Chapter 5

There was no response, except for some jerky breathing.

"Ethan!" Cal reached out and touched his brother's shoulder.

Ethan jumped.

"Are you with me?"

"Y-yes of course," he stuttered. "Sorry. Sorry I just..." His voice trailed away

"No problem," Cal said, but he was more than a little worried about how cold it was in Ethan's car. How long had he been sitting here? "Let's get you out of here and then you can tell me exactly what happened."

In the warmth and light of Cal's car, he was finally able to look his brother over. Ethan's eyes were distant, his face pale and there was a gash on his forehead. Aside from all that he must have been freezing, dressed only in his scrubs.

"What happened to your regular clothes?" Cal reached his hand behind and scrabbled around the backseat. He knew there was a jumper there somewhere... "Ethan?"

Again, his brother seemed to jolt out of his thoughts. "Oh um - I left the flat late, decided I'd save time..."

"And what a great idea that turned out to be." Cal gave up on the jumper, and started taking his own coat off instead. "Put this on."

It was perhaps a testimony to just how out of sorts Ethan was that he didn't protest that the coat was too long and his shoulders too broad as Cal wrapped the garment around him. The cut on his head dripped sluggishly.

"Let me take a look," Cal ordered, pulling out a First Aid kit from the glove compartment. He pulled out a pen torch and shone the light in Ethan's eyes. "Dilation is normal... did you lose consciousness at all?"

"No, I don't think so." Ethan winced as Cal started on cleaning the wound. "I just banged my head against the window..."

"Right." Cal started applying some gauze. "So what happened? What were you doing down this creepy road?"

Ethan managed to huff a laugh at that. "Yes I suppose it is rather creepy." His voice became quiet. "There was a lorry on the main road it was driving behind me and I- I panicked. I know it's stupid."

"It's not stupid." Cal finished securing the gauze with a piece of surgical tape. He had no way of knowing if the lorry behind Ethan was the same that had lost control and caused the accident - at that moment, it didn't matter. "But it still doesn't explain how you ended up driving into a ditch?"

"It... it was dark and-" Ethan swallowed and his breathing grew shallower. "I don't know. I couldn't do anything, the car kept sliding, I-"

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down - it was probably just some ice. Not your fault." Cal reached a hand to lift his coat back up where it had slipped from Ethan's shoulder. "Keep that on okay? You're freezing."

"Sorry," Ethan mumbled. His gaze was growing distant and he leant back into his seat. "Is Mrs Beauchamp angry?"

"Er..." Cal's phone started ringing again. "Maybe let's not think about that. When we get you checked into the ED I'm sure she won't-"

"No!" Ethan sat ramrod straight. "No, I'm fine!"

"But-"

"Please." Ethan looked to his brother with wide, pleading eyes. "No one can know about this. I can't be admitted as a patient, I just can't."

Cal opened his mouth to argue, but his phone was still blaring out. He gave in.

"Hello?"

"Cal!" It was Max. "Where are you? T-Rex is on the rampage."

Cal sighed. "Yeah um..."

"First Ethan, now you - what's going on?"

"Yeah I'm bringing Ethan in."

"What happened?! Is he okay?"

"Cal," Ethan whispered desperately. "Please don't."

"Um..." Cal hesitated. "He's fine, his car just broke down and there was a tonne of traffic. We'll be there in half an hour."

"Thank you," Ethan said sincerely when Cal hung up.

Cal said nothing. There was no way Ethan was working tonight - but how exactly was he going to persuade his brother of that?