They were led to a room with two large beds and given a strict set of rules to follow. Alan listened but didn't seem to care. Virgil listened and nodded and refrained from rolling his eyes. And then they were left alone in the room.
Their duffle bags were sitting in the corner, near the bathroom door. Virgil headed that way, rifling through the bag edged in green (Jeff Tracy was a smart man, and had picked up the color coding) and pulled out his set of pajamas. Alan was quick to follow, searching for his own pajamas in the mess. Thankfully, it looked like all their items had been returned to them. They had no idea what time it was in their own world, but the clock on the small table between the bed was saying it was just after five pm. They'd left the last world at seven pm.
That didn't seem to stop them from being completely exhausted though. World-travelling jet lag wasn't something they'd actually thought to take into account.
"Nice of them to let us out," Alan muttered, throwing his baldric onto the one armchair in the room. Honestly, other than being a bit drab, the room could be compared to a decent hotel room. Not that Alan or Virgil stayed at many hotels, to be honest. Most business that had them staying overnight somewhere had them either sleeping in their 'Birds (if the business was IR related) or one of the many apartments they kept available at various Tracy Industry sites. The Tracy family was a practical one, and it was easier and more cost effective to keep small apartments around the world than it was to constantly need to book hotels. They even rented some of the lesser used apartments to workers that were in need of cheap housing while transferring locations or other life events. Always short term, but long enough for people to get back on their feet.
"They couldn't keep us in an interrogation room forever," Virgil pointed out with a shrug. Also, with all the rules they'd been given, it was obvious that this military base was still treating them with caution. Oops. It's not like they meant to land there.
Over dinner that one Colonel O'Neill (and they were both glad to have a name to go with his face) had given them in the interrogation room, they'd been given the low-down on the current war they were fighting with some evil snake aliens. Virgil hadn't been exactly thrilled by this, but Alan had been over the moon about the idea of aliens. Virgil had promptly reminded him of the alien life they'd found on Europa, which had caused a little bit of frantic uproar with the one scientist Major Carter, but it had blown over easily enough. They'd also been warned about a rogue government group that would likely be interested in them. They'd been told to keep their heads low and asked if they would be willing to talk tech, since Carter and O'Neill had at least picked up that they were from a more advanced world.
Aland and Virgil had both shrugged and said sure, so long as no one asked too much about the world-travel-device. They, frankly, didn't want to have to subject anyone to the stress of world-hopping. Nope. Not gonna happen.
But first, before any and all discussion could take place, they desperately needed some rest. They'd been in that interrogation room for a few hours and jetlag really was taking its toll. Especially when you added insomnia and poor sleeping patterns into the mix.
"Truth or dare," Alan piped up suddenly as he was changing shirts.
"Uh, truth," Virgil said, a little warily.
"How much sleep have you gotten this week?" Alan asked. Because he hadn't been sleeping well, but he was pretty positive that Virgil had been sleeping even less.
"Dare," Virgil responded, rolling his eyes.
"Go to sleep," Alan countered with a smarmy grin.
"I don't like this game," Virgil grumbled, cracking a small smile. There was a short pause, and the two of them laughed softly. They made quick work of changing their clothes and carefully storing away their uniforms. They wouldn't be needing the suits until they switched worlds, hopefully, so it was best to just keep them safe in their room.
Alan eyed up the second bed in the room but finally just shrugged and crawled in with Virgil, flipping off the light before he did so. His big brother immediately turned to him, wrapping one large arm over his baby brother and holding him safe.
"Hey Virgil," Alan whispered into the darkness. The room had no windows, which wasn't a surprise considering they were currently under a mountain, so it was dark and quiet. "Do you think there are other worlds with alternate us's out there?"
"Yeah," Virgil replied, just as soft. "We probably skipped over thousands of them. And the further we get from our world, the less familiar the worlds are to our own."
"I hate this," Alan said with a huff, burrowing into Virgil's side. He didn't see a point in lying about it. World-hopping sounded cool, but honestly it was more stress than it was worth. "This world can travel to other planets but has to deal with mind control aliens. I don't like mind control stuff."
Virgil flinched, just a little, but it was enough to make Alan want to cry. He forced himself just a bit closer. Alan breathed in a deep breath and opened his mouth to ask, but Virgil beat him to it. "He just kept digging," he whispered, letting his eyes fall shut. "At first, he tried to get me to do stuff, but apparently our world has protections against that." Yeah, Alan knew that. The Hood had been able to throw him around and cause pain, but he couldn't force him to do anything.
"So, he kept digging," Virgil whispered. "And he knew it was causing pain, so he kept at it. He was looking for anything he could use against the Tracy family there. Any information he may be able to exploit. He was particularly interested in my personal failings." Alan slid his hand down Virgil's arm, letting it cover the thick scars that rested on his brother's wrist. The watch he was wearing couldn't hide all of them; his usual watch, the one back in their own world, had a much thicker band. He didn't say anything though, knowing that Virgil needed to let this out.
"He was so angry that I couldn't give him the information he wanted," Virgil continued. He was chewing on his lip between words, his voice going a bit choked. "It didn't take him long to figure out that our worlds were a little too different and that I was more or less useless to him."
"I'm glad he's dead," Alan said, a little fiercely. "I'm glad EOS decided to take him out." They didn't have proof that it was her that had taken over the train, but they didn't need it. "Don't tell Scott, but I was kind of mad at Other-Alan for saving him."
"I'm glad he's dead too," Virgil said with a small sigh. And that took a lot out of him. This was the brother that saved grasshoppers from the pool. This was the brother that would rather let someone punch him in the face than he would hurt someone else (unless, of course, someone was going after his brothers, because then he would take down anyone in his way). For Virgil to admit that he was glad that someone was dead…well, Alan was a little proud of him.
"Let's get some sleep," he whispered. "I bet it's gonna be a busy day tomorrow."
Sleep didn't come easy that night, but it did come. It came with soft whispers and reassurances and humming of old nearly-forgotten lullabies. But it did come.