Papa raced back to the village. After giving a huge and stern lecture to all of his little smurfs, he was very concerned about Brainy. While it was true, sometimes Brainy really did get on everyone's nerves, Papa never once thought that Brainy would feel so horrible about himself.
"How could I have missed this?" he thought as he ducked past a bush. "How could I have misjudged my own apprentice so harshly."
The elder smurf finally made it back to the village. He sprinted over toward Brainy's mushroom to discover the door wide open. Papa closed his eyes as he got closer, praying that everything was smurfy with his little smurf. Before he approached the doorway, he heard something that caused his eyes to snap open.
"Heheheheheh! Alright alright I'm laughing! Hehehehehahahahahahaha! Cut it out!"
Papa allowed himself a small smile before looking into the doorway. What he saw warmed his heart. There was Brainy, all smiles, surrounded by his strongest smurfs in a warm brotherly embraced. Papa smurf ducked back and simply listened to their conversation.
"I'm glad you're feeling better lad," Gutsy said.
"I do have one problem here," Brainy replied.
"What's that?" Hefty asked.
Papa Smurf leaned forward a bit to hear better.
"Just because you guys don't hate me doesn't mean the other smurfs don't either," Papa's heart sank at the question. "I mean, how do we know the others don't hate me."
There was silence in the house as one of the tough smurfs tried to think of something to tell the worrying smurf. Not wanting to ruin the moment, Papa tried to hold out, praying that someone could come up with an answer to calm Brainy's fears. Just as Papa started to step back into the doorframe, he heard Gutsy say, "Well lad, I think ya got through to a lot of 'em today. They shan't soon forget that outburst of emotion."
"That's another thing I'm worried about. What if they think I'm even worse because of that?"
"Then they will have to answer to us or Papa," Grouchy broke in. Papa heard some rustling and giggles from Brainy.
"Hehehehe! That tickles!"
"I know," Grouchy chuckled.
"Bottom line is Brainy, you shouldn't worry so much," Hefty said firmly. "I'm sure that the others don't hate you. I think they misunderstood you, just as we did."
"Maybe," Brainy sighed.
"Hey, it'll be okay," Gutsy said. "You don't know until it happens laddie."
"And no matter what happens, we'll be by your side," Grouchy said.
Papa smiled and decided to head back to his lab. The three athletes had done everything right, and Papa didn't think it was wise to disturb the time those four were spending together. "This is what Brainy needs to recover from his horrible ordeal," the elder smurf thought. "Just some playful banter from his brothers. I've never seen them get along so well."
It was a few hours before the smurfs returned from their river trip. Jokey went straight to his mushroom and shut himself in, not saying a word to anyone. Guilt could be seen on his face, for every other smurf shared the same emotion toward their fellow brainiac. Greedy quickly went home and started preparing dinner for everyone in the village while Smurfette was busy settling Baby in for a nap. Clumsy, one who had been most worried for Brainy, stumbled and tripped the entire way to the smart smurf's house. Nervous to see how his friend was faring, he cautiously knocked on the door, shuffling his feet before the door opened. Clumsy was surprised to see Grouchy answering, rather than Brainy.
"Grouchy?" Clumsy tilted his head a little bit. "Uh, can I talk to Brainy? Please? I just gotta know if he's okay."
Grouchy looked back into the house before turning toward the accident prone smurf. "Sure. Come on in."
Clumsy sighed with relief as he stepped into the house. Brainy and Gutsy were sitting on the bed while Hefty had pulled up a chair and was seated across the way from them. Grouchy leaned up against the wall as Clumsy walked toward Brainy.
"Uh, hiya Brainy," he said softly, still nervous with the three strong smurfs near him.
Brainy subconsciously shifted closer to Gutsy. "Hi Clumsy."
Awkward silence soon followed before Clumsy spoke. "Uh... I just wanted to see if you were alright. It worried me somethin' awful when I saw the book blow up. I've never felt so bad in my life."
The words touched Brainy's heart as he stared at his best friend. "Really?"
"Of course!" Clumsy exclaimed, pulling up a chair and sitting next to Hefty. "You're my best friend Brainy. I was so mad at Jokey, I sorta started to yell at him after ya left."
"You yelled at him?" Hefty cocked and eyebrow. "You're one of the most peaceful smurfs."
"A lot of the smurfs yelled at him," Clumsy explained. "I mean, we all feel guilty for making Brainy feel this way, but Jokey destroying that book sorta made us all snap," Brainy flinched and pressed his body toward Gutsy at the memory. "The other smurfs admit they were really mean to you, but we were never mean enough to destroy something that you loved so dearly."
Tears formed in Brainy's eyes again, threatening to fall. "Th-they really feel bad about it?"
"Yeah!" Clumsy explained. "We all do!"
Gutsy grinned a little and began to rub Brainy's back soothingly. "Ya see lad? They feel bad."
Brainy tried to grin, but the tears in his eyes fell instead. "How can I go out there after yelling at everyone?"
Clumsy shifted in his chair. "Gosh, I'll be with you Brainy! After all, your my best buddy! I could never let you down."
"Same goes for us," Grouchy chimed in. "You won't be alone."
Brainy wiped his eyes and smiled. "Thanks guys."
"Com'on," Grouchy said. "Let's go see what every smurf is up to."
Gutsy gently nudged Brainy off the bed before getting up himself. "Aye. Time we get movin' a little. Maybe we can find some smurfs to play smurfball."
"Actually," Brainy sighed. "I think I want to go see Papa for a while. Just to talk to him."
Hefty could see there was more still on Brainy's mind. Smiling, the strong smurf replied. "Alright. Want us to come along for a spell?"
Brainy shrugged. "If you want to."
Grouchy sighed before turning to Clumsy, also getting the subliminal messages. "Why don't you go start the game? We'll catch up."
"Uh, okay Grouchy!" Clumsy grinned before tripping over his own chair. Brainy suppressed a giggle at his friends misfortune. Hefty helped Clumsy up before leading the way out of the mushroom house. Brainy locked the door before turning around to look at the village. Fear griped his heart as he mentally forced his legs to move. Gutsy seemed to pick up on the brainiac's nervousness, as he never left Brainy's side, clearly the one who was most protective of the sensitive smurf. Not to far behind was Hefty. The strong-smurf was behind Brainy, acting as a bodyguard constantly on the lookout. Grouchy walked before Brainy, his irritated constantly growing. Not because of Brainy, but because of his increasingly desire to destroy Jokey for what he had done. At one point during the walk to Papa's, the irritable smurf excused himself from the group and went into his own mushroom house. After the sound of breaking wood was heard, he emerged with a throbbing fist, claiming he was feeling better as he continued to lead them to Papas.
Brainy's heart nearly stopped when he was outside the door. "How am I going to explain this to Papa?" Tears formed in the corners of Brainy's eyes. This did not go un-noticed, as instantly Brainy felt Gutsy and Hefty's hands on his shoulders.
"It'll be alright lad," Gutsy said gently. "Just tell Papa what happened."
Brainy gulped as Grouchy knocked on the door. Within moments, Papa had opened the door, a mutual expression written on his face.
"Hello boys," he said with a small grin. "Would you like to come in?"
Grouchy, Hefty, and Gutsy glanced at Brainy, who nodded.
"Yes Papa."
The elder smurf stepped aside, allowing the four smurfs into his house. It was clean and neat, a rare sight for the constantly working father. It seemed he had spent the entire afternoon cleaning up and straightening his shelves. Brainy also noticed four chairs seated around the bed.
"He knew we would be coming," Brainy tried not to seem too scared as Papa ushered him onto the bed.
"Thanks for seein' us Papa," Gutsy sighed as he took one of the seats closest to Brainy.
"It's my pleasure," Papa said as he took a seat across from his troubled smurf.
"How'd you know we'd be coming over?" Hefty took a seat on the other side of Brainy.
"I had a hunch," upon offering Grouchy the remaining chair, he got a shake of the head as the grouch leaned up against the wall. Papa noticed Grouchy's hand and mentally sighed.
"I see you have your stomach bandaged up Brainy," the elder smurf spoke. "But, why do you have Gutsy's sash around your arm?"
Guilt found it's way to Brainy's face, as more tears started to form. Seeing the brainiac's discomfort, Papa spoke gently as he reached out for Brainy's hand. "Brainy. Look at your Papa."
Brainy jammed his eyes shut, tears falling down his face. He opened them and forced himself to stare into Papa's loving eyes.
"What happened to your arm, Brainy?"
Brainy felt stuck in Papa's gaze, knowing fully well that he couldn't lie to him. He pulled from Papa's grip and undid the makeshift bandage to reveal the cut, long and red from the dried blood. Papa looked at Brainy with pain in his eyes before placing a hand gently over it.
"Brainy, did you do this to yourself?" Papa remained calm, though inside he was breaking into pieces.
The smart smurf drew a jagged breath as more tears fell from his face. "Y-yes Papa..."
Papa closed his eyes for a brief moment before replacing removing the sash from the wound. Now stained with blood, he set it aside and turned back to Brainy.
"I'm not mad at you Brainy," Papa started. "And I don't intend on punishing you for this. But you need to be honest with me now."
Brainy looked up at Papa's face. "I-I'm not in trouble?"
"No Brainy," a sad grin formed on Papa's face. "But you need to tell me what you are feeling right now."
Brainy drew more jagged breaths, feeling his anxiety rise above normal. "I feel lost Papa."
Gutsy rose from his seat and sat on the bed with Brainy, looping him into a one-armed hug.
"Can you elaborate?" Papa asked gently.
Brainy looked straight at Papa. "I feel like no matter what I do, it's not good enough for anyone. All I try to do is help the other smurfs, and I get picked on and hurt because of it. I'm sorry if I am a pain in the smurf sometimes, but I am honestly only trying to help. I guess a month ago, I started to really feel bad. I just got depressed, lost interest in everything I loved. I couldn't eat, sleep, or read right," Brainy started speaking steadier, as the truth finally came out to Papa. "When Jokey smurfed that prank on me, I just lost it. I ran back to my house, where I thought that no smurf really cared about me. And I admit it, I tried to kill myself," Gutsy cringed at the idea before Papa nodded for Brainy to continue. "Hefty, Gutsy, and Grouchy stopped me before I could, but I managed to scratch up my arm. After they talked me through, and apologized for their own versions of teasing me, I realized that I was about to make a huge mistake. I still feel horrible though; no amount of tickling can fix it right now. It confuses me, and I'm scared."
Papa looked deep into Brainy's eyes. "What is frightening you my little smurf?"
More tears poured down Brainy's face before he blurted out, "I'm scared of the other smurfs hurting me more!"
The eldest and his three athletes jumped at the outburst as Brainy burst into more tears. Gutsy wrapped both his arms around the smart smurf and repositioned him so he was crying on the scotsman's chest. Hefty and Grouchy soon followed suit, surrounding Brainy in a warm hug. As soon as Papa processed the explanation, he rose from his seat. The three athletes slowly pulled away from Brainy as Papa walked up to him.
"Brainy," the elder smurf began. "You shouldn't be afraid to live here in this village. None of the other smurfs will hurt you again, and if they do you can always tell me. I'm sorry I didn't see the signs sooner, and it hurts me to think one of my little smurfs wanted to kill himself," tears fell down Papa's face and disappeared into his beard. "And I'm very proud of you for realizing that it wasn't the smurfiest solution to the problem. You need to know that no matter what happens, you will always have me here you can talk to. And I'm sure that Hefty, Gutsy, and Grouchy won't let anysmurf hurt you anymore."
Brainy wiped his eyes away only to have more tears fall. "Y-your still not m-mad at me?"
Papa smiled as more tears fell. "Of course not my little smurf. I'm very proud of you for being brave enough to tell me all of this. And I will do everything I can to make things right again. I promise."
Brainy began sobbing softly again as Papa embraced him. Hefty and Gutsy soon joined, finally Grouchy couldn't resist the moment as he too held the smart smurf, still wondering when he would be able to make Jokey fully pay for what he had done to his little brother.
