, either by getting a lawyer or paying any witnesses off." I sighed and sat down. The doctor walked away.


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Todd was going to stay in the hospital for a few days. The day after I picked up the others, dropped them off at home, and went to the hospital. Todd was "resting", as the nurses say, when I first got there. I got some food from the cafeteria and then went back upstairs. I ate in silence. A half hour later I heard Todd wake up. He noticed me and muttered a 'hey'.


"Hey yourself. Hungry?" I held up a bear claw. He shook his head. "Fine, more for me. Look, I'm sorry about Duncan. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have told you to fight back. You were right all along."


"No I wasn't, yo. You should've seen the look on their faces when I did. They started backing off. And last week they avoided me. Until yesterday, yo. They caught me off guard, before I even had a chance to defend myself. It's not your fault. I'll just have to be on my guard from now on, yo." He told me.


"Is that any better from before? I don't want you to be on you're guard constantly. That's not right." I said. He just shook his head.


"How did your boss like you leaving early?" He asked me after a few minutes.


"I told him what happened. He said it was okay, as long as I didn't do it too often. Which, in boss talk, means if I do it again he's gonna fire my ass."


"Sorry."


"Yeah well, I've been looking for another job. No luck so far." I shrugged. A knock came at the door.


"Yeah?" I called out. The doctor came in.


"There's someone else to see you." He said to Todd. "I think he has something very important to say." And I'll be damned if Duncan himself didn't walk through the door. I tensed, ready to fight. I glanced at the doctor, and just then noticed his name tag. 'Dr. Matthews'. Wait, that was Duncan's dad?!


"What do you want?" Todd said, not concealing his anger any.


"I came here to.... To apologize. I'm..... I'm.... Sorry." He forced himself to say.


"And?" The doc/his dad said.


"And neither me nor my friends will ever beat you up again." He said, clearly hating every second of this. I was laughing my head off inside. I could see Todd was taking pleasure in this.


"Very good Duncan. Now perhaps you better get home and started on your chores." Duncan looked him, a cross between shock and anger.


"But dad! I apologized!"


"Duncan. What did I say?" Duncan glanced around at me and Todd, then stormed out the door.


"If you'll excuse me." The doc said, leaving.


"Sombitch." I said. "Don't see that every day."


"Pietro's gonna be pissed when he finds out he missed it, yo!" Todd said, laughing. "Looks like you were right the first time around."


"Yeah, for once."


"Hey, listen, yo. I want you to know that you're doing a great job raising us. Fred's actually passing most of his classes, yo."


"Really? Well I must be doing something wrong if it's only MOST of his classes." I argued.


"Lance? Just shut up, yo."