Tommy knew this was going to happen eventually. He just knew it.

Billy was too much of a hero to let anyone get hurt if he could help it. And look where that got him, the selfish bastard. Everyone was doing fine, why couldn't he have just stayed out of it and stuck to caring only about his own fight instead of trying to butt into everyone else's? Probably because he had some stupid fucking idea that no one on the team could properly take care of themselves when there's another fucking caster.

They had been doing just fine, thanks, aerial bombings or no. Teddy and Eli had their biggest guy on the ropes, Kate was knocking goons back with well placed arrows and Tommy'd clean up after her. Billy was off chasing their fucking caster through the sky, shooting and dodging like he should have been doing the whole fucking time. Everyone thought he was doing his fucking job of not getting hit. But when they closed in to finish off their Hulk-wannabe, everything went to hell.

Taunting. God, Billy, how could you rise to the bait you stupid asshole. Tommy glared at the figure in the bed. "I'm going to kill your friends here I go wheee." Or something like that. Tommy had been too busy playing human cannonball to pay attention to his fucking idiot brother who should have known fucking better. He was more annoyed at Billy than anything when he fell back and waited for Kate to blind the guy, and found a bright blue domed shield crashing down around them. He snapped his head around to yell at the fucker.

And saw Billy get run through with some flashy fucking spell and thrown to the ground.

Tommy looked away from his still brother as Kate and Eli got up from their chairs. Why should he care if they choose to not spend their lives waiting with bated breath for this asshole to wake up. He didn't acknowledge their goodbyes or the pat on his shoulder. Or the hug Kate gave him. He had a new plan, glare at Kaplan until he opens his fucking eyes. "I hope you're fucking proud of yourself," he muttered as the door shut, not caring if anyone heard him.

As soon as Billy had bounced the second time and skidded to a stop the world went white. Well, the world outside of the fucking cage. Everyone was stunned still inside. Eli made a quick comment about Billy's fucking flashy magic as blue returned to the world. Where Billy had hit was a huge pile of rubble. Where the whole fucking block had been was a huge pile of rubble.

The shield waved, sparked, and failed.

He wasn't worried, he couldn't have been worried. He just made it to the rubble, going faster than he ever had, and digging like his life depended on it because despite everything Billy was, he was okay at supporting him. The team. Billy was team support. Not his. Not his.

He vaguely heard Kate ask where the block went before shooting the caster out of the sky. Typical, they didn't even notice he was gone and could really use some fucking help to dig this fucking selfish asshole fucker out of the fucking rubble before he fucking bled to death. He managed to get a huge piece of rubble off of his brother as Teddy asked the stupidest fucking question ever.

"Where's Wiccan?"

A large splash of red came out from under the rocks and debris. Thank god for that fucking red cape. He knew he was digging in the right spot. Never doubted himself for a second. He'd probably never forget where that asswipe landed. A gust of wind swept by and pulled the fabric into the air. It wasn't two seconds before his fucking idiot brother's idiot boyfriend was there throwing the slabs of concrete to the side, quickly uncovering the asshole, muttering 'Oh god, oh no, oh god no, please god no' under his breath.

It was worse than he'd thought.

The caster hadn't pulled his punches. A large gash went across Billy's forehead. His hair was caked in blood and dust. His throat was bruised to hell thanks to the curb he had landed on. His left arm had to have been broken in three places. His right leg was at a painful angle to look at. There was a huge bruise on his left jaw. And of course there was the huge fucking gash from where he'd been fucking stabbed. At least the fucking caster fucker had had the decency to summon a bolt of fire or something to do it because the wound was cauterized some.

"Wic-Billy, Billy can you hear me? It's Teddy. You're okay B; we're going to get you help. Don't worry, you're going to be fine. Just hang on."

Great, now Altman was rambling to his fucking inconsiderate idiot boyfriend.

"O-oh God, Billy." And here comes Kate and Eli to join the party. Snapping his head around he saw that she had stopped about ten feet back and was white as a sheet. Eli stopped behind Teddy and looked like he was going to be sick.

"Where'sthenearesthospital?" Kate just gave him a blank, teary look. He bit back a growl and repeated himself painfully slowly.

"Where. Is. The. Closest. Fucking. Hospital." This seemed to snap everyone out of their daze. Billy needed medical attention like right this fucking moment. Kate pointed further into the city. He picked up Billy. Or, he tried to pick him up out of his boyfriend's arms, got a glare, gave a glare. "I can go faster than you can." The fight went out of Teddy. Then he picked him up.

It took all of a minute to find the hospital and deposit Billy onto a gurney in the ER. He may have pulled something, but it didn't matter. He couldn't feel anything thanks to this numbness that spread through him. They rushed him back into the Operating Room and had his oh so nice and kind and considerate brother fill out all of the paperwork with questions he didn't even know how to begin to answer. "What is your relationship to the patient?" "He has the soul of my reincarnated twin from a past life brought back by magic." Yeah, that'd fly. He looked down from the paperwork to his bloody uniform and scratched "Teammates" onto the answer block. He didn't even notice he was bleeding from a large, deep cut on his hand until a nurse came and bandaged it.

An eternity later everyone else filed into the waiting room. No one said anything. Kate and Teddy cried. An eternity and a half later the Kaplan clan came in.

He must have been some kind of allergic reaction to something because his throat was closing up at the memory. Heh, he's allergic to Billy being a fucking retard. He couldn't even bring himself to scoff at his remark as he watched his brother breathing through a fucking tube. He ignored the sniff from Teddy's crying.

Billy was in surgery for three lifetimes it seemed. Mr. Kaplan had taken to filling out the forgotten paperwork, and the twins hung off of Teddy. For some reason Mrs. Kaplan decided that he needed a hug or something and sat down next to him, instead of Teddy, and pulled him close to her. It was because he looked like her son more than the dejected and broken and pain-filled look he oh so carefully tried to conceal. That's what he kept telling himself as he worked to keep his emotions in check.

What a way to find out you do have a heart.

When the doctor came out he went straight to the Kaplans. The selfish prick was out of surgery, and if he survived the night his chances of making a full recovery were high. Yeah, if. They continued to talk with the doctor as he decided he'd had enough of the gooey drama. His body was screaming that he needed to eat something or suffer the consequences. It had been for a long time, apparently, because he didn't make it two steps before he passed out, falling onto Mr. Kaplan.

He woke up hours later to find an IV in his arm and Billy and Teddy in a bed across the room. It was still dark outside. He shivered as he made his way to the bed, grabbing a jacket that was hanging on the back of a chair on the way.

"Hey Tommy?" He snapped his gaze to the shapeshifter.

"Hmm?"

"The doctors said he wasn't in any pain. How do they know?" He sighed and looked back at the most fucking selfish idiotic inconsiderate ass on the face of the whole planet.

"They're doctors. I'm pretty sure it's their job to know, Altman." Teddy didn't respond, he just kept lightly petting his boyfriend's hair before finally giving in and falling asleep. Tommy sighed as he pushed the rail on the side of the bed down and out of the way. He sat down next to his brother's arm.

"I really hope you're proud of yourself, Kaplan. Really fucking proud," he whispered and looked to the window. The faintest hint of pink was starting to creep up to the heavens. "You've made everyone get all depressed because you decided that our lives were worth more than yours. What were you thinking? Were you thinking? Why didn't you just land and then put up a shield? Did you even think about what this would do to your family? Your boyfriend?

To me?"

He rubbed furiously at his eyes. He was Tommy fucking Shepard. He doesn't cry. At least not for asshole brothers who don't care about him. Assholes who care more about everyone else then their own fucking brother. He took a deep breath to compose himself and glared back at his brother.

"God, Kaplan, look at your life. You have everything. A family. A boyfriend. Hell, you have friends in general. Why would you throw that all away? Why?" Then he heard the most wonderful sound. Not that he would ever admit it under pain of torture.

Billy coughed and started to open his eyes.

"Tmmy?" He coughed a bit harder, and that was all it took to wake up Teddy. His eyes bugged as he saw Billy blink. In another situation Tommy would have laughed at how huge they were. He wouldn't be surprised if Teddy had unknowingly shifted to make them bigger.

"Billy? Oh g-god Billy," Teddy started crying as he lightly hugged Billy. "D-don't you ever d-do that to me ag-again. You sc-scared me to death."

Billy, the fucker, had the gall to smile at that. He tried to say something before wincing and trying to grab his jaw. This of course meant he just had to move his fucking broken arm, shift his recently operated on chest, and touch his previously dislocated jaw. Teddy, thankfully stopped him before he could move too much. Tommy couldn't hear him pain right now.

"Seeing as how you two lovebirds have some catching up to do, I'll go get the doctor."

But as he started to stand up Billy tried to grab him with his plastered arm, eyes wider than they had been. His pupils were dilating more than usual, Tommy noticed; probably a concussion, not that he cared, and his heart rate started to spike as he started to take quick, shallow breaths. He sat back down.

"Or we could just use the call button that's on the table." Teddy said as he rubbed his eyes to clear them. Tommy huffed and crossed his arms. Billy began to calm down.

"Fine, I'll stay. Only because I think you'd have a heart attack if I left and it would leave us vulnerable if you croaked now. And that'd be especially rude considering all I did to make sure you didn't die like a little fucking drama queen." Billy gave him a small smile as Teddy tried to glare a hole through his head.

"If you don't want to be here Tommy you can just lea-" Billy tried move to calm Teddy down, forgetting how much of a bad idea that was and how well that went last time. He gasped and let his arm fall still as Teddy fussed over him again. Tommy just glared at the door.

"Tmmy?" Back to glaring at the fucker.

"Thnk yu."

You're welcome, asshole.