Disclaimer – I own nothing.

AN – Hello Thunderbirds fandom. This fic is movie verse, as I've never actually seen the original show. I have watched like, one episode of the reboot, but I really love the movie. I just love how despite that it was only a movie, it managed to show Alan's struggles with his relationships with his family, especially with the age difference. I've had this fic in my head for quite awhile and when I finally got a fanfiction account, I decided to write it. Took me a lot longer as I thought it would, but so many stories to write, not much time. When it comes for the scenes that have/mention torture, I will give a warning for those who want to skip it. I hope you guys like the story. Please review and

Enjoy!

"Hello Alan." Alan felt his blood freeze, instantly recognizing that voice. Slowly, he turned around to see the Hood standing about ten feet away from him, a half smirk on his face.

"Surprised to see me?" The Hood asked as he took a few steps closer. Before Alan could respond though, the Hood said, "Oh Alan, you should've known, you will never be rid of me."

With that, the Hood brought up his arm and clenched his fist. Alan immediately felt an invisible hand wrapped around his throat, squeezing it tightly. Instinctively, he lifted his hands to his neck while he struggled to breathe. Despite his attempts, no air made to his lungs. Chest burning, his vision started to become black as the Hood's sick smile became the last thing he saw.

With a loud gasp, Alan shot up in his bed, the dark blue duvet falling off him in the process. Taking a few deep breaths, the teenager looked around the room. It was still dark, but the window showed that the sky was starting to become lighter in the distance, telling him that dawn was approaching. He turned his head to glance at clock to see that is was almost five in the morning, which meant he'd only been asleep for four hours. Little more than he had gotten over the last three weeks.

Alan let out a sigh as he turned on the bed so his legs hung over the side. Elbows on his knees, he pressed his head into his hands, wiping away the cold sweat on his forehead in the process.

Over the last few weeks, nightmares revolving around the Hood have invaded his sleep. And the closer it got to spring break, the worst they got. He had hoped that once he was home they would stop, but no such luck. Even though it was almost exactly one year since the Hood attacked the island and almost killed him, his family, and his friends, Alan still felt haunted by that day.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, Alan stood up and went towards the balcony, opening the door to let the cold air in to help shake off his drowsiness, then went to change out of his PJ's and into some sweats and a T-shirt. After that, he made his way out of the house and started running to the beach, the one place where he felt the safest and wouldn't be disturbed by his brothers or Dad.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Alan watched the sun rise over the ocean in silence, blinking against the sudden brightness. He wasn't exactly sure how long he had been out there, or how long he would've stayed there, probably all day if he could, but just over the rising sun, he saw two dark spots coming closer to the island. Squinting to get a better look, he saw that it was Thunderbird One and Two and he stared in shock. He didn't even know that International Rescue had been called out.

Determined to find out what was going on, Alan stood up and ran back up to the house, heading straight for Mission Command, where whoever was staying on the island would coordinate with those actually out on the mission. He opened the door to find his Dad looking down at one of the screens, though he turned his head when the teenager entered the room.

"Alan, you're up early." Jeff stated.

"Why did I just see Thunderbird One and Two coming towards the island? Was there a call for IR? Why didn't anyone tell me?" Alan demanded, in a worried and somewhat angry tone.

Ever since the incident with the Hood, his Dad and brothers had been letting him, as well as Tin-Tin and Fermat partake in some missions. It was only the ones that were deemed not very dangerous, but it was something. He had thought that he had been getting closer to his family, especially over the summer, but seeing that he was suddenly excluded from the mission immediately brought up those old fears and anger at being shut out from his family.

"Whoa, calm down Alan. Yes there was a call, a flood down in New Orleans. It happened late last night, you were already asleep. It wasn't very serious, luckily, and we thought it would be best if you got some sleep." Jeff explained, trying to keep his youngest from exploding, a little shocked by the extreme reaction he was getting from Alan.

"Is everyone okay?" Alan asked, his anger deflating as he processed his father's words and realized that he most likely overreacting.

"Yeah, everyone is fine. Like I said, it was an easy mission." Jeff told him. He stared at him before wondering, "Is everything okay Alan?"

Alan's expression immediately became guarded as he said, "Yeah, everything is fine. Why wouldn't it be?"

Jeff didn't say anything for a moment, instead, just studied his son. There were dark circles under Alan's eyes, proof that he wasn't getting as much sleep as he should be, and the father had noticed that the teenager didn't each much at mealtimes ever since he got home two days ago for spring break. He wondered what was going on, but hadn't said anything about until now. He knew first hand what hunger and lack of sleep could make a person do or act like and given Alan's reaction when he first came into the room, knew that it wouldn't be good if he pushed right now.

"Okay." Jeff replied, not wanting to accidentally start a fight with his son, then said, "It's almost breakfast time, why don't you head down to the kitchen and get some before everybody else gets down there."

Alan nodded, and turned to walk out of the room while Jeff watched in silence. Not long after the youngest left, Scott came into the room.

"You boys alright?" Jeff asked, though he knew that none of them were injured.

"Yeah, we're fine. Just came to tell you Onaha has breakfast ready." Scott reported.

"Good, I'm starved." Jeff responded, then decided to ask his oldest if he noticed that there was something wrong with his brother.

"Does Alan seem, I don't know, off to you?" Jeff wondered as he stood up off the chair. Scott's brows furrowed as he ran through his memories with the young blonde over the last few days.

"Not really. Maybe a little more quiet and tired than usual, but I just figured he was exhausted after studying and taking his midterms. He was pretty stressed about them the couple of times I talked to him while he was at school. Why? Did something happen?" Scott started grow worried over the brother that he had practically raised after the death of their mother.

"I guess he saw you boys coming home on the 'bird's and was pretty upset that no one told him and he didn't get to go. It was like last year, when he wasn't allowed to help with IR. And he seems really tired, and doesn't seem to be eating much." Jeff informed his oldest son.

"Huh. Maybe it's something to do with the Hood? It is the year anniversary since his attack." Scott suggested, clenching his fist at the thought of the bald man who almost killed him and his entire family.

"Maybe. Either way, keep an eye on him. If he's going to do more training for IR, he's going to need to be at the top of his game." Jeff ordered, and Scott immediately nodded.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

His Dad didn't say anything about his behavior that morning, which Alan was extremely grateful. He had been thinking about it all day, and was embarrassed about what he said and how angry he had gotten. The blonde knew it was probably due to lack of sleep, but a part of it was still because of his relationship with his family.

Over the last year, they had somewhat gotten closer, especially with him starting to join them on missions, but not by much. His older brothers still teased him and his Dad still didn't stop them, or really listen to him, not that Alan confided much to them anymore either.

He couldn't tell them how he couldn't help but fear that they would get attacked again, or how he was scared that he would mess up and be kicked off the team. Doing that would just give his brothers more ammo to use against him in their teasing and would prove that he wasn't ready to be a Thunderbird. That was the last thing he needed. Staying silent was the best option.

"Alan, are you o-o-o alright?" Fermat asked, seeing the distant look in his best friend's eyes. It was a common look over the last few weeks and he was getting seriously worried.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?" Alan wondered.

"Because you just crashed your car again." Fermat told him, nodding his head at the TV screen in front of them. They had been playing video games since lunch, but Alan kept getting distracted.

"Oh, oops." Alan muttered, then clicked 'try again' and restarted the race.

"That's t-the fifth time in the last te-ten minutes." Fermat stated.

"I'm just tired, that's all." Alan assured him.

"More nightmares last night?" Fermat deduced. Since he was sharing the dorm room with the teenager, he had woken up many times to Alan either gasping or screaming himself awake in the middle of the night. Alan nodded, but didn't say anything else. Fermat was debating on pushing his friend to talk about it, but then his watch blinked and Jeff Tracy's voice came through the comm.

'Alan, get upstairs to my office. Now.'

Alan and Fermat looked down at the device, then at each other, both with confused and slightly scared expressions as the adult sounded particularly angry.

"I haven't done anything." Alan told him, knowing that if his Dad was upset with his behavior this morning, he wouldn't wait until now to do anything about it.

"Are you sure?" Fermat questioned. Alan thought for a moment, then a terrified look spread across his face.

"Um, remember how I got no sleep before my science midterm?" Alan asked.

"Yeah. Wait, please tell me you didn't-"

"Fall asleep during the test and only answered one question?" Alan finished his sentence. They stared at each in silence before Fermat pointed out, "You bet-better get up there, making your Dad wait is only going to make him more an-an-an, upset."

Alan nodded, then stood up and slowly made his way up to his father's office, feeling like he was walking towards his death. When he started helping out with IR, his Dad made it clear that he would have to do better in school in order to keep doing that. And falling asleep in during a midterm was not doing better.

Before he was ready, he was standing in front of the office door. He took a deep breath, opened the door, and entered the room, the door closing behind him. His Dad was sitting behind the behind the desk, his expression a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"I just got off the phone with your headmaster Alan. Do you know what he told me?" Jeff asked, his tone making it clear he was just one wrong word from exploding in anger, much like Alan was this morning.

"That I, I failed my science midterm?" Alan answered with timid tone, keeping his head lowered in embarrassment. Maybe if his Dad saw how he was being honest and that he actually was ashamed of what happened, he might go easy on him and let him explain what happened. He knew he was wrong when his father spoke again.

"Yes. Not only did you fail, you fell asleep! How do you fall asleep in the middle of a test? I thought you knew better than that. If you stayed awake and actually tried to pass the test and failed, that would've been better because at least you would've tried! But no, you can't even do that!" His father started yelling, getting more and more worked up with each word that came out of his mouth.

"Oh please Dad. If I had completed the test and still failed, you would've gotten mad with me for that too. No matter what I do, you are always mad at me for something." Alan replied, his own voice starting to rise to yelling range.

"Because you keep messing up! How are you going to succeed in anything, let alone do something as dangerous and important as being a Thunderbird if you don't learn how to not screw up?" His father asked.

"It was an accident! Okay? And I already talked to my science teacher after the test. He told me I could make it up after the break." Alan tried to explain. The Thunderbird Commander though was having none of it.

"No, you will go back to Wharton's and make it up during your break." At the stunned look on Alan's face, Jeff said, "Breaks are for people who earned them, and you haven't."

"What about my other tests? I know I did good on those, and I'm going to make up the science one. Why are you making such a big deal about this one?" Alan demanded.

"Because no son of mine is going to take such a failure lightly like this! I don't care about the other tests, I care about this one because you messed up and are going to make it right!" Jeff yelled, standing up so he was taller than his son.

"That's right, you never care about anything I do unless it's a screw up, so you can have someone to yell at. Is that all I'm good for Dad?" Alan questioned, his tone a little quieter but still just as furious as before.

"That's enough Alan!" Jeff ordered, and said in a more quieter voice, "You will go to room and pack. In the morning, one of your brother's will take you back to school where you will study and retake the test."

"Fine. I'd rather be anywhere than here with you." Alan responded, then turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door as he went.

AN – I'm not 100% sure about the age differences in the movie version, so I'm putting Scott at 25, John at 23, Virgil at 22, Gordon at 20, Alan and Tin-Tin at 15, and Fermat at 13. Hope you guys liked the first chapter of my first Thunderbirds story. Chapter 2 will have more on Alan's thoughts to the fight while Chapter 3 will have more of Jeff's thoughts. Next chapter will be up as soon as I get to it.