Sucker (ON HOLD/INCOMPLETE)

Prologue

~A Report~

"I can't do this anymore."

The words hung in the air, stinging, biting, clawing at Owen Blackbourne's skin. His family was falling apart in front of his eyes, and he was helpless to do anything but watch and listen. He felt like a deer in headlights, just waiting for the collision.

"Fuck all of you. Fuck you, you, you, and especially, especially you." Gabriel.

"3, 9, 27, 81..."

"Jesus Christ, Kota, would you quit the counting and do something?" North.

A pause. A cloying breath.

"That was overkill, man." Nathan.

"He's the family lead for a goddamn reason! Do you see him doing anything to fix this mess right now?" North gestured wildly, and Owen wondered for a moment if he was going to hit someone.

"Gentlemen, if we could please just speak rationally about this..." he finally said, recovering from his momentary lapse.

"Oh, for the love of god, show some fucking emotion for once, Owen!" Sean's eyes were wide, frantic, furious.

Owen wondered where the breakdown occurred. He was sure that Sean would say something about his mistrust in his own team, about the barriers he created when he enforced formalities in the family.

In truth, he knew where his fault lay, but was too proud to step up and say it. Even as his family fell apart, he couldn't force the words from his mouth.

It was his fault, too, that they'd taken this mission at Ashley Waters high school. He was so anxious for the prospect of his brothers graduating that he never considered the full picture. He never considered the way they'd already been fracturing at the beginning, the way the boys would be targeted and brutalized, the harm that could come from such a simple mission.

Yet, here they were, in a stand-off in Victor Morgan's home.

The man in question stood with his arms crossed, frantically tapping a song against his forearms. He looked like he may snap any minute, yet Owen couldn't bring himself to say any more. It was clear to him that his perspective would not be valued in this moment.

Not when the whole team blamed him for their failures at the school.

Not when he blamed himself.

Drawing back in to the conversation, Owen found North and Silas screaming at each other in Greek. Gabriel and Nathan were going at it, too, profanities flying this way and that. Sean had taken to trying to calm Kota's panic attack, while Victor and Owen stood idly by, watching and waiting.

And Luke. Luke just sat there with a sad look in his eyes, as though he didn't expect his words would cause this catastrophe.

Yet they were the straw that broke the camel's back after a year of nightmare after nightmare. The straw that broke the camel's back after some time of idling within the family. They had grown stagnant, and now they were paying the price.

Victor snapped, his voice scarily like his father's. "Enough! Do you hear yourselves? Maybe it is time we try other teams! I'm not going to work with a team I can't trust to watch my back. And, honestly, I only trust Sean right now, and that's because of the Hippocratic Oath. It's like I don't even know you guys anymore."

***

The Blackbourne team filed a week later to disband. They never lost contact, not completely—there was always a way to check in if needed—but they stayed apart. Owen checked in periodically with Dr. Phil Roberts to hear about his brothers (other than Sean, who Owen swore he never would be able to get rid of if he wanted to), for they would always be his brothers, regardless of the distance (a thought he hoped they reciprocated), but they showed no signs of coming home. They were, so it seemed, happier without the team, happier alone.

Owen hoped and prayed for that day they would return, but as the months passed, those hopes dwindled. Sean swore to him it would be alright, but he struggled to believe it.

Until, one day, an envelope holding the potential to change everything showed up at his door.