Emergency

A/N: I do not own anything. Copyrights remain with their respective owners.

Thanks to the guests for their reviews. Also thanks to Adrianiforever and Realityorfiction for your reviews.

This is a flashback one-shot back to Junior Year Spring Break after Tristin left Rory and Chilton.

IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE

This following chapter contains references to self-harm and contains an instance of this.

Please do not read on if you are at squeamish or easily disturbed or at risk of emotional, mental or psychological problems.

This one-shot is rated M. Please proceed to read this one-shot at your own risk.

Otherwise, if you decide to read on, I hope you enjoy reading this one-shot.

Tristin Dugray sat alone on his bed in the sparse room at Cedar Pines Military School. Currently, it was Spring Break, but as his father had made abundantly clear, Tristin was not allowed back at all to Hartford until he graduated, including summer holidays. Cedar Pines had accepted a generous donation from his father to make sure that he got into no trouble over the holidays. Whilst Tristin had never really needed his parents, once he had hit his early teens, it still hurt that he was in effect exiled from everything and everyone that mattered to him, especially his grandfather Janlen who was the only one in his family to show him any love for a long time.

His brother Lucas had left for Harvard when Tristin was barely in his teens and never really came back home to visit, spending his time with long time girlfriend Serena and at work learning the ropes at Dugray Global Industries.

Charlie had left for college as well, four years after Lucas, but spent his time cocooned in his own world when he returned to Hartford for the holidays, preferring to spend time with friends, or mostly in his room with his guitar when he was in the house. Tristin knew that Charlie had deliberately went and made friends outside of Hartford as his own form of rebellion against their parents.

Neither of them really spent time with Tristin any more. He was sure they just viewed him just as someone who they lived with, like Tristin viewed his parents, not worthy of time and love.

As he lay there pondering in the spare time he had now, he thought back to when he had first arrived at Cedar Pines Military School. Everything had been so different to what he was used to. He had never been self-reliant, and had never had to do any of the mundane things of life for himself. He remembered that he had been in trouble so much at the beginning. The teachers and drill sergeants did not give any mercy if you were late, or your work or chores or performance in drills were not up to scratch. Tristin had found himself doing extra drills, or extra chores a lot at the beginning, at least for the first three, four months until he had caught up physically to the others. A good side effect was that he looked better than ever, his muscles had become more defined through all of that extra military drills and chores.

Sometimes on the weekend, the students would be let out to the town, always on best behaviour though. Having nothing else to do, he wandered out into the recreation room, and switched the large television that the school had on. The news channel was playing.

As he looked at the screen, he saw a funeral being attended by many. The TV news reader said, "yesterday, the funeral of prominent American industrialist, Janlen Dugray was attended by many mourners in Hartford, Connecticut." Tristin stared at the TV in shock, his grandfather's funeral had been yesterday and no one had told him.

His grandfather, his favourite member of the family was dead, and no one had told him. He would have wanted to go to the funeral if he had known. He was sure that his father would have let him go back for the funeral. Shutting the TV off, he walked almost automatically to the Commander's office, Now there's no one left who cares, he thought to himself, as he allowed a tear to fall down his right cheek. Hastily he wiped the errant tear away before knocking on the door. He had to fight his emotions, there was no tears in military school.

"Come in," Commander Washington stated, as the door opened. Tristin saw that the commander was looking over some paperwork. When he saw Tristin's face, even the military poker face that he had developed dropped in sadness. The commander could guess why Tristin was here. He could see the pain on Tristin's face and he felt sorry that he had to add to it. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said.

He knew what Tristin wanted, that was to go home and say goodbye to his grandfather, but he couldn't let that happen. Tristin was still legally a minor, and he was legally bound to obey Jason Dugray's wishes. And Jason had rung up before and said that Tristin was not allowed home, not even for his grandfather's funeral.

"I can't," the commander replied, "your father already rang and said you can't go home. For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Dugray, but I am legally obliged to follow your father's wishes."

Tristin's face hardened when he heard what the commander said, "then there is nothing to do. Good day, sir," he replied. He wanted nothing more to get out of there, and when he heard the dismissed, he basically ran all the way back to his room, before anyone else could see him break down.

Tristin sat alone on his bed trying to process what had happened. His favourite family member was dead, and he hadn't been allowed to attend the funeral. Tears began to run down his face freely. After about ten minutes of sobbing, he had to clean himself up in the bathroom.

When he saw his face in the mirror, the boy who looked back at him was broken, a mess. He saw how pathetic he really was. What his father had said, what Rory had said came back. All of them thought he was pathetic and useless.

He remembered back at the end of the sophomore year, when he had wanted to go with Rory to PJ Harvey, back when he had thought that she had liked him. "You're pathetic, Tristin. Keep the books," she had said. When the bag-boy had that had broken her heart had shown up, she had shouted so loud that half the courtyard could hear that she, Rory Gilmore, hated Tristin and that she loved the bag-boy even though he had broken up with her and hurt her. He never would have hurt her. The words had pierced his heart. The one person who he knew was unafraid to speak her mind and tell the truth had declared that he was hated. He knew then and there, that he wasn't loveable. No one could love him.

And then they had been put together in junior year, for that Romeo and Juliet play. "You make it impossible for anyone to be nice to you. No wonder you had to join our group. Anyone who's actually suffered through the experience of going out with you would absolutely know better." She had driven another dagger through his heart. She hadn't changed her opinion of him, really, even though she had pretended to make nice as if she cared, earlier that week. It had confirmed for him again, that he was just undeserving of real love. All he deserved was scorn and hate.

He remembered what his father had said when he had been caught stealing from Bowman's dad's safe. For goodness sake, Bowman had the key. Why else would an adult give their son the key to their safe if not to allow access. But his father hadn't bothered with that explanation. He had just told Tristin that he was pathetic, why couldn't he stay out of trouble, why couldn't he be like Lucas or Charlie who were successful, hard-working and didn't break the law. "Why did God inflict a rotten child like you on me," his father had raged. "All you know is how to spend my money, drag our family name through the mud, and bed those sluts. You're useless to the company and therefore useless to this family." He had then said that he was sending Tristin to military school in North Carolina. "I don't want to see you until you become a responsible man."

His mother was always at her DAR functions busy with her friends and their 'cause of the week', his brothers Lucas and Charlie were off on their own at work and college, living their own lives, probably all quietly laughing at how pathetic he was. Lucas and Charlie were both such good Dugray children, successful in everything that they attempted. Lucas had been an all-state basketball player and in the top five academically at Chilton, Charlie had been valedictorian at Chilton for his year. Success seemed to come so easy to them, whereas Tristin felt he could do nothing right.

He rammed his fist into the mirror, as it shattered, jagged pieces of glass flying onto the floor. As his opened the tap to clean his bloody, raw knuckles, he began to pick up the pieces of glass, to throw them into the bin, knowing that he was in trouble. A stray thought ran through his mind, who cares if I'm in trouble. The one person who loved me is gone. He stopped and sank down to the floor, numb from the dull pain of losing the only person who had ever loved him. He didn't know how much time passed, but the pain did not subside, as much as he wanted to. He squeezed his right hand into a fist, forgetting that he still held a piece of glass in it. It started to bleed, and the pain of his grandfather's death was replaced temporarily with the pain of the glass cutting his hand.

The jagged piece of glass he had picked up in his right hand, brought down to his left forearm, turning it so that it was palm up, even though his right palm was bleeding, he clutched the shard between his fingers. He ran the jagged edge of glass over his arm, and he hissed quietly, as a cut opened up, weeping blood. Yes, he thought, as the pain of his grandfather's death was replaced by this new raw pain. But as his body began to heal, and the sharp pain of the initial cut dulled, he felt the pain of his grandfather's death hit him again. He had to get rid of it, so he drew the shard across his arm again, rewarded once more as the new raw and intense pain replaced the dull ache of missing Janlen.

As the pain from each cut subsided, he drew the jagged piece of glass over his skin again, wanting to feel anything but the pain of his father's death. On and on it went, a new weeping line of red over his forearms. As he began to lose more blood, everything began to fade to black but the pain had subsided now, to a dull throbbing.

Charlie had been home for the holidays, and for his grandfather's funeral, from Harvard when he heard a phone ring in the house as he passed through the hallway into the kitchen. Picking the phone up, he listened as the voice on the other end said, "I'm looking for Mr Jason Dugray, I haven't been able to reach his office or his cellphone."

"May I know who's calling," Charlie had asked. "Why are you calling?"

"I'm looking for Mr Jason Dugray," the speaker reiterated. He could hear something strange in her voice, she talked after a long pause as if she were trying to think of what to say. "It's an emergency."

"I'll pass the message on to him, I'm his son, Charlie," he replied, "just let me get a pen." He grabbed a convenient pen and paper.

"I need to tell him personally," the speaker said, as she rattled off a return telephone number. "He'll know what it is about. Thanks." The lady on the other end of the phone hung up before Charlie could get a chance to enquire any further. The lady on the other end of the phone hadn't told him anything about the purpose of the call except that his father would know.

Well, he had the only clue in his hand right now, the telephone number. Turning back and going to his room, he booted up his computer as he put the phone number into Google. The search results came up empty. He tried the telephone directory website as well, but that also came back empty handed. He sat and thought about what else he could do. The only other thing he could think of was to call the number back from a public payphone or something like that.

Leaving the message on his father's desk, as his father wouldn't be back until late tonight, he was probably still in the air flying from Europe, he put on a jacket, and headed down towards the closest Hartford Mall. Taking his BMW and driving down, he executed a perfect park in the space and proceeded to find the closest payphone.

Dialling the number, he heard the ring, ring of the phone. He heard, "Cedar Pines Military School, this is Natalie speaking." He hung up abruptly, shocked. Cedar Pines Military School, what the heck was his father getting a call from a Military School for, and one at home as well. He rushed straight back home and logged onto the internet again and searched for Cedar Pines Military School.

The website that was bought up stated that the school was in North Carolina for high school aged students. Military school, Charlie thought, why would his dad have anything to do with military school, the only high school aged person in his family was Tristin, and he was away in Europe at boarding school in England. Unless his father had a secret child somewhere from an affair, but that was unlikely, he still remembered that his parents hadn't begun to fight until about ten years ago, so having a high school aged child in military school was unlikely.

He would have to ask his father or, as he thought as he lay on his bed, he could call back and pretend to be his father. Though he would need to moderate and lower his voice. Picking up the phone, he redialled the number. Once he had heard the introduction, he said, in a disguised deep voice, "this is Jason Dugray, returning your call. My son gave said it was an emergency."

"Let me put you through to Commander Washington," he heard the receptionist say. The hold music started to play, a military march. Charlie scoffed, how predictable, in his mind, as he waited.

"Mr Dugray," he heard the voice of a man, definitely sounding like a military man. "We regret to inform you that your son, Tristin is in hospital. He's been sedated. You need to make the medical decisions." As Charlie heard those words he could barely hold his emotions in. "Thank you for telling me," he said, as his voice broke a little. Charlie put down the phone.

What the hell was Tristin doing in military school, and in hospital. His father had told everyone that he was in boarding school in England. Part of him wanted to fly down straight away to North Carolina, but then what would that do. He had no power to do anything. No, he would have to wait for his father.

As he stewed over what he was going to say as he took his dinner, with his mother, he wasn't even sure if she knew that Tristin was in Military School. His dad could have easily fed the lie to everyone, after all he was such a practised liar. He didn't even know if Lucas knew either. Involving his mother was probably not the best thing to do anyway, and with Lucas and his girlfriend Serena in New York, away from Hartford, he didn't want to spoil their time together. He would have to handle it himself.

When his father returned three hours later, he followed his father back into his father's private study. "What do you want, Charlie," he heard his father say, as he closed the door behind them, "it's not like you to come and see me at all." Over the last few years, he had known that Charlie had almost stopped speaking to him, and spent time either cooped up in his room with his music, or out, firstly in Hartford, and then up at Harvard.

Charlie replied, "I received a phone call this afternoon from Cedar Pines Military School." Charlie stared at his father's eyes, looking for anything to see if there would be any shock. "What I want to know, is why? Why did you do this to Tristin. He must have wanted to come back for grandfather's funeral if he was in Military School." He hadn't been as close to Janlen as Tristin had been.

He could see his father's eyes harden, "they weren't supposed to speak to you," he said, his voice showing his controlled fury. "no one else was supposed to know. Not even your mother."

Charlie scoffed, "I pretended to be you. We sound alike enough to fool someone who's only spoken to you a couple of times. Don't think that you hide everything that well, father. Tristin's in a coma in hospital. I want to go down to North Carolina."

"You will do nothing of the sort," his father, replied, "Charles Todd Dugray, you listen and you listen good, you will not go to North Carolina, you will not speak of this to your mother or Lucas." He rose from behind his desk, his full six-foot height trying to intimidate his son.

"Do you think you can intimidate me like that," Charlie replied, standing up. "I'm going no matter what you say. I only wanted to talk to you to inform you that I was going and to ask why would you lie to everyone like that. There are things that I know that about both you and mother that would ruin your precious image."

His father's eyes bulged further in anger but Charlie knew it was futile anger. He had spent too much time watching his parents marriage crumble and taking note of everything. "But I'll make you a deal, you tell me why, and let me choose my life until the end of college, and I'll work at Blackwood and Whitestone like you always wanted me to," Charlie said. Letting his father feel that he was victorious would always assuage his anger, it was something that Lucas had told him when they were younger. He would leave them alone and not make things hard. He knew his father had always wanted him to work at Blackwood and Whitestone before becoming Chief Counsel at Dugray Global, but he had wanted to become an environmental lawyer and help save the rainforests, to do good in the world. But his family, his brother was more important than that.

"You want to know why. It's because Tristin is a little useless piece of crap," his father stated, "he only knows how to spend my money and tarnish our image. I could forgive him his trysts with society girls because frankly most of them are sluts and will continue to be sluts for the rest of their lives, I could forgive the pranks at school. But breaking into a safe took it too far. The criminal charges would have affected Dugray Global, and I wasn't going to allow that happen. Luckily, Bowman's father owed me a favour, and don't think that hasn't cost the company money too. Tristin made his bed, now he has to lie in it."

He continued, "The two of you I knew would succeed whether you had the Dugray money or not. I never had to worry about Lucas and you. I was a younger son until your uncle Jonathan died. The two of you would have had to make it yourself, I was already making my own career when that truck killed Jon. When I became heir, I promised myself that my children would all be able to succeed independently. I knew that Lucas would have been playing NBA, if he hadn't been the heir to Dugray Global. I know that you would have ended up working at the UN or something like that helping out the impoverished." His father's voice broke slightly, "Tristin's been nothing but trouble, at the rate he's going he'll never be able to stand on his own. That's why I sent him away, to make something of himself. That's why I never allowed him to come back even for the funeral. He made his choices and had to face the consequences. Now get out of here. Go be with that useless son of mine." His tone was dismissive.

Even though TJ had the closest relationship with his grandfather Janlen out of everyone else in the family throughout the last few years, Charlie had thought it strange that TJ had not attended the funeral, but his father had said back then, that they didn't want to interrupt Tristin's great start at Boarding School in England. Now he knew that was all a lie. His father had wanted to punish Tristin. Now it was up to Charlie to fix the mess. He had to try. He couldn't fix the mess that was his father and mother's marriage, but hopefully this time he would succeed.

"Father," Charlie said. He hadn't known that Tristin had broken into a safe or that his father had felt the way he did. It still didn't excuse not allowing Tristin to return to for Janlen's funeral though. "TJ's in a coma. It's bad. You're his father. You're our father, he needed you to be there, and you weren't. I don't think he trust or loves you enough. I have to try. I need you to sign me over medical authority. I'm sorry it had to be this way. But Tristin's hurt real bad and I have to try to save what's left of this family after watching the shambles of a marriage that you and mum have descended to." His father pulled out a pen and signed a letter stating that Charlie could make medical decisions for Tristin.

"I'll be in touch," Charlie said, as he closed the door behind him as he left upstairs to pack. He missed the small look of regret that passed through his father's eyes as the door closed.

As the driver took him in the Dugray limo to the airport, Charlie allowed himself a few tears in the privacy of the back seat. He was going to have a lot of work to do. Not knowing how TJ was down in North Carolina. If Tristin was really bad, he would transfer down to North Carolina next semester, to Duke University, but his first focus was seeing to TJ's health before flying back to Harvard after semester break.

The plane ride and then the taxi ride to the hospital, had given Charlie a great deal of time to think about what was going to happen. Entering the hospital foyer, even though it was the dead of night, he asked to see his brother and the attending doctor. The nurse led him to room 2312 and Doctor Matheson. The older man looked into Charlie's eyes, a sad look. "Tristin is your younger brother?"

"Yes," Charlie replied, "my father couldn't make it, he's busy." He gave the excuse, "so he sent me instead, with this letter. He knows that I'm responsible. Can you tell me what happened."

"We're not one hundred percent sure, but Tristin was found in his dormitory at Cedar Pines Military School, bleeding to death, there seems to be many scars on his arms. We fear that Tristin has been self-harming. I've recommended that he see a psychiatrist. I wanted to ask about your family situation to see what type of treatment he should get."

Charlie sighed, how did it get so bad, how come he hadn't seen how badly off TJ was. He knew that as their parents marriage crumbled, he had drawn within himself, Lucas had gone off to college and had met Serena and fell in love. And he kicked himself mentally for forgetting about TJ, but still it had just been the way he had dealt with his parents. Part of him blamed his parents for the way that TJ was now, but it was in the past. "Unfortunately, the family situation hasn't been so good for a while."

"I understand," the doctor replied, as he led him to TJ's room. "You should go see him." Charlie entered the hospital room, and saw the monitors beeping steadily showing that TJ was merely unconscious. He saw both of TJ's forearms were wrapped in bandages. As he sat beside TJ, he grasped one of his hands in his own and said, "TJ, I'm here to you." He continued to sit in the hospital chair with TJ's hand clasped on his own. As tiredness overtook him, he dozed asleep gently. The night nurse checked in the room, and covered Charlie with a blanket.

As the suns rays began to shine through the hospital room window, TJ began to stir. He felt a strange pressure on his hand. As his eyes opened he looked over, and saw that his hand was grasped by his brother Charlie's. A tear ran down TJ's face as he watched his brother stir awake too. "I'm here," he heard his brother say. "I'm here for you. To help you get better," his voice radiated familial love. The first genuine smile in years crossed TJ's face as he lay there with his brother holding his hand.

A/N: Please read and reviews are very much appreciated. I'm new to this fandom so any help on characterization and facts and tidbits is very much appreciated.