Hello, everyone! This chapter offers some bonding between Dawn and the boys, and it delves a little deeper into the clueless, confused Dicky we see on the show and offers an alternative reason for his low IQ and involves his siblings caring for him and accepting him for the way he is.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

WARNINGS: NONE

CHAPTER 14: OF PROTECTIVE BROTHERS

Episode: Piggy, Piggy, Piggy, and Dawn

"So are we ever going to tell Dawn the truth?" Dicky asked.

The three male quadruplets were sitting in their bedroom. Dicky was sitting on the floor and leaning against Ricky's bunk while Nicky lounged on his own mattress above Dicky. Ricky was sitting on the floor and leaned against his desk with his ankles crossed and his arms resting on his lap.

Ricky barked a laugh. "No way! She'd never understand."

"So her being mad at us is better than telling her we were actually just being protective?" Dicky asked, clueless and confused.

"No," Nicky muttered, "but she'll be mad at us either way, so…"

"Why would she be mad at us for protecting her?" Dicky asked, more puzzled than ever.

Ricky sighed and sat up straighter to look Dicky in the eye.

"Dicky… Dawn doesn't like us butting into her life. We all know that. So if we tell her that we told Mac to back off because we didn't want to risk her getting hurt and not because of puppet rehearsal, she'll be mad because we butted into her life. She's already mad because we all voted against her. No reason to pour gasoline on that fire."

"But… doesn't gasoline make a fire bigger?" Dicky asked.

Ricky sighed. Dicky must be having a 'bad' day.

You see, Dicky was born with multiple learning disabilities, including ADD, dyslexia, and compression issues (and that was just the tip of the ice berg). To many people, Dicky was seen as a clueless but fun kid; he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, but he made up for it in his wonderful personality. His family saw him the same way, but while others saw Dicky as dumb, his siblings and parents knew the truth. Dicky was smart, but he was slow, and that was okay. On his 'bad' days, though, when his learning and comprehension issues were particularly bad, it could take Dicky several minutes to comprehend a single sentence. His family didn't judge him for it; they didn't get irritated or fed up, like so many others did. They were very patient with him, and Dicky was very thankful for that.

"Yes, Dicky, gasoline makes a fire bigger. When I'm trying to say is that… Dawn is already angry. There's no reason to make her angrier. Telling her about us butting into her life would be like pouring gasoline on a fire and making it bigger."

"Wait… Dawn's on fire?!" Dicky exclaimed.

Ricky sighed before he helped Dicky stand and escorted the bewildered boy to his bed.

On Dicky's bad days, his brain became frazzled, and he became disoriented, frighteningly so. When Dicky was younger and it first started happening, their parents were worried he might be having seizures, but luckily, that wasn't the case. It was just a symptom of a mixture of learning disabilities that Dicky had. It was basically foggy brain taken to a whole new level, and rest was always the best medicine for it.

"Why don't you take a little nap, Dicky?" Ricky smiled as he helped Dicky lay down.

"Is he having one of his bad days?" a voice asked, and Ricky turned to see Dawn standing in the doorway.

Ricky nodded. "Yeah. He'll be okay after a nap, though, and he'll be even better after he takes his medication later tonight."

Ricky waited until Dicky had fallen asleep (which didn't take long. On his bad days, he was especially tired, which was another reason his parents believed that he was having seizures) before standing up and heading to his desk to do his homework.

"I heard," Dawn said, randomly.

Ricky frowned. "Heard what?"

"Your conversation. I didn't mean to ease drop, but… did you really yell at Mac to protect me and not because you were mad?" Dawn asked.

Ricky sighed before glancing at Nicky, who climbed down from his bunk.

Nicky nodded. "Yeah…"

"You didn't have to do that. Mac's a good guy," Dawn reasoned.

Nicky laughed. "Dawn, you could have a crush on the nicest person on the planet, and we'd still be protective of you. You're our sister. It's our job."

Dawn laughed. "I guess it is, but just so you know… I'm not mad at you for being protective of me. I'm not even mad about you butting into my life."

Ricky gaped. "You're not?"

Dawn shook her head. "I'm still mad that you keep voting against me and that you won't listen to me, but I'm not mad at you for being protective."

Ricky pursed his lips. "I can understand why you'd be mad about that… why don't we make a compromise? Instead of doing the classic fairy tales, why don't we combine them and make our own idea?"

Dawn nodded. "I'd like that."

"Goldilocks And The Three Little Pigs, it is!" Nicky exclaimed, quietly to avoid waking Dicky.

"We didn't even need voting," Ricky chuckled.

Dicky stirred. "What's happening?" he muttered, still disoriented.

Dawn sat on the edge of his bed. "Nothing, Dicky. You just try to get some rest, and when you wake up, we'll be right here to check on you. Oh, and guys?"

"Yeah?" Nicky replied.

"Thanks," she said. "Mac's a good guy, but it's good to know that if a bad guy ever comes along, you'll be right there to protect me."

"Quadug!' Dicky giggled, still foggy headed, but the disorientation was starting to wear off, and with more rest, it would disappear entirely within the next few hours. His siblings were grateful for that; it hurt to see their brother so confused, like he barely knew where he was. Luckily, the disorientation rarely lasted longer than a few hours.

The siblings embraced.

"You're the best little brothers I could ask for," Dawn said, and for once, Ricky didn't point out that he was only younger by four seconds.

"Well, you're the best sister we could ask for," Ricky stated. "It only seemed fair that we did something for you after all you do for us."

Dicky does not have a learning disability on the show (or at least they never revealed that) and what happened to Dicky with the disorientation and such does not happen to every kid with learning disabilities; in fact, it probably doesn't happen to the majority of them. I've had what happened to Dicky happen to me (I don't have a learning disability, though. I have a hard time comprehending stuff sometimes, and when you combine that with my anxiety, it caused that frazzled brain, disorientation episode that Dicky had, but I kind of shaped that to fit Dicky). I just thought I was an interesting idea that could apply to Dicky and would help bring some extra sibling bonding into the story.

Thanks for reading! Bye, everyone! Please review!