A/N: Pressure's on! I don't know how much longer I have with this story before Season 3 comes out and this all becomes irrelevant.

This chapter is quite dialogue heavy; I sort of got into a swing of pretty much transcribing their exchanges instead of working on furthering their story, but the next chapter will have more of Axl's problems and the awkwardness with Gaia and will hopefully flow a lot nicer!

Dawn pulled up and parked her car in Anders' driveway. Ty undid his seatbelt and slowly climbed out of the car; he was still rather woozy.
"Are you alright?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah, I think I just need some water and a panadol to get rid of this headache," Ty replied with a slight wince. He walked around to the other side of the car and opened the door to help his brother out. Anders groaned in pain as Ty gently tugged him to his feet, like he had done many times before over the years.

"Where the fuck am I?"
"You're home, now, brother."
"Thank Christ for that, Mike was being a real downer."
"Mike is always a downer, that's his job," Ty pointed out as he put Anders arm round his shoulder and helped him walk to the door. Dawn wasn't sure whether she should have offered to help Ty, but they seemed to be having a sweet brotherly moment and she didn't want to interfere.
"Is Axl okay?"
"He buggered off in a huff, remember? Don't know where he went." The alcohol and drugs had been particularly hard on Anders' memory this evening; although that was probably the intention. Olaf had clearly succeeded this day.

"Jesus, he gets more and more like Mike every day," Anders said, shaking his head in disbelief (was there even a bit of pride in his voice?).
"Well, Mike did pretty much raise Axl," Ty reminded him. They had opened the door and were now slowly hobbling up the steps, Dawn slowly following behind them. She kept her head down, trying to conceal a smile. She hadn't seen this much humanity from Anders in a long time. Dawn had no idea that he cared that much about his family.

"Yeah. Oh shit, did I have any cigarettes tonight?" Anders wasn't a frequent smoker, but he had been trying to do it less.
"You had a fuckload. Plus some of Olaf's marijuana, a bunch of those pills you always seem to have on you, and you managed to talk Mike into opening a bottle of absinthe," Ty sounded impressed that his brother wasn't dead.
"How the fuck did I manage that? Normally I can never sweet-talk Mike into anything!"

"He was being nice to you because of your break-up with Helen." At the mention of her name, Anders stopped in his tracks.
"Oh shit!" he yelled, and ran back down the stairs.
"Anders?!" Dawn hurried after him, Ty stumbling behind her.

Anders started throwing up violently in the garden, falling to his knees.
"Anders? This looks quite bad, maybe we should call an ambulance?" Dawn suggested worriedly, kneeling down beside Anders. Ty nodded, and pulled out his phone to call an ambulance. He then considered leaving a message for Mike, but remembered that Mike wouldn't have been able to drive anyway.

Thankfully, the ambulance arrived just in the nick of time. Anders had stopped vomiting and had finally completely passed out outside his house. Dawn's attempt to rouse him hadn't been successful, and she was starting to panic. The paramedics put Anders on a stretcher and loaded him up.

"Do you want to go with him?" Dawn asked; her voice was shaking with worry.
"No, you go. I'll make sure to contact everybody else and grab some things for him."
"Wait – how will you get to the hospital?"
"I'll call Axl and get him to take me," Ty improvised quickly.
"Okay, I'll see you soon." Dawn climbed into the ambulance and it raced off, sirens blaring.
Ty then made a call to his younger brother, who answered after three rings.

"What do you want?" Axl asked irritably.
"Look, I get that you're upset, you need to get your arse round to Anders' house right now, your brother's in hospital."
"Shit, what happened?"
"I think he'll be fine, just overindulged in the drinking, but there are more important things to do – I think Helen was killed here. I need your help cleaning up."
"Aw, fuck," Axl moaned. "Okay, I'll bring some cleaning supplies over."

Axl arrived promptly, parking behind Dawn's car. Ty was sitting on the step outside.
"Where did you get to?" Ty asked curiously as they went inside Anders' house.
"I just went home. And then Gaia turned up, so I was actually pretty happy that I had an excuse to leave the house," he admitted. Ty gave a nod.

It became immediately evident that Anders was a genius to distract attention from his house. There was a large pool of blood trailing from the door into the kitchen, where it culminated underneath the body of Helen. Ty was anticipating this, but the actual sight of her body covered in blood brought back some unexpected emotions and memories. He bolted from the room and into the bathroom, where he promptly threw up.

It had reminded Ty of finding his wife Eva and watching her die in front of him. It reminded him of the disgust and sorrow he had felt upon learning that Helen was destined to fall in love with Anders. He had had very strong feelings for her; she was the first goddess he had had sex with. But worst of all, the sight of Helen's dead body reminded him of the horror he had felt when Dawn had nearly died twice because of him. It was also about time the alcohol expelled itself from his body.
When he had finished, he slumped to the ground and tried really hard not to cry. Axl came in, and seemed alarmed at the sight of his brother on the floor in such anguish. He quickly recovered, and climbed down to sit beside his older brother.

"That's how we all would have felt if you had gone through with killing yourself," Axl said quietly. Ty tipped his head and gave it a deliberate bang against the wall to stop the tears.
"Fuck, Axl, now's not the time to talk about that," he growled shakily. Axl didn't respond, he just handed Ty the glass of water that he had grabbed from the kitchen. Ty accepted the glass gratefully and downed it in one go.

"I thought I'd be okay seeing it, but it just brought back so many bad memories," Ty confessed after they had sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Seeing a dead body is not exactly something we're meant to be comfortable with," Axl said wryly. Ty rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"I know…and I was probably the worst person to be here to clean it up," Ty agreed.
"Especially when you're still pissed," Axl teased. Ty let out a laugh.
"Yeah, that probably doesn't help. Thanks for being here, Axl," he added sincerely.
"No worries, bro."

They eventually both got up and started with the slow clean up of Anders' house. Ty had learned a few tricks from when his mother had killed Eva, and he put them to good use in cleaning up Helen's body. Axl had called Mike, and went to go pick him and Olaf up, which was good as Ty didn't feel like explaining how he knew how to clean up a body so well. They had also touched base with Dawn who had informed them that Anders was in the process of having his stomach pumped, but that he would otherwise be fine.

By the time Axl had returned with Olaf and Mike, Ty had finished cleaning. He sat himself down on the couch and allowed the shock of everything that had happened that day to wash over him. His head was still pounding, but he didn't fancy his chances at taking a Panadol before he could be sure it wouldn't have an adverse effect.

"You and Anders did some quick thinking, keeping Dawn away from the house like that," Mike congratulated on his arrival. Ty let out a sigh.
"It was all Anders. I wouldn't have even remembered that she was killed here."
"You did good, mate," Mike insisted, gripping Ty's shoulder tightly for a few seconds.

"What are we actually going to do with the body?" asked Olaf.
"Take her back to my place and put her in the freezer. We'll deal with her later," Ty said slowly. If Axl was annoyed at having to ferry his brothers back and forth, he wasn't showing it.
"Why don't we drop her off at Ty's place, and then go straight to the hospital? Ty, have you got the gear you promised you'd bring Anders?" Ty leapt up, having forgotten, and quickly put together a bag of clothing items and toiletries for his brother. The other three carefully picked up the now-wrapped up Helen and cautiously took her out to Axl's car, putting her in the boot.

Once they stepped inside the door, Ty thought they were safe. That wasn't quite true.
"What's that?" Shit. Ingrid was still living there.
"This is Helen's body, we're keeping her in Ty's freezer for the time being," Olaf said helpfully as they carried the body over to the door.
"Oh! Oh, well that's…that's good I guess," Ingrid faltered. Ty opened the door to the freezer for his brothers.
"Holy fuck it's cold in here! I finally see what you guys were all talking about."
Mike rolled his eyes, and Helen was placed carefully in the corner of the freezer before they all left, leaving Ingrid looking utterly bewildered as to what she was supposed to do about the situation.

"So I'll just...I'll just leave her in there, shall I?" she said to no-one.

Ty breathed a huge sigh of relief as Axl drove them to the hospital.
"That was a close one."
"Dawn totally would have thought that Anders killed her," Axl said. Ty shuddered at the thought.
"That would have been drama we didn't need."

By the time they had arrived at the hospital, the stomach pumping procedure on Anders had already finished. They went into his hospital room, where Dawn was waiting on a plastic chair.
"There you guys are! I was beginning to worry!" She directed most of this to Ty. Mike, Axl and Olaf approached Anders' bedside.
"How are you going, mate?"
"Fucking terrible. I would not recommend getting your stomach pumped to anybody. My throat is raw and painful, and my stomach feels like it has been scraped of everything that is good in the world."
"Isn't that kind of the point?" laughed Axl. He then spotted what the doctor had left on Anders' bedside.
"And they left you pamphlets! Do they think you're an alcoholic or something?" Anders gave his brother the finger.

"It's a good thing that you were going home with him, Ty, otherwise he could have choked on his own vomit and died," Dawn said, watching Ty with questioning eyes.
"Oh, so he's the hero of the story?!" Anders sounded miffed that attention was pulled away from him.

"You were so much nicer to me when you were being poisoned by drugs and alcohol," Ty said in a mock-wistful voice.
"It's a shame it couldn't last," said Dawn.
"Are they going to let you go?" Axl wanted to know. Anders shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"No. The bastards want to keep me under observation for 24 hours before they'll let me go anywhere."
"Well, it's a good thing you weren't planning on going to work tomorrow, Anders," Dawn said brightly.
"It's not much better being locked up in a hospital, though," Anders grumbled.
"The ONE plus side is that I shouldn't have a hangover tomorrow due to receiving constant intravenous fluids."

"What about your catheter?" asked Mike, gesturing to a plastic bag hanging off the side of the bed. Anders leapt up to double check that his brother wasn't winding him up.
"Oh, fuck, no, I did not authorise this. Dawn, when did they shove a catheter up my dick?!" Axl and Ty tried to stifle laughter as Anders demanded an answer from his employee.

"They must have done it when you were under local anaesthetic. I had nothing to with it," Dawn reassured him.
"That's going to hurt like hell when they pull it out," Axl said with a massive grin on his face.
"Will it affect my ability to have sex?" Anders sounded truly worried.
"Are you planning on having sex soon, given your fresh break-up?" Dawn sounded unimpressed.
"There are some very desirable doctors and nurses around this hospital, Dawn, I'm not going to let some silly emotions prevent me from having a good time!" Anders was truly back.

"I'll make sure that Michele is sent to pull it out. She'll be gentle," Mike cracked to Olaf, who snickered at the thought.
"Mike, I swear to Axl, if you get her involved, I will kill you. I will not allow her anywhere NEAR my dick," Anders threatened, but he knew the balance of power was not in his court. Mike smirked.
"You better be nice to me, in that case, little brother."

"You know, it's a lot easier to be nice to you when you aren't actually here," Anders retorted. "You guys probably have better stuff to do." Mike looked at his watch.
"Yeah, Michele wasn't too happy that I left her behind. Are you okay with us leaving you?" Anders waved a hand dismissively.
"Sure. You go and get laid; someone should in this godforsaken family. And Axl," he added, "Please do me a favour and do NOT, under any circumstances tell you know who that I'm here."
"You know I wouldn't," Axl insisted. Axl didn't want his flatmate to spend time with Anders anymore than he did.

"Right then. Who am I taking with me?" he asked the room at large.
"Dawn and I will stay behind for a bit and keep Anders company," Ty said, and then he looked to Dawn. "Sorry, if you don't want to, I didn't mean to assume, I just-" Dawn cut him off.
"No, no we'll stay. And we can share a taxi back to Anders' to pick up my car," Dawn said with a smile.
"You sure? I can come pick you guys up later if you like?" Axl offered, but Ty shook his head.
"Nah, I think we'll be okay."
"Ooookay then," said Axl, and he, Olaf and Mike left the hospital room. Ty pulled up a second hospital chair up to Anders' bed.

"Dawn, can I get you a coffee?" Dawn smiled at his offer.
"A flat white would be lovely, thank you!" Ty stood up, smiling.
"Good. I'll be back." Anders stopped him in his tracks with a very deliberate clearing of his throat.
"Hello? Ever consider the fact that I might want something?"

"You've just had your stomach pumped, you're not meant to eat or drink anything for 24 hours," Ty replied matter-of-factly.
"Bullshit!"
"No, really, it's on your chart," Dawn confirmed, picking up the chart and handing it to Anders.

Anders read the chart and chucked to the end of his bed. "UGH!"
Dawn reached down to her purse and pulled out a few coins.
"Here, Ty, before you go get the coffees." Ty shook his head.
"No, don't worry about it, I've got this." And before Dawn could protest, he slipped out off to the cafeteria.

"You know, I may have to start believing you about Ty being a nice guy," Dawn stated to Anders. He rolled his eyes.
"Yup, he's a good man, my brother. He was always our mother's favourite."
"Really?" Dawn knew absolutely nothing about the Johnson parents (Anders NEVER mentioned them to her; she suspected what he had told Natalie was a fabrication), so this was fascinating for her.

"You bet. When Axl came along, he would always help her out with the baby, and they were very close. Mike was too much of a moody teenager at that point to be close to Mum."
"What about you? What about your father?" Dawn couldn't help herself asking.
"Well, I kept to myself mostly. And Dad took off when I was 12. So I don't really count him as part of our family."
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry."

"He was a bastard anyway. We were better off without him." And before she could say anything else, he changed the subject.
"How's your cat, Dawn?" He knew exactly the right topic to completely distract someone from the topic at hand. Dawn instantly bristled in her seat.
"I don't have a cat," she said through gritted teeth for what was probably the thousandth time.
"Why is that, Dawn? I would have thought that a self-sufficient, independent woman such as yourself would be more than willing to have a smaller being in your household to take care of," Anders said, leaning back against his pillows. Dawn rolled her eyes.

"If this is you trying to butter me up, I'll have you know it's not working," she said to her boss. Anders stuck both hands behind his head.
"Now, why would I do that, Dawny?" he seemed to be amused by the situation. That smug smile on his face was both infuriating and brightening.
"I don't know, maybe there's a horrible task you want me to do?"
"Like what?" he asked coyly. Anders enjoyed Dawn telling him straight up where he was acting like an asshole, and he'd often try and draw out her sassy side.

"I don't know, like any one of a million awful things you've made me do in the past. Like the time you sent me to get the surveillance footage of Rosie through whatever means possible!" Anders finally stopped taking the piss of the situation; he leaned forward with interest.
"I've been meaning to ask, how DID you get that tape?"
Dawn opened her mouth to angrily retort that Anders had messed up priorities, but she stopped short when she realised that she had no earthly clue what she had done to get the tape.

"I-I don't remember," she said, half to herself, her tone of quiet bewilderment. Anders frowned at her in confusion, but comprehension dawned on him when Ty re-entered the room with coffee. The extent of which Ty had erased himself from Dawn's memory seemed to be expansive.
"Here you are, Dawn," Ty said happily, handing her the coffee. He hadn't had coffee since he had ceased being Hod, and he was eager to try it again. Dawn accepted the coffee gratefully. "Thank you, Ty, you really didn't need to pay for it!" Ty waved the comment off dismissively.
"Don't worry about it. Consider it a thank you for picking Anders and I up," he suggested. Dawn nodded and smiled at him.
"Alright, I will."

Ty took a quick sip from his coffee. "Oh my God!" he exclaimed.
"I warned you that you've got to wait for your coffee to cool down before you drink it, Ty, you should know this by now," Anders said sarcastically.
"No, it's not the heat, it's the taste," Ty marvelled, holding up his cup so he could examine it closely.
"It can't be that good, we're in a hospital," said Anders. "Dawn, tell me what it actually tastes like." She took a sip.
"It's not bad," she said diplomatically. It was atrocious, actually, but she didn't wish to dishearten Ty when he had bought it for her.

"Maybe it's just because I really needed a coffee," Ty conceded, throwing a filthy look in his brother's direction.
"You know, I think preferred you two when you were drunk and nice to each other," Dawn said cautiously from behind her cup. Not that she wasn't enjoying the company of her boss and his brother.

"I never heard back from Natalie, either," Dawn informed her boss. "I don't really want to try and give it another go, but I've gotten the impression she doesn't want to do business with us." Anders winced; yet another explanation to deal with.
"She sent me an email – she's taking her business to Argentina," he lied regrettably.
"She didn't even reject us in person? How rude! And after all you and Helen did to show off the business – sorry," Dawn faltered once she realised that she had hit a touchy subject. Anders shrugged it off.

"It's okay. She was a frigid bitch anyway."
"That's kind," Ty said sarcastically.
"What? She was!" Anders said defensively. He had spent the good part of a 30 hour journey trying to get her to sleep with him, to no avail.
"And I suppose you'd know all about it," Ty retorted bitterly.

"Are you two always like this?" Dawn was unsure as to whose side she was supposed to take. Anders she had known for years, but Ty seemed to think more like her.
"You mean, have I always been disapproving of the way Anders treats women? You bet." Dawn let out a laugh. Where had this man been all her life?