A little later that morning, most of the Tracy family found themselves back at Gordon's bedside. The aquanaut was still unconscious and unaware of their presence, leisurely breathing into the ventilator tubes, his chest rising and falling in rhythm. He was still looking as pale as a ghost, his colour refusing to come back to him in his vulnerable state.

Virgil was sitting closest to his brother, his hand resting on top of Gordon's arm as dull thoughts clouded his mind. The artist still couldn't believe that all of this was happening - he was struggling to keep up with it.

To begin with, he couldn't believe his little brother had actually been in a high profile crash on the news because that sort of thing didn't - well, shouldn't have happened in the first place. He just couldn't believe it.

But apparently it had happened and as a result had again plunged the family into the unwanted spotlight, with reporters making up their own theories and agendas about what had happened for the accident to have occurred, coming up with their own ideas and in the process making Gordon look like the enemy and not the victim. According to them, the crash was HIS fault. HE had been going too fast.

Utter bull.

Virgil also couldn't get over the fact Gordon - the untameable Gordon, was now stricken in his bed on death's door, unaware that his family were desperately rooting for him to pull through. It was so unlike his brother to be still like that, so to see him this way was very disheartening for the family.

Everything sucked.

Jeff sensed Virgil's discomfort and dropped a hand on his shoulder. Virgil just sighed.

"It's raining again." Alan noted, watching through the window as rain fell from the dark clouds.

"Seems like it's been raining ever since his accident." Grandma put in, and John nodded in agreement.

"Sounds about right. He always was the sunshine of the group." Scott smiled weakly, his eyes drifting to Gordon's lone form.

"Have you spoken to the Doctor, yet?" John asked his father, who shook his head.

"He had an appointment with another patient when I went to see him. He said he would come and talk to me shortly. You don't want him to catch you all in here either so you better make yourselves scarce."

Alan folded his arms, grumbling endlessly. "It's not fair. I don't see why we can't all just sit in here with him, I mean, what's the problem?"

"I think they feel like we're suffocating him as there's so many of us." Scott said, causing Alan to huff. "We're a big family and it's a little room."

"That's not our fault." Virgil muttered under his breath.

"But we're not suffocating him! I just want to be close to him, why won't they just let us be with him?" Alan whined, hating being told what to do by rules he deemed stupid in Gordon's time of need.

"I know it's hard, son, but rules are rules. Besides, I was thinking you and your brothers could take a little day trip together."

All four sons looked at their father. "A day trip?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"How do you expect us to go on a day trip with Gordon laying here like this?" Alan snapped, feeling his face go red.

Scott understood his father's intentions, but like Alan he wasn't happy about it either. He decided to agree with him to save face. "Dad's right, it's not healthy for us all to be milling about here. It'll be good to take our minds off his situation for a bit."

John nodded and let out a small sigh, sliding up from his chair. "I'm game. Besides, we haven't spent much time together in a while so we ought not to waste any opportunity to be together."

Scott smiled at John's positivity.

"Plus we're in one of Gordon's favourite towns: Marineville. It would be nice for us to get to know it a little better." Virgil reasoned, coming to the conclusion seconds before verbalizing it.

"But- but-!" Alan protested. "We can't just leave him there!"

"We're not leaving him, dear." his grandmother chimed, patting Gordon's bed covers. "You boys go out and have fun. Get your minds off your brother for a little while."

"Come on sprout." John said softly, guiding Alan out the room. Scott and Virgil followed, nodding goodbye to their father and grandmother.

"See you later."

The door closed behind them, and Grandma turned to her son, knowing there was something wrong by how rigid he stood. "Well, Jefferson?"

"Well what?"

"Don't give me the same baloney you were feeding your children just now. I know you better than anybody." her firm words turned anxious. "What is it, son? What happened?"

"I did manage to speak to the doctor. He- he-" Jeff almost lost his composure. "Doctor McCain says he's got weeks at the most in his current state."

"Weeks?" Grandma blarted.

"Weeks."

"Oh Jeff." his mother wept, falling back into her seat.

Jeff approached her, taking her shoulders. "I didn't have the heart to tell the boys. Losing Gordon would-" he found himself getting choked up, so paused until he found his self-control again. "Would break them."

The two huddled together as a downpour began outside.