Aftershock
Genre: Hurt/comfort, light, family, friendship, brothers
Rating: PGish
Summary: Just a short tag to S04E15 "The Night Moves".
Warnings: None, really, other than absence of plot.
Words: 1,000

As he stared at the wreckage that used to be the Cohen's home, Ryan couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. All he wanted was to lie down in his bed in the pool house, but the pool house wasn't there. At least, it wasn't in any sort of condition to have people inside. This place was his first real home, and he couldn't think about what would happen now that it was destroyed.

The rafters were spinning around his head, and he took an unsteady step back. Luckily the wall behind him was mostly in tact and held his weight as he leaned against it.

"Seth," he called out on a breath of air. He felt hands on him as he began sliding down the wall.

"Dad!" Seth shouted as he eased his brother's decent.

Sandy turned away from the destruction to see what was going on with his boys. "Ryan!"

Ryan tried to keep himself together, because he didn't want to add anymore stress to the day, especially to Kirsten after her scare with the baby.

"Ryan," Sandy admonished. "You told the doctor you felt better."

"Sandy!" Kirsten said with a disapproving look, then turned to Ryan. "Sweetie, can you tell us what's wrong?"

Ryan swallowed but his mouth was so dry it didn't do any good. "'m tired," he slurred. "Felt good when th'doctor asked," he told Sandy, because it seemed important.

Sandy smiled sympathetically and squeezed Ryan's shoulder. "I know, kid. I'm just worried about you."

Ryan shook his head, which only made the room spin faster, as he said, "Don't worry about me. Take care of Kirsten." He clenched his eyes shut to try and block out the spinning. "I'm'a lie down," he whispered.

Letting himself fall to the side, Ryan felt Sandy and Seth controlling where he landed. There was something soft under his head, and Sandy propped his feet up on something. He admitted to himself that he never would have left the hospital so quickly if he knew he would feel like this. At the time, laying in bed, he had felt fine, if a little tired. He knew the hospital needed all the beds for other earthquake-related injuries, so he said he was ok to leave.

"Drink this, Ryan," Kirsten said as she shook his arm to get his attention.

He opened his eyes to see a water bottle in front of him and attempted to sit up. Seth got behind him and helped him up enough to drink. Once he was flat again, the world slowly stopped spinning.

"Thanks," he said softly to Kirsten. Turning to Seth, he said, "Thanks for today, man. You've been awesome..."

Seth smiled and kept a hand on Ryan's shoulder. "Don't mention it, bro, at least until you can keep your eyes open. Then you can tell me how great I am."

"Awesome," Ryan corrected with a smile.

"That's right."

Ryan lay for a few minutes, alternating between feeling incredibly heavy and like he may float away. He didn't know how long it was before Sandy came back. He hadn't realized the man was gone. Seth was still sitting next to him with a hand on his shoulder, which helped him feel like he wasn't about to float away. He lifted one heavy arm to pat Seth's hand.

"Thanks for holding me down."

"What?" Seth asked with a confused look.

Ryan decided it was too hard to explain at the moment and watched Sandy squat down near him. He noticed that Kirsten was sitting nearby, too. He was glad she was off her feet.

"It's a girl," he told Sandy with a smile.

Sandy grinned, "That it is, but we need to talk about you right now."

Ryan frowned, "What about me?"

"You might need to go back to the hospital for a little while."

Ryan shook his head, "They need the room."

"You need to get checked out, again."

"You sure? I feel better laying down. I'll just sleep a while."

Sandy sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, clearly exhausted. "Well, the doctor said you'd probably be alright after a lot of rest. Tell you what, we'll go to a hotel and get settled for the night, and I'll check on you later. If you're not getting any better, then we'll see about a doctor, ok?"

Ryan nodded, glad to avoid a second hospital visit, but not too happy about the hotel part.

"Pool house?" he asked.

"Sorry, kid, it's not really a building anymore."

"Oh, yeah," he remembered. "Sorry."

"Not your fault. Seth, can you help me get him back in the car?"

"Of course, I'm the awesome blood brother. Didn't you know?"

Sandy chuckled. "That you are, son. Can you keep an eye on your blood brother for a while once we get to the hotel?"

"Sure." In a whisper that Ryan could barely make out, Seth added, "You'll stay with mom for a while?"

Sandy nodded and glanced at his dozing wife. "Absolutely. Let's get the fair-haired half of the family to the car."

Later on at the hotel, Seth was sitting next to Ryan as his brother lay propped up by a few pillows. Seth claimed that he could see the TV better from that angle, and Ryan didn't argue. It was nice having him so close, even though he was sleeping through more shows that he watched. Although he still felt extremely tired and lightheaded, Ryan was feeling more coherent and put together as the day went on into night. By morning, he felt up to taking a shower and was almost back to normal after eating breakfast.

"Hey," he said to Seth as they watched TV after breakfast. "Thanks, man, for everything."

Seth smiled at him. "I told you it was my turn. No need for thanks."

Ryan appreciated his second chance at brotherhood more than ever, and promised himself that he'd always do whatever he could for Seth.

"You could keep telling me how awesome I am, though," Seth said with a teasing smile.