Harold Foster sat at his desk in the fire station. He was reviewing the reports given to him from the chief of the neighboring fire station that had contacted his station in request of additional fire fighters. They were currently in the process of investigating the cause of several different suspicious fires that had happened as of late. One fire, the arsonist had been located at the scene; he'd been trying to get back at his ex-wife for cleaning him out financially so he'd charred the home that was to go to her. Divorces sucked, especially when one party was to get the house and children while the other got squat.

Currently though, Harold was reviewing the report on one building in particular. It was just too suspicious. It had been a large building that was at the prime of its existence. It had surpassed every state exam to remain open, and had gotten a clean bill from the state electrician. Something just didn't add up, and that was what Harold was trying to figure out. The building was no longer standing, so to retrace the cause of the fire at its source would be next to impossible.

Impossible for someone who didn't know what to look for maybe. Harold just had a feeling that this fire was no accident. Wharton's School for Boys had passed state exams and the electrical wiring throughout the building had been gone over with a fine tooth comb by a state electrician. If the electrician had found something that could have potentially caused a fire, he'd have been required to order a mandate to close the school until the problem was fixed.

Leaning back in his chair with a sigh, Chief Harold Foster gazed at the report. He glanced at his watch to see that it was 9:30 in the morning, Christmas Eve. His shift at the fire station wasn't due to end until 5 in the evening. He had plenty of time to stare at this report, but the memo he'd received with the report required him to go to the scene of the fire. The chief from the neighboring station had a law enforcement friend that worked as a K-9 handler and this K-9 in particular was a certified arson dog. Grabbing his jacket, Chief Harold Foster left to go meet with this law enforcement officer and this K-9 unit.

"Hopefully this K-9 unit can locate the source of the fire. I've heard this handler is very thorough, but it's the dog with the magic nose that can detect the location where accelerant was used." Climbing into his vehicle, Harold left to commute to Wharton's, approximately a forty-five minute drive from his station.

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Elijah Pellegrini disembarked from his patrol car; he paused briefly to check his surroundings, he'd sniffed slightly. He could still smell the charred wood of Wharton's School for Boys. Directing his gaze towards the site of the fire, he spotted a pile of blackened rubble. The once majestic building that he'd passed on occasions when he was going to work was reduced to nothing, a mass of burnt wood, brick and ash. Steeling himself against the lives that were affected as a result of the fire, Elijah turned to open the back seat of his cruiser.

A distant rumble made Elijah look up, he'd heard it just as much as he'd felt it. Judging on the rumble he'd felt, he'd wager the vehicle heading in his direction was a medium sized vehicle. Sighing to himself, he reached in the backseat of his cruiser while clicking his tongue. A cold wet nose greeted Elijah and he grabbed the harness the dog wore before hooking a leash up to the K-9. His partner seemed ready to get to work investigating this fire. Retrieving a suitcase from the floorboard, Elijah prepared to get busy.

"Come on Lulu Bell." Elijah patted his leg, and Lulu Bell jumped out of the backseat of the cruiser wagging her golden tail happily. "Sit Lulu Bell, good girl."

Elijah stood next to his cruiser waiting for the person he knew to be driving in his location. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned to look at the devastation of the destroyed school. His squad leader had told him that there were a couple injured students, but he'd been informed that the investigation was in need of his dog. The fire had happened and so far investigators had come up short on what caused it.

One thing that stuck out to the investigation team was the fact that nobody was reportedly awake except two security officers near the front entrance. The fire had occurred just a quarter after midnight, or that is the approximated time. Dispatchers had been contacted about the fire by a member of security. The two security officers witnessed smoke rising near the east wing of the building, and when they went to go extinguish it, they'd found the entire east wing was on fire, and it was quickly spreading to other parts of the school.

Security activated the fire alarm, one taking the time to call 911 while the other started pounding on doors just inside the building, and without regard for their own safety, ran into the fire and started trying to help evacuate the boys in immediate danger. Security said they thought they'd checked every room, but they couldn't be sure. After receiving a blueprint of the school, Elijah had pinpointed the location the security officers claimed to see the fire. According to security when they'd run into the fire, they claimed the third floor seemed the most precarious, as the fire was strongest on that floor. That indicated to Elijah that the third floor was the general location of the start of the fire. Now to figure out whether it was intentional or not and if it was intentional, who was the arsonist?

"Hello! Are you Officer Pellegrini?" Elijah turned to look over his shoulder to see who'd called out to him. Turning to face him, Elijah answered.

"Yes, Officer Elijah Pellegrini and my canine unit Lulu Bell at your service." Elijah offered a smile at the man he'd spoken to, his green eyes shining with determination. "And you must be Fire Chief Foster from the 24th district?"

"Absolutely, Fire Chief Harold Foster. It's nice to meet you Officer Pellegrini." Harold offered out his hand to Elijah, shaking it firmly. "I'd have been here sooner, but rush hour can be a bitch."

"It's alright; I've only been here five minutes. So what kind of information can you give me?" Elijah motioned to some papers that Harold held. Harold looked down to his hands, before extending the documents to Elijah for him to take and review.

"Just a spare copy of the report from the neighboring fire station that received the initial call, they said they can't spare any men or women to investigate the fire due to all the recent fires that have been occurring in their district, so the bucks have been passed to me and my crew." Harold began to walk toward the fire destroyed building, Elijah folded the documents and putting them inside his jacket pocket. Clicking his tongue, Elijah tugged on Lulu Bell's leash to get her to come.

"So how long have you been a K-9 handler?" Harold decided to make small talk before they got to work. Might as well get to know his partner during the investigation, he'd certainly be spending a lot of time with him and the canine.

"I've been a K-9 handler since I joined the police force four years ago." Elijah walked with Harold for a while, before the two of them came to a stop in front of the rubble that was once Wharton's.

"How long have you had Lulu Bell?" Harold gestured to the slightly greying dog. Regardless of Lulu Bell having glossy golden fur, there was a small hint of aged grey in her fur.

"I've had her six years, but she is seven. Her first year of life was spent being taught to be a guide dog for the hearing impaired, when I got her I waited until she was three before I started training her to be an arson dog. I was in the police academy at the time and they were offering arson dog training to any officers in training that wanted to include their dogs in their work." Elijah patted Lulu Bell's head when she sat at his feet. She seemed eager to get to work.

"Impressive." Harold nodded genuinely impressed. The guy he was to be partnered with wasn't a rookie cop, but someone with some experience.

"Lulu Bell, seek." Elijah disconnected Lulu Bell's leash before he gave the command, which she jumped right up and began to smell the ground. Harold and Elijah walked patiently behind her, waiting to see if she'd pick up on a hint of an accelerant.

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Gordon thanked the shuttle driver for transporting him to the hospital. Opening the door, Gordon climbed out of the van, waving at the driver and other passengers being taken to the airport, before turning to go into the hospital. Upon walking through automatic glass doors, Gordon was greeted to the smell of a mixture of gingerbread and apple cinnamon candles. The gingerbread scented candle wasn't that bad, it reminded him of when his grandmother made gingerbread cookies for Christmas each year, but the apple cinnamon was overpowering and nausea inducing. Sucking in a deep breath, Gordon approached the front desk, flashing his ID bracelet at the receptionist, and after receiving a confirming nod entered the elevator that would take him up to the Pediatric Burn Unit. The unfortunate aspect of there being a pediatric burn unit was that all visitors had to pass through the general burn unit to get to the back.

'Nurse station C, where is Nurse Station C?' Nurse Station C was the beginning of the pediatric burn unit. Gordon grinned inwardly when he spotted the sign on the wall pointing in the direction of the nurse station he was in search of. 'Here we go.'

Gordon approached the nurse's station, to find a single grey haired woman typing away, while she looked at a couple forms. He stood by patiently in hopes of her noticing him, but all she ever did was continue typing, turning the page to whatever document she was reading and resume being completely oblivious to his presence. Starting to feel out of place, he finally cleared his throat to gain the nurse's attention. She looked up at him.

"Yes, how may I help you young man?" The nurse gazed up at him before adjusting her glasses. Gordon noticed her name tag said her name was Jennifer.

"Hi nurse Jennifer, I came to visit with my little brother Alan Tracy, I'm his older brother Gordon. Would you by any chance know if he is awake?" Gordon gazed down at the desk, suddenly finding it really interesting.

"I don't know if he's awake yet, however Dr. Andreessen just went to go check when the nurse call light came on for his room. If you'd like I can page your brother's doctor to find out." Jennifer picked up her pager, before giving Gordon a look.

"I'd appreciate it ma'am. You see, I came to help my brother with his breakfast, and I wanted to make sure he was awake." Gordon nodded at the elderly nurse.

"Just one moment." Jennifer entered a code, before going silent.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

"It's cool, but…do you by any chance know when I can expect my skin grafts?" Alan directed a curious gaze at the doctor, hoping that he had an idea of how much longer Alan would need to wait until he had surgery.

Dr. Andreessen remained stone faced, not wishing to answer the boy. He didn't want to make the boy depressed about his receiving surgery to place the skin grafts, but he also didn't feel comfortable keeping the boy in the dark. Looking over at Virgil he noticed the older brunette carried a look similar to that of his little brother. 'Well, family resemblance is certainly strong.' Heaving a sigh, Dr. Andreessen sat at the foot of Alan's bed, casting a serious gaze to both Tracy sons.

"To be perfectly honest with you Alan…we don't have a clear time frame." Dr. Andreessen winced inwardly when he watched the semi-hopeful look fall from Alan's face. "You see, you were only just injured not even a week ago. It takes at least two weeks to be able to properly confirm how much time you'll have before you receive the first graft. Then you need to be scheduled in for the OR, and placed in isolation for a week before you can receive the surgery."

"Oh." Alan cast his eyes at his bandaged hands in order to avoid Dr. Andreessen's sympathetic gaze.

"I wish I had better news for you Alan, but it's still too soon to tell." Dr. Andreessen watched as Virgil shot Alan a sympathetic look, discreetly. The young blonde was just staring at his lap, a dark cloud forming over his head. A beeping stopped Dr. Andreessen from saying anything more. Dr. Andreessen removed his beeper from the waistband of his scrubs to look at it, before directing his gaze at the Tracy sons. "It would seem I am needed at the nurse's station, I will be back in a while to make sure your allergic reaction has eased off."

"Yeah, okay." Alan kept his gaze directed at his blanketed lap, blinking back the tears he felt building up behind his eyes. Dr. Andreessen nodded silently, before turning to leave; leaving Virgil and Alan to sit beside each other. The door closed silently and the two brothers remained quiet.

Virgil watched Alan's face for any signs of how he was feeling and allowed his shoulders to drop. He felt discouraged. He wished the fire had never happened, his little brother shouldn't be lying in a hospital bed wondering when he'd be receiving surgery…he should be home with them, preparing to open presents and laze about the house. A sniffle broke Virgil from his thoughts. Lifting his gaze to look at his little brother he watched as Alan tried to not cry.

Alan's eyes were opened, and the tears swimming in his eyes just made Virgil feel helpless. The young blonde sniffled again, before nodding his head; as if to acknowledge his situation. Virgil raised a tentative hand to place on Alan's shoulder, but the blonde simply shied away from him. When Virgil placed a gentle hand on Alan's bandaged left hand, he pulled away. Virgil brought his hand back towards himself and remained silent.

"Please…go away." Alan whispered brokenly, not even raising his eyes to look at Virgil.

"Allie…" Virgil tried to place his hand on Alan's shoulder again, but he pulled away again.

"No…please…go away." Alan replied with a little more force. He wanted to be alone.

"I can't Allie; I'm not going to leave you." Virgil watched his brother jump from quiet to hurt, to anger in a matter of seconds. Being familiar with medicines and trauma, he recognized Alan to be out of control with his emotions. It wasn't something he could control. Mood swings were quite common when a person was taking a variety of medications and was injured. Alan started seething.

"Go…Away!" Alan spoke with venom dripping from his words. He was angry, but mostly he was hurt. Hurt, that someone had caused the fire, and caused these injuries to him and Fermat. The tears shining in Alan's eyes overflowed as he glared at his older brother. Gritting his teeth, Alan growled out. "I said…GO AWAY!"

Virgil was taken aback by Alan's extreme mood swing. Alan had yelled loud enough that he'd woken Fermat from a sound sleep, not that either Virgil or Alan could see that from beyond the closed curtain. Fermat raised his head from his pillow, where he could clearly hear Alan's sharp intakes of breath, before he ground out again for whoever was beyond the curtain to leave him alone.

"Okay, Allie…I'll go." Virgil spoke softly, trying to diffuse the mood swing. Virgil stood up from his place on Alan's bed, holding his hands up. He hated seeing Alan like this, but what was he supposed to do?

"Get out!" More tears fell from Alan's eyes as he ground out the command to his older brother. He felt his temper rising and without meaning too he snapped. "I SAID GET OUT! WHAT PART OF GET OUT DON"T YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Virgil backed up a couple paces to give his baby brother a wide berth. He'd dealt with Alan's mood swings when he'd entered puberty, but never had his temper reached these extremes unless he was arguing with their dad. Keeping his hands up to show Alan he was not going to fight, Virgil slipped out of the cordoned off area of the sleeping quarter. He looked up when he noticed Fermat staring at him from his bed. Letting his shoulders drop, as well as his head, Virgil turned and left the room.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Dr. Andreessen closed the door to Alan and Fermat's suite and heaved a sigh. That had not been easy; he absolutely hated breaking bad news to patients or their family members. If there was ever one thing he despised about his job, it would be breaking bad news. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled before straightening up. Replacing his mask of composition, he left to go to the nurse station.

He could see a person standing in front of the station, talking to nurse Jennifer. He couldn't see the person's face, for his back was turned…but he watched Jennifer nodding at whatever it was he was asking. Approaching the nurse station, he heard the last of the conversation.

"…worried for him." Jennifer smiled peacefully at the young man standing in front of her. She noticed Dr. Andreessen, and waved at him.

"Dr. Andreessen, thank you for responding so quickly. I have a visitor here for a Mr. Alan Tracy, would he by any chance be awake?" Jennifer motioned towards the young man who stood in front of her station, and Dr. Andreessen recognized him the moment he turned around.

"Hello…Gordon is it?" Dr. Andreessen was trying to recall if it was Gerald or Gordon, some name that began with the letter "G".

"That's right, I'm Gordon Tracy." Dr. Andreessen accepted the handshake from Gordon, and nodded at the young redhead.

"I take it you are here to visit your younger brother?" Dr. Andreessen remained stone faced, but he felt apprehensive.

"Yep, I'm here to visit and feed him his breakfast, would he by any chance be awake?" Gordon gave the doctor his signature cocky grin.

"Ah, yes…your brother is awake." Dr. Andreessen was now wondering if the entire world hated him. He'd just had to deliver bad news to a kid…a kid…and he'd watched the hopeful look fall from his face and be replaced with a dark cloud of depression. 'Damn it.'

"Would it possible for me to see him?" Gordon got a vague feeling that something had happened, and not necessarily a good something either. Call it intuition, or what have you; but he just had that feeling that his baby brother needed him.

"I suppose. But I should warn you, he may not be in the best of moods." Dr. Andreessen resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't turn Gordon away unless Alan strictly told him he didn't want visitors. "Let's go get you scrubbed in."

Dr. Andreessen and Gordon walked away from the nurse's station, both feeling slight apprehension. What would happen if Alan didn't want company after the news he'd received? Suppose there was only one way to find out. Gordon's eyes widened slightly when they passed the hall that Alan and Fermat's room was located. There walking up the hall towards them, was none other than Virgil. He had a hangdog appearance, and walked as if he was headed to his final destination.

"Virge? What are you doing here?" Gordon stopped where he stood, and looked at his older brother with concerned eyes. It wasn't normal for Virgil to be so down in the mouth.

"…" Virgil lifted his head to look at the redhead and Dr. Andreessen. He felt empty.

"Yo, Virgil! Wakie Wakie eggs and Bakie!" Gordon stepped up to stand directly in front of Virgil, a curious look on his face, before he raised his hand and waved his hand, breaking Virgil from his thoughts. "Look alive bro!"

"What do want?" Virgil cast an annoyed glare at his younger redhead brother a glare. He didn't appreciate having his brother come into his personal bubble unexpectedly.

"I asked you what you were doing here?" Gordon stepped back from Virgil upon receiving the glare. He knew when his brother was annoyed and he didn't feel like being on the receiving end of whatever harsh words might be said. "What's wrong?"

Virgil again didn't reply. He simply shrugged his shoulders, he felt hurt by Alan casting him from his room, but he knew that wasn't his brother talking…it had been the medicine screwing with his emotions. How could things have gone so wrong? Alan should have known not to ask. But Virgil had hoped to hear some good news as well, so he understood; to a point anyway. When Virgil finally did speak up, Gordon had to strain his ears to hear him.

"I stayed the night here." Virgil resumed walking, keenly stepping around his immediate younger brother.

"Hey, whoa. What's the matter?" Gordon turned and jogged ahead of his brother before stopping in front of him again. "Talk to me Virge!"

Dr. Andreessen watched the interaction with Gordon and Virgil and felt bad. He would have avoided answering the question, if he'd been able to. He hadn't wanted to inform Alan that it was still too soon to tell. None of his patients ever took kindly to being told that the answer to their question was 'I don't know'. Dr. Andreessen knew from experience, just what was wrong with Virgil and felt it was his place to inform the younger redhead.

"Alan asked how long until he should expect to be receiving his skin grafts, and I told him it was still too soon to tell." Dr. Andreessen approached the two brothers carefully. "I take it he wanted to be alone Virgil?"

"Well, he didn't say it quite that way, but he certainly didn't want company. He ordered me to leave. Quite loudly, I might add." Virgil looked at both his brother and younger brother's doctor with a dejected look on his face. He felt very hurt by Alan ordering him to leave.

"Let me see him." Gordon didn't care if his brother was angry; he was determined to be there for his brother. He didn't come to the hospital to twiddle his thumbs; it was to be there for his only little brother.

"I don't think that's a good idea Gordo." Virgil knew that Gordon was adamant to see their little brother, but he didn't think it was a good idea. "He shouted at me to leave, he woke Fermat up because of how loud he yelled."

"I don't care! I have been where he's at now!" Gordon stared straight into Virgil's eyes relaying how determined he was to visit. Come Hell or high water, he was going to visit his little brother. "Virge…I've been where he's at. I spent months in the hospital recovering after that damned hydrofoil accident. I can identify with feeling what he's feeling. I am going to see him, whether you like it or not. He's my little brother too!"

Virgil heaved a sigh. Gordon was right. Out of all the Tracy sons, Gordon could identify with Alan and Fermat. A little over a year earlier, Gordon had faced being resigned to life in a wheelchair. He had been told by several doctors to expect that he'd never walk again, and now look at him. A strong member of International Rescue, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer and he was walking. He'd shown those doctors that he was going to walk.

"Okay, be my guest." Virgil waved at Gordon to continue following Dr. Andreessen.

"Don't worry Virgil, I'll talk to him." Gordon patted Virgil on the shoulder with what he hoped was a reassuring pat.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Alan listened to the door close as his brother walked out. The moment the door closed, Alan unleashed the torrent of tears he'd been holding back. Alan bit his lip to silence his sobs, as he laid there. 'I should have known better than to ask. Stupid! Stupid!' Alan clamped his eyes closed as he felt the painful sting of tears. He felt horrible. 'I really am a monster! I was so callus to Virgie, why did I do that? He was only trying to comfort me, but I pushed him away. He must hate me now.'

Alan lowered his head to his chest and cried softly. 'What is the matter with me? Why am I only good at causing problems?' Alan coughed, from the force of his tears. His vision blurred slightly and he just laid his head back against his pillows and allowed the tears to fall. He didn't care anymore. Sniffling soundly, he hiccupped before coughing again. His shoulders shook and his chest heaved from his sharp intakes of breath. He felt miserable. 'They were right. I am a monster.'

In a brief spurt of anger, Alan with his bandaged left hand pounded his fist on the bed. He didn't even seem to notice the jolt of pain radiating through the bandaged limb, and regardless of being heavily burned and bandaged…Alan sat up drawing his knees up to his chest, allowing his broken arm to hang limply by his side. 'I wish my mom was still alive. Why did she have to die instead of me? They were right, it was my fault.' Alan rested his head on his knees, and took several shuddering breaths.

Alan laid with his head on his knees for several minutes. He flinched when a pair of arms wrapped around him in a comforting embrace. Closing his eyes and leaning into the touch, he allowed whoever was hugging him to push his head down to rest on their shoulder. His anger was spent, now all that remained was self-pity and sorrow. The once happy blonde haired, blue eyed boy was weighed down with what felt like 5 tons of sadness. Turning his head, he looked over at whoever was embracing him, to see familiar red hair. He'd had the fleeting belief that Virgil had returned, and he kind of wished he had so he could apologize for losing his cool.

"Why you crying little bro?" Gordon murmured softly. The response he got was a shake of the head. "I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong."

"It's nothing. Don't concern yourself with it." Alan turned his head away from Gordon's eyes which were gazing sidelong at him.

"Wrong answer kid, come on and talk to me. You were always able to tell me anything when we were kids." Gordon gently ran his fingers through Alan's hair. He'd dropped the bravado he'd always carried like a second skin in favor of being the brother that Alan needed right now.

"Have you ever said anything that you regretted?" Alan mumbled from Gordon's shoulder.

Gordon remained quiet as he contemplated his answer. Of course he'd said and done thing he hadn't meant. He was human. He made mistakes. He'd said lots of things to people he loved and would die for that hurt them. One of those individuals being the same little blonde he was currently holding in his arms.

"Yeah, I have Allie." Gordon recalled back to the day he'd hurt his little brother.

'Gordon had had a bad day when he was due back from boarding school. Alan had been eagerly waiting near the hangar to see Virgil and Gordon get off the jet with Scott and John. Scott received leave from the Air Force to return home, and John flew the jet since he was on semester break in college. Jeff had been working remotely so he'd be home with Alan who was not quite old enough yet to attend boarding school. Virgil and Gordon were respectively seniors and sophomores in boarding school.

Alan was eleven years old at the time. He had been excited to see his big brothers who he hadn't seen for almost four months, and when he greeted each of his brothers with a hug…Gordon had pushed him away. Not just the gentle shove either, he'd pushed him hard enough to make him fall. He hadn't cared when he saw the tears well up in Alan's eyes; all he'd done was call him a worthless child and ran away.

Alan had taken what Gordon had said to heart about him being worthless and he'd remained out of all his older brothers' sight for a majority of the two week semester break, only seeing but not interacting at meal times. One day in particular, Scott had been searching for the youngest brother to find out what was wrong and when he couldn't find him, he'd enlisted the help of all the brothers…Gordon included. They'd been searching for hours, when they'd heard screams from the caves. It had been Tin-Tin screaming for help.

She and Alan had been playing near the caves on a rock jutting out into the surf. Alan slipped on some algae and lost his balance, falling into the water below and hitting his head on a rock. He'd sunk below the water as he'd been rendered unconscious from the knock to the head and when the brothers reached Tin-Tin…they discovered her holding Alan's head above the water while she held on to a boulder. Scott tried getting to them, but he couldn't reach them. High tide had come in quite fast at the time, and Tin-Tin lost her grip on the boulder and both kids were swept away from land.

Gordon hadn't hesitated in diving into the surf from where he stood and he swam to his little brother and friend, trying without luck to reach them several times. Gordon finally managed to get to them, but Alan had not responded to his calls when Gordon and Tin-Tin both begged him to wake up. Scott met Gordon half way before hauling the little blonde from the water, and performing CPR on the kid. Gordon kept wishing for Alan to wake up, and when he finally started to cough up water…Gordon promptly began apologizing for hurting his little brother.

Scott, John and Virgil had forgotten about the incident, but Gordon had not. He felt like a heel the moment he'd told Alan he was a worthless child, which was the reason he'd run away. He'd been meaning to apologize for the entire 6 days since the incident, but he'd never been able to locate his little brother. Alan hadn't even been in their shared bedroom, choosing to lock the door and sleep in one of their many guest rooms.

When Alan woke up after nearly drowning, he'd shied away from Gordon, not wishing to interact with someone who'd called him worthless. Scott made the entire group, including Tin-Tin sit in a circle on the beach and talk about why they watched their words. The older Tracy sons had been disappointed in Gordon when he'd admitted the reason for his bad mood (he'd been told he had received a D+ on a history exam) and that he'd taken it out on their little brother. Alan refused to look at any of his brothers, choosing to interact with Tin-Tin only.

It had been the nearly drowning incident that had brought it into perspective for the redhead. He realized just how close they'd come to losing the youngest Tracy and he felt horrible. He kept apologizing to Alan days after the incident until the little blonde started avoiding him again like he had been during the entire break. Two words were all it took, and those two words would have been the last thing Gordon had said to his little brother had he drowned. They would have been the last thing Alan would have heard his older redhead brother speak to him.'

"Yeah buddy, I have said lots of things I regretted the moment I said them." Gordon nodded, while stroking his little brother's head.