Two Years later

Virgil's alarm went off at seven o'clock. Now anyone who knew Virgil would mostly die of shock but today was one of the hardest days in the Tracy household and Virgil wanted to be up early.

Virgil woke up with a start. He shut off his alarm and got dressed. As soon as he reached the kitchen he noticed that Scott, John, Gordon, Scott's girlfriend Tyler and his dad where already there. With a sigh he sat in his seat and they all sat in silence for a few minutes.

Finally Gordon said "Is he awake?"

John answered "Yes, I heard his shower going off about ten minutes ago he should be in for breakfast soon."

John looked absolutely exhausted; it seemed that he had been the one up with Alan last night. When it had first happened, and it was fresh in Alan's mind everyone got woken up by Alan's screams the first time it happened it scared the life out of all of Alan's brothers...

Flashback

It had been a tiring day for all of them, especially Alan. He had to say something at Hannah's funeral and well had broken down in the middle. Virgil had got up and finished Alan's eulogy for him and then took him back to his seat. Once Alan had sat down he had buried his face into his father chest and didn't look up again until Hannah's coffin had gone. No one spoke on the way back. Scott and Jeff where flying Tracy One back to the island while John, Gordon, Virgil and Alan where in the back of the plane. John and Gordon where speaking quietly to each other while Alan was had his head in Virgil's lap, his eyes staring into nothing, while Virgil was stroking Alan's hair and singing a soft song to him. Once the plane had landed Alan had finally fallen asleep. John carried him to his room and then came back to the lounge with the rest of his family.

"He's finally asleep." John said as he came in.

"Yeah after a week of no sleep." Jeff whispered. Jeff couldn't believe what his baby boy had to go through. Alan's to young for this, he thought sadly, he should be going out with his girlfriend not saying goodbye to her.

"He'll be okay dad, Alan's strong and we will all help him through this, as a family." Scott comforted his dad. Jeff nodded and then said "Well i'm gonna go and catch some sleep aswell I've been up with him all week." Jeff then strode off in the direction of the bedrooms.

The boys sat down. All was silent for a while and then Scott broke it.

"Why didn't he tell us he had a girlfriend in the first place?" He asked wonderingly.

"He wanted to tell you face to face the only reason I knew was because I video called him after his first day and saw his goofy smile on his face." Virgil smiled slightly but then it disappeared when a scream echoed through the house. The boys jumped as one and ran to their baby brother's room only to see him thrashing around. Gordon and John caught him before he fell of the bed and Virgil tried to wake up. When he did he was crying, devastating sobs. Virgil pulled him into a hug and was rocking him back and forth. The other boys joined in the hug and slowly Alan's sobs quietened down. Before he sank back into the bliss of sleep he whispered to Virgil "Don't leave me."

Flashback over

Alan had come into the kitchen. Pale faced and puffy eyed he sat down with his family to eat. Tyler was sitting next to him and gave his hand a squeeze. Alan looked up and smiled at her which she returned. She then kissed him on the forehead. Tyler was the sister the Tracy boys never had and had met Scott in one of the worst ways possible (long story) but from there they started to go out. Jeff gave Tyler a thank you smile and started to put food on everyone's plates.

Alan looked at his food dejectedly and then asked his father in a little voice most unlike the eighteen year old "D...dad could I ... maybe go to New York today? I have some papers that need to be signed at Tracy Enterprises anyway." Jeff thought about it and said "Yeah Alan you go, have a good time, and clear your head." And he gave Alan a reassuring smile. He had no idea how good his decision would be for his youngest son until much later.