Drileyf asks: For Whumptober, how about #4 Dead on Your Feet, hidden injury, and someone different for me, Alan?

Characters: Alan, Gordon, Scott

Warnings: Blood, Stitches

It had been a successful rescue, sure, but it had had its fair share of near-misses and Alan was sure glad it was over.

He picked his way wearily back to Two, stumbling a little on the debris-littered ground after depositing his last rescuee at the treatment centre.

It was the longest rescue he had done to date – if you excluded space rescues – and he was so tired. He ached all over and quite honestly all Alan wanted was a hot shower and his bed.

He was just so dead on his feet.

Unsure of where his other brothers were, Alan kept his eyes on Two as he traversed the site, knowing that they would materialise along the way. John had given the all-clear followed by Scott's agreement, so at some point soon he should see them…

The sudden hand on his shoulder made Alan jump.

'Woah, Al! Take it easy, it's only me!'

Gordon's face materialised in front of him and Alan groaned. He was too tired to cope with his most exuberant brother right now. Gordon seemed to take the hint, for he frowned and stopped talking, falling in beside his brother as they made their way over.

Blinking, Alan realised that their older brothers were waiting in front of Two, he just hadn't noticed them. He glanced over to Gordon, blinking slowly as he tried to make out what his immediately older brother was doing.

He was being a fish! Opening and closing his mouth with no sound coming out. Ahahaha, what a ridiculous – and very Gordon – thing to do. He giggled. His brother was funny.

Oh. At some point Alan had stopped walking and just stood there, swaying slightly and quietly giggling to himself. He hadn't even noticed that Gordon had been replaced by Scott, and that his eldest brother was crouching down in front of him.

'Gotta make a good impression, Alan, if you want Scott to keep you on rescues. S'portant.'

'Alan?'

Alan's words stung him, but Scott could tell his baby brother didn't even know he'd said them out loud. All kinds of alarms were ringing. This was Alan's first rescue that had stretched longer than half a day, and Scott had been firm on the need for regular breaks for them all, but especially Alan.

The kid was pale, though. Pale and swaying, and he looked exhausted. Scott's measures had obviously not been enough unless…his heart pounding, Scott hit his comm.

'John? Can you scan Alan please? Something isn't right.'

'Sure.'

'Patch Virg…'

He didn't even get to finish Virgil's name as John shouted in his ear.

'MEDBAY. NOW. Virgil – incoming Alan. He's losing blood.'

Scott had grabbed Alan up in a bridal hold and was sprinting over the last bit of distance before John finished speaking, heart pounding and thanking Gordon in his head for alerting them that Alan wasn't quite right.

By the time he had Alan laid down the boy was unconscious. Virgil was ready with an infusion of Ringers and Gordon was ready with the shears, cutting Alan's uniform away so that a canula could be fitted and the rest easily removed. Scott set off the Medscanner, and its yellow glow soon flagged up the issue. Not that Scott needed it, the smear of blood on his arm telling him already where the problem was.

Somehow Alan had managed to slice the back of his right thigh open and had not even noticed his boot was full of blood. He must have been far more exhausted than they had realised.

Once the infusion was set up Gordon left to fly Two home, and Scott held Alan while Virgil cleaned and stitched the wound. It was deep but not too worrisome and was definitely an injury they could handle at home.

Eventually Virgil finished bandaging Alan's leg and left to take over flying, giving Scott's shoulder a squeeze as he passed. Scott offered him a small smile, and Virgil stifled a sigh. His brother was already blaming himself for Alan's injury, he could tell, so he sent Gordon down to keep them company while he filled John and Grandma in on what had happened.

Alan yawned and tried to turn over. Only, his hand was anchored to the bed by someone else's. blinking rapidly to get his vision working, he could see Scott, head on the bed and hand tightly holding his. His brother looked like he was in a terribly uncomfortable position, but for the life of him Alan couldn't work out what had happened to merit Scott's pretzel imitation.

He glanced around the room to see the rest of this brothers dotted around the bed, all asleep. When he glanced up it was to see Grandma and Kayo standing beside him. He offered them a smile and they reciprocated. He whispered, not wanting to wake the others up.

'Wh-what happened?'

'You had an injury you didn't know about and passed out.'

'Oh. I remember feeling really tired.'

'You worked hard, Alan. That plus the blood loss.'

'Oh.'

'You'll be fine. Virgil stitched you up nicely.'

'Will I get a scar like Scotty's?'

The resultant eyerolls and barely repressed sniggering told Alan that he obviously was alright, just as the joking told their Grandma the same. She bent forward and kissed his forehead.

'Sleep, sweetie. Rest and you'll be back in business in no time.'

'K, Gran'ma.'

And Alan was asleep again.