They Bring Him…10C

Dinner always varied between Travis, Sawyer and Tom and Tate's room. On one such occasion where the decision was made to have dinner in Travis' room, Sawyer arrived before the younger ones. While they did see their dad everyday, he was mostly shut in his room making calls and working.

Sawyer arrived right when Travis was saying, "… I'll call you in ten minutes." He managed to get a wave in before the laptop in front of his dad started making a sound. He sat down and his father accepted a video call that went on longer than he would have imagined. Sawyer stared blankly at the corners of the room while the video call went on and on and on...

In the midst of his boredom, he saw his mom sitting across from him reading a book like his father's endless calls were nothing to her. Which in truth they were. Flipping page after page with expert ease that he clearly didn't have.

"How is the vacation coming along?" Travis was asked, he smiled and nodded. "It's long needed."

A little late as far as he was concerned. But well, the boys are here, he had to let himself see that. "Yeah. I've got one kid waiting for me to pay him attention." He saw Sawyer sit up and he smirked. Sawyer did the same and shook his head. For a second his saw his wife and daughter in him. His oldest son, a smile snuck on his face so bright it made the boy look like the sun was shining on him and him alone… just for a second. But the smile stayed.

There was a group chuckle. "We'll get out of your hair then." Less than a minute later, the call was over and he was typing and email to send out.

"Uhh dad." Sawyer called and got a hmm with no other reaction. "Weren't you supposed to call someone back like… thirty minutes ago?" Rare moments of him in his father's presence often reminded him of how busy the man gets and why Toby did all the communicating.

He sat up in realization. "Sh-" he stopped the word as he searched for his phone. "Thanks."

"Sure." When the call was over. "Maybe you should turn it off, like I do."

Travis looked at his son and chuckled. "I don't know what to say to that." He confessed.

"You'd be able to relax on your vacation. You've barely been out."

"I'm free now. We'll plan something." And yet he was going right back to looking at his laptop screen.

The boys were still too busy doing whatever to come for dinner. Travis was still working and Sawyer had given up and turned to watching tv. Which they would all have done together or will do together. His mind drifted. There was so much that could have been happening. His mom would indulge his tv watching by joining him. She always did. Peggy would have been- "Can you imagine what they would be doing if they were here? I bet Peggy would be upset that Tom's taking forever, she'd probably call him lazy." He looked at his dad.

Travis had lifted his head just a bit on hearing the leading question. His eyes and hands frozen in in place. He could see the picture the boy was painting. "She'd say we should just order without him."

"And then she'd start bugging you to leave your desk. And then she'll whine like she does and that'll definitely get you up."

He heard it in his head. It was never the whine, it was her and just her. "And Steph would tell me that I'm on vacation. Just like you did. She'd probably tell me to sit beside her." She would take his fingers and massage them. Even at home she did that.

He misses them so much. The whirl they were creating only proved it more. They both did. This whirl gave him a feeling like they were with them. Like he'd take a sit and she would take his hand as always and yet…

"Its almost unending."

"All the possibilities." He finally looked up at his son and said, "I miss them too."

Sawyer searched his face for assurance as he said, "You think about them too right? What they could have been doing?" He didn't want to feel like he was the only one. Which now that he's let the question slip felt ridiculous. He isn't.

Travis nodded, fighting the lump in his throat. "Always." He forced his voice to bring out the words calmly. And then came a knock.

The next day, Otto came over once again, this time, they had plans to all go out and have lunch at Otto's house while Travis was left to enjoy his time away from work in peace and quiet. In fact, Travis was out long before Otto arrived. Although Travis' time alone was not as peaceful as he'd imagined it would be, still, he let himself have it.

The boys were far from ready to go out. Lazy from breakfast, and lunch drawing close, they all sat in Sawyer's room, the designated meeting room. Even at home. Tate and Tom had taken the floor talking about school and how Tom had beat up a few guys and how Tate had joined in once or twice to defend his friend. They listened intently, Sawyer and Otto. Impressed by witty comments and imagining all the boys described. Tom soon took over the gist.

The way he spoke and moved his arms, even from his eyes, Sawyer could tell something was wrong. Tom spoke with balled fist and slight strains in his voice as he talked about punching a guy who's name they'd soon forgotten. But then, Tate gave Sawyer a look that proved what he'd been seeing so far and what he'd been told. Yes his brother was fighting in school. They were bragging about it. But right now, Tom looked like he wanted to hit something. Otto was not aware of Tate and Sawyer's shared look. The fact that Tate had so bravely pointed it out in silence was cause for Sawyer to worry.

"Are you going around taking on all the guys in school?" Otto asked.

"If he did that- we did that, we'd lose to the Devil." Tate spoke for them.

"You don't know that." Tom countered.

Sawyer and Otto shared a look. "Your school has a guy called the Devil?" Another question from Otto.

Tate chuckled, facing Otto with excitement in his eyes. "He's this g…"

With Otto and Tate distracted, "Tom, come with me. Give us a sec guys."

Sawyer's cryptic call had Tom curious. And Otto and Tate didn't even budge. "What?" Tom got up at the same time Sawyer did. Sawyer didn't say a thing. He led him out the room, down the hall, into the elevator and up the next floor. "Dude!" Tom lost his patience. "Are you going to talk?"

"Gimme a sec." They stopped in front to his and Tate's shared room. He turned to Tom. "Where's your key card?"

"Tell me what's up first."

"It's nothing important, hand it over or open the door yourself."

Tom obeyed. They got into the room that was in desperate need of housekeeping which Sawyer made a note to request for on their way out… whenever that would be at this point. "Well?"

Sawyer took a pillow off one of the beds and held it up in front of Tom. "Hit it."

"What?" Tom raised his brows. "You look like you want to hit something."

"I could hit you." Tom suggested. He even toyed with the idea.

"Hit it."

"No." He shook his head and turned around. "Did you go crazy all of a sudden?"

"I know you want to fight right now."

"What the hell does that even mean?" He turned around. Stupid Sawyer was right.

"Just hit the pillow."

"Stop saying that!"

"Tom."

"No!" He frowned. "I don't need to fight Sawyer. And even if I wanted to, I don't have to."

Sawyer smacked his head. "Do it." Why he was encouraging this, he didn't know.

"Hey! I said no!" Another smack, Tom threw a punch, Sawyer raised the pillow, Tom's fist landed on it. Sawyer lowered the pillow a bit, giving his brother and encouraging look and a rain of punches began. Grunts of frustration followed every hit. Anger engulfed him and he kept hitting. But it wasn't the same. One minute after it began, it stopped. He took the hits as punishment and gave them out as punishment. But this was just one sided punishment to him, it didn't feel right. He stopped and let out a heavy breath.

"Feel better?"

He could see his brother was trying to help. "Do you feel better?" They both waited for answers and got none. Tom scoffed and smirked. "Thanks."

Sawyer nodded. "Let's go then." He didn't get an answer but he saw, the look was gone. And he'd feel better too once he goes back to writing. He did have more than enough to dive into.