Disclaimer – Here is the next chapter. Only three more left after this. Major Hal and Ben feels, because I think there should be more of them, and I think it would definitely be shown in this situation. So please enjoy.

Chapter 15

Hold On

Ben was the first one who made their way to Hal's room. Everyone else stayed in the waiting area to talk to Anne and Cochise. They wanted to know everything they could about the machine, the drug, odds of Hal surviving, but for once, Ben didn't want all the details. All he cared about, was whether or not his brother was going to be okay. So he headed to Hal's room alone, not exactly sure what to expect.

Hal, lying limply on the hospital bed, tubes and wires snaking under the blanket, IV inserted in Hal's left hand, were all things Ben had figured would be there. The tube going into his brother's mouth and down his throat however, was not something Ben could ever imagine happening to his big brother. To him, Hal was nothing if not strong, to see him actually need help to even breathe was enough to feel his entire world slip out from under him.

Ben wasn't exactly sure how he made his way over to Hal's side, but he did. Hal was pale beyond imagining, his skin was as white as the sheets. Ben slowly lifted his arm and wrapped his fingers around Hal's hand, then quickly pulled back. Hal's skin was almost as cold as pure ice, just like his Mom's was when Dad had brought her body back to the house.

Looking around, Ben found the monitor by the bed, still beeping. Even though he knew his brother's heart was beating, that he was alive, feeling how cold Hal was made him need to make sure. The monitor still wasn't enough to assure him, so Ben focused his hearing, and heard the weak beating of his brother's heart. It was too weak, not at all the strong, loud thump he was used to hearing. Ben kept his ears focused on it, not at all noticing Anne enter the room.

"Ben?" The young teenager jumped slightly, then turned to look at the doctor.

"He's cold." Ben told her. Those were the only words that Anne needed to hear, to realize how freaked out Ben was.

"It's just from blood loss. As his body keeps making new blood cells, he'll warm up." Anne explained, her voice calm.

"Can't we give him a blood transfusion or something? We are in a hospital." Ben pointed out.

"Unfortunately Ben, I don't know if we have the equipment to test the blood here. There are too many things that could go wrong if we tried. We'll just have to wait." Anne said, her expression one of sympathy.

A sudden, loud gasp drew the attention away from Hal and to the door behind them where the sound came from. It was Matt, who stood as though he'd been frozen in place, eyes open wide in shock. Tom stood right behind his youngest, the same expression on his face as he saw the condition his oldest was in.

"I know it looks bad, but don't worry, he should be okay." Anne reassured them, walking over to Tom and Matt.

"Does he need that?" Matt asked, pointing to the breathing tube.

"Just for a little while, so his lung can heal without being under such strain. I'll start slowly weaning him off it, just to make sure he can breathe without it." She explained. Matt nodded then headed over to the bed.

Matt stopped when he was by Hal's head, the lowered his own onto Hal's shoulder and started crying. Tom went over to his youngest and placed his one hand on Matt's back, grabbing Hal's hand in his other.

The sight of his big brother in the hospital bed with a breathing tube in his mouth, and his youngest brother crying his heart out became too much for Ben, and he fled the room

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Ben didn't stop running until he was out of the building. Even then, he st ran until he found a bush, at which point he emptied the entire contents of his stomach into it.

When he was done, he stood up, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and found Maggie standing right behind him.

"Feel better?" She asked, watching him try to compose himself.

"Not really. He looked, he looked like he's just a step away from death," Ben told her, taking a few deep breaths before continuing, "and I know he was in trouble before, but it wasn't noticeable, like it is now."

"He'll be okay. Hal's strong, he'll pull through this." Maggie's voice left no room for argument. It was as though she was trying to convince herself more than Ben, and he didn't blame her. They had just gotten back together, and to be so close to losing him again, this time permanently, was most likely making her feel the same way he was.

"You should go see him." Ben broke the awkward silence that was starting to build up.

"I will. I just wanted to talk to you about something first." Maggie answered.

"What?" Ben had no clue what Maggie could want to talk to him about.

"I was talking to Cochise, he said, that the spikes, would've healed my injury. Meaning if I wanted to, I could get them out and I would be fine. No dying, no paralysis. I think I'm going to do it. Cochise said he could help Anne do it." Maggie informed him. Ben stared at her dumbfounded. Of course she could have her spikes taken out, her injury wasn't a condition like his asthma or Deni's eyesight problems. It was just an injury.

"Yeah, that would work. I don't know why I didn't think of it." Ben replied, looking down at the ground, before looking back at her and said, "It's your choice Maggie. Hal and I chose for you before. This time, it's your decision."

"Thank you Ben." Maggie smiled at him, then made her way back to the hospital, just as Tom was coming out to find Ben.

"You doing okay?" He asked his son. Ben nodded, wiping his face again, not wanting his Dad to know that he had threw up.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good." Ben lied, keeping his eyes away from Tom's.

"No you're not." Ben didn't really know why he tried to lie, his Dad was always able to see right through it. Lying wasn't something he was good at, not like Hal could be.

"I just, I can't see him like that. I was standing right in the room, looking right at him, yet it was like, it didn't compute, that Hal was lying there." Ben tried to explain, feeling tears flooding his eyes again.

"It's always a hard thing, when you learn that your heroes aren't invincible." Tom told him, compassion laced in every word.

"He looked like he was already dead. His hand was as cold as Mom's." Ben sobbed as the tears overtook him, and he felt his legs starting to shake. He thought he was going to fall, but Tom was there, and caught him in his arms and held him tight as Ben cried for the second time that night.

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After two days, Anne took out the breathing tube, and the chest tube. She had told Tom, Ben, Matt and Maggie that Hal could breathe on his own and no longer needed help. The lung was healing up nicely so there was no need for the chest tube. Then the young woman did some more tests and found no sign of infection or bleeding, quickly stating that he was going to be just fine, and could wake up at any time.

Ben had started to avoid the hospital room, ashamed of himself for losing it like he did the first time. Matt on the other hand, barely ever left. The only time he left the room was to go to the bathroom. Whenever he fell asleep, Tom would pick him up and put him in Ben's room and told Ben not to let him back to Hal's room unless he had something to eat.

Maggie gathered her courage a few hours after talking to Ben about her spikes, and came to see her boyfriend. She remained as vigilant as Matt did over Hal. The only down side to that was that Tom couldn't force her out of the room, like he could with Matt. He, as did Anne and Weaver tried to make her take a break every now and then, but she refused.

After a while, Tom went and found Ben again, sitting in the waiting area. While Ben never went into the room, he stayed as close as possible, waiting for any news about his brother. Luckily, Weaver, seeing how much the family wanted, no, needed to stay with Hal, didn't assign any of them, not even Maggie on any missions, and he took over with leading the group with Cochise.

Tom, without a word, sat right beside Ben, who didn't even seem to notice his father's presence. After realizing that Ben wasn't going to speak, Tom decided he would.

"There was this one time, you would've been about 4, Hal was 9, and Matt was barely a year old, we went on a vacation during the summer to New York City. We came back, and both you and Hal had gotten sick, and I mean, you were throwing up in the bath tube and Hal was throwing up in the sink while your mother was trying to comfort you both kind of sick. After a day, you were back to normal, just playing outside on your bike, but Hal was still sick. He had a fever, throwing up constantly and kept saying his stomach hurt." Ben slowly lifted his head to look over at his Dad. He had no memory of that whatsoever.

Tom, however, kept looking straight ahead and continued, "After another day of that, Hal's fever went up to 104. We called your grandparents to come take care of you and Matt while we took Hal to the hospital. He had a ruptured appendix, and had gotten a major infection. He had emergency surgery, one he almost died during, and for the next two weeks, we didn't know if he'd pull through or not."

Tom stopped talking for a minute, feeling tears prickle his eyes as the memories of that time came back before going on, "Before the invasion, I could honestly say those were the two most, scariest weeks of my life. I stayed at the hospital, while your Mom kept going back and forth to take care of Matt, and you. We never really told you what was going on. We didn't want to scare you, didn't want you to see how scared we were. When he pulled through, and we took him home, you slept in his room for the next three nights. You said you had missed him, and didn't want him to leave again."

Finally, Tom looked over at his son and said, "Rebecca and I weren't sure if it was a good idea, you staying with him since he was still so weak and we told you that, but you looked at us and said you would be strong enough for both of you. Since the beginning of the war, you've both been so strong for each other, but what you forget, is that it's okay to be weak too."

Tom put his arm around Ben and pulled him in for a one-armed hug, gave him a kiss on his head, then stood up and left, leaving Ben alone again. Before he could change his mind, he stood up and headed for Hal's room.

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Ben entered the room slowly, finding Maggie sitting on the chair beside Hal. Maggie lifted her head and turned to look at the door, wondering who had come into the room. Seeing that it was Ben, and knowing that he hadn't been in to see Hal since when he first got out of surgery, decided it would be good for Ben to be alone with him.

So Maggie got off the chair and made her way to the door. As she passed Ben though, she lifted her hand gave him a slight squeeze on his shoulder, before heading out of the room. Ben barely gave her any attention, keeping his eyes only on his brother.

Like Anne had told him, the breathing tube was gone, replaced by a nasal canal that snaked along Hal's face and under his nose. His skin, though still pale, was not as bad as it was before.

Ben slowly made his way over and sat down that Maggie had just vacated. Ben looked down at Hal's IV'd hand. Part of him wanted to hold it, but he was scared it would be just as cold as before, so he didn't.

"Hey Hal. It's me." Ben said to the unconscious, young man, "I just, came to see you. Sorry I didn't come earlier, I just, couldn't stand seeing you like that." Ben wasn't surprised by the lack of response, he didn't expect one, but that wasn't why he kept talking to his brother. He kept talking because he needed to say something to Hal, and through Hal wasn't actually listening, he needed to say it.

"Hal, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that you got hurt. I'm sorry about Maggie, and I'm sorry I hurt you. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry, the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you." Ben cried, tears running down his face and Ben lowered his head on his arms that were resting the side of Hal's bed, he didn't even notice Hal's fingers slightly moving.

Ben didn't look up until he felt a hand rest on his head, fingers running through his hair. What Ben saw, made him did a double take. Hal's brown eyes, half opened, watching him. It was also Hal's hand on his head, fingers running through his hair.

"It's okay Ben." Hal's croaked. His voice was weak, and exhausted, but it was the best thing Ben had heard in a long time. Tears continued their descent down Ben's cheeks and Hal's moved his hand to brush them away, smiling at his little brother. Ben smiled back.

When Hal had first started coming to, he heard the steady beating of the monitor, again, but also a familiar voice. Only one, so Hal didn't know who the person was talking to until Hal heard the voice say his name, and kept repeating the words, 'I'm sorry'. Then slowly, Hal opened his eyes and saw Ben, crying into his arms, and all Hal could think about was giving Ben all the comfort he needed.

"Hal?" The two brothers looked to the door and there stood Matt and Anne. Matt came running over, and was tempted to through himself on his brother and hug him tight, but knew that would be a bad idea, so he stopped at Hal and Ben's side.

"You're awake." Matt commented, giving him the widest smile Hal had ever seen.

"You said you would disown me if I left." Hal reminded him, and they all, except Hal, broke out laughing. Hal would've, but his chest was in a lot of pain so he smiled at them instead.

"I'm going to go get your Dad and Maggie. You two," Anne said, pointing to the two youngest Mason brother, "don't let him move."

They nodded and Anne left to go inform her husband and her friend that Hal was finally awake.

AN – See, I can be nice when I want to. Next chapter will be up as soon as I can get it up. Please review, I would love to know your thoughts.