The thunderous thumps of running feet roared down the hallway as the klaxon blared loudly, rousing all the occupants of Tracy Island from sleep. Cerulean eyes opened slowly before closing in a groggy blink. Reaching out a hand, Alan Tracy tapped the base of his lamp on his nightstand, illuminating the room. The light burned intensely in his retinas, but Alan ignored the sharp burn. Waving a hand, Alan located the box of tissues he'd placed beside his bed.
"Ugh…I'm so stubbed up." Alan sat up before blowing his nose into the handful of tissues. "My head."
Alan listened as he heard a thunderous roar take off in the night sky as Thunderbird One launched off to a rescue. Groaning to himself, Alan wrapped his blankets around his form before stepping into his slippers and grabbing his box of tissues. Shuffling out of his bedroom, Alan made his way down past Command and Control where Brains was running everything. Jeff, Scott, Virgil and Gordon were nowhere to be seen and that made Alan sigh. He'd give anything to go on a rescue with his family, but he was currently home from school with an upper respiratory and sinus infection.
Thanks to midterms Alan had lost a fare few hours of sleep, resulting in his weakened immune system. He'd contracted the infection three weeks ago, but in truth his family hadn't known about it until a week ago. Alan had hidden the fact that he wasn't feeling well until he'd fallen asleep in his astrology class. His instructor checked Alan for a fever upon waking the boy and he'd found that his student was not only warm, he was blazing hot. Alan had been sent to the nurse's office to rest until the school could get ahold of either his dad or brothers.
Lady Penelope and Parker had been the ones to come retrieve Alan from school. Lady Penelope had forced Alan to lie down and sleep, pillowing Alan's head against her lap. She'd run her fingers through the fifteen year old's hair, easing him off to sleep. When they'd arrived on the island, Kyrano had gently picked up the sickly boy, carrying him on his back up to his bedroom. Onaha had taken the liberty of changing Alan into his pajamas before she'd tucked the boy in.
When Alan's family had returned to the island after a rescue, they'd found Lady Penelope seated on the edge of Alan's bed gently dabbing at his sweaty forehead with a damp cloth. Virgil retrieved a hypodermic needle from the infirmary and gave Alan a shot of antibiotics to help him fight the infection.
That was a week ago and Alan still wasn't getting any better. In fact he seemed to be getting worse. His nose was raw from him constantly blowing it, he'd swear that he could taste blood each time he coughed, his appetite was virtually gone, not being able to taste tended to do that from time to time, his fever remained steady at 102.6 and no amount of sleep he got seemed to get rid of his fatigue.
Alan reached out with a shaky hand and opened the door to the movie room. If he couldn't sleep, might as well watch a movie…right? Yeah, that's what he thought too. Alan closed the door and turned the light on to a dim setting and moved to the couch. His head was pounding, he was tired, his nose was so stuffed up and he felt miserable. Alan retrieved the remote and propped up against the pillows that lay on the couch.
Alan contemplated putting on one of the boring documentaries that Gordon recorded on amphibians, but he couldn't gather the wherewithal to actually press play. As tired as he was, he didn't want to be caught watching a documentary, and it'd earn him teasing like you would not believe.
"Hey, feel up to some company?" Alan raised his head from the pillows to peer behind him at the voice that sounded in the room. Tin-Tin stood a couple paces behind the couch. "How are you feeling?"
"Don't ask…I feel miserable and I want to go to sleep." Alan mumbled out…his voice changed the syllables of his words and if it wasn't for how puny his voice sounded it might have been comical. "What are you doing ub?"
"I couldn't sleep…so I figured I'd come down here to watch a movie in hopes of making myself fall asleep." Tin-Tin moved around the couch to sit. She grabbed Alan's legs and lifted them up before sitting where his feet had been and laying his legs across her lap. "Feel up to humoring me?"
"What do you want to watch?" Alan laid his head back against the pillows, settling in and feeling his eyes droop slightly.
"To be honest, I've been wanting to watch Les Miserable, but I don't want to make any of your brothers uncomfortable with a musical." Alan would swear that Tin-Tin blushed slightly, but he couldn't tell in the mild darkness of the room.
"So how is that different with me?" Alan grinned slightly in question.
"For one…you are already uncomfortable…two you'll probably fall asleep during the first five minutes so it'll be like killing two birds with one stone." Alan shook his head in bemusement at Tin-Tin's logic, but he motioned for her to go ahead and put the film on.
"I'll give you that…go ahead. I'll deal." Alan pulled his blanket's around his frame and smiled his thanks when Tin-Tin tucked the loose edge of blankets around his feet and consequently around herself too.
Tin-Tin went on ahead and found the movie she wanted to watch and hit play. Alan settled in, ready and hoping that the movie put him to sleep, but as the opening credits began…Alan found himself strangely drawn in. He wasn't one for musicals, but this had caught his interest. He blamed his illness for making him find interest in a movie he'd never have watched even if he went on a movie date with a girl.
There were parts in the movie that Alan was embarrassed to admit, brought a tear to his eye. He and Tin-Tin both utilized his box of tissues, Tin-Tin because she was openly crying and had taken to dabbing at the tear streaks on her face, Alan partly because he was crying, partly because his cold made it next to impossible for him to breath like a normal human being.
When the film ended Alan and Tin-Tin looked at each other with glistening eyes. "What happened in this room, stays in this room." Alan stated with a glower in Tin-Tin's direction.
"My lips are sealed." Tin-Tin made a locking gesture over her mouth before throwing away the key. "Feeling sleepy yet?"
"Yeah, but I'm too comfortable to head back to my bed…lord knows how much that's driving me crazy being restricted to my bed. I think I'll stay here." Alan wiggled slightly, settling into the couch cushions. His eyelids became incredibly heavy and he no longer tried to keep them open.
Tin-Tin still wasn't quite tired yet, so she'd selected another movie from the queue to put on.
… … … … … …
Virgil strolled through the hallway intent on swinging past his little brother's room to check on him. His fever had remained high all day and Virgil wanted to make sure that it hadn't gotten any higher. Opening the door to Alan's bedroom, Virgil poked his head in to look in on his brother and frowned when he found not only the bed empty but it devoid of the thick blankets that Scott had practically swaddled the teen in.
"Sprout?" Virgil stepped fully into Alan's bedroom and checked the en suite bathroom for his brother. He'd begun coughing up the phlegm that settled in his lungs and it had a habit of making the youngest Tracy retch.
When Virgil failed to find Alan in the bathroom or his bedroom the medic went off in search of his older and younger brothers to see if either of them had even the slightest idea had as to Alan's whereabouts.
The medic meandered down the hall way in search of the youngest Tracy and as he wandered past the movie room he paused when he heard noise coming from inside. Backtracking, Virgil ventured to open the door to the movie room and he poked his head in. He saw a head, but the head had long dark hair and it was slumped over. Tiptoeing into the room, Virgil walked up to the couch to discover Tin-Tin, sleeping with her head propped up against her fist and Alan…bundled up under his blankets. Both teens were sound asleep.
Smiling serenely, Virgil grabbed the remote and turned off the movie that was half way over. Immediately the room was plunged into total silence and Virgil found himself holding his breath. Ever so slowly, the medic gripped Tin-Tin's head and eased it off her fist and back to lie against the arm of the couch. Slipping a small throw pillow beneath her head, Virgil checked on Alan since he was in the room. The boy was still quite feverish, but there wasn't much Virgil could do until his body actually decided to fight back against the infection.
"Hey, Virgil…have you see…" Scott trailed off himself when Virgil held a finger up to his lips. Peering over the edge of the couch, Scott got a sappy sort of grin on his face as he watched Alan sleep. The younger blonde, though not well yet was actually sleeping peacefully. The two older brothers chuckled quietly when they noticed one of Alan's toes poking out from beneath the pile of blankets spread across Tin-Tin's lap.
"Hang on, I'll be right back." Scott murmured quietly before slipping out of the room. Virgil continued to settle Alan and Tin-Tin in on the couch before looking up at seeing the door swing open again. This time it was Scott followed by Gordon and their father. Scott walked up to Virgil and handed him a pair of thick socks to place on the youngest Tracy's feet.
"How's he doing?" Jeff crouched down near the couch to whisper to Virgil who was in the process of slipping the thick material over his youngest brother's feet.
"A little better, but he's still quite warm." Virgil stood when he'd finished his task. "Come, let's let them be, I'd hate to wake Al when he's finally gotten to sleep."
Virgil ushered his family out of the room and closed the door quietly. Stopping short just outside the room, Virgil smiled softly. His baby brother no matter how old he got, was still just as cute asleep as he was when he was just a small babe in arms. When he was asleep, the stress lines that showed on his face eased away in order to give the kid the sleep he needed to recover from this illness that struck him down.
Meanwhile just inside the movie room, Tin-Tin raised her head slightly; having awoken after sensing the presences of others in the room with her and Alan. Turning her head slightly, Tin-Tin smiled before leaning over and placing the most gentlest of kisses on Alan's fevered cheeks. Snuggling down under the blankets that she shared with Alan, Tin-Tin returned to her slumber.