Tears welled in the dim blue eyes, the light shining in from Devon's bedroom lamp – the trick door within the closet was closed tight and yet he was still told to be quiet by his new big brother. Curling up into a tight ball Alan covered his ears and tried not to cry out as he heard his new big brother screaming at his new daddy. Ray was livid. He'd just taken care of the man who brought Alan to him and now it was time for that little boy to learn his place in the family.

"You are not going to lay even one finger on him do you hear me?!" Devon yelled, the trick closet going dark as the lamp that had been illuminating Devon's bedroom was apparently used as a weapon and thrown. The sound of shattering ceramic made Alan curl up tighter if that was possible and his shoulders heaved as he swallowed his sobs.

"That boy needs to learn his place in this family! If he's goin to be a Thomas then he's got to learn his place!" The sound of a belt unbuckling was heard before the sound of leather meeting skin was heard. "He can't go through life without knowing where he stands in this family unit!"

"He's just a little boy! Leave him alone!" Devon bellowed before a loud thunderous boom was heard. Devon had just tackled Ray to the ground in attempt to protect his new little brother.

Alan bit his lip and could taste the acidic bloody taste as he'd punctured his bottom lip from how hard he'd bitten. Continuing to cover his ears, Alan allowed the tears to fall freely. He was terrified.

"I'm a good boy…I'm a good boy." Alan whispered to himself as he heard Ray continually beat up Devon. "I'm a…"

The trick door in Devon's closet opened up and there standing in the doorway was the formidable form of his new daddy Ray Thomas. Ray reached down and latched onto little Alan's forearm and dragged him from the closet. Alan resisted as much as he could, pulling and grappling onto Ray's hand in attempt to free himself so he could flee, but the man's grip was much too strong.

Ray wrenched around and slapped Alan straight across the face, his hit being hard enough to give little Alan a busted lip. Alan became limp for a short while as he had gotten the sense knocked out of him before he resumed struggling. Devon laid on the floor, struggling to get up in order to protect his new little brother.

"Please! Don't hurt him dad!" Devon raised his head to plead with Ray. "I'll take his punishment for him, just please don't hurt him!"

"As sweet as that sounds…it makes me sick. This little bastard needs to learn his place!" Ray threw Alan down to the ground and grabbed onto the belt which he'd left lying on Devon's bed. Raising his arm, he brought the metal belt buckle down onto Alan's clothed back, repeating the action five and six times, each scream Alan released seeming to spur Ray on to continue the beating.

"Stop it!" Devon jumped in front of Alan and the metal belt buckle caught Devon round the side of the head, leaving a nice sized cut and welt in the shape of a belt buckle on his temple. "Give me the rest! At the rate you're going you'll kill him!"

Ray didn't seem to blink an eye at Devon protecting the little boy.

"Fine…you want to take his punishment, then so be it!" Ray shoved Devon to the ground and raised his arm and began to bring down blows onto Devon's bruised and battered body.

Alan remained where he lay on the floor covering his head. His back and his bottom hurt, come to think of it…so did his arms and shoulders. Everywhere hurt really, but mostly his back. Holding perfectly still Alan continued to listen as Ray beat and whipped Devon with his belt. When the man tired, he ran his belt back through the loops in his jeans and buckled the belt before leaving both boys lying on the floor.

"Alan! Come on buddy wake up…it's okay."

John felt helpless as he had turned on Alan's bedroom light as he raced into Alan's bedroom. The blood curdling screams of 'I'm a good boy' and the name Devon would forever haunt John. He sat on the bed, Alan pulled tight in his arms rocking the boy back and forth.

John rested his head in the fluff of blonde hair which felt partially damp beneath his cheek. The thumping of running footsteps drew John's attention and he raised his eyes solemnly as his father and brothers rocketed into the room, having been woken out of a sound sleep by Alan's plaintiff screams.

"What's wrong with him John?!" Scott stepped forward, his voice loud and anxious. He clamped his mouth shut when John held a finger up in front of his mouth, signaling for Scott to be quiet.

"He's in the throes of a panic attack, you have to be quiet." John continually rocked Alan back and forth holding onto Alan tightly as the boy continued to writhe in his arms.

"I'm a good boy!" Alan threw his head back and it connected painfully with John's collarbone, but while he grimaced he didn't relinquish his hold on Alan. Jeff stepped forward to try to touch Alan and John waved him away.

"He can't be touched when he's like this…he'll become more combative." John anxiously whispered to his family. "Keep your voices quiet and calm…he can't hear yelling."

"Why the hell not?" Scott raised his voice to normal talking volume and John frantically gestured for Scott to lower his voice.

"Loud voices trigger flashbacks..." John hissed as he held Alan's hand, their fingers interlocked and he rhythmically tapped Alan's tiny fist against his sternum. He'd found when Alan snuck into his bed with him after a bad dream or nightmare and suffered an attack that was one way to calm Alan was to create a synthetic heartbeat by tapping Alan's fist against Alan's sternum.

"What should we do?" Gordon gazed sadly at his only little brother and bit his lip, revealing the colorful array of brackets Gordon had for his braces.

"Let it pass…and prepare for a possible puke fest." John tightened his grip on Alan and increased the tempo of the rhythm in which John tapped against Alan's sternum. John pressed a gentle kiss against Alan's temple and continued to murmur at his brother, trying to bring him out of his latest attack. "That's it kiddo…come back to me."

Alan's hand tightened around the fabric of John's sleep pants, the sweat dripped down Alan's forehead. John reached up with his free hand and palmed Alan's forehead, brushing back Alan's bangs in attempt to cool the kid.

"Virge, bring Al's trash can closer…usually when he has an attack this bad, he's usually as sick as a dog immediately following coming out of it." John motioned with his head and made a grunt of approval when Virgil set the trashcan on Alan's bed, within reach if Alan did get sick.

"What do you mean by…usually?" Gordon leaned forward, wanting to know what was wrong with his little brother.

"Um…ask dad." John focused all his attention on Alan when the boy's head lolled to one side. "Come on little buddy, time to wake up for me."

Alan groaned, and his eyes scrunched together. John reached out and tentatively rubbed a knuckle on Alan's cheek, trying to awaken the boy from his terrified slumber. When Alan's eyes opened, the first thing he saw was John. Looking around in confusion, he found he was still in his own bed and yet his big brother John as well as the rest of his family were gathered in his room.

"Gords, can you slip into the bathroom and get Al a small sip of water?" John gently ran a hand up and down Alan's back. Turning his attention back to Alan he spoke softly to the younger boy. "You feeling okay sprout?"

Alan opened his mouth to speak, but gagged instead. Clamping his mouth shut and covering it with both hands he fought for dominance over his upset stomach.

"It's okay sprout…breathe." John soothed, continually rubbing a hand up and down Alan's back. "You're okay."

Alan gagged again, the look on his face showing that he was becoming distressed at the many times that his body attempted to turn itself inside out in front of an audience. Alan gave a strangled cry, but John simply continued to soothe.

"Ssh Sprout…you're okay. Ray won't hurt you." Alan began to calm down, he slowly lowered his hands as John continued to soothe. "Ray won't hurt you anymore…not while I'm around."

Alan calmed considerably and he took a couple shaky breathes as his heart gradually quit racing. Gordon did as John asked and grabbed Alan a small Dixie cup of water from the bathroom before inching carefully towards his older and younger blonde brothers both of whom still sat on Alan's bed.

John sat leaned against the headboard, Alan nestled against his chest. The adrenaline ran through Alan's body and he shook uncomfortably. The shaking was bad enough that John removed the Dixie cup from Alan's grasp and held it for his little brother who took tentative sips.

"There you go buddy, you feeling better?" John leaned down to whisper in Alan's ear; prompting a small nod from the little blonde. "You feel like going back to bed or do you want to watch a movie on my laptop?"

Alan looked around uncomfortably around at his dad and brothers. They all looked so tired, John included. It made Alan feel bad for keeping them awake…mainly John. His new big brother had been like a healing salve to his damaged psyche, but it wouldn't always be enough.

"I'll go back to bed…" Alan leaned up and whispered in John's ear. He didn't know if he could speak loud enough without his voice betraying his fear of returning to sleep.

"All right Sprout…why don't you come with me?" John offered to share his bed with Alan as he'd taken to doing since Alan had returned home a little around a month prior. Alan suffered from nightmares regularly and John halfway considered enlisting his brothers to help him combine his bedroom with Alan's so they slept in the same room.

Alan shook his head and moved away, not wanting to keep John up any more than he was doing already. The guilt was eating at him.

"Are you sure…it's no trouble if you wanted to sleep with me in my bed." John motioned at Alan to join him anyway. "Do you want me to stay here with you?"

Again Alan shook his head no and pulled out of John's grasp…he felt embarrassed that he was eleven years old and still needed to sleep with someone to keep the nightmares away. Leaning up again, Alan whispered to John again that he could sleep on his own, but that he did appreciate the offer. John seemed mildly hurt, but he slid off of Alan's bed regardless and peeled back the duvet to reveal the sweat soaked sheets.

"Looks like you have no choice bud, looks like all that thrashing you were doing made your bed like a sauna." John only just realized how Alan was dripping in sweat. "Looks like a quick bath is in order to cool you off though buddy."

"I'm fine Johnny." Alan replied softly. He hated it when others saw his back. Ray had never been very easy on him when it came to his beatings. Sometimes Ray had hit him hard enough with the belt buckle that not only did the metal bite into Alan's fragile skin, but it scarred also.

John seemed to get the picture of why Alan was being so reluctant to not only climb from his bed but to venture into the bathroom to bathe. Alan didn't want the scars that had been well documented to be revealed to his family, viewing them not as battle trophies, but as a weakness.

"It's okay Sprout…you don't need to hide anymore. I know what he…did to you." Just knowing that his little brother hadn't been just kidnapped but beaten at the hands of his illegally adopted father pissed John off. He'd never forgive himself for not having called out to his father to protect Alan…he'd have rather have been shot and killed by Rizzoli than to watch Alan be kidnapped and kept away for several years.

At Alan's continued reluctance John turned and ushered his dad and brothers from the room to give him a few minutes alone with Alan. Jeff understood the need for privacy as Scott, Virgil and Gordon hadn't yet been told the full extent of what Alan faced during the year he'd lived with Ray and Judy.

… … … … … … …

Jeff convinced his other sons to return to the call of their comfortable mattresses before he returned to stand outside Alan's bedroom. When he didn't hear anything, he cracked the door open and stepped through the archway. Alan lay in his bed, fresh pajamas and freshly washed hair snuggled up into John's chest.

John was sound asleep himself and Jeff pulled the blankets up over both Alan and John to ensure they'd sleep comfortably. He noticed the smell of fresh sheets and grabbed the sweat soiled sheets that John stripped from Alan's bed.

"Hope you have sweet dreams boys." Jeff murmured as he leaned down and pressed a kiss on both of his son's heads. It didn't escape Jeff's attention that Alan was slipping back into what his case worker had called a comfort mechanism by sucking his thumb. Gently combing his fingers through Alan's hair he turned and left to go deposit the sheets in the laundry room before returning to the comfort of his own bed.

… … … … … … …

The following day found Alan clinging closely to John. Wherever John went Alan was sure to follow unless John was going into the bathroom or one of his brother's rooms to chat with them, then Alan remained hidden in the hallway as quiet as a shadow.

John stepped into Scott room to apologize for making Scott leave the couple hours earlier, knowing that his dismissal would have hurt the older brother's feelings.

"I understand why you did it…I just don't understand what is going on with Alan. Does he always have panic attacks?" Scott sat at his desk and he noticed movement outside his doorway and when he looked over he spotted Alan for a brief second before the blonde head pulled away to hide with a gasp. "It's okay to come in buddy, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm your brother."

Alan reappeared for the briefest of moments and mumbled something quietly. It was quiet, but Scott heard what Alan said.

'That's what my case worker before Ms. Alexander told me…but he lied.'

"What do you mean by 'he lied'…come in Sprout, I swear I'm not going to hurt you." Scott stood up and moved to the door before he crouched down and peeked out the partially open door to gaze at his recently skittish baby brother. For some reason just within the last week Alan has become real skittish and refusing to be around anyone other than John.

Reaching out a hand through the door Scott held his hand palm up so Alan could see he didn't have a weapon or anything that could potentially hurt him. It hurt him to know that Alan was so fearful around anyone but John but it hurt more that Alan seemed to develop a fear of their father. He'd taken to calling Jeff sir every time and no matter how often Jeff corrected Alan and asked him to call him dad, Alan simply refused and continued to call Jeff sir.

Scott smiled softly when Alan accepted his hand…his eleven year old hand so tiny in Scott's twenty-one year old hand. "That's it bud…why don't you come in?"

"Hm-mm…no…I'm fine out here." Scott was puzzled by Alan's insistence to remain out in the hall. There were books and plane models that Scott wanted to show Alan, but the boy adamantly refused to enter any of his brother's rooms except for John's.

"Hey Allie, why don't you go grab a glass of lemonade for you and I to share?" John moved over by Scott and stepped just in view of the doorway so Alan could see that it was him speaking and not someone pretending to be him. Alan nodded tentatively, before he skittered down the hallway; giving John and Scott valuable time to talk before Alan returned.

"Explain…please. What is going on with Alan?" Scott whispered to John fearing that if he spoke any louder that Alan would overhear even from all the way down in the kitchen.

"You have to promise you won't bring it up to him…he doesn't like anybody else to know. But he was…abused more than a couple times since being put in the foster care system. That's why he was moved around so much." John stated with a pained grimace. "It didn't help that Ray was an abusive and manipulative bastard who kidnapped and purchased our baby brother, but he also used to beat Alan…Alan and another boy Alan called his brother – Devon – both of them were abused by Ray."

Scott felt white hot rage course through his body at the news he was hearing. His baby brother had been abused? How often? What kind of abuse? What sort of scars remained from the abuse? Internal scars which affected the psyche and heartbreak, physical scars? Scott didn't know, but he wanted to know.

"How badly was he abused?" Scott inquired shakily.

"Practically every form of abuse out there…physical, emotional, psychological, verbal. It's obvious he was abused." John replied quietly.

"You forgot to mention one other type of abuse Johnny…was he sexually abused too?" Scott could practically feel his chest tighten at the news that his baby brother may have been tortured with every kind of abuse imaginable. John hesitated and it was just long enough for Scott to understand the message. "What kind of sexual abuse…molestation or rape?"

John sighed. "Ms. Alexander showed dad and I Alan's records, Alan was removed from one of his previous foster homes because they had reason to believe one of Alan's older foster brothers was touching Alan. They never found any definitive proof that he was molesting Alan, but the way Alan acted fearful around his older foster brother was enough for the system to remove Alan from that home. He's eleven now and this occurred when Allie was eight."

"Oh god. Why? What did Alan do to deserve such treatment?" Scott trembled at the news. No wonder Alan was leery about entering an older brother's room. "So why is he so okay with entering your bedroom?"

"Because he's known me long enough to know I'm not going to hurt him. When he sleeps in my bed, I make sure he can see my hands, and I purposefully fall asleep before him so he'll know I'm not going to do anything to him." John stated with a sad face. "He was fearful of coming into my bedroom before, because that's apparently where the abuse took place in his…I think, tenth foster home just before being placed with Pastor Woods, his older foster brother's bedroom was apparently where it all happened.

A soft knock at the door reminded Scott and John that John requested Alan to run and get lemonade from the kitchen.

John opened the door and Alan stood there holding three glasses of lemonade rather than one.

"Here let me take one of those for you buddy." John reached out to take one of the glasses of lemonade, but Alan took a step back with a shake of the head. "What's up buddy?"

Alan didn't say anything to John, he just peeked tentatively around John at Scott before mumbling quietly. "Here Scott."

Scott smiled warmly at the attempt Alan was making to get Scott to forgive him for shying away.

"Thanks buddy." Scott lowered to sit on his knees before Alan before accepting the glass of lemonade.

"Welcome." Alan cast his eyes down towards his walking boot. He'd just been taken out of his cast two weeks prior and placed in a walking boot. "I'm sorry…I just…"

Scott picked up Alan's apology for remaining so skittish around him and shook his head. Scott could understand to a point. True, he'd never been abused before, but he knew kids back when he lived in Kansas that had been in the foster system for having been abused or neglected by their birth parents.

"I understand Sprout." Scott tilted his head and closed his eyes as he smiled warmly at Alan.

"Can you forgive me?" Alan whispered, as he continually gazed down at his walking boot with a dejected manner.

"On one condition…" Scott looked at Alan and spotted the little blonde gazing enraptured at him. "I'll forgive you if I can have a hug."

Scott set his lemonade down on the floor beside him and opened his arms to accept a hug and Alan glanced down at the two glasses of lemonade which he still held. John took that as his cue and removed his and Alan's glasses of lemonade from Alan's arms and watched happily as Alan took a couple of tentative steps forward and hugged Scott around the neck.

Scott pet Alan's head and smiled to himself as he held his baby brother in his arms once more. He'd never get tired of Alan's hugs, he'd gone without for the last six years and he fully intended on filling his quota of hugs from the miniature blonde.

"Now, what do you say that the three of us go see if we can kick Gordon and Virgil's butts at a game of Wipeout HD/Fury…I'll pop up some popcorn and we can see who wins the most." Scott leaned back from the hug and watched as Alan seemed to relax around him.

"Can I have the Harimau? Please Scott, you always pick the Harimau!" Alan pulled the puppy look on Scott and the eldest brother couldn't resist.

"Okay, I'll pick a different team, but that means you'd better treat my baby kindly. Don't go crashing her or else you'll get the tickle torture of your life." Scott flexed his fingers as he leaned in close to Alan and pretended to go after Alan. The boy giggled and the happy sound put a smile on Scott's face. "All right let's go then."

Scott grabbed his and Alan's glasses of lemonade and looked down at his baby brother. "Race you to the game room!" Scott watched as Alan took off at a fast walk, still not being able to run due to the hindering nature of Alan's walking boot.