It's Thanksgiving and the family is gathered around the dining table like every year. Roman is 15, and frankly embarrassed at having to spend this day with his family and a few of his father's colleagues. Not that he has anywhere else to be, but he could do, hypothetically.
"You alright, son?" Frank asks. He's always been patronising towards Roman, just because he's seen his dad hit him a few times. If there's one thing Roman hates, it's pity.
"Not your son," he replies and Frank shrugs. He's always been more interested in Kendall anyway. He's practically Ken's godfather, except that Ken was never actually baptised.
Kendall's seat is empty and it hits Roman that he's been gone for a while. "Where's Ken?" he asks.
"Aww, missing him already?" Shiv taunts from across the table. "He hasn't shut up about him since he left for college," she says to Gerri as an aside.
"Alright, shut up." Roman gets up. "I'll just go check on him."
Everything is fine, he tells himself as he checks the numerous bathrooms in the house, ignoring the prickling feeling telling him that this could be a life-altering moment. He's always had a sixth sense where Kendall is concerned. Shiv too, but that's more how to annoy as much as possible rather than danger signals.
When he finally finds one of the bathrooms locked, he knocks on the door. "Hey, Ken?" he calls. "Quit jerking it and get downstairs. I'm stuck talking to Frank and Gerri. Not that Gerri's not hot, but..." There's no reply and Roman tries the door handle again. "Ken?" When there's still no reply, panic sets in. "Kendall, I need you to open this door, okay? Otherwise I'll have to break it down." He's pretty sure that only trained door-breakers can do that, but he tries slamming himself against the door anyway, to no avail.
He's about to raise the alarm, get someone stronger up here to smash the door to smithereens, when he remembers a trick he learned at military school. How to pick a lock with a credit card. He always keeps a card in his pocket. It takes several fumbling attempts, but finally the door clicks open.
Kendall is lying face down on the floor, next to the sink. Roman turns him over, his heart thumping, and sees blood coming from Kendall's nose and drool coming from the side of his mouth.
"Ken?" He shakes his brother's shoulders, in a panic. Kendall stirs, he's breathing. Roman takes his phone out of his other pocket — cell phones are getting smaller and smaller, soon they'll just be a microchip that you talk into — and flips it open.
He calls the ambulance while simultaneously running downstairs to shout for help. "Dad? It's Kendall, he's unconscious — hello? Yes, it's my brother, I need an ambulance…" Shiv is already running upstairs, calling "Kendall?" Connor is close behind her.
When the ambulance finally arrives, Kendall is carried downstairs on a stretcher while Logan answers questions about his medical history. Roman expects his father to be mostly concerned about the optics of the situation, but Logan is white-faced, saying, What happened? and Is my boy going to be alright?
Roman and Shiv travel in the ambulance, having a whole conversation with their eyes while Connor witters on about how Kenny will be fine. They arrive at the normo hospital where Ken is whisked into ICU. Connor, Roman and Shiv are given a private room to wait in, at least.
"Should I call Mom?" Roman asks, pacing.
"No. There's no need. He'll be fine," Connor repeats. "No need to worry Caroline unnecessarily."
Shiv doesn't even take the opportunity to diss their mother's absent parenting. She lets out a sob and Connor puts an arm around her.
"What about Stewy?" Roman asks. His brother's best friend is probably the person closest to him, besides Roman. "He should know."
"He's probably the one who gave him whatever did this," Connor snaps. It's the first time they've acknowledged the reason that Kendall is here.
Logan arrives shortly after them, with Frank and Gerri at his side. He yells at a few doctors and gets confirmation that yes, Kendall is going to be fine. It was just a bad reaction to whatever he took, but thankfully he was found in time.
Once he knows that Kendall will recover, Logan calms down and gets down to business. Gerri is there to take care of the legals, to stop the story getting into the press. They all go over exactly what happened, including the fact that Roman was the one who found Kendall and called the ambulance.
Roman waits for the blow to fall, for his father to bawl him out for bringing the family name into disrepute.
Logan ruffles Roman's hair and says, "Well done, son."
Roman is suddenly very glad that he saved his brother's life.