AN: This was a part of a series and is now a stand alone story. It was called The Blink of an Eye but most people know it as A Breath of Air after Criminally Charmed wrote her awesome story Left By The Wayside with it.

Summery: An allergic reaction causes chaos among the Tracy household. Alan whump. Goes with Criminally Charmed story Left By The Wayside.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of The Thunderbirds. I am making no money from this story.

A Breath of Air

By: Lauren Freeman

He watched wide eyed as Fermat breathed in from his inhaler in a desperate attempt to get in oxygen. Brains stood beside him ready to take action if the asthma attack got any worse but it looked like Fermat was gaining control. Alan sighed in relief; this event would be stored away in his brain for nightmare's pleasures. He shuddered before stepping back to lean against the wall and closed his eyes, all of this because he had jumped out at Fermat from the corner he had been hiding in. Opening his eyes he saw Brains give him a tired glare, one that shouted of disappointment.

"Sorry Fermat." Alan spoke softly before swiftly leaving the room feeling horrible. It was just a joke. No one in the house thought it was very funny however upon hearing recounts from later. Alan in a desperate move to not have to hear any more about it from his family spent the rest of the day on the beach beating his own self up for the dumb move.

That night at dinner Alan reluctantly went back up to the house as he had not eaten anything since breakfast and his stomach would not shut up. He sat down at the table just as it went silent. Alan sighed before filling his plate with whatever it was sitting near him. It looked odd, he was fairly sure he had never eaten it before. With a shrug he practically inhaled the entire thing without even tasting it. He was about to reach for his water when he noticed Gordon snickering.

"What?" Alan asked suspiciously.

"Oh nothing...if you don't count the explosive diarrhea you're going to have in about say...three hours." Gordon stated cheerfully. Alan sighed, he supposed he deserved that. If that was the worst his brother was going to do then he'd be extremely lucky. He looked back down at what was left in the bowl no one else had eaten from. It was some kind of pasta salad filled with different kinds of nuts including... Alan's eyes went wide with alarm. During a science class the year before his class had studied food allergies where he had found out that he was allergic to walnuts. In the light amount he had eaten he had developed a rash. His teacher had sent a note home to his dad and told him it would not be wise to try large amounts as it could send him in to Anaphylactic shock.

Alan could already feel a slight weight on his chest, he turned to face Brains.

"Brains? Do we have an epi pen here?" Alan asked slightly wide eyed. Brains looked at him with curiosity.

"In the cl-cl- infirmary, why."

"I'm allergic to walnuts." Alan stated just before the weight got worst and the real struggle began. Brains shot out of his seat and ran for the door, as Alan tilted his head back in a vain attempt to gather more oxygen into his lungs. It felt like a heavy weight was on his chest, he couldn't move it, and he couldn't breath! He vaguely noticed someone laying him down on the ground, leaning up against someone's chest. He could hear people talking, but all his focus was in trying to get oxygen into his lungs. Black spots appeared in his vision as his eyes grew heavy. He felt something placed over his mouth; he would later realize that it was an oxygen mask. He didn't feel the prick in his neck, nor feel someone placing medical devices on him to monitor his oxygen levels and heart rate. The black spots began to go away, and slowly more and more oxygen got through as the life saving drugs injected into his veins took effect. He began to shake uncontrollably due to the effects of the drugs but he didn't care, he had his head leaned back against his fathers shoulder enjoying the feeling of oxygen going into his lungs. The air coming from the mask felt wonderful as he felt his eyes close. The adrenalin rush was over and he needed rest.

Alan woke again a few hours later in the infirmary where he was still being monitored. Alan began to remember what happened but those thoughts were quickly interrupted as the reason he woke up became apparent. He needed to go to the bathroom, and there was no waiting. Grabbing all the wires hooked to him and tearing them off he ran for the infirmary's small restroom, oblivious to the alarms now going off from his bed.

The sound of people running in, shouting; reached his ears before it got quiet again as they quickly realized the flat line was due to the monitor no longer being hooked up to a human rather then someone actually dying.

"Where is he?" Gordon wondered loudly.

"I hate you Gordon!" Alan yelled from the bathroom, Gordon's face turned red as he remembered the slow moving laxatives. This time the glares turned to him.

"You alright in there?" Scott called after rolling his eyes. He shot a thankful look at Brains who had turned off the wailing monitors.

Alan sighed. "Yeah."

"H-how do you f-f-f-feel physically?" Brains asked through the door.

"My chest is still a little tight, my stomach is a bit upset, but I can breath fine." Alan said only loud enough to be heard through the door. Brains frowned as he nodded.

"I want to give you more allergy medication to m-m-make sure everything remains w-w-fine."

"That stuff knocks me out, I might be in here for awhile." Alan stated. Brains nodded even though he could not be seen. "I am going to bring you something to counteract the la-la-laxative. It should begin to wo-wo-work within ten minutes of taking it, is that alright?"

"Yeah." Alan already felt his eyes drooping again, and he hadn't even taken the allergy stuff yet. He half heartedly tried to make himself as decent as possible sitting on a toilet with your shorts around your ankles as the door opened and Brains slipped in.

"I need to inject it, in order for it to mo-mo-move quickly." Alan merely nodded and held out his arm. Brains put the needle in and injected both the laxative cure as well as the allergy medication. Alan was practically sleep walking when he left the restroom back to the bed.

As he slowly made his way through the infirmary he noticed Fermat standing where he had been standing that morning when Fermat had been having breathing troubles of his own. He guessed the tables had turned and he shook his head in amusement. Although he had no idea what was amusing about this whole thing. The last thing that crossed his mind before falling asleep again was that at that moment, he still hated Gordon.