Day 30: Special Dream/Family. A touch of angst in this one.

It had been Alan's dream since he was about four. To fly a rocket to the moon.

In some way it wasn't a particularly special dream, not for him, not like it would have been for many other children. A family that already had one astronaut and another in training, there really was no surprise that Alan wanted that too.

No. Flying to the moon might be a dream, but it wasn't a special dream.

His special dream started when he was about eight.

Alan was eight when his dad, Uncle Lee and Aunt Val along with Brains, set up International Rescue. He was eight and Scott was 20, two years into a five-year stint for the USAF. John was 19 and already scheduled for the next trip to the moon in a few months while Virgil was 18 and half-way through an engineering degree that had benefitted enormously from working with their father and Brains. Gordon was 15 and getting ready to start his tenure with WASP in the fall.

Alan found all the discussions about the Thunderbirds and all the plans his brothers had to become pilots and save the world so exciting! It was something he also wanted to do, no matter that he was only eight.

And then he saw her.

She was beautiful and sleek and everything he'd ever wanted in a rocket. And she was red, to boot. Alan now had a new dream. He didn't want to fly to the moon. He wanted to pilot Thunderbird Three.

His brothers kinda included him in their discussions about their respective birds and how what they were doing would help them be better at their roles, but no one really spoke to Alan about what he could do to be pilot of Thunderbird Three.

So he listened to what all his brothers were learning and he took the information to heart and he applied himself to school in the hope of learning what he needed,

The next 20 months were a nightmare for the family. IR was slowly building up, but first Scott was MIA for three weeks and then invalided out of the Airforce, and then Gordon had his crash. And suddenly Alan realised that the world really wasn't a carefree place for him.

Seeing his brothers hurt so badly, and the efforts they needed to expend to get better made him more determined. He doubled down at school. Alan could see that International Rescue was a special dream, a dream with real meaning and purpose. Watching the occasions when his dad and Lee were out was both awesome and frightening, and when Scott, John and Virgil joined iR when he was 10 that fear increased.

But he never wavered in his belief that iR was important and worthwhile.

Not even when that special dream took his dad away from him when he was eleven.

No, it just made the family dream that much more special. And when Scott brought him home from school he felt that one step closer to achieving his dream. Of course, he realised that eleven was too young to fly a rocket. And so was twelve. And thirteen. But he spent those three years learning everything thing he could about their ships, he flew the sims, he bested scores, he listened to mission briefs and learnt tactics.

And one day when he was fourteen going on fifteen, Scott granted his special dream.

He flew Thunderbird Three. And he flew her brilliantly. John was with him, and his family all remarked on how well he had done.

And then Scott made that dream even better.

'Welcome aboard, Thunderbird Three.'