Feeling kind inspired lately, love it. Also, many congrats to Lucy who won first prize in a writing contest, really good job especially since you wrote it 10 hours before! :D Proof of skill I'll say!

I don't own Four Brothers this time either.

New Years Eve, new beginnings, promises and resolutions, hope that the year coming would be the best one yet, or at least better than the one's before. He remembered sitting right here so many times before, right on these steps, thinking, wondering, barely daring to hope, almost as often as he'd sit on the roof outside his room. And then, when it was obvious that he was staying here, when he finally believed Evelyn, he still sat here. Mostly cause of the quiet, and at this time in the morning no one else was usually up, hell he was usually asleep too, but he'd slept badly, he was itching for something. He wanted to crawl out of his skin but he was trying to control it. He knew where the solution was, hidden beneath his pillow just in case everything got to be too much, but something was telling him that this wasn't the time. He didn't know if he was being paranoid yet again, or if his mind had finally cracked and he'd gone insane, but he couldn't shake that bad feeling he had.

The door opened just as he lit his cigarette and he glanced behind him to find Angel yawning and stretching.

"Thought I heard something back here" He took a seat next to Jack on the steps, his long legs stretched out before him while Jack had his arms resting on his.

"Marine hearing?" Jack smiled a little and inhaled, the smoke burning his lungs a little, he hadn't smoked nearly as much as he used to, which was weird, since he'd never needed it more.

"Something like that. Fuck it's cold" Angel rubbed his arms frantically, glancing at Jack's thin hoodie. "You're gonna get sick".

"Never have before"

Angel shrugged. It was true, Jack could stand the cold better than anyone he knew. He knew it was a story behind it, as it always was with Jack, but he'd never asked, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know. While Bobby had prodded and pushed when their youngest brother came to them he'd always kept it on Jack's terms. It wasn't right or wrong, they were just different. Bobby needed to know, everything. Angel could wait, and though it had taken him a lot longer than it had taken with Bobby, Jack had finally started trusting him and Jerry too. Now they all knew most of what had happened to Jack, but not everything. Angel guessed that Bobby knew everything, but he wasn't sharing. Some things were best left between Bobby and Jack.

He took in the faraway look in Jack's eyes and the tense way he held his cig, and somewhere inside him a bell rang. Maybe it was streetsmarts, or maybe his training, he didn't know, but he knew not to question it. "What's wrong?"

Jack wasn't surprised, he was pretty used to his brothers knowing everything, and if not, them asking until they did. He just wasn't sure what was wrong, something was, but he couldn't really describe it. "I don't know".

Angel frowned. So something was wrong then. "You feeling okay? Is it..."

Jack shook his head. "Not that" Well at least not entirely. "Somethings... off".

"You should tell Bobby"

Jack shook his head again "He has enough to worry about right now. It's probably nothing anyway". He stubbed what was left of the cigarette against the stairs.

Angel laughed loudly. "Yeah, that'll go over well. He'll just love that".

Jack grinned a little. "He needs to get better, not go tearing through the town guns blazing" Again, he added silently to himself.

Angel grinned and reached out, placing an arm around his shoulders. To an outsider it would have looked casual, but it wasn't really. Even though Jack had gotten used to them many years ago, and had gotten used to being touched, or hugged randomely, it felt like they had had a few setbacks lately. And so he made sure Jack could see his arm clearly before he placed it around him. Some things were just instinct. "So alike" He mumbled.

"What are you two doing now?"

They looked up and caught sight of Jerry sticking his head out Jack's window.

"Just talking Jerry, nothing serious" Angel grinned.

"Really? Just talking? Planning more like it. I could feel the town shudder. Woke me up".

"Ha ha, aint you the funny guy"

"What are you doing in my room?" Jack asked.

"Looking for your ass, I just knew something was going on. I could hear planning in my sleep. Someone's gotta keep an eye on you two. And what is that noise? Did someone crank the radio to the highest or what?"

"Maybe" Jack grinned.

"Well right now it's playing some kind of ballad and you know how..."

Jerry was interrupted by a loud crash coming from inside the house. He let out a curse and gave his brothers an 'I told you so' look before disappering from view. Angel and Jack got up too, altough a bit more slow, Jack chuckling. Angel stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"What did you do?" He grinned.

Jack grinned back. "Nothing he wouldn't have done himself".

Angel chuckled. "You're crazy".

"Just trying to get back to normal" Jack snickered and reached for the door.

Angel scoffed, but the grin on his face showed him much he'd really like that. "Yeah, normal". He followed Jack, but before closing the door he felt something prickling along his neck. Turning around he let his eyes sweep across the lawn, but finding nothing he turned slowly and closed the door behind him.

…

The whispers in the morning
Of lovers sleeping tight
Are rolling like thunder now
As I look in your eyes

At first it felt strangely like a dream Bobby thought, but he soon realized that it wasn't, no not at all, it was that fucking radio again. He tried to keep calm, he really did, but he was fucking tired and he hated that fucking thing with a vengeance. It seemed to be out to get him, and then the wailing started. The radio host declared it to be a Celine Dion song and he wasn't surprised. Of course it was, at fucking 7 in the morning.

Cause I am your lady
And you are my man
Whenever you reach for me
I'll do all that I can

That's it. He'd had enough. Getting out of bed was as usual a bitch, but the hammer felt pretty nice in his hand. He got up and listened, no brothers in sight. Well it was just fucking awesome how they could sleep through this fucking shit. Well not everyone obviously. Someone had turned on the radio and turned the volume up, and he had a pretty good idea as to who that someone was. He came to a stop in the doorway to the kitchen, glaring at the offending piece of machinery. Oh it was in on it alright. It enjoyed mocking him. But no more, no one was around to save it now. He chuckled evilly and took the steps seperating him from the piece of shit.

The first hit felt great, but unfortunately Celine's voice still came out of it in a gurgled mess. So he hit it again, and again and again until it was nothing but small itty bitty pieces on the counter. He took a step back and inspected his work. Pretty good if he'd say so himself. His chest hurt like a bitch from the unexpected strain it'd gotten, but it was worth it. He spotted the coffeemachine and the full coffeepot, at least someone had made coffee before they decided to ruin his day. He took a seat at the table just as steps on the stairs signaled someone coming down.

A the same time as Jerry came barging in the backdoor opened and Jack and Angel entered. All three took in the sight of Bobby sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee and a hammer next to him. Their eyes drifted to the destroyed radio and back to their oldest brother, calmly sipping his coffee.

"What?"

…

"I liked that radio" Jerry complained for the hundreth time since breakfast.

"Then I guess you shouldn't have let your little brother use it" Bobby shot back.

"Hey! You're the one who trashed it" Jack reminded him.

"And who used it as a torture device?"

"How was I supposed to know you would snap?"

"Well he's still Bobby" Angel cut in, ducking when Bobby's hand flew his way.

"We can always get a new one" Jack grinned at Bobby. It felt entirely too good teasing his brother again.

"We don't need another one. We don't need a fucking radio at all" Bobby snapped. He got up, wincing a little as he did.

"Hey did you take your pills?" Jack got up to follow him to the couch.

"No Martha I did not"

"Bobby..." Jack sighed.

"I don't want them, they're not making me better anyway"

"You need them. You're gonna start training, you should have started already, you can't do that without them".

"I have started already"

"Oh yeah, what kind of training have you done so far?"

"Well just this morning I smashed a fucking radio to pieces"

Jack rolled his eyes.

"You should listen to him" Angel took a seat on the couch. "He's making sense".

"Well this is just fucking wonderful, two Marthas in the same house. Lucky me. Listen I am training, I have that piece of paper and I do as I'm told. It's all good".

Jack sighed slowly. "I'm gonna go to the store. Anyone want anything?" He decided to change the subject for the time being.

"I'm coming with" Bobby sat up straighter.

Jack decided not to argue. Since the radio incident Bobby had been unpredictable. And, maybe he too was going crazy being inside all the time. He was about to reach out and give his brother a hand, but the look on Bobby's face stopped him. He raised his hands in a sign of surrender and went to get his jacket instead.

Bobby got up and grunted a little. He hated this, hated feeling... helpless. It pissed him off to no end. He was about to follow Jack when Angel's hand on his arm stopped him. He was about to mouth off again but the look in his eyes stopped him.

"When you get back we need to talk"

Bobby nodded. He knew not to ask, if Angel wanted to talk now he would have said so. But it made the hairs stand on the back of his neck. And, since he was the only one in the room it seemed like he didn't want anyone to know. Which usually meant one thing. Something was going on.

"Want me to carry you?" Jack's voice drifted back to them.

Bobby gave Angel one last look before trudging towards the door. "You'd like that wouldn't you".

…

"So..." They were walking slowly though the store, something Bobby would never admit was because of him. Just like he would never admit he was grateful to Jack for shoving the cart at him. In all honesty it was pretty nice to be able to lean on something as he walked.

"So..." Jack echoed.

"What was so important that you needed to shop at the drop of a hat?"

"Just wanted to get out of the house for awhile" Jack turned his head to look at his brother as he gestured to the cereal on the shelf "Which one?"

"You pick"

Jack plucked a box from the shelf and threw it in the cart. "Didn't you?"

"Didn't I what?" Bobby asked as he picked up the box and looked at the pirate in front. "Really Jack?"

"Hey you said I could pick" Jack grinned.

"It's for kiddies" Bobby frowned. "Altough that seems fitting" He laughed as Jack tossed another box of cereal at him.

"Jerry likes those"

Bobby looked at the new box and sighed. "Jesus, not an ounce of sugar, what the hell is this?"

"Healthy alternative. And didn't you want to get out a little too?"

"Healthy my ass, he's gonna make himself sick with all the weird stuff he's eating. And yeah I did".

"Thought so"

"So what's going on?" Bobby's voice turned serious.

"Gonna get some fruit, maybe apples" Jack mused.

"You know that's not what I meant"

Jack sighed. "Nothings going on"

"Can't fool me Jackie. I'm your big brother, I know when somethings wrong". It also helps when a third brother let's something slip.

"It's..."

Bobby cut him off smoothly. "Nothing, I know. Tell me anyway".

Jack sighed and stopped in front of the apples. He inspected those for awhile before choosing a few and turning to look at Bobby who was still looking at him.

"It's just a feeling".

Bobby turned cold and his heart skipped a beat. "A feeling of what?"

Jack hesitated, he didn't really want to put this on his brother, not now. But there was no hiding from Bobby, there never had been. He'd learned that much growing up.

"Someone was watching me"

And just like that the cold feeling disappeared, only to be replaced with white hot rage. Someone watching Jack only meant one thing to him - bad news. And bad news regarding his little brother made him want to scream, pummel and set fire to something. Sometimes all three combined. He took in the tense way in which Jack held himself, the worry in his eyes that he tried to, but couldn't completely hide and the way he twisted his fingers. All so familiar.

"When?" He didn't doubt him. When you grew up the way Jack did, the way they all did, you learned to trust your instincts, cause they could be the only thing standing between you and death. And Jack had always been very observant, something that was hard to believe when he'd spend 5 minutes staring at you without answering your question, but he was, he'd learned the hard way to feel when there were eyes on you. If Jack said someone had been watching him then someone had.

"Two days ago, when I was looking at that car"

Bobby nodded. They needed another car, and his was a distant memory by now, and Jerry would probably, hopefully, be taking his to work soon and then the rest of them would be stranded. Jack had seen a note down at the corner store about one for sale and told his brothers he were gonna go check it out. They'd argued about it, Angel had been at Sofi's and Jerry had some shit he needed to do. Bobby had wanted to come, then Jack had become pissed and said that he could check out a car by himself, Bobby had called him stupid and Jack had told him he was no fucking kid and stormed off to the bus. He returned later and said that the car was a piece of shit and Bobby had said nothing. He remembered the panic he felt then, when he didn't know exactly where Jack was, and now it felt even worse, thinking that something could have happened and he wouldn't have even known about it. "You tell anyone? Angel?"

Jack shook his head. "Not about that exactly. I just told him something felt wrong".

Could that be what Angel had wanted to talk about then... His head was spinning and his blood was pumping through his chest faster, making the not yet healed wounds protest, as if they wanted to remind him that they were still there. Well there were other wounds too, wounds that were still bleeding, wounds that couldn't heal until he had made up for the fact that he'd left his brothers when they needed him most. He pushed that thought away and focused on what needed to be done now. They hadn't talked about the car since Jack had said it was a piece of shit, now Bobby was thinking they should have, cause this was just starting to make sense in his head. Why would someone tell a lie so obvious? Claim a car was ready to be driven from sight if bought, when it could obviously go nowhere but the junkyard? It was fishy alright. And he smelled bait.

"Come on, let's get the rest and get the fuck out of here".

"Where are we going?" Jack asked as he picked up his pace and threw some random stuff in the cart.

"We're gonna see a man about a car"

I realize some might be a bit confused now, I kind of am too, but I was writing and the story just took this turn, and well I just tagged along. Feel free to tell me if it sucks like nothing has ever sucked before lol.