I don't know if the time gap between Eddie and Roy was ever mentioned, but I'm going to say about three years. Also, I've no idea how the police academy things works and whether or not you need prior college education, but I went on the assumption that you do not.

"Eddie?" Ed looked up from his book to see Roy peering in through the crack of his bedroom door. He took a deep breath to calm himself. He'd promised his mother earlier that morning that he would stop snapping at his younger brother and, even though that promise would be hard to keep, he wanted to make her happy.

"Yeah, Roy?" He slipped the maple leaf into the page of his book and set it aside. He knew what was coming, even before the thunder crashed outside, making the floorboards shake. Roy ran across the room, small feet barely touching the ground, and launched himself into Ed's bed. He burrowed under the blankets, slithering down from the bottom of the bed and up to the pillow, where he appeared, eyes wide.

Ed sighed and watched his brother duck beneath the covers again, shaking, as lightning tore across the sky, illuminating everything.

"Roy, you're four years old, now," he whispered, careful not to wake his parents across the hall. "You should be brave."

"Easy for you to say," he replied. "You're seven. You're older." There was a long pause in which Roy shook silently, occasionally bumping into Ed's leg. Finally, "Can I stay here tonight?"

Another deep breath, just as his mother advised. "He really looks up to you," she had told him before as she was preparing his school lunch: three carrots, chopped evenly; a peanut butter sandwich, crust on; a grape juice box; and a baggie full of goldfish crackers. "You should be nicer to him."

"Fine," he said, and Roy hugged him tightly. He curled up in the small bed, clutching Ed's stuffed dog Fetch, and fell asleep.

Ed could hear Roy screaming from a block away. He dropped his backpack on the sidewalk in front of Christopher Davis' house and sprinted down the street toward the park. He found his brother underneath the jungle gym, clutching his knee and screeching.

He had fallen. Ed rolled his eyes and helped his younger brother off of the ground. Roy continued sobbing, but limped along with him. He was making too big of a deal out of this, and it was embarrassing Ed a little.

Nobody was at the house, yet. His dad was at the office and his mom was out grocery shopping, as evidenced by the note left on the kitchen table. Ed grabbed his backpack off the walk before pushing his younger brother through the front door.

Roy sat down on the couch in the living room to wait while Ed grabbed a package of Spiderman bandages from the hall closet. He smeared a layer of medicine on the largest cut, the one on his brother's knee. Roy whimpered pitifully and Ed resisted the urge to roll his eyes again.

The door opened in the hall, and their mother called "Boys?" Roy shouted to let her know where they were. When she saw him being bandaged, she dropped the grocery bags on the floor and ran to hug him.

"Oh, sweetie," she said into his hair. "Are you okay?"

"I guess." He sniffled and put his arms around his mother's neck. She ruffled Ed's hair with one hand and clung to her younger son with the other.

"Thank you, Eddie," she said, and Roy echoed her.

When Ed became a scout in 5th grade, Roy wanted in, too. They both dropped out the same year, one after the other. Ed started basketball his first year of high school; the middle school didn't offer it, yet, so Roy took to playing on the court after school with his friends.

Ed's first girlfriend was a tall blonde named Julie; Roy's was a tall blonde named Julia. They wore almost identical Air Jordans and ripped jeans. Ed got his ear pierced in three places over the course of his junior year; Roy chickened out when he saw the needle and got out of the shop before he could get his $100 back.

Where Ed went, Roy followed. He was a tag-along, constantly trying to make himself a name in the school, identifying himself as cool in order to get girls and friends and recognition. This backfired, of course, and Ed was pulling him out of garbage cans and chasing away bullies on what seemed to be a daily basis. Roy was a loser because he tried too hard, and Ed's patience was almost out.

When he graduated high school, Roy was just finishing his Freshman year. There was a year off between senior year and college, but Ed found himself in the police academy, dorming with a bunch of guys who wanted to wear blue. That's where he met Wordy, who later became his best friend, and Salvadar Derriks, who introduced him to his friend Sophie, who was destined to become his wife.

She was pretty and sweet in all the right ways, but strong and feisty on the flip side. Ed loved her instantly. She played hard to get at first, just because she liked to see Ed so desperate. She smiled a lot, too, and it just drove him wild.

They were studying at her dorm room, lying together on her bed and poring over one textbook, the first time she asked about Roy. She knew he had a brother, of course, but speaking of him had become a sort of taboo over the years. He pursed his lips and pushing himself up into seating. She sat up, too, but stayed close.

"At the risk of sounding five…" He shook his head. "He's a mama's boy, a screw up, and a copycat."

Sophie just laughed.

"He's your little brother, right? The baby of the family?"

"Yeah."

"Of course he's a mama's boy." She laced her fingers through his. "He's a copycat because you're his hero. He looks up to you, just like every other younger sibling in the whole world. I know my own sister was like that. Always wanted what I had." She smiled. "He just wants to be as amazing as you. I don't blame him; you're pretty great."

"Oh, really?"

"Maybe I'm stretching the truth a bit. You're only okay."

He kissed her.

When Roy joined him at the police academy, Ed almost lost it. When his brother requested a bed in his dorm, however, he had to do something. He was a seniority figure among the wannabe cops already, so nobody turned even turned their head when he shoved Roy against the wall and started yelling.

They didn't speak for two months, not until Roy needed money. Ed just flipped him off and closed the door in his face.

He got engaged to Sophie a week after graduation. Shortly after, Roy proposed to his own girlfriend. Ed was sure he wasn't joking when he suggested a double wedding. Instead, he almost tore out what little hair he had left.

The thing that really got him, though, was when Roy got mixed up with a girl on the side. She was married to a high-up drug ring leader who was not too pleased to find Roy's number in her phone. When he got beat up, Ed was glad. He deserved it. Maybe a few punches would knock some sense back into him.

When the guy attacked him and Sophie on the way home from dinner, however – that was where he drew the line. Roy had put not only his life in danger, but also his brother's, his sister-in-law's, and, unbeknownst to all three, his unborn nephew.

Clark's tiny heartbeat was detected a week later. Ed cut off all ties with his brother.

He wanted to be someone else's hero.