Just because it's the final chapter doesn't mean it's free from drama!

The next few days were a blur.

Gordon took the rest of the week off school, and he spent most of it sleeping or staying in his room. An investigation was started on Coach Brown, at the same time that he had been fired, and Gordon had to report his account of the event to his Principal.

He knew the rest of his teammates were questioned too, but Gordon knew he was the only one targeted. He wouldn't want anyone else to go through what he did, but it would have been somewhat comforting to have not been alone.

What was nice, though, was that after his dad found out what had happened, he took the rest of the week off of work as well. Gordon hadn't seen much of his dad lately. He had been busy with work and Gordon had been busy... elsewhere, so it was nice to spend time with him. Even if Gordon did spend a lot of it sleeping.

His brothers and Grandma were there for him too. Gordon did eventually thank Alan, because he knew without the help of his brother, he never would have worked up the courage to tell anyone. Alan forgave him easily, and said he was just happy he was alright.

When Monday came, Gordon decided to head back to school. It was the start of a fresh week, and Gordon wanted to put the recent events behind him.

The true details of what Coach Brown had done and Gordon's involvement in it were not revealed to the rest of the students. Most of them were just aware that he had left. Only the swim team knew a bit more about why, if only because they had been so intently questioned, but details had still been kept from them.

They didn't know that Gordon had anything to do with it, but it probably wasn't hard to make connections.

So, when Gordon went back to school, there was thankfully little attention on him. If he passed by his teammates, they sent him curious glances, but never asked anything. His friends wondered where he had been at the end of last week, but Gordon just told them he'd been sick.

Overall, though, it was a fairly normal day. The most normal one he had had in a while, where there was no looming pressure of needing to swim that day.

That was until he was at his locker between classes, and someone he would rather never speak to appeared at his side.

"Heard it was you who got my dad fired."

Gordon turned to find another kid in his grade, Billy Brown, leant up against the lockers next to his.

The same kid whose father was Gordon's swim coach.

"Your dad got himself fired," Gordon replied with annoyance. He really didn't want to deal with this right now, on his first day back.

"Really? Because he told me that if it wasn't for you and your big mouth, he'd still have a job."

Gordon had spent the last few days convincing himself that this wasn't on him. He wasn't at fault here. It was taking a lot of work to undo all the things that he had convinced himself to believe, that Coach Brown had made him think. He had to keep reminding himself that none of this was his fault.

"You're a coward, Tracy," Billy continued before Gordon had a chance to reply. "Running to daddy with your problems instead of facing up to them."

"It's because of your dad that I had problems in the first place," Gordon growled out between clenched teeth, trying to keep his cool. He pulled out the book he needed and slammed his locker shut. "He brought this on himself. Do yourself a favour and realise that for yourself."

Gordon walked away before anything else could be said. He wasn't going to let Billy get into his head. He had done the right thing reporting the Coach.

But as he walked down the hall, he heard Billy yell after him.

"You'll pay for this, Tracy!"

He tried not to take that threat seriously.

After everything that had happened, Gordon didn't think anyone would blame him if he never wanted to step foot in a pool again. However, swimming was his passion, and despite recent events, Gordon was desperate to get back to the water. It could have been because he had gone from swimming extensively everyday to not swimming at all, but he missed it dearly.

Swimming was his way to relax and relieve himself of his stresses. The last couple weeks had certainly been stressful, and Gordon was just dying to get back to the familiar feeling of gliding through the water.

Swim practice had been cancelled for the time being, until they found a new swim Coach. That meant the pool would be empty, and so Gordon decided to head there one day after school.

His family were hesitant to let him go, but Gordon promised that he would only do an easy swim and it was just to ease off some tension. They eventually settled on the agreement that Gordon could only go if one of his brothers picked him up after, with less than an hour to swim to ensure that he wouldn't overwork himself. Gordon understood their worry, and knew that it would take them all a while to get over what had happened. He would gladly let them restrict his swim time for now if it made his family happy.

The pool was just as quiet as he had expected, and it was nice to be alone for a little while, with no pressures. It was just Gordon and the water around him.

For several minutes, Gordon just glided through the water. Not once was he trying to be fast, or wondering how he could shave time off his turns, he just enjoyed the familiar comfort that swimming brought.

The moment was ruined when he suddenly felt someone jump into the water next to him, narrowly missing landing on his head. Gordon abruptly stopped swimming and moved to find out what had happened.

But before he could, he felt hands push his head beneath the water.

Without any warning, he couldn't even take a breath before he was shoved under. He grabbed onto the wrists of whoever it was and tried to pull the hands off. It took a lot of struggling, but he eventually managed to pry them off long enough to get his head above the water and gasp in a breath.

He couldn't get a look at who the person was before they were trying to push him back under the water. This time, they had grasped onto his hair to painfully pull him under and to get a better hold of him. They wouldn't budge as Gordon tried to pull their hands off him again, so he instead tried to hit at any body part he could reach.

The resistance of the water took away a lot of the force, and the longer he was held under the water, the weaker his hits became. His lungs were burning and he had to resist trying to suck in a breath.

But then a knee came up and hit him in the chest. The air was knocked out of him, and he couldn't help the water that he suddenly sucked into his lungs.

If he thought the pain was bad before, it was nothing compared to what he felt next. He couldn't breathe, all he managed to get in was more water. His vision was starting to get dark, and he knew his fight was starting to slip away. He knew there wasn't much chance left.

But suddenly the hands were gone, and a new grip appeared on his shoulders. Gordon let them pull him back above the surface and then they helped him clamber out the side of the pool.

Gordon coughed up water for what felt like an eternity. His chest felt like it was on fire, but the hands that had helped pull him from the water stayed on him for support. Gordon looked up to see who it was, and after a moment the blurry figure came into focus.

It was Mr Joseph, the gym teacher. Gordon had always liked him. He was nice to Gordon, even when he tried to get Gordon to join the football team like his brother and Gordon always turned him down. His arms and the front of his shirt were wet, and he was looking down at Gordon with concern.

Something caught his attention, and he looked away from Gordon to whatever it was.

"Don't even think about going anywhere," he said in a voice sterner than Gordon had ever heard from him. "You won't get very far."

Gordon looked over to see who he was talking to, and wasn't all that surprised at what he found.

Billy Brown was in the middle of pulling himself out of the opposite end of the pool. There were also two of his friends that Gordon would always see hanging out with him. They were standing at the edge of the pool, and all three of them were frozen to the spot.

If Gordon had the energy, he would have wondered why they would try to drown him, and how Mr Joseph had managed to find him in time. But all he could concentrate on was the pain in his chest as he was hit by another coughing fit.

"You okay, Gordon?" Mr Joseph asked as his attention was drawn back to him. Gordon tried to give him a shaky nod in return when the coughs subsided.

"I'm going to call an ambulance," the teacher then said as he fished his phone out of his pocket. Gordon offered him another nod, unable to speak yet and knowing that there was no point in trying to protest.

The rest of the day came and went in a frenzy of doctors, worried family members, pain and exhaustion. He went to hospital and stayed there for several hours whilst the doctors ran tests on him and made sure there weren't any complications from almost drowning. As soon as his family were called, they were all there for him to keep him company until he was finally allowed to go home.

He went home with the instruction given to his family that they had to keep an eye on him in case his condition changed. Gordon was urged that if he felt worse, or if there was any chest pain, dizziness or breathing difficulties, he had to tell someone immediately. Gordon assured them that he would, and then he was free to go home after what felt like forever.

He was tired when he got home, but instead of going straight to bed, Gordon found himself heading into the living room.

"Don't you want to sleep, Gordon?" His dad asked him as he followed him into the room.

"No," Gordon murmured as he curled into the sofa. He just wanted to watch something on the television and forget about everything for a little while.

He thought his dad would protest, but instead the television remote appeared in front of him a moment later. It was soon followed by a blanket that was draped over him and then a warm drink that was placed on the table near him.

Gordon smiled as his family worked to make him comfortable, and when they were done, they all cuddled into the sofa next to him.

Gordon soon forgot about whatever it was that he had put on to watch, and instead rested his head on the shoulder of the brother closest to him and enjoyed the comfort of his family's presence.

Thank you so much for reading this little fic (that wasn't as little as I'd intended) and thank you for all the lovely reviews too!