Ethan gave him a lopsided smile back and Cal watched as he struggled to lift up his right arm, it trembled and there was a focused look in his eye. Cal, unsure of what to do, stood awkwardly in the doorway. Ethan let his arm hover in the air and stretched out his hand towards Cal.

Tentatively, Cal walked to Ethan's side and took Ethan's hand in his own. The energy drained rapidly from Ethan, Cal could feel it, but it didn't matter. Cal kept a hold of Ethan's hand as he placed it down onto the bed, and was grateful when Dr McKay slipped a chair behind his knees.

Cal was still holding Ethan's hand as he sat down and Ethan kept his eyes on him.

"Hey," he repeated, squeezing Ethan's hand. "Missed you."

Ethan nodded and raised his eyebrows slightly. Cal knew him well enough to know he was agreeing.

He looked seriously at his brother. "Sorry I wasn't there for you." Cal didn't know how aware Ethan had been recently and could inly hope he had wanted Cal today and not any other days, but he couldn't be sure. "I'm here for you now, okay? I'm here for you, Nibbles."

Ethan slightly smiled again, not objecting to the nickname, and gave Cal's hand a weak squeeze.

"Now what's this I hear about you not eating, hey?"

Ethan weakly shrugged and his left hand started to weakly move, shaking, across the lettered piece of paper. Cal kept looking at it, being patient and spelling out the word in his head. He was angry at the bastard that landed him in hospital and had caused this to happen to Ethan, for Ethan to have to use that to communicate. But he was also angry at himself because he didn't know to what length he had also caused this.

After Ethan stopped moving, Cal nodded to indicate he'd understood.

WANT YOU.

"And I'm here now, bud. Do you want to try and eat?"

Cal watched Ethan's facial expressions carefully and was shocked to see that Ethan looked scared. Then a tear fell from his eye. Cal gently used his thumb to wipe it away.

"It's okay, Ethan. I'm here. You can try and eat today, but I'm sure Dr McKay won't mind if you can't."

Ethan looked pleading and he held onto Cal's hand.

"Hey, Nibbles." Cal shuffled closer to Ethan, stroking his hair. "It's okay, it'll be alright. We can try -"

Ethan immediately shook his head.

Cal glanced to Dr McKay, who mouthed, "tomorrow," before leaving Cal with Ethan and giving the brother's some space.

"You'll be okay, Ethan. You can get through this. We can. Together."

Monday, 05 November 2015

Cal, despite finding the last month hard, had started to realise just how lucky he was that Ethan was alive. He had spent a lot of nights comforting Ethan. He had spent days trying to reason with him, trying to help him through. Dr McKay was persistent and insisted that the faster Ethan's recovery, the better Ethan would feel.

But recovering from a brain injury is more than hard and a couple of times, the stress of it all had set him into a fit. All Cal could do then was stand by and watch while other people dealt with him, because "you're not his doctor, Cal. You're his brother."

But Ethan was able to eat a little by himself now. He still became scared and needed Cal with him in case something happened, but any progress was good progress.

This morning was much of the same as usual. Occasionally he would stay over in the hospital, but had been told many times he needed to go home and rest. A few times Cal couldn't sleep because he kept thinking about Ethan and how alone he would feel if he woke up, and therefore had a couple of cans of beer. But his flat was clean and his life at home was good enough.

As he entered Ethan's hospital room that morning, he hoped it would be a good day. Many times it had started out well but turned into a bad day. Cal hoped the smile on Ethan's face meant it was a good day.

"Good morning, Cal." Cal recognised him as one of the nurses, but was far too focused on Ethan to reply or even remember his name.

Ethan was sitting up in bed, his face screwing up with effort. On the table in front of him were face down cards. Cal knew this exercise. This was the fourth time this week. The cards had pictures of people on - colleagues and friends and celebrities. It was designed to try and help Ethan's memory (one of the things they really needed to work on) and his speech. So far, Ethan hadn't spoken. It had disappointed Cal but it had severely frustrated Ethan to the point where he bashed his fist on the table top two days ago. Not only could he not remember someone's name, but he couldn't say it either.

The letter chart was by him, but Cal could see that Ethan was determine not to use it.

Cal stepped to the side of Ethan, peering down at the cards. The backs were white and the cards swapped around frequently. Ethan would have time to look before they were turned over and he'd have to say the names of the people and point to which card they were underneath.

Ethan's hand hovered over one of the cards, finger resting on it. Cal watched as he tried to speak and then watched the tears build in his eyes as he couldn't get his brain and mind to connect. He was sure Ethan knew who was under there, he just had to say it.

"Come on, Ethan. You can do it."

Ethan glanced at Cal and had a new look of perseverance in his eyes.

He grabbed the corner of the card (a little unsteadily and shakily, but it was something) as if he knew he was going to say the name. His face was determined and Cal could see the muscles tensing in his neck.

"C..."

It was one sound, but Cal could see Ethan smiling and that made him smile.

"C...Ca...C...Cal..."

Triumphantly, Ethan flipped the card over to reveal Cal's hospital ID card photo. He turned his face to Cal and beamed.

Cal couldn't help but mirror it. "Proud of you, little bro."

heggyy: Aww I'm glad you like reading about it, I aim to please! Yeah, it is nice. I felt bad for keeping them away from each other for 15 chapters. It's no problem! Thank you for your review.

Bonnie Sveen Fan: Cal and Ethan have a lovely relationship that will help not only Ethan but Cal too. I love writing them! Thank you for your review.

casslourocks: Not weird at all, it's hard for Cal as it is Ethan, be proud! I'm so glad you like it, it makes me happy to hear it! Thank you so much and thanks for your review!