AN: Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter. Happy to see so many people enjoying this story. Keep reviewing please. I like knowing people are actually reading my stories. It makes them more fun to write.

John's POV:

It didn't take me much longer until I came across Alan. He was sitting in the back of another ambulance, a paramedic applying a bandage to the back of Alan's neck.

"Oh no," I heard Alan groan as soon as he saw me. I tried not to take offense in the reaction. I knew it wasn't so much that Alan didn't want to see me, as it was that my presence just meant more people to lecture him.

"Now is that anyway to greet your brother?" I asked him leaning up against the back of the ambulance facing Alan. I noticed the bandages already on his hands.

"Dad's with you isn't he?" Alan said. I knew Alan really didn't need an answer to that question even though he had asked it. I decided to answer it anyway.

"Yeah. He's talking with the headmaster," I told Alan nodding my head in the direction I had just come from.

"I am so in for it," Alan muttered under his breath, just barely audible.

"You would think you would be use to the lectures by now Alan," I said jokingly. I was trying to lighten up the mood. It didn't seem to work though.

"What would you know about getting lectured?" Alan said anger flashing in his eyes. "Everything you do is perfect in Dad's eyes."

"That's not true Alan," I said softly, the few lectures I had gotten from Dad coming to mind. Yeah they didn't seem to be as numerous as what Alan got, but then I hadn't been as outgoing or as openly defiant. That was Scott's influence coming through. "Nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes and this is what that is. Just a mistake."

"Think you can make Dad and everyone else believe that. They probably all thought I did it on purpose."

"No Alan, I don't think you did it on purpose," came my dad's voice before I could say anything. I looked to my left to see Dad approaching the ambulance. "Your bright enough that if you wanted to do it on purpose you would have done it when no one was inside."

I put a hand over my mouth to hide my smile. Dad did have a point. Alan tended to be destructive but he would never set out to hurt anyone. Now if the chem lab had caught fire in the middle of the night than we might actually have to suspect Alan of doing it on purpose.

"Thanks, I think," Alan said sounding as confused as he looked.

"How is he?" Dad asked the paramedic.

"Minor chemical burns on the back of the neck and hands. I'd recommend letting us take him to the hospital just as a precaution."

Dad nodded his consent.

"Okay, we'll be taking him to Washington Memorial Hospital. If one of you want to go with him that will be fine," the paramedic said climbing out of the back of the ambulance. "I'm just going to get a few of the other kids to take with us."

The paramedic walked off leaving the three of us alone. I saw Alan look down at his hands. He was probably thinking that the lecture was about to come now that we were alone.

I looked from Alan to my Dad. Despite how calm he was trying to seem, I could tell he was furious with Alan. The fact that he hadn't started yelling at Alan yet, showed me that he was at least trying to calm down a little bit before he said anything to Alan.

"I'll meet you at the hospital Alan," Dad said. "I'm going to go get this talk with your headmaster over with and then I'll have Parker drive me over."

Alan just nodded.

"John you staying with Alan or coming with me?" Dad asked.

I looked over at my youngest brother. Part of me wanted to stay with Alan. Give him some company. Another part of me wanted to go with Dad. Make sure there was another perspective in that conversation than just Dad and the headmaster. Dad who I knew was at his wits end with my youngest brother and the headmaster who only saw Alan as a difficult student, with a tendency to get into trouble. There was so much more to Alan than that.

"Give me a moment to talk to Alan, Dad?" I said. Dad nodded and walked a little bit away from us to give us some privacy.

I climbed up into the back of the ambulance and sat down across from Alan.

"So what do you want me to do?" I asked him. "Do you want some company or do you want me to go with Dad and keep an eye on the grown-ups for you."

"It doesn't matter," Alan said with a shrug.

"It does to me," I told him.

Alan looked up at me. I could see the doubt in his eyes and why not, my brothers and I seldom gave Alan anything but a hard time.

"Do you actually think you going to that meeting will change anything?" Alan asked me.

"It can't hurt," I told him not wanting to get his hopes up.

"Go ahead then," Alan said. "I have a feeling I can use whatever help I can get this time."

"Everything is going to work out Alan," I told him standing up and jumping down from the back of the ambulance.

"Yeah right. The others are going to have a field day with this aren't they?"

I turned and looked back at my brother. Then I thought about my other three brothers. I wanted to tell him that they wouldn't. That they would be understanding. However, I knew my brothers just as well as Alan did. As soon as they knew that Alan was okay the jokes would start. It would take a long time for Alan to live this one down if he ever did.

"Oh yeah," I told him honestly. "Come on Alan, you've done something that every school kid in America has thought about at some point in their life," I told him with a grin. "You got to actually set a school on fire."

"Even you?"

"Even me." I told him the memories of my own childhood surfacing. There had been nights that I had wanted to blow up the school or do something so I wouldn't have to go the next day. It was usually after I had gotten bullied by some kid or when I had an oral report the next day. There were days I hated school just as much as Alan did, just for different reasons.

I turned away and started in Dad's direction. He fell into step beside me and together we headed across campus to the headmaster's office.