Characters: Scott, Gordon, Virgil

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Blood, Accidental Impaling

Virgil may have missed the first time his eldest brother was stabbed with a fork, staying with friends at the time, but he had a starring role for the next one, for all that it wasn't his fault.

No, the second time Scott was injured with a fork was all down to one very hyperactive squid…

Gordon didn't get excited by school. It was a necessary evil that he suffered for his sport. Jeff had been very firm with his least-academic child – no school, no swimming. He didn't expect Gordon to get high grades, Jeff knew that Gordon's skills lay in more practical methods, but attending school was a requirement, and so far the deal had kept his aquatic child's pranking nature under control.

No one was more surprised than Scott was when picking Gordon up from school one afternoon to find a bouncing child with shiny eyes and no swimming mentioned at all.

Walking home, listening to his brother talk nineteen-to-the-dozen, and trying to decipher what on earth he was going on about, Scott couldn't help but smile fondly. John and Virgil both had been full of what had happened at school every day that they had walked home, but Gordon never had been, grumbling about why couldn't he prank his boring teachers. The only time he was animated was if Scott picked him up after swimming, which was something that Grandma usually did.

They detoured to pick up Alan, meeting up with John and Virgil halfway home. Gordon immediately latched on to Virgil, and the two trailed slightly behind their brothers as whatever Gordon had been excited about began to infect his immediate brother. The pair disappeared upstairs once home while John got on with his homework and Scott helped his four-year-old brother to make cookies for a snack before Grandma would come home and prepare dinner.

It only took until the weekend for Gordon's sudden new interest to be explained when, for the Saturday family movie time, The Little Mermaid was requested…by Virgil. Gordon's absolutely favourite movie had been seen so many times that they all knew it off by heart, and no way would any other brother request it willingly. But Virgil explained how Gordon had been chosen to star in his school play as King Triton, and everything clicked into place.

Virgil and Gordon spent every spare moment together for the next few weeks, practicing lines and actions, while John helped Grandma out with the costume, leaving Scott to keep Alan occupied and out from under their feet. The baby of the family didn't really understand why Gordon wasn't as interested with playing with him as he had been before, but he was more than happy to spend time with his biggest brother.

The cardboard trident that the drama teacher had given them had been put aside in favour of a garden fork that Virgil had painted and embellished to look more like the real thing. It may have been over two years since the pitchfork incident, but one look at that fork – sorry, trident – in his brother's hands had brought all the memories flooding back.

He hadn't trusted Gordon with a broom…now he had a trident. A three-pronged fork.

Scott watched warily (and from a distance) as Gordon practiced his lines and swung his trident just like the King did in the movie. Only the squid was a little more animated than his cartoon version. More than once Grandma, Dad and Scott himself had needed to tell him to calm down before he hurt himself.

Of course, that didn't dampen Gordon's enthusiasm for having a trident, a real gold one! He had grumbled that the tines were not the right shape, but when Virgil had pointed out it was this or the cardboard he soon stopped.

The weekend before the play Gordon treated them all to a display of his lines and his actions. They clapped and cheered, Alan bouncing on Scott's lap at the excitement of it all. And then they all got up to get on with movie that Alan had picked out. Gordon had asked to stay outside to practice, which they had agreed.

Scott watched in horrified slow motion. One minute Alan was wiggling off his lap and heading over to Virgil, another second Virgil was straightening up just as Gordon, who had had his back to all this, violently swung the trident.

It was heading for Virgil's head. And neither brother was aware.

Scott barrelled forward, knocking Virgil and Alan to the ground, and registered the sound of Alan bursting into tears at the same time a sharp pain tore across his upper arm. The next second he was also hitting the ground as a piercing scream told him that Gordon had realised what had happened.

The clang of the trident hitting the floor was clear in the hubbub of both Alan and Gordon screaming. Virgil had put Alan down to deal with Scott, who was lying on his back, blinking at the sky.

'Gordon. Gordon! Take Alan and go get Grandma!'

The urgency in Virgil's voice got through the noise, and Gordon grabbed Alan's hand and pulled him into the house. Virgil knelt beside Scott, head and shoulders appearing in his eyeline.

'Scott? Are you alright?'

'Er…'

He'd subconsciously grabbed his arm, and he could feel the blood between his fingers. Virgil helped him to sit up just as Grandma came rushing out. Virgil sat back and let his Grandmother work.

Prising Scott's fingers off revealed a nice gouge just below the cap of his shoulder. Sally muttered to herself about the Tracy ability to get injured in the most ridiculous ways as she placed a pad on the wound and tightly bandaged it.

Scott would need checking at the hospital, possibly a few stitches and a tetanus booster to be safe. Calling Jeff home from the office was next on her list of things to do, and she helped Scott to his feet and into the family room. He was a little shaky, but he welcomed the hugs from his brothers as she made the calls.

Gordon, horrified at what he had done, refused to touch the trident and was almost as adamant that he didn't want to do the play now, and she listened as Scott reassured him and insisted that he carry on with the play while they waited for Jeff to get home.

A neat row of stitches, a bandage, a sling and an injection later and Scott was as good as new. He had argued with the doctor about the sling, but Grandma had been adamant. Scott needed to keep the arm as immobile as possible for the next ten days until the stitches were due to be removed.

Wednesday night found all four boys, Grandma and Jeff in the audience as Gordon wielded his cardboard trident to good effect, eventually waving it around to huge applause at the end.