Gordon finished packing his backpack, he was only taking some clothes and his harry potter book, after many months of torture he was finally going to see his family again. Joel was also excited about seeing his family again saying that his family had some exciting news to tell him. they then walked out of their room, saying goodbye to their dorm mates and walked to the front gate where many families were waiting, Joel saw his family at one end, and Gordon saw his at the other. After wishing each other goodbye they separated, Gordon ran and threw himself into Virgil's awaiting arms, glad to be with his favorite brother again.
"Virgy! I missed you!" he said nuzzling into his shirt
"I missed you too squid!" Virgil laughed, not complaining about the nickname and squeezing him tightly, not wanting to let him go
"What am I? dead meat?" Scott asked in mock hurt.
"Scotty!" Gordon yelled wiggling himself out of Virgil's grip and throwing himself at him equally excited to see his oldest brother again "where's dad?" Scott ad Virgil shared a look over his head
"sorry squid, he wanted to be here but...something came up. he'll back tomorrow though" Scott reassured his brother and ruffled his hair but Gordon frowned. did his dad no longer care about him and that's why he wasn't here now?
"so, did you behave in school?" Virgil asked catching the look on his younger brother's face
"maybe," Gordon said mischievously / "I'll take that as a no" Scott said rolling his eyes and unlocking the car so they could go home on the way, they talked about what was going on back home and how Gordon was doing in class (not too many fails to his brothers' relief). when they got home, Gordon was immediately pulled into a hug by his grandma, once he got free a small blond blur crashed into him, sending him to the floor.
"oof" he exclaimed as he fell "Gordy! you're back!" alan yelled in a volume that was far too loud to be in the house, but grandma let it slide just this once.
"yeah," Gordon said, ruffling his brother's hair affectionately "wow, you've grown. you're nearly as tall as me!" he said as he stood up with Alan still cling onto him, it was a lie, Alan was barely taller than his chest but Alan just giggled.
"Yeah, I'm gonna be taller than you one day!"
"only if you eat your vegetables" Scott said, pulling him off Gordon and carrying him upside down by his ankles over his shoulders and swinging him around "now, where's Johnny?"
"he's doing his homework, I wanted to play with him and he told me to go away" Alan giggled as Scott swung him around
"then I'll go talk to him then," Scott said and flopped him down on the couch leaving alan giggling as his brothers' joined him. Scott made his way to John's room and knocked on the door. "go away Alan" came the muffled reply "it's Scott" "oh, go away Scott" Scott rolled his eyes and entered the room, John was seating at his desk surrounded by books "whatever it is you want Scott, can it wait?" he said not looking up "sorry John, but wouldn't you like to see Gordon again?" John paused his writing, as much as he didn't like his misbehaving little brother, he couldn't deny that he missed him, he stood up and followed Scott to the living room where everyone else was gathered. "Johnny!" Gordon yelled and crashed into him, usually, John would groan at the nickname but he let it slide for his brother that he hadn't seen in ages he ruffled his hair "how are you squid?" he asked as they walked over to the couch. "I'm good, so, what else has been happening around here?" Gordon asked and the rest of the family shared looks at each other, except for alan who was busy reaching for a pillow that was behind him. they haven't told Gordon about the crash and it was obvious he didn't know about it either. "Nothing much, it was mostly quiet without you here," Scott said as it was true. the house was a whole lot quieter without Gordon around "what about dad? why didn't he want to pick me up?" luckily the rest of the family was saved from answering that question by Alan throwing a pillow at john's face. "hey!" John exclaimed pulling the pillow off his face and throwing it back, but it missed and hit Virgil instead "sorry Virgil, I was aiming for-" his sentence was cut off by Scott also throwing a pillow at him, soon the lounge was turned into a battlefield of flying pillows. Usually, grandma would have scolded them but she let it slide as Gordon was distracted from any questions about their father, and her grandsons had to start acting like brothers once again. soon the pillow throwing ceased leaving 5 panting brothers trying to catch their breath but with smiles on their faces. "can we watch a movie later?" Gordon asked his grandma "sure, why not. why don't you decide what movie and I'll start dinner" grandma said as she stood up and the brothers brought up their movie collection. "What should we watch?" Scott asked as he started to look through their movies "Dolphin tale!" Gordon declared "you mean the one about the injured dolphin?" Virgil clarified and Gordon nodded. Scott smiled and brought it up, glad to hear no complaints from his brothers. 'guess they really missed the squid' he thought "ooh, let's make a blanket fort!" "you mean like how we used to watch movies?" John said with a smile, he wasn't a big fan of them, but they hadn't made one in a long time, maybe now he'll enjoy it. "ok, why not? we have time while grandma cooking *burns* dinner" Virgil said and all 5 brothers worked together to gather blankets and pillows and soon their fort covered the entire living room, they just managed to finish pining the last two blankets together when their grandma called them, the walked into the dining room and to their surprise, their grandma had ordered them pizza. "a special dinner for a special occasion" she simply said as they tucked in, after dinner, they changed into their pajamas, made some popcorn, for snacks and got comfortable in the blanket fort and watched the movie, once it was finished they decided to watch another one, this time they let alan choose and he chose cars as he had been wanting to watch it for ages and they agreed. alan drifted off in the first 15 minutes with Gordon soon following snuggling up against Virgil. the older three smiled fondly at the two youngest Tracys and continued to watch the movie, but fell asleep before it ended, snuggling up against each other protectively. That's how jeff found them in the early hours of the morning when he returned