"Um, John?"
The second eldest looked up at the call, frowning faintly at the expression on the youngest Tracy's face. He looked… unsettled, that was the closest word he could ascribe to it.
"Yes Alan?" He asked.
"Uh...can I come up on the elevator and maybe hang out on Five for a bit? I'm getting twitchy." The teenager admitted the last line in a subdued voice.
John leafed through his recent memories of rescues and realised there hadn't been any space missions for a good three weeks now. Ah. That explained it. He understood this brand of twitchy, it was the same one that sent him running for 'the office' when the restrictions of gravity and the ceiling of the atmosphere bearing down on him got a bit too much, only the logistics to escape to Five were far easier than launching Three. Other siblings would have needed to argue the case more to convince John to share his sanctuary, but not Alan. If there was one thing he and Alan shared, it was that space was their natural habitat. "I'll send it down now. Don't worry about Scott, I'll sort it out with him."
The expression of relief was instant. "Thanks John."
A short while later Alan swung down into the gravity ring with a beanbag in one hand and a thermos of hot chocolate clipped to his baldric. He parked himself in the kitchen (because Five had rules about where one could have food and drink) and laid himself belly down on the beanbag, one cup of hot chocolate beside him and a second cup set out on the deck in invitation, chin resting atop his crossed arms as he watched the Earth and space slip past while the ring rotated.
John gave Alan a few minutes on his own to let him get settled, then entered the kitchen and folded himself down to sit cross legged beside Alan. Taking the second cup of hot chocolate and sipping it slowly, he was pleasantly surprised to find an orange and dark chocolate blend. Alan had been on an extremely sweet mint chocolate kick for the past little while, so something citrus and slightly bitter was a welcome change.
"You like it?" Alan asked, glancing over at him.
"Yes actually, it's quite nice." John wrapped his hands around the mug and savoured another mouthful of the drink.
"Cool. I've got a whole box of it at home, help yourself." Alan returned to his contemplation of the planet below as the lights of night-time Europe slid past. "It's on the top shelf of the pantry, I stuck it in the wheat germ box to hide it from Gordon."
"Thanks."
They sat in companionable silence for a time, then Alan ventured a question. "John, you ever thought about what you're going to do when you can't keep a space rating?"
"What brings this on?" John asked, sensing something more to the question than just random thoughts pinging about the teen's brain.
"Read something on a forum." Was Alan's short reply, curtailed to corral the deep upset he was feeling. "They were talking about us, making theories about you and me going nuts if we couldn't go to space. It wasn't nice."
"Alan, you know better than to read anything about us on the internet, especially the comments section." John chided, but at the same time he reached out and rubbed Alan's back comfortingly. "Cardinal rule of the internet, 'don't read the comment section', right up there with 'don't feed the trolls'."
"Yeah, I know." Alan huffed a sigh, then turned worried eyes on John. "But still… I mean... we've got to pass physicals to keep our space ratings and all that stuff. One day..."
"We have no idea what technology will let us do in years to come, Alan." John reassured him. "Worst comes to worse we'll just declare Five a residential facility of Tracy Industries, habitats have different rules to work facilities. If rich old people can live in the Astoria Hotel, we can live on Five. They're not going to take space from us unless we're good and ready to let it go."
"Yeah, you're right." Alan perked up and smiled a little. "Thanks John."