Following Jeff's return Scott snaps and runs away, but is he going to find what he needs?
Gordon's limbs are heavy, and there is a fog circling his brain. A small whine escapes from his lips. Why does he feel so awful? What happened to him?
"Gordy?" Virgil says looking down into the confused eyes of his younger brother.
"Ugh" is all he can reply before he falls asleep again.
It is a start, and the first positive piece of news that he has had in the five days since the accident.
*TB*
Scott's anger at Jefferson showing up at the hospital is not dissipating the longer he remains in the hotel room. His skin is red and raw from the heat of the water. He knows that he needs to be with Gordon but the return of the man who claims that he raised him has driven all reasonable and rational thought from his brain.
He wants to be at the hospital, he wants to hunt down his father and he wants to destroy everything within his eyesight.
It is only thanks to the hotels laundry facility and someone who collects, washes, irons and delivers the clothes back to his room that he still has clean clothes. Pulling on jeans and a t-shirt, Scott goes back to the hospital where Virgil is sitting vigil next to Gordon's bed.
"I thought you said he was waking up?" Scott asks looking at his once again sleeping brother. there is an edge to his voice that Virgil doesn't even recognise anymore.
"He did briefly, you know the doctors said it might be weeks before he is fully conscious" Virgil says.
"Weeks" Scott says. "You know whose fault this is, don't you?"
"It was nobodies' fault Scott. The initial investigation has found a mechanical fault in the braking system. They didn't stand a chance" Virgil replies.
"No. it is his fault. He was the reason we were all born into this corrupt and vicious world, and I am done Virg. I can't do this. I can't be here. He will be okay without me. He doesn't need me, and neither does anyone else. It doesn't matter what happens, or what I do it goes wrong. I am leaving Virg. and please don't follow me. Stay here with Gordon, Alan and Atlanta, because you are better off without me" Scott insists.
Virgil can't believe what he is hearing. Scott is walking out on them, just when he needs them the most. But he knows he has to let him go. Getting up from the uncomfortable plastic chair he pulls his eldest brother into his arms and hugs him tightly. "Come back when you're ready, we will be here for you"
"Virg, I'm so sorry but I have to do something that isn't this." Scott says, allowing Virgil to hold him. "Tell Alan for me"
"Tell Alan what?" Alan asks from the doorway where he has just entered the room carrying fresh coffee supplies.
"I have to go to the mainland" Scott says lamely, as a way of explanation.
"And you aren't coming back are you?" Alan asks even though he already knows the answer. "YOU ARE SO DAMNED SELFISH. JUST LIKE JEFFERSON. GO SCOTT WE DON'T WANT YOU TO FEEL FORCED TO STAY HERE" he explodes.
"You don't understand" Scott says, pulling out of Virgil's embrace.
"YOU ARE RIGHT I DON'T" Alan shouts. "I AM STAYING HERE WITH MY BROTHER"
Scott gives them one last look before fleeing the room.
They don't get it. No one understands. Gordon promised him he wouldn't get hurt, he promised him that he would remain safe. This is Gordon's fault and he can't sit there day after day and watch his selfish brat of a brother ruin all of their lives.
*TB*
His plane takes him to California, parking up in the private hangar, Scott rents a car and drives along the coast to Gordon's old house. The "For Sale" sign Is still in the garden and Scott let's himself into the now deserted building. The rooms are empty, as most of their possessions have been shipped to the Island.
Curling up in the floor, Scott is too numb to cry, instead he lies on his side in complete silence as the sun starts to set and the room goes dark. He doesn't sleep. He has not slept for more than a few hours in nearly a week and he is desperate for a drink.
He is still awake when his phone buzzes with a message, but there is no curiosity in him to even read it, but he picks the phone up and realises with a grimace that it is an article about the crash. His heart cracks as he reads the article headline.
Paul's funeral is today. They are burying his brother's best friend. The harsh reality of his life never relents.
The ocean is glittering with the rays of the early morning sun as he walks along the beach, lost in the darkness of his pessimistic thoughts. He doesn't know where he is going, and he doesn't know why but he keeps a steady pace, his feet pounding the ground with every step.
Finally coming to a stop across the road from the church, he realises that he did know where he was going all along.
The church is still quiet, as he slowly makes his way across the dewy grass and into the main building. There is a wreath of freshly cut roses spelling out his name, but he isn't here yet. No one is here yet. But the quietness is soothing his anger the longer he sits here.
"Can I help you?" someone asks, startling him out of his reverie.
Turning round, Scott finds himself facing a woman he instantly recognisees, even though they have never met. She is Paul. The same shade of dark brown hair, and those soul-searching eyes that are now looking him over. But that isn't what he recognises. She is broken too. "Melanie" Scott says, finally speaking.
"Yes. Who are you?" she replies.
"I am so sorry. I should never have let him go. If I had stopped him, if I had told him that I didn't want him to go" Scott breaks off, placing his head in his hands. He can't stand there in front of his sister at his funeral. Not while Gordon is still alive. He has no right to be here, intruding on their family's grief.
"You're Scott, aren't you?" Melanie asks, making the connection between his words and everything his brother had ever told him. "How is Gordon doing?"
"He won't walk again, and he will never swim again. His life may as well be over. My brothers sit there day after day watching him breathe through a tube, Gordon would hate this existence." Scott tells her.
"But he is alive Scott, and he needs you. None of this was your fault, Paul would never blame you. He loved you, you have to know that. You were a brother to him, just like Gordon. It is okay to be upset and it is okay to get angry. Hell you think I haven't screamed my lungs raw with how unjust this whole shit situation is? Because I have. I shouldn't be burying my brother today, he should be out there living life, causing chaos. For the first two days I was in denial. This couldn't be happening to my big brother. I kept expecting him to leap up from the mortuary and exclaim that this has been one terribly thought out practical joke him and Gordon had cooked up together. But it never was."
Melanie reaches out for his hand and he allows her to take it, before she pulls him to his feet and into her arms. Her own tears mingling with his as they stand together, the two families united in their grief against a world they no longer understand.
*TB*
Scott stays silent during the funeral. No one questions his attire of jeans and a t-shirt. Taking a seat near the middle before members of W.A.S.P start to stream in, devastated by the loss of one of their own. Watching on as he is described fondly by those who knew him best.
School friends talk about a daredevil who once tried to start a petition to introduce wing walking to the school curriculum.
His mom and dad talk about his kind and compassionate nature. A boy who used to rescue spiders for his terrified arachnophobe neighbours and try to keep them as pets.
Scott is reminded so much of Gordon, and everything that his brother is still fighting for, and he knows that he will keep fighting. Gordon has never given up on anything in his whole life, and he doubts that he is going to start now.
Scott is so lost in his own memories of Paul, even though he never got the chance to really get to know him, that he doesn't even realise that the ceremony is over until the church has started to empty as the crowds make their way outside.
"Are you coming to the burial?" Melanie asks. Once he has emerged back out into the sunlight. The brightness and warmth of the day are at odds with how he is feeling.
"I thought it was a closed site, with family only?" Scott replies.
"You are family" Melanie insists, taking his hand once more and leading him to the spot they have chosen. Under the shade of an opulent sycamore tree.
Scott somehow remains stoic, even though he can feel the now familiar ache in his heart. The one that is threatening to break his dignified silence as the dark mahogany coffin is lowered into the ground to become the final resting place of the fallen soldier.
Knowing that this could so easily be Gordon's fate, Scott doesn't stay long.
"What are you going to do now?" Melanie asks. Her face is streaked with drying tears, but her voice is steady and assured, and invites confidence. They have only just met, but he feels like he can tell her anything.
"I don't know. I need to go back, I know that, but I can't face him" Scott admits.
Melanie places her hand on his shoulder, before forcing him into her arms and refuses to let him go. "Do what you need to do, but if you need someone to talk to, I am here for you." She knows telling him to go back to Gordon would push him further and further away from the family who need him.
*TB*
Scott drives to the airport, with no destination in mind. Planning on jumping on the first flight and just going. Alan is right, Scott is just like Jeff. Sucking back tears, Scott finally checks his phone. But there are no messages from Virgil or Alan, not even an update. He knows that this is what he deserves.
He needs answers, and he knows that he is only going to get them from one source, his father.