Moving Forward

Christmas and the New Year

North's POV

We all went to visit Gabe before leaving for the holidays; his doctor cleared him to have visitors for the one day. We wanted to give him the Christmas presents we had gotten him and to see how he was doing for ourselves. Uncle sent a picnic lunch with us, figuring Gabe would be tired of hospital food by now. Having seen the shit they serve, I didn't blame Gabe if he was.

None of us had been surprised when Mr. B gave us a hard time over our holiday plans. We reminded him that we were minors and under the authority of our legal guardians, which pissed him off further. Kota ordered them to attend today, taking what we learned at the meeting seriously. The three of us supported him, Gabe was going through enough shit, and he didn't need to worry over the team falling apart. While Doc was embarrassed to be seen at the hospital, he didn't hesitate to agree to be there for Gabe. He was that kind of man; he would never turn his back on someone who needed him. Mr. B had been furious at Kota's order and the four of us shut him down when he started to lose his temper. We weren't putting up with that bullshit anymore.

Gabe was happy to see us and thrilled that we brought Pam. He was gruff when she fussed over him, but you could see that he loved every minute of it. While they looked rough from their personal ordeals, they were holding strong. It proved how tough they truly were and I admired them for fighting the battles they were facing. Gabe enjoyed the meal, I swear he moaned over every bite and ate like a pig. It was good to see him being like his old self. When it came time for him to open his Christmas presents, he ripped through them like a little kid. Kota got him a tablet of watercolor paper with the new watercolor pens, the ones that were refillable. Nate got him an art tablet for oil paints and selection of oil based chalks. Silas found him a coffee table book on murals around Charleston; it had pictures of a couple of Gabe's works. The section on him was flattering and you could see that he was stunned that people actually loved his work. Me, I got him a new easel for his painting, I had made it myself. Doc got him a book on Origami and some papers to practice with, along with the promise to help him learn to make them. I think Doc's promise to spend personal time with him touched Gabe more than the gift itself. Mr. B gave him a new pajama set with matching robe and slippers. The great thing about it, the design on the fabric was doodles that Gabe drew himself. Little cartoons of things we did or had happened to us, it was like reading a comic book of our life. His final gift was from the four of us with Victor, Luke and Raschel pitching in. We got him one of the down vests from Land's End; it was burnt orange in color and had a removable hood and sleeves. Included was a matching beanie, two pairs of gloves and a flannel shirt in different shades of orange. One pair of the gloves was fingerless, where you could have your fingers free while the rest of your hand remained covered. Pam had knitted him a neck scarf; it was neon orange with white pinstripes. We left when he began to get sleepy; the nurses were kind enough to keep the leftover food for him to eat later. Kota, Nate and I still had packing to do; our last day of school was tomorrow and the three of us was leaving later during the same day.

I had already gone over Erica and Tilly's cars, making sure they would make it through the journey they were planning. I didn't want them breaking down on the side of the road, putting them at the mercy of whatever roadside mechanic thinking to rip them off. I didn't hold with that shit, especially when they preyed on old folks and women. I helped Kota and Nate put together Road Emergency kits to keep in the trunk, and then made sure they knew how to use everything I put in them. If it was anything they couldn't fix, I made them promise to call me right away. I knew Uncle and Luke would understand if I had to leave to help one of the others.

We wouldn't be going on the Academy camping trip this year, which angered Mr. B further. Seems he forgot that we no longer had any camping equipment. It didn't matter though, I didn't like winter camping and I wanted to spend the holidays with my Uncle and brother. I have always thought it wrong that the Academy held their Jamboree during a major family holiday. I get that some members don't have a blood family to spend it with, but they have their teams. It wasn't right to pull the rest of us away from our families. I have yet to spend Christmas with Uncle; we always had to sleep on Kota's bedroom floor on Christmas Eve, and then spend the day at his house. It wasn't Erica's idea, it had been Mr. B's, he expected us to be together for all holidays and because of it, Erica never got to take the kids to visit her sister and their cousins. I understood that he didn't have a family, it didn't give him the right to try to take us from ours. One of us would have invited him over for dinner, we wouldn't have expected him to be alone, our family would have understood. He didn't trust us though and that pissed me off. We are supposed to have complete faith in him and we find out that he has lied to us for years, that he still didn't trust us. I was starting to realize that we had trusted him too quickly. What did we really know about him? I mean, he would soon be twenty and he had never had a real job. Doc told us that Mr. B's parents died when he was nine, that his father killed his mother. So, who raised and supported him as he grew up? Why hadn't he completed school? There were too many question about him that we didn't have answers to. He was hiding things and I didn't like it, I was full disclosure kind of guy. He knew almost all there was to know about us, we should know the same about him. I wasn't talking about deep dark secrets. We all had them and they were the type you shared with very few people, I'm talking about your best friend and the love of your life. Things you couldn't share with your family because it would hurt them and you couldn't allow that, knowing they had already suffered enough on your behalf. Out of all of us, I guess you would say I was the least trusting and I would be super pissed to learn I gave my trust to someone who hadn't deserved it. I scowled and mentally corrected myself; I was the second least trusting. Blackbourne trusted no one, not even Doc.

I dismissed my concerns to the back of my mind; I didn't want them ruining the coming holiday. This is the first holiday that both Luke and I would spend with Uncle and not the team. While I knew Victor and Raschel would be there, it wasn't the same. Their families would be with them, we wouldn't all be doing everything together like we did at Thanksgiving. If we wanted to, the three of us could explore the city and try out some of the restaurants. We wouldn't be held to a schedule or someone else's expectations. I rather wanted to try ice-skating; I used to skate in Germany when I was a kid. Not that I was good at it, it didn't change the fact that I wanted to try it again now that I was older. It was my banjo; it was something I wanted for myself.