Chapter Thirty One

Thunderbird One Silo

Tracy Island

Jeff Tracy smiled relieved when Thunderbird One's docking sequence completed, he let Scott carry out the normal shutdown procedure. He was glad to be back home that the events of the day were over with. The Hood was by now safely in a maximum-security prison cell along with Mullion, though Transom had escaped the bank somehow and not been found by the police search. Still Jeff doubted that there would be much she could do on her own. Still he would have to alert all International Rescue agents world wide to keep an eye open for her.

"Am I glad that's all over," Peter said from behind him as he undid his restraints and looked over at Alan who was still fast asleep as he had been ever since leaving London forty minutes ago. Gently Peter reached over and shook Alan's shoulder. "Alan wake up we're home."

But Alan did not stir just continued snoring. Frowning Jeff undid his own restraints and tried himself.

"Alan," Jeff said shaking Alan again. But again Alan did not stir. And Jeff suddenly had a feeling of déjà vu this was exactly how Alan had been last night that he would not stir from his sleep whatever they did to try and wake him. "Not this again," Jeff said. "Alan." He shook his youngest son a little bit harder without any luck.

Jeff, Peter and Scott all exchanged concerned looks. It wasn't like Alan to sleep like this; even in the early hours of the morning a shake or two could normally rouse him.

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's used a lot of whatever the energy inside him is," Peter suggested. "He's used his powers a lot today not just in the bank but here on the island eluding the Hood for a couple of hours with Tin-Tin and Fermat. And Gear did say that he's energy depleted maybe he won't wake up until he's rested enough."

"That's feasible," Scott agreed. Though he knew little about metahumans – though that would change now that he knew his baby brother was one – still what his uncle had said was a reasonable conclusion. The fact that Gear had said something last night – according to Virgil and Gordon as he hadn't been downstairs but in his room getting on some dry clothes after sliding into the swimming pool – about Alan possibly needing to sleep after large expenditures of power made it even more likely that Alan would stay asleep until he'd recovered enough power.

"But it leaves us with a bit of a problem," Scott continued. "Alan can't stay here in Thunderbird One for the next couple of hours until he decides to stop doing the sleeping beauty bit. How are we to get him to his room? We're all tired and Alan is heavy. We can't carry him all the way to his room."

"That is true," Jeff agreed sighing. Alan wasn't the only one who was exhausted from the events of this last day. Jeff and his other four sons were exhausted from struggling to stay alive and find away off a crippled Thunderbird Five before the station ran out of emergency power.

An idea occurred to Jeff how they could move the completely out of it Alan. He raised his wristcom and hailed the control room.

"Brains."

"Yes Mr Tracy," Brains answered from the small vidcom screen in the watch and for once not stuttering.

"Can you go to the medical room and bring a wheelchair to Thunderbird One. Alan's completely out of it and we need it to move him."

"Alan's out of it," John's voice abruptly said from somewhere not in video pick up range and Jeff clearly heard the concern in his second son's voice.

"I c...c…cant b…b…bring a c…chair now," Brains said. "T…Thunderbird Two is on f…f…final approach." John's face appeared instead of Brains for a moment.

"I'll bring it dad," John said the look of concern on his face easy to spot despite the soot and grime that covered John's face. Jeff knew that he looked the same as did Scott, Virgil and Gordon. Once Alan was up in his room Jeff's first stop would be the shower. And he knew that Scott, Virgil and Gordon would probably do the same.

"Thanks John," Jeff replied.

"It's okay dad. What is wrong with Alan? You said he's completely out of it."

"He's deeply asleep and has been ever since we left London," Jeff answered. "We can't wake him up no matter what we do. Best answer we can come up with is it's a metahuman thing linked to energy depletion."

"Logical I suppose," John agreed before his face disappeared for a second before appearing as John switched the signal from the control room to his own wristcom.

"Still I won't be happy until he's actually back on his feet," John continued. He was obviously leaving the control room and walking out into the corridors heading for the islands medical facilities which were so complete and advanced that they put many hospitals to shame.

Given the dangerous nature of the Tracy families work in International Rescue it made sense to have such extensive and state of the art medical facilities present on the island in the event of one of them getting hurt while on a mission. And if anyone visiting from the mainland saw them they would just assume they'd been put there by an eccentric multi-billionaire determined to plan for just about every contingency or possible emergency that might occur on the island.

"You're not on your own there John," Jeff replied honestly.

"I'll be there in a few minutes," John said then signed off.

True to his word John arrived a few minutes later with a wheelchair taken from the islands medical facilities. He brought it right to the side of Thunderbird One courtesy of the access gantries that ran along the docking arms holding the silver rocket in place. Scott and Peter had left Thunderbird One and were now standing on either side of the hatch leaving only Jeff inside with Alan.

"Dad," John called to let his father know that he was here.

At the sound of John's voice Jeff looked through the hatch to see John standing there with the wheelchair.

"I'll be right out," Jeff called back before moving over to Alan and releasing the restraint that had been holding his sleeping son in place. Then gently he lifted Alan out of the seat. And to Jeff's total lack of surprise Alan did not stir just remained asleep in his arms.

Moving awkwardly since Alan was heavy Jeff carried his son out of Thunderbird One's cockpit, out onto the access gantry before moving over to the wheelchair and carefully setting Alan down in it.

"Let's get him to his room and into bed," Jeff said taking John's place behind the chair and starting to wheel Alan out of the silo. "Then I don't know about you three but my next stop will be a shower."

"You know dad that sounds like a wonderful idea," Scott said.

"Yes it does," John agreed smiling at the prospect of finally getting clean again.

Jeff smiled as well even as he wheeled Alan out of the silo and headed for the main passenger lift to the surface as opposed to the normal express access lift that connected straight to the control room. It would feel great to be clean again but he knew that he wouldn't fully relax until Alan woke up and he knew for sure that his youngest son was all right.

Getting Alan to his bedroom was a bit more difficult than Jeff thought. As soon as they got to the surface they were pounced on by Tin-Tin, Fermat, Gordon and Virgil who'd only just learned that for some reason they could not get Alan to wake up.

"Why won't he wake up," Gordon wondered uselessly shaking Alan's shoulder to try and get him to wake up.

"Best guess is its because he's depleted his energy," Jeff explained.

"Makes sense," Tin-Tin agreed. "Alan's used his powers a lot today. That's bound to have a cost on him." Like my families psi abilities make us pay with a headache if we use them too much, she thought to herself, better give my father a heads up warning. Mr Tracy has bound to have seen what I did in the vault and coupled with my uncle's abilities he's going to have questions that will want answers.

"It might make sense Tin-Tin but that doesn't mean we have to like it," Gordon replied even as he shook Alan's shoulder again.

And was rewarded when he heard a soft groan.

Instantly everyone turned their full attention on Alan as the youngest Tracy started to stir from his sleep.

"Alan come on wake up," Gordon said softly.

Slowly Alan's cool blue eyes opened and Alan looked around groggily completely at a loss as to where he was. Blinking rapidly Alan cleared the sleep from his eyes as he tried to make sense of where he was. And then he realised that he was back home on Tracy Island and what was more that he was sat in a wheelchair with his family and friends standing around him. How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was climbing back into Thunderbird One ready to leave London.

"What am I doing in a wheelchair?" he asked in honest confusion. "Last thing I remember is climbing into Thunderbird One to leave London."

"You fell asleep," Jeff told Alan as Alan cautiously got out of the wheelchair and stood on his own two feet. He stayed up though he definitely looked a little wobbly. "We couldn't wake you no matter what we did." He looked closely at Alan. "Are you still tired?"

"In a way," Alan admitted he did feel tired and drained but it was not physical or emotional tiredness but something else. Possibly linked to how weak the energy inside him was at the moment. "I feel tired but not tired at the same time. I can feel that the energy inside is weak possibly that's what's causing it."

"Energy inside," Virgil asked in confusion.

"The energy inside me," Alan explained. "It's linked to my powers. Every time I use my powers even if it's for something easy like making one of these," he held up a hand palm facing the ceiling and concentrated. His hand began to glow silver-blue and a swirl of silver-blue energy in the centre of his hand turned into a snowball. "I feel the energy level inside me drop slightly. The more difficult something is the more power it takes. Phasing takes the most energy," he continued even as he reabsorbed the snowball turning it back into energy and drawing it back into himself.

Alan's brothers, his father and uncle were surprised how easily Alan did that even while tired.

"It makes sense so to speak," Peter said. "A strange kind of sense that you're aware of the power inside you when people are not normally aware of that kind of thing. But then with metahumans strange is the operative word."

"So what your saying is that this energy you feel inside you is weak and that's what causing you to be tired," John asked.

"Yeah. It's the only reason I can think of," Alan replied right before he yawned surprising his family by doing so for the second time in there presence in two days. "I think I need to go and lay down before I fall down."

"Well we're going that way anyway," Jeff said. "Come on. Can someone take this thing back to medical room?" Now that Alan was awake and back on his feet

"I'll do it," Tin-Tin said moving forward and taking the wheelchair from Jeff and beginning to head back to the medical room with it.

Alan watched her go for a few moments before his mounting tiredness and desire to just curl up and go back to sleep compelled him to turn away and head for his bedroom. His family fell in around him as they were all heading for their own bedrooms to have showers and to get into clean clothes – or in Uncle Peter's case heading for one of the guest rooms.

As they walked Jeff kept a close eye on Alan ready to move to catch him if he stumbled or showed any sign of collapsing from his exhaustion and energy depletion. Yet somehow Alan kept going and Jeff was willing to bet that it was the old Tracy pride and stubbornness that was keeping Alan going.

After a few moments they reached the bedrooms and Alan broke away from his family and went inside his own room closing the door behind him. Walking over to the bed he sat down before taking his boots off and the uniform jacket. Exhaustion and the urge to go to sleep were really pulling at him now.

He lay flat out on the bed. He would just close his eyes for a minute before taking off the rest of the uniform. As soon as his eyes closed he fell into a deep sleep.

A Short Time Later

Jeff Tracy felt very refreshed as he left his bedroom clad in clean clothes his hair still slightly damp from his shower. If felt good to be clean again. As he passed Alan's bedroom he paused debating if he should go in there and check on Alan. After a moment's thought he decided that he would go and check on him.

Cautiously he opened Alan's door and looked in. To see Alan sprawled on the top sheet of his bed still in uniform aside from the jacket and boots deeply asleep. He could clearly hear Alan's quiet snoring. Quietly Jeff entered the room and closed the door behind him. Moving quietly he opened the cupboard and took out one of the spare sheets that were stored on the top shelf. Gently unfolding it he moved over to the bed and gently lay it over Alan's sleeping form from the neck down.

After that he spent a moment just standing there looking into Alan's sleeping face and wondering just how long Alan would have to sleep for. Presumably he would sleep until the 'energy inside' as Alan had described recovered enough. Hopefully that would not take long.

"Pleasant dreams Alan," he said softly to his youngest son before leaving the room. As he stepped back out into the corridor he found his other four sons coming out of their own rooms. Quietly he closed Alan's door.

"Alan sleeping dad," Scott asked.

"Yes." Scott, Virgil, John and Gordon all nodded in understanding. Quietly the five Tracy's headed back down to the ground floor. It was time to relax and recover from the dramatic events of today.