Siegfried beamed down at his little brother.

"Excellent Tristan! I knew you'd beat it."

"Just about Siegfried!

"Nonsense, never any doubt." He sat down on the chair next to the bed. "Throat muscles relaxed then? Swallowing again?"

"Yes and yes, I am fully and truly on the mend."

"Eating alright?"

"I feel like the fattened calf the amount of food they keep bringing!"

"Excellent! So you'll be coming home soon?"

"In a few days, the doctor tells me."

"Well, we'll be glad to have you back."

"Not as glad as I'll be to be back. I never thought I'd want to leave the fussing nurses but one does feel a certain hankering for my own room after a while." Tristan grinned at his brother and stifled a yawn.

"Are you still on the antibiotics then Tris?"

"Yes, well, the last of them. Sorry Siegfried, can hardly keep my eyes open."

"No matter, dear boy, I'm just pleased to see you recovering. Your body's been fighting a hard battle these last few weeks."

"Mmmm."

"Go to sleep Tris, you've earned it." Siegfried watched Tristan give up and drift off again. Silly little blighter, he'd been forcing himself to remain awake there. He smoothed some of the hair out of his brother's eyes. The tight anxious feeling in his gut was finally easing, the cold hand of fear around his heart lifting. Tristan was out of the danger period now. Granted his little brother was frequently irritating, often irresponsible and seemingly permanently in trouble but Siegfried couldn't imagine life without his taller little brother under his feet and in his hair constantly. James and Helen were wonderful, truly wonderful people but Tris…well; there was some truth to the saying that blood was thicker than water. Siegfried offered a quick prayer of thanks that Tristan had been spared. He gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and turned to leave, unable to fight back the spreading smile.

The crunch of tyres on gravel alerted James to the long awaited arrival. He hurried out of the surgery to the front door just in time to watch Siegfried positively bounce out of the driver's seat and around to the passenger's side. Slumped against the headrest, Tristan appeared to be asleep at first glance but stirred quickly enough when the sea of dogs poured past James to leap around the car joyfully barking. Siegfried fended them off with practised ease as he opened Tris's door and hauled the younger Farnon out. Tristan kept one arm around his brother's shoulders as they made their way to the house and James hurried to add his support.

Between them they managed to get Tristan safely settled on the living room sofa, though he was very pale and shaky by the end of it, probably further than he'd moved in weeks, James thought. He hurried back out to fetch Tristan's bag from the hospital. By the time he'd got back Mrs Hall was fussing around Tristan, who was grinning cheerfully again.

"Thanks for the tea and scones Mrs Hall," Tristan was just saying.

"Nonsense dear, you need feeding up, no mistake. I'll go and get started on dinner!"

"Marvellous, Mrs Hall" Siegfried called as she headed back to the kitchen. "Well, little brother? Glad to be back then?"

"Absolutely! If only for the cooking!"

"Hallo again Tris! Fed up with hospital already?"

"Hello James, yes, two weeks is a bit more than even I can handle."

"What? All those pretty nurses?"

"Hah, strict patient confidentiality there James!" Tristan grinned smugly.

"That's only between a doctor and his patients!"

"Well, a gentleman never tells anyway."

Siegfried stopped short of rolling his eyes and accepted a cup of tea. Tristan was still much too thin and weak but his sense of humour seemed to have bounced back extraordinarily quickly. He watched the boy bantering with James fondly, God he'd missed having him in the house. Though he was sure they'd be back to rowing as soon as Tristan was strong enough for it. The front door opened and Helen appeared.

"Oh Tris! You're back! How wonderful!" She bent over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "I'm sorry I wasn't here, Mrs Wingbat kept me waiting."

"Never fear Helen, I've only been back about five minutes."

"Cup of tea, dear?" James asked.

"Oh, lovely, thank you."

"Now I simply must hear all the gossip Helen, I've missed so much of it!"

"Gossip? Idle speculation boy, filling your head with all that nonsense when you could be focussing on your studies!" Siegfried said.

"Have a heart Siegfried, just wanted to know the news!" It seemed Tristan had missed arguing with his brother as much as Siegfried had. Well, Siegfried could afford to be generous and lose he supposed.

"News and gossip are very different things Tristan, there's a great deal of difference between learning that Tim Farrowby's got a new herd of Shorthorns and theorising on who is courting the new barmaid at the Drover's!"

"There's a new barmaid?"

"That is not the point Tristan, you've got to learn to use the right terminology at all times! It might even help if you used it in your exams!" Too far? No, Tris was still having fun; you could see it in his eyes.

"Quite Siegfried, now about this new barmaid…"

"Give up Tris!" James cut it, "She's already engaged!"

"Alas, such a waste. Still, be a while before I can make it to the pub anyway."

"I'm certain they'll be heartbroken at the news dear brother. I'm surprised they haven't declared bankruptcy with you out of the way!" Ah, now Tris was pouting, best pull back a bit. "Any calls while I was out James?"

"Nothing urgent."

"Good. Now Tris, you are to stay on that sofa and not move for the rest of the day."

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. Lambing season is due soon; I need you back in business by then!"

"Oh of course, eye on the long game Siegfried?" Back to smiling with his eyes. Goodness, did Tristan even realise just how easy he was to read at times?

"Of course! We are a busy veterinary surgery after all!"

"Of course!" Tristan said, watching Siegfried's face. Yes, he was teasing, you could see it in the line of his shoulders. He wondered if Siegfried knew how easy he was to understand, you could read his thoughts in his face as plain as day. Funny that no one else ever acted upon it, James could never tell the difference between angry for a reason Siegfried, angry for the sake of being angry Siegfried and mock angry Siegfried. Really, the differences were absurdly clear!

Siegfried put his cup of tea down and moved to sit on the sofa next to Tris.

"But for now, rest little brother!"

Two months later Siegfried thundered down the stairs and grabbed the shrilling phone.

"Yes…yes…right…no…someone will be straight there…yes…right…yes." He glanced at the clock, four thirty. Right. He stormed upstairs and flung open Tristan's door.

"Wha…?"

"Tristan! Didn't you hear the phone! You're on emergency call out! Get up! Get up you lazy thing!"

"Siegfried, phone? What?" Tristan's ruffled hair emerged from the heap of blankets, eyes half lidded in sleep.

"Yes, the telephone! Now for goodness sake get up!"

"Oh, right." Tris pulled himself upright and heaved the covers off.

"Oh, God, it's freezing!"

"Good, that'll wake you up faster!"

"Have a heart Siegfried! What time is it?"

"Half four, now will you get a move on!"

"I'm up! I'm up, I'm up, I'm up! Who was it?"

"Mrs Bond, one of her cats has been in some sort of fight apparently."

"Oh, Siegfried! Mrs Bond can't stand me! Why is she up at half four any-wait. Which cat?"

"Boris, I believe?"

"Boris!"

"'Fraid so!"

"That's not a cat! It's a panther in heavy disguise!" He grabbed his clothes and pushed Siegfried out the room, still grumbling. "First night back on emergency calls and I get the hell cat. Great."

Siegfried paused outside the door, listening to Tristan pull himself together enough to go out. He grinned at the crash as Tristan tripped over something or the other and fell over, cursing evocatively. It was nice to have life here back to normal!

He strolled back to bed, whistling a jaunty tune.