Moving Forward

The Family Debate Continues

"You guys hash it out," North stood. "I will calm Nate down and get him back in here. He just needs a few minutes to accept that some of us don't share well."

Sean stared after North in shock. Where was the surly attitude, the anger and yelling? He turned to look at Kota with a question in his eyes.

"Therapy has been helping North quite a bit, the time alone with Uncle and Luke helped even more." Silas was the one to answer. "He realizes that they don't care that he became a part of their family by default, they consider him theirs. The three of them acted like a family for once and they had fun, and it turns out that Uncle is quite the prankster. He is the one Luke gets it from."

Kota cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Both Gabe and Nathan are right; it also ties in what we were saying. We have been brothers for six years and you couldn't bring yourself to trust and tell us that you are gay and in a relationship with Doc, another team member. I understand why you didn't tell us when we were younger, we were kids and wouldn't have understood but that is no longer true. It disturbs me that you expected us to tell you our inner thoughts while knowing you were hiding things from us, that isn't right. How many times have you told us trust is a fragile emotion and once betrayed it is almost impossible to get back? Are you now saying that it only works one way? That only you deserve to be trusted and we aren't? "

"What Kota is trying to say is you shit on us with this one," Gabe was blunt. "Trust is a two-way street and it seems ours has all been one-sided. That isn't acceptable and it will not be tolerated, we deserve the same amount of respect you demand from us. You need a job so you can start paying back the money you tried to swindle ..."

"Gabe!" Kota snapped.

"Victor out of." Gabriel continued as if Kota hadn't spoken. "I'm sorry you don't have blood relatives left to support and nurture you but you need to get off your ass and stop wallowing in self-pity and expecting others to support you. Just so you know, Pam and I have already made arrangements to pay him back. I value him more than a bunch of stupid ass clothes and I refuse to continue being one of those shitty ass people who only want his money."

"What they both are trying to say is that we all need to be held accountable for our own actions," Silas spoke before Owen could blast Gabe. "We have all made mistakes and we need to fix them, we can't continue to ignore them. As brothers, we should be able to tell each other anything." He continued to speak as North and Nathan rejoined them. "Any disagreements that the pair of you have will not create problems for the team; we will not be put in the middle. I will be honest, the way you have run the team in the past does not work, and too many of our brothers are pushed into the background. In a family, every member should be important. We should all be helping each other and not expect certain ones to do the work or to finance everything."

"What I want to know are how many jobs had we done in Doc's place so he could act the show boat at the hospital," Nathan stated firmly. "I'm talking about the missions he was to do to pay for his training, the ones the Academy assigned him personally."

"That is a good question," North nodded in agreement. "How many of them did we do?" He repeated the question.

"Allofthem," Doc's face flushed with shame.

"Say that again," North ordered.

"I said all of them," Doc sounded defiant now. "Between my classes, studying and lab work, I didn't have time to do missions. In spite of my bragging, I wouldn't be this far if my mother hadn't pushed me into all the medical classes when I was young. I'm not a genius, I have gotten this far by pure hard work and non-stop studying. There was no time left for me to do missions, it's the same now, only the lead team is here and I had no way to get out of the Ashley Waters job."

"So what you are saying is that we did all the missions you were given, you didn't ask us to do them. You just let Owen assign them to us without a word." North clenched his jaw as he spoke. You could tell that he wanted to yell, but wouldn't let himself. "Not only did you not tell us, you lied to the Academy by letting them think you did them as required."

"Did you ever stop to think that if you had explained the situation to us and asked for our help, we may have given it?" Kota's expression was pinched as if he had bit into something sour.

"If we did his mission, who gets paid for them," Gabe demanded to know. He was worried and maybe he was acting spoiled but it wasn't fair for Doc to get the money when he hadn't done the job.

"There is no money or favors for missions that are done for schooling," Owen cleared his throat. "The payment for the classes is all the recompense that is given."

"With decisions like that, how are we supposed to trust you?" Nathan's fists clenched. "You should have discussed it with us, gave us a choice. The way you went about it, it's like you used us just to become a doctor. I understand that a career in the medical field takes a lot of hard work, but others have managed to do it on their own. They may not have rushed through it as you are doing, but the results are the same. What is your hurry?"

"Sean is not allowed to discuss it until after his appearance before the Medical Board," Owen informed them.

"When will that be," Gabe was pissed. He agreed with Nate, they should have asked. They would have been happy to help more than likely, but the way the two handled it gave them no choice. Choosing to help someone was one thing; it made you feel good and proud that you could help. Being made to help someone made you feel as if you are doing a chore. Gabe had never minded hard work but he preferred that it be his choice.

"Next week," Sean seemed worried.

"We will continue the rest of this meeting once Doc has finished with the panel," Kota informed everyone. "It will give you time to think about our conditions for us to remain a team." He looked Owen, and then Sean in the eye. "We will not debate or remove any of our conditions, so you will need to consider that as well. New ones may be added once the High Council has finished their investigation." He let a heavy sigh. "We hate that we have been forced to do this but you have not given us a choice. We want our family to remain together, that won't happen if we don't make changes now."

The five boys watched as their older brothers left, struggling with guilt. They felt bad for dumping this on the pair during a time when their family should be bound together to shore Sean up for the investigation. It couldn't wait, not if they wanted to fix things. The team and family had been falling apart before Vic and Luke were kicked off the team; no one had wanted to rock the boat. Meeting the High Council, the lead team and working closely with the Toma Team had opened their eyes. It wasn't just one team member at fault, it was all of them.