Thank -you all for reviewing!!
AngelMouse5 - glad you approve of my portrayal of John. Happy New Year's!
andrewjameswilliams - glad you see my point. When I first saw the movie I hated Alans character but then I got to thinking it can't be easy to have four brothers who are hereos.
thunderbirdgirl - having only the movie to go off of I must admit I'm having fun exploring the Tracy family. Glad you like my choices.
May Portland - glad you finally decided to leave a review! It means a lot! And thanks for the wonderful compliment about how I seem to know the characters. That was so nice to hear. Happy New Year's
Phoenix - you think I'm quotable! That's great. I liked that line a lot myself. Glad someone else appreciated it too! As for nobody wanting to talk to Alan I didn't really even realize that. I guess you can take it two ways 1) nobody does want to talk to him which is harsh or 2)they talk to him during the times I'm not showing. If it makes you happy I do have reference of him talking with Fermat in this chapter, lol!
Kitkat Tictac - you might not be happy at the end of this chapter. It's a bit of a cliffhanger - sorry! Other than that I hope you enjoy it.
moonlightbear- here's more! keep cheering me on ( i think I'll have some very unhappy people if I take a couple month hiatus again).
PsychoSpiff01 - I think this chapter is pretty good but I'm a little bias! Thanks for the compliment. Short and sweet.
Marblez - I was wondering if you were still reading. Glad to see I didn't lose you and glad you've enjoyed the last five chapters.
claire - I'm the baby of the family myself so I know about trying to get people to take you seriously. I guess in that way I can identify with Alan. Glad to hear you're enjoying the story. Thanks for taking the time to review.
John's POV:
I switched off the communications and sat back. What the hell did I know about raising a fifteen year old kid? Maybe I should've let my Dad handle this?
Then I thought about my ruined experiment. No, I wasn't caving. I wasn't letting a fifteen year old get the best of me. Besides I wanted Alan to know just how hard that experiment had been to set up and run. The project would be good for him and, whether he liked it or not, he might actually learn something in the process.
I turned the chair around and stood up. As I did something black fell down in front of me. Startled, I jumped back tripping over the chair in the process. I reached out a hand and rested it on the console trying to steady myself.
Catching my breath, I straightened back up and went to see what had startled me. I reached out a hand to the object dangling in front of me. It was a fake spider. Alan's name was right on the tip of my tongue. I had just about had it with that little brother of mine.
Instead of going off though I took a deep breath and slowly counted to ten. Yelling at him would get me absolutely nowhere. My father had already tried that route.
After I had calmed myself down, I pulled the spider down and headed for the kitchen where I had left Alan. In the kitchen I found that Alan had disappeared leaving his books scattered on the table. I did notice that my notebook was gone.
Leaving the spider on the table I headed for the cargo bay. I walked inside the bay quietly trying not to let Alan hear me. Sure enough, over in the area I had set aside for my experiments I saw Alan trying to set up the experiment that he had sabotaged on me. Part of me wanted to go over and give him a hand but I restrained myself. This was something he needed to do himself. Instead I headed back to the control room. At least there wasn't anything over there that Alan might accidently blow up.
Alan's POV:
I looked back at John's notes. I wanted to double check and make sure everything was right. I felt bad about what I had done. I knew I had stepped across the line with this act.
I was also starting to see just how much work John had put into this. Work that I had undermined in just a few minutes. To tell you the truth, I was even more impressed that my brother hadn't tried to strangle me.
Everything looked to be okay. I glanced at my watch. I couldn't believe how late it was. I had spent almost three hours on this thing. I was definitely done for the night. Gathering John's notebook and the notes I had taken so far, which were no where near as detailed, I left the cargo bay.
I walked into the kitchen and was surprised to find all my school books stacked neatly in a pile. Along side the pile sat my fake spider. Evidently, John had taken that one as calmly as he had all the other stuff I had pulled today. The rest of the station was dark, which meant John had already gone to bed. I wondered if he had found the surprise I had left him. I had almost gone and retrieved it before going to the cargo bay but had decided not to. After what I had just spent the last three hours doing I wish I had.
Sitting the stuff in my hands on top of the pile, I decided to leave the stuff there. I left the kitchen, turning the light out behind me and headed for the bedroom. Trying to be quiet, I walked over to my bed and climbed in. As I put my feet under the blanket though I felt something furry.
"Aaaahhhh!" I yelled involuntarily, scrambling back out of the bed. I could feel my heart pounding as I reached out and turned on the light over my bed. Now able to see, I reached out and threw the blanket back. There, sitting in my bed was the furry, fake mouse that I had left in John's bed.
I heard soft laughter behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see John, propped up on one elbow, looking in my direction, a huge smile on his face. He looked wide awake which told me he had been waiting for me to come to bed.
I picked the mouse up and threw it in his direction. John managed to catch it with his free hand.
"Good night, Alan," John said still laughing as he placed the mouse on a nearby shelf and laid his head down on the pillow.
I reached over and turned the light off and then climbed back into my bed, without any furry friends this time. I had to smile. I guess Gordon was wrong. John did have a sense of humor. It was the first time that any of my brothers, with the exception of Gordon who usually started things, had ever bothered to retaliate with a prank of their own. They usually just got mad at me or started beating on me in Scott's case.
Monday afternoon:
"Alan are you even listening to me?" John asked me sounding exasperated. He had been trying to explain things about Thunderbird 5 for the last hour and to be honest I had heard every last word he said and had understood most of it. The few things that I hadn't understood had been difficult not to ask questions about.
If I started asking questions then John would know I was interested. I didn't want him to know that. Even though I had resigned myself to spending the rest of the week up here, I was still hoping that John would tell Dad I wasn't ready to be a Thunderbird.
"What?" I asked him as if I hadn't heard the question.
"Alan what is your problem?" John asked me.
"I don't have a problem." I answered looking out the viewport at the earth below us. I knew looking over at John would give myself away.
"I don't believe that for a minute. I might not see you that often but I'm not completely isolated up here you know. I know everything that goes on down on Earth. I know how much you've wanted to be a part of International Rescue and now suddenly you don't care. Alan talk to me!"
I heard the pleading in his voice. I so much wanted to tell about my doubts. How I didn't want to be a part of this any more because I was afraid of letting everyone down like I had so many times before. I couldn't though. I had learned a long time ago not to reveal a weakness to one of my brothers, as they only used it for ammunition.
"Alan?" I heard him say again. I couldn't stop myself from looking in his direction and when I did all I saw was concern on his face.
In my head I heard Scott's words again. "Yeah, keep Alan away from the ships. He's a hazzard."
"What if Scott's right?" I said out loud without thinking. Once the words were out though I couldn't take them back.
Much to my relief the communications system started beeping before John could say anything about what I had just said. As the switch to open communications was in front of me, I had to fight to keep my hand from reaching out and opening the channel. John was right. I had wanted to be a part of this and part of me still did. However, I also didn't want to be the one to mess up everything my Dad and brothers had worked so hard to create.
John reached across me and switched the communications link open.
"This is NASA calling International Rescue," came the voice over the communications link.
"NASA, this is International Rescue how can we assist you?" John asked.
"International Rescue, we've lost radio contact with Space Station Nova. It will take us about five hours to get a shuttle ready to launch. Would it be possible for International Rescue to go to Space Staion Nova and find out what's going on?"
"Copy that NASA. We'll check it out and as soon as we know anything we'll be back in touch with you," I heard John say as I stood up to leave. I was halfway down the access corridor when I heard John call after me.
"Alan where are you going?"
I kept on walking, knowing that he wouldn't be able to follow me any time soon. Maybe by that time he would have forgotten about the comment I had just let slipped out. The start of a conversation that I didn't want to have.
John's POV:
"What if Scott's right?"
Those words had stayed with me even after Alan had left. As I waited to hear from my Dad and brothers to find out what was going on at NASA's space station I thought about them. Trying to figure out just what Alan had meant by them. My conversation the day before with Scott came to mind.
"He's reckless. He got lucky with the Hood. He's a liability. We'd be better off without him."
Had Scott said something similar to Alan? Knowing Scott he probably had and that would explain a lot. If Alan was taking Scott seriously, then we had to convince Alan that it wasn't true. That he could be a Thunderbird. I also knew that at this point nothing we said was going to do any good. We had to prove it to him some other way.
The situation at Space Station Nova had proved to be nothing more than a communications problem. My family had assisted the astronauts with the necessary repairs and got them back in contact with NASA control. With that out of the way I had told my Dad to give me a call when they got back to the island so we could talk about Alan. I was currently waiting for that call.
I heard the beeping of the incoming call and quickly opened the communications link. My father's face appeared on the screen. I could see Virgil, and Scott hovering just behind him and had no doubt Gordon was near by, just out of my view.
"What's up John?" my Dad asked a look of mixed curiosity, confusion, and concern on his face.
I told him about what Alan had said and about my suspicions.
"Then it really is my fault," I heard Scott say. Even though I could hear the regret in his voice I was still slightly mad at my older brother.
"This is nobody's fault," my father said quickly looking over his shoulder at Scott.
I knew my father was right. It wasn't like we had purposely teamed up on Alan. All of us had been teased by the others and were guilty of some teasing, even me. Still, somehow it had gotten out of hand with Alan. Yet, I bit back the words that were on the tip of my tongue.
"You're right its your fault,"was what I wanted to tell Scott.
Somehow, as irrational as I knew it to be, it was easier to pin the blame on one person then on all of us, or to take responsibility for it myself. Being the oldest, Scott was the perfect target.
"It's not Scott's fault though. We're all guilty," the rational part of my brain said. Luckily I was listening to the rational part enough to know to keep my thoughts to myself.
"John, are you okay?" I heard Virgil ask. I came out of the daze I had fallen into to find my family looking at me in concern, over the vid link. Even Gordon had crammed himself into view. I realized they must have been trying to get my attention for a little while.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking," I said in answer to Virgil's question hoping none of them would ask me what I was thinking about.
"Or at least as fine as he ever was," Gordon quipped which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Virgil. "Ow, hey that hurt," Gordon told him giving Virgil an evil look.
"Good," Virgil replied without looking back at Gordon.
I could tell by the look on my father's face that he was trying hard to ignore the two behind him. He usually tried to stay out things between us kids unless he felt it was getting too out of hand.
"What's important now is we fix this," my Dad said as if Virgil and Gordon had never said anything. "We need to restore Alan's self-confidence. Get him to believe that not only do we think he's capable of being a part of this but get him to realize for himself that he's capable of it."
"We could talk until we turn blue and he isn't going believe us," Virgil said.
"Exactly what I was thinking," I told them. "I think we need to show him and I have an idea but its going to take all of us to pull it off."
"Well, let's hear it John," my father said.
Alan's POV:
Tuesday afternoon:
I flipped to the back of the math book, my pencil marking the page I was working from, looking for the answers to the section of problems I was currently working on. Finding the right page I scanned the answers for the answer to problem three. Seeing the correct answer I let the book fall back open to the page I was working from.
My answer was nowhere near right. Frustrated, I grabbed the eraser from the table and furiously started erasing the work I had just done for about the third time.
"Do you need some help?"
I looked up to see John standing in the doorway, an issue of Scientific America in his hand.
"No, I'm fine," I said stubbornly not wanting to admit my failure. Asking for help made it seem more real. More certain that I was going to be spending my summer at school.
I saw John shrug his shoulders and head in the direction of the control room.
"Real smart, Alan," I muttered to myself as my furious erasing tore the piece of paper. With a sigh, I tore the paper out of my notebook, wadded it up and let it fall to the floor.
I definitely needed help. It was clear to me that I had no clue what I was doing. I could try getting a hold of Fermat and have him try helping me although I wasn't sure how much good that would do. Evidently nothing from our study session last night had made it through the night. I could have swore I understood this stuff last night.
I looked back at my sloppy class notes. What was I doing wrong?
I tried the problem a few more times, and got the same wrong answer two more times and another wrong answer the third time.
"Summer school here I come," I said throwing my pencil down on the table and sitting back in my chair. I couldn't help but wonder how my Dad would take me not taking my finals at all. Somehow, I didn't think that would go over to well.
Then I got to thinking about how much fun my brothers would have with the fact that I had to go to summer school. Not to mention the thought of them on a tropical island while I was stuck in the classroom for two more months.
I picked the pencil, notebook, and math book and stood up. Hopefully, John would still be willing to help.
I heard voices as I approached the control room. As I got to the end of the access tunnel I could start to make them out.
"Dad veer off, you're getting too close to one of the mountains," I heard John say into the radio. Silence followed.
"That was close," I heard Virgil comment softly over the link. "It's hard to see the mountains through this fog until you're right up on them.
"You're telling me. Thanks John. There must be something wrong with these senors," I heard my father say.
"If it's the senors Dad, then I think Thunderbird 1 is experiencing the same difficulties," Scott said breaking in. "I can't make any sense of these readings."
"Something in the mountains maybe," I heard Virgil speculate.
I took a couple of steps more into the control room. I was worried for my father and brothers. Something could easily go wrong. If the fog was bad and the sensors malfunctioning then both Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 2 were flying blind.
"I think we're going to have to abort the mission," I heard my dad said. "The risk it too great. We can't be flying around this mountain range . . ."
An explosion cut off the rest of his words. I felt my heart leap into my throat. What had just happened?
I was so worried, that it took me a moment to realize that the explosion had come from onboard of Thunderbird 5 and not over the radio link. Then I notice one of the control panels smoking, which must have been the source of the explosion. It was then that I realized that John was no longer at his position in front of the controls.
Instead, my brother lay motionless, on the floor. I let the math book drop from my hand and rushed over to him, calling his name as I knelt down beside him.