At Least Your Brother's Not Gonna Die Because of You!

Luigi's Finally Going Under, But Mario Seems to Need Our Attention At the Moment

"I'm sorry." The doctor apologizes when she finally lets Mario back in the room, after Luigi's finally stopped seizing.

"Just tell me what's wrong with my brother." Mario requests.

"Just a seizure, but it stopped." The doctor says.

"Mario?" At the sound of Luigi's voice, Mario comes over to him in a second.

"Hey there, Weegee." Mario cups his face in his hands. "You scared me, fratellino."

"What are you talking about?" Luigi looks around. "What happened?"

"You were seizing." The doctor tells him. "Another side effect of the mass inside your brain."

"I had a seizure ?" Luigi yelps, despite Mario's best efforts to calm him down.

"Which can easily be caused by stress." The doctor adds. "And we're about to go poking around inside your brain."

"Does this change anything?" Mario asks worriedly.

"No no." The doctor shakes her head. "Patients are typically given anti-seizure meds beforehand anyway. Now we can skip that step."

"Thank the stars for that." Luigi mutters.

"Sooner you go rooting around in there, sooner we can get him out of here." Mario says, but at Luigi's pull on his hand, he turns to look at him.

"Please don't freak out." Luigi begs.

"You kidding?" Mario jokes. "I'm as cool as a cucumber."

Mario squeezes his hand back, "We're gonna be okay, because we're together, remember?"

Then to the doctor, "Hey, can I have a moment before you take him?"

"Sure." The doctor agrees. "But just a warning, the sedatives won't let him stay awake much longer."

After she leaves, Luigi teases, "Now where were we?"

"Lu, be honest." Mario asks. "Are you okay?"

"Besides counting sheep? All aces." Luigi flashes a loopy smile.

"I meant about the biopsy." Mario says.

"Whatever gets us out of here as fast as humanly possible." Luigi says honestly, with a sigh. "I know this isn't ideal."

"Are you kidding?" Mario looks offended by that. "What's one surgery compared to the rest of our lives? What's Bowser and Wario compared to the rest of our lives?"

"I think this mass in my brain might even trump both of them." Luigi says dejectedly.

"Tied for first." Mario compromises, but at Luigi's chuckle, he grabs Luigi's face to pull their foreheads together.

"Hey. Don't you go forgetting you're not fighting this alone, okay? We're all right here with you. Me, Peach, everyone."

Luigi yawns, but quickly backpedals, "Sorry."

"It's okay." Mario strokes his cheeks. "Close your eyes, and when you wake up again, I'll be right here, same as always."

"Promise me." Luigi begs, eyes watering.

"I promise, Weegee." Mario whispers, kissing his forehead. "It's all gonna be okay."

"Alright, we really need to go now." The doctor comes back in.

"Okay." Mario agrees, noticing Luigi's eyes are finally closing.

Gently, he sets him back down on the pillow, whispering in his ear, "Finish the sentence for me: Nothing can hurt us..."

Then he steps back, nodding for the doctor to wheel his brother out.

"Doc?" Mario asks in alarm by the nurse's station when he sees her. "What're you doing out here? What's going on with my brother?"

"Nothing!" The doctor says quickly. "I just don't need to operate yet. Right now Luigi's with the radiologist and anesthesiologist. He's fine."

"Right." Mario nods, seeming to accept that. "Hey, while I got you here, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Do I have something to worry about because of that seizure?" Mario asks, the question weighing on him.

"Something like what? Like if it's an indicator it's a tumor?"

"Exactly." Mario nods.

"Seizures are caused by a lot of things, not just tumors." The doctor assures him.

"But tell me your gut feeling." Mario asks.

"Mario, I understand, okay?" The doctor says. "But you and I both know we can't afford to speculate in this case. When we know, we'll know. And you'll be the first to know when Luigi's out of surgery."

"Your Majesty?" Toad greets in surprise as Peach enters his house. "I would've thought you'd be at the hospital, waiting with Mario to hear about Luigi."

"I will, but I wanted to get your advice on something." Peach says. "Have you ever met their family?"

"Not recently." Toad admits. "Why?"

"Luigi doesn't want them to know what's happening to him." Peach explains. "Nor his surgery."

"I'm not going to tell him, if that's what you're worried about." Toad assures her.

"Good." Peach smiles. "Wanna come with me to the hospital?"

"Do I ever!" Toad cheers, then backpedals. "I mean, not that I'm excited about Luigi's operation, I just...wanna be there for him too."

The empty hospital bed still has an indent from where Luigi was laying. Mario can't stop staring at it as he paces the room, as he's hit with a flashback.

"I remembered the van breaking down, and we ran through the construction site to our first job. I was barely managing to keep up, but you made it a point to double back just so I could, even if it meant opening a gate or laying down a plank."

"You had bad knees. I wasn't gonna make you copy me. I think in a weird way, that may have been the best day of my life."

"Me too. And not because anyone told me about that day. But because of how the whole day made me feel. Excited about our commercial. Nervous because of Francis. Scared because I got sucked into that pipe. Happy, because you promised everything was gonna be okay. And through all of it, all I kept coming back to was the love. That I felt every second we were separated, and then double that when you saved me. It's like those two days I was forced into the shadows, and you brought me back out into the daylight."

As the flashback ends, Mario goes over to fuss with the bed, to distract himself, when he hears the door open.

"Toad?" Mario greets in surprise.

"The princess was going to come too, but she got called away by her duties." Toad explains. "So she sent me on her behalf."

"No worries." Mario waves it off, not really concerned.

"I take it Luigi's not out of surgery yet?" Toad asks, noticing the absence of the green plumber. "How was he before they took him away?"

Mario doesn't want to, but he knows it's not Toad's fault what happened, so he admits, "Bad. He had a seizure right before they wheeled him in. Doc said it's because of whatever's in his brain."

"Oh no." Toad says in shock. "That must've been awful."

"It was." Mario agrees.

"Hey." Toad kicks him lightly. "I know you wanna be there for your brother, but remember we all love Luigi too. We all saw how far you were willing to go to get him back when we first met you."

"Thanks." Mario smiles, despite himself.

"Peach was talking about how she can't wait to see what you guys have planned for your business anniversary." Toad reminds him. "And neither can I."

Mario pulls the little mushroom man into a hug and lets himself cry.