Author's Note: I have very little idea how the legal system would actually work in this situation, since all I know about 1. California law on this subject and 2. medical regulations/doctor-patient confidentiality comes from Google and Law and Order: SVU respectively. xD I do know, however, that those rules can be bent when the person in question is a minor. Please suspend any disbelief! Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed-it makes me happy and keeps me writing! :D

X X X

The two brothers sat in silence, having awkwardly shimmied themselves into a closer hug some time ago. Drake was apparently finished crying, although he clearly wasn't done clinging to the other boy. Josh was focused on two things: not crying or yelling (because god, he was still so pissed off) and trying to decide what they should do next.

Josh's phone rang, deciding for them.

"It's from home," Josh murmured, and Drake sighed, and sat up, looking resigned, though not nearly as broken as he had earlier. Josh shot him a small smile, and found a fleeting one answering on Drake's face. It was enough for that moment.

"Hello?"

"Josh, where are you? It has been four hours since school ended and we know you don't have work today." It was their mother, her angry voice sounding far too loud in his ear. "You know that you are supposed to call us when you aren't coming home immediately."

"Sorry, Mom," he said woodenly, because truth be told, he wasn't sorry at all. Josh knew he'd done the right thing today—for the first time in two weeks, actually. "I'm with Drake right now. We've been talking." There was a long pause on the other end, and Josh could hear his mother's breathing, the only indication that she was still on the line.

"Are you two working things out?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

"Yeah, but-" Josh glanced at Drake, who was playing with a guitar pick he'd pulled out of his pocket, worrying the edge of it along his thumb. "Look, Mom, not... not everything that's been going on with Drake was because of us fighting."

"What happened?" demanded Audrey immediately, concern for her son quickly overtaking her anger at Josh's sudden, momentary lapse in responsibility.

"I don't think this is how you should find out, Mom," he murmured. "Drake and I will tell you together, okay? But... later. Not right now. I don't think either of us can handle that yet." Josh didn't miss the way Drake's eyes latched onto his at the words "Drake and I," and Josh gave Drake another smile. The one he found returned was marginally stronger than the one before, and Josh felt his spirits buoyed.

"It's bad, isn't it?" said his mother, and Josh sighed.

"Yeah, it is," he answered.

"Trevor came to see us today," said Audrey. "He told us that he hadn't seen Drake since their gig last Friday. I thought he'd been acting oddly, but I had no idea he wasn't really practicing with his band. He told me yesterday that he had a show today, and that he wouldn't be home until late. I wonder where he was really going to go."

"I don't know," replied Josh honestly, but his mind flashed to the pills he'd found. Even if he didn't know where Drake was going to go, he knew what Drake was going to do. He felt sick again at the idea of it.

"I'll just... Do you think you'll be home soon? Should I save you boys dinner?" she asked.

"Even if we are home soon, I'm not sure either of us is going to be very hungry."

"Okay. That's fine," said Audrey. "So I'll just... I'll give you boys some space, for now, but we really do need to talk soon."

"Yeah," agreed Josh. "Yeah, we do. Thanks, Mom."

"Is it drugs?" she asked abruptly.

"No!" said Josh immediately, feeling suddenly defensive on Drake's behalf. "It's nothing like that, okay? I just... we'll tell you soon, okay?"

"Sure." They hung up. Josh sighed.

"So?" asked Drake.

"I told her we were talking it out, but that there was... something else going on with you," he said, somewhat unnecessarily, as Drake had been there to hear him say it. Drake just nodded. "She asked if you were on drugs." This startled a small laugh from Drake, and Josh grinned himself at the sound. "I told her we'd tell her later, and that I didn't know when we'd be home. She's okay with that."

"Cool," said Drake, then turned away again, looking anxious.

"What is it?" asked Josh. "What?"

"I... you're really gonna make me tell them?" said Drake, the words falling from his lips before he could stop them. "It was hard enough telling you."

"I know," said Josh, "but they really need to know about this. It's too important to cover up—and besides, I'll be there to help you tell them. You don't have to do this alone, Drake—any of it." Drake gave him another smile, this one unprompted by Josh.

"Thanks." Josh nodded, then swallowed thickly.

"Drake? Um, I know you're not going to like either choice, so I'm going to give you both options and let you choose," Josh said. "We could go home right now, and talk to Mom and Dad, or I could take you to the hospital."

"Hospital?" echoed Drake, looking confused, and then his expression slowly changed into one of pained realization. "Damn. I hadn't even thought about that."

"I know," said Josh, "but you... did he hurt you? Physically, I mean." Drake nodded.

"I still have some bruises and... there's a... he bit me," he said. Josh felt even sicker, and then his anger surged again. He forced himself to calm down before speaking again.

"Did he use a condom?" he asked, keeping his voice as gentle as possible. Drake shook his head no, looking like he wanted to cry again. Damn, damn, damn. "Okay. What do you say? Home, or hospital?"

X X X

For the first time, Drake thought that maybe he could understand Josh's fear of hospitals. He was sitting on a small bed in a corner of some larger room they'd tried to explain the purpose of to him (something about the ER and non-emergencies), but he was too busy staring at the hospital gown. Josh had helped him into it, tying the back for him while saying that Mom was going to save dinner for them, maybe, and if she didn't, then they could just order pizza.

Not for the first time, Drake was really, really grateful he had Josh.

The bed was curtained off, and he was sitting there feel naked beneath the thin cotton gown while he wondered as he listened to the many cries of children why Josh had brought him to the children's hospital. He interrupted Josh's pizza monologue to ask.

"You're sixteen, Drake," Josh said. "That makes you a child, still, technically."

"Oh."

"Hi there," a cheerful voice said as the curtain drew back. A middle-aged man smiled at them. "Oh, hello, boys. I was expecting someone a bit younger—we don't actually get that many teenagers here."

"Ha," said Drake triumphantly.

"Shut up," mumbled Josh. The two smiled at each other, enjoying the brief moment of normalcy.

"Well, what seems to be the trouble with you, Mr..." The doctor picked up the admittance form and smiled. "Parker?" Drake looked down at where his hands were wringing the bright green blanket, then glanced at Josh.

"He was... he was raped last week," Josh said, and wondered how Drake was ever going to be able to say it when it was so hard for Josh to say. The doctor frowned.

"I'm sorry," he said, and though he was a stranger and it could have seemed trite, he genuinely meant it. "Given what you've just told me, I'm afraid some parts of this examination could seem rather... invasive. Would you prefer a female doctor?" Drake just shrugged, and Josh was suddenly reminded of the time Drake impersonated a doctor to pick up nurses, and he would have given anything in that moment for Drake to say yes, for Drake to be his old self and do anything in his power to meet-and kiss-as many women as possible. But Drake just sat there. "Alright, well, my name is Dr. Shore, and I'll do the examination and you can tell me at any point if you would like to have someone else step in. Okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

"Would you like your friend-" The doctor indicated Josh, and Drake interrupted him.

"He's my brother."

"Alright," said Dr. Shore easily, and amended his question. "Would you like your brother to stay, or would you prefer to do this alone?" Drake looked to Josh.

"Stay?" Josh smiled reassuringly and nodded.

"I won't go anywhere unless you want me to go," he promised. Drake smiled again in silent thanks.

"Good," said Dr. Shore. "Now then, let's get this over with, shall we?"

X X X

The next two hours consisted of Drake being poked, prodded, and photographed while clutching Josh's hand tightly. The doctor apologized as he took pictures of each of Drake's bruises—some of which Drake hadn't even noticed, as he'd been trying very hard not to look at himself—but explained that by law, because Drake was minor, the incident had to be reported to the police, and normal doctor-patient confidentiality didn't apply the same way.

"I'll have a nurse notify the police, and they'll set up a time for you to give a statement, alright?" said the doctor as he finished his examination. Drake just nodded. "You handled that very well, and I'm very sorry for what happened to you. You should hear from us with the results of your tests in a short while." Tests. Drake wouldn't have even thought about those, but Josh was so smart. It had only occurred to Drake later, much later, after talking to Josh, that he could have gotten something from the man.

"For now, you can go home, Mr. Parker," said Dr. Shore, smiling at him sympathetically. "We'll be in touch, and so should the police. They're quite good at following up on these reports."

Drake put his clothes back on in silence, barely aware of Josh talking to the doctor. His brother seemed to realize that Drake wasn't entirely aware, and simply continued talking, giving Drake reassuring background noise after his conversation with Dr. Shore. It was the only thing he could think to do in this situation.

He kept it up throughout the entire drive home, watching Drake's face carefully for any sign of a reaction to his words. Josh didn't get one, but continued to speak regardless. As they neared their house, Josh thought about the phone numbers and names and addresses the doctor had given him while Drake was getting dressed.

"This is a list of counseling services your brother might find helpful," the doctor had said. "You're a good brother." But Josh didn't feel like a good brother. He felt horrible, because he knew that he'd hung up on Drake, that he'd ignored his second phone call, that he could have stopped this from happening but didn't and that made it his fault.

He had been rambling about cheese near the end of their drive, and as he pulled into their driveway, into the garage, Drake interrupted him, grabbing his wrist suddenly.

"Please don't tell Mom and Dad about the pills," he said, sounding desperate. Josh bit his lip, then sighed.

"I won't," he said, "but you have to give them to me." Drake nodded earnestly, and Josh smiled.

"Thanks, brotha." Drake was smiling, too. They got out of the car. "Hug me?" They shared a quick hug before going into the house.

All of the lights were off, and they began to creep towards the stairs, not wanting to wake anyone, when they were stopped by a small, scared voice. It was Megan.

"Why was Mom crying?" Drake and Josh looked at each other, and Josh sighed. "What did you two idiots do?"

"I think we need to talk, Megan. Are Mom and Dad asleep?" Megan just nodded. "Go wake them up, then. We should just get this over with now." Beside him, still in the dark, he heard Drake's breath hitch.

"It's okay," he lied again. "It's okay." The lights came on then, and their parents and Megan were standing there looking at them.

"Come on, boys," said Walter. "Let's go talk in the living room." The two brothers followed the rest of their family silently. Josh took a moment to squeeze back gently when Drake grabbed his hand.

Walter cleared his throat as they sat. "I think it's about time we found out what's going on."