I'm back and at it again! Oh the tragities! The horrors! The teenage romances? It is February after all! Anyways, I missed y'all! Enjoy the hecking chapter, I put a bunch of love into it!

Warnings: Mentions of abuse, arguing, trauma, insensitivities, magical family powers, the acceptance that no one is perfect... man, I love this fanfic.

Virgil
After Patton left we all went back inside. "What was that about?" Roman asked.

"I don't know," I replied. I noticed Logan and his Mom looking at each other. Karen sighed.

“We might as well wait until tomorrow to ask. For now, let’s have some dessert.” Roman’s mood immediately lifted and he basically flew after Karen. I caught her wink at Amy before leaving sight. I squinted. Karen’s definitely trying to down play the situation. I looked over at Amy.

“What did you two talk about?”

“Hmm?” She looked at me, “Nothing really, I was just helping him get his things.”

I squinted, “I doubt Patton would have left his things.” She glanced at Logan who nudged me. I glanced at him.

“It’s alright.” I sighed and reluctantly followed him to the kitchen. Something fishy is going on. I can taste it.

~mOrE~fOoD~

I walked out of the bathroom in my nightmare before christmas onesie. Even though it’s basically summer, Roman insisted we all match. That dork. I paused when seeing Logan in a unicorn onesie. I raised my eyebrows, trying not to smile. “You look comfortable.”

He looked up at me and blinked, “As do you.” I nodded and sat down on the bed next to him. Roman jumped up.

“My turn you bathroom hog!” He exclaimed. I rolled my eyes and motioned toward the door.

“It’s all your’s.” Roman walked out with his bag and I turned back to Logan.

“What’s really going on with Patton?” He glanced at the door for a moment before sighing and looking back at me.

“My mother did a course in psychiatry along with her medical degree. And the signs were clear enough, I assume you picked up on Patton’s anxieties as well.” I nodded, “She must have spoken to him a bit about it. Most likely, since his state started when his mother arrived, it could have hinted towards an abuse of some sort. Or alternatively, it could have been a large task he had to complete when getting home that filled him with dread.” My eyes widened.

“Or maybe it could be about the ghost in his house! His mother is taking him home! We have to help!” Logan held up a hand.

“His parents are more than qualified to protect him from a spirit. But are we sure it’s the spirit he is dreading?”

“What do you mean?”

“When we were confronting Patton over the spirit, he seemed more confused than nervous. Wouldn’t the normal reaction be anxiety when a threat is brought up?”

“The ghost said it was abusing Patton.”

“They never said they were, they said ‘what if’.”

“That’s basically admitting to it!”

“What if,” Logan hesitantly started, “What if the spirit was attempting to make us aware of Patton’s situation?”

“What, like Patton is like that normally?”

“Think about it. Patton has been acting similar, if not worse in the past. Before we even brought up going to the Davis house. Wouldn’t it have started after we didn’t make it to the Davis house, but he did?” I hesitated. “Plus, he has seemed a bit peppier than normal. He usually acts happy and optimistic, but his smile is less forced.”

“That could have been the ghost,” I retorted.

“It could have been,” He agreed. “But then, why did he seem so sad when wished for him to stop seeing the spirit?”

“It could have been brain washing him. We don’t know a ghost’s full abilities.”

“Yes, I will have to look into that. But-”

“Look into what?” We turned at Roman’s voice to see him in a beast onesie. I sighed, of course.

“Ghosts and what we currently know about them.”

“Besides the fact that they’re evil and out to crush children’s dreams?”

“We don’t have any proven facts pointing to that conclusion-”

“That thing broke my lightsaber!”

“Ah… Right.”

“Haven’t you been doing research since we ran into that beast anyway?”

“How much free time do you think I have?”

“What? Your schedule is eat, sleep, nerd, repeat.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“I go to school, then I visit the hospital, then I go to my job, then I am home for dinner. After dinner I am usually doing homework or reading. Of course, the homework and reading can shift depending on when I am scheduled to work.”

“You have a job???”

“....” He stared at Roman dead pan. “You didn’t know I had a job?”

“If I knew I wouldn’t have said, ‘You have a job’ with three question marks.”

“How do you know there are three?” I asked.

“Because I said it.”

“Anyway,” Logan started, “So to get to my point, no. I have not had much time to do as much research as I would have liked. All I found was vague myths and legends. I even dabbled in the horror genre, but I’ve found nothing of use to us.”

Roman crossed his arms, plopping himself in the desk chair. “Well there has to be something we’re missing!”

“Maybe if you would help me research, we would have an answer by now.” Logan quipped.

“Hey! It’s not my fault I’m not good at researching reliable sources!”

“It’s on ghosts. At this point, I don’t think we care about how reliable the source is.”

“Well excuse me Einstein, I don’t have the scholarship!”

“Just because I won a scholarship doesn’t mean I should be working on this alone!”

I put my head in my hands. Fighting is getting us no where. I covered my ears, trying to think. Patton is being held by that ghost. If that ghost shapeshifted into Patton, could it also shapeshift into his mom? Could that be why he was so anxious? Or was Logan right and it was something else? No.. No it’s the ghost. No one else in their right mind would hurt Patton. No human would, at least. And ghosts, yes they used to be human… But if it was abused in life or something, it could have a vendetta against us. Its morals are numbed. How can we help Patton if he is fighting something with no morals? How can we even think about helping him? How do we fight something we can’t see, we can’t even feel! We might never be able to see him again because we tried to get him out! He could be killed or dragged away and hurt and we would have no way of knowing if the ghost replaces him! Heck, it’s the summer! It’s not like we’ll see either of them anyway!

I didn’t realize how fast I was breathing until I felt a hand land on my shoulder. My ears were ringing but I could faintly hear Logan speak, “Virgil. Name five things you can see.”

“I um..” I glanced around quickly. “Desk.” My eyes darted to Roman who was watching me concerned. I cringed at the look, “Roman. Uh You. Bed. Carpet. Books.” He nodded.

“Four things you can touch.”

My breathing skipped, tears gathering in my eyes. “B-blanket. Sheet. Uh.. Onesie…” I felt Logan’s hand go to mine, “You…”

“Good. Three things you can hear?”

“You… The fan, and,” I paused, listening. “Karen humming…”

“Two things you can smell?”

“Mint,” I took a big wiff and only got Logan’s smell. It filled the room with a comforting atmosphere. “You.”

“And one thing you can taste.”

“My toothpaste.” I wiped the tear from my eye, forcing myself to take deeper breaths.

“You okay?” Roman hesitantly asked. I nodded, looking down.

“What were you thinking about?” Logan asked.

“Patton,” I looked up, “The ghost can shapeshift. It could have turned into his mom. Patton could be headed for his death.” Roman's eyes widened and Logan paused. His hand moved to my back as he began gently stroking it.

"Well… if it is the ghost, we still can't do anything about it at the moment."

"You just don't care about Patton!" Roman yelled, tears gathering in his own eyes. He stood, glaring at Logan.

"Of course I care-"

"He cares so much about you- about me! About all of us! He has the biggest heart the world has ever seen!"

"I know that-"

"And you couldn't care less! He could be hurting, even dying out there because of this ghost and you won't even try to do anything! Did you even view him as a friend?! As someone worth saving?! We went to go talk to that ghost and you were just trying to study it! That doesn't help us! That doesn't help Patton!"

"Well at least I'm doing something! I'm not running around with a toy lightsaber thinking that will get rid of a ghost!"

"I'm trying things! I don't see you trying things!"

"That's because I can't do anything!"

"You're not even making the attempt! Neither of you are!"

"Hey," I cut in, glaring at Roman, "I am. I persuaded Patton to be careful around the ghost in the first place! Not that you'd notice with your head too far up your royal behind!"

"Oh wow," he slowly clapped, "Persuading someone that a ghost is evil. That totally helps. Thank you." I scoffed.

"And what have you done? Sit around all day and pout, thinking about your obnoxious brother again?"

"Leave my brother out of this!" His ears turned pink as he glowed at us. "What have you done? Cried about your family pinning against each other?"

I froze, my jaw glued shut. "Don't talk about my family." I growled.

Knocking came from the door and we all paused. We glanced at the door.

"Logan, may we come in?"

Logan flushed and gave us a warning look, "Of course, mama." Karen and Amy walked into the room and looked at all of us, noting our red faces and some slightly teary eyes. I glued my eyes to the ground. How much did they hear?

"So…" Amy started, sitting next to Logan on the bed. "We heard some arguing. Are you boys alright?"

"We're fine," Logan replied.

"That's not what it sounded like," Karen said. "What's going on? It sounded like World War three in here."

Silence draped the room like a thick suffocating blanket.

"We're just…" Roman motioned with his hands as he tried to find the right words, "Worried about Patton." Amy nodded and wrapped an arm around Logan. He leaned his head on her shoulder. Karen knelt down next to Roman's chair across from me.

"That makes sense. He did look pretty off." Karen commented.

"Even if he is off, do you think he would want you guys to be fighting like this?" I bit my cheek. No. He'd probably excuse himself to the bathroom and hide until it stopped.

I glanced at Roman who was looking down in shame. He shook his head at Amy's question.

“I don’t know what exactly is going on with Patton, but I can promise that he isn’t alone. You boys won’t abandon him and neither will we. But we can’t help him to our full extent if we are not 100% ourselves. Fighting with each other won’t help him and neither will worrying too much. Getting stuck in our own heads is one of the worst things we can do.” Roman frowned and Karen gave his hand a squeeze.

“What if we can’t do anything?” I asked, looking down at my conjoined hands.

“There’s always something you can do, even if it’s miniscule. You can smile to him in the halls, offer him support when he asks, lend an ear when he’s ready. Those small things make more of a difference than you know. You might need to be gentle and patient, but he’ll come around.” For a second I forgot they didn’t know about the ghost thing. Do they think he’s just being abused then?

Logan nodded again. Karen and Amy got up, using the mom sense to be able to tell that their work here was done.

“Oh, and please don’t blame each other. You’re all being driven up the wall from stress and coping in your own ways. You’re all doing so much for Patton already.” We all nodded. I guess we did go a bit too far. The women walked out and I glanced at the other two.

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t mean to attack you or your brother like that,” I quietly said.

“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have brought up your family or said you guys didn’t care or weren’t trying.” Roman murmured. Logan nodded in agreement. I nudged him.

“Erm… And I also apologize.”

Silence fell upon us once again. I glanced around awkwardly, Logan was examining his covers, and Roman was fiddling with an eraser he found on the desk.

“So… uh…” The  others glanced at me, “Want to play Mario Kart?”

2318 Words

And with that, it's suddenly clear that everyone here needs therapy!!! Lez gooooo! Welcome to the club!!! I've got therapy Monday, which is clearly needed. I mean come on, I wrote this. I obviously need it.

I have a very important question.

Have you eaten yet today?

....

Have you drunk the water?

....

Have you gotten the correct amount of sleep?

....

Have you watched the owl house yet?

....

If you answer no to any of those things, how dare you. Go fix that right now. Go eat, sleep, drink, and binge the fanfic show.

I love you all and care about you! Have an amazing month!!! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

💖 Maybay4