Nate and Ricky jumped nervously at the sudden sound of Ethan's voice. After being awake for as long as he had been, they had expected that he would be asleep for days. He had only slept for a couple of hours, though.

Lucas looked at them incredulously and said, "How can this be? Go check on him. Maybe he is talking in his sleep…"

​​

Nate and Ricky went in the direction of where Ethan had been sleeping, and when they opened the door, they found him sitting up on the couch. He was in the middle of a yawn when they walked in and saw them, he laughed. He looked at Nate and said, "It looks like you were right. I feel so much better after having had that nap!"

"I am glad that you are feeling better," Nate replied, "but I think you need more sleep than that. If you don't take care of yourself, you are just going to collapse again, and the next time it could be a lot worse. You were very lucky that you had such a clean fall. What if you'd bashed your head on the corner of the desk? What if I hadn't been there to ensure that you were okay? I am afraid for your safety!"

Ethan looked Nate up and down. After this quick appraisal, he said, "I appreciate your concern, but you are not my mother, and I am not your child. Any risk that I take is within my right to take. Furthermore, don't you know that I wouldn't be able to sleep even if I tried to sleep? Even awake, my imagination runs wild. I have envisioned every possible road that could have led to Kylie's present status, and none of them are pretty. Don't you see that, even now, I do not know if she is alive or dead – and you want me to relax and take a nap as if everything was hunky-dory? Fuck off!"

Nate looked Ethan in the eyes and said, "Let's settle this the old fashioned way. We should fight. If you win, even in your weakened state, then you will have proven your strength and ability to carry on; and I will let the matter alone. However, if I should win, you must agree to go to sleep and stay asleep for at least twenty-four hours. You are bigger and stronger than me. If I can beat you, then you will have to admit how badly you actually need to rest."

Nate offered Ethan his hand. "Is it a deal?"

Ricky looked at Nate as if he'd gone insane, but he said nothing.

Ethan grinned as he shook Nate's hand. "I like the way you think," he said as he stood up. After rolling up his sleeves, he chugged a bottle of water and invited Nate to come at him.

Nate went into a rough boxer's stance with his right side leading the left. Once he was within striking distance, he shot his fist out in the direction of Ethan's face. He had hoped to break his nose right away. If he could accomplish that, he knew that his chances of winning would go way up. Stephen saw it coming through, and he blocked it easily, which threw Nate off balance and opened him up to a punch in the gut from Ethan.

Pain fired through Nate's body as he bent forward. He was wheezing, and he was trying to catch his breath. Even with his eyes as foggy as they were suddenly, he could see the cockiness in Ethan's eyes. He knew that Ethan could finish him off any time that he wanted, except he was biding his time. He was giving Nate the change to recover his breath and stand up straight. He was giving Nate a second chance.

After a few minutes, Nate recovered enough to find his boxer's stance once again. This time he decided that he would wait for Ethan to come to him. Seeing what he was up to, Ethan stepped into an Aikido stance. Once that was established, his front foot slid forward, his body did a complete 180, and he caught Nate off guard with his hind leg.

Nate fell backward, and he rose up against his hands in protest. "No fair," he cried. "I didn't know that you knew Aikido."

"Of course, it's fair," Ethan chuckled. "You were the one who challenged me to a fight. Do you give?"

Just then, Ricky stepped forward. He looked at Ethan and said, "Nate did not know what he was up against. I would like to be allowed to take his place. Would you allow it?"

Ethan nodded, and as soon as Nate had crawled to safety, this new fight began. Even though Ricky was a lot better suited to fight Ethan, under normal conditions, Ethan could have beaten him easily. Even now, with Ethan in this weakened state, it was close. Ethan knew how to fight better than anyone that he'd ever known, and he had the stamina that seemed to know no end.

Ethan and Ricky had been fighting for over an hour, and still, there was no clear winner. Watching on, Nate was worried that it might go on forever. His fears were alleviated when the door opened, and a slew of Ricky's men barged into the room. Seeing them, Ethan punched Ricky in the throat – something he wouldn't normally do – and Ricky collapsed to the floor.

Turning back to the men, Ethan sighed and said, "If I must fight you all in order to prove my competence, bring it on!"

The men looked at each other nervously, and then they attacked.

Ethan was normally a gentleman. When he fought, he never fought dirty – except when he absolutely had to. Ricky had been dirty to sick his men on him, so he'd brought their fight to a quick end by punching him in the throat. Ricky had sicced ten men on him, and ten against one was not fair, so he began to fight in ways that he normally wouldn't have. When the first guard came at him, Thomson kicked him in the balls, and when he bent forward in pain, he smashed the man's face with his knee.

Ricky watched as, one by one, Ethan took down his men. Finally, when there were only five of them left standing, he looked up and said, "The one who takes down Ethan can marry my sister!"

In the beginning, Ricky and Nate had set out to help Ethan, but now it had become personal. They no longer wanted to help him. Now they wanted to hurt him.

The man closest to Nate looked down at him, frowned, and said, "If the only way to win your sister's heart is to defeat Ethan, I am afraid that she will grow to be a lonely spinster…"

Hearing this, Ricky felt his rage grow inside him, and he was able to find a reserve of strength that he hadn't known existed inside of him. Ethan was busy fighting one of Ricky's peons, so he was completely ignorant of the fact that Ricky had found his feet again.

Grinning, Ricky waited for the opportune moment to strike his opponent.