Protecting and babied, those were two things Jake was pretty good at by now. Usually it came with a heaping helping of playful teasing, jokes about kissing the boo-boos better, embarrassing Finn into shoving him away and teasing him back. Now, not so much. The barrier was down and sincerity rushed in, tightening his grip on Finn in the process.

Maybe he had Jermaine to thank for that? The thought curls up around his stomach, squeezing a little.

"Would that be so bad? Slowing down on the hero stuff?" Jake asks, surprised by the words as soon as they came out of his mouth. Was this still Jermaine in his head? He couldn't help but think back to his own crisis not too long ago, the way his brother had walked him back to himself... Damnit, even when he was a hundred miles away and Jake was pissed at him, Jermaine still managed to be the wisest guy in the room. "You're not locked in forever. If you want to make a change, you can."

It was then that Jake caught a glimpse of Finn's face -- his red face, wet with tears and snot and looking as if his heart might break in half if Jake continued down the road he was on much longer.

"--But," Jake course corrected, not missing a beat, "I'm positive there's a solution to this. We just have to keep trying. Now that I know, we can work together on it. No supercharged hero-yips are gonna stand a chance against you n' me, and that's a fact."