Mike observed his daughter's eating habits over dinner the next few days along with his wife, and both of them became skeptical. Patton usually was big on eating, they wouldn't lie-and now he was pregnant, and still, wasn't eating that much. Over the next few days of examining him, he finally confronted Patton.

"Pam, dear. I've noticed that you haven't been eating much lately. Are you feeling alright?" Mike asked.

Patton smiled painfully, "oh, i'm-i'm fine..."

"Oh, nonsense" Sheila said from a small bit away with her hands on her hips, "you've been avoiding your meals. You look sick every time you look at anything that needs to be digested-If you want to keep this baby, you have to tale care of yourself-"

"Mom! Gosh-I didn't want to say this out loud and make it seem more real than it actually is-" his voice broke, "but put the pieces together so I don't have to spell it out for you! I was raped. I feel disgusting. I can't stomach anything because I can't live with myself right now!"

"Pamela, Hon-"

"N-no, no, mom, i'm sorry, I didn't mean to lash out" he whispered, "i'm just going through some stuff right now..i'll try better, i'm sorry, I just-I need some time.."

He walked up to his room, not bothering to stick around for any apologies.

  Patton sat on his bed, his mind racinh. He couldn't be alone for toonlong, he needed someone to talk to. To take his mind off of things. Without anyone there, he could just think and think and his thoughts would run wild.

He thought about that night. How gullible-how stupid he'd been. And he thought about how maybe Janus was right-how maybe it was his fault.

His eyes filled with tears as he suddenly felt like he was there again, underneath him, struggling to get away-

'You're wet. You enjoy this.'

'Say my name so you know you're mine, bitch'

'You love this, don't you?'

'If you didn't like it, you'd be struggling more, princess~"

Patton couldn't argue-he had gotten wet. His body was aroused. He hated that so, so much. He'd never quite had that feeling before-but even though he was told an orgasm was supposed to feel good-it didn't.

Of course, his body said otherwise- every moment was torture to him. Ad if his body felt good when something so, so wrong was happening-he couldn't stomach that. He couldn't keep anything down knowing that he had been aroused.

It was his fault.

___________________________

"Virgil! Get down here your call with Dr. Mendel is starting soon!" Remy yelled.

Since Virgil had gotten...you know-sliced for lack of a better term, Virgil had to do therapy over a FaceTime-like call on a professional therapy app.

Virgil loved his therapist, she was nice and sweet and helped him get in and out of his comfort zone easily.

But he hated just having to go to therapy, if that made sense. He felt extremely awkward when his family brought it up, and it just reminded him of how he was never going to be normal, no matter how hard he tried.

He was lucky that he had three people who could use sign language just magically pop into his life. Oh yeah! She'd have to tell her about that.

...He had a lot of trauma from the past few days to unpack with her.

He grabbed the laptop from Remy and sat down with earbuds, waiting for the call.

___________________________

"Alright Virgil, let's work on our speech" his therapist smiled, "now, what letters should we work on?"

Virgil thought for a bit, and signed 'w.'

Since Virgil wasn't able to speak most of the time, when he did he got his w's and r's mixed up. He also got his i's and o's mixed up.

Remy thought it was hilarious.

If Virgil tried to say bird? Nope, he said bord.

He tried to say right? He said write.

He tried to say hotel? He said Trivago.(going to cry myself to sleep nowxxx)

But he was making progress. He and Dr. Mendel usually worked on his anxiety first, and would work their way into speech as Virgil began to feel more confident. It was weird how he could talk to a therapist more than the people he sees in everyday life.

"Now, speech is all about the voice, and one of the things you told me is that you're worried that by making a sound, you feel you'll annoy people, or make them angry at you. You're afraid to let people hear your voice. Now, your tongue is like a muscle, it's the main thing that helps you speak, so without a tongue, speaking wouldn't be possible. Now, most people with your condition wouldn't have to do all of these mouth exercises because they would typically talk at home more."

Virgil listened intently, nodding along while silently praying he wouldn't be asked a question.

"Your case is very, very severe.
Is there anyone in your life who you speak to frequently?"

'Damn it' he thought.

'My brother, Remy. Sometimes I can't form words though. Talking just feels so awkward for me. It's like even though I try, my voice isn't working' he signed after a few minutes of thought.

"Well, I feel like this may be a bit more severe than selective mutism seeing as you can't even speak to your family most times. It's not total mutism because you can speak, you just find yourself unable to at times...I think we may have to work on social skills some more. I recommend meeting with friends or family, sitting them down, and trying to communicate. Inform them that you want to try to speak to them. See if you can. Well, unless there's anything else you'd like to speak about i'll see you in two weeks." She smiled.

Virgil gave her the okay to end the call, and she did.

Virgil sighed. Maybe he should talk to Patton? ...But Patton has his own problems to deal with. Logan? Hmm...Logan would go spitting straight (gay) facts about his condition and that would make him feel awkward. Remy's going out and his parents were working.

That left him with Roman as an option.

Roman could be a little bit..much. He was very flamboyant. And the fact that he was loud didn't help. Neither did the fact that he looked almost identical to Remus.

Maybe all three of them together? Maybe that would balance the weirdness of it out.

Virgil thought for a moment and decided to do it. He called them and they told him that they'd come over.

After five minutes of pacing, Virgil's butterflies in his stomach couldn't be contained. His throat began to burn and he puked.

His nerves did not agree with him today.

———————————_____—————

After cleaning up his mess, his friends arrived. He drew in a deep breath, about to say hi.

He chickened out and waved.

"What did you want Virgil?" Patton chirped as he entered the room.

Virgil completely panicked. Had he really known them long enough to trust them? What if they made fun of him? His voice was very low and scratchy, what if they got scared?

'I was lonely' he signed.

"Thank god! We were bored! Patton's mom was being a bit-" Roman completely changed his sentence after Logan gave him a glare. "A BITCOIN-"

Virgil smiled. Maybe he'd try to talk to them later...by later he meant a few years, but still.

They ultimately decided to chill out, watch the lion king, (courtesy of Roman) and end up falling asleep on top of each other.