Once again I was so thrilled and grateful for all the wonderful reviews for the first chapter - you really make my day.

Not going to waffle on so straight into chapter 2...

Stormy Night - Chapter 2

Silence filled the air as Ethan slowly opened his eyes. When had he closed them? He shifted in his seat, which sent a shooting pain up the back of his neck, then through his head. He brought a hand up to his forhead and felt a rather large lump forming. He groaned as the memory of what had happened flooded his mind.

"Ethan! Ethan!"

He heard his name being called as if from a distance - then suddenly it hit him.

"Cal!"

"The one and only..." his voice didn't sound right to the younger man. It sounded strained, hoarse. He turned in his seat, hissing loudly as a white hot pain sliced through his leg and foot. It was only then that he noticed that his leg was caught under part of the dashboard that had been pushed in by the impact of the car hitting the tree. Ethan's confused gaze left his leg as he glanced out of the window. They really had hit a tree!

"Ethan are you ok?" his brother sounded frantic now.

"What? Oh...er...my leg..."

"What about your head? You were unconscious for just over a hour!" Cal exclaimed.

It was starting to make sense to Ethan now. That's why he had woken to silence - the storm had stopped while he was out. He took a deep breath to gather his thoughts. So if he had hurt his leg and head, then his brother, who had taken the brunt must be in a worse state than he was.

"Cal," he gasped, "Are you alright?"

He heard his brother cough, then groan, "I think I might've damaged a few ribs - airbag protected me from most of it, but the steering wheel has me pinned in good and tight. They'll be no moving me until I can be cut out, I think..."

"Ok..right...let's think about this...phone, where's my phone..." Ethan mumbled to himself.

Cal couldn't help but smile at his brother's mutterings - he'd never change - he'd always work out problems by speaking out loud. He was beginning to feel uncomfortable, probably due to the fact that the adrenaline that he had been running on while his brother was unconscious was quickly wearing off, so he was starting to feel every ache and pain. He shuffled in his seat, a white hot pain shooting through his chest. He couldn't stifle the groan of pain.

"Cal?" Ethan's attention was back on his trapped brother.

"I'm ok," he gasped, "Note to self, don't try to move...hurts to breathe at the moment," he told the younger man. Ethan's brow furrowed as he ran through all different scenarios through his head. Suddenly, he laid his hand on his phone, his momentary elation soon dampened when he realised that it was smashed, "It's smashed - do you know where yours is?"

Cal shook his head trying to hide a grimace, "It was in my pocket, but I think it fell out..."

"Great, just great," the younger man moaned, as he rubbed his head.

"Ethan are you sure you're ok?" Cal was worried that his brother kept rubbing his head.

"Yes - it's just a pity I didn't have a newer car with a passenger airbag. I must've bumped it somehow...I can't remember. Anyway we need to see to you." He leaned forward and began taking his jacket off. He could see, even in the encroaching darkness, that Cal was a lot paler than he usually was and Ethan was just picking up on the minute shivers coursing through his brother's body. He winced as he sat up a bit straighter, jarring his injured leg, but he got his jacket off, then leaned over a laid it over his brother, "No Eth, you need this. You need to keep warm just as much as I do," he insisted, but his little brother was having none of it.

"I can't stop you going into shock, but I can slow it down, hopefully. Now in the boot I've got a blanket and some emergency water, so I'm going to see if I can get my leg out and get to the back. It's obviously getting dark now..."

Just as he finished a long, growl of thunder reached his ears. Just what they needed, "It looks like we'll be here for the night - so we need to be prepared."

Ethan slowly and gently began trying to extract his leg from under the dashboard. He slid his seat back as far as he could before he couldn't bear the pain any longer. He paused for a moment to get his breathing back under control, "Ethan stop. You're hurting yourself..."

"No, got to...do this..." he gasped out as a flash of lightning lit up the car.

Five excrutiating minutes later, his leg was free. He caught a quick glimpse of it deciding not to look at it ever again. He took several, deep, calming breaths then dragged himself out of the car. Slowly, he straightened up, desperately trying to control the dizziness that assaulted him. He was jolted out of his spinning world by another bright flash and huge raindrops that splashed onto his warm skin. He stumbled along to the boot of the car and with the car itself being the only thing keeping him upright, he managed to open the boot and he soon located the blanket, some water, a couple of cereal bars, a torch and one of those warning triangles that he got free when he bought the car. He grabbed it all and stumbled his way through the now pouring rain to the front of the car, throwing himself back through the door as another flash of lightning and a louder rumble of thunder made its presence known. He slammed the door shut, breathing heavily, "Ethan, you ok mate?" he heard his anxious brother ask.

"Just peachy. I've got a leg the size of an elephants leg and I've got God deciding to move his furniture around when I can hardly move to get out of the way!"

Cal chuckled, although it hurt, "Do you still think of thunder like that?"

Ethan ducked his head in embarrassment. Before he could say anything else, Cal coughed, groaning loudly. Ethan grabbed the torch and shone it in Cal's direction. He was concerned when he saw the paleness on his brother's face and the lines of pain that creased his forhead, "Try to relax Cal, which I know is difficult with a steering wheel pressing on your chest, but if you can it might not hurt so much?" Ethan queried rather than feeling confident.

Ethan took his jacket off of Cal and placed the blanket over him, making sure that he was completely covered, then gave his a small drink of water, which Cal took gratefully, "What about you?" Cal asked, "You need to keep warm too."

Ethan smiled at him as he put his own jacket back on, "See?"

Cal could see. Ethan had already begun to shiver. A combination of shock and being soaked through by the rain was beginning to take it's toll on the younger man.

Another flash - another bang - Ethan jumped a mile, hissing in pain although, at that moment in time, he couldn't distinguish where the pain was worse.

"You never did like thunderstorms did you?" Cal thought out loud, "Remember when you used to come into my room when you were little and there was a storm. You never went to mum or dad, always to me - why was that?"

"Probably because the first time I went into mum and dads, he pushed me out saying something along the lines that it was nature and that I had to put up with it. You always let me in though..." he stared wistfully out of the front windscreen.

"Right up to you being 18!"

"Always the comedian," groused Ethan, smirking. He took out a cereal bar and broke a piece off and handed it to his brother, who took it gratefully, "So what do you think about your leg?" He asked as he caught a glimpse of the swollen limb straining at the trouser leg.

"Something is probably broken..."

"Is that the best you could do Dr Hardy?"

"To be honest, I can't be bothered to think - let someone else do the thinking for once..." he rubbed his head once again.

Cal didn't answer him. He knew that his brother must be in pain and the last thing he wanted to do was cause an argument.

They fell into a companionable silence, which was only broken by the rumbles of thunder and the pounding of the rain on the roof, "Guess we won't be sleeping tonight," Cal thought aloud even though that was all he wanted to do.

Ethan glanced at his brother, noticing how exhausted he looked, "We'd better not. We've both had a knock to the head, so better to be safe than sorry."

The older man nodded his agreement without any enthusiasm.

"I can't believe that in this day and age, we can't find a working phone between us - so frustrating. I can't sit here all night..." Ethan's temper began to fray.

"Well you can't go out in this weather little brother - not to mention that you can hardly walk..."

"I've got to do something! You can't stay trapped behind that wheel all night," Ethan's face began to crumple and he turned away as tears of frustration fell down his cheeks.

"Ethan," Cal began calmly, "We can't risk moving me, not without the proper equipment and support - it could do more damage than good."

Ethan knew his brother was right, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"So what shall we do now? We can't exactly play 'I spy'," Ethan mumbled.

Cal chuckled, then winced, causing Ethan to sit up straighter, glancing at his brother once more, "Ok?" Ethan ventured.

"Nothing that a good few weeks of recuperation with some good box sets wouldn't cure..." he broke off as he saw his little brother tense up and turn away, "What? What have I said? Ethan?"

Ethan was shaking his head slightly, "I'm just being stupid. It's just...well I remember Jeff saying that to me when I was trapped...in the crash - just still gets to me sometimes."

Cal sighed deeply, "I'm sorry Ethan, I didn't think."

"Thanks for saving my life," the younger doctor said.

"You've already thanked me, many times - and besides there's no need - you're my little brother, I will always save you." Cal felt a lump forming in his throat as he was momentarily transported back to that day.

"Anyway, let's talk about something else..."

They spent the rest of the night talking - a first for them. As dawn began to creep up, the two young men had managed to talk out a lot of their dramas. They had made new promises to each other and vowed to always be there for each other. By 6am, Cal had drifted off into an uneasy sleep. Ethan wasn't to worried - he'd not hurt his head and he was certain that someone would realise they were missing, especially as Ethan should have been on shift at 6am and everyone knew that he wouldn't be late without a good reason. They just had to sit tight. Ethan closed his own eyes for a moment but was jolted out of his rest by a strangled cry coming from his brother, who had started from his sleep causing him a lot of pain. Ethan shuffled over as far as he could and laid a gentle hand on Cal's shoulder. The older man breathed as deeply as he dared and soon got his breathing under control. One thing that he did notice however, was that his younger brother was shivering almost uncontrolably, "Can you shuffle up a bit closer?" he asked.

Ethan looked confused but did as he was asked. He manage to manouvre himself next to Cal with his leg up on the seat. As soon as he was near enough, Cal loosened the blanket from around him so that he could pull it over himself and his brother, who immediately started to protest, but Cal was having none of it, "You're freezing. You've got enough going on without hypothermia setting in. Now do as you're told!"

Ethan was still protesting even as Cal covered him, but Cal couldn't help smiling when he felt his brother lean into him for comfort.

"Cal, Ethan, is that you?" Cal's eyes opened to the sight of Dixie and Ian both staring at him through the window, "What? How?" he stammered. Dixie smiled, "Well ever since the crash, Ethan has always left a journey plan behind reception whenever he has taken a trip. When he didn't turn up for his shift and we couldn't contact either of you by phone, we decided to pull the plan and go for a little drive, and lo and behold look who we found," the two paramedics chuckled.

"The fire brigade will be here very soon to cut you out. What can you tell us?" Ian joined in.

"We were driving in last nights storm - I saw a child in the road - I swerved to avoid him and we hit the tree..."

"A child? We haven't seen anyone else around here," Dixie informed him.

"I don't know what to say...I saw him - Ethan did too...didn't you?" He suddenly realised that his brother hadn't moved since the paramedics woke him up. He nudged him gently causing him slide down a little, "Ethan?" Cal frantically tried to turn towards him but the pain from his ribs was to much, "Can you get to him? I think he might be unconscious. He hit his head when we crashed - he kept rubbing it - his leg is very swollen - he had to walk on it to get the blanket and water out of the boot - please get him out," he pleaded. He hadn't spent all night with him, sorting things out just to lose him now.

"Calm down Cal, we'll get him - here's the fire brigade..."

Within twenty minutes, the two doctors were out of the car and in the back of the ambulance. Due to the fact that the airbag had cushioned most of the force of the crash for Cal, he was able to sit up so they didn't have to send for another ambulance, so while Ian drove Dixie kept her eye on Ethan, as did Cal.

Another half a hour later, they arrived at work, only not the way they were supposed to be arriving - Cal in a wheelchair and Ethan unconscious on a trolley. Zoe met them, having been briefed by Dixie over the phone. She immediately took over the care of Ethan, while Cal, who wouldn't go anywhere until he knew how his brother was, was wheeled in behind him, "Well Dr Hardy - you seem to be making a habit of this..."

Phew, that took some writing. I was painfully aware that I seemed to be going on a bit so I hope it's not to painful for you. I am also aware that I didn't address the child that caused the crash - so I might have to do another chapter, which incorporates their immediate care etc and the child - what do you think? You know I love to hear your comments.

Once again, I'm sorry if I made you go to sleep xx