Jeff grinned out at the crowd as he got ready for his move. His swanton. Gathering himself he threw out his arms and jumped. He felt his body arching, spinning, twisting.

It was such a wondrous feeling. It felt like he was flying. Almost as though he had grown wings and would just take off.

Just as he was about to hit his opponent, his worst enemy, his best friend, his brother, Matt moved as he was suppose to. Only something was wrong, Jeff could tell when he realized that he had over arched.

He tried to twist in midair to land right, but in the split second he had to correct his fall, Jeff couldn't do it and he knew.
-------
Matt moved as he was suppose to watching his brother jump and start to twist. Matt knew immediately something was wrong. Jeff was falling wrong. Matt watched as Jeff tried to compensate for the strange jump, but there wasn't any way that he could.

Jeff landed head first and fell completely over on his neck. Jeff landed on his back and for a moment stared straight up at the lights. Then his golden green eyes shifted and locked with Matt's startled chocolate brown.

Matt didn't know what to make of the look he saw in his brother's eyes. It was almost a peace, something that he had never seen from Jeff. Then a blackness came and after giving Matt a half smile Jeff's eyes closed and his chest rose then fell and stopped.

"Jeff?" Matt said as he slid next to his brother. Matt's hands were shaking as he and the official tried to find a pulse.

"Jeff?" Matt tried again to find a pulse while the ref yelled for the paramedics.

"Jeffy? Baby brother?" Matt asked softly then watched as the official and newly arrived paramedics started CPR.

As they were wheeling him away trying to bring him back, Matt could only stare as he followed.

"Jeffy?" he whispered as he crawled into the back of the ambulance.

This couldn't happen. His brother couldn't be dead. Jeff couldn't die. Jeff was going to live forever . . . Right?
********
"Jeffery Nero Hardy. Awaken." A soft but commanding voice spoke to Jeff as he tried to stay asleep.

"What?" Jeff demanded as he opened his eyes to find himself not in his home, a locker room, or a hotel, but a British style library with a blazing fireplace. This brought him to his feet trying to figure out where he was.

"Welcome to Heaven, my boy." The voice said again and Jeff whirled to find a woman sitting in front of the fireplace.

"Heaven?" Jeff asked as he remembered the screwed up swanton. "I died?" Jeff asked as he looked at his white clothes. They were what he normally wore, only all white with touches of silver here and there.

"It's not a done deal, but for all intents and purposes, yes. In Madison Square Garden on the seventh day of the forth month of the Earth year 2004; just after the twenty-sixth minute of the eighteenth hour, Jeffery Nero Hardy ceased to live. Though his body is still on life support now, two weeks later." The woman said as she read from a file.

Jeff walked over and sat down in the chair beside the woman. "I'm in Heaven?"

"Of course. You've lead an exemplary life with only a few minor blemishes." The woman said happiness in her voice at the fact that he had lead such a good life.

"Is my mother here?" Jeff asked somewhat choked up. It was weird to be dead and know to it.

"Of course. She did send her regrets that she wasn't here to greet you personally, but it isn't every millennia that one is asked to train with Gabriel himself." The woman said and Jeff nodded.

"My mommy's going to be an arch angel?" Jeff could see it…But he would much rather see his mother.

"No, a guardian angel. Your first niece is going to be born almost one year from the day you fell. She's going to need someone to look out for her." The woman said as she flipped through the file some more.

"Niece? Matt's going to have a little girl?" Jeff thought about it then smiled. Matt would be a good daddy.

"Yes. A one night stand while he's drinking. Such a sad way to bring a life into the world." The woman shook her head as she stopped and studied for a moment then went on flipping.

"Matt isn't a heavy drinker... and he doesn't do one night stands." Jeff said insulted for his brothers' sake.

"After your accident and coming death Matt will do many things he'd not have done before. He will blame himself for your death until he takes his own life two years from now. At that time he will have two daughters and a son on the way. Such a waste. I wonder if he realizes that he will never see you or your mother ever again when he does that." The woman shook her head and put the file aside to smile at Jeff who was staring at her in shock.

"Matt's going to hell because he's going to kill himself because he blamed himself for my accident?" Jeff couldn't grasp the idea.

"I'm afraid that's what fate has in store for him unless something drastic comes about." The woman shook her head again.

"I can't let that happen." Jeff said standing and pacing.

"You could stop it." The woman agreed softly with a nod.

"How? I'm dead." Jeff said with a half growl.

"Incorrect. You're almost dead. This is the purgatory side of

Heaven. It is possible to send you back. If you want." The woman said with a shrug.

"Then send me back." Jeff demanded.

"I can do that. But you need to think about one thing before I do." The woman left off as she rose and walked over to the desk in a corner of the library.

"What?" Jeff asked impatiently as he started pacing again.

As of right now the gates of Heaven are open to you. The next time you are at the threshold of death they might not be." The woman pulled out a piece of paper and started writing with a quill looking thing.

"It doesn't matter. I have to save Matt." Jeff knew his own eternity should have mattered more, but somehow the thought of Matt going to hell over it wasn't right and he couldn't let it happen.

"That is the correct answer." The woman smiled beautifully up at him as she signed the paper she had been writing on.

"How do I get back?" Jeff asked as he watched her seal the paper into an envelope then drop it into a drawer.

"Go to sleep." The woman whispered and Jeff felt himself start to drift and laid down on the rug before the fireplace.

"One last thing . . . Tell Mommy I love her and Matty and I will see her sometime soon." Jeff felt himself falling and then all was black.
**********
Matt sat beside Jeff's still form. Matt had cried until there were no tears left. He hadn't left Jeff's side for more than the time it took for him to shower a couple of times since the accident.

Their dad was sleeping at a hotel near the hospital. Some of the hospital staff had tried to talk him into going and getting some rest, but Matt had refused. In his head he knew it was stupid, but his heart told him that he was the only thing that stood between Jeff and having to say good-bye forever.

Matt turned to the cot some nurse had brought in for him. He knew he needed to be in top form for when Jeffy woke up, because someone would have to help him get back into shape.

Just as Matt laid down and was about asleep the scream of monitors brought him wide awake. Matt was on his feet only to stop as Jeff looked guiltily from where he had been trying to remove one of the monitors.

"Jeffy?" Matt asked but didn't get an answer as nurses and a doctor came running in.

"Mr. Hardy! You're awake." The doctor exclaimed as he started examining Jeff who was glaring at him.

"I think we can remove the tube." The doctor said after he had tested to see if Jeff could breathe on his own. Jeff gave him a grim look then allowed the tube to be removed from his throat.

Jeff gagged a few times and drew few shaky breaths.

"Jeffy?" Matt tried again as he saw his brother sit up and order in a rough voice that 'every damn tube and needle was to be removed . . . immediately.'

"Hey... Matty." Jeff's voice sounded like shit, but to Matt it was a chorus of angels.

Matt started crying again and didn't even try to hid it.

"Matt, could you step out so that we can check him over a little more throughly." The doctor said smiling as the darker Hardy nodded and wiped the tears away.

Matt stepped to Jeff's side and pressed a kiss to Jeff's forehead before speaking softly. "I love you, baby brother . . . but if you ever do this to me again I'm going to kill you myself. No swanton required."

Jeff laughed rustily and nodded then Matt walked out.

Going to the family waiting room outside of the ICU, Matt sat down and started crying again. "Oh god . . . he's gone isn't he?" a familiar voice said as two sets of feet appeared by where Matt's gaze was centered on the tiles at his feet.

Matt looked up shaking his head and smiling at Adam and Jay. "He woke up."

"What?" Adam demanded as he wrapped one arm around his lover. Because of this he and Jay had grown closer. Adam had just been thinking on the way there that he never wanted to know what Matt was going through.

"Jeff woke up a few minutes ago. The doctor removed the breathing tube and he's talking . . . And sitting up." Matt stood and allowed the Canadians to hug him.

"This is so great!" Jay said all but dancing after the hug had broken apart.

"Matt?" the doctor said coming out of Jeff's room.

"Yes?" Matt asked giving the doctor a bright smile.

"We're moving him to a regular room. He's doing . . . Well, other than a little disorientation from the concussion and the coma, he's fine. I can't explain it." The doctor allowed Matt, Adam and Jay into the room where Jeff was sitting up talking to the nurse.

"Hey! You miss me?" Jeff said as Adam and Jay ran to his side and Matt went to the other.

"What do you think?" Jay said hugging Jeff as tightly as he dared.

When Adam's turn came he was satisfied with a small hug for all of two seconds before engulfing the smaller man in a tight bear hug.

"Matt . . . Mommy's going to be a guardian angel . . . but no time soon . . . " Jeff said as he looked at Matt very carefully.

Matt gave him a strange look then shrugged it off as something to do with the concussion.
*******
Jeff's recovery was deemed a miracle by the doctors and nurses and he was allowed to go home in a startlingly short week stay after he woke up.

Matt insisted that Jeff stay with him and for once Jeff didn't argue.

Jeff trained and worked off the two week coma's effects quickly with a renewed vigor as he fought Matt in the oldest of ways. On the trampoline.

As they did so they both learned a keen appreciation for the youth they were slowly losing.

One day as they had finished their sparing on the trampoline Jeff fell to lay still on the warm surface as he stared up at the bright blue sky of the May afternoon. Matt immediately sank beside him. "Are you okay, Jeff? You didn't over do it, did you?" Matt
demanded his worry showing in his face.

"I'm fine. Tired, but fine. Matt, I can honestly say that I haven't felt this good in years." Jeff told his brother as the elder laid down, relieved that Jeff hadn't overdone it.

Jeff waited until Matt was laying down flat before moving swiftly to sit on his chest. With a silly grin Jeff started tickling his brother until Matt was laughing and trying to fight him off.

Then with an equally quick move Matt rolled Jeff and pinned him to the bouncy surface of the trampoline. "Give?" Matt breathed his face a few inches from Jeff's.

Jeff shook his head and tried to squirm away. Then just as Jeff bucked Matt shifted and they ended up with their noses just brushing at the tips. Matt blushed and started to pull away only to have Jeff stop him.

Jeff reached up and put his hand to the back of Matt's head and pulled him down into a soft kiss. He had never felt like this before, but then things seemed ten times different since he had gotten back. And this seemed... natural. They had only ever had each other. So, Jeff reasoned, why not this way as well?

For many long moments they held the innocent kiss before Matt parted his lips and let his tongue brush Jeff's lips with a moan.

Jeff opened and for a moment they both hung on the taste of one another.

Then Matt pulled away and they stared at one another. Without a word Matt rolled with Jeff and the younger found himself tucked neatly in Matt's arms with his head over his brother's heart.

Jeff had learned something in that time he had been away. Screw convention, screw norms. Be who and what you are. If people don't like it, screw them. And Jeff realized, he loved his brother. So now what was he going to do?

Jeff grinned. He knew what he was going to do. He was going to get his brother... And by the feel of that kiss, Matty wasn't going to mind one bit.
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