~#~ (Chapter 11)

Scott wandered through the house and took the stairs down to the basement. As he had guessed, Jeff had gone to ground down there among the boxes and packing crates that held many of the Tracy family's earliest memories.

"Hey," Scott whispered as he walked in and noticed Jeff hovering silently at the far end of the room. The Tracy patriarch was standing with his head bowed and his face pointing away from the door. "You OK down here? Kyrano was worried when he lost track of you."

Jeff smiled sadly. "I didn't mean to lose him. I just…I didn't want to be there when they took Gordon away. I probably should have left when you and Alan did but…" Jeff's words petered out and he shrugged.

"But you wanted a few minutes more with him, just in case." Scott walked up behind his father and wrapped his arms around him. He rested his chin on Jeff's shoulder and peered down to discover that Jeff was leafing through a photo album containing pictures from Gordon's long months of recovery after his accident. "You shouldn't be looking at these," he whispered. "You'll just upset yourself; and with the week or so that you've had…"

Jeff chuckled and leaned back against his son. "I'm fine," he murmured. "You don't need to start worrying about me again. Gordon needs all the support he can get so turn your attentions his way."

Scott squeezed him gently. "No," he replied succinctly. "You were told not to overdo it or you'd make yourself sick again and I'm not one hundred percent certain about you being down here, to be honest. I know it's clean but it's not as clean as the rest of the house, at least in a dust-free sense. I'll take the box upstairs for you if you want then you can rummage through it to your heart's content and I won't need to worry about you re-clogging your on-their-way-to-being-unclogged lungs again."

"That's a very technical way of putting it," Jeff chuckled. "I'm glad to know that all your years of training haven't gone to waste."

Scott snorted. "You knew what I meant. Now, do you want me to take the box upstairs for you or not?"

Jeff let out an amused chuff of breath and closed the album that he had been looking through. He placed it back into the box and carefully clipped the plastic, air-tight lid closed. "I'll take that one and also the one beneath it and I'll have them in my room, if you'll allow that?"

Scott let go of Jeff and leaned around him to pick up the boxes. "I think that'd be permitted," he grinned. "…but you're not going to be allowed to sit in there and stew with them. If I don't see you back in the house within a couple of hours then I'm going to come and drag you outside. Got it?"

Jeff looked at his eldest son and sighed. "Not all that long ago I'd have said 'you and who's army' but seeing as four out of the five of you are taller than myself now I suppose I'll have to change that to a simple 'OK, I'll behave'."

Scott nodded and then adjusted his grip on the boxes so he could reach out and ruffle his father's hair. "Good boy." He grinned again and then hurried away across the basement before Jeff had the chance to react.

Jeff stood for a moment and smiled at Scott's hasty retreat. It was rare for the serious-minded eldest Tracy boy to be so open and jovial around his father and the exchange had done a lot to lift Jeff's spirits. He shook his head, set off across the room and as he had half-expected, found Scott waiting for him by the elevator.

The pair headed up into the house in a companionable silence. Scott deposited the boxes on the floor at the end of Jeff's bed and left him in peace.

~#~

Scott found himself wandering through the house again and eventually ended up back at the kitchen. The door was open and he could make out the quiet conversation going on inside between John and Alan. He stepped into the room, noticed the two blondes sitting side by side at the table and slung an arm around each of their shoulders. "I thought you'd gone to your room, Johnny. You OK?"

"Yeah," John replied. "It's going to sound weird coming from me but it was too quiet. All I could do was think about what was going on and it wasn't doing me any good so I thought I'd go to the office and bury myself in paperwork. I got kind of diverted on the way and well, here I am."

"John's been telling me how he doesn't think Gordon's recovery should take anywhere near as long as last time," Alan said softly. "What do you reckon?"

Scott pursed his lips and thought for a moment. He then pushed himself upright and moved to sit on the chair beside Alan's. "I suppose there's something to be said for the fact that Gords shouldn't have to learn how to walk this time. His body is used to getting the extra help from Doctor Levenson's synthetic elements and even though they won't be exactly how he's been used to, they'll still be basically the same as they were before all this started." Alan nodded but remained silent to allow Scott to continue. "You've also got to remember that the filaments are the…I don't really want to say 'the only thing' because that's degrading their importance but the filaments are the only thing wrong with Gordon this time. He hasn't got to cope with the broken arm, wrist, collar bone and multiple rib fractures this time and he doesn't have to deal with the concussion, the bruised kidney or the liver laceration. He's got all of us here to help him, full time, barring rescues so he won't have to struggle among strangers who don't 'get' him. I know that means he's not among experts but he is among family and that means a lot. Simply put, Al, Gordon's a damn sight better off than he was the first time he went through this."

Alan sighed softly and nodded. "It's still scary though. If the doctor does even the tiniest thing wrong then Gordon will end up crippled and that just doesn't bare thinking about."

John glanced at Scott who gently shook his head; the blonde then leaned over and gently elbowed Alan in the ribs. "Doctor Levenson's the best at what he does, Al. He's fixed Gordon before and you need to have faith that he'll do it again. If you don't then you're going to worry yourself sick and we've had way too much sickness around here recently. Do you understand?"

"I guess." Alan nodded again. "Talking about sick, did you find Dad, Scott?"

Scott chuckled. "Yes, I found him. He's a little melancholy but he's basically OK. He'd be mortified if he knew that you immediately think of him when someone mentions 'sick' though."

Alan flushed slightly and looked down at the table. Scott smiled and reached out to ruffle his little brother's hair. "Just don't let him hear you, that's all I'm saying. We're all thinking it; we're just not saying it. Alright?"

Alan nodded. "Alright, Scott. What are the three of us going to do while we're waiting though? We can't just sit around here, waiting for news."

"Not unless you want the day to pass incredibly slowly, no," Scott replied with a roll of his eyes. "I need to get down to the sickroom in case I'm needed and Johnny needs to get some paperwork done in the office. You can come with either of us or neither of us; it's your choice, Al. My only condition is that someone either comes and takes over from me in…" He paused and looked at his watch. "…about an hour and a half or one of you goes and retrieves Dad at that time. I told him he was allowed a maximum of two hours to stew in his room and then he was coming out whether he liked it or not. I may have added some stipulation that he was going outside after that time but I might let him off that if he behaves."

Alan raised his head and looked Scott in the eye. "I don't mind going to fetch him. At least it'll be something useful I can do." He turned to his other brother. "Can I sit with you until then? I promise I won't bug you or put you off or anything."

John nodded and then gave Alan a gentle smile. "I'll find you something you can help with. It'll make the time…and the paperwork, go faster. We'll see what Dad's like after you've retrieved him and we'll play the rest of the day by ear. None of us is going to relax properly until we know that Doctor Levenson has finished and that he's been successful."

"That's settled then," Scott announced as he stood up. "I'll be in the sickroom if anyone needs me. Either come and find me or use my watch."