Chapter 4: Visit

Arthur opened his eyes slowly and found himself lying on his side, facing the window. He took a quick glance around that side of the room, looking desperately for William, but he wasn't there. His heart began to race, afraid that his brother had left him. Sitting up too quickly, looked around the entire room.

"Whoa! Arthur, calm down." William grabbed the blonde's hand.

A wave of dizziness swept through the boy and he layed down, trying to stop the room from spinning. The tears that had just about started flowing, were stopped in there tracks. Arthur looked away, ashamed that he had though William left him. "I though you left."

A look of shock came over the red head's face, but softened at the fearful look in the brother's eyes. "Arthur, I promised I wouldn't leave you, so I won't leave. In fact, I've been thinking. I think you should move in with me."

Arthur's eyes lit up and William was sure that he had never seen so much true happiness before, in all of his life. It was as if his brother was just given the best news in his entire life, which was probably true. William smiled, happy that he could make Arthur feel that way.

"Really?" Arthur asked. Even though he was happy about the prospect of getting to live with his brother, he was still a little wary about it. He didn't want to get his hopes up.

"Absolutely. Where else would you go?"

"I... I don't know."

Willam smiled and brushed his hand through Arthur's hair. "Well I can't leave you here, considering my promise. Plus, you're my little brother. I wouldn't leave you anyway."

The look that Arthur gave him was so innocent that William nearly drew him into his arms to give him a hug. He restrained himself, however, afraid that he would scare the boy. He just looked so small and fragile that William couldn't help but try and protect him to his fullest ability. A knock on the door interrupted their moment and the Dr. Davison walked in.

"Good to see you're awake. We still need to finish examining you."

"Examining him? I thought you did that yesterday."

"For rape, yes. For the rest of his injuries, no. I found evidence of mulitple bruises all over his body, and in case you haven't noticed, but he's extremely thin, almost bordering on emaciated," she said, trying to keep her voice from sounding offensive.

"Yes, I have noticed it, but I didn't know it required tests."

"We need to know how bad it is."

William sighed and looked to Arthur, who seemed a little confused at what was being said. He finally spoke up, and in a quiet voice, he asked, "Am I going to die?"

The doctor had not been expecting that question, but answered immediately. "Of course not, sweet heart. We just need to know what's wrong so we can make you better."

Arthur nodded, though he still seemed a little scared. He almost seemed to shrink into the bed a little, but when the doctor came over to him, he didn't try to move away. She first meassured his pulse and various other things before lifting the front of his gown to reveal his torso. William was shocked. Sure he knew that his brother was very underweight, but he had been too focused on getting him to the hospital yesterday, that he hadn't noticed how bad it was. The teen's ribs were very clearly defined as well as his hip bone. He also noticed the bruises that littered his malnourished form

"Hmm, It's as bad as I thought," she said as she straightened up. "You are one of the luckiest patients I've ever had, who have been in this condition."

The blonde simply stared at her, unsure of how to answer. She made a few notes on a clipboard and told them that she would set him up on a regular diet and have to remain in the hospital until his life was no longer threaten by undernourishment.

"How long will that be, do you supose?"

"I'm not sure, but he might need to stay in for a month, maybe longer. It depends on his body's reaction. For now we'll take things slow and we'll be sure to set him up with a therapist for his time here."

William almost slapped his forehead. He hadn't even considered a therapist. Before the doctor could leave, he stopped her. "Wait! Will you please make sure it's a female?"

"Of course I will. I wasn't about to set him up appointments with a man."

"Right, sorry, I was just making sure..."

Dr. Davison smiled. "I know you're being very protective right now, but I understand and you don't have to worry."

William nodded and grabbed Arthur's hand. When he saw the slightly frightened expression on Arthur's face, he smiled. "You'll be out of here before you know it." And with that, he place a kiss on his forehead, and gave him a quick hug. "I love you, Arthur."

A single tear fell out of the boy's eye and he quickly wiped it away. No one told him that they loved him since his mother died.

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The next month passed rather quickly, and William contacted the other two siblings and told them of the situation. They were shocked that their father would do such a thing and Connor mentioned how it probably had something to do with their mother dying. William told him that it still didn't justify what their father did and Connor defended himself that he didn't think so either. In all the brother's were shocked and planned to visit as soon as they could, which wouldn't be until two months away. The rest of the month was a bit rocky.

While Arthur's weight was picking up, his progress with the therapist had shown no improvement. The blonde still remained a shy teen, extremely afraid of all males, with his brother being the exception. William wasn't sure what to do with his little brother, but he wouldn't give up. He was determined to get him into a proper school by the time the next school year rolled around. Arthur had spoken of how his education consisted of school books that his father had given to him to study, because the man didn't want him to be a "stupid git, who didn't know anything." The boy had been teaching himself for almost ten years now. William couldn't believe that his father had even given him the books, but all things considered, he was glad he did. The education, even if self taught, was needed in getting into some kind of school. Otherwise, he was basically screwed.

Arthur was released from the hospital and William brought him home, revealing that he had recently bought the house and was giving the father a surprise visit when he had found Arthur. He planned to move into town so he could be closer to family. Turns out that his "family" was a lot farther than he had originally thought. Arthur was confused with the wording that William used, and was told that it was metaphorical. Arthur nodded, though still not quite understanding what he meant. He was set up in the spare bedroom and William bought multiple articles of clothing, considering that Arthur had next to nothing in their father's house.

"Well then, I really hope you find yourself at home here. If you need anything, just ask me, okay?"

Arthur nodded. After William left the room, the boy crawled onto his bed and stared at the floor, thinking about the past month, and considering all that his brother had done for him. He didn't feel that he deserved to be the center of William attention, and considered what would have happened if he never came for the surprise visit. The teenager shuddered at the thought and hugged his legs closer. What did he do to deserve all this love from his brother? After a little while William opened the door slowly and peeked in.

"Hey, Arthur. I just wanted to let you know that Sean and Connor are visiting tomorrow. Evidently they were able to come a month early."

Arthur nodded and grabbed his pillow, holding it close. William walked over and sat down next to him on the bed.

"Have you left this bed once since we got here?"

The blonde looked into William's eyes and looked away and said with a whisper, "No..."

William sighed and a brushed his hand through the boy's hair. "Arthur, you can't stay here forever. You've been in this room for almost two hours, just sitting here."

Arthur didn't look back at William, but instead continued to stare at the floor, ashamed. "S-Sorry..."

"What are you apologizing for? You've got nothing to be sorry for. I just don't want to to stay cooped up in this room, is all." William placed his hand on the teen's shoulder. "Come on, I've got dinner ready."

They both stood and made their way to the dining room, and ate their dinner in silence. The rest of the evening was rather uneventful until it got to bathing. As soon as William mentioned the word, Arthur ran. He hid from William in a closet. The red head spent the better part of an hour calling out to him, and coaxing him from where ever he was.

"Arthur, come on. You can bathe yourself, I won't even be in the room, if that'll help." The boy didn't respond, still shaking in the closet. The foot steps approached the dark room for the tenth time, but this time they stopped in front of it. "Arthur, please."

The blonde looked at the knob, expecting William to just open the door and drag him out, but he did no such thing. The sound of shuffling feet then cloth slidding on something came to the boys ears, then silence ensued once more. After a few minutes, Arthur reached out and twisted the knob, opening the door slowly and silently. He saw William sitting on the floor against the opposite wall, his face buried in his hands.

"William?"

Said man looked up from his hands and into Arthur's eyes. He stood up and pulled the young blonde into an embrace. Arthur's eyes widened. He was scared at the sudden movement. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have scared you like that, but I was concerned when you ran off like that."

Arthur pulled away and grabbed his brother's hand. "I'm sorry I ran away..."

William smiled and led him to the bathroom. "I placed some clean clothes on the counter in the bathroom and fresh towels are folded up on the rack."

Arthur nodded and walked in, releasing William's hand so he could shut the door. He started the water and stepped in, cleaning himself as fast as he possibly could. He was still afraid of the baths and showers, but he swallowed his fear, knowing that he had to clean himself eventually. He remembered how the female nurses would wash him with a cloth after he would freak out upon their suggestion of taking a shower.

Once he was finished, he turned of the water and dried himself before quickly donning the clothes placed for him. He left the bathroom and found William sitting in the kitchen talking with two man that he didn't recognize.

"William?" Arthur called out, unsure.

All three pairs of eyes looked to Arthur and one of the mystery men smiled at him.

"Hey little brother. I was just telling Will here that not only were we able to come a month sooner, but also a day earlier. Turns out I misjudged the time it would take to get here."

The other man punched him in the shoulder, "Yeah not only that, but you nearly got us lost!"

"Quiet down both of you!" William hissed at the two.

Arthur was starting to tremble and the man who had spoken first, was the first to notice. "Arthur, are you okay?"

"No he's not, Sean," William sighed, walking over the the small blonde. "Arthur, these are your other two brothers. It's been a long time, but the one with brown hair is Sean and the one with blonde hair is Connor."

Arthur was began to back up slowly, afraid of the two men that were supposedly his brothers. Connor approached him slowly, reaching out his hand.

"Hey, I'm sorry if we scared you," Connor said, getting too close for Arthur's comfort. The boy's legs began to shake more and more with each step the man took. The elder blonde noticed this and stopped. "Arthur, I'm not going to hurt you."

Arthur didn't care, at that point, what Connor was going to do, all he knew was that he was scared out of his mind. He turned around and bolted for his room, slamming the door shut behind him. All three men were left in the room, shocked and confused. Sean was the first to speak up.

"Uh, Will?"

"What?"

"Just how bad was this abuse?"

"I don't know considering I wasn't there." William retorted. How was he supposed to know? That was when he caught Sean looking at something on the ground. "What are you looking at?"

"I think Arthur wet himself."

William looked to the spot that was being pointed at and sure enough, a small puddle sat there. 'Oh shit,' thought William. 'It's worse than I thought.'

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Okay, a little explination as to why Arthur was afraid of Sean and Connor, but not William. William was the one who found him in a bad situation, so Arthur had to trust him if he wanted to get out of that situation. He didn't need Sean or Connor to rescue him so there for he felt no need to trust them. I hoped that helped for those who may not understand. Anyway, don't forget to review~!