Moving Forward

Misconceptions

Uncle's POV

"She is right Gabe; it has never been Victor's place to support any of you. The Academy only asks that you provide a teammate with a place to sleep and with food when they are hungry. You are responsible for your own expenses; it is not a free ride and endless access to someone else's bank account. It is Pam's duty to support you since you are a minor, not the other way around." I grumbled to myself. "I wish Luke had told me about this sooner, I would have set them all straight before the Lead Team got pulled into this mess."

"Did you get your Christmas shopping done?" Kota asked Gabe, not ready to give up yet.

"I haven't started yet, we have plenty of time."

"So, not only did you use your money to buy yourself clothes before we went to Boston, you wasted five hundred on yourself when it was meant for Christmas shopping. You know what Gabe; don't bother getting us anything for Christmas. It is obvious that you can't be bothered to think of anyone but yourself, we wouldn't want you to strain yourself on our behalf. We will save our money for something more important this year."

"Even if we don't adopt the Home yet, we still could get them some things." North spoke up as he ignored Gabe's spluttering.

"Nat and I won't be here for Christmas," Tilly informed them. "We are taking my parents to Florida to visit my Uncle Fred, Mom's younger brother. We will be returning home on the third."

"We are going to Ohio to spend the holidays with my Aunt Melody, my mom's sister." Kota added, "She has twins Jessica's age."

"We are celebrating the twelve days of Christmas Greek style; we are also going to spend a lot of time with Theo." Silas shared with his brothers.

"North and I will be spending Christmas and the New Year with Luke in Boston, Sven issued the invitation this morning before we left."

"Well shit, when do we leave?" Gabriel asked.

"North and I will fly out the day school lets out for Winter Break," I replied. "If you don't wish to spend the day with your foster parents, you can visit Pam or spend it with Owen and Sean. You are not included in our invitation."

"Of course I am I'm Luke's best friend."

"Earlier you stated that you weren't getting him a Christmas present because he was no longer a member of your team, now you..."

"Don't bother Uncle; he is going to keep going back and forth. You would be further ahead to call Sean and tell him to bring Gabe's prescription." North snorted.

"I'll call Foxy and have her bring it; he needs to return home soon anyways. You all have homework to finish before morning." Tilly grabbed her phone from the pile.

"Ugh, I have to write a thousand word essays on what we did over the holiday." Nathan groaned.

"I worked on it during the flight back, but I need to finish it." Silas made a face, "I only managed to write about two hundred words."

I stood, "let's go North. We need to do some laundry and other chores while we are at it."

"Yeah, we are going to need groceries while we are out."

"We can go to Piggly Wiggly on the way home."

Nathan stopped his aunt from speaking by waving his hand at her. "I'll grab the list and do the shopping, do you mind if I use your car?"

"Use the bank card," she tossed him her keys.

"See, that is what I am talking about." Gabe pointed at Tilly. "You two aren't related, yet, you are giving him money and letting him use your car. It is the same with Uncle and North."

North picked up the file and photographs, including the one Uncle kept in his wallet. Pushing his Uncle to the front door, "we need to leave now or I will be punching him in the face."

"I didn't think they switched back and forth so quickly when they are bipolar," I mentioned to North as we got into the Jeep.

"I don't think they do, but Gabe is also ADHD."

"I was serious about him not being invited; you are going to have to be firm with him about it. He didn't make any friends in Boston or with the High Council. I would be surprised if Owen isn't taken to task for his poor handling of you boys."

"That reminds me, when is Doc's hearing before the Panel?"

"After the New Year, they are bringing Doctors from other states in for the panel. He isn't the only one being brought before them and they want no chance of a slap on the wrist being the only punishment given."

"She doesn't like doctors; that why she screamed, isn't it?"

"She has two that she trusts and won't let anyone else treat her. Phil is getting close to retiring, he was thinking of letting Sean take over his patients. That might not be possible now, but I do know that Raschel will never let him minister to her."

"Luke mentioned that he heard Dr. Roberts getting after Doc for his flirting."

"His flirting isn't the problem per say, it is the jealousy it causes. Husbands, boyfriends and other staff, they get spiteful and report him. It is a sad state of affairs, but that is the hospital for you. There is no pleasing everyone and he is always going to be dealing with jealousy."

"How much trouble is he in, really?" North pressed.

"This isn't his first time before the panel," I debated on how much to tell him.

"Just give it to me straight," North growled.

"There is a question on why he is in the Academy in the first place. Yes, he was abandoned as a baby, but a family who took excellent care of him adopted him. Yes, his mother is a tiger mom, but let us be honest, he wouldn't be where he is today if she hadn't pushed him. Some of the classes he needs, he took when he was younger. Some feel he should re-take them because they feel he was too young to understand them completely. After this latest mess, they may win the argument." I frowned as I continued. "The Academy take kids who are in bad situations and help them to a better place, they assist them in to getting a better education and to make something of themselves. Sean has never needed any of it; his parents were willing to pay for Med School and could afford it."

"I thought anyone could join the Academy."

"To a certain extent, you have to have a connection to someone already in the Academy if you don't meet the other criteria. Luke got in because I was a member, Sean's parents aren't. Then there is Gabe, they won't let him remain in the Academy if he doesn't take the medication he needs. There would be too many chances of him getting hurt. Now, understand that this is only speculation. I don't know how things will turn out for either one of them."

Sven's POV

I agreed with Chel, it was nice to have our home back to ourselves. That had been too many guests at one time. If there were a next time, I would put them up in a hotel. It had been too many teenagers all at once. I understood why Foxy invited them, but I think she ought to have waited longer. It wasn't just the stress it put Chel under, they had the big mission they were doing for Colt. Luke and Victor hadn't been ready to see their former brothers quite yet. The one kid has serious problems and seemed to have taken a dislike to Raschel. I don't expect everyone to like her, but I do require they are respectful when they are in our home. No matter how many times he had been told that Chel's wing was off limits, he kept trying to sneak into it. I don't know what he thought he would find, but it had been damn irritating. The one who had been the hardest for Chel to deal with was the little girl. Yes, she had been cute, but she was female. Chel had many problems when it came to her fellow females. It had been a woman who had tormented her, who had hurt her. The little girl was a hugger and my daughter nearly had a heart attack every time she was given a hug.

Luke wasn't feeling great right now, either. His former best friend had informed him that he couldn't be friends since they were no longer on the same team. He had said the same to Victor then asked to use his credit card. I want to know why the kid thought Victor should just hand it over. They may have been on the same team, but there should have been no reason why he would ever need Victor's credit card. From what I had been told, the kid came from a poor family, so why was he walking around in designer labels?