A/N: 9 pages! This chapter was actually really short, so I edited my story plans and combined this chapter and the next. Then I added a new chapter so that I will still keep my planned 10 chapters. :) Hope you all enjoy, and thank you to everyone who reviewed!
Chapter Seven: Believe
Alan jumped a little, in a way he had really hoped it had all been a big elaborate dream. But there he was, a ghost, another he had not met before, but looked slightly familiar from all of the photos he had just seen of all the victims. The boy mouthed 'come with me.' before waving his hand in the come here motion. Alan sighed glancing at his worried friends.
"I need to use the facilities, I'll be right back." Alan slowly stood up, grabbed his IV pole and walked out towards to the bathroom where he locked the door behind him. Turning around he found the ghost boy standing there staring at him.
"You are talking about us, you can't do that!" The boy looked stern. Alan looked angry.
"Look, I can't do this by myself. It won't work, I am surrounded by people day in and day out, they are not going to let me out of there site for a very long time. Besides I don't think I want to do this with out Fermat and Tin Tin, anyways." The ghost just stared at Alan for a moment before disappearing. Alan sighed before walking back outside where Tin Tin and Fermat were talking quietly to each other.
"I'm really w-w-w-worried about him, he's se-se-eeing things." Fermat whispered.
"Should we talk to Mr. Tracy?"
Alan cleared his throat gaining there wide eyed attention.
"Look, forget I ever said anything. I'm sorry I told you guys in the first place. I'm going to bed." Alan mumbled, before turning around and storming off.
"ALAN!" his friends called after him, he kept walking.
Alan made it to his bed in his own room before falling asleep, his shoes still on.
Tin Tin and Fermat stared after him, mouths a gap.
"Well...that went w-w-well." Fermat sighed.
"Yeah, come on. Let's go tell Mr. Tracy. He will know what to do." Tin Tin got up, Fermat looked hesitant however.
"Maybe we s-s-shouldn't...I feel like we are b-b-b-betraying Alan's trust."
"But what if something is really wrong with him and we just ignore it?" Tin Tin looked scared. Fermat was silent for a moment before he nodded and stood up as well. They slowly began to walk through the empty living room towards the office. There was a flash ahead of them and they both stopped.
"W-w-w-what was that?" Fermat asked quietly.
"Someone probably just took a picture or something." Tin Tin answered. But before they could move again three children appeared in front of them. Transparent, with different periods of clothes on, one girl with the name TRACY printed on her shirt was holding a large squirming turkey. They both screamed backing up until they hit the wall behind them. The three ghosts stepped forward, their mouths moving, but no sound coming out, the turkey broke free from Tracy's arms and flew at them. Jeff and Gordon ran in, running right through the apparitions. The three children disappeared immediately. Fermat and Tin Tin stood wide eyed against the wall shaking in shock.
"What's wrong?" Jeff asked wide eyed, looking around for the object that caused this reaction. It was almost a full minute before Fermat was calm enough to answer.
"N-n-n-nothing...w-w-w-were go-go-go- fine." He whispered before standing up, grabbing Tin Tin's hand and leading her out of the room. Gordon stared the wall where the two had been in confusion before shrugging and walking back to the kitchen. Jeff stayed a little longer looking around, after not finding anything he too left an uneasy feeling washing over him.
Fermat and Tin Tin ran into Alan's room without knocking.
"Alan! Wake up Alan! We saw them!" Alan peaked one eye open in confusion.
"Go away!" He mumbled before shutting his eyes againand turning his head away.
"Alan! We believe you, we saw the ghosts!" Tin Tin exclimed. Alan tensed for a moment before turning his head back to his friends and lifting it back up.
"All of them? Cause there are like...fifty-three..." Alan mumbled. His friends mouths dropped again.
"Okay, well we d-d-defenitly did not see all of them." Fermat laughed.
"We saw three...and a turkey..." Tin Tin grinned. Alan sat up.
"Turkey?" Alan gave a half smile, this time looking at them like they were crazy.
"Oh shut up, Alan." Fermat laughed.
"Okay, so we believe you...why?" Tin Tin asked.
"The nurse...she murdered them all. They tell me I'm the one who is supposed to stop her once and for all."
"Why you? And how can you hear them? The girl with the turkey looked like she was talking but we couldn't hear anything." Tin Tin asked she and Fermat crawling onto Alan's bed. There was a pause as Alan let the rush of questions sink in so that he could formulate answers.
"They said something about a prophecy..." He got skeptical looks. "Yeah, I know. I don't put any stock in that stuff either, but someone DOES need to stop her, and right now I know more about her then anyone in the world, other then herself." Alan stated. "The ghosts have been with me since the accident, though I didn't understand it at first. I have learned a lot first hand from the victims themselves...it's how I knew things when we were looking at the information dad had gotten on her.
"I'm not sure how I can hear them, at first they only spoke to me in dreams. But then there was this horrible...worst headache I have ever had and when I woke they no longer waited for me to go to sleep to talk to me. They said something about opening my mind...I don't know. It freaked me out at first but I guess I am beginning to get used to them now." Alan smiled.
"Why did they show themselves to us?" Tin Tin asked. "If they only needed you..." She trailed off. Alan thought about it for a moment wondering if he should tell them he had dragged them into this, then shrugged, why not? It was better then them thinking he was crazy.
"I need your help with this, I don't want to do this alone, so I told you, which made them angry, so I asked them to show themselves to you. That did not make them any happier, and I honestly didn't think they would do it, but I guess they decided you might be able to help me after all." Alan grinned in relief. Fermat and Tin Tin grinned as well, it had been awhile since they had seen Alan really smile.
"So what do we do n-n-next?" Fermat asked after a moment of comfortable silence.
"Find the evil nurse, I suppose." Alan answered.
"And then what?" Tin Tin asked.
"We have to call the police...wherever she is, we can't let her know we found her." Tin Tin and Fermat nodded.
"So that brings us back to what do we do next? How do we find her?"
"W-w-w-well, there is a n-n-new device that my dad is working on...it's not quite finished but...it might be of some help. We would h-h-have to do it in secret though. Even I am not s-s-supposed to know about it."
"Then how do you know about it?" Alan asked. An evil look crossed Fermat's face.
"Alan my f-f-friend. What you d-d-don't know won't hurt you." Alan practically fell his bed laughing. A little over a year before, right before the Hood had tried to take over IR, Alan had said something similar to Fermat when entering the code to get into Thunderbird 5's silo.
"What?" Tin Tin asked hanging on to Alan to make sure he did not fall. Fermat and Alan just shook there heads. She huffed then seemed to come back to her senses, they had work to do.
"Boys!" She exclaimed. They stopped laughing.
"Okay, first order of business, I really need to finish my nap if you want me to be of any use to you." Alan mumbled.
"You are due for more medication, as well. Do you need any pain medication?" Alan shook his head in the negative. Tin Tin nodded before she grabbed Fermats arm and they walked out. Tin went straight to the infirmary where Brains was getting the medication ready.
"Ah, t-t-there you are. D-d-d-do you know where Alan is?"
"He fell asleep in his room." Tin Tin stated. She and Fermat then headed for Fermat's room to plan out how they were going to use his fathers machine.
"Let's hope your right, then." The same boy Alan had talked to before who had not wanted to tell Alan's friends.
"It was. Thank you." Alan stated, standing in front of the boy in a small white door-less, windowless room.
"It was not my decision to do so. It was Kristi's, she is currently in charge. After looking at everything, she decided we were to make are selves known to your friends.
"Well then tell her thank you." Alan smiled. The boy sighed.
"Look, there is not much we can do from here, but try and warn you of trouble, maybe cause a few distractions here and there and answer any of your questions. If you need us we will be there...whether you know it or not. Good luck." With that the boy disappeared leaving Alan alone.
"What? That's it?" Alan yelled before he realized he was no longer in the dream but awake and sitting up in bed.
"You okay, Alan?" Jeff asked rushing into the room. Alan stared at him for a moment, before smiling.
"Yeah...just a bad dream...that's all." Alan fell back against his pillow. Jeff stood in the door way uncertainly with a worried look on his face. Alan turned to face him.
"I'm fine dad, it's okay." Alan whispered. Jeff nodded before leaving. Giving a stretch, Alan noticed the IV was finally gone. In it's place was a simple band-aid. With a smile, Alan jumped up out of bed and raced to find his friends.
Alan smiled as he laid back in his own bed. Brains had declared that he since he was well enough to go on normal pain killers, his medication would be reduced, and he could sleep in his own bed again. It was as good as coming home. Alan changed into his night clothes and put on a new pair of socks, his room seemed extra chilly, plus it would keep his feet from making the extra walking noise when he snuck out that night. Crawling under the covers Alan grabbed the nearest book on his table and to his horror found it to be his math textbook. He had no time to find another book however as someone was knocking on his door.
"Alan, you awake?" Jeff called. Alan snorted, if he was wasn't before he would be now.
"Yeah, dad. Come on in."
"How are you feeling?"Jeff asked sitting at the end of Alan's bed.
"Good. It's great to feel this way again." Alan smiled. Jeff glanced at Alan's book before raising an eye brow. Alan shrugged.
"Grabbed it by mistake." Alan laughed. Jeff laughed as well.
"Oh, I was thinking maybe something was still wrong and we missed it." Jeff laughed. Alan grinned before sticking the book back on his bedside table, a yawn escaped Alan's mouth, and his father stood up. "Get some sleep, Alan. I'll see you in the morning." Alan nodded and watched his father leave the room, turning the light off as he went out. Alan set his wrist watch for ten minutes before midnight and fell asleep almost immediately.
An annoying beeping noise woke Alan mere hours later. With a groan, he picked up the annoying watch and clicked it off. Blury eyed, he caught site of the time and jumped out of bed with a gasp. It was a minute before he was supposed to meet his friends all the way down in the underground lab. Grabbing his robe, he snuck out of his room and half walked half ran through the halls his family slept in, before breaking out in an all out run, to the stairs. Silently opening the door, then shutting it with a soft click, he ran down the stairs into the lab.
"You okay, Alan? We were just about to come look for you." Tin Tin stated. Alan smiled.
"Sorry, slept through my alarm. What do we have?"
Fermat pointed to a small screen with the view of the world on it.
"Normal s-s-s-satellite imaging, can show you an area in gr-gr-gr amazing detail, but you have to know where you want to look. Well dad's new device called The Tracker, will let you input a persons in-in-information. The computer database then brings up DNA, and the satellite can then scan the earth for that DNA, p-p-pointing out exactly where the person is. There are several problems though, the f-f-f-irst sweep, is very basic and no one can fill it. Once it collects all close matches, normally family members, then it starts what we call a deep scan, which causes the subjects to feel a tingling fe-fe-fe sensation. We are trying to stop that effect.
The next problem, is if the per-per- subject is in doors, it can only show what facility the subject is in, you cannot pin point where they are. It also means that it can't f-f-follow, so if the subject leaves the building then we would not know it."
"So in the middle of the night, she is probably asleep." Tin Tin muttered.
"Not, nessesarly. If she has gotten a new job by now, she might have the night shift." Alan mumbled thinking of all the nurses that had come in to poke and prod him in the middle of the night.
"Let's do it then, all we need tonight is a general idea of where she is, anyways." Tin Tin stated. Fermat gulped before nodding and hitting a small red button at the base of the small orange screen. The light within the button turned on and a loud hum could be heard throughout the large room. The sounds seem to bounce of the walls and the trio winced turning around expecting to see an adult stomp in.
"Someone should be a look out." Tin Tin stated.
"But we all want to be a part of this." Alan groaned.
"Tin Tin, can you go place this at the top of the steps coming down, and this one at the main doors to the elevator shaft? It will tell us if anyone is coming." Fermat said handing two small square boxes to her. She nodded reluctantly.
"Don't worry, this might take awhile." Tin Tin smiled before running off. Alan sighed in relief before sinking into the nearest desk chair, Fermat did the same. A picture of the world very slowly moved on the screen. A red line drawing from the top of the world to the bottom staying in the middle, scanning.
"This scan can take a full twenty-four hours at this rate." Alan groaned, staring at the screen. Fermat rolled his eyes.
"A-Alan, we have not put in Kendra's information yet, when we actually start s-s-scanning it will go much faster." Alan seemed to slump, looking embarrassed. Fermat pulled out a keyboard and began to type in all the information he could remember on Kendra. The screen beeped and then the world began to move at an amazingly fast rate compared to before. Tin Tin reappeared behind them grabbing a chair of her own she scooted the boys apart and sat in between them.
The three stared avidly at the screen, minutes turned to hours, and wide staring faces turned to down turned, snoring ones. Alan woke first to the sound of a quite alarm going off. Snapping awake, Alan found the source of the noise as the small machine telling them someone was coming. Alan pushed both friends out of there chairs before glancing at the monitor which was stuck at a hospital labeled Chelsea's Charity Hospital. Alan hit the abort button, switched off the machine and grabbed his grumbling friends arms.
"Someone's coming! Hurry!" Alan muttered, grabbing the alarm, and switching it off as well. The three stumbled behind the Mole when the elevator doors opened and Brains yawned as he stepped out. He stopped at his desk a look of confusion on his face. Alan gave a silent moan as he noticed there three chairs still sitting in front of his desk. Brains shook his head to clear it before moving aside two of the chairs and sitting in his own. The trio could vaguely hear him muttering something about needing three chairs, and sleep walking. Slowly they sat down for the long haul. The doors to get out were all in Brains plain site.
"Did anyone see what was on the monitor?" Tin Tin whispered. Fermat shook his head mournfully.
"Yeah, it was looking at the roof of a hospital, the label said is was Chelsea's Charity HospitalNow we just have to figure out where that is, shouldn't be too hard, right?"Alan whispered.
"I hope not." Fermat whispered. There was a loud bang as the door burst open and Scott ran in.
"Brains, Alan, Tin Tin and Fermat are not in there beds, have you seen them?" Scott asked out of breath looking worried. Brains frowned, shook his head and stood up.
"N-n-no, not at all. Maybe they got up early and went to the beach to watch the sun r-r-rise?" Brains asked walking out with Scott.
"Great, now we not only have to sneak out, we have to get outside to the beach." Alan laughed. They all stood up and snuck to the door, peering through the widow into the stairway they found it clear and began to climb up to the top. They took the first floor out into the side of the mountain, before sneaking behind a tree just in time to see Virgil run up to the door they just left. He spoke into his comm on his wrist.
"I checked the main beach's and the beaches I know Alan likes to go, no sign of them."
"Surly they could not have gone far, were on a island!" Gordon's voice spoke back. Virgil sighed.
"Yes, but it's a very big island...and it can be very dangerous as well." I'll keep searching the rooms, whatever there doing had better be worth it." Gordon grumbled. Virgil nodded before heading in doors. The trio looked at each other wide eyed. This was getting out of hand.
"Maybe we should just start walking until they find us?" Tin Tin asked looking panicked. Alan and Fermat nodded.
"When they ask what we have been doing..." Alan began but was interrupted by Fermat.
"And they w-w-will."
Alan continued, "...then we will tell them we were just walking around and act all ignorant." His friends did not look happy but they nodded. They made it to the beach and had been walking down it for almost an hour when they were finally found.
Jeff Tracy was frantic. It started as a simple enough request, 'Gordon, go wake your brother, tell him were having breakfast early today so that we can get a jump start on cleaning the Thunderbirds.' Gordon came back with a puzzled look on his face and stated Alan was not in bed. Upon further inspection they found Tin Tin and Fermat to be away as well. So he decided that they probably went out together to talk or something so he sent his other sons to spread out and find them. That had been two hours ago, with no sign or word from them. Every room including the pantry and closets had been checked and rechecked. The beach had been walked over twice and now his sons were beginning to scout the woods.
Horrible thoughts of them out there hurt waiting for help crossed his mind, then more sinister thoughts began to appear what if the Hood had somehow escaped... or the evil nurse had found them. He was just about to bring Thunderbird five into this to track them when he spotted them from his position in the woods where he had been searching. Running quickly he made it to them in record time.
"Where the hell have you been?" Jeff yelled, red faced.
"We went for a long walk, sir. Why, what happened? Is someone hurt?" Alan asked quickly, wide eyed. Jeff seemed to deflate.
"Only the three of you, we have searched everywhere for you...speaking of which..." Jeff pushed a button on his comm. "I found them, there safe and alright. Were heading back now." Jeff stated. A chores of: "FAB's" could be heard from the watch. He turned back to the trio. "Come on, we'll talk about the fine art of leaving a note back at the house." The teens nodded solemnly before following Jeff a little way back.
"Have you been s-s-secretly taking acting classes?" Fermat asked his best friend. Alan merely laughed. They walked the rest of the way in silence. They arrived to find the rest of the house hold fuming in the living room.
"Sit down kids." Jeff stated. Alan groaned silently, they were being called kids again. They did as they were told, looking confused.
"Did we do something wrong, Mr. Tracy? We only took a long walk..." Tin Tin stated.
"You did not let anyone know of the fact first. We did not know where to find you, if something had happened...we were worried and we ask that you at least write a note.
"Yes sir." The three looked properly abashed. Jeff nodded.
"Alright troops, the birds need a bath. The sooner you get it done, the sooner you can get on with your plans for the day. Dismissed!" They all walked quietly towards the silos, Alan looking mournfully at the computers he passed knowing that answers were only clicks away.
Seven painfully slow hours later, Alan put the last touch of polish to the tip of Thunderbird One. With a sigh, Alan slowly climbed down the ladder all to aware that he should not have been up this long, as the joints in he body ached and a wave of dizziness accompanied by nausea swept over him. Upon reaching the floor, Alan sighed, no longer in very serious danger of falling. Leaning against the railing, he closed his eyes, breathing in through his nose and out of his mouth to try and dissipate the nausea and stop the tilting. He felt a hand on his shoulder followed by the sound of talking. Finally everything seemed to clear up and Alan took a deep calming breath as he stood up straight again.
Opening his eyes he noticed the very worried looks from his friends and family all surrounding him.
"Sorry, don't feel so good. Take a nap." Alan mumbled before making to move towards the steps that would take him to the lift. But Scott grabbed one arm, and Virgil the other and they practically carried him back up to his room instead. Taking one more mournful glance at his computer beside his bed, he was dismayed when his brothers tucked him in and Gordon crawled in beside him, telling his brothers he would watch out for him, before falling asleep. Alan just stared at him in disbelief before feeling his own eye lids grow heavy and he to fell asleep.
"New York!" Alan exclaimed. Two set's of hands shot out to cover Alan's mouth.
"Shh, do you want to wake everyone up?" Tin Tin growled. Alan himself had woken to find it dark outside. Realizing he had missed all three meals that day, Alan had gone straight to the kitchen, careful not to wake the still sleeping Gordon in his bed. Tin Tin and Fermat were already there at the bar with a laptop as they searched what turned out to me a much harder search then expected. There were seventeen hospitals named Chelsea's Charity. Apparently the hospital was sort of a franchise, spread out all over the US. The difference however was size. After two hours of narrowing it down there search based on what area they had covered the night before, before falling asleep, they were able to narrow it down to three hospitals. Then judging by nurse Kendra's past, they narrowed it down even further to a small area just outside New York.
"Now all we have to do is figure out how to get there..." Tin Tin stated.