A/N: This is the final chapter of this story, I appreciate those of you that left reviews, favorited and followed. I hope you'll enjoy this last chapter - it seemed to me that it was rushed and I apologize if it came across as such.
I think it goes without saying that reviews are once more appreciated but please no flames.
Thanks again!
Sad-Blue-Eyed-Angel 2010
The day after they got home Alan walked past his father's office and heard a rather heated exchange between Brains and his father. He was curious because he'd never so much as heard them fight before and now he could hear them in the hallway. His father's office was soundproofed, so if he could hear those two, it must have been loud in the room. Walking down to the living room, Alan noticed his brothers were gathered around the video phone. As he got closer, he could hear what his dad and Brains were arguing about. Gordon noticed him and held a finger to his lips before pulling him closer.
"My s-son was n-never a bad k-kid until I sent him o-off to school w-with your son!" Brains said tersely.
"My son never did anything you weren't already familiar with. You knew my son was already attending Wharton's and you still accepted my offer to pay for your son's education. Don't blame Alan for Fermat's mistakes. My son is a good boy. He stands up for the small man and he defends what he feels is right. I didn't raise a fool and I didn't raise someone who lets injustices fall by the wayside. Don't start blaming my boy until you can look at your boy and ask yourself, is he what you would let loose in the streets on his eighteenth birthday. I know I believe I've raised Alan right and he does me proud every time. We may fight, but that will never change how proud I am of him and all he does."
"Well, I d-don't know h-how I feel a-about Fermat b-being friends w-with Alan." Brains said.
"How can you say that? All of my boys are friends with Fermat. So Alan has gotten in trouble at school, so has Fermat and Alan didn't do anything wrong that time either. He just brought to light that your son was doing something inherently wrong." Jeff said as matter of fact as he could before he sounded like he stood up. "I'm done discussing this. I won't let you continue to talk bad about my son when maybe you should look at your son's actions first."
With that, the call was abruptly ended and the brothers all scrambled to an activity to make it look like they hadn't been eavesdropping. Alan unfortunately was the last to do something and his father who had left his office came into the living room and gravitating to Alan the moment he laid eyes on him.
"Alan, how are you feeling?" Jeff asked as he walked over and gently cupped Alan's face in his hands to look at his son's shiner that he was sporting.
"I'm okay, I'd be a whole lot worse if Fermat hadn't intervened when he had." Alan said as he looked at his father in the eyes.
"I'm sure. I guess my only question is…where did Fermat learn to throw a mean right hook? I know his father has never been keen of violence."
"I taught him…but he asked me to. He wanted to know how to defend himself in case he ever was caught unawares when I wasn't there to stop Darren and the others." Alan explained as his dad rubbed his thumb over the bruise beneath Alan's eye.
"You don't need to explain to me. I know you and I know you wouldn't have taught Fermat how to fight if there wasn't a better reason." Jeff said as he turned away from Alan to see Brains standing in the doorway to the living room. He looked conflicted and despite everything Alan heard Brains say, Alan didn't hold anything against him. He was entitled to his opinion.
"A-Alan…can w-we please t-talk?" Brains inquired, watching Jeff like he was expecting the father to protect his young like a fierce bear or lion.
"Yes, sir." Alan said before he left the room to walk with his friend's father.
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"Alan, d-do you k-know why I h-have frowned o-on you being f-friends with m-my son?" Hiram asked as he and Alan walked out onto the veranda from the villa.
"Because you think I'm a punk who will negatively influence your son to do bad?" Alan answered, keeping his answer to a question so he didn't come across as cocky.
"T-To a p-point…but i-it's actually b-because of h-how you h-have behaved i-in the p-past. Getting i-into fights a-and arguing w-with your d-dad." Hiram said as he went to sit on the edge of the porch overlooking the infinity pools below.
"If you were so concerned that I'd negatively influence your son, why did you accept my dad's offer to put Fermat through school? It was no secret that I was also enrolled there." Alan asked feeling emboldened by the talk with Hiram.
"I d-don't know w-why. I didn't t-think you w-would gravitate t-towards Fermat. You t-two don't s-seem to f-fit." Hiram admitted as they spoke a little more man to man. "He's m-my only c-child, my little b-boy. I d-don't want h-him to meet t-the harsh r-realities at s-such a tender a-age."
"Fermat's got to grow up though. Before we became friends, he got pushed around every day by Darren, the same one that wiped the floor with me yesterday. He was bullied into completing homework for the bullies. I only became involved when I asked Fermat for advice on a trigonometry question on my homework. I saw him typing Darren's homework. I never told him that I amended one of my previous papers and doctored it to have Darren's name so that when the teacher submitted it to the plagiarism checker it would alert on one of my assignments. I made what was going on to Fermat my problem because I knew it would never stop if I just reported it to the teacher. Teachers don't have all seeing eyes, students have a way to seek out trouble when authoritative figures are looking the other way." Alan said before he looked Hiram in the eyes. "Fermat had never had a friend before me, he told me that he lied any time you asked because he didn't want you to regret accepting my dad's offer to enroll him and pay for his tuition."
Hiram lowered his head in sadness to learn that Fermat hadn't even felt safe in telling him when he was lonely, and it told him how beneficial Alan's friendship truly was for Fermat. Both boys as a matter of fact. Alan wasn't quite as reckless now having Fermat to watch over and keep an eye on meanwhile Fermat was coming out of his shell more. Hiram did pause to look over at Alan with a questioning look on his face.
"W-Why were you t-teaching him h-how to p-punch? He t-told me y-you taught h-him." Hiram asked, looking with disapproval at Alan. "You k-know I d-don't condone v-violence."
"I taught him how to punch if he ever needed to defend himself or someone else like he did yesterday. I was unable to defend myself because Darren knocked my block off, but Fermat had his wits about him, and he jumped in when I needed him. The tables turned." Alan admitted knowing that he was still in hot water with Fermat's dad, but he hoped this was the start of him lightening up even a little.
"It g-goes against e-everything I s-stand for, b-but your f-friendship with F-Fermat hasn't b-been all b-bad." Hiram started once more as he recalled that Alan was helpful as well. If Alan hadn't been able to reach out to Virgil, nobody might have known that Fermat had had that major asthma attack. Also, Alan was nothing if not a good friend. He was loyal, and brave. Tenacious and wacky. Everything Hiram admired. And the more he thought about it, Hiram was doing a disservice to both Fermat and Alan by telling them they weren't allowed to be friends with one another. "I w-want you t-to promise m-me that y-you won't l-lead Fermat a-astray. He's b-been a good b-boy. I'd l-like him t-to stay t-that way."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Alan asked, somewhat speechless when he figured out what Hiram was saying.
"Yes A-Alan, I'm g-giving my p-permission for y-you and m-my son to b-be friends. Y-You don't n-need to h-hide anymore." Hiram said and he was shocked when Alan gave him a tight hug before running off to go tell Fermat. The elder genius shook his head with a chuckle as he turned to go back inside. Perhaps he'd misjudged Alan this whole time. Only time would tell if he'd made the right call to let Alan and Fermat remain friends as opposed to hauling Fermat back to the good old US of A and re-enroll him in a public-school education.
… … … … … … … … … … …
When Alan and Fermat returned to school the following week, Alan had a little bit of mottled bruising from his healing shiner. Nobody said anything to either boy, it was also noticed by both parties that the loss of Darren proved beneficial. The previous boys that hung around Darren were interestingly not present and both boys wondered to themselves if they also got expelled or had just begged their parents to relocate their educations. Nevertheless, it made life at Wharton's a lot better. Fermat was finally able to relax more, and he also started making other friends. Alan took pride in being there for his young friend and being able to experience everything. In a way, it was a lot like removing the rose-colored glasses. Alan felt like he was no longer blind to how difficult life was for those less fortunate, meanwhile Fermat learned a valuable lesson that you should never judge a book by it's cover. Alan may seem like he's a snobby boastful brat that balks when he doesn't get his way, but in truth, Alan was exactly like his grandmother described him the previous summer. Alan was a true to the core friend that would be there through thick and through thin.
Fermat, knowing what he knew now was surprised at how resistant he was to becoming friends with Alan. He couldn't believe how shallow he'd been. Alan wasn't a bad guy, he knew that now. But prior to knowing Alan, he'd made a judgement call on Alan before knowing his story and he knew his mother would have been super disappointed in him if she'd known. Meanwhile Alan was glad that he got what he was hoping would happen. His and Fermat's friendship wasn't forced and it did occur naturally…as naturally as a forged assignment could be.
Alan had to admit, he did feel a little bad about getting Fermat in trouble that first time but he'd explained it to the younger boy and got a much calmer reaction than he was expecting. Fermat's face got red and he stomped off for about an hour but once he'd had time to think about it he walked down to the stables and startled Alan while he was riding Freckles to apologize for stalking off.
Alan gave a light tug of the reins to make Freckles stop. Looking out at his young friend, Alan grinned in acceptance when Fermat apologized for blowing up. Alan couldn't stay mad at Fermat for long because he should have realistically been angry at the underhanded trick pulled off by Alan but knowing what he knew now, he was grateful for Alan's intervention. And with the absence of Darren, both Fermat and Alan had to admit that life at Wharton's was a lot better. Fermat didn't need Alan to act like his personal bodyguard and there were a lot less scuffles to be broken up.
Classes went on like normal and Fermat was relieved to be able to finally enjoy his education. Now that the bullies had backed off Fermat was able to focus on his classes and learn something. As it turned out, his classes did keep him engaged and he found he was learning quite a bit of new materials. The new semester flew by and before long the boys returned home for winter break.
… … … … … … … … … … …
EPILOGUE: The following summer Alan and Fermat offboarded from the family jet in Kansas. Alan had brought enough clothes to have outfits for different occasions. Fermat didn't know what to bring when he was invited by Alan's grandma to spend the summer with them at the Tracy family homestead. He didn't know the first thing about what to bring to a farm. When he asked Alan, the older boy just stated clothes and shoes. Quite unhelpful. Fermat knew to bring clothes and shoes, but he was asking because he didn't know what kind. When he saw what Alan had packed, he huffed a quiet breath because he didn't have work boots or blue jeans. He had shorts and flip flops and tennis shoes.
When the boys got picked up by Alan's grandma, she knew from Alan blabbing that Fermat had come ill-prepared for farm work. Ruth took both Alan and Fermat to the local thrift shop and she took the boys in to look through gently used jeans. It wouldn't do to get either boy new jeans when they'd likely get ripped or stained. Fermat had never bought clothes from a thrift store and he didn't know how to look for stuff in his size. Ruth and Alan on the other hand sifted through the clothes hanging on the racks. Alan periodically would pull a pair of jeans off the rack and hold them up to his own waist meanwhile Ruth was doing that with Fermat. Once both boys had a few articles of clothes to try on, they each went to the dressing room area and went behind the individual curtains. Fermat was shy but he stepped out when Alan and Ruth asked him to come out so they'd know if the jeans fit.
Ruth was pleased with the fit of the jeans and after a few more minutes of trying on clothes, they made their final selections and went to checkout. Fermat was surprised that Alan would willingly set foot in a second-hand clothing shop, especially knowing that he's always gotten what he's wanted from his father. Alan never went without, none of his brothers did as a matter of fact and it was a well-known fact at the school both boys attended that all the boys usually got the best of everything. Apart from Fermat that is. Fermat was used to getting cheap clothes because it was what his father could afford, only after he began attending Wharton's did he suddenly discover what it was like to have nicer clothing.
Once the small group was finished with their shopping, they left the shop and walked down the street to where the car was parked. Alan was happy to be able to have his best friend by his side. This would likely make his summer break even more enjoyable. Fermat on the other hand was glad his dad finally relaxed on letting him and Alan be friends. It really made life miserable when neither boy could be open and talk about something they both had done in class or club activities outside of the classroom. It also made Fermat enjoy his school just a little more. Not only that, but with Hiram finally lifting his restriction he also began treating Fermat like he was growing up.
For example, Fermat and his father had finally had a talk about what happened to Fermat's mother. Fermat had never had a clue that his mom had perished because of a pregnancy that had gone horribly wrong. It was a sobering thought, one that Hiram had been forced to acknowledge everyday since the day it had happened. He'd always thought he was protecting Fermat from the truth, but Fermat conveyed that it made him feel distanced from his mother because all these years he'd been ignorant that he didn't just lose a mom, but a little brother or sister.
When the boys both got to the farmhouse, Ruth ushered them inside where she'd left dinner to cool. Alan led Fermat up to the room he slept in, it was the same room he and his brothers shared when they visited their grandmother. Alan called the top bunk bed and he scrambled to the top to put his duffel bag in place before jumping down to cajole Fermat into going downstairs for dinner. The younger boy shook his head with a chuckle, knowing dinner would be exceedingly early at the Tracy homestead because bedtimes were also early. Alan had forewarned Fermat that his grandmother preferred they go to bed at seven at night to ensure that farm work got done in the early morning hours when it was still cool out. Fermat didn't know about a bedtime that early, but he was sure he'd adjust after a couple days of hard work. He was glad for the opportunity to be there.
