Scott's POV:

I was sitting by Alan's bedside when he began having a nightmare, snapping awake as I moved to wake him myself, sitting up quickly as his breath was labored.

"Alan?" I asked, and his eyes snapped to mine, clouded in fear.

"Scotty… Scared…" he whimpered, and I quickly pulled him into a hug.

He broke out of it a moment later.

"Scott?" he asked softly.

"Shhh…" I muttered, rubbing his back gently, being careful of the still-healing scar.

"I thought I forgot… Mummy…"

I silently gritted my teeth, letting him talk.

"It was worse, though… I was so cold, and I was so scared.. I could only see snow as Mum was hugging me close… Bleeding…" he sniffled, and I carefully moved him so his head was in my chest, resting my cheek on his head.

Virgil walked in, Alan peeking at him, before I let Virgil do his magic as I decided I needed to tell John and Grandma…

Other than the sudden memory jog, Alan was able to get off bed rest three days after, though he was still restricted from missions and kept in the house, Gran watching over him, and even pulling him into helping her cook, which was apparently a good thing – the food became edible.

Gordon's POV:

I was reading about different types of plankton in the sunken seating area as I heard familiar footsteps.

The sound of stuff being dropped made me look up, alert.

Alan's eyes were on Dad's desk, having dropped his tablet.

I glanced at the desk.

"Alan?" I asked, putting my book to a side as I stood, seeing the fear.

Alan ran.

I gave chase, leaping up the stairs and hearing the slam of the door to his room.

"Alan?" I called, knocking gently. "Alan?"

"Go away!" Alan replied, and I looked to see Virgil stepping out of his room.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Alan got spooked by Dad's desk for some reason, now he won't let me in his room." Gordon asked.

Virgil walked to my side, knocking.

"Alan? Can I come in?"

Silence.

Virgil opened the door, and we found Alan was curled up in the corner by his bed, clutching his bear.

"Allie, can you tell me what's wrong?" Virgil asked.

Alan shook his head, scared.

Virgil carefully knelt so he could put a hand on Alan's head.

"It's OK… Can you tell one of us? Gordon? Scott? John?"

At the mention of Scott, Alan had shrunk back a bit more, then with the mention of John he blinked, and looked away as he gave another shake.

"Come on, Alan, we can't help you unless you tell us." Virgil said softly.

Alan muttered something.

"You felt something?" Virgil asked, and Alan nodded.

"I just… Looked at his desk, and it was like something just… Broke… Like something bad happened as I saw it, but I don't know what…"

He shivered slightly, and we both pulled our littlest brother into a hug…

Scott's POV:

I didn't expect the call.

Colonel Cassey appeared, a frown marring her face.

"Scott. I've got news." she stated.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Your Father… Part of his aircraft was found three hours ago after washing up on a beach in LA… I'm sorry, but it also came with the lower half of his corpse…"

I froze, as Colonel Cassey cut the call and Virgil entered, a frown on his own face.

"Scott?" he asked, and I took a breath, shutting the feelings away for later.

"They found him… Half, of him." I said, my legs givig out as I slumped in my seat.

Virgil froze.

"Hell." he cursed. "That's…"

I looked over at him.

"Three hours ago, Alan took one look at Dad's desk and freaked, we just got him to rest, Gordon's with him…" another curse word slipped loose.

I felt my frown increase.

"What do you mean?" I snapped.

"Alan took one look from where I'm standing, at Dad's desk, then dropped his tablet and ran up to his room, Gordon chasing him to find out what's wrong. Apparently he suddenly felt like something had broken and he was doing the hardly-talking-and-clinging-to-Eddy thing."

It was my turn to curse.

"How did he know?" I muttered, before frowning. "We'll have to tell them… We can't hide it forever…"

I felt another thing click.

"Did he run round the rec room or through it?" I asked.

"Why? You'd have to ask Gordon, anyway." Virgil frowned.

I nodded.

"You tell Grandma and John, I'll tell Gordon and Kayo… How the heck do we tell Alan?" I growled.

Virgil nodded, as I walked up to Alan's room.

Gordon was sitting on the end of Alan's bed, Alan curled up with Eddy in his arms.

"Gordon, can I talk to you?" I asked.

He nodded.

As I told him, his face gained a look of shock, and asking him about Alan confirmed it.

"He avoided the rec room… Why?" he asked.

"When he was little he'd do that patrol thing before sitting in the rec room until he fell asleep again, remember?" I mused.

Gordon's eyes hardened.

"We should tell him as a group, with plenty of hot choc, we need to at least try to soften the blow." he stated. "I'm not letting Alan think there may be a connection."

"We'll have to be careful about it – else he'll know before we tell him." I frowned…

Alan's POV:

When I woke up, I didn't feel like getting out of bed, but I did it anyway, keeping a tight grip on my bear as I decided what to do.

Since I had the accident, I could see Mum floating by the picture. Then I saw Dad sitting at his desk…

I looked at my clock to see it was just clocking into 6pm.

Waking down the corridor, I entered the rec room, finding John watching something.

I looked towards Mum, and blinked.

She'd moved – she wasn't looking at the picture anymore, and instead was watching me.

"Alan?"

"Hmm?" I looked over to see him having moved to look at me.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Sure." I replied, looking over to see her smiling.

I continued through to the lounge, seeing Dad was still sitting there, and I redirected my path to the patio.

Grandpa was sitting by the pool, and I noticed Gordon swimming laps.

"Hey Al!" he grinned, seeing me. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah." I nodded, hiding Eddy behind me.

He nodded, as I turned to find the other three.

They were down with the Thunderbirds.

"Alan!" Virgil smiled, and Scott gave his own small smile.

"He-hello Alan!" Brains smiled.

I could see something was hanging over everybody.

"Scott… Is Dad… Like Mum and Grandpa?" I asked, not caring about how I was no longer hiding Eddy behind my back.

Scott took a breath, as Virgil's smile dropped.

"I felt something was bad, so I found John in the rec room, Grandma and Kayo in the lounge, Gordon at the pool, then you three are here… So…" I drifted off, feeling embarrassed as I looked down at my toy.

"Scott."

I looked up to see Scott had stood.

"… We wanted to soften the blow somehow…" he replied. "Colonel Cassey called me a while ago…" he nodded. "I won't go into details."

I nodded, knowing it was because they didn't want to tell me, as I had a thought as to why Dad was sitting.

"Multiple parts…" I muttered, figuring it out. "But if that's true, where's the rest of Dad?"