Sasuke slowly woke up. Feeling dizzy and with his head slightly throbbing he took in his surroundings. He was lying in a hospital bed, clad in a hospital gown and with his head and right foot bandaged. So he came to the conclusion that he was indeed in a hospital, but he couldn't recall why, so he continued looking around. The other beds in his room were empty and he got the nagging feeling that something was missing.

Suddenly everything came crashing back on him and he shoot up from his laying position. He remembered picking Itachi up from the airport, Itachi annoying the hell out of him during the drive, then the race with the other car, Itachi screaming at him to stop and grabbing the steering wheel, the crash with the train, Itachis unconscious body, the smoke, himself trying to free Itachi from the car and then…..Itachis heart had stopped…

That would mean…Itachi…his brother…was…dead?

No, this couldn't be!

Sasuke jumped of the bed and nearly fell flat on his face, due to his weak legs. How long had he been unconscious anyway?

Stumbling a little he made it to the door and opened it, only to nearly run straight into one of the nurses. He pushed past her and walked down the corridor searching for his brothers name tag above one of the doors, but he couldn't find it anywhere.

He was frantic now, even ignoring the throbbing pain in his right leg. Itachi had to be somewhere around! Normally they were always keeping family members in the same corridor or room. He couldn't have killed him!

The nurse from before was now walking besides him, talking to him rapidly and trying to pull him back towards his room, but he ignored her.

"I will bring you to your brother."

Sasuke stopped short and turned around. Behind him stood one of the medics with a clipboard in her hand. She had long blond hair, tied into two low ponytails and hazel brown eyes.

"I'm Tsunade, the leading medic on his case and I wanted to go there anyways, come on."

She shooed the protesting nurse away and walked into the direction he had come from.

Sasuke numbly followed her.

After going up a flight of stairs and into a corridor of the intensive care unit they stopped in front of a door.

'Uchiha Itachi'

His brothers name was written above the door.

"What are you waiting for? Go in." Tsunade gestured towards the door.

Sasuke slowly reached for the handle, but hesitated. His hand was shaking.

He took a deep breath and grabbed the handle. There was nothing to be afraid of. Itachi would be all right, he was sure of that.

Slowly he opened the door and stepped into the room, followed by Tsunade.

But as he got sight of Itachi he stopped, afraid to go any closer and see the whole damage he had done.

Itachi was lying in the bed before him, stuck to various IV's and a life support machine. His head was bandaged, his eyes were closed and he was unbelievable pale. The rest of his body was covered by a blanket and there was still some dried blood on the right side of his face.

"It wasn't easy, but we managed to reanimate and stabilize him."

Tsunade had walked to the machine, checking on his brothers vital system and scribbling on her clipboard.

Sasuke slowly followed her and stood beside the bed. His brother was so ghostly pale. He looked more dead than alive.

Taking up all of his courage he carefully touched his brothers hand which was peeking out under the blanket. It was slightly cold.

Sasuke pulled his hand back and let himself fall onto the chair besides the bed. His headache was getting worse, his leg hurt and he felt the guilt eating at him making him nauseous. And he didn't like that feeling.

Tsunade held a glass of water in front of his face and he took it without looking up, gulping it down in one swipe.

"How bad is he?"

"You're sure you are ready to hear that?"

"Yes."

He would get to know it anyways. Better hear it now from the medic than later from his uncle. After all, it was his fault that Itachi was in this state and Madara wouldn't be very happy about it. Even if he and Itachi didn't really like each other, he was still his nephew.

Tsunade sighed, but she saw no reason to not tell the young boy exactly what kind of damage he had caused. He was old enough to mentally deal with it.

"Ok, first of all he has been placed in an artificial coma. His pelvis has been fractured as has his right upper leg and he has several bruised and three broken rips. Due to a damaged vein in his right upper leg and one of his rips puncturing his lung he lost a great amount of blood and needed several blood transfusions. His heart stopped four times during the operation because of the blood loss and in the end we had to inject adrenalin into it to get it to beat again.

His head has been hit pretty hard and his brain has been damaged, but we can't exactly say how serious the damage is till he wakes up. Same goes for his injured spine. It got fractured in his lower back and his spinal cord is slightly damaged. It seems as if it could be healed, but we're not sure yet. First we need your brother to wake up and check if he can feel and move his legs.

Besides from that he has some minor cuts and bruises and like you he suffered from a smoke poisoning."

Sasuke held his head in his hands, eyes closed and slowly taking in what Tsunade told him. Again a wave of guilt swept over him, but he pushed it back. He should have thought as much, after all, Itachi was lying in a room in the intensive care unit. That says everything.

"When will he wake up and what would be the worst that can happen, besides him not waking up or dying?"

Tsunade hesitated, thinking about the question a little.

"We planned to wake him from his coma in three weeks, but of course it could take longer for him to actually wake up. I think the worst that can happen is him being paraplegic and/or mentally retarded."

Sasukes body trembled. The guilt was overtaking him again. What had he done?

biep.…biep.…bieb.…biep…

Sasuke tried to ignore the sounds from the life support machine behind him, but it was so damn loud.

He was still sitting in the chair besides his brothers bed. It was already evening.

Tsunade had checked him through and deemed him fine enough to go home. She practically forced him to eat the rice some nurse brought in, saying that he needed something in his belly after being unconscious for nearly three days.

Now he was waiting for his uncle, which Tsunade had called, to bring him some clothes and pick him up.

Damn, what was he taking so long?

He was itching to get out of here and away from his brothers lifeless body.

He couldn't stand being near him anymore, he wasn't even able to look at him without feeling a pang of guilt. He hated this feeling. He was supposed to hate this man and not blame himself for hurting him.

Suddenly the door opened to reveal his uncle with a bag in his left hand. He looked even more tired than usually.

"Sasuke, it's good to see you awake."

"Yeah, whatever."

Sasuke wasn't in the mood for talking. He stood up and took the bag from his uncle and walked into the small bathroom to change.

As he came back out his uncle was sitting in the chair he had occupied before and looked at him with tired eyes.

"I assume you have already been informed about your brothers state of health."

Sasuke nodded and Madara sighed. He knew he would need to have a very long talk with his youngest nephew and he wasn't looking forward to it.

Sasuke had not only endangered his own life, but also that of his older brother and even managed to nearly kill him with his carelessness. Not to talk about the passengers in the train and the man driving the other car, who was now drop dead.

He had told him often enough not to take part in street races. The police already knew about the race and they were suspecting Sasuke to have started it, which wouldn't end well for him if he really did. The dead man left two small children and a wife, who of course wanted compensation and was suing them for financial aid.

But he didn't want to bother Sasuke with all of this now after he just woke up. They would talk later.

"Can you bring me home now uncle? There's nothing we could do staying here."

Madara nodded and stood up, following Sasuke out of the room and closing the door behind him.

After informing the receptionist of Sasukes leave, they got into his uncles truck and Madara drove out onto the freeway.

"You must be hungry, should we stop somewhere and get you something to eat?"

"No, thank you, just drive me home."

"Ok, but at least eat a chocolate bar. You haven't eaten anything in days."

Sasuke nodded and took the chocolate bar from his uncles hand, not telling him about the rice he had to eat at the hospital. The rest of the drive was held in silence. Back at his apartment he waved his uncle good-bye, telling him he didn't need anything.

Madara would come back in the morning to have a talk with him, that much he knew.

Sasuke lived alone since he was thirteen. His uncle only came by from time to time to look if everything was all right with the apartment, but since Sasuke helped him with the paperwork they saw each other quite regularly at his uncles working place.

The apartment had two bedrooms. One for himself and one for his brother, but seeing that he was as good as never in Konoha he started using it as a guest room for his friends and to store some things.

Sasuke sighed as he locked the door behind him. He felt exhausted.

Walking into his bedroom he didn't bothered to get out of his clothes and let himself fall into his king sized bed, pulling the blanket over his head.

Tomorrow morning he was going to have a long talk with his dear uncle and a lot of explaining later in school. Unfortunately he couldn't bother to pass any more classes, since he was in his last year.

But how could he just continue with his life not even knowing how his brother's life would be. The life that he destroyed, probably.

Sasuke groaned. 'No, bad thoughts'

Wallowing in self-pity wouldn't bring him anywhere. Besides, he couldn't do anything right know without knowing how his brother would manage after waking up from the coma. If he would wake up, that is.

Soon enough he would know exactly how much damage he had done. Because in three weeks his brother was supposed to wake up.

AN: Thanks everyone for the reviews and I hope you liked the first chapter. I decided to continue this story, but I am not quite satisfied with the first chapter. The next ones will be better.

And don't worry about Itachi dying. How is Sasuke supposed to take care of him when he already dies in the first chapters? ^^