Jeff stared at the clean, hospital floor, unseeing. He had been forced into the chair by his eldest when he had looked on the verge of collapse. He sat staring, he just couldn't seem to pull himself together. What would he do if he lost Gordon?

He had almost completely broken down when he'd lost Lucille, how could he handle yet another loss, and the loss of his child.

Although Jeff worked hard at presenting the persona of the shrewd, detached businessman, underneath he worshipped the ground his children walked on. They were what mattered to him, his flesh and blood, Lucille's flesh and blood!

He just couldn't lose his son.

Gordon and Alan had been the only two of his children who had barely been raised at all by Lucille, her death when they were both so little, had led Jeff and the other three boys to raise them. Jeff was the only parent, and right now, he felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest.



John squeezed Alan's quivering frame closer as he sat on the corridor floor. He watched, trance-like as a janitor, mopped up Virgil's vomit from the floor.

Alan had gone very,very quiet now, just the shaking letting John know how afraid he really was. John leant his head against Alans', just letting his baby brother know that he was there.

He found it difficult to believe how quickly Gordon's condition had deteriorated, one minute he was talking to them, the next......well, John squeezed his eyes shut tight and made a silent plea to his mother, to send Gordon back to them.

He found his hand absently stroking Alan's hair, he knew how close his two younger brothers were, they were partners in crime, the dynamic duo, the youngest. And at that moment as John tried to soothe his younger brother, he knew Alan had never seemed so lost.



'Don't do this, please don't leave me.'

Alan focussed all his attention on trying to sub-conciously talk to his brother. He felt like he was in the middle of a bad dream, he was watching the horror unfold, but he had no control over it.

He squeezed his closed eyes more tightly shut, until he thought he could see the figure of his brother. His mind began creating a sequence.

'Gordo?'

'Al?'

Alan saw his brother as clear as day, all around him there was a bright light and he appeared to be sitting on a bridge, swinging his legs. He looked happy and healthy.

'What are you doing here?' Alan found himself asking.

Gordon looked at him like he was mad, 'duh, mom took me!'

Alan breathed deeply, feeling afraid, that this was heaven and he was losing his brother, 'mom? Where is she?'

Gordon shook his head with a small smile, 'sorry Al, you can't see her.'

'Why not?'

'Because you're not dead.'

Gordon's statement had Alan's eyes widening in horror, 'Oh No, please Gordy, you're not......'

Gordon's eyes frowned, 'why are you so sad Al?'

Alan felt the tears falling from his eyes, 'why do you think you idiot?'

Gordon looked completely confused,

'because I don't want to lose you, I don't want you to die!'

Gordon suddenly looked stricken, 'Oh.'

'Gordy can't you come back, back to us?'

'But, I'll have to leave mom.'

'Yeah, I know but, do you really want to give us all up, Dad, Virg, Scott, Johnny, Me?'

'No of course not.'

'Then fight this, don't give in.'

'I don't know how.'

Alan sighed, 'And I don't know how to help you.'

Gordon took his hand in his, 'I love you, you know that right?' he said suddenly serious.

Alan nodded, 'I love you too.'

Gordon smiled at him, 'I'll see if mom can help me fight this. She's great you know Al, you'd love her.'

Alan smiled then, 'just get yourself back to us, ok?'

Gordon gave his mishevious smile, 'I'll do my best!'

Alan's eyes snapped open as the image disappeared. Did that really happen? He didn't know, he just had to hope that Gordon had enough in him to fight this.



'You want to go back' Lucille whispered, it wasn't a recrimination, just a quiet acceptance.

'I do' Gordon replied, 'I don't want to leave everyone, not now.'

Lucille turned then, 'Do you think I did?'

Gordon frowned, 'I don't know.'

'It broke my heart to leave Jeff, my babies, all of you, but I couldn't fight it, it became too much.'

Gordon smiled at her, 'then you know how I feel.'

Lucille blinked back tears then, she did know, 'I'm sorry darling,' she said softly, 'forgive me, I just enjoyed having you with me so much, I didn't want you to go back.'

'There's nothing to forgive' Gordon told her, 'it's been so nice getting to know you mom.'

Lucille hugged him close, and breathed him in, 'your hair, it smells the same as when you were a baby.'

Gordon squeezed her harder.

Lucille slowly pulled away, she looked at him closely, 'you're going to have a very hard time, when you get back' she told him, worried, 'it's going to be very very difficult and you're going to feel very low.'

Gordon nodded, 'I'll cope.'

Lucille smiled sadly, 'and this is definitely what you want?'

'It is.'

She stepped back into the bright light around her, 'Alright my darling' she said softly, 'tell your father' she swallowed hard at that, '...and Scotty and Virgil and my little John that I love them, and tell my baby,my little Alan, that I'm proud of both of you, at the young men you've become.'

Gordon felt the tears fall, 'I will, we love you too mom.'

'And I love you my darling, even in the darkest moments, never forget that.'

Gordon felt himself falling, like the rush he got from jumping off a really high cliff, he found himself spinning in what he could only describe as a vortex. Then he felt a harsh landing and then pain, a deep unrelenting pain.



The Doctor walked from Gordon's room 5 minutes later, his expression sombre.

The Tracys all stood, waiting to see what he had to say. Jeff nervously wrung his ahnds together, Scott stood next to his father, a hand on his arm, face pinched, eyes never leaving the doctor's face. John and Virgil each supported one of Alan's arms, they were both pale and Virgil still looked sickly. Alan stared at the floor, he couldn't bring himself to look at the doctor.

'We managed to bring him back' the Doctor told them.

Sighs and exclamations of relief filled the corridor, 'oh thank God', Jeff said numbly.

The Doctor continued, 'what you saw in there was a seizure brought on by a bleed in the brain. It caused the left side of Gordon's brain which controls his movements to shut down.'

Scott was serious again, 'what does that mean?'

'It means that at the moment, it seems that your brother, and your son Mr Tracy, has lost the ability to move his legs.'

Virgil and John exchanged horrified glances, 'oh no.'

'It is at the moment unclear what the extent of his paralysis is, but, he is concious, and other than the paralysis there appears to be no other immediate problems.'

Jeff tried to take this all, in, Gordon was alive, that's all he was thinking about at that moment, he'd tackle everything else later.

'Can we see him?'

The Doctor nodded as nurses swarmed from the room behind him, 'I have to warn you, when he first regained conciousness, he was in a great amount of pain, at the moment he's on a strong dose of pain-killers, but when we weane him off them, he's going to need a lot of support to help him deal with the pain.'

'We'll be there' Virgil said softly, and Scott marvelled at the determination he heard in his younger brother's voice.

'Right' the Doctor answered, 'I'll be back to check on him in half an hour.' With that he began to leave, but was stopped by John who grabbed his hand, never forgetting his manners,

'thankyou' he said shaking his hand, 'thankyou for saving his life.'

The Doctor stared back, moved, 'I usually find that if a patient wants to be saved, they'll do most of the work themselves, I just helped young Gordon along a bit.'

John gave a brisk nod, and the doctor left.

The Tracys walked back into Gordon's room.



Gordon's face was turned towards the window when they all came back in.

Alan felt weak with emotion, 'Gordy, are you ok?'

Jeff again walked over to his son's side, Virgil took Gordon's left hand, Alan took his right hand and Scott and John sat on the edges of the bed.

Jeff removed a strand of hair from Gordon's bandaged forhead, 'you had us worried for a minute son.'

Virgil, took deep breaths, to try to override the sick feeling that was slowly leaving his body.

Gordon turned his face towards the ceiling, 'I can't move my legs', he said his voice devoid of any emotion.

A heavy silence hung in the room, each person was alarmed to hear the complete heaviness of Gordon's tone. His lack of optimism was scary.

Jeff said softly, 'I know son, but it's probably just temporary, let's worry when we have to eh?'

Gordon turned his head to look at Jeff then, his expression bleak, 'ok'.

Scott leaned towards his brother, 'hey, you're going to be alright ok?'

Gordon stared at Scott for a second, 'it's not me I'm worried about.'

'What do you mean?' Virgil asked from where he sat holding Gordon's hand.

'I'm going to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth.'

John spoke up, 'of course we'll tell you the truth' he said softly, 'what is it?'

Gordon squeezed his eyes shut for a brief second, then he looked around the room until his gaze rested on Alan.

'I know I was in a crash, i remember now, the hydrofoil capsized.'

Everyone listened with growing dread.

'What I want to know is, if everyone else is ok?'

The Tracys glanced at one another, unsure of what to say.

'Please.....' Gordon asked again, 'please tell me, Steph....Jack....the others, they're ok aren't they?'

Alan stared back as his brother's eyes bored into his, just how in the hell were they supposed to tell him that his commander, his best friends and his true love were all dead?



SO,

HOW WILL GORDON REACT TO THE NEWS THAT HE AND REDDING ARE THE ONLY SURVIVORS?

FIND OUT IN THE NEXT PART OF '2026....'