2

The first mistake he made when he woke was to try to stretch; his ribs told him that was not what they wanted to do. It was dark; he wondered how long he'd been asleep and whether he could still look forward to a visit from his father. He looked at the clock, noted the time was 2am, and realised he was still dressed.

"OK, John, time to get changed." he told himself. His head was still pounding, and as it was more than four hours since he'd taken the last tablets, he decided to get some more. While in the bathroom he thought he might as well relieve himself so he wouldn't need to get up again. Hopefully, he'd sleep through till morning and the headache would be gone. Sounded a good plan, all he had to do was get back into his room without waking anyone up and try to get back to sleep!

John's plans had a 50/50 chance of working out at the best of times - unfortunately this one didn't. Just as he reached his father's bedroom door, it hit him and his world suddenly became an alien and terrifying place. Everything began to spin - not a gentle, building up gradually sort of spin but a 0 - 20,000 rpm in 0 seconds flat sort of spin and the floor tilted at an alarming angle. He crashed into the door, trying to grab anything that would stop him from falling but failed miserably in his aim. He lay on the floor which was pitching and rolling in an effort to get rid of him, but he wondered that there was an absence of friction as he lay face down on the carpet.

"John!" His father's voice was a mixture of annoyance at being woken and concern for his prostrate son.

"Dad, help me, please! Make this stop, please make it stop" John grabbed hold of his father and held on as though his life depended on it. He tried closing his eyes, thinking maybe that would help, but it didn't. Instead, his father seemed to join him in his spinning universe. He could hear other doors opening and could sense people coming to see what was going on - how come they could stand upright and he couldn't? "Dad, I'm going to be…" he didn't get the chance to finish as he became re-acquainted with the glass of water and two aspirin he'd swallowed a few minutes earlier, and his pyjamas became wet and then cold. Normally John would have been embarrassed by this, but as things were he knew he was dying and really didn't care very much.

"Jeff, you go and get dressed. You and your father can take John to Doctor Jenkins." It was grandma's voice. She was going to send him away to die! No, he didn't want that. He wanted to be with his family!

"Don't leave me dad." he pleaded as he felt his father loosen his grip and pass John over to his grandmother. "Don't want to go dad, please don't send me away. I'll be good, I promise."

"John, we need to find out what's wrong. Scott, would you get a change for John please. Oh and could you get a couple of blankets."

"Sure dad. He is going to be OK, isn't he?" John could hear genuine concern in his brother's voice.

"Don't want anyone to see" John pleaded.

Jeff paused a moment, then scooped his son up in his arms, surprised at how little he weighed, "Bring the things into my room Scott, please. OK, John, I will change you, but it's going to have to be done."

He groaned, he didn't want anyone to see him, especially not his dad, but he wasn't capable of dressing himself. All he really wanted to do was go back to his room and stay there - but he had no say in what was going to happen and he was in no state to fight back. His father placed him on the bed, and John grabbed the sides to stop himself from being thrown off while he waited for his father to finish dressing - then it would be his turn and the full extent of his injuries would be revealed.

Jeff lifted his son and was alarmed to hear him whimper as he tried to raise John's arms to remove his top, but then he felt physically sick when he saw the bruising on his son's torso.

"What has been going on, John?"

"Fell" he muttered. His world was still spinning at an alarming rate as he held onto his father, his anchor.

Jeff decided now wasn't the time to press matters. John; the son who was always there for his brothers whenever they were hurt or upset, who instinctively knew what to say to make people feel better, their peacemaker; no-one had noticed when he had been so very much in need, "Not even me!" Jeff thought bitterly.

He wrapped John warmly in the blankets that Scott had found and prepared to carry him to the pick up. He remembered the last time John had allowed him so close; the day Virgil was born.

"Make it stop, dad. Please."

"We're going to try."

"You won't leave me, will you?"

"I promise you, I won't." Not like then, I left you for a few minutes, but you woke up and thought you'd been abandoned. I will never ever do anything like that to you again.

"I've called Sam, to let him know you're on your way" Jeff's mother said as he carried John down the hall to the stairs and out to the waiting pick up. He paused long enough for his mother to cup John's face in her hands and whisper to him, "You're going to be fine now, don't worry." His mom had said that to him when they were trapped; but it didn't end 'fine' then!

He just wished his world would stop spinning, or at least slow down a bit. He melted into his dad's arms. They knew as much as they were going to. He couldn't let them know any more, he had to protect his family; but as he didn't think he was going to survive whatever was wrong with him, he would take the secret to his grave. Beyond the hissing of his blood flowing in his ears, he could hear his father's heartbeat and that he found strangely comforting. Wriggling his hand from the folds of the blankets, he found his way to his dad's sweater, then felt his dad's larger hand covering his; and a small smile played round the corners of his mouth.

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Sam was waiting for them as they drove up to his clinic.

"Sorry to disturb you at this hour, Sam, but you know how he feels about hospitals and I didn't want to put him through that if I didn't have to."

"No problem, Jeff, here, let me take him." His face changed visibly as he took John from his father and found him to be considerably lighter than he would have expected. "What has been going on here?"

"No idea, Sam, only found out myself tonight. His chest and stomach are badly bruised; it looks as though he's been taking beatings for some time now, gauging by the ages of the bruising. When I asked him about them, he said he fell."

"We'll sort that out later. OK, John, you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Dizzy. I'm gonna be sick 'gain"

Sam and Jeff worked between them to get John upright, but having lost the contents of his stomach earlier, all he managed was dry heaves. It made his ribs ache even more and his head carried on spinning.

"Dad?" Jeff heard the panic in his son's voice.

"I'm here John. I promised I wouldn't leave you, and I haven't" He took his son back from Sam after emerging from the pick up.

"I'm scared dad."

"No need to be son, Sam will take care of you. OK?"

"You won't leave me? Promise you won't…"

"I've already said I won't. I promise you." He carried his son to the Doctor's examination room, cradling him as Sam carried out his investigations. He looked at the bruising on John's chest and stomach, hissing inwards through his teeth as he saw the damage that had been inflicted.

Eventually Sam straightened up, "He has an inner ear infection resulting in vertigo. Most unpleasant, and very frightening, but not fatal. I've taken a swab to check on the cause of the infection, though it's probably viral, in which case it will eventually get better on its own. I'll give him a shot to relieve the nausea, then we'll see if he can cope with tablets. Let him stay here the rest of the night, he can go home in the morning. Let him rest, keep him quiet, "he looked at Jeff's face, "OK, that may be difficult in your house! Try to feed him up. You going to stay with him or do you want to sleep in the spare room?"

Jeff nodded his relief evident in his face "I promised him, I'm not going to leave him alone again." Sam looked at him, puzzled, "Long story"

"We have the rest of the night."

"My dad?"

"Gone back home. Said to call as soon as you knew anything. Said they'd be up."

"Well, better be a good boy then" and he grinned, and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. The call made and his family reassured, Jeff returned to his restlessly sleeping son, gathered him up and once again, John settled into his father's embrace.

"How long is this going to last?"

"May only be a couple of days, could go on for weeks or even months. But hopefully it will sort itself out in a few days."

Jeff brushed the blonde bangs out of John's eyes, "The last time he allowed me to hold him like this was the day Virgil was born." he began, "He'd fallen asleep in my arms. Scott was in with his mom and Virgil. Anyway, I needed to go to the rest room, so I put him down on the settee, and asked a nurse to keep an eye on him. I didn't think he'd wake up, I mean he was sound asleep. He did wake up, though, and screamed blue murder. It was the one and only time I've ever known him throw a tantrum. He'd never let me hold him again not that he hated me or anything, just kept his distance. Then he announced to his mom that as she had a new baby to cuddle, he'd give his share to Virgil, because Virgil was so little he needed the extra ones. Lucy tried telling him there were enough to go round, but John being John…"

"He's a unique young man, and I'm sure one day he'll find a particular niche for his talents."

"What's been happening to my boy, Sam? He wouldn't hurt anyone. Why would anyone want to do that to him? Lucy and I talked about how to educate him, we realised early on he was exceptional. As he got a bit older and it became clear his social skills weren't as developed as his intelligence, we decided he'd be better off with other kids. We knew it would be tough on us; Lucy being here with the boys and me going where ever the work would take me while I was building up the business, but we decided it was better than hauling them all over the country. Guess we were wrong, though. Can't help feeling I've let John down. The others have settled here OK."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I could leave him where he is, try telling Dave McCarthy that my son is being bullied and insist he does something about it, have him home tutored or take the boys back to California with me. I couldn't take just John; he wouldn't leave his brothers behind. Oh heck, let's get him better, and then we'll talk about it as a family."

"Do you think John will allow that - let his brothers know he's being bullied?"

"I don't know, Sam. I don't know what John thinks. Never have, don't suppose I ever will."

"Have you taken the time to find out?"

"And just when am I supposed to do that? Have you any idea how exhausting Gordon and Allan are? If anyone could find out how Allan keeps going they'd solve the world's energy crisis - and Gordon's practical jokes can cause a riot; and I don't mean with laughter!"

"So, you've never discussed Lucy's death, with him then? After all, they were trapped for some hours. Do you know if he was conscious? Was Lucy?"

"No good picking a sore, Sam, it'll never heal that way. I can't bear the thought that maybe she, they were conscious while they were trapped and whether she knew or whether he did that she was dying. It would be too much for a boy his age to cope with."

"You don't want to think about it! But if he had been conscious at all, he wouldn't have that luxury. He'd be trying to cope with it every day, whether or not it's too much for him, and you're refusing to talk about it. Maybe he thinks you resent the fact that he survived and not Lucy."

"Don't be ridiculous, Sam!"

"Try seeing things from his point of view, he was in a coma when his mom was buried; you and the rest of the family had begun your grieving process together. When he came round you had all begun to move on, leaving him very much behind. Jeff, it's obvious the boy is struggling - and I don't mean just the bullying. You're going to have to put your feelings to one side and think about what John needs, after all he does it for everyone else; time to return the compliment." He paused, "You know something? I'm getting a dry mouth with all this talking, want some coffee?"

"What about you getting some sleep? I'll stay here with John."

"You've obviously never read the list of requirements for a country doctor, have you? Insomnia is top of the 'additional' list! Besides, we need to plan our campaign."

"Campaign?"

"Let's get John Tracy back on track campaign."

Jeff moved, setting John back onto the bed.

"Dad?" he whispered miserably.

"I'm here, son. You rest now, I'm not going anywhere. Doc says you can go home later."

"OK"

"And no listening in to adult conversation, young man!" Sam Jenkins added.

"Is it going to be interesting?" John asked sleepily.

"Nope"

"Wont bother, then. Night."