AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thank you to all the amazing readers and reviewers. :)

Some good news comes for Casey soon!

Chapter 19 - Responses

NORMAL POV

Later that night the three brothers sat in Casey's room waiting for any sign of a response. It was around 9pm when Nate came in to check Casey's vitals. Kyle, Heath, and Brax looked to him concerned when he started taking down more notes and continually observing Casey's eye reflexes and muscle tone.

"What's happening?" Kyle asked.

"Brax might have been right before when he said Casey had twitched. It seems he is starting to gain some reflex back in his muscles and eyes." Nate explained.

"Is that a good thing?" Heath questioned.

"That's a very good thing. It means Casey could be on his way out of his coma. It's still early days yet, but generally when people get to this stage they begin to respond to sounds." Nate told them.

"What are you saying?" Heath asked.

"I'm saying you should talk to him, that his mind is alert enough to hear what is around him, but not enough to respond."

The three brothers felt relieved finally they might get their baby brother back. Nate finished his monitoring and left the room.

Heath squeezed Casey's hand. "The doc says you can hear now, well I hope you're listening good Case. You better get well real soon and make a full recovery so you can come surfing with ya big brothers."

Heath leaned down closer to Casey's ear and continued, "and so I can kick your butt for putting us through all this worry and scare."

Kyle and Brax gave a weak smile and Heath stood up squeezing Casey's hand again.

Next Kyle sat down next to Casey and held his hand. "I know you and I started off on the wrong foot but I just want you to know I have grown to love you like my little brother Case, and I couldn't ask for a kinder hearted person to be part of my family. Get better for us please."

Kyle gently rubbed his hand up and down Casey's injured arm before standing up and wandering around the room.

"See Case, ya got three big brothers who are worried sick about you and who love you." Brax said and sighed when he received no response.

Heath's phone beeped in his pocket, pulling it out he read the message from Bianca,

'How's Casey?'

'The doc says Case is on his way to recovering, he can hear us now. I'll be home soon babe, love ya.' Heath replied in a message.

Brax stared up at his brother. "Was that Bianca?" Brax asked.

"Yeah, she's just asking how Case is." Heath replied.

"You going to head home and fill her in?" Brax asked. Heath stared over at Casey.

"Mate do you mind? I kinda need a break from being here at the hospital." Heath replied, shamefully that he was leaving his brothers side.

"Yeah mate, go on. I'll let you know if Case wakes up." Heath rubbed Brax's shoulder.

"Thanks mate, I'll be back later." Heath left the hospital room, leaving Kyle and Brax with Casey.

Kyle walked over to Casey's bed and sat down in a chair, taking Casey's right hand in his as he glanced over at Brax on the opposite side of the bed.

"Thanks for staying mate." Brax told Kyle.

"I hope he pulls through soon, I kind of miss arguing with him over who gets the first shower in the morning. It just hasn't been the same at home without his infectious laughter and happy nature spreading through the house." Kyle stated and Brax gave a nod.

"We are going to get him through all this aren't we?" Kyle asked.

"We're gonna try." Brax replied. Kyle stood back up.

"I'm gonna go and grab something to eat, you want anything?" He asked, feeling hungry from being at the hospital for so long.

"Nah mate, I'm alright." Brax replied.

"Okay. I'll be back soon."

Brax sat alone staring at Casey, thinking about what Nate said and he fell into a trance of talking to Casey like normal.

"Do you remember the time I took you and Heath camping and he spent the whole time teasing you because you were afraid of the bugs, so to get back at him you filled his sleeping bag with wet grass and mud, because you knew how much Heath loved to have his sacred place to sleep and not have it tampered with. He got so mad he chased you all around the camp site trying to tackle you but instead he tripped and fell into the river, and got saturated. I've never seen you laugh so hard when you saw all his clothes got wet. It took him a while to get over that though, didn't it Case? He had to sit around in wet clothes for the rest of the trip."

Brax smiled as he retold the story to Casey.

Brax continued. "And then there was that time Heath played that awful trick on you when you were six and pretended he was bleeding, but he only smeared sauce on himself, but you ran out of the house screaming that your brother was dying. He got an earful from Mum that day after scaring you. It took you ages to figure out Heath was just joking and when you realised that you ran up to him and kicked him in the shin so hard that you made him cry like a wuss and left a massive bruise, he didn't play anymore tricks on ya after that hey, I guess you showed him you were a tough one after all." Brax laughed.

Brax paused for a moment just watching his brother's slow breathing, lost in thought before he continued.

"This is a good one, how about when I taught you to surf after you nagged me every day for two weeks to teach you and when you went out in the water for the first time you got so frustrated you couldn't get it right and stormed out of the water telling me you never wanted to surf in your life again. I just picked you right up and carried you back into the water and made you try it again and that was the moment you caught your first wave. You gave me the biggest beaming smiled I'd ever seen. You remember that Case? Now look at ya, you love surfing."

Brax smiled at Casey and stroked his hair. Brax thought back to all the times that Casey was ever scared, hurt or just needed help, Brax was always the only one that could get though to him and comfort him. Casey adored his big brother.

"You've always relied on me mate, why do I feel I've let you down this time?" Brax asked sadly.