Chapter 101.

"I call dibs!" Alan squealed, kicking the door open with his foot and torpedoing past Virgil and John towards the bed, oblivious to the mud on his shoes.

"No fair!" Gordon whined, his voice muffled somewhat by the three scarves he had wrapped around his neck. Between the four of them, they'd bought enough hats, scarves, padded jackets, socks and thermal underwear to dress an army. Upon paying, Gordon had thrown on just about every layer he could conceivably fit onto his body. Alan had argued that the fluffy earmuffs were a bit much, but Gordon had ignored him.

Celery was happily bundled inside a fleece-lined doggy jacket, her paws encased in matching booties. Gordon had gone above and beyond in his doggy daddy duties and even treated her to a tube of tennis balls.

Virgil's sudden preoccupation with relocating fragile-looking furniture to higher ground was no coincidence.

There was another reason behind Gordon's dislike of cold weather (aside from the lack of water sports). The injuries he'd sustained while trying to rescue Braman from the Chaos Crew had necessitated surgery and, despite being given a clean bill of health by the doctors who'd treated him, he still suffered with a slightly weak back. Brains had modified his suit to contain an inbuilt back brace of sorts, and Grandma had kitted his bed out with an orthopaedic mattress built to his exact specifications. The heat that Tracy Island enjoyed year round also helped tremendously, and most days the aquanaut was able to bound around as normal, completely pain free.

Alaska's cold and damp weather was having the reverse effect, and Gordon could feel his muscles starting to stiffen as a result. Eager to not worry his brothers, he ducked into the kitchen, covering his tracks with the excuse of needing a drink. Once out of sight, he dug around in his travel kit and fished out a packet of foil wrapped painkillers. Unfortunately, the gloves covering his numb fingers were making manual dexterity a challenge. A couple of seconds of pushing and poking ensued, culminating in one of the little white tablets popping clean out of its packaging and dropping onto the floor.

"Oh, the irony," Gordon muttered, bending over in the way his post-surgery physio had told him to. An involuntary spasm shot up his spine when he leant over an inch too far, followed by a gasp of pain and a cry for help from the nearest brother.

"I'm here, cool your thrusters," John reassured as he barrelled into the room, barely blinking as his eyes clapped onto the rather compromised position his brother was in, "Is it at the base of the spine, or higher up like last time?"

"Base of the spine," Gordon rasped, his eyes watering slightly, "But it's locked my entire back. Can you help lower me to the ground? Stretching out on a hard surface usually helps."

John nodded and moved to stand behind Gordon, his arm taking most of his brother's weight as he gingerly made his descent. In the background, Virgil and Alan dropped to their knees and began searching the floor for the stray painkiller, their butts in the air as they peeked underneath the kitchen units.

"Better?" John asked, peering down as Gordon flexed his knees and braced the soles of his feet against the floor. Celery padding over and slobbering all over the aquanaut's face offered a small sprinkling of humour to the situation. Her delight at finding her beloved owner down on the ground was nothing short of delightful.

Gordon managed a quick nod, his face screwed up in laughter and disgust as Celery's tongue laid siege to his face, "Better, thank you."

"I think that settles who gets the bed," John declared, "Virgil, you and Alan need to head back into town. We need three sleeping bags and a selection of pillows. I'll stay here and run Gordon a bath once his back relaxes a bit."

"F.A.B," the engineer replied, rising to his feet and fossicking through the pile of discarded coats and scarves, "Come on Alan, let's get back out there. I've got your gloves in my pocket, and I'm sure Gordo wouldn't object to you borrowing his earmuffs."

A gasp of triumph sounded as the youngest surfaced from examining a small crack in the natural wood of the floor, a white tablet gripped between his thumb and index finger.

"Found it!"

-x-

Half a mile up the mountain, Scott and Kayo were in the middle of hashing out their own sleeping arrangements.

"You take the bed," Scott offered, ever the gentleman, before crashing face first onto said bed, "Just gunna rest my eyes for a second…"

Kayo sighed and bunted the door closed with her hip. Scott had been struggling to keep his eyes open for the last hour and was showing all the signs of being sleep-deprived. She had no qualms about crashing on the sofa if it afforded him the time and space he needed to decompress.

After tossing a couple of logs into the wood burner and calling Brains to check how Shadow's new engine upgrades were going, Kayo moved over to Scott's snoring form and gently pried his jacket off his limp torso. It didn't look the comfiest thing to sleep in, and the heat from the fire would soon have the entire cabin toasty as a teacake.

Kayo frowned as a small velvet box tumbled out of one of the pockets and rolled innocuously past her foot.

"Hello…what are you?"

-x-

Snoooooore.

Snoooooooooooooooore.

Grunt.

Exhale.

Roll over.

Snooooooooooooooooore.

Alan felt himself sink into the depths of despair as he checked his phone for what felt like the billionth time that night.

Two thirty in the morning.

The youngest Tracy adored his sleep, however found it difficult to nod off in unfamiliar surroundings. His room on Tracy Island and the pilot's chair of Thunderbird Three were his favourite spots.

A sleeping bag on the cold, hard floor of a log cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness was scraping the bottom of the barrel. The three snoring brothers he was being forced to bunk with did little to improve the situation.

Okay, that was a lie. Only Gordon and Virgil were snoring. John was motionless and silent, stretched out underneath the window with an unobstructed view of the night sky. Alan knew he'd spent the first hour or two stargazing, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive Northern Lights. The steady rise and fall of the redhead's chest revealed that sleep had finally claimed him, however.

Virgil was snoring like the bear that he was, his right arm flung haphazardly across his face as the vibrations emanating from his airway shook the foundations of the cabin. How Gordon and John could sleep through their brother's nasal chainsawing was a mystery.

Speaking of Gordon…

The aquanaut was sprawled across the bed like a queen, the duvet tucked beneath his chin. Celery lay spread-eagled on her back next to him, her paws suspended in the air. Every now and then the little mutt would twitch in her sleep, her feet jerking as she chased one of her new tennis balls though the corridors of dreamland.

Alan sighed and flipped over, his mood souring by the minute. Teenage hormones aside, he couldn't understand why the current situation was bugging him so much. Okay, so his crush on Kayo was about as obvious as Gordon's crush on Penelope, but he was no fool. He knew deep down that Kayo would always regard him as a little brother. The age gap between them was simply too wide, and Alan was aware that it was traditionally less common for the guy to be the younger half of a relationship.

He'd come to the realisation that Kayo would probably end up pursuing one of his brothers long ago. He'd even factored in the possibility of her being married to her work. While she seemed to have a soft spot for his eldest brother, her personality was such that her job would probably always take precedence. Kind of like Scott.

Scott…

The thought of his eldest brother made Alan's stomach tie itself in an uncomfortable knot. After analysing his feelings for a couple of snores, he came to the conclusion that he wasn't actually mad at Scott. His brothers obviously were, and it was easy to play along with their emotions and hide behind anger. But he wasn't angry. Not at all.

He was scared.

On reflection, he decided to switch out scared for terrified. Feelings of jealousy were commonplace in a family of five boys, but the prospect of Scott proposing to Kayo was causing Alan's thought train to bypass Spite Station and zoom straight towards Terror Terminal.

And the brake had just broken off in his hand.

Alan couldn't imagine life without any of his brothers, but the thought of losing Scott was downright suffocative. The eldest Tracy was the closest thing he had to a father, and surrendering him to Kayo would be like watching the Zero-X explode all over again, albeit with less fire.

The eldest four were lucky. The relatively small age gaps that separated them meant that they'd enjoyed all of their major milestones in quick succession. High school graduations, getting their driver's licenses, becoming full time members of International Rescue…

Through no fault of his own, Alan was lagging. He'd only just passed his driving test and had yet to graduate from high school. Meanwhile, some of his brothers would no doubt be turning their attention towards getting married and starting families at some point in the not too distant future.

Despite his grandmother's comments about Scott, Alan knew deep down that at least one member of the clan was bound to adopt the, 'if dad could do it with a ring on his finger, so can we,' stance. Once one Tracy broke the ice, it wouldn't take long for the others to follow suit, Scott included.

Alan hated being the odd one out. He hated how the age gap between him and Gordon was double what it was between Gordon and John. He hated how the line between brotherhood and parenthood was so blurred between him and Scott.

He hated the thought of things changing. It was too threatening.

There was the threat of Grandma and Kip.

Of Scott and Kayo.

Of Gordon and Penelope.

Of Brains and Moffie.

Of MAX and Fritzy.

Of Celery and Sherbert.

Alan wasn't sure how many more threats his little heart could take.

At least Virgil was still a safe bet…for now.

The pneumatic snore that exploded out of the engineer not two seconds later went some way towards confirming that bet.