"What is going on with Alan dad?" Virgil looked at his father confusion clear on his face.
"Does this have anything to do with him waking up screaming and crying the other night?" Gordon lifted his gaze up towards his father. He felt like his heart plummeted into his stomach as he watched his dad nod at him.
"Yes Gordon." Jeff confirmed for his second youngest son.
"What happened?" Gordon could sense that whatever it was wasn't going to be good news.
"Your brother…he was…" Jeff began, he really didn't want to say aloud what his youngest son experienced.
"He was what dad?" Virgil caught on and instantly felt concern.
"Your brother was…a…" Jeff started again but couldn't say it.
"Allie was abused." John muttered as he by this time had buried his head in his upturned hands – not wanting to see his younger brother's reactions to the news. "He was kidnapped, sold and abused."
"He…what?" Virgil's head snapped over to glare at John, not believing his ears.
"He was abused…the man and woman who bought him also abused him and another boy that lived with them." John groaned, not lifting his head from his hands.
"How?" Virgil knew of the types of abuse there was out in the world – he'd learned about it in health class.
"…" John couldn't say, he couldn't voice what happened to his little brother.
… … … … … … …
Scott turned from his laptop as he heard a timid knock sound off on his door.
"Come in." Scott called as he turned his chair to face whoever was at the door. His face changed to surprise as a small blonde head poked in the doorway. "Hey Alan, what's up?"
"Where are sir and the others?" Alan ducked his head as he refused to make eye contact with Scott.
"Uh…dad wanted to debrief the last mission International Rescue went on." Scott smoothly fibbed to Alan.
"Oh…how come you aren't there then?" Alan tilted his head in question. As far as he knew Scott was at every debrief…but then Gordon wasn't in International Rescue, he was only sixteen.
"I didn't go on the mission." Scott looked away so Alan couldn't detect the lie.
"Oh…" Alan looked down at the floor in embarrassment.
"Hey Alan, come here a second bud." Alan looked up when Scott spoke but shook his head with an mistrusting look on his face. "Oh come on buddy, I just want to show you something."
Alan shook his head once more and Scott sighed.
"Alan, I'm your brother…I'm not going to hurt you. Feel free to leave the door open if you'd like, but I can tell you now I won't hurt you."
Alan looked behind him to see if he noticed anybody walking around through the hall before looking back toward Scott. Stepping lightly Alan pushed the door open, using one of Scott's discarded shoes to prop it open before walking into the large bedroom. Approaching Scott slowly as if he was walking toward a caged animal, Alan came closer until he was a couple feet away. He was just out of arms reach.
"Okay, what did you want to show me?" Alan inquired, mistrust tainting his tone.
"I wanted to show you this soap box derby car." Scott reached over onto his dresser and grabbed the little wooden car. "Do you remember helping me put this together at all?"
Alan looked at the car and shook his head. He had no memory of helping Scott build that.
"You were about four years old. I was part of an after school group that did various activities – one of which was to help the local Boy Scout troop build little wooden soap box cars. Gordon was a boy scout at the time and he refused to enter his soap box car into the race because he thought it was ugly. He'd left his car out in the driveway after trying to test its speed on a couple of homemade ramps and dad accidently drove over it when he was backing out of the driveway." Scott chuckled slightly. "Gordy was so upset. He threatened to drop out of boy scouts because he didn't have a car to race."
Alan tilted his head in genuine curiosity. Scott's story had drawn Alan in.
"I'd stayed up until after midnight working on a new body for Gordy's new car. Grandpa taught me how to wittle wood, so I hand carved the car for Gordy. You woke up around three because you had some business to take care of and you came into the kitchen thinking dad was in there instead of me because you thought dad would give you a cookie as a midnight snack." Scott chuckled, his laughter rumbling deep in his chest. "You just about cried when you found it was me in the kitchen and not dad."
Alan glared at Scott. The oldest brother's laughter rumbled deeper in his chest at the look Alan gave Scott.
"Anyway, I snuck a cookie out of the cookie jar for you and I to share and you spilled the paint all over the newspaper I had spread out on the table. You got your hands covered in it and I hadn't realized you had paint on your hands until I let you hold the car for Gordy." Scott quit laughing to smile at Alan. "Anyway I freaked over the paint covering the car in little green fingerprints, but the next morning Gordy found the car sitting on the table and loved it. He raced it the following afternoon and won second place. He was ecstatic over the win."
"Really?" Alan inquired, and he smiled when Alan came closer to hold the car.
"Mm-hmm. None of us knew you were the tiny artist in the family, Gordy loved your little green fingerprints over the tiger stripes I'd painted. He called your little finger prints his lucky charm." Scott handed the car over to Alan and smiled at seeing the little boy look at the car in awe.
"So if it's Gordon's car, how come you have it?" Alan inquired.
"I snagged it from a box of stuff to donate after you were kidnapped. Gordon cried every time he saw the car that you painted and he didn't want the reminder, so he tried to get rid of it – but I salvaged it and hid it for several years before I pulled it out and put it on display." Scott replied, his voice quavering slightly. "Just seeing this little car made me want to cry each time I saw it because I remembered how excited you were after watching it win second in the race."
Alan turned the car over in his hands and noticed the initials S.T. and A.T. carved into the bottom with Gordon's scrawled handwriting right next to the carvings with the words 'are the best brothers ever'.
"Did you know Gordon wrote on the car?" Alan turned the car and showed it to Scott whose eyes misted over at seeing the heartfelt words written on the bottom.
"I knew he'd written it on the car, but I had forgotten what he'd written." Scott accepted the car back from Alan and looked at the little oblong piece of wood which resembled a drag racing car. "What do you say we go grab a couple of pieces of wood and build some ramps to test this baby out?"
Alan glanced up with a look of surprise and seemed as though he would shake his head no, but at the last minute nodded as a huge smile broke out on his face. Scott stood up and followed Alan as he hobbled out of the bedroom.
… … … … … … …
"Now that I think you boys have now been brought up to speed, I want your solemn oath that you will never – ever bring any of this conversation up to Alan. No matter how mad you get at him, or how much anything he says or does hurts your feelings; I want you boys to prove to me that your earlier promise that you'd be quiet about this to stick true." Jeff looked at his son's wanting their word that they'd keep quiet about this topic of conversation.
"You have my word dad." Virgil blew out a harsh breath of air. The news that had been bestowed upon Gordon and Virgil by John and their father was mind boggling. It was hard for Virgil to digest that his baby brother had been abused in practically every form imaginable.
"Gordon? Do I have your word that you won't mention this to your brother?" Jeff looked expectantly over at the redhead, taking in his pinched facial features. The boy gulped and nodded silently, seemingly having swallowed his tongue. His face was pale and his eyes were wide and shining with unshed tears after learning what his baby brother had dealt with. Now he understood why it was that Alan seemed wary of him and his brothers all except for John.
"Yes sir, I understand." Gordon nodded before he stood to leave. His mouth barely moved as he continued to speak. "May I be excused sir?"
Jeff could see the pain on Gordon's face and in his actions and knew the boy was indeed hurting. For six years all he dealt with was a few school kids picking on him for his stark red hair while Alan was pushed around, starved, beaten, verbally and mentally abused and so much more. For eleven years old, Alan had already lived a much more difficult life than any of his brothers combined.
"Yes Gordon, you may be excused." Jeff watched as Gordon walked from his father's office with his head hung low sadness and dejection clear.
"Thank you." Gordon could only muster a few words before he pulled his father's office door closed, and running down the hall as he attempted to not be seen when he was so upset.
Meanwhile Jeff, Virgil and John all continued to sit in the office in silence until they heard a fair amount of joyful noise coming from outside. Turning his chair to glance outside, Jeff couldn't stop the smile as he watched Scott running around outside just off the deck with Alan clinging to his back. Scott looked like a big kid running around with his arms out to the side as though he was a plane.
"I wonder how Scott did it." Jeff voiced his curiosity.
"I'd already explained to Scott what had happened to Alan." John supplied as he stood beside his father to watch Scott and Alan play outside. "Alan looks like he's having a blast."
"He does…doesn't he?" Jeff marveled at Scott's ability to get Alan to come out of his shell enough to play with his big kid of an older brother.
… … … … … … …
"Come on Scott! Come on!" Alan goaded Scott to go faster as he ran them up a hillside where their makeshift ramp had been built.
"I'm going little buddy." Scott panted as he felt his strength waning. Alan may look light, but he was in fact quite heavy especially with the walking boot adding maybe an additional five or more pounds. Coming to a stop right near the lip of the cliff, Scott lowered to the ground and pressed his forehead into the smooth rock. "I'm so done Sprout."
Alan slid from Scott's shoulders and waited for his brother to catch his breath. Scott flopped onto his back beside Alan who was sitting on a small boulder with his bad foot stretched out in front of himself. When Scott managed to catch his breath he rolled over to lay on his stomach and Alan reached out tentatively to poke Scott's face with his index finger.
"Are you going to live Scott?" Alan asked, his voice small.
"Yeah, just need to rest a minute before I run another marathon." Scott rolled over again except he propped up on his elbow. "Hey Alan?"
"Yeah?" Alan held up the car that Scott carved and closely inspected it.
"Are you happy to finally be home?" Scott hoped he wasn't walking in dangerous territory, but he really did want to know.
Alan lowered the car and looked off into the horizon as he tried to work out his answer. Of course he was happy being home, but…he didn't feel like he belonged. He thought he belonged the first couple hours of being home then when he woke up the following morning everything changed. His dad and older brothers treated him different.
John was the only one who seemed to treat Alan like normal, having gotten to know the younger boy much earlier than their dad and brothers. Scott was guilty of it too as was everyone with the exception of John that would remove a heavy book from Alan's hands and carry it for the boy if he didn't feel like retrieving his crutches in favor of hopping on one foot to get around. They'd smothered him and made Alan resort to practically gluing himself to John's left hip in order to be treated normal.
Looking over at Scott, Alan knew he was expecting an answer. Nodding his head silently, Alan reassured Scott even if he sadly didn't agree with what he'd admitted as truth. It wasn't a lie per se yet it wasn't the truth either. Yes he was happy to be home with his real family, but he wished he hadn't felt like such an outsider. At least with Pastor Woods and Mrs. Woods, the two of them insisted on tucking in their foster children, even if it meant gathering into one of their bedrooms and sitting on the edge of their beds as they said their evening prayers as a family unit. The only one who even followed up on that routine was John who enjoyed just chatting with Alan even if it was just a reminder to come to his room across the hall if he couldn't sleep or needed to talk.
"Well, that's good to hear Sprout." Scott grinned as he finally got to use the nickname he'd christened his baby brother with when he was just a tiny baby. "Now what do you say we get this baby going and see how fast she flies?"
"Yep!" Alan eyes closed in excitement and his smile shone brightly. Kneeling onto the ground, Alan placed the car onto the bit of ramp that he and Scott built out of things from the scraps of junk destined to go to the junkyard. Scott crawled over and joined Alan by the start of the ramp. Both brothers placed a hand on the car and pulled it back like it was preparing to leave the starting gate.
"On the count of three Al…one – two…three!" Scott counted down before lifting Alan's hand from on top of the car and watching as the little car flew down the hill.
Both Alan and Scott cheered as the car raced down the hill, taking the curves and jumps like an actual experienced driver sat behind the wheel. When the car came to a stop at the bottom, it was by Gordon's feet who had stepped outside after hearing Scott and Alan whooping and hollering from the top of the hill. Looking down he saw the little car he'd swore he'd gotten rid of not long after Alan had been kidnapped.
Looking up, Gordon found he was unable to mask the hurt on his face. It hurt to see the little car again, despite having Alan back and seeing it bring a smile onto his baby brother's face. Turning, Gordon ran down towards the beach – wanting to get far away from Alan, Scott, the memories and especially the car. Alan and Scott watched Gordon's face fall, before Scott ran after Gordon when the redheaded teenager ran away.
Alan's shoulders slumped in disappointment at being left alone. Not only was he kind of trapped on a very steep hill, but he felt terrible. He didn't think Gordon would have gotten so mad over seeing the little car again, but obviously Scott forgot to tell Gordon that he'd kept the car. Feeling even more like a heel, Alan stood up unsteadily and limped away in the direction opposite to where Scott and Gordon had gone.
… … … … … … …
"Gordon!" Scott cupped a hand around his mouth and called for his little brother. He wanted to apologize to him…for hurting him. He hadn't meant to hurt the redhead, especially since he'd broken his promise to never make Gordon have to look at the car ever again. When he'd initially rescued the little car from the box of rubbish to be donated, Scott had hidden it from Gordon – not wanting it to be stolen or broken because it brought back painful memories. "Please come out Gordo! I'm sorry!"
… … … … … … …
Gordon sat on a little shelf overlooking the ocean. It was just barely big enough for Gordon to sit on, but he'd managed to find it and use it as a hiding place when he fled from his older brothers after pranking them. He could hear Scott calling for him, but he didn't feel ready to talk to Scott. He was mad that Scott broke his promise. It wasn't fair. That was originally his car, who was Scott to take it and hang onto it when Gordon wanted to dispose of it?
… … … … … … …
John and Virgil were in the gaming room challenging each other to a game of billiards…it wasn't unusual for the boys to know how to play it at their age as their dad enjoyed a game or two before he unwound for the evening. When the door opened and Scott stuck his head into the room, both Virgil and John were surprised to see a sheen of sweat slicking Scott's forehead.
"Scott, what's wrong?" John laid his billiards stick down and walked towards his brother.
"I can't find Gordo…he ran away earlier after Alan and I ran a lap with that little derby car." Scott ran his fingers through his hair and looked around in bewilderment. "I need your help to find him and apologize to him, please!"
Virgil followed John's lead and lay his billiards cue down before following his two older brothers from the room to go look for Gordon.