Summary: What if the 'Therapist' episode had ended differently? Hal had remembered to put his break on, the boys couldn't prove that they were innocent, and the Physiatrist spoke to Lois and Hal about Malcolm being sent away.

Disclaimer: Whoever owns Malcolm in the Middle owns Malcolm in the Middle; I own nothing. There will be no other disclaimers in this story, simply because I'm lazy. This counts for all.

AN: Woo... I updated! ;) I have a new lease of life in MitM...

...

"But he didn't-"

"I didn't!"

"You can't-"

"He's our brother!"

"Just like with Francis-"

"Why would you-"

"I hate you-"

"Believe him not us-"

"We never-"

"I hate you-"

"I'll phone Francis-"

"How could you-"

...

Lois wondered numbly if she was in hell.

But where was the fire? Where were the screams? But actually... this was worse.

Because her house was never silent.

It was full of bad sounds usually, screams of anger, of pain, of terror, stomping boots of resignation and the washing machine whirring, whirring, whirring in the background.

She'd deny it till the day she died, but Lois preferred it that way.

Now there was silence.

No. That wasn't true.

If she strained her ears, she could hear soft words and (that couldn't be) was Malcolm crying? Unaware of her body moving, Lois had creeped to her door, trying not to make a sound, as she heard snatches of the words, of the screams and the hushing noises.

"I'm so sorry... you're my brother... you can't..."

"Please don't go Malcolm... please... just tell mum sorry..."

And Malcolm was crying.

It gave Lois the most horrible sense of nostalgia, as she remembered almost exactly the same thing happening when she had told the boys that Francis was leaving. Dewey was so small, he didn't realise what was going on. Malcolm had begged Francis not to go. Reese had been the one crying that time, and now it was Malcolm. That was one difference. But Francis too had stayed silent, dry choking noises coming out of his throat once in a while.

But Lois had done it before.

Lois had done it before.

And it hurt just as much as she remembered.

...

Francis had his turn at the phone, finally.

People at the academy had ended up enjoying his calls home, so that tonight he had quite the audience waiting to hear the voices of Lois, Hal, Malcolm, Dewey and Reese. They all had seen pictures, learned things about his brothers little piece of information at a time, and soon they grew almost as fond of his siblings as Francis himself was.

Almost.

He punched in the number quickly.

He put the phone on speaker.

He heard the rings.

Finally, someone picked up.

"Hello?" The voice sounded thick, and it took Francis a moment to place it.

"Reese? It's Francis."

Heavy breathing came down the line.

"Reese?"

Silence.

When Francis was about to yell into the phone in panic, Reese spoke again, after a barely audible thump was heard on the other side of the phone, like someone sitting down.

"Francis? Oh god, Francis..." Reese sounded raw. Like someone had rubbed his voice box with sandpaper. Everyone was looking alarmed now; something big had happened. Something huge. Monumental. Because everybody knew big, interesting things happened at the Wilkerson house practically every day. But Reese had never sounded as broken.

Francis had only known Reese this broken once before.

"Please, Francis, don't leave! Please... please... I need you here, I'm never going to be anything... I can't be the oldest... please don't go..."

"They've gone mad..."

It was obvious who they were.

"What have they done," People launched back. They had never actually heard Francis this angry. They had seen him shout and scream and yell about the monstrosities of life and the unfairness of punishments for menial things, but his whole body was shaking in anger, voice laced with venom, knuckles with a white hot grip on the phone.

"Tell me, dammit!"

"They're gonna send him away..."

"Who? Who? SPEAK TO ME!"

"Malcolm."

Shock reigned through the room. Malcolm. Malcolm. The problem solver. The genius. The middle child.

"Tell me everything."

...