I just spent the last 8 hours writing this chapter and I can't believe I finished it in one day. I just got struck by lightning and my fingers started typing…

I hope you like it! And thanks for the reviews the story's gotten so far. They make me so happy!

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Chapter 2: You knew and you didn't tell me!?

When Alex came to, he realized he couldn't have been unconscious for more than a few minutes because: one, he was still inside the car; and two, there was no one trying to get them out. He took his time opening his eyes though, not sure he wanted to be confronted by the sight of the wreckage just yet. He knew how much worse the sight could make his mind believe everything was, so he focused on his other senses to determine how screwed up the situation was.

As hard as it was to concentrate at the moment, Alex was able to pinpoint every noise he heard, starting with a car alarm blaring endlessly to his right. He could hear ragged breathing and such very smalls moans that it was hard to think he wasn't imagining them, and then he could hear voices in the distance: surprised voices, curious voices. They were still far from him, so he didn't have to worry about them yet. He also thought he could hear a hissing sound which he assumed was coming from the engine of his car- Ben's car. Ben was going to kill him, for sure.

He decided to asses the damage to his body by attempting to move his arms first and was glad to notice they ached but weren't injured, though his troubled shoulder was saying something very different. He didn't pay much attention to it given how often his shoulder complained about the weather. What he did do, was reach for the seatbelt and pull it away from his chest, where he was sure a giant bruise must've been forming right then. His clavicle had taken the worst of the pull from the belt when it locked after the collision.

He moved his feet and legs slightly, just enough to know that he still had full mobility of them and that no obvious injury flared up. He was fine. Bruised and battered for sure, but fine. It was time to open his eyes, he had something more important to worry about.

He resisted the urge to close them again once he gathered the courage to open his eyes because the world was swimming around him and his stomach was complaining about it. He prayed the nausea wouldn't get the best of him right now.

He finally, finally, decided to turn his head to deal with what he both feared and needed to know the most. Vict.

Alex had to swear when his neck screamed and protested the movement, letting him know he'd found the worst of his injuries, but the pain couldn't compare to the spasm his heart made when he saw Vict's body slumped to the side, face deathly pale and covered in blood against the window. When he determined the other boy was passed out (please let him just be passed out) he realized the ragged breathing he'd heard before must have been his own.

He reached down to unbuckle himself but growled in desperation when the seatbelt remained clicked in, stuck, not allowing him to move closer to Vict.

Alex's hand then hovered over the unconscious boy's leg, not sure if he should try and shake him awake, risking aggravating any of his injuries. He decided to take a hold of his wirst, the first thing he could reach without having to stretch much and began to feel for a pulse.

"Please, please, please..." no matter how hard he pressed, he couldn't feel anything and, this time, the nausea rolling around in his stomach had nothing to do with vertigo "Vict, come on!" He decided to forego the wrist and go to his neck where he was sure he'd be able to feel for the pulse that would indicate Vict was still alive. Because he had to be, there was no other way. His arm was shaking so badly though, that he wasn't certain he'd feel it even if he found it.

"Hey Kid! Try not to move!" Alex jumped so high on his seat that he was surprised the seatbelt remained stuck as it was. He turned his head so fast towards his window that he couldn't help the scream that got ripped from his lips by the pain of his neck.

There was a man there looking into the wreckage with big round eyes, no doubt surprised by the sight of blood and broken glass mixed together everywhere. He wasn't alone, Alex could now see more people behind them talking into their phones and staring in awe and horror at them.

"An ambulance is on the way!" a woman yelled from a few feet next to the car and the man tried to give Alex a reassuring smile.

"You hear? Help's on the way"

Alex ignored him and, against everything that told him to stay still and not move his head again, he turned it to the other side, swallowing the curse he needed to let out and focusing once again on Vict.

He needed to know. He simply needed to know.

With his heart beating wildly out of his chest, he brought his hand up and pressed two fingers into the side of Vict's neck trying to still his nerves enough to be able to feel anything, anything that would let him know he was still alive.

It took two different tries (and lots and lots of anguished thouths later) for Alex to feel the beating of Vict's pulse under his fingers and he was so relieved he let out a sob into the night. He was alive.

He must have drifted off at some point, because the next thing he was aware of was opening his eyes to someone trying to call his attention from the window. It wasn't the same man as before but what he asumed to be a rescuer, if the bright uniform was anything to go by.

"Hi. How are you doing in there?" the man, who was talking with a much cheerful voice than what the situation required, didn't give him the time to answer before speaking again "My team and I are working to get you out of there but I'm gonna need you to stay as still as possible why I asses your condition, okay?" why was he talking to him like he was five years old? Alex decided to keep his attention on Vict, who hadn't moved from his position against the door. Alex was about to protest the other uniformed person beginning to open the passanger's side of the car when the man on his window put a hand on his shoulder to call his attention back to him. Alex had to remind himself that those people were here to help them and that they needed to actually get Vict out of the car in order to do so.

With a heavy sigh and a lot of dread, he turned his head again.

"Can you tell me if anything hurts too badly?" Alex blinked and tried to shake the cobwebs from his mind.

"Shoulder. Neck. Head" short and to the point.

"Okay, if you're well enough we're gonna try and move you out of the car. If anything feels wrong at any moment you have to me let me know, alright?"

"Get him out?" Alex said and the man must have understood because he glanced beyond him and then nodded.

"My partner's getting your friend out. We'll take you to the hospital together"

Together. That was all that mattered to him.

He nodded and the man began to work. His door wasn't jammed, even though a car had hit it, so it opened easily enough. The seatbelt was cut away with a tool and, after checking that Alex's legs weren't compromised, they began the slow process of getting him out.

"I can stand" the blond said when someone came closer to them with a stretcher "I can stand" he repeated, when the man carrying half of his weight looked at him dubiously.

Alex had been right in his assesment: he hadn't been seriously injured by the crash because the brunt of the impact hadn't been taken by his side of the car and the worst of the damage wasn't done to his side. He looked to the side where the rescuers were putting a neck brace on Vict and rolling the portable stretcher closer to him, because he did needed to be wheeled out of the scene. He was so hurt, and injured, and pale, and still, and almost dead and he could still die and he's not waking up...

"We should be loading you into the ambulance. It's easier if you let us handle it. You just need to relax"

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm waiting for him" Alex stated, standing straighter and taking more of his own weight into himself. The world was still tilting on the edges and his head still hurt, but overall he didn't feel bad. He wasn't the one in need of urgent medical attention, and he'd been worse anyway. This was nothing.

"I realize you must be worried for your friend, but my team is taking good care of him. You'll meet him at the hospital" Alex then turned sharp eyes at him.

"You said we'd be going together"

"Same hospital, different ambulances" despite the pain it brought, Alex shook his head, completely dislodging himself from the man.

"You said we'd go together. I won't leave him alone. I'm fine, I don't need an ambulance for myself. I need to go with him. I have to be there for him, he doesn't have anyone else and I'm fine, I don't need my own ambulance, you have to let me go with him. I have to go with him" it wasn't until he stopped talking that he noticed he hadn't taken the time to breathe and, when he did, the rush of oxygen into his brain brought a wave of dizzines that left him stumbling sideways. The man reached out to steady him and regarded him with narrowed eyes.

"Okay, calm down. Look at me. That's it. I'll see what I can do, okay? But you need to keep breathing and you need to keep calm" the man signaled someone near them to come and keep an eye on him while he ran off somewhere. Alex remained still, breathing heavily into the suddenly cold night, warring himself between looking at the wreckage where they were finally taking Vict out or keeping his eyes as far away from the scene as he could. The flashing lights of the ambulance weren't helping keep his headache at bay, so he decided to stare down at the floor instead. It wasn't until minutes later that he realized he was shaking.

Some time later the man that had helped him out of the car was back, exchanging rapid words with his partner that Alex wasn't quick enough to catch all.

"...bulance...we can do...shock...eye on...make sure...okay"

"Come on" someone said, putting a hand on his back and guiding him forward "You'll be riding together"

Together... that was all that mattered to him. Alex had the brief feeling that it wasn't the first time he thought that.

The ride on the ambulance was a bit of a blur. He remembered the paramedic making him sit at the far end of the ambulance and him not wanting to look at the stretcher where Vict lay with the neck brace on and a good amount of gauze covering his head wound. Alex wasn't queasy when it came to blood, but he was queasy enough about the sight of blood on him.

At some point the man started asking questions that he was suddenly too distracted to respond correctly.

"What's your name?" he asked, but Alex was caught up in between staring at Vict and wanting to look away after he accidentally glanced at his bloody face "Hey..." the man called again, waving a hand in front of his eyes. Alex mumbled something "Victor? Your name's Victor?" the blond frowned.

"No. Is he gonna be okay?" it was the man's turn to frown.

"We've done everything we can for him here. So your name isn't Victor?" Alex finally tore his eyes away and found the next best interesting thing, the paramedic.

"Yes... I mean, no. He's Victor"

"Okay. Why don't you let me take a look at you? Make sure everything's alright?" the man suggested.

"I'm fine" Alex answered distractedly.

"I can see that, but just to make sure" he then proceeded to grab a pen light and guide the blond's face to look at him. He first moved the pen in front of his face without the light on and Alex had no trouble following the movement with his eyes, but as soon as the light was turned on and flashed repetedly over his eyes, he got dissoriented again and he had to spend part of the ride with his eyes closed afterwards.

The paramedic wanted to do a basic check up, measuring his blood preasure and oxygen saturation. He cleaned a cut on his forehead and prodded a tender bruise on his cheek. He also wanted to check for injuries like broken ribs, though Alex was sure he refused. He knew what broken ribs felt like and his weren't broken, plus, he didn't want another person's hands touching anything other than was strictly necessary. And this time it wasn't necessary.

"Looks like you don't have anything broken. You're very lucky" when did he...? Alex decided he was too tired to keep thinking about it. In fact, he began to feel so tired he decided not to open his eyes again until they arrived at the hospital.

Somehow, after God knows how long, Alex found himself sitting in an emergency room, one he wasn't familiar with, which was saying something considering it was him, and the paramedic was talking to him.

"I have to go now, but you'll wait here for someone to call you. What was your name again?"

"Alex" the man looked relieved at finally getting an answer.

"Alex. Do you have a last name to go with that?"

"Ri-uhmm... Daniels"

"Good. You're not as urgent as your friend so you'll have to wait a bit. He's already inside though" Alex nodded and stared at the man as he went by the desk and talked to a nurse.

While he was sitting there, Alex had time to collect his thoughts and try to regain his composure. He wasn't exactly injured, so it shouldn't be so difficult.

He began to organize his thoughts by rewinding the events of the previous hour- hours? Until he remembered the moments before the crash. Before seeing that pair of headlights heading straight to them and literally turning his world upside down, he remembered how angry he was by the way Vict was reacting to the movie they'd seen. He must've gotten so distracted with the fight that he stopped paying attention to his surroundings. He must've missed a red light for the cars to collide like they did.

Alex sucked in a breath after the realization. He caused the crash. By being so distracted and fighting, fighting, with Vict, the other boy was in the emergency room and he had no idea how hurt he was or if he was gonna survive the accident or not. And they'd been fighting for such a stupid movie!

He fisted a hand on his hair and squeezed his eyes shut to try and control his rolling emotions, guilt being the most cutting of them all. Guilt and worry. He needed to know how Vict was doing. It had been a long time since they'd arrived at the hospital, right? At least a couple of hours. What time is it? How long has it been?

In reality, it hadn't been that long, but Alex's mind was struggling with keeping a straight thought line and what felt like hours was actually no more than 30 minutes.

At some point he thought weird that no one had come to ask him anything. Had the paramedic filled the nurses in about his condition, his name and the circumstances of his arrival? What if they were waiting for the police to show up because he had caused a car crash? Then a thought struck him so fast it left him almost retching.

What about the other car? Had anyone else been hurt? Killed?

What if he killed someone? The police would want to investigate the accident, he'd be blamed for missing a red light. He could go to jail for this. People could've died. Vict...

"Alex?" someone called and he was so lost in his own troubled thoughts that he wasn't aware of the fact he knew that voice. He knew it, but it wasn't until he looked up that his brain made the connection and linked the voice with the face staring worriedly at him from a few feet to his right. Alex froze. It wasn't a voice he'd thought he'd heard ever again and it wasn't a face he'd thought he'd see. Ever. Again. It was imposible. He was hallucinating for sure. The paramedic was wrong, he needed to be admitted inmediately. He was seeing things. He was seeing dead people "Alex, thank God you're okay"

When the person took a step towards him, he shut off from his seat, holding out his arms to the side to regain his balance once he was sure he wouldn't fall to the floor. The person in front of him looked at him with something resembling sympathy, or pity.

"I-Ian?" Alex stuttered, not having used that word in a really long time and finding it bittersweet to use now "You- you're..." he took a step back when Ian, his uncle, his dead uncle, moved closer to him.

"I know this is hard, but right now I'm more concerned about you. Are you okay?" Alex was speechless. What were you supposed to say to your dead relative when he turns out to be not so dead anymore? If he even was here at all and wasn't just an image conjured up by a probably concussed and guilt ridden brain "Why haven't you been admited yet? I called not long ago" what? How would he know? Why would he call? "I'm gonna go talk to someone. Don't worry, they'll see you soon"

Alex wasn't worried, at least not about himself. Not physically. He was fine. But he was sure he was turning crazy and needed to be seen by a psychiatrist because he was seeing his dead uncle head to the nurses's station of the emergency room and pull something out of his pocket that looked dangerously close to an official ID. The blond was transfixed, staring into the distance until someone else called his name and all he could think about was how not ready he was to deal with anyone else unless it was someone who was going to tell him how Vict was doing. But it wasn't. It was Ben.

"Alex, there you are!" he exclaimed, running the distance between them and taking a hold of Alex's chin so he could inspect the damage, and he wasn't thinking about the cut and bruise standing out on his face. He was more worried about the unfocussed eyes and the heavy breathing "Al, what happened?"

Something clicked then and Alex turned just to make sure Ian was still there, alive, talking to the nurses before he clasped Ben's arm and spoke with a broken and rushed speech.

"Ben. He's... Vict- I don't know... Ian? He's not- it's not... the crash. My fault and he's here. There? I don't-"

"Slow down, slow down. What's going on?" but another voice answered instead.

"I think he needs medical attention. He didn't come out of the crash unscathed" it was Ian, who had come back from the nurses station. Ben inmediately noticed the change in Alex's demeanor with the new arrival. His eyes went impossibly glassier and his brow was furrowed as if the mere act of thinking brought him pain. Ben swore.

"Damn it! I told you to wait before seeing him" he hissed angrily, and he would've continued berating the man in front of him if Alex hadn't gone rigid in front of him and looked sharply up at him. His eyes still unfocussed but wild.

"You knew?" the blond asked, confused at first because he just didn't understand "You knew!?" he took a step back.

"Alex, I-"

"You knew and you didn't tell me? How could-? Why would-? He's not dead and you knew!?" It was the most coherent he'd sound so far, but Ben didn't like the distance Alex kept trying to put between them, or the quality of his breathing.

"Alex, calm down. Let me explain" he tried to reach for him, but Alex wasn't having it.

"No!"

"Enough, Alex. You're making a scene" Ian said but the blond answered right back at him.

"And you, you just show up here. Here. And you're... you're not..." he was gasping by now, unable to process the situation and breathe at the same time.

It was just too much.

Ian stepped closer to him but he wasn't expecting the blond's reaction

"Get away from me!"

Ben, recognizing the signs of one of Alex's panic attacks, went to put himself between Alex and Ian, intent on bringing the situation under control. But when he put a hand on Alex's shoulder, the blond exploded.

"Don't touch me!" Ben recoiled his hand as of he'd been burned.

"Alex-" but Alex wasn't listening anymore. He couldn't hear anything past the roar in his ears that told him he'd been lied to by everyone about the single most important event of his life when he was fourteen.

Betrayal, betrayal.

"Shut up, shut up, just shut up!"

He didn't think he'd said that out loud, but suddenly everyone was staring at him and a male nurse walked in from behind him, wanting to put an end to the upsetting scene. Big mistake.

When he felt another hand on his shoulder, this time from behind, Alex shouted and jumped in surprise. He decided to search for the nearest wall and put his back to it, unable to deal with the closeness of the people around him anymore. So many people had already touched him so much that day...

H didn't realize he was sliding down to the floor until he saw yet another person reaching for him. And he couldn't, he just couldn't...

By the time the he reached the floor, he had already passed out.

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Ben stared vividly after Alex when he was wheeled beyond the doors of the emergency room on a stretcher.

After he'd passed out, they were able to get near him and Ian had flashed a Government ID and asked everyone to keep what they'd seen to themselves.

Ian...

Ben was so angry it was a good thing they were already at the hospital, because people could get seriously injured very, very soon. He turned to Ian with a accusing finger jabbing into the other man's chest.

"I told you to wait. We talked about this and you agreed!" he made sure to keep the volume of his voice controlled, but he didn't take any ounce of hatred from it.

"That was before he was involved in a crash and ended up here" Ian said calmly "I told you this could happen. I needed to speak with him sooner rather than later. It's be best for him"

"I know what's best for him right now" Ian looked at him sympathetically.

"Please, don't be afronted by this. I'm just trying to keep him safe, as I'm sure you are"

"Keep him safe? You have no idea what that means. Sometimes he needs to be kept safe from himself" Ben stated, fuming inside. This man had no idea how to deal with Alex.

"What do you mean?"

"You should've listened to me. He's depressive and fucking traumatized. He's a suicide risk for christ sake!" now that seemed to leave the other man speechless for a second "He doesn't deal with emotional things very well"

"I know what's happened to him" he simply stated, as if knowing about it gave him the right to waltz into Alex's life without fear of the emotional consequences.

"Reading about it and living with it are two very different things" Ben had no doubt MI6 must have kept him informed about Alex's life, but if he thought reading a file made up for anything, he had another thing coming "You haven't been around for the past six years and you have no idea what living with Alex is like. He's been with me since he was sixteen so now you're gonna let me handle him like I know how to handle him and you're gonna stay away from him until I say otherwise"

Silence settled between them following Ben's heated words. He thought he recognized a flicker of hurt passing through the other man's face but quickly dismissed it. He didn't care if the truth hurt. He meant every single word.

"For now"

Ian turned around and walked away without saying another word and Ben let out a sigh. He knew he hadn't won the war, since it was barely now starting, but he'd take any victory he could get.

Calming himself down enough to not snap at the next person he talked to, he walked to the nurses' station to get the information that he needed. He already knew Alex was being taken care off, and someone would let him know when there was something to be known. He focused on his next worry.

"I'm looking for Victor Allen?"

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I can bet you guys weren't expecting that, were you? At least not so soon?

I personally love a protective Ben looking after his brother like that, and things are only going to get more complicated now that Ian is back into the world of the living.

I think Alex "not handling emotional things very well" is the understatement of the year, so we'll see how he deals with everything on the next chapter.

And, how badly injured is actually Vict? He didn't look too good on Alex's part… the poor blond was shocked out of his mind though, so we'll see.

I hope you enjoyed this chapted as much as I enjoyed writing it. Any comments about it? Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts!

Until next time!