Hello all. I hope you all watched the season premiere, because personally I loved it. This is a little short, but I have a lot of stuff going on in school, but this weekend should be nice and relaxing. Yay!

Oh and guess what, my computer's hard drive completely shut down today. Thank goodness for floppy disks and other computer access. Yikes!

Nathan walked up to his room, not feeling in the mood to party with the team at Tim's house.

"Nathan, did something happen tonight?" Deb asked.

"Why?"

"You seemed tense during the game and then it looked like you and Lucas were fighting."

"We kind of were."

"What happened?"

"It's…hard to explain…I don't really want to talk about it. Just a disagreement."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"Yeah." Nathan said, closing the door. Then he paced around his room, wondering how he could get through to Lucas.

He knew he was going to need help on this one.

"Sorry Lucas." He whispered to no one.

"Dad?" He knocked softly on the door.

"Nathan, it's past midnight." Deb mumbled sleepily.

"I'm really sorry…I just need to talk to Dad about something."

"Okay." Dan said, and got up.

They got downstairs and sat in the kitchen.

"Lucas and I have been keeping something from you, and now I'm worried that it's a bigger deal than we made it out to be."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you remember when I told you Lucas was sick a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah..."

"He, Jake and I were playing basketball, and he blacked out."

"What!"

"I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you. He seemed okay, he just felt really tired and really embarrassed."

"Nathan, how could you keep this from me?"

"I'm sorry. He didn't want to tell anyone."

"We have to take him to a doctor."

"Why?"

"Why? Nathan, your brother loses consciousness while playing a simple informal game of basketball and you don't think that's a cause for alarm?"

Nathan sighed and nodded.

"I guess so."

"He doesn't know that you told me, does he?" Dan said after a moment/

"No…" Nathan said guiltily.

"It's good that you told me. Better late than never."

"He's going to be furious with me."

"He'll get over it."

"I'm just worried about it. I know he is a lot more scared then he is letting on, and I don't know why he feels like he has to hide it."

"I can understand it, he wants to be strong, and he doesn't want to feel like he has to slow down his life because of this."

"Is that how you feel?"

"In a way."

"That's good to know. That Lucas isn't alone with this."

"Of course he isn't alone. Listen, I think tomorrow you should tell him about what we discussed and we can arrange a visit to the doctor."

"Yeah, he'd probably be mad if I didn't tell him myself that I told you."

"You did the right thing."

"Thank you."

Nathan walked outside the next morning to find Lucas sitting against the basketball hoop in the driveway. He was almost in a trance, staring at nothing.

"Lucas…"

"I can't do it, can I?" Lucas said so quietly, Nathan wasn't sure he heard right.

"What?" Nathan said, sitting down next to him and trying to find what he was looking at.

"Basketball. It's all over for me isn't it?"

"I don't know" Nathan said sadly.

"It is. I know it is because I can tell that the next game I play at school, it's going to be bad, because I'm getting worse Nathan." Lucas said.

"You're over exerting yourself. I was a complete idiot for double-teaming you that day. I'm so sorry, Lucas."

"It's not your fault. I should have quit the minute I found out. That's what you told me, that HCM meant that basketball was all over."

"I didn't want it to be over for you."

"Me either."

"Tell me what I can do, I feel like I should do something to help you."

"I'm going to tell Whitey now. Go to his house."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Yes." Lucas nodded quietly.

Nathan felt terrible; his brother's dream had just been ripped from him.

"Thank you Nate." Lucas said.

Nathan stood up and stuck out his hand to help Lucas up.

"Well this is a surprise." Whitey said as he opened the door, grinning.

His smile faded when he saw the expression on Lucas and Nathan's faces.

"Something terrible happened because I've seen you both a lot happier and you're pretty moody kids."

"Whitey, I need to talk to you." Lucas said without smiling.

"Come on in."

Lucas and Nathan sat down on the couch across from Whitey.

Lucas swallowed several times, trying to form the words.

"Do you know about HCM?" He finally managed to say.

"Yes I do."

"Our Dad has it, and I inherited it from him…"

"Oh my God." Whitey said, realizing.

"I can't play anymore. It's too hard for me." Lucas managed to choke out.

Nathan reached over to Lucas, but Lucas pulled away and stood up.

"I'm sorry." He said, leaving the house quickly.

"I'm sorry Coach." Nathan said, and ran after Lucas.

Whitey was still in shock, and walked to the window, where he could see Lucas had stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk and Nathan was slowly approaching him.

"Luke!" Nathan called as he got closer.

"Sorry." Lucas mumbled, and kept walking.

"It's okay, it's all understandable."

"Understandable? This isn't understandable. It doesn't make sense at all." Lucas fumed.

Nathan really wished Lucas would stop walking so fast, he wanted him to calm down.

"I meant your reaction was understandable, because nothing else about this makes any sense."

Lucas continued walking in silence until he got to Dan's house. He walked straight inside and up to his bedroom, pulled out a cardboard box and began putting things inside it.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting rid of all my basketball stuff." Lucas said.

"Come on. You love this stuff."

Lucas sighed.

"I know."

"It will get better."

"How do you know?"

"I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you." Lucas said, smiling for the first time that day.

"Anytime."

"I better go home."

"Yeah I have to…"

"Go to practice." Lucas finished for him.

"I don't have to go." Nathan said quickly.

"Of course you do. Who else would I have to root for besides Jake?"

"Tim?" Nathan grinned.

"Like I said." Lucas said, laughing a little.

"Nice. So…you good?"

"Nope."

Nathan's smiled faded.

"I will be soon though." Lucas said.

They pounded fists and went their separate ways.

Yeah, I made him quit :(

I have other plans for him :)

And Nathan too.

As always, thank you for the kind reviews. I love reading them and you inspire me to keep going with your comments and suggestions.