Bryan Seth Gordon was born in Birmingham, Alabama late into the cool summer night on April 21st, 1949, to a young sixteen-year-old girl whom he never knew besides the letter she had left him for when he turned sixteen; the age at which she gave him up. Bryan had dusty/dirty blond hair that only grew darker into a lighter brown. He also had blue eyes that would take many foster parents by storm and yet Bryan never grew up in a stable home. He was award of the state till he aged out at 18 (April 21st, 1967). He was in and out of homes, never staying anywhere long enough to form a real bond—or to hold a job. That led Bryan to enlisted himself into the military enrolling himself into boot camp. Where he spent the next eight weeks training and forming bonds between the other recruits around him. One of them, Jeremiah Ryan Holms, becoming his closest friend. The only one he opened to about his past when Jeremiah opened to him about his. When they got deployed to Vietnam Bryan and Jeremiah only grew closer and Bryan started to feel hope for his own future as the optimistic Jeremiah started to place Bryan in his future. Long talks about Jeremiah and Bryan getting a white picket fence homes next to each other, raising their families together like family. Bryan held onto that idea—that dream. That dream was destroyed quickly when the final assignment Jeremiah and Bryan were given ended horribly.
It was only eight years (May 30th, 1975) after Bryan and Jeremiah had graduated boot camp, and as the assignment started, everything went to plan, nothing out of the ordinary. Then their squad was attacked. Bryan can't tell you what went wrong—it wasn't anything on his squad's actions. It was just horribly bad luck. One moment he was giving commands and the next they were ambushed, and Bryan couldn't hear, and his vision was split in two. His heart pounded in his chest, and he couldn't feel his leg—one of them. It was hard to tell which. It was a messy and terrifying situation. Where were his men? Where was Jeremiah? What was happening? The next thing he did know he had found his men—not a single survivor other than himself, and if he looked down, he saw the blood and the massive wound that showed bone in his left leg. He hobbled around and soon found Jeremiah. Not dead, but soon to be dead, laying not that far away and staring at the sky. What happened? Bryan saw the wounds. The one at his next and the one at his abdomen. Bryan went to stop the bleeding soon after he called in a rescue—but Jeremiah stopped his hands looking at the sky. He couldn't speak, and his grip on Bryan's hand was week and Bryan could completely ignore it and place pressure to try and save Jeremiah—but Bryan stopped, and then moved to hold Jeremiah's hand till he died not soon after. Everything was a bloody and gory mess. The rescue team came and gathered him and the bodies of his men, and Jeremiah. Bryan was taken to the medic and patched up the best that they could and was eventually discharged and sent back "home" to America.
When Bryan came "home", he had the duty of personally informing the families of the men he lost, and he volunteered himself in informing Jeremiah's family. He needed to tell them personally. Let them know what kind of impact Jeremiah made on his family. So, when Bryan came home he immediately let Mr. and Mrs. Holms know of their son's unfortunate end, Bryan was surprised when Jeremiah's mother immediately brought him into a hug and practically dragged him inside. Mrs. Holms made Bryan sit down and relax, and asked Bryan if he was doing okay, if there was anything she and her family could do for Jeremiah's best friend. Yet Bryan was so awkward he just left politely and accepted the home number Mrs. Holms gave him. Bryan ended up making his way back to Birmingham, Alabama and started to job hunt, looking for a place to live. He eventually laded a job at a local hardware store and had a one-bedroom apartment that he slowly filled with furniture. It wasn't the life he imagined with Jeremiah, but it was what he was able to accomplish on his own. He didn't have any desire to change how his life was going at the age of 26. Yet when he went out to drink, a habit he made that he wouldn't shake in his lifetime, he met a 20-year-old small town USA woman with dark hair and amber eyes that nearly made him swoon out of his chair. That woman was Rebecca Victoria Roberts. Bryan would soon learn that Rebecca grew up in Mobile, Alabama her entire life and moved to Birmingham to pursue her education career. Bryan couldn't help but offer a drink or two. A decision that would lead to major changes his life.
August 19th, 1977, Bryan and Rebecca eloped to the disapproval of Rebecca's family, who wanted her to have a traditional wedding in their family church. Bryan and Rebecca did have a celebration of their marriage in their small three-bedroom townhouse in the southside of Birmingham. Bryan and Rebecca truthfully didn't want to get married when they did—but the growing baby bump that was getting harder to hide; hell, they were expecting twins and Rebecca's family made it very clear they wouldn't help unless they married each other. So, they eloped knowing that Rebeca was not going to be able to hide her bump in any wedding dress. She was already five months along and with twins. There was only so much that could hide her bump. Their reception went well—though Rebecca's church pastor father wouldn't let them forget that their pregnancy was still out of wedlock—Bryan had to clench his teeth till they all went to their own hotel rooms. January 8th, 1978 came and Rebecca gave birth to twin boys. Jeremy David and Markus Ryan Gordon. Both were named after Jeremiah, something that Rebecca let Bryan do, knowing how much his one and only friend meant to them. Bryan started to soften up as he was the major caretaker of the twins for the first couple months after Rebecca had to recover from an emergency c-section. Bryan also had to reassure her worth as she wasn't producing enough milk for both their sons, and they resorted to formula—which Rebecca's folks couldn't go a moment without saying how they disapprove. Bryan wanted to go back to when he was 16 and knocking people's heads around; but he wasn't 16, he was 28 and working two jobs to help pay for the things babies need and the things they needed. When Jeremy and Markus became a year-old Rebecca and Bryan both agreed that they both needed to work to make this work; but they didn't have anyone around to watch Jeremy and Markus . . . until Bryan remembered Mrs. and Mr. Holms. They were the reason Bryan had his job at the hardware store and the hardware store got him his second job as a mechanic. He reached out to them for childcare. Mrs. Holms was more than happy to watch the sweet babies while he and Rebecca worked—hell Mrs. Holms even worked at making sure Bryan and Rebecca had time to themselves. Then on March 2nd, 1980, Robert Michael Gordon was born. Named after Rebecca's father and grandfather in an attempt to smooth things with her family. Things got tighter and tensions started to heat up between Bryan and Rebecca. With twin toddlers running around the house and a newborn in the picture things went from organized chaos to utter chaos in a manner of months. Bryan's patients started to wear thin, but luckily for him a spot at the high school Rebecca worked at opened up for coach of the High School's new Exy team. And all they wanted was someone to read the play book and warm the seat for a more qualified individual to take the seat. Unfortunately for the high school that person wouldn't come for another 10 years. Bryan got a raise taking the position and to the students and the staff he and Rebecca looked like the perfect couple as they brought their three kids into the daycare together and went on about their days; sharing lunch in the staff room and leaving to drop their boys with Mrs. Holms before they got to their second jobs. Even though tensions started to heat between Bryan and Rebecca, Bryan still saw her as the women he married and the mother to his sons, and he loved her. Everything was still looking up for the family. And when April 21st, 1982, Bryan's 33rd birthday was spent in a hospital with his three boys, four- and two-years old waiting for his fourth son to be born. It was only fitting that he be named after Bryan as the boy was born on the same date as him on 33 years apart. Bryan held Bryan jr. for the first time while Rebecca looked at them both with a smile. Bryan had grown frustrated and angry with Rebecca during her pregnancy—no, once she informed him of her pregnancy. Bryan's anger simmered down as he started to recall his two oldest would going into kindergarten the following year. Bryan grew softer once again, but that didn't stop him from having a drink or four before going to bed every night before coming home from work. Bryan on his days off usually involve him sitting in the living room watching the older boys play together while Rebecca takes care Bryan jr. He's happier than he's ever been, and he gets an image in his mind of the life Jeremiah had planned for them both and he can't help but feel damn well close to it. That happiness didn't last for long.
Rebecca ended up experiencing a major lost in her family. Both her mother, father, and younger brother died in a plane crash; just two months before their fifth son, Emmett Tyler Gordon, who was named for her younger brother, was born. October 23rd, 1984. Rebecca was in a deep depressive state. This frustrated Bryan more then he would admit. Not because he was concerned for her, because the school board threatened to fire Rebecca unless she started to put the same energy back into her students. They couldn't support their family of six on a single income high school Exy coach salary. Weeks and weeks went by, and Bryan grew angrier and angrier as he watched his wife continue to go through the motions each day. Then it happened. One night, after Bryan was pulled into his boss's office to discuss Rebecca once more, he watched Rebecca cry at the end of their bed. He was done waiting. Rebecca still had her older brothers and younger sister in her life. Bryan had no one after he lost Jeremiah and he still reported for duty with the same energy after Jeremiah was no longer on Earth. Bryan confronted Rebecca about it. They fought, and it was a loud, almost violent argument. Yet it was the most emotion Rebecca showed other than a numb blank stare in a month. It ended with Bryan stopping himself from hitting Rebecca and storming off to a bar to drink until he forgot what he was angry about. This cycle went on for weeks, and then it ended with Rebecca getting into Bryan's face and that ended with Bryan backhanding Rebecca across the face before storming out to drink. Rebecca stopped just going through the motions and the next morning Rebecca awoke before everyone and prepared breakfast in seemingly happy manner. Bryan's boss stopped inquiring about Rebecca and Rebecca didn't lose her job. Things were not the same as before, but Bryan and Rebecca's arguments stopped for the time being. It didn't take long be Bryan and Rebecca got drunk together and found themselves in a very familiar situation.
December 1986 was the first Christmas that wasn't spent with yelling and anger from Bryan Sr. Instead, it was happy. Bryan spent time outside playing with Jeremy, Markus, Robert, and trying to include Bryan jr. as much as he could in their games. Bryan also took charge and helped Rebecca look after Emmett as she worked on the cooking as they also hosted Rebecca's older brother, Forest Cole, and sister in-law, Janice Madeline Gordon. Yet Janice seemed to have nothing but criticisms to say about Bryan, Rebecca, the house, and how the boys acted. Bryan put on a front to try to stay positive for his wife, but when the 20th came around, and Janice went on one of her long tirades—Bryan snapped, which thankfully was cut short as Rebecca's water broke and started to go into labor. Bryan pushed his anger to the side and gathered everyone taking Rebecca to the hospital and on the 20th of December, Forest Victor Gordon was born. Rebecca named him for his older brother and mother; giving him the same middle name she had, just in the masculine variant. Bryan staved his anger for one of his sons being named after her older brother. Yet it was a happy time for the family. Forest marked number eight in Bryan's family and in a weird attitude change, he forgot about the money it would take to raise them. The only thing Bryan could have thought would make this Christmas scene better, would for it to of snowed the night they brought Forest home from the hospital. A white Christmas would have made it all the better.
Happiness never lasted long with Bryan as his boss started to get onto him about actually winning more games than losing them. Putting pressure on him and Rebecca. Thankfully almost all his boys were in school. It was most of his kids that were in the high school's daycare. Bryan was starting to come home more agitated then ever and was snapping on his other boys and yelling at Rebecca. He was drinking more often and was secluding himself as much as he could from his family. Looking at the bills that had started to pile once again. The entire house was tense, and he felt the anger rise inside him. So, when Rebecca came to him with the news of a seventh child on the way, Bryan blew up at her. In his anger at the knowledge of their family of eight becoming a family of nine he grabbed a plate from the counter he was standing at and threw it at the wall next to Rebecca's head. This irrational anger towards Rebecca didn't quit or subside after that. It was a constant. Jeremy and Markus got the brunt of the anger while Rebecca was pregnant. They were ten years old and old enough to know you do shit right or not at all. Bryan also became a rather harsh Exy coach—he still treated those players better than his boys and wife.
July 21st,1988, early in the morning Jackson Cole Gordon was born. Bryan didn't even look at him before he walked out of the room before telling Rebecca, "Name it whatever you want I couldn't give a rats ass what this thing is called." When Rebecca and Jackson came home Bryan didn't pay any attention to Jackson. He stayed out all night drinking and would come home angry and just wanting to sleep. His patience with his was wearing thin every day. He couldn't stand being in the house anymore and that "damn fucking baby" was getting on his last nerve. November 9th, 1989 came by and in one of the rare moments that Bryan was sober, yet a cigarette still in his mouth he placed divorce papers in front of Rebecca as she was still taking care of Jackson. Bryan was done. He didn't give Rebecca any chance to discuss this. It was either they divorced and when about this peacefully for Bryan was going to leave that second and she wasn't going to see a cent. Rebecca complied and on April 30th, 1990, Bryan and Rebecca finalized the divorce and Bryan left the next morning not giving any communication besides the court ordered child support check. He wasn't part of his family's life from that point on.