Justin understood his mother needed to start back to work Monday morning. He knew she needed the income to support him and his sister. Brian was another story. In Justin's eyes Brian could afford to take the time off.

"But I start physical therapy," he tried to argue. It was Sunday evening and the nurses were telling Brian that he needed to leave for the night.

"Justin, it's not like they'll let me go with you. I'll try to take off work a little early and be back here around five."

Justin tried a pout but Brian only rolled his eyes. "Would it make you feel better if I stop by in the morning before I go in?"

Justin smiled again. "Yes. Stay with me 'till I fall asleep. Please?" he asked.

"The nurses want me out of here," Brian said.

"They'll let you stay if I ask them. Please?"

"Okay, but only if you agree to not take the sleeping pill. You're going to get addicted to them."

"No, I'm not. The doctor wouldn't keep letting me have them if he wasn't sure it was okay."

Brian rolled his eyes again; Justin was so trusting. "Whatever, your choice, me or the pill."

"Okay, but if I wake up in the middle of the night it's all your fault."

"If you wake up in the middle of the night, you'll do what everyone else does. You'll go back to sleep."

"Easy for you to say."

Brian arched one eyebrow, reminding Justin he wasn't the only one haunted with nightmares.

Justin nodded, getting the message.

"Okay then, so shut up and go to sleep so I can go home and do the same."

"Whatever," Justin mumbled settling into bed and closing his eyes. He knew Brian wouldn't wait forever for him to fall asleep and he really hated to be alone at night.

Monday morning when Brian stuck his head in the door of Justin's room the blond was sitting up in bed arguing with his mother.

"But I want to at least try to graduate with my class."

"Honey, I think it would be better to make up the classes over summer vacation, or even give yourself until next spring. I just don't understand the rush."

"The rush? Mom, everyone is graduating and going off to college; that's the rush. I don't want to be left behind. Besides, I've been accepted to PIFA, I can't put that off. If I don't go this fall I'll have to reapply."

"But, honey, do you really think you'll still be able to attend art school?" she asked.

Justin sighed. Brian saw defeat creeping into his eyes. "Now, now, Mother Taylor," he said, stepping into the room. "There's no need to make all the decisions for Justin's future today. And if he wants to try to stay current with his school work, I don't see the harm."

Jennifer looked at Brian, exasperation written all over her face. "Brian, no offense, but please, stay out of this."

Brian rolled his lips into his mouth and looked down at the floor, then nodded to himself and looked back up, meeting her eyes. "Maybe he needs to do this to reclaim his life."

"Hello?" Justin spoke up. "Right here in the room. Don't talk about me like I'm not here."

"I've got to get to work," Jennifer said, walking over and kissing the top of Justin's head. "We'll talk about this more tonight, sweetie."

"Okay, bye, Mom," Justin grumbled.

"She doesn't understand," Justin said after Jennifer left.

"She cares about you. You don't know how lucky you are to have a mother like that."

"But she's trying to keep me from getting my life back."

"No, she's not. She's only trying to protect you. But why are you seeking her permission? If you want to get your school assignments then do it. Call the school and have them send home your textbooks with Daphne. She can bring them to you." Brian watched as Justin mulled over his suggestion.

"So, what do I do once she gets the homework to me? I can't write with my left hand."

"Well, what did you think your mother was going to do, sit here and write everything for you?"

"No, but… Shit. She's right. I'm not going to be able to graduate next month."

"Bullshit," said Brian. "You get the school to send your assignments home with Daphne, I'll handle the rest. I've got to get going or I'll be late to my first meeting."

"Come by on your lunch break?"

"Justin, it's clear across town."

Justin frowned. He hated being so needy but the attack had left him feeling vulnerable.

"If I work through my lunch hour I might be able to leave a little earlier at the end of the day."

Justin's face broke into a smile. "Deal."

Brian rolled his eyes. "Brat," he muttered. "You better be careful or I'll go have a talk with your physical therapist." He kissed Justin on the nose and turned to leave.

"Bring me back something?"

Brian turned, "What?"

"Some McDonald's French fries?"

"You're kidding."

"Please?"

Brian sighed, "If I can remember."

"Cynthia, I have a project for you," Brian said as he walked by her desk on the way to his office.

"Sure thing, boss." She rose and followed him into his office.

"I'm leaving early today. Reschedule anything on the books after three."

"Got it. And the project?"

"Sit down, I'll tell you what I need."

When three o'clock rolled around Cynthia appeared at Brian's office door. "Okay boss, I think this will meet your specifications."

"Good, let's see it."

She walked in and laid the laptop on his desk.

"The software is already installed?" he asked.

"Yep, it's all set up just like you asked."

"Perfect. Remind me to give you a raise," he said, rising to his feet. He grabbed his jacket and placed the laptop in a messenger bag he had bought earlier that day. "I'm out of here. See you tomorrow." He stopped at the door and turned back to her. "Thanks, Cynthia."

"See ya, boss." Cynthia smiled to herself. Whatever had been going on with Justin last week must have resolved itself. Brian had been in a good mood all day. She always knew Brian had a good heart; Justin seemed to bring it out in him.

Brian walked into Justin's room to see him propped up in bed with Daphne sitting in the chair, the two friends laughing over some silly thing Daphne had said.

"Brian," Justin said. "Where're my fries?"

He walked in and tossed the McDonald's bag down in Justin's lap. "Brat."

"I told you he'd remember," Justin said to Daphne as he stuffed a fry into his mouth.

Brian saw the stack of textbooks on the table. "Looks like Daphne came through with your school assignments."

"Yeah, and you so owe me, Brian," Daphne said.

"How so?"

"All those books were heavy, you know. I had to lug them all the way up here."

Brian smirked. "You had to carry them from the school to your car, then from your car to the elevator. It wasn't like you walked here from St. James."

"Still," she insisted.

"So all the books are here but I have no idea how I'm ever going to get the work done without being able to use my right hand," Justin interjected.

Brian decided to veer the conversation in a different direction before showing Justin what he hoped was the solution. "How did physical therapy go?"

Justin shrugged. "Okay, I guess. It was a lot harder than I expected."

Brian nodded. "What did they have you do?" he asked while taking a seat on the foot of the bed.

"They did some massages and moved my arm and leg around, stretching the muscles. Then they had me get in this thing kinda like a hot tub, only bigger, like a small swimming pool and they had me do some stuff in there. I still can only move my leg just slightly, but they kept telling me to try again. Oh, and they gave me some stuff to do in bed while I'm in this room. But they told me that I could only do them a few times a day."

"Well, don't push yourself too hard."

Justin shook his head. "Now you sound like my mother."

"Ouch," Daphne said laughing.

"You better take that back, or I'm not giving you what I brought for you in this bag," Brian said.

"A present? What is it?" Justin perked up.

Brian smiled. "Not until you take back what you said."

"Okay, okay. I take it back."

Brian raised an eyebrow and waited.

Justin huffed. "You don't sound anything like my mother. Okay? Now, what did you get me?"

Brian reached down and picked up the messenger bag. He laid it in Justin's lap then unzipped it so Justin could pull out the computer."

"A laptop? Wow, Brian. Is this for me?"

"For your school work."

Justin beamed. "I can type with my left hand. It will still be slow, but at least the teachers will be able to read it."

"No need. It has voice recognition software on it. All you have to do is talk, it will do the typing," Brian explained.

"You're kidding. Really?"

"Really. You'll have to set it up and get it used to your voice and speech patterns, but Cynthia said that this was the software everyone recommended. And here is a jump drive. You can save your homework on it and give it to Daphne. She can take it home, print out the documents and turn them in for you."

"Wow, Justin," Daphne said looking over his shoulder. "This is so cool."

"Thanks, Brian," Justin said smiling up at him.

"Justin, I better go, I promised my mom I'd be home for dinner," Daphne said. "I'll come by tomorrow."

"Okay. Thanks, Daph."

After she walked out the door he turned to Brian. "Show me how this works."

"Justin," Jennifer exclaimed when she walked in a couple of hours later to find Brian and Justin with the laptop and textbooks strung everywhere. "I thought we were going to talk about this." She motioned to the books spread across his bed.

"But Mom, look at the computer Brian got me. It has voice recognition software on it. All I have to do is talk and it types it all up."

Jennifer turned to Brian. "You were behind this, I assume."

Brian shrugged.

"Can I have a word with you? In the hall?"

Brian stood and followed her out.

"I'd appreciate it if you would stay out of this, Brian. I know you mean well, but I'm his mother."

"I don't see the problem with him trying to keep up with his studies. Besides I didn't call the school, he did. All I did was get the laptop so it would be easier for him."

"I'm sure you were the one that encouraged him to pursue this. And he needs to be spending this time resting and healing."

"He needs to take his life back. And he can still rest. It's not like he'll be studying around the clock. The nurses won't allow that," he tried to argue.

"I just don't want to see him push himself too hard."

"Jennifer, he's going to have to push himself harder than he ever thought possible if he wants to regain what he's lost."

She shook her head. "You don't understand."

Brian put his hands up in surrender, she was the one that didn't understand but there was no point in arguing. "I'm gonna go home and change clothes. Tell him I'll be back in an hour or so." With that he turned and left, he didn't know what else he could say to her to make her understand that Justin didn't need to be coddled.

"No, he went home to change his clothes. He said he'd be back a little later."

"What did you say to him?"

"Justin, honey, I just think you should be resting, not worrying over school work."

"Mom, you don't understand."

Jennifer sighed, that was exactly what she had said to Brian. "Just promise me that you'll take it easy."

Brian could hear Justin's voice as he got closer to the door of his room. At first he thought Jennifer was still there but then he realized Justin was working on his laptop. Brian stood in the doorway and watched.

Justin saw him there and smiled. "Hey."

"Hey," Brian answered stepping into the room. "How's the homework coming?"

"Augh, there is so much of it. I can't believe I'm already this far behind."

"You'll get caught up."

"Yeah, cause I can't do anything else," Justin said.

Brian nodded. "You're getting sick of staying in that bed, aren't you? Maybe they'll let me take you for a spin."

"Are you whining again?" Justin's nurse came walking in the room.

"No, Dottie, I was telling Brian how much I love it here," Justin answered.

"Can I take him for a ride in a wheelchair or something?" Brian asked, trying to figure out a way to give the kid a break.

"Sure," Dottie said. "Let me record his vitals then I'll go get a wheelchair. You'll need to stay on this floor but you can roam the halls or go to the waiting area if you'd like."

Brian looked at Justin. "Well, wanna go for a spin?"

Justin grinned. He appreciated all Brian was doing for him, and he was trying to not complain all the time, but it was hard to not feel sorry for himself. "Sure, then when we come back you can help me with Geography."

When the nurses finally ran Brian out it was close to ten. He decided to swing by Woody's and see what the gang was up to.

"Brian," Michael cried when Brian walked though the door.

"Hey, Mikey," he answered, taking a seat at the bar where Michael sat with Emmett and Ted.

The bartender walked over. "Just a beer."

"So Brian, how's our little Justin doing?" Emmett asked.

"He's improving every day. You should stop up there and see him."

"Michael said he was out of the trauma ward. So he can have visitors and everything?"

"Yep. They started him on physical therapy today. Really, you should go see him."

"What room is he in?" Ted asked.

"Two twenty-one."

Emmett nodded. "Great, we'll go see him tomorrow, won't we, Teddy?"

"Sure," Ted nodded.

Michael sat silently watching the entire exchange, looking for cracks in the armor. Brian leaned over to his friend. "I'm okay, Mikey. Really."

Michael nodded. "I hope so. I was starting to get tired of having to come take care of your ass every other day."

"You never get tired of taking care of my ass," Brian smiled.

"Yeah? Don't push it."

"So," Brian said a little louder, "What's up with you three queens?"

The conversation lightened up after that as the four friends laughed and joked until Brian finished his beer and announced he was going home.

"I thought we'd go to Babylon," Michael said.

"Not tonight, Mikey," Brian said, tossing some bills on the counter and then headed out the door.

"Wow," Emmett said. "Who'd have ever guessed that?"

"Yeah, Brian not putting his dick first," Ted agreed. "Isn't that a sign of the apocalypse?

Michael shook his head. "He just feels sorry for the kid. Things will be back to normal in no time."

Brian went home, watched a little TV and crawled into bed. He was sleeping soundly when the shrill ring of his cell phone woke him.

"This better be good," he said into the phone, his voice thick with sleep.

"Brian?" Justin sounded terrified. "Tell me you're all right."

"I'm fine, Justin. What's wrong?" He was instantly awake.

"Can you come up here? Please?"

Brian rolled his lips into his mouth. He wanted to say no; he should say no. "Yeah, I'll be there shortly."

When Brian walked into Justin's hospital room the lights were off and he could barely make out Justin's form lying in the bed. At first he thought maybe Justin had drifted back to sleep. "This time he took the bat to you," Justin said softly.

"It was just a dream," Brian tried to reassure as he pulled the chair over by the bed and sat down.

"It seemed so real. The sound of the bat when it hit your head. Then seeing you lying on the pavement. Is that what it was like for you? Did you watch it all happen to me?"

Brian took hold of Justin's left hand. When he started talking his voice sounded distant, as if he had disconnected something in order to go back to that night. "I saw him coming. I looked in the rearview mirror, watching you walk back to the dance; then I saw him. I tried to stop him, but he was too fast and I was too far away. There was nothing I could do. And then you were lying there on the floor and at first I thought you were dead."

Justin squeezed Brian's hand in his. "It wasn't your fault."

A silence fell between them. "You should try to go back to sleep," Brian finally said.

"You'll stay with me?"

"Yeah, I'm right here."

When the night nurse came in later to check Justin's vitals she found Brian asleep in the chair. He had pulled it as close to Justin's bed as he could get it. Both men were sleeping; their fingers entwined.