Title:  Where Angels Fly
Chapter Six of Ten
Fandom:  Speed Racer (anime)
For ratings, warnings, and summary, please see Chapters One and Two

Story:

His feet led him inside.  He didn't stop.  Maybe he did, if only to find out Speed's location.  Otherwise, he kept on walking and didn't stop.  Not until he'd reached his younger brother's room.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting.  Maybe to see Speed sitting up in bed and berating himself for being stupid and foolish enough to get behind the wheel after drinking.  That would be like his brother, after all.  What he saw instead made him want to retch.

Speed lay in the hospital bed but he wasn't conscious.  Rex didn't think he had been for a while, especially since bandages had been wrapped around the younger man's head.  A breathing tube had been inserted into his mouth and down his throat, an indication to Rex's muddled brain that his brother wasn't breathing on his own.

"His lungs collapsed yesterday morning," a teary, feminine voice stated.  "The doctors say that, if he pulls out of this, he won't be the same . . . that his speech and motor skills will be affected . . ."

Rex turned around to face his mother as she drew a deep and ragged breath, the sadness and worry reflecting in her eyes.  She hadn't slept any lately.  He could tell by the dark circles surrounding her eyes.

"Mrs. Racer," he forced himself to say, the words sounding alien to him at that moment, "I'm sure . . ."

"If you're going to say that Speed will be fine, that he's a fighter, please don't," she told him, her tone firm.  "And don't call me Mrs. Racer anymore.  I'm your mother, Rex."

He felt his jaw drop, his eyes going wide.  How had she known?  Had Speed told their parents the truth?  A wan smile touched his mother's lips as she moved to the bedside.

"I've known for a while that it was you," she stated, her tone soft.  "Ever since that lunatic kidnapped Speed and had him steal all those paintings."

"I don't . . ."

"You slipped," she replied.  "You said Pops."

For a moment, he could only stand there, his mouth hanging open as his mind vainly tried to conjure up the time that she spoke of.  When he finally did, he felt his cheeks burn and he slowly removed his mask.

"And here I thought Speed would have told you once he found out who I was," he murmured, sitting on the opposite side.

"He did," his mother confirmed.  "You don't realize how that felt, when he told us who you really were.  We felt as if we'd lost you all over again."

She fell silent at that and her eyes wandered back to his brother's prone form.  The only things breaking the silence were the respirator and the heart monitor.  There were so many things that he had wanted to say, however, so many things that he wanted to ask.  Rex found that he couldn't, though.  The surreal feeling of the situation made it hard for him to focus.  Finally, he decided to ask the one thing that had been bothering him the most.

"What happened to him?"