A/N: Here is the fifth installment to this series. I apologize if there have been any delays to my chapters showing up. I seem to have been experiencing technical difficulties where the stories I write continually display as "not available", the last two stories I've written have shown up as such when I try the weblinks.

Reviews are greatly appreciated and as I've previously posted in the past, I do not utilize beta readers. I am my own beta so all mistakes are my own.

Hope you all enjoy!

Sad-Blue-Eyed-Angel 2010


Scott exited the bathroom, damp washcloth in hand and he made his way to Gordon's bedroom. Virgil was in there with Alan who had developed a headache earlier in the day while with John and it'd gradually gotten worse throughout the evening. Now, Alan was sick in bed. He couldn't even try eating dinner, too miserable and it threw Scott for a loop. John said Alan was fine earlier. He'd developed the headache while John was helping Alan study. When John offered to get something to relieve said headache, Alan had refused.

Alan warned John early on that he was coming down sick, a headache was always Alan's first clue when he'd been growing up. He didn't ordinarily get headaches unless he'd begun developing a cold. Now he had developed a fever and to be sure nobody else could catch it, Jeff advised Gordon to sleep in his bed with him, allowing Alan to have the bed to himself.

Scott opened Gordon's bedroom door, peeking in at Virgil who was sitting on the side of Gordon's bed and tending to the youngest resident. Alan was asleep, restless as ever and groaning in his slumber. Virgil turned as he noticed Scott's arrival and he reached out a hand to accept the damp cloth, taking it and folding it in half prior to laying it on Alan's forehead. This illness came on suddenly, but John had pointed out that Alan had been stuck out in the elements for longer than a couple hours without appropriate attire before being located by the family. In retrospect, this illness was probably very expected.

Scott stepped out of Gordon's room, crossing the hall to his own and sifting through his closet where he kept a set of blankets specifically for the winter months. Exiting his bedroom, Scott went back to Gordon's room and spread the second set of blankets on top of Alan. He gave a shiver but with the added warmth of the blanket, the shivering lessened greatly and Alan's groaning quieted.

"That's it Alan, go back to sleep. You're going to be alright." Virgil murmured as he pulled the blankets to Alan's neck and tucked it in to seal in the body heat.

~.~.~.~.~

The following morning Scott checked in on Alan, he was still running a fever, but he pried his eyes open when Scott put the back of his hand on Alan's forehead to get an idea of how hot he was running.

"Scott?" Alan said, voice rough with a sore throat.

"How are you feeling?" Scott asked as he saw Alan scrunch his nose prior to raising his arm and sneezing into his elbow. "Here's a tissue."

"Thank you." Alan said prior to sneezing again, followed by a cough. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" Scott asked as he sat at the foot of the bed while Alan blew his nose.

"Getting sick. You all don't need to deal with me when I'm not feeling good." Alan said as he threw the used tissue into Gordon's trash can.

"Wrong kiddo. We're your family now. Family helps family even if it's not all glamorous. So, you don't feel good, it's not going to be forever." Scott said as he tucked the blanket back up under Alan's chin. "Now, I know you're vegetarian, but do you want some chicken broth? Some chicken noodle soup maybe? Or would you prefer something else?"

"Do I have to eat? I'm not really hungry." Alan murmured from under the blankets.

"Well, no. There's nothing saying you have to eat now, but if you feel up to it…we have choices." Scott said before he stood. "I'm going to stay home with you so John can go to the university for one of his classes. Just holler."

Scott exited the room, closing the door quietly as he went out to the kitchen to look at what he could possibly prepare if Alan did feel up to eating a bit later. John had been kind enough to run up to the market before leaving for class and retrieving cold medicine, juice, and soup. Scott contemplated a variety of different styles of food he could prepare, and he glanced back in the direction of Gordon's room when he heard a monster sneeze come from within.

Scott did a quick search on his phone, locating an easy enough recipe for vegetable soup and he began preparing everything. He'd just finished putting the soup on to simmer when he heard a weak voice call out.

"Scott…". The oldest Tracy son left the kitchen and went to Gordon's room, when he opened the door, he saw Alan sitting up on the edge of the bed. Going to the boy, Scott put a hand on Alan's forehead again. Alan's fever seemed to have spiked, and he was shaking noticeably.

"Hey kiddo, we need to lower your fever. Can I get you to take a cool shower?" Scott asked kindly. Alan nodded though Scott had to wonder if Alan even truly heard him.

Standing, Scott led Alan down the hall to the bathroom where Scott adjusted the water temperature to lukewarm. He didn't want to shock Alan's body. Turning, Scott smiled at the kid who looked like he'd just as soon as be asleep instead of awake at that moment.

"Okay kiddo, go ahead and hop in. I'll get you a change of clothes. Take as long as you need." Scott said before he left Alan to it. After exiting the bathroom, Scott went back to Gordon's room to find a change of clothes for Alan. When he went back, Scott knocked before he opened the bathroom door. Alan was still showering, and Scott spoke up. "Hey kiddo, I left you clothes on the counter. Just whenever you're ready."

"Thanks." Alan groaned. Scott left the bathroom and Alan and he continued with what he'd been busy with when Alan called.

Several minutes passed by before Alan exited the bathroom, cheeks ruddy and nose bright red. His eyes still seemed to shine with fever and Scott preemptively retrieved Alan's blankets from Gordon's room. Making a nest of blankets on the couch, Scott suggested the boy stay there so he wouldn't have to yell for Scott with his throat giving him grief the way it was. Alan gratefully sank onto the couch and fell asleep again before Scott could utter one word. The Tracy patriarch returned around lunch to check in on Alan and he smiled woefully in Alan's direction.

"How's he doing?" Jeff asked, wondering if he should take the rest of the day off to take Alan in for a checkup or not.

"His fever can't seem to find a happy medium and poor kid has been blowing his nose so much we could probably build a small replica of the leaning tower of Pisa out of his tissues."

Jeff wrinkled his nose at that with a shake of his head. "I'll leave you to do the construction. I'll supervise, but thanks."

"I tried getting him to eat some broth, but he's been blowing his nose and coughing so much that just the idea of eating anything makes his stomach hurt more."

"Poor kid, here's hoping this cold goes away soon enough." Jeff whispered as he went over to where Alan was laying on the couch. While he didn't know the kid very well, he still felt bad for him. "I was going to head back to work, call me if he gets worse and I'll be here right away."

"Thanks dad, but we should be fine." Scott said, jumping suddenly when Alan awoke with a massive sneeze, startling both him and his dad.

Now that Alan was awake, Jeff went over and sat on the coffee table. He handed Alan the tissue box, watching as Alan snagged two. Alan quickly covered his nose and mouth, stifling both a cough and second big sneeze. Jeff flinched at the sound of the cough, but he put a stabilizing hand on Alan's shoulder when the boy doubled over amidst a coughing jag. Scott went to the cupboard and retrieved a drinking glass, filling it from the tap and taking it to his dad. Jeff nodded his thanks before refocusing on Alan.

"Hey there, easy kiddo. Have a drink." Jeff said as he held a glass of water for Alan to drink from. The blonde sagged against the back of the couch when his coughing subsided.

"Thanks Mr. Tracy." Alan said breathlessly as he struggled to suck in a breath without coughing more. He was miserable.

"No need to thank me." Jeff said as he eased Alan back against the couch to rest. "Now, you aren't going to get better if you don't eat. You can't take any meds on an empty stomach, so as much as I know you don't want to you need to eat. Even if it's just a little bit. Some is better than none."

"Okay." Alan acquiesced; he was soon handed an oversized coffee mug with vegetable soup in it. He sipped from the mug, chewing some of the carrots slowly. When he'd eaten his fill, Alan leaned forward and placed his mug on the coffee table. Jeff looked inside the container, satisfied that Alan had eaten most if not all the soup, give or take some noodles. Alan's eyes were drooping, and Scott seemed to sense Alan's need for cold medication, and he swooped in to ply the boy with the pharmaceutical remedy. Once Alan choked down the medicine, he snuggled beneath the heavy pile of blankets. Jeff gently ruffled Alan's hair.

"Get some more rest kiddo." Jeff whispered before he stood, grabbing the mug, and taking it to the kitchen to rinse and put in the dish washer.

~.~.~.~.~

A little later that afternoon, Alan woke up from his nap to look around the living room. He didn't see Scott anywhere and Alan wondered briefly where he was. Sitting up slowly, Alan firmly planted a hand behind him when he felt the room spin around him. It didn't make him feel very good. Standing, Alan staggered to his feet, finding his balance wasn't worth even an ounce of crap. Alan stumbled around the couch, intention to go to the bathroom when he felt his stomach lurch with the dizziness. He stopped however when he heard a muffled conversation.

"You know I can't. My dad would have my hide. Yes, he would, it's just a charity case he's working on, yes, I know. He'll be done with it shortly. No, I don't want you coming here. Because he's sick. No, I'm not just blowing you off, he's sick and I don't want to catch it. Why do you think I'm staying away?"

Alan backed up from the door to Scott's bedroom, his face showing the betrayal and hurt. Frowning to himself, Alan hung his head and turned around. He wasn't a charity case, and he never would be. His feverish mind made up, Alan went to the front door and exited the apartment.

~.~.~.~.~

"It's going to be renovated, yeah…my dad, brothers and I were all of the agreement that we'd like to name it Lucy's Loving Arms in honor of our late mom and my dad's wife. When it's finished being revamped, we'd like to hold a ribbon cutting and a charity case to host its grand opening." Scott said as he explained the outline to one of his friends on the city council.

"Well, I wish I could see it for myself. But Justin has the flu, and he gave it to me too. And you know it's a charity event not a charity case…right?"

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm not blowing you off, he's sick and I don't want to catch it."

Scott grinned as he talked with his friend. The young man on the other line wanted so badly to tour the facility with Scott, but his son Justin had been sick recently and kept home from preschool as a result. And by default, his friend caught his son's illness.

"Anyway, how's that kid your dad is fostering? He is settling in, okay?" The friend asked, followed by a sniffle.

"Yeah, he's sick right now too. Seems to have come down with a cold of his own. I'll need to be checking in on him shortly. He's currently taking a nap, the cold meds he took knocked him on his ass."

Scott continued talking for several long minutes. When he finally finished his phone call, he chuckled softly to himself. Originally, he hadn't been on board with fostering Alan, not seeing a need to do so before. But now that he'd been gradually getting to know the kid, he couldn't seem to understand why he'd been against it. Alan was a good kid. Had his heart in the right place and like several of Scott's younger brothers pointed out, Alan would flourish beautifully as he delved deeper into their familial folds.

Pocketing his cell phone, Scott exited his room to go to the living room. He drew up short though as he neared the couch and noticed the lack of a certain sleeping teenager. Turning, Scott went to check the bathroom followed by Gordon's room. When neither place revealed a sick teenager, Scott hurried to Virgil then John's room. Then his father's. As he slammed the door to his father's room open, he couldn't help the gulp when he saw the bedroom as well as the tidily made bed was devoid of life. Even the master bathroom in his dad's suite was empty.

"Oh crap, where'd he go?"

Scott didn't waste any time in raising the alarm, he called Arnie first off to have the man watch the cameras, then he placed a call to his father. Jeff answered on the second ring and Scott immediately spilled to his dad.

"I can't find Alan dad! He's gone!" Scott ran towards the door and vaguely noticed that Alan left his shoes.

"What happened?" Jeff questioned needing to know right away, he walked quickly out of his office bypassing his secretary that was just bringing him a fresh coffee.

"I left him on the couch after you returned downstairs, and I was in my room talking to Taylor on the phone. When I came out, he was gone!" Scott said as he began checking alcoves and empty offices. He even tried the fire escape door; it was locked as everyone in the office apart from his dad and his secretary had gone home for the night. "I was only on the phone for a half hour, he couldn't have gone far!"

"I'll call John to see if he can help us. Gordon and Virgil should be getting home from school here shortly. They can help us look for him." Jeff said as he hung up with Scott to call John then to call both Virgil and Gordon. It was high time they found their boy.

~.~.~.~.~

Alan staggered into an alley, his legs shook under his weight and the many lights, both vehicle and street blurred dangerously. Alan gave his head a shake and tried to suck in as deep a breath as he could manage. It was getting hard to keep upright, let alone keep the world around him from spinning wildly.

He'd been walking for a long time, Alan believed it'd been about two hours now. He didn't know where he was going, he just figured he'd get as far away as he could so the Tracy family wouldn't have to concern themselves with him any longer. Stepping around a fallen trash can, Alan stepped into an ankle-deep puddle, and it was cold. Alan gasped in shock, the cold making his mind clear just a little bit and Alan looked around. He didn't currently know where he was and for that matter he didn't care. Feeling his chest get tight, Alan dug into a dumpster, finding a ratty cardboard box. He was cold, didn't feel good and as he glanced up into the sky, he could see dark clouds which could bring on rain or herald snow.

Covering his mouth, Alan coughed mightily which was soon followed by a shiver. Alan used what little strength he obtained to pull the dumpster forward, then he flipped the lid back to prop against the brick wall. Edging in behind the dumpster, Alan lay down on top of the cardboard. It wasn't like this was his first time doing this, but after spending the last two days with the Tracy's, he felt like he was a little desensitized to the cold. Curling up, Alan pulled his knees to his chest and gave a sniffle. He didn't feel good.

~.~.~.~.~

Scott ran in a direction opposite his brothers in his attempt to find his foster brother. He'd gotten a lead from Arnie, who called after spotting a pajama clad blonde exit the back door of Tracy's building on CCTV. He managed to tell Scott that Alan had gone in the direction of the shopping district. But Scott knew there were well over a hundred possible places he could look while in search of the boy. He wished he could narrow the search. He couldn't imagine Alan would have got far, especially being as weak as a newborn kitten. Scott had asked Gordon to forward his picture of Alan so Scott could show it around in hopes that someone in the business district would know his whereabouts.

Scott stopped to catch his breath, looking up at the names of the businesses in this district. He read the name of one that had what looked like a handmade sign that read New 2 You. Scott wracked his brain, knowing that name was familiar. It was about forty-five blocks away. Scott looked in the alleyway and a receipt caught his eye. That was where he knew the name from, Alan had gone thrift store shopping there with Virgil and Gordon barely two days ago. Looking around the alley, he noticed the piles of cardboard, haphazardly stacked as well as the dumpsters overflowing with trash. The alleyway stunk, Scott felt like he had to hold his breath, but he stepped inside.

"Alan?" Scott asked, keeping his voice soft so as not to startle anyone who may be in the alley. He visibly jumped when something ran into a metal trash bin and caused it to fall. But once Scott saw it was a cat that caused the can to fall, Scott hissed at it. "Shoo!"

The cat gave a disgruntled meow before it jumped off the metal can and darted beneath the dumpster. Scott was just starting to turn and keep searching when a cough drew his attention. It had started to snow a little, a weather system moving in from Canada and it was cold enough for Scott to see his breath condensing in the cool evening air.

Scott moved a cardboard box aside to find who he was looking for.

"Alan!" Scott said as he dropped to his knees beside where Alan was huddled up on the damp cardboard. "What on earth are you doing out here?"

Alan gave a shiver and a groan followed by a cough. He didn't dare speak, but Scott could see just by looking at Alan's face that the blonde boy was worse than he had been previous. His face was slicked with sweat and when Scott shone his cellphone torch on Alan's face, he frowned at how deep red Alan's cheeks were. He was really sick, and Scott lifted Alan from the pavement with ease. Standing Alan up as his fever glazed eyes opened, Scott hurriedly removed his coat and took to draping it over Alan's shoulders and maneuvering Alan into a piggyback carry. Securing Alan to his back, Scott picked up his pace, speaking to his Bluetooth earpiece to call his father and brothers. When they answered, Scott gave a report.

"I found him. He was almost forty-five blocks away, but I found him. We're heading for home."

"Where are you Scott, I can have Ty meet you with the car." Jeff said speaking of the chauffeur that typically worked in shifts with Whitney at the car park beneath Tracy Enterprises. It was usually one or the other on call.

"That'd be amazing dad, Alan's fever has spiked, and I can't get an idea of where it's at." Scott said as he stopped at a crosswalk long enough until the signal to walk flashed and Scott jogged through the intersection. Alan released a barky like cough and it made Scott hurry his pace. Within ten minutes a car horn honked behind him, and Scott turned to see the blinker flashing on his father's vehicle. Ty was driving and Scott was so glad to see the chauffeur.

Scott turned, sighing thankfully as his dad clambered out of the backseat, relieving the strain of Scott's burden with the help of John who climbed from the front seat. Once Scott and Alan were inside the car, Jeff was on his phone, talking a mile a minute before he hung up.

"Ty, please take us to Dr. Murphy 's clinic, he said he'd see Alan right away." Scott sat in stunned silence as Ty pulled away from the curb, merging with the traffic. Alan gave another barky cough and Virgil reached across his dad to pat Alan's shoulder. Gordon had been asked to stay home in case Alan returned and now he was being made aware that Alan had thankfully been located.

"I'll retrieve Gordon after I've dropped you off at Dr. Murphy 's clinic if that's alright sir." Ty offered to which Jeff nodded absently. He figured Ty would offer believing Gordon would walk the whole way and then Jeff would have two sick boys to deal with.

"That won't be necessary but thank you Ty."

~.~.~.~.~

Dr. Murphy met them at the door to his clinic, officially they were closed for the night. But the widowed physician typically stayed late, completing all dictations and other menial tasks he was unable to do during the day. He ushered the family inside and to a treatment room where he personally changed Alan from his wet, snow-covered clothing to put him in a gown. It wasn't much better, but it was dry. He went to where he kept the warming blankets and retrieved two. Judging on how violently the boy was shivering, he'd need them.

Just prior to putting them over Alan, he did a quick assessment, judging the boy's fever to be fast creeping up to over 102 despite having hypothermia. Ordinarily, Alan probably wouldn't be displaying signs of hypothermia, but he'd been inadequately dressed for the weather and combined with already being sick and laying on the cold hard ground – Alan was soon determined to be genuinely sick and not just with an average head cold.

"I believe he's got an upper respiratory infection; problem is…I won't be able to put him on anything definite until I can send a sample to the lab and they're not currently open. Personally, I'd like to keep Alan here, but it's not going to do much good until I can run some tests." Dr. Murphy said as he took Alan's temperature again to see it had lowered just a little bit. "Perhaps you all should take him home and then I'll be by in the morning to get some samples so we can run cultures and figure out what's got ahold of him. Get him on the right antibiotics if they're necessary."

"Thank you doctor." Jeff said as he shook hands with the family physician.

"Come on, I'll help you get him loaded up." Dr. Murphy said as he wrapped Alan in the two warming blankets and helped Jeff lift the boy into his arms. Right about that time, Gordon called. Jeff's ringtone sounded from his pocket and John helpfully plucked the offending device from his jacket pocket.

"Yeah Gordo?" John asked after he answered the call. "Yes, we're just finishing up with Dr. Murphy. We'll be home soon with Alan."

Gordon didn't give any further argument about being relegated to be at home when he should have been out there searching for his best friend. He listened to John's soft instructions to throw Alan's pajamas and blankets in the dryer to warm them up. With Gordon tasked with busy work, it allowed the four other gathered Tracy's to focus on the boy in their care.

Alan was sat beside Virgil, the older boy keeping his arms wrapped tightly around Alan, sharing his body heat with the sickly boy. Jeff and John had switched seats and Scott sat in the very back seat.

Scott heaved a sigh, feeling like this whole episode that had just taken place was entirely his fault.