*//That's not flyin', it's fallin' with style

[Ben Isaac Winchester]

Oh holy crap, Ryder was crying. For a minute, Ben could only stare at the tears that rolled off of his brother’s face, a look of abject horror on his own. It was a natural, instinctive fear of his; being alone with crying people, be it men, women or children. For some odd reason, whenever he saw such rampant emotions, his first thought was ‘RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!’ And now was no different, given that he was having all kinds of flashbacks back to the only other time he’d seen his little brother cry.

There had been blood, on that chaotic night…blood and the pungent smell of dashed dreams. Inside the bar, there was screaming; inhuman sounds that vibrated through the walls and even the cement below their feet, but nothing would compare to the sounds tearing themselves out of Ryder’s throat—

With a sharp shake of his head, Ben forced the memories back into the darker recesses of his mind. Now was not the time to dwell on any of that, he told himself with a mental growl. He’d have plenty of it to spare on going emo when they were all safe…and, FUCK, away from the screaming sirens quickly approaching them. Looks like Bob the Pilot had gone and got the cavalry. Awesome.

Moving a bit stiffly, the elder Winchester walked over to his brother. After Chey was safely deposited in the hunter’s arms, Ben awkwardly patted Ryder’s shoulder, his brain slow to catch up on the ‘duh, Chey needs an actual doctor’ plan.
”Don’t cry, Ryder,” He said, voice still a bit on the slurred side. He was doing his best to jumpstart his brain- he knew that there was something important that they had to do…but what was it? Damn- but it was like he was swimming through sludge. ”Everything’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna take care of it.”

It…it…IT! Like a bitchslap across the face, his eyes slid down to the still form of his sister in Ryder’s arms, and he slowly came back to reality. No, he wasn’t thirteen years old, telling Ryder that the stinging in his skinned knee would go away in a second. GOD, he hated concussions. WHAT A BITCH!

He forced his legs to move in an easy jog, as he followed Ryder. Something akin to ”Superman…my ass…” managed to pass his lips, but all too quickly, a tense silence reigned. Most of the drive to the local hospital was a blur- literally- and when they finally pulled up to the ER doors, Ben was starting to pull himself back together enough to give the nurse at the door his best scowl.

Doctors and nurses rushed to the rescue, and he followed Chey and Ryder for as far as he was allowed. A few women in white were drying to usher him into an exam room, but he brushed them off with irritated growls. His eyes were locked on the still form of his sister, and without thinking, the elder Hunter put a hand on his brother’s shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze.

”No, I don’t need to be looked at!” He snapped at a nurse tugging at his sleeve. A bit harsher than necessary, he yanked his arm away from her. Thank God that he was hanging onto Ryder, or that move would’ve had him face planting in a second. ”Why don’t you get in there and help my sister, and make yourself useful? Dammit, I’m fine!”

C’mon, Chey, he silently begged. Wake up, squirt. Wake up, baby girl…

[/blockquote]

[Ryder James Winchester]

Ryder couldn’t pull his eyes away from the figure of his broken sister no matter how hard he tried. His stormy grey-blue orbs shifted anxiously from the black and blue contusions all over her pale skin to the contrast of crimson across alabaster as blood oozed from the more serious of her lesions.
The sounds of the blips and beeps were so loud; it drowned out the noise of the humans that were attaching the machines making the offending bleeps, and the hunter brought his palms up to cover his ears like a frightened child.

Along with all the visuals, the smell of antiseptics mixed with bodily fluids and rubber gloves was making the middle Winchester physically nauseous, and had it not been for the reminder of the other wounded sibling clinging to him by way of a slight jolt when Ben pulled away from the nurse, he might have lost his stomach contents right then and there.

Dropping his hands from his ears, Ryder focused his attention on Ben for the moment, quickly nodding in agreement to the slack-jawed, surprised nurse. “Yeah…he’ll be…fine…please. You gotta’ help our baby sister…I’m begging you.”
There was no way the woman could ignore the openly terrified look in the young man’s moist silvery-azure eyes. She nodded and furrowed her brows, looking from Chey’s body and back to Ryder.

“Help us help her.” The nurse said softly. “What happened to her?”

At first the hunter was caught off guard by the question. His gaze darted to his big brother as if seeking the answer from him, but the vulnerable look on his face faded almost immediately as he stood a bit taller so that she might believe his explanation. “We were…skydiving. Her chute ripped…she fell a long way…”

The nurse nodded in understanding and went in to join the confusion that was the medical staff trying to save Chevrolet’s life. Ryder’s face remained pinched in thought as he went over the events that had lead up to this moment in time.

If he’d been around, she wouldn’t have been up there alone…but why the hell hadn’t Ben stopped her for Gods sake? If it hadn’t been for Ben’s mistake earlier that year, Ryder wouldn’t have been gone in the first place.

Desperation and fear gave way to something else; something much easier for the young man to react to. The anger that had been lurking within him before realizing the kind of danger his little sister was in bubbled back up to the surface, becoming a full blown pyre.
Clenching his hands into fists, Ryder narrowed his eyes and yanked away from Ben, turning so that he was face to face with him.

“This is your fault, brother.” Ryder accused him, shooting daggers at him with his glare. “It’s always your fault. You should have stopped her from doing this. If it wasn’t for you, -I- would have been there to stop her from doing this…”

And before the middle Winchester sibling could stop himself, he reared back his clenched fist, and discharged the weapon, landing it right across the bridge of his big brother’s nose.

[Chevrolet Winchester]

Maybe she was crazy. It wasn’t the first time she’d been accused of such a thing. But as she lay there with her eyes shut, Chevrolet could swear she heard her oldest brother begging her to wake up. Her eyes slowly flickered open, taking in nothing but a sharp burst of light before they clenched themselves closed in an attempt to keep the light out. She could see white glowing orbs beneath her eyes and they were enough to hold her concentration for a moment. She needed something to take her mind off the pain. Dear god she was in pain. Everything hurt. She felt like she’d been hit by a truck or something. Her leg though? Well that felt like it had simply been ripped from her body. She was replaying the whole ordeal in her head as her eyes kept themselves closed. One of the nurses had noticed her come to and was talking to her, trying to get her to respond but she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. She was half worried that if she opened her eyes she’d find out she’d crashed on the way to the airport and this was all some elaborate dream. After all, what were the chances Ryder would come back? Why? Why now? Its not like he’d really come home for her, right. She couldn’t are to have it all taken away from her. But then something came back to her, something that was worth ruining even the nicest dream. “Ben?” Her voice was low and croaky and as she spoke it was like someone was running sand paper across the back of her throat. Her eyes opened and scanned the room looking for any sign of the eldest Winchester. “Where is he? Where’s my brother? I need my brother!” Despite the nurse’s plea’s to calm down, Chey pushed it, pushing her body up to sit on the bed. It was like a sudden rush of people came at her to try and move her down. Despite the fact it was killing her,, Chey fought them to keep herself sat up and called out again. “BEN!!!!!” If she didn’t see her brother soon, no amount of pain was stopping her getting off that bed.

[Ben Isaac Winchester]

Ben couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene in front of him if he tried. There was a slew of nurses and doctors buzzing around, their chatter mixed with the metallic beep of whirring machines was a cacophony of sound. His head pounded and his eyes were blurry with soot and tears.

Please don’t let him lose another sibling, he silently prayed. As much as it hurt, he knew that he’d lost Ryder when Cristine died. His little brother had shut him out, shut him down and Ben didn’t have any real hope for a reconciliation. Hell…if their roles had been reversed, God knew what he’d have done to Ryder after losing the woman he loved. Damn these Winchester genes; making them love too hard.

There was movement beside him; he could feel his brother’s eyes on him and hear the nurse’s voice as she asked them questions, but he couldn’t make them out. His head was pounding, he was praying, the machines were beeping and someone was calling out for a bag of blood. It was chaos…and there he was, the eldest son of the big, bad Dean Winchester, and he could do nothing. For the second time in his life, he felt absolutely powerless. So, when the world started tilting and spinning, he was half tempted to let it happen and fall straight back into warm darkness.

Later, he’d have to thank Ry for that punch, right after he returned the favor, he thought as his brother snarled something and decked him. The jolt sent a missile of adrenaline through him and once again, he was awake. Damn, he hated head wounds. They really were a downer on an already crap-tastic day.

The elder Winchester wiped at his nose and chin and gently tested his lower teeth with his tongue. He tasted blood and he winched, then pushed himself to his feet. That knock in the schnoz had sent him right on his ass, which he was really going to have to make up for later. He was unsteady on his feet when he pushed himself up and it took him a few minutes to really comprehend what Ryder said before giving him a punch in the face, and when he did, hell-wrath fire leapt into his eyes. His fault? HIS fault?!

”No, Ryder,” He growled, standing at his full height. He squared off with his brother and it took visible effort to keep his hands unclenched and loose at his sides. ”You don’t get to take the easy route and blame everything on me this time. You’ve been away, so you’ve missed a few things. Lemme fill you in,” He paused to wipe at his bloody nose again and shook off another nurse when she tried to urge him to sit. ”For a while now, Chey’s stopped talking to me. I dunno why, and I haven’t really been around to find out. I’ve been a little busy not dwelling on the past, unlike your sorry, poor-poor me ass. I’ve done all I can to keep Chey out of the life, but the kid seems to think that if she made herself strong, made us- more like you, little brother- proud, you’d fucking come out of your pity-hole and come home. So fuck you, Ryder. Where were you? Licking your wounds after something NO ONE could have prevented.”

It was the most scathing retort he’d given his brother since the incident, he thought after a minute. When Cristine had died, he’d taken the heat; he’d let his brother blame him, because in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d gone and sacrificed the girl because she wasn’t family. He’d let Ryder yell and scream, hate him with his eyes…and he’d done nothing. But now, he just couldn’t help himself.

Ben stiffened when he heard Chey’s cries. She was awake? And…hell, fighting with the doctors, by the looks of things. He started to go to her, but stopped, his back to Ryder. Over his shoulder, he managed to croak, ”We all make mistakes in this life, Ry. One of mine was not looking in on Chey enough. But saving you from that bar? It will never be something I regret. Fuckin’ hate me if you want, but remember that.”

Chey’s voice, plaintive and afraid, echoed through the ER. As quickly as his shaky legs could manage, he hurried over to the side of her bed. Sitting down on the edge, despite interceding hands, tubes and wires, the hunter leaned over her to urge her back down.

”I’m right here, squirt. Just lie back for me, ‘kay? We gotta let the docs take a look at you before you go runnin’ around the place. I’m right here, and everything’s gonna be alright. Ryder’s right here, and your buddy Chad’s been taken care of. Everything’s alright.”

He kept his voice soothing, smoothing the blood stiffened hair from around her face. She wasn’t out of hot water yet, but his baby sister was a fighter. She’d be alright.

Everything would be alright, in the end. It had to be.

[/blockquote]

[Ryder James Winchester]

Ryder had decked Ben so hard he nearly lost his balance, stumbling into a discarded gurney that had been sitting along the wall behind them. He caught it before falling on his ass, but that didn’t stop the gurney from rolling into a tray of silver medical utensils which fell to the floor in an echoing clatter; calling the attention of a few of the emergency staff towards them. Ryder stood upright again and shook out his hand; the pain in his knuckles a fleeting distraction from the ache that was going on in his chest at the moment.

The blow -had- knocked Ben down, so the younger brother clenched his fists and prepared for the elder to strike back as the man pulled himself up to stand, but was taken aback when Ben didn’t punch him; instead, facing him with an unaffected calmness in his visage as well as his profound eyes.

The story that Ben told him was one filled with genuineness and misery, and as much as the young hunter hated to admit it; his brother was right. Ben’s words were a tangible wrecking ball to the wall of bitterness he’d built up around himself concerning that night, and his elder sibling, and all the bricks of blame and guilt and hate came crashing down around the man’s feet, leaving him raw and exposed.
He was…right. All this time Ryder had been hiding in that damned chasm of self-pity and loathing, and all the time he’d known deep down he was only trying to punish Ben because damn it, if he was hurting someone else needed to feel an iota of the pain he was feeling too. Ben had been an easy target. He was strong and he could take it…much better than Ryder ever could.

At the sound of Chey’s voice, his brother turned away and Ryder was left standing in the puddle of shame that had oozed out of him after Ben’s truthful words had eviscerated him. He blinked, running a trembling hand back through his hair and hating himself more for running away than he’d ever felt for having to slay his own fiancée.

But he was here now. And he wasn’t ever leaving again. Ryder meant to prove to them that he had made the biggest mistake of his life ever taking off…or blaming…

Quiet; his head hung down in indignity, the young hunter went to the side of the bed opposite Ben and took Chey’s bruised and crimson stained hand gently in his own.

“We’re not going anywhere…” Ry added and searched Chey’s moist eyes for recognition of that certainty before lifting them to his brother with a nod. “Ever again.”