Family Forever

Chapter 21

Virgil knew one thing about being the middle child. He developed a six sense when something was wrong. As he sat in the lounge while there was a space rescue going on he was playing a puzzle game on his phone. He sensed tension as soon as the leather chairs came up from the floor with Scott and Alan.

Gordon greeted them and both half noticed him. Virgil looked up he could almost smell the tension at this point. Alan looked a little upset and announced he was doing homework. Alan almost never did homework after a rescue. Scott then announced he was going to go to the gym.

Virgil frowned; he looked at Gordon who shrugged. The island briefly lost connection with the rescue so they had no idea what had happened while they were in space. Soon John's image appeared.

"Another rescue?" Virgil asked

John shook his head. "No not exactly. Virgil I'm going to need you to talk to Alan."

"What happened? They were acting weird when they got back?"

"I have no idea. Whatever it was it happened when we lost communications."

"Alright I'll see what's going on."

"Thanks, I'm worried about them."

Virgil made his way to Alan's room. He paused in front of the bed room door and collected his thoughts. Being the middle child he had certain responsibilities so to speak. He was the peace keeper and the fixer when something went wrong in the group. He was also the listener and the check on everyone when they were upset. He reached up and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Alan called. His voice sounded strained.

"It's Virgil. I just want to talk."

Alan opened up the door. "Come in." He walked back into his room and flopped down on to the floor around his books and data pads.

Virgil followed him and sat down in a chair. "So what happened out there today?"

"Nothing." He said a little too fast. He turned to face him; his eyes were red and puffy indicating he had been crying.

"Nothing? I don't believe that at all."

Alan frowned and looked up from his data pad. "Oh?" He let out a long suffering sigh and sat the homework aside.

"You came in after a rescue and started doing homework, you look like you've been crying… plus John said he thought something happened on the rescue."

Alan bit his lip. "I think Scott is mad at me."

That was a sentence that didn't make sense. Virgil blinked a few times and asked. "What was that again?"

"I said I think Scott is mad at me."

"Why? Scott could never be mad at you."

"During the rescue the guy we got was a real jerk… he was making a big scene during the rescue and at one point he said 'if I knew that International Rescue was going to send children I wouldn't have called' Scott got really mad when he heard him say that to me. So Scott was getting ready to deck him and I stopped him. Told him we had a job to do… then the guy started teasing Scott saying that he needed a kid to look after him. After that John got into contact with us and we started home. I think Scott's upset because I fussed at him, he hasn't spoken to me since it happened."

"Oh Allie," Virgil reached out and hugged his baby brother. "Scott's not mad." He said as he felt Alan start crying.

"Then why was he acting mad?" he asked in-between sobs.

"Tell ya what I'll go ask him for you, okay?"

Alan nodded. "Okay Virgil."

Virgil wondered into the gym. Scott was boxing with a punching bag. "Scott," he said

Scott looked up at him. He looked exhausted. "Oh hey there Virgil. Want to spar with me?" He opened up a bottle of water and took a drink.

"No thanks… I'm here to talk to you."

"About?"

Virgil paused and assessed Scott. Honestly his oldest brother did look like hell. He thought Alan looked bad he had nothing on Scott. "Well to put it plainly Alan thinks you're mad at him."

Scott's blue eyes widened and he almost choked on his water. "What? Why would I be mad at him?" As soon as he asked that his face softened. "Oh, well I'm not mad at him. I'm still mad at that guy for making fun of Alan." Scott sat down the bottle of water. "It's just not right, Alan busted his ass to save that guys life." Scott gritted his teeth. "It pisses me off." He hit the punching bag with loud bang making Virgil jump. "I wanted to tell that guy off but… I knew I shouldn't I'm glad Alan stopped me." He picked up his bottle of water. "Last thing we need is me knocking a dude's teeth out in space. Be bad press. That's why I came in here to work out my anger."

Virgil would be the first to admit that Scott had an anger issue when it came to people messing with his family. "Well I suggest you talk to him. Because he's pretty upset."

Scott nodded and took off out of the gym. Virgil sighed, being the middle child this was the norm. He got his communicator and contacted John. "John situation was solved. Scott's talking to Alan now."

"Good to hear. We don't need to have hurt feelings around the island." Said John

"Exactly." Virgil ended the communication. He smiled.

Virgil made his way back into the lounge and seen Scott and Alan sitting on a couch together. Scott was helping Alan with his homework. "Everything good?" Virgil asked

"Yup," said Alan giving thumbs up.

Scott just smiled. Virgil was glad everything was resolved with a simple conversation. He patted his brother on the shoulder and made his way to the kitchen. The middle brother was always the fixer.