Page 34 of Stand By Me

"Good. Now, go."

Ben nodded sharply, then looked back at Erica, who demanded he texted her in an houror elseand shooed him off.

Clay smiled at her and followed Ben out of the room after saying his goodbyes, but dropped the smile when he saw the slump of Ben's shoulders and the way he was dragging his feet. Clay bit his tongue, though, knowing full well that nothing he could say would make any of this better.

When they got to the busiest part of the department, Ben straightened and picked up the pace, even smiling and waving at people who offered their well wishes. It was nice to see his baby brother being so obviously liked at his workplace and to watch him smile and joke around, even if he was also obviously putting on a show now, pretending to be better than he was. Clay wished he could see this happy version of Ben more often, when it was actually real.

He figured that staying on the topic of work might prolong the moment.

"This place is intense, isn't it?" Clay offered as they neared his car.

Ben scoffed, his earlier smile long-forgotten. "This place is one of the top pediatric ERs in the state," he gritted through his teeth before getting in and slamming the door, making Clay's nostrils flare.

He counted to ten before getting into the driver's seat.

"I didn't mean anything bad, I was—"

"Can't you just drive me home?" Ben cut him off, already turned away and leaning his head against the side window. "The sooner you do that, the sooner you can go back to whatever you had going on." He shrugged. "I had no idea Mom would call you."

Clay slowly backed out of the hospital parking lot. "She couldn't get out of her shift."

"She could've told me, I would've called Mario and we would've ordered—"

"It's not a problem." It was Clay's turn to interrupt. For a split second, he considered telling Ben that calling Mario would've interrupted his plans either way, but he swallowed that down. It was his anger talking and he was better than this—most of the time, at least. "I'm glad she called me," he said instead.

And it was true. No matter how much shit Ben gave him, Clay didn't want to be anywhere else right now.

"That makes one of us," Ben muttered quietly enough that he could pretend he was talking to himself, but Clay knew better.

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and counted to a hundred this time.

"Listen," he finally said, gaze fixed on the road in front of him, "I know I'm not your favorite person, but if there's something going on with you, if you're sick, or—"

"Are you fucking serious?" Ben sat up and turned to him with a glare that made Clay instantly regret glancing over at him. "I'm not sick, I'm not dying. I overdid it at work and embarrassed myself, that's it."

"Okay. That's… well, not good, but, you know. I'm glad it's not worse."

"Are you? Are you really? Or do I need saving andprotectingfor you to care?" Ben snorted. "Forget it. You have other people for that."

Clay found it hard to breathe through the sudden tightness in his chest.

"I've always cared about you and I never stopped. You don't have to need me for anything in order for me to do so. I asked because I care and I'm here because I care."

Ben turned towards the side window. "Well, you were somewhere else for eleven years, so I guess you didn't care then, did you?"

Back to square one, then. Clay inhaled slowly and started again.

"That's not—"

"I'm tired," Ben cut him off without looking towards him this time. "Can you let me rest or is that too much to ask for, since I'm not dying?"

Clay clenched his teeth and drove.

* * *

It took over an hour for him to annoy Ben into sleep.

Which, technically, shouldn't be possible, but whoever got to decide that, clearly underestimated Ben's range of anger and resentment towards Clay. After the silent treatment for the rest of the car ride, he tried to block Clay from going after him into the house. When that failed, he shut himself off in the bedroom in response to Clay's suggestion of another glass of water.

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