Fixing You; Fixing Me

Chapter 13: Aftermath

That night the group got a couple hotel rooms near the hospital. They decided no one would stay at the hospital since the ICU rooms were very small. Thomas had been given a heavy dose of pain medication and probably wouldn't wake up until the next morning anyway.

Zach and James got a room with two queen size beds and he kept the twins with him and James.

Glen and Derek shared a room the same as the others Glen took one bed for him and Claire and Derek took the other for him and Anthony, once they fed the two sleepy kids they put them to bed. There was a couch in the room so both adults sat talking for a few.

"I don't understand why Thomas didn't listen to us, it's not like him to be so argumentative. He's been like that lately and it's driving me crazy, I mean he could have...." Glen got choked up at the thought of losing Thomas.

"I didn't know Thomas called you daddy?" Derek tried to change the subject so Glen wouldn't dwell on the what if's.

"Ya he doesn't do it a lot. The twins do it way more than he does. They also call Zach papa at times, mostly when they are in trouble. Zach and I have taken care of Thomas since he was a baby.

Our mother would forget to feed him when we were at school or change his diaper. He always had bad rashes and would be starving when we got home. When he was eight is when we got out of that horrible house. Thomas was just eight and the twins a 1 1/2.

Zach and I kept strict rules on all the boys. When the twins were at preschool they met a boy who was adopted and had two fathers. They had been calling us by our names up until then but they started calling me daddy and Zach papa like their friend did to his two fathers.

Thomas never called us those names until one day when he was 14 he had gotten in trouble at school for fighting and I found out he had also been ditching school. I took him home and gave him the spanking of his life.

During the spanking he began yelling out daddy at first I was confused because he never knew his real dad but realized he was referring to me. Later we talked about it and he told me that he felt me and Zach were the only parents he had and he was jealous of the twins calling me daddy, I told him could call me whatever felt comfortable.

The twins still call me daddy quite often especially when sick or in trouble, Thomas only does when he's extremely hurt or sick." Derek understood, he had Anthony call him daddy a few times during spankings so he got it.

"Makes sense, my brother has done the same thing. You know Thomas thinks you and Zach walk on water. I think his behavior lately is due to confusion of his role in the family," Derek explains.

"He helps with the younger three and disciplines them when they need it so it definitely makes him feel like an adult. On the other hand you and Zach still have a lot of rules that you expect him to follow so he feels in your eyes he's still a child, he just doesn't know where he fits in so he acts out like a child would," Derek hoped he wasn't stepping on Glen's toes by sharing his insight with him.

However, Glen was impressed with Derek's insight. "That makes so much sense. I just don't know what to do. Thomas has issues with being impulsive or reckless, Zach and I feel he needs to still be held accountable for his behavior, we don't treat him like a child on purpose but it is the way we see his behavior sometimes," Glen tried defending.

"As a therapist I read people very well. I could tell those things you mentioned about Thomas the first day I met him. At first I worried he didn't have anyone to pull the reins in until the night we ran into Zach and James at the club, I thought Zach was going to spank him right there on the dance floor." Derek recalled that night.