Chapter 4

The next two weeks went by with Taylor doing a lot of reading.  His sock drawer was organized and his CD's were in alphabetical order.   He had played many games of Chutes and Ladders and hide and seek with his brother and sisters.  Two new songs were totally finished with snippets of a few others.   He had four days left of home incarceration and eleven more days of no computer.  He just hoped all his on-line friends hadn't given up on him.  It would take forever to catch up on the backlog of e-mail.

This day had seemed particularly long with Ike and Zac being gone since early morning with some of their friends.  He'd been home two weeks now and hadn't seen anyone yet.   The kids had insisted on pancakes for lunch and all had gone well until his mom and dad had left to go to the grocery store.  By the time Jessica had come to him to tell on them, the other three had gotten syrup everywhere, including Avery's long hair, Zoe's eyelashes and Mack's overalls which had the front pocket full.  Just as he was almost done cleaning up, Ike, Zac and three of their friends  came bouncing into the kitchen on their way to the backyard.

"What the heck happened in here?"  Ike asked,  seeing the three culprits lined up in front of the refrigerator .

When Taylor turned to face them they all burst out laughing at the pancake remnants in his hair placed there
unbeknownst to him by Zoe when he had gotten her out of her highchair.   "What?  What's so funny?"

"Well, Alice, " said Zac, "You got stuff in your hair and..."

"Who the hell is Alice?"  Taylor snapped.

"You know, Alice Brad.  The maid on the Brady Bunch." Zac said.

Taylor looked at him as if he were an alien.  "Her name wasn't Brady dumbass, she was the MAID, not their mom."  He returned to cleaning the table.

"Whatever, dickwad.  What's your problem?"   Zac was getting tired of Taylor's attitude the last couple of days.

"My problem is I'm sick of being the only one around here who has to do anything."

Isaac was starting to get a little concerned here while their friends were getting very excited.  When the Hanson brothers fought it was always the most interesting when it was Zac and Taylor.  "Well, maybe the next time you get horny you'll remember how much fun you had being grounded and you'll just jack off!"  Zac was always at his best when he had an audience.

Ike was now certain he'd better intervene before things got out of hand.  He could tell when Taylor had been pushed too far and it looked like he was just about there.  "Zac, c'mon man, let's go outside."  Ike thought it was still possible to avoid a knock-down drag-out if he could get Zac away from him right now.

"Screw you."  Taylor was so mad it was all he could think of.

"Is that what you said to that girl before you all did it for five hours?"  Zac was on a roll and wasn't expecting it when Taylor smashed the dirty kitchen washcloth in his face.  Though entertaining to their friends Isaac knew he had to stop this, both his brothers were now bigger than him and could do some real damage to each other and the house.   He stepped in between them and caught the slap that Zac had meant for Taylor in the temple.

"Christ, Zac!" he said.  Taylor shoved him out of the way and took his first real swing at Zac, landing a punch squarely to his nose.  Blood immediately began to run down his lip and he fell back against the counter.  The other boys all watched aghast.   No one had ever seen the boys go at it like this, including Isaac.   Zac was now very angry and practically dived into Taylor knocking him backwards stumbling into the kitchen table.  Once he lost his balance, his younger brother was able to pin him there and start throwing punches back.  Isaac had seen them get into some slap matches before, but this was fists and no mercy.  Now the commotion had caused Jessica to come in from the living room and into the shocking sight in the kitchen.

The three youngest had begun to cry at the sight of their normally amiable brothers beating  the tar out of one another.  "Ike!  Make them stop!"  Jessie shouted over the obsenities coming out of the other two boys.

"I tried!  Zac just decked me!"  Taylor now had used his long arms to push Zac away from him long enough to catch his breath, but Zac wasn't going to give up easily.  Taylor may have been longer, but Zac was sturdier.  He grabbed Taylor around the neck and swung him back into the middle of the kitchen.  Ike didn't know how, but he had to do something and fast as Zac looked like he was going in for the kill.  Zac slung him to the floor and got on top of him but before he could get in the punch that Isaac was afraid was coming, Taylor swung  and connected again, this time with a loud slap.  It was the only chance he would have so Isaac went for it, he  grabbed Zac under his arms and pulled him off his other brother.  The other boys now moved to help, one helping Isaac hold Zac back and the other two doing the same with Taylor once he got back on  his feet.  Blood was running down his chin from the split lip his little brother had given him.  Just as they got a little order restored they heard the familiar sound of their parents' van in the driveway.

"Shit!"  Isaac did not want his parents to know about this, he quickly pushed Zac out the door and instructed the boys to go with him.   Taylor just stood there feeling a little woosy.  "Get in the bathroomTaylor!  Jess!  Help him get cleaned up!"  He hurriedly pushed up the two chairs that had fallen over and looked to the three frightened children by the fridge.

"Is Zac and Tay gonna be okay?"  Mackie asked.

"Yeah, Zac had blood and so did Tay—"  Avery added.

"They're just fine guys, don't worry.  But, let's not tell Mom and Dad, ok?"

"How come?  Zac shouldn'ta done that to Tay!"  she said looking up at Isaac.

"Uh-uh, Tay started it..."

Isaac intervened, "They were both being stupid and they both started it!   The point is, if Mom and Dad find out they were fighting, they'll be in big trouble and we don't want that, now do we?"  He knew if they were both grounded together they would kill each other within two days and Taylor would go stark raving mad if his punishment didn't end soon.   He quickly grabbed some ice in a paper towel and instructed Mack and Avie to take it outside to Zac and the guys.  He put Zoe back in her highchair.  Out the window, he could see Zac sitting at a table with his head leaning back on the chair to stop the flow of blood from his nose.  Hopefully, he wouldn't be seen by his parents.   Isaac heard the front door open and could hear the crinkle of the plastic grocery bags  being carried in by his Mom and Dad.

"Ike, where is everybody?"  his father asked.

"I think they're all out back.  We've been playing basketball and I just came in for some drinks."  He went to the cabinet and got down a stack of glasses.

"Well, me and your mother need some help getting these groceries in, tell everybody to get out there and help."

"Ok."   He went out the back door and told everyone to go grab some bags from the van.  He looked at Zac.  He could tell he was still seething.  "C'mon man, Mom and Dad need help getting the groceries in. I know you don't want them to find out you two were fighting.  How's your nose?  It doesn't look as bad as I thought it was going to.  Aside from the blood, it looks fine."

As they walked to the front of the house, Isaac was trying to lighten the mood a little bit but it didn't seem to be working.  Zac wiped his nose on the sleeve of his shirt and looked down at it.  The bleeding had pretty much stopped now.  With the help of their friends, the van was almost emptied now.  Diana watched her two sons grab the last of the bags.

"Zac, what's wrong?  Are your allergies flaring up?"

"Yeah."

"Well take some sudaphed.   Where's Taylor?"   At that moment Jessica came out the door followed by Taylor who was holding a wet washcloth up to his face.  Diana walked over to him.  "What happened?"

"Nothing."  It was barely audible behind the wadded up cloth he held tightly against his mouth.

"Let me see it."  She was now using her mom voice.  "I want to know what happened."

Jessica intervened as the boys seemed to have lost their ability to communicate.  "They were playing ball and
Tay got hit in the mouth."

When he pulled his hand away from his face his mother gasped.  At that, everyone gathered around to see the damage.  "Oh my God!"  she was shocked to see the deep cut to his bottom lip which, unlike Zac, did not look like it would stop bleeding any time soon.  Ike figured it must have been caused by his tooth as the worst of it seemed to be on the inside.

Zac stepped closer to inspect the damage he'd done.  "There goes that perfect mouth all the girls love."

"ZAC!  Go get your father!"  Diana couldn't believe how insensitive he could be.   The look that passed between the two brothers went unnoticed by their mother but not Isaac or the other boys.

"Ike, dude, we're gonna head out, ok? Give us a call though."

"Ok, bye guys."  He waved to his friends as they walked up the driveway to the street.  When Walker came out the door, he was alone, Zac had gone up to his room where he was being comforted by Mackenzie.  Avery and Zoe were already oblivious to all the excitement as they had found the Teletubbies were on tv in the family room.

"For heaven's sakes guys!  How did that happen?"  Walker was peering at Taylor's lip.  Being a father of seven he was accustomed to the occasional cut and scrape but this looked a little more serious.  Especially since, whether they liked it or not, his sons had to stay intact for the cameras that were constantly being shoved in their faces.  He looked at Ike, he knew they could play rough sometimes but he wasn't sure he was getting the whole story.

"I don't know Dad,  it all happened so fast.  I think it was an elbow or something."  Taylor had remained silent throughout his inspection.

His dad looked at him.  "Well Tay, I don't know, it looks to me like it might need a couple stitches or something."

"Dad!  It doesn't need stitches!"  Now Taylor felt the need to speak up.  He definitely put that in the "cure is worse than the disease" category of medical treatments.

"Di, what do you think?"   Walker wasn't going to take Taylor's advice here.

"Ike!"  Taylor was pleading his case.  "Tell them it doesn't need stitches!"  At this outburst the blood increased it's flow making up the minds of all the onlookers.

"Don't be such a baby Taylor"  Jessica couldn't take it any longer.  "It looks gross and if you don't do something you'll bleed to death by suppertime."  Once again, she was the voice of reason and Diana just looked at  her husband and nodded.  Taylor plopped down on the front step thinking what a crappy day it had turned out to be.

~~~~

Zac was just about to fall asleep when his sister came in and sat on his bed.  "What Jess?"  he looked up at her not really feeling like hearing the guilt trip he knew she was going to try to lay on him.

"Dad's taking Tay to the hospital 'cause he needs stitches."

"So?"

"So, I just thought you oughtta know what you did."  She could be as cold as him if that was how it was gonna be.

"He started it!  He hit me first!"

"God, Zac, you sound like Mackie.  I heard what you said to him and I don't blame him for hitting you."  With that she got up and left.   He got up, no longer feeling tired.  Why did everyone always take Taylor's side?  He wondered.   God, he was sick of it!  His parents, his sister—even the fans thought Taylor could do no wrong and he was tired of it.  How would his fans like to know the real Taylor?  He went over and turned on the computer.  Maybe I'll just talk to a few of them and let them know a thing or two, he thought.  He signed on and went to see Taylor's e-mail.   The amount of mail there shocked even him.  In the month Taylor had been grounded he'd gotten many e-mails, some from old friends whose screen names he recognized and some he'd never heard of.  When the boys met people on the road, since they weren't allowed to give out phone numbers, they just gave out their e-mail addresses and Taylor, being the social creature that he was, more often wanted to keep in touch with some of them than he or Ike.

He scanned down the page laughing at some of the screen names.  Quite a few Tayzgirlz, couldn't they think of anything original?  Weren't  they embarassed?   "Let's see….Taysthe1, Taylor4me, RainbowKid, LoveTay47, Zacsdrummergirl...  Hey!  What's that doing here?"  he clicked on that one and up popped the letter, Dear Taylor, please tell Zac how much I love him, he never wrote me back, blah blah blah, yeah yeah yeah, delete!   He clicked again and the message disappeared as if it had never existed.  Now, there was an idea!  Delete delete delete...  he clicked away.   Sarah, delete-Sarah, delete-Sarah, delete...  "Good grief!"  He thought,  "Sarah's got a little  crush there."   On down the list leaving only the messages he approved of.  "There!  Taylor, your approval rating in the polls just went waaaaaaaay down!"  He couldn't help but giggle to himself.

Just then, Isaac walked in.  "What are you up to?"   He didn't trust Zac when he had that smile on his face.

"Nothing, just checking my mail."  As he quickly closed the file.

"Man, what is up with you and Tay?  I've lived with you all for fourteen years now and I think that was the fight of the century.  I was afraid you guys were going to kill each other."

"Well, if you hadn't  butted in maybe I could've taught him a lesson or two.  It's not our fault he's in a  pissy mood.  Y'know, he almost pulled us down with him and the next time he needs a favor from me he can kiss my ass!!"

"Zac, that was a month ago, I can just imagine how pissy you'd act if you'd been grounded for a month!  If I remember right, he snuck you in some video games and covered for you when Mom found out last time when it was you that was in trouble!  And, I seem to remember not long ago when Tim and Greg Gutman jumped you 'cause you were being a smartass it was Tay that came to your rescue..."

"Yeah, and their sister came out and started slapping him all over the place and he wouldn't do anything back to her!  That was too funny!"

"Zac, three days ago, he sat in the living room for two hours helping you braid your silly hair because Mom was too busy."

"Two hours?"  Zac exclaimed, " Try three and a half!! "

"Whatever, the point I'm trying to make here is, yeah, he's been a jerk the last couple of days, but who wouldn't be?  And that doesn't change the fact that he's still your brother and would do anything for you..."

Zac started to interrupt him, "Yeah, but he shouldn't have..."

"No Zac!  Listen to me!  You shouldn't have said those things to him, he was really messed up about that whole thing, especially in front of the guys.   And Avie and Mack!   You're just lucky Mom didn't hear you or you would have been picking yourself up off the floor!"

"I did have to pick myself up off the floor."

"Oh yeah, I guess you did.  But still, at least you didn't end up in the emergency room."

"It didn't look that bad to me." Zac said.

"Well, it did to me."

"I was bleeding too!  And he threw the first punch!"

"I don't know that I'd call that a punch, it was more like a smash in the face, that doesn't matter...  I'm not saying he was right to do that.  He's as much of a dumbass as you are, I'm saying "get over it."  He's ungrounded in a couple days and everything can get back to normal.  Don't let this ruin your friendship with him, all we have is each other."

With that Ike got up and left the room.  Zac glanced over at the computer.  Now he felt guilty.

~~~~

Walker's trip to the emergency room hadn't exactly gone smoothly.  Luckily, it was the middle of the week and they hadn't had to wait long.  Taylor was still insisting the whole thing was unnecessary as the blood dripped off his chin.   Once they'd gotten in the examining room though, he'd gotten extremely quiet.   A nurse came in and took his temperature, blood pressure, weighed him and asked about allergies and such.  That all went fine and then she left and came back with a tray full of syringes, needles, thread and other such things.  When she picked up the syringe Taylor's eyes got very big and he backed away a bit.  "What's that for?"

"Taylor, " Walker said.  "You've gotten stitches before, I think you know how it works."   He really wished Diana had come back with them, but she didn't care for the sight of such things so she had stayed in the waiting room.

"Just lay back,"  the nurse said in a soothing voice,  "it's just going to sting a little.  It's  to make your lip numb so you won't feel it when the doctor puts in the stitches."  As she moved closer to him he was still sitting up and looked like he had no intention of laying down.

Walker had just about had it.  "Jordan Taylor!   Lay back there so she can do her job, for crying out loud!"  He took Taylor's arm and noticed the sweat on his upper lip and the odd look on  his face, that's when he watched his son's eyes roll back in his head as he went limp falling backwards off the table taking the tray of instruments with him in an ear shattering clatter and a thump as he hit the floor.

~~~~

"Ike, when's Tay coming back?"  Mack was missing his brother.  They'd all gotten pretty accustomed to his presence in the last four weeks and the circumstances of his absence made it worse.  The six of them were sitting at the kitchen table eating soup and grilled cheese.  It was Isaac's specialty.

"Well, they've been gone for a couple hours, I'll bet it'll be really soon."  Sure enough, a few minutes later, they heard the front door.  As Taylor entered the kitchen, he looked for all the world as if he'd just gotten up from a very long nap.  His hair was going every which way and he had that early-morning-sleepy face.  He didn't say a word, just went to the freezer and got out the big plastic oreo cookie shaped ice pack, rubbed the frost off, put it to his mouth and plopped down in the empty chair next to Avery.  Diana and Walker followed him in and sat tiredly in the other two chairs.  Isaac couldn't stand it any longer.  "Well!?  How many?"  he asked.

"Six."  His father said.  "Four on the inside and two on the outside."

"Oooohhhh, lemme see."  Avery got very close to her brother's face, hoping he'd move the big cookie so she could get a look at the legendary "stitches" she'd heard so much about.  Every kid had heard about them, but up until now, she hadn't gotten to see any in real life, just the scars they left behind.   When he pulled the cold cookie away, her gasp caused all the children to race over for a better look, including Isaac and Zac.  In order to get it over with, Taylor pulled his lower lip down very gently so they could get the full effect.  His once pouty lower lip was now downright fat with six neat black sutures.  The questions that began to rain down on him quickly became just a jumble to his cloudy brain and he didn't attempt to answer.

"Did it hurt?"

"Did you cry?"

"How long do they stay in?"

"How're you gonna eat?"

Ahh, that last question made him remember he hadn't eaten since breakfast.   Now, he spoke.  "Mom, I'm hungry.  I don't know what I can eat though."  His speech wasn't terribly impaired, just a little funny.  Zac was glad to see he hadn't permanently scarred his brother's  pretty face.  Guy or not, you had to appreciate Taylor's good looks.

As his mom poured tomato soup in a cup for his brother, Zac asked the question they were all dying to. "What took so long?"

Walker looked over at Taylor in an accusing manner and he blushed.  "He passed out."

"What!?"  Now everyone was excited again.  As Taylor used a straw to drink Tomato soup from a cup, his father told the story of his brush with the floor at the hospital.

With a full stomach on top of the shot he'd received from a very large orderly at the hospital to help him "calm down, " Taylor couldn't keep his eyes open another minute.  Zac and Isaac walked upstairs with him just to make sure he made it there all right.  He shuffled over to the bed and flopped back on it heavilly.  He wasn't the skinny twig of a boy he used to be and for the second time that day he caused a large "FWUMP!"

"Good grief," Ike said, "did it happen again?"  Taylor's eyes were closed and his long legs hung off the side of the bed.

Zac looked closely at him, "naw, I think he's  just asleep this time.  Jeez, if they'd made him any more calm, I think they would've needed a coffin!"  Both boys laughed as Zac grabbed his brother's legs and  pulled them up on the bed.   Isaac watched as Zac, so angry before, unlaced Taylor's boots, pulling them off and making an ugly face.  He couldn't resist the little jab even though Taylor was oblivious to it.  They turned off the light as they left the room.
 
 
 

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