"I'm sorry, I know this doesn't help anything. I know I can't take anything that happened back, but I wish that we would have gotten the animal and brought it back so you would be proud of us." I said as I turned and walked out the door.

I got about half way back to the house when John and Ben came walking behind me. Obviously they were listening to the entire confrontation, because John came up and put his hand on my shoulder.

"He's just scared, he doesn't know how to express his fear, so he took it out on you. He didn't mean any of it, just give him a day or two and he'll calm down." John said slowing down so he could look down at me.

"I don't know John, things will never go back to the way they were before Aaron was hurt. I need to go back and check on him." I said as I moved out from under his hand and walked towards the house.

__________________________________________________

I walked back to the house hearing John and Ben behind me. They were talking about what they had heard, I walked a little faster hoping to put that whole encounter with my dad behind me.

I was about to open the door when the doctor walked out.

"Well Emmett, how are you? Let me take a look at your cuts." He said as he reached a hand out to touch the marks on my face from where branches scratched me.

"I'm fine doc." I said moving away from him.

"Now none of that, let me look at you or I will get your mother out here." He said stepping closer again.

I stood still and let him poke at my scratches, he noticed my hand and took that to examine it closer.

"What happened here? It looks like it might be broken." He said as he moved my hand open and moved each of my fingers to see if they were stiff.

"I'm fine, how's Aaron?" I asked again.

"He's going to take some time to heal. He's got some pretty bad cuts on his leg and side. His foot is definately broken, possibly in a few spots. He will walk again but it is going to take a long time, and he may need a cane. He's very lucky you found him when you did." He said.

Obviously someone had told him the entire story, he looked at me like I was some kind of hero. I couldn't take that look of pride from him. If it weren't for me he wouldn't be hurt in the first place.

I said a quiet goodbye and walked into the house without hearing his response. When I walked in I noticed that most people had gone to bed. Mother was sitting by the couch where Aaron now was laying.

I walked over and knelt down next to his head. He rolled his head to the side and smiled up at me.

"Hey." He said

"Hey, how you feeling?" I asked.

"Hmmm well like I was attacked by a bear, strange huh?" He said smiling a little.

His breath smelt like alcohol and I smiled at him knowing that someone had given him something to help take the edge off the pain.

"Aaron, I'm really sorry. I should have gone with you, we shouldn't have split up. If I would have been there this might not have happened." I said shaking my head.

"No, if you would have been there then we both would have been attacked. Who would have been able to get me out of the woods then? Or even better who would have carried YOU out of the woods." He joked.

I looked back up at him and smiled, as I looked around I noticed that mom had left the room. I wasn't sure where she was, but I was sure that she was close by.

"How mad was he?" Aaron asked.

"Humph. Well, let's just say that he's not going to forget this for quite a while. We shouldn't have gone, what were we thinking?" I said.

"Well, we were thinking that we would be the hero's and we would find the bear and bring it back before anyone else snuck out to go find it." He said as he adjusted himself on the couch. He winced a little bit and held his breath.

"How bad is it Aaron? Don't down play it for me." I said quietly

"You ran into doc, you know how bad it is." He said.

I forgott how in such a crowded house, everything that is said is heard. I'm guessing that most of my family heard me talking to doc while he was outside.

I was lost in that thought when I heard the door open behind me. I turned my head to the right and saw our father walking in the house. He stopped in the entryway and turned to look at us.

"If you two know what is good for you, you aren't planning another trip into the woods." He said as he turned and walked up the stairs.

"He's pretty mad huh? Well I guess things can't get much worse then huh? Oh, what happened to your hand?" Aaron asked as he poked my hand with his finger.

I winced a little bit and mock punched him in the good arm.

"The barn attacked me, you should have seen it." I laughed.

He laughed a little bit and then winced again. He laid his head back and took deep breaths, obviously his pain was getting worse.

I stood up and walked over to the kitchen, opening the doors on the cabinets until I found the bottle of brandy.

I walked back over to Aaron and took the top off the bottle. I took the lip of the bottle and put it to his lips, he took a few good pulls off the bottle and let a deep breath out.

"Whew!! That stuff is like hell fire!" He breathed.

I took the bottle back and took a few good drinks off of it before putting it on the floor between us.

"Well, now what?" Aaron asked.

"Well, you should probably go to sleep. You've had a long day ya know." I joked as I lifted the bottle back to Aaron's mouth.

He drank a few gulps more and coughed out the fumes.

"Yeah, I guess fighing and being attacked by a bear takes a lot out of you." He smiled.

I took another drink off the brandy and put the cap back on. I patted Aaron on the head and wished him good sleep as I walked out of the living room. I walked into the kitchen and put the brandy back and was turning to go to bed myself when I heard someone coming down the stairs.

"Emmett outside, now." Father said.

I took a deep breath and looked down at my father, I wasn't in the mood to have any more words tonight.

"Please dad, I need to sleep." I was saying as I was interrupted.

"Just step outside for a minute, then you can go sleep off the brandy." He said with anger in his voice.

I walked out the door and walked back towards the barn, I knew he was coming behind me so I didn't need to look back to see where he was.

We walked into the barn and I went and sat on the hay bale that I was sitting on earlier tonight.

"I'm so glad you and your brother can joke about what happened tonight." He said quietly.

"Dad, we weren't making a joke out of anything. I was just trying to make him feel better." I said defensivly.

"I hope you realize what all of this is doing to your mother. She has been crying for a while now, she knows now that your brother will make it but with every sound she fears that someone else is going to go out and try to find the bears." He said.

"I.....well. I don't know what to tell you, I tried telling you that I am sorry. I will talk to everyone tomorrow and tell them not to go out there if you think it would help." I said

"NO, i'm sorry will not help. Just go back to the house, go sleep off the brandy. I'm not sure what we will do, but that can wait until tomorrow." He said as he walked out of the barn.

I sat there for a few minutes alone in the dark. My entire family was mad at me, my brother was hurt. I didn't know what to do, I just wanted to run away. I wanted to go away, or go back and restart today and change the way things happened.