Virgil refuses to leave Gordon's room, and he won't let his father in.
Jeffs starting to regret ever agreeing to this. Neither Virgil, Gordon or Scott will speak to him, and Gordon will not come out of his room. It's been three days, Scott takes them meals, smoothies for Gordon as he still won't eat solid food, and neither of them will go back to school.
"A smoothie Scott?" John questions him.
"It is for Gordon, he's not eating and I need to make sure he gets some kind of nutrition or he will end up in hospital being force fed" Scott tells him.
"Spoilt brat" John replies. Rolling his eyes and walking away.
Scott ignores him, he knows that Gordon needs help.
The morning of the fourth day, Jeff has reached the end of his patience. This sulking has gone on long enough. Throwing open the door to Gordon's bedroom he finds Virgil at Grodons desk using his computer, Gordon is lying on the bed.
"What are you doing Virgil?" He asks.
Gordon looks round at the noise, his face filled with fear. A fear Jeff can't stand seeing.
"Googling how to get custody of Gordon and Alan so you can't do his to one of them ever again. Jeff" Virgil tells him spitting out his name with disgust.
"Don't be disrespectful Virgil and don't be ridiculous you can't get custody of your brothers, you're only 12!" His dad reminds him.
Virgil rolls his eyes at him and returns to the screen.
"Virgil get out I want to speak to your brother. Alone." Jeff tells him.
"Absolutely not! Not without me. I am not leaving him alone with you" Virgil insists.
"Give me 5 minutes. Please Virg" Jeff pleads with him.
"Nope. Not leaving Jeff. What you have to say to him you can say in front of me" Virgil tells him.
"DON'T CALL ME JEFF!" His father shouts at him.
Causing Gordon to startle and flee the room.
"Now look what you have done! I'm going after him before he does something stupid." Virgil tells him following Gordon down the stairs.
Knowing his brother as well as he does it doesn't take him long to track him down. Hiding under the porch. His face is buried in his arms and he's trembling from a combination of fear and the cold.
"It's okay. I won't let him touch you again we are going to find a way to get away from him. As soon as I turn 16 we are moving out. I will get a job to support you through school and it won't be one run by old bellend. I'm going to keep you safe from now on. I promise" Virgil tells him.
Gordon hasn't said a word in 4 days. He raises his head from his arms and allows Virgil to lead him back inside.
Luckily for Virgil's temper Jeff got the message and is not in the room when he gets back.
Jeff is finally starting to realise that this is not a case of his kids sulking.
"Mom, I think he might be in shock can you try for me, because if he doesn't snap out of this I'm going to have to take him to the hospital aren't I?" He asks. A sickened guilt is creeping across him now.
*TB*
Grandma tries, after supper which tonight was cooked by Scott. Which will hopefully give them a bit more time to calm down. She takes up the smoothie Scott prepared for Gordon, and a plate of lasagne for Virgil.
"Virgil your dad wants to talk to you, please go down to the office. I will stay here with Gordon."
"Nope. I don't trust you either." He tells her. "You're just as bad as Jeff."
"Virgil!" She warns.
"Grandma" He replies sarcastically.
"Look just give your dad 5 minutes. You need to talk to him. Please" she pleads with him.
"Why?! I asked him to stop. He didn't. He just carried on hurting him. I begged him grandma, and he refused to listen. You weren't there. You have no idea what that was like. He broke him worse than that bloody car and I am not forgiving him. Ever. Jeff is not my father." Virgil tells her.
"He is Virgil. You get your stubbornness from him! Will it help if I told you about the times your dad messed up?" She asks.
She sits down on the bed sliding Gordon onto her lap, one arm wrapped around the broken child, he doesn't fight her embrace, placing his head on her chest.
She holds open her other arm for Virgil who settles down next to her, Gordon's legs rested on his.
"When he was 15 years old he and your uncle Lee broke into their school in the middle of the night and bubble wrapped everything in the Principals office, and got caught only because he accidentally dropped his wallet on the floor while he was running away!"
Virgil laughs. "How come we have never heard this story before?"
"That's nothing the night before his high school graduation he changed the music for the ceremony to that old ludicris song, move bitch get out the way! Very nearly didn't graduate for that one."
Gordon's lack of reaction concerns her, as he still lies limply in her arms, his eyes staring blankly at Virgil. She knows she needs to talk to him.
"Virgil, can you give me 5 minutes alone with your brother. I just want to talk to him."
Reluctantly Virgil gets up. "I'm going to wait outside the door. Gordon if you need me scream and I will be right back in okay?"
He nods but doesn't say a word.
"Talk to me Gords, tell me how you're feeling, I know you've been through a rough time. You need your family around you right now. Please don't shut down, I know you're struggling to deal with what happened but this family needs you"
She's using the hand that isn't holding him to wipe the fresh tears from his cheeks. Realising she should have taken this seriously three days ago and not like his father, assumed he was just sulking.
"It's Sunday tomorrow. How about a trip to the pool?" She asks him desperately. The only thing he's powerless to resist.
Biting his lip nervously he shakes his head even turning down his favourite activity.
Virgil is standing outside the door timing her 5 minutes when he is joined by John.
"Scab still sulking?" He asks him smirking.
"He's not sulking John he's hurting, deeply hurting. Maybe you could try spending time with him? He needs serious help. Between losing mom, the car accident and now having Jeff beat the crap out of him he isn't coping. He hasn't spoken a single word in 4 days" Virgil tells him.
"Seriously?! He's sucked you in hard Virgil. He's just tying to gain your sympathy because he's embarrassed he cried in front of old bellend, and doesn't want to go back to school". John tells him.
"You're an insensitive wart sometimes John." A voice from the hallway. "Virg I'm sorry, you're right about everything. And I should have stopped and got him out of there. Now why don't we all go in there and let him know that this is never going to happen again."
"Don't send him back there. Please dad. We can work something out. I will take my damned driving test and drive him to that other school you were talking about." Scott tells him having joined them. He's got Alan in his arms.
"Why don't you just get old bellend fired?" John asks him. "You do know he didn't have any right to do that? I read the school handbook and it actually said no corporal punishment is allowed on the school grounds. Doesn't say anything about allowing a parent or guardian to do it. I wasn't going to say anything but if Virgil is right and he really is suffering I don't think I could ignore him anymore"
"He's really suffering" Virgil confirms.
Virgil quietly opens the door. Gordon is still lying barely responsive in grandmas arms. She's still talking to him, in a calm voice apologising for letting this happen to him.
"Let me take him" Jeff asks her.
Gordon jumps at the sound his his dads voice and tries to wriggle free from grandmas grip.
"It's okay Gordon, we are all here and we won't let anything bad happen to you" Virgil reassures him.
The atmosphere in the room is thick with worry and tension as Gordon turns to face his father.
"Daddy?" He whispers barely audible and if the room wasn't so deathly silent they wouldn't have heard it at all.
Jeff doesn't say a word he just opens his arms for his squid. Who throws him self into them and starts to cry again.
His brothers all surround him, Alan getting squashed as Scott still has hold of him. They remain in that position for several minutes before grandma herds them out of the room.
Leaving Jeff alone with Gordon.
"I'm sorry daddy" he tells him trying hard not to cry more.
"I am sorry too Gordy" he tells him. "I should never have agreed to this. Never admit this to anyone, but Virgil was right!" He jokes. Which causes Gordon to smile.
"Scott said that you haven't been talking. Why is that Gordon?" Jeff asks him.
"I thought that if I did you would hit me for being bad. I didn't want to say something to make anyone angry again. I didn't want to eat I wanted to join mom in heaven but Scott made me"
With that Jeffs heart breaks, finally realising what Virgil has been telling him, Gordon was too young to understand what was happening to him.
"Squid. No, never think that we don't love you, we all love you. I love you. No one has the right to make you feel so alone and afraid. I'm not going to let anything like this happen to you, or your brothers again. He promises him his own voice cracking with emotion, reverting to his nickname.
"I love you too". Gordon tells him.
"Now how about we do something stupid?" His dad asks.
"Huh?" Gordon replies confused.
"Well it's 2 o'clock in the morning and I don't know about you but I could use a burger. Road trip?" He asks him.
"Can we all go?" Gordon asks him.
"I don't see why not! Let's go round your brothers and grandma up and go get some supper!"
*TB*
Jeff reports Principal Bell to the school board first thing on Monday morning. And they confirm what John told him, that he had no right to blackmail Jeff into beating Gordon.
Virgil has finally agreed to go back to school confident that Gordon will be okay now.
John arrives home from school that afternoon to find his youngest brothers playing a video game together.
"Gordon. You should have been at school today! Bellend got fired! You should have seen it, they escorted him out of the building it was hilarious" he tells him excitedly.
"Really?!" Gordon replies his eyes wide in disbelief.
"No!" Grandma tells them, "he's been suspended pending a full enquiry into what happened but your dads got a lawyer on it to make sure it sticks, but the school board have said that you are free to go back when you're ready. But no pressure Gords we will get something sorted for you if you can't do it".
Gordon does go back, to the hero's welcome from his entire school, the exact thing Principal Bell was trying to avoid!
"I never got into any trouble over the fire alarm Gordon" Billy tells him at lunch on his first day back.
"I know. I told them that was me too. I don't snitch" he reassures him.
"How bad was the you know what?" Billy asks.
"Worst experience of my life. Honestly I would rather get hit by a car again!"
