AN: I thought this story needed a little tension breaker and I think this chapter does that nicely.

megacharized - glad you're enjoying the story. As for which Tracy brother is the oldest I'm basing my knowledge off of the movie, the book on the making of the movie, and the website for the movie. Now the book and the website couldn't agree on whether Scott or John was older so I picked one. If the tv show was something different I wouldn't know because I haven't really watched any of the tv shows. Hope you keep reading though and thanks for the review.

Devlinn Reiko-sama -I just had to give these characters a little more depth than the movie does and I'm glad you like my choices. Thanks for the review.

ladc - I take it you're not a Yankees fan then, lol! Glad you enjoyed the John and Scott scene anyways.

Fiona12690 - now I can't say I love alan but I do have to say I'm starting to like his character more now that I'm writing this. As for alan you'll get to see what he's up to in this chapter as its from his POV. Enjoy!

andrewjameswilliams - thanks for the review. I thought the last chapter might have had too many prospcective changes so I'm glad to hear that you liked that part of the chapter.

dragon 426 - nothing iswrong with the color green, I'm just not a fan of that particular shade of green on something that big. Of course I'm not sure Thunderbrid 2 could look all that great in any color, lol! happy to hear you like the story.

AngelMouse5 - Again thanks for commenting on the POV aspect of this story. I know sometimes when you change perspectives it can get confusing and I'm glad to hear I'm not doing that. As for anything that resembles the tv show I'm just getting lucky as I haven't seen much of the puppet version of the Thunderbirds (and what I did see I was busy making fun of it during). What can I say - I'm a child of the eighties.

ctymose - and we have a Red Sox fan - glad I made someone happy! I don't really follow baseball but a friend of mine really likes the Yankees and my mom's family is up near Boston so that's why I chose those two teams. Thanks for reviewing and as for "Painful Memory" as soon as I figure out how to write chapter 13 there will be a continuation.

PyschoSpiff01 - glad to hear that! Don't want to go losing my reviewers now!

bograt - John's the best! Glad to see I'm winning you over more and more, lol!Thanks for reviewing

Alan's POV:

"Alan are you awake?" I heard John ask softly when he finally made his way from the control room.

Even though I was, I didn't answer him. I didn't want to talk to him. I knew Scott had to be okay or he wouldn't have been asking me if I was awake nor would he have been so calm.

Assuming I was asleep, I heard John quietly make his way across the room to his own bed. Before long I could once again hear his slow even breathing. How could he fall asleep so easily after something like that?

I wasn't sure I wanted to be a part of this anymore. If one of my brothers ever got hurt or worse because of some mistake that I had made I knew I would never be able to live with myself. Scott was right. I was a hazzard.

After all the grief I had put my Dad through though how could I tell him I no longer wanted to be a Thunderbird. I knew he wouldn't accept it without an explanation and I knew I couldn't tell him the truth. I knew he would be disappointed in me once again. Of course maybe if I gave John a hard enough time he would tell Dad that I wasn't ready. Then I could get out of it without having to explain anything to Dad.

It sounded like the perfect idea. I ended up falling asleep thinking about ways to get on John's nerves.

I didn't sleep long and I managed to wake up before John. I looked at my watch. It was only six in the morning which meant I had only slept about two hours as it had been just before four when John had come in.

I threw the blanket back and slipped out of bed. I headed for the bathroom and took a quick shower. After drying off and getting back into my uniform, I set up the first stage to my operation.

Next I grabbed my school books and cd player that brought up with me and headed toward the kitchen area of Thunderbird 5. I sat my cd player on the small table and sat down in one of the chairs. I then turned the cd player on and turned the volume up. Heavy metal came screaming out of the speakers. I didn't particularly care for it myself but I knew my brothers hated it especially John. That in itself made heavy metal enjoyable.

I quickly grabbed a school book and opened it absently. As I thought it wasn't long before I saw John come into the kitchen out of the corner of my eye. I kept pretending that I was engrossed in my book.

"What are you doing, Alan?" John asked talking loudly to be heard over the music.

"Studying," I replied gesturing to the books in front of me.

John reached for the radio. I was waiting for him to turn it off and walk off with it like my other brothers usually did. Scott had even thrown one across the room once which effectively turned it off but also meant he had to buy me a new one which was the one now sitting on the table.

Instead, John just turned the volume down a little. It was still louder than I normally listened to my music which mildly surprised me.

"Well keep it down a bit. They don't need to hear it on Tracy Island," John said and then headed for the bathroom.

I could definitely see that this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it was. Well he was walking into the second of my little tricks and now that he was gone it was time to set up the next. I grabbed a bowl and the salt and pepper shaker and set about switching the salt to the pepper shaker and vice versa.

That done I sat back down at the table, turning the music down lower as I did so. I looked down at the book I had opened - Math. Yuck! I closed that book and reached for my history book. If I had any desire to avoid summer school I guess I should probably do some studying and history was the lesser of the three evils.

I heard the water from the shower turn off in the bathroom and started waiting for John to come storming out of the room. I was surprised when he didn't. Maybe my prank didn't work. Then I heard the shower turn back on and I knew it had worked. I couldn't help but laugh. I couldn't wait to see him.

Twenty minutes later I heard the bathroom door open again. Out came John, now dressed in his gold trimmed IR uniform, towel drying his now orange tinged white-blond hair. He had actually managed to get the color out more than I thought he would be able too. It was all I could do to keep myself from laughing again.

"Alan, we need to talk," John told me coming into the kitchen.

"About what?" I asked innocently. I had a feeling a lecture was coming up. There was no way he could ignore the orange hair.

"About last night," John answered surprising me. That was the last thing I was expecting. I guess John could ignore the orange hair. I didn't say anything though. I wasn't sure exactly what John was getting at now and I wasn't about to go volunteering any information. "Why did you leave?"John asked walking over to the counter and leaning against it.

"I was tired," I replied looking down at the table. When John didn't say anything though I found myself raising my head and looking across the table at where he stood. I could tell from the look he was giving me that he didn't believe me at all.

"I don't buy it, so what's up?" he asked and then waited for an answer. I didn't say anything. "Alan I can't help you if you don't talk to me."

"Who says I want your help," I told him standing up. I stalked out of the kitchen leaving the music playing and my school books on the table. I headed for the sleeping quarters and sat down on my bed.

Part of me was hoping that John would follow me. The other part was hoping that he didn't. I knew that if he kept at it I would end up telling him what was going through my mind. Admitting to him my doubts. Would he laugh?

I had no idea. Scott and Gordon would without a doubt. Virgil would at least have the decency to wait until he wasn't around me to laugh. But who knew with John. What kind of person could have someone dye their hair orange and not only not get mad but then go ahead and ask the person what was bothering them?

That evening:

"It usually helps to actually look at the book to study Alan," John commented as he walked into the kitchen. As he walked by he reached over my shoulder and confiscated the comic book I had opened inside of my science book.

"Give me that back," I exclaimed as I watched John disappear through the other door of the kitchen.

I knew where he was headed. He was going to check on his experiments. It wouldn't be long now before he was calling Dad to come and get me. I found myself watching the clock on the wall. Counting how long it was before John came back through the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later I heard his footsteps. He walked through the kitchen without a word. As he walked past he dropped the comic book he had taking from me earlier onto the table but didn't say a word.

I reached out and pulled the comic book over to me. Casting the school book aside I went back to reading the comic. I had a feeling I wouldn't be on Thunderbird 5 too much longer. John was probably talking to Dad right now and telling him to come get me.

I was just finishing the comic book when I heard John come back into the room. He tossed a notebook down on the table in front of me without a word.

"What's this?" I asked him curious. I looked up at him and saw a storm cloud. I could tell I had finally gotten to him.

"My notes from the experiment you ruined. Congratulations, you've got your subject for your science paper. I talked to your teacher. You're going to set the experiment back up and run it for the rest of your time up here. Your teacher expects a scientific paper cover set-up, procedure, whatever results you gather in the next six days, and a discussion section with your interpretation of those results."

"You're joking right?" I said.

"No Alan, I'm not. If you won't let me teach you anything else this week I at least plan on teaching you about taking responsibility for your actions," he told me and with that walked back out of the kitchen. I heard his footsteps disappear in the direction of the control room again.

I couldn't believe it. Despite all my efforts it looked as if I was going to be spending the whole week up here anyways. I looked down at the notebook in front of me. I couldn't believe they actually expected me to set up and run one of John's experiments. I opened the notebook and started glancing over his notes. The pages were filled with small neat handwriting.

"Well at least I'll be able to read what he wrote," I said softly to myself.

With a sigh I stood up and heading in the direction of the cargo bay where John had his experiments set up. I had a feeling John expected me to get started on this new project right away.