Author's Note: I had to get this up before this week's episode, which I am SO EXCITED FOR, YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND. But, just in case they don't manage to keep Jonathan out of jail, this is how I would make it play out if it was me. Cameron AND Jonathan whump time! Onwards!

Kay made him go to the hospital.

Cameron wasn't entirely sure why, because he knew they weren't going to do anything for one broken rib other than maybe wrap it, hand him some over the counter pain med and tell him to take it easy for the next few weeks. No lifting more than ten pounds, no boxing matches, no practicing escaping from straitjackets, avoid stairs when possible…and now that he worked with the FBI, probably 'no cases' were going to be added to the already too long list.

It actually wasn't Kay that convinced him. It was the death glare Johnny gave him when he said he didn't need to go.

Right before jabbing a thumb into what was sure to be spectacular bruising where he'd put his hands for CPR, making Cameron hiss and double over.

"I'm sorry," Jonathan said, putting a mocking hand up to his ear. "What was that?"

"You are such a dick sometimes," Cameron groaned between clenched teeth, trying not to hunch over as the familiar jab of pain radiated outward.

"I thought you were fine?" Jonathan asked sweetly. "Are you trying to tell me….you lied to me? Your own brother? Who has patched up more of you than Buffalo Bill did with his skin suit?"

Cameron made a face. "Ew. That is a terrible analogy. You do you always have to make it creepy?"

Jonathan shrugged, leaning back on his hands where he sat on the floor across from him, waiting for the EMS team that Dina called. "Because it makes sure that I have your attention and you were listening. That's what you get for being squeamish about weird things."

Cameron had almost forgotten what it was like to snipe back and forth with Johnny. His twisted sense of humor that was darker than ink sometimes, but never failed to make Cameron laugh. He'd missed it. He'd missed Jonathan. He'd tried not to think about how much Kay was nothing like Jonathan, or that despite their arguing, Gunter and Jordan were poor substitutes for hashing it out over an illusion with Johnny over cold pizza and warm beer and their own language that no one else understood.

Twenty minute meetings in a monitored waiting area once a week (because that was all they allowed them) wasn't the same. Not when every time he saw Johnny, he looked a little sharper. A little more exhausted. A little more bleak.

And a lot more angry.

When the ambulance had arrived, Cameron refused to go unless Johnny came with him. In the ambulance. Stayed in the ER. Waited until they all got a chance to debrief about what had happened since he'd disappeared from the alley way.

And if Cameron had anything to say about it, until they caught the Mystery Woman.

At first, Kay refused, and Cameron saw the look she shot Jonathan. Somewhere between distrust and caution, it occurred to Cameron she didn't trust his brother. Why, was a little beyond him. It wasn't like once released, Johnny couldn't disappear the second he wanted to. The fact that he didn't should've been all the assurance Kay needed to know that Jonathan wasn't a flight risk. And why she kept looking at him like she half expected him to be the Evil Twin was another mystery.

Involuntary manslaughter, even if Johnny had done it, wasn't exactly the worst crime they'd witnessed people commit, and Kay had looked at them with less suspicion than she looked at Johnny. And Johnny had been nothing but an upstanding prisoner, even if it killed him a little bit to bite his tongue about the injustice of having to trade one prison for another.

When Cameron had braced his feet against the vault door as the EMT's tried to lead him out, he was perfectly aware he sounded like a truculent child.

Did he care?

Nope.

Johnny actually did more to help his own case than Cameron anticipated. When Johnny pointed at him, about to launch into full on lecture mode about "go to the damn doctor, Cameron", he stopped rather abruptly, staring at his own accusing finger, and how it started to shake. At first, it was hardly noticeable, but the more Jonathan tried to hold his hand steady, the worse it got, and for a moment, he looked just as bewildered as the rest of the team.

"Ah, dammit…" Jonathan muttered, clenching his fist white knuckled against itself.

It was all the warning Cameron had before his brother's eyes rolled back in his head and he started to collapse forwards.

Thank god Gunter was paying just as close attention, because Cameron doubted he would've been able to catch Jonathan without landing on top of him. Fortunately, Gunter was fast when he needed to be, and he'd known exactly what the hand tremors signified.

Which was how they both wound up sharing a room at Lower Manhattan hospital.

The lights were down low, and Johnny was curled up on his bed, one arm wrapped around his head while the other splayed out to his side with the glucose IV stuck to it, too sick to complain about it or the handcuffs the hospital insisted he wore now that his tracking anklet was disabled.

And Cameron had been right about how little the hospital would do for broken ribs, especially when it was just one. All they did was push on already painful bruises, cluck their tongue, and agree that 'yep, that's broken' and tell him not to over exert himself.

Kay owed him twenty bucks, whenever she came back. She'd gotten stuck at the auction house, trying to fill in the owner and Deakins on what happened, the proof of the Mystery Woman caught on camera exactly as Jonathan had described her with the stolen diamond in her hand, and decidedly boring other FBI agent things.

At least Jordan had brought him an extra pack of cards for him to play with while he waited, something to keep his hands busy while he considered his argument that he be allowed to keep Johnny out of prison.

Which meant he needed intel.

"Hey, Johnny – you awake?"

There was an irritable groan, and Jonathan's arm tightened over his head. "Regrettably."

"Yeah, well, who's fault is it that you let your blood sugar crash like that? You haven't done that in ages."

Jonathan snorted, but didn't answer.

Wait.

"Why does the rest of the FBI team look at you like you're three seconds away from making a break for it?" Cameron asked. "I mean…you didn't, did you?"

"No, Cam, I didn't make a run for it. Crossed my mind like a thousand times, but no. I did, however, knock out a guard at the Quest meetup, steal his gun, and almost shot the Mystery Woman as she left for the harbor, but your agent Daniels threatened to shoot me in the back if I did, so…" Jonathan half shrugged with his one arm.

"You didn't…"

Johnny moved his arm just enough he could look at Cameron. "Yep," he confirmed, making a slight popping sound on the 'p'.

"Really?"

Jonathan sighed, moving his arm back across his face. "Look, it wasn't like I wasn't thinking about you, okay? I just…she was getting away, and I'd just given her the final clue for the Lynx by accident, and she'd locked me in one of the room's at the asylum, and…"

Cameron flicked one of the cards at Jonathan, hitting him right across the arm with a thwack.

"Hey!"

"Do you seriously think I'm mad about what you did? How can I blame you for that? I don't know that if I had a gun I wouldn't have shot her. Except…you know, I don't know how hard it is to back track someone's criminal history when they're dead, but you get the idea. Kay didn't really hold that against you, did she? She must've known you're not that kind of person."

Because Cameron knew. And he told her so, had told everyone that Jonathan wasn't capable of murder. Sure, he had a bad temper, but it's not like he didn't have a reason for it, and just because someone is grouchy doesn't make them a murderer.

"I don't know they ever actually paid attention to my case, Cam. They seemed pretty convinced I'd all but beaten that other woman to death with my bare hands. I went to get myself a hot dog less than fifty feet away from them because I was starving and all I'd had for a year is prison food and they smelled too good to ignore, and they complained that I didn't care about the fact that you were missing because I wanted to eat."

What. The. Hell. Cameron clenched his hands around the deck of cards so tight he felt them cut into his fingers.

"You're turning red, Cam. Breathe."

"They shouldn't have done that."

Jonathan shrugged again. "Forget about it. It bought me a couple more hours outside the Pen, so I can't really complain."

"You shouldn't have to rely on passing out to keep you out of jail for an extra couple of hours!" Cameron protested. "Who'd they think you were, Homicidal Houdini? If you hadn't cracked that the clue about the Lynx, if you hadn't helped them figure out that the Woman crowdsourced my abduction and how, I would probably be dead, or worse – still stuck with her and her Washout Goon Squad!"

"I shudder to think how that would be worse than dead," Johnny deadpanned.

It would've been worse, because it would mean that the Mystery Woman would still have Jonathan to hold over his head, and she was a little too quick to turn to murder to solve her problems. Prison bars would've been about as effective against her as they were against him and his brother. A formality.

As fate would have it, someone knocked on the door before Cameron had to explain himself.

"Hey," Kay said, smiling slightly. "How're you feeling?"

She looked at Cameron as she asked, but her eyes flicked momentarily towards Jonathan with his back to her.

"We need to talk," he said.

"Cam, don't," Jonathan warned. "It's fine."

And in that moment, it was too much like their entire childhood, and Cameron finally understood the frustration Jonathan felt towards their dad.

No. He wasn't doing this again. He wasn't going to have someone else look at Johnny like all he was good for was puzzle solving and riddles, and tell him to go back to hiding behind the curtain when they were through with him.

"Hallway," Cam said, hopping off the bed with only a slight wince. "Now."

As soon as he shut the door behind them – not that it would do much to keep Johnny from hearing everything anyway – Cameron point black said, "He's not going back to jail."

"Cameron, that's…"

"Non-negotiable, Kay. His sentence was ridiculous even before you knew he wasn't lying about being set up. First time offender, clearly an accident? He should've had the minimum at three years. And without him, I wouldn't be here, you wouldn't have known about Devlins, and that's just today. He solved the picture for the next clue, he cracked a code not even the FBI could figure out – or me – he saved my life, and he held up a bargain he didn't even make. There has to be some sort of a deal we can make, like…Frank Abagnale Jr. made."

Kay grimaced, like she knew already everything Cameron just laid out in black and white. "I came here to see how both of you were doing. And to apologize to Jonathan. I tend to forget that people are humans and I forget to eat all the time when I'm on a case, and I was too worried to be hungry and it didn't even occur to me that I wasn't letting him have a break. Mike can grab whatever he wants whenever he wants, and so can your team, and I felt terrible about it when they told me why he collapsed."

Well…that took a little bit of the anger away, but not all of it.

"That doesn't have the words 'of course he doesn't have to go back to prison' anywhere in it," he pointed out.

Kay pressed her lips into a thin line, looking just over his shoulder and through the blinds to where Jonathan remained hunched over on the bed. "Cameron, I don't have that kind of sway. I can put in a request for a motion, but other than that…he has-"

"No Johnny, no me," Cameron said bluntly, folding his arms. "We had a deal, Kay. I help you solve your crimes, you help me prove my brother is innocent. And I've done it. More than once. He's done it. I don't see the FBI contributing anything to this so far."

That seemed to upset her, and she visibly bristled, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at him. "You are aware that I solved plenty of crimes without you, Cameron Black? Even if your brother didn't break the law, he broke the rules of his release. He knocked a man unconscious, he tried to shoot a woman in the back after stealing a gun. He thinks rules don't apply to him, and he's too much of a flight risk, even with the tracking anklet. He purposely goads other agents, he acts like he's smarter than everyone in the room, I'll gladly submit the paperwork to try and work something out, but Cameron, his utter contempt for the law, even in front of my boss, isn't helping him."

"Look, I'm not saying Johnny's perfect. Nobody is. But I'm telling you, you can't send him back. Other inmates are starting to realize what he can do, and that he helps out the feds. Johnny can defend himself, but he's alone in there. You just pointed out what he can be like. The guards don't even like him. And he's getting targeted in there. You can't just…" Cameron struggled for the right wording, because he had to get Kay to understand this. "You can't do what Dad did."

Kay's frosty glare softened slightly, and he could see her shoulders relax fractionally.

"He and Johnny fought all the time. All the time. Johnny was the brains behind the show and the really spectacular illusions, but he hated having to hide all the time just because of one trick. He hated being told he had to stay inside, or he had to hide his face, or that he had act like me even when we weren't on stage. Now people know about him, the gig is up, and he still has to hide. He still has to take orders and keep his head down. I know he's a little…well, both of us are a lot arrogant, but Kay, you and the FBI – we can't do that to him, we can't ask for his help and then not return the favor just because he's a little rough around the edges. He's been in prison because of someone else for over a year – you didn't know him before, but I did, and I can see him changing, and not for the better. Please, Kay. You have to help him. Us."

Johnny was probably going to murder him later for telling a perfect stranger all of that, but Cameron knew how to play to a crowd, too. He remembered the way Kay looked when she saw their old show poster from when they were kids. How she reacted when he described their childhood and she called it lonely.

"Working with you is one thing, Cameron," Kay pointed out. "Working with him is a whole new ball game."

"Don't punish him for not being me," Cameron pleaded. "I know we look alike, but we're two different people. That shouldn't be used as an excuse to keep him in a cage."

Kay flinched slightly at that.

"Kay, don't you understand? You're the first person that isn't family that's ever gotten to meet Johnny – just Johnny. Not when he's trying to be me, or trying to impress someone, or in disguise. It was just him for the first time outside of prison."

After a long few moments, Kay sighed. "What do you want, Cameron?"

"I want you to love him as much as I do."

Kay's lips twitched, like something just occurred to her that she was trying not to laugh at. "My god. Jonathan said you were a good negotiator."

Cameron felt his heart jump. "Is that a yes? He can stay?"

"I still can't magically make a work release proposition, Cameron. I have to run it by Deakins and get it approved by a judge and the FBI. It'll take time."

Cameron's heart sank.

"However," she said, no longer fighting the grin. "I can't move him if he's still requiring medical treatment. I'm not going to ask you what you're going to do, I don't want to know. I'll tell the hospital staff to put you guys on the bottom of their list to check off. Buy me…" she looked at her watch and he could see her calculating how long it would take her to get what she needed. "Twenty four hours. In Twenty four hours, I can at least get an injunction. The other papers will take longer, but I can work some magic, too."

Before she could stop him, Cameron threw his arms around hers and gave her a quick bear hug, even though it hurt like hell. "Thank you."

Kay shook her head, and turned to leave but stopped short. "And for the record? I do like Jonathan."

Ta daaaaah. Anyway, what did you think? I had to fight for a little bit to make the argument between Kay and Cameron work without one of them being out of character, but I really wanted to have Cameron have to fight to keep his brother out of prison now that they finally had proof that the Mystery Woman exists on camera (And I really wanted to use the line 'I want you to love him as much as I do' because reasons). If that can be used as evidence that at least part of his story was true, it would be enough to reopen the case. And there is actually precedent for former criminals going into law enforcement as advisors and experts in their field, so I figure it's not out of the realm of possibilities. Anyway, read and review if you can, they keep me motivated!