IN THE GREATER SCHEME OF THINGS, NICKY SHOULD HAVE VISITED PRISONS MUCH MORE THAN HE ACTUALLY DID. He was a clinical psychologist, but with his degree he could have easily gone and worked at prisons rather than start up his own practice, or could have become a forensic psychologist and testify in court, or so many other branches of work that would have forced him into a chair opposite a murderer or other person convicted of some crime or another.

Of course, that was just pertaining to his work, not even grazing the fact that his biological father had served life in prison for the murder of his next door neighbors, or that his step-father committed seven armed robberies outside of New York City before getting caught.

He sighed heavily as he signed in and walked towards the metal detector, pulling out all the items in his pockets, tossing them inside and holding his arms out as he was checked to make sure he wasn't bringing anything in.

He wasn't sure if it was his natural openness to listening which naturally drew people to talk to him or because he looked utterly miserable, but the guard actually spoke to him as he was being led to the area where he could talk to his step-brother.

"Who're you coming to see?" the guard asked, "'Cause you look like you're about to get your leg sawed off."

Nicky laughed shortly, unsure of this was even allowed. "I'm coming to see my step-brother, Phineas Mason. My mom's upset that I didn't tell her that he had gotten arrested and that I didn't go to visit him until now."

The guard frowned. "Wasn't he part of the Toomes gang?"

"That what we're calling them?" Nicky asked, raising an eyebrow, "I guess he was then, I don't know. He was always smart, but he was also an idiot. Gotta go hear him out, at least, or let him talk."

"We have people for that," the guard pointed out, pushing open the door for him.

"I'm a clinical psychologist, I could have been one of your people. I feel like he'd be more open to someone he knows, he tends to try and win over strangers." With that, he stepped inside and walked towards the seat he was directed to.

Leaning back, he watched with an unamused expression as his brother was led to the seat across from him. Leaning forward, Nicky grabbed the phone on the side and brought it up to his ear, bracing his elbows against the small table in front of him.

"You're the smartest dumbass I've ever met, you know that?"

Mason flinched at his words and Nicky instantly felt guilty. Glancing down, he mumbled into the phone again, "Sorry, that was mean. But I did warn you."

"I just wanted to take care of my family," Mason pressed, leaned forward as well, "Toomes explained that to you—"

"We don't talk about that," Nicky snapped, trying not to look towards the security or the cameras that were watching them, as well as the devices no doubt recording their conversation, "I didn't agree to it then, I don't agree with it now. I don't do that kind of thing."

Mason opened his mouth to argue, but Nicky silenced him with a sharp look, one he had only used when he was young. "Did you tell anyone else? Besides your group."

The man shook his head quickly. "No, everyone else was either our competition or our consumer, we didn't want to lose any money."

Nicky sighed with relief, swallowing thickly as he nodded. "Okay. Good. God, Phin, what you were thinking, look at you. You had a wife and a kid on the way, now you're stuck in here and she's back living with her mother."

Mason groaned, burying his face in his hands. "I didn't mean for any of that to happen, I just—"

"Well, we don't just weigh everything on intention, Phin. The good has to outweigh the bad for it to work too, and it didn't, okay? Illegal alien tech. You could have done so much better. You ruined lives, Phin, lots of lives, including your own and your boss'," he sighed, pressing his hand against the glass.

"I'm sorry," Mason whimpered, "I didn't mean to."

Nicky sighed as he just looked at his step-brother. They were never friends, hell, there were times when he was sure his mother liked Mason more, even taking on their last name while he was allowed to keep his old one, sending one last 'screw you' to his father. But despite everything, Nicky always knew that his brother wasn't always the best at thinking past what was in front of him, no matter how smart he was.

"I'll come visit you more," he finally said, and he had to admit that even he didn't believe his pitiful excuse for a promise.

"Do you hate me?" Mason asked, just before he was about to stand and put away the phone.

Nicky shook his head. "No, I don't hate you. I mean, you did nearly ruin my life and endangered the life of my roommate and all the people I care about, but that was your boss, not you. Take care of yourself, okay?"

With that, Nicky left.

Forcing himself to not look back, he was escorted back down the hallway, the guard not speaking to him this time around. He silently took all his things and headed for home. But not before opening his phone and reconfiguring some settings, using the device to scramble the audio of his conversation with Mason.

Better safe than sorry.

º º º

Sam liked working for Jennifer. An up-and-coming from Los Angeles who seemed to be hiding things from him, he liked that she was trustworthy enough not to bring him problems, but never asked him questions since he never asked her any of his own. She understood when he went down to D.C. to clear up everything as he of all people shouldn't have been sent away.

He was an American hero, a decorated war veteran, he served the country and the public knew it, General Ross should have known better than to just try and send him away. Of course, he had, but in the end he found his way home. He might be off the radar, but he wasn't out of the woods, but at least he could rest easy knowing that all the other veterans he knew were aware that he was okay.

Jennifer hadn't asked a single question about that, not even when she caught him talking on the phone with multiple people and staring at news articles about himself.

"Green isn't really my color, huh," she said, peering out of her small room in the terribly cramped office, "I'm just asking because my nine o'clock isn't returning my calls."

"Isn't it my job to make sure they're coming?" he asked, looking up from his computer screen to tilt his head, and Jennifer just sighed.

"I know and you know I love you, but she's more comfortable talking to me than to you, and it's not against you, she's just not that confident talking to men, for more than one reason, and I can relate to her better," she explained and Sam nodded easily.

"No need to explain, I understand," he said, and she smiled with relief, disappearing back into her office without another word, only to pop out a second later, "Also, before you came in, there was a message left for you from your sister? And your brother as well, but she was the one talking on the phone, they're dropping by soon, so you can take the rest of the day off."

He frowned, not at the mention of his siblings but rather at the second half of her statement. "I'm your secretary, I leave when you leave."

Jennifer just rolled her eyes. "Sam, you're my friend, and I want you to see your family. From the sounds of it, you haven't seen them in a while."

That was one way to put it. Sam sighed as he tilted his head back, thinking to his older siblings. They had been all each other had after their mother died when he was eighteen and, despite himself, he had distanced himself from them. He had heard that Gideon had taken up their father's practice, which was a nice sentiment; his father wouldn't have been disappointed if none of them had taken up his practice, he was always such an understanding man, more than Sam deserved.

"You have such an interesting face when you're thinking," Jennifer mused, and Sam jumped when he saw she was right by his desk, nearly falling out of his chair. She laughed and, with that, walked back into her small room and shut the door.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It would be nice to see his siblings again, maybe they could go to that bakery they always liked to go to when they had enough money, they always had fun doing that. Hopefully it was still open.

Caught up in his thoughts, he didn't realize the door was opening until he heard it close. Looking up quickly, his heart skipped a beat when he caught sight of two people who looked so different, yet so familiar all at once.

Then the woman spoke. "The fuck did you do, Sam?"

Laughing to choke back a sob, he jumped to his feet and rushed over, pulling his two older siblings into a tight hug. They laughed and hugged him back, all of them just clinging onto each other as if they were kids again.

Sam laughed as he motioned towards the collar tab of his brother's black shirt. "You look just like dad."

It surprised no one when Gideon burst into tears, pulling his brother into another hug. "You have nephews now, you dumbass, where have you been?"

"They tried to take your medals," Sarah added, clinging onto him just as tight, "We kept searching and searching, but you didn't show up, but then we get a call from D.C. saying you're back."

He sighed. "It's a very long story, I can only tell you so much."

"Do you need some place to stay, because our homes are always available," Gideon said, as if Sam wasn't a literal stranger to the whole of either of their families.

"No, I have a place, it's okay," he said, and he smiled when Sarah punched his arm roughly.

"You should have called," she sniffed, "You can't just keep disappearing on us like this, you're all we have. When you were on tour, we didn't know if you—" she swallowed thickly, and he sighed, pulling her into another hug, rubbing her back soothingly as she cried into his shirt.

"Let's go visit mom and dad and I'll tell you what's going on, okay?" he said, nodding to the two of them as Sarah pulled away.

The two nodded, all their hearts aching as they thought to the cemetery where their mother and father's grave sat, unvisited for quite some time. "Okay."

º º º

"Remember how you trained all those pigeons?"

Sam laughed as he cooed, calling a pigeon onto his hand, smiling as it considered for a moment before hopping on, balancing as he carefully stood. "What can I say, I had the touch. Dad always said that it was a gift from God. Like Noah, or something." He winked towards his brother who simply smiled; a preacher now, like his father, Sam couldn't help but draw parallels.

"Remember that hawk that you took care of?" Sarah asked, and Sam's smile faltered as he remembered the original Redwing; he had named his drone in memory of his old friend, and now he had neither.

"You were always doing everything, Snap," Gideon said, and the other two groaned as they remembered Sam's nickname back when he played football in high school.

"I hated that nickname," Sarah said, turning back to her brother, "It always made you sound like you were in the mob, and you stopped being a linebacker in sophomore year, why couldn't they find a better one after you switched."

"It stuck, sis," he said, his voice almost a whine, and Sarah laughed, "Besides, how could I have been in the mob, I was a wonderful soul." He laughed as his sister scoffed and shoved his face.

"You were a little shit," she scoffed, but she was smiling too wide and close to tears, so whatever malice she tried to fake fell short.

His laugh died out as they approached his parents' graves. "I don't know why they never thought so. I called dad an idiot before he died, and he was so nice to me even when I did."

"Because they loved you," Gideon said, coming to stand on his right, Sarah on his left, "And they knew you were gonna grow up to be such a good kid. And look at you now."

He laughed shortly, shaking his head. "I think you're one of the few who still think so."

"Imagine if mom was still around," Gideon said, and they all laughed, "She wouldn't have stopped until she found you, she would have knocked the lights out of that bastard general who came to us."

"Dad wouldn't have tried to stop her," Sarah added, and Sam was laughing so hard that he was crying, though it wasn't as if he wasn't crying before.

"I'm back now," he said, reaching out and pulling them close, "And I'm not going anywhere."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So a lot happened in this story, all centered around siblings, thus the title of Hey Brother which is a call to the song by Avicii.

So Sam has two older siblings, a brother and a sister, and it was said that he raised them after both their parents were murdered on separate occasions (and even then, there's discrepancy on how old he was, so I'm following the one when they died when he was nearing the end of high school). In the comics, Sam's story is very different from his line in the MCU (seriously. it's insanely different) but the MCU makes calls to it (like Redwing the drone is supposed to be Redwing the falcon Sam can telepathically communicate with)

Anyways, so Sam was said to have this criminal past where he was "Snap" Wilson in the mob after his mother died, but it turns out that that was a lie made up by Red Skull to manipulate Sam so he was never in the mob? Or something to that affect, but basically I feel like they omitted that in his MCU character so I am as well.

So basically Snap Wilson is just gonna be his nickname for when he played football, because he's not the one who snaps, but he could have started out to be.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!