Day Three: I'm having soul pains!

Drileyf asked for Alan

TROPE: Soul Pains. When a character feels horrid pain in ab abstract way that never leaves a physical mark and involves no gore despite it being unimaginably painful and is usually the result of psychological, supernatural of magical attack that gives them ambiguous chest pains or mind-splitting headache.

Splitting headache? Hello, movie-verse!


Characters: Alan, Scott

Warnings: Migraines, needles.

They began small. Intense little headaches that felt like he'd been stabbed in the eye but lasting no more than a couple of minutes.

Alan put it down to the stress of schoolwork and worry over his brothers.

But as time passed they got worse and worse, and he began to think maybe he'd inherited the migraines that Scott and Virgil suffered. While Virgil's resolved with rest and dark, Scott's could last days even with medication and he often got sick with them. Thankfully neither brother had them very often.

And then one day the headache was so intense he felt like someone was trying to cleave his head in two. And it didn't get better with the standard painkillers Wharton's allowed him to have without seeing the nurse.

By the third hour he was crying, and Fermat had called both the nurse and home. Jeff had listened as the nurse tried to soothe his son, cursing the fact that he couldn't leave. International Rescue was out on a call, and while they were now winding up, Jeff wouldn't leave them until the 'birds were home.

Scott, however, Scott could attend. One was smaller than Two, and they had an agent in the area with a barn large enough and adapted to hide One in the event of such an emergency. Filling his eldest in on the details, Scott readily agreed and shot off, leaving worried brothers in his wake.

He'd be there in fifteen minutes, plus the ten minutes it would take to drive to the school.

Scott did it in 18.

Seeing the ambulance stationary outside made Scott speed up, and he rushed up to the back of the bus, relieved only slightly to see it empty. Speeding into the school, the receptionist had obviously been told he'd be arriving because he wasted no time in pointing Scott in the right direction.

The Nurse's office was full, but the Principal made room for Scott to kneel down beside Alan. His brother had his eyes tightly screwed shut and was shaking slightly. He took Alan's hand.

'Alan? Al, I'm here. I'm here.'

'M-M-Make it stop, Scott! Please! Make it stop!'

Alan's wail was heart breaking, and Scott winced in sympathy. He'd known migraines like this, and all he could do was hold his brother's hand and wipe away the tears that were falling.

'I'm sorry, Mr Tracy,' the Principal whispered. 'The EMT's are advising that we send Alan to the hospital. They're worried about the suddenness and severeness of the headache.'

'Ok, that sounds reasonable. Can you please call our father and I'll go with him.'

'Absolutely, Mr Tracy.'

Manoeuvring Alan onto a stretcher wasn't easy as he didn't want to let go of Scott at all, but they managed with some fancy footwork, and soon they were in the bus, lights flashing as the EMT fitted Alan with a drip.

Scott kept hold of Alan's hand all the time, eyes only for his brother, until he noticed the man was preparing a syringe.

'What is that?'

'It's just a shot of morphine, for the pain.'

Scott frowned. Sure, Alan was in severe pain, but usually such a strong painkiller on a minor would need consent. He shifted, uneasily feeling something was out of place here.

'And what about consent?'

'Your father already approved everything while we waited for you.'

Well, that was quite a possibility. Satisfied with the answer, Scott turned back to Alan. As the contents were injected his brother quietened down then stilled altogether, and Scott exhaled a noisy breath.

He wasn't prepared for the stabbing of a needle into his own arm.

Nor for the voice he heard as he succumbed to the sedative.

'Well, two Tracy boys for the price of one. That is a nice surprise.'

The Hood gloated over the two unconscious brothers.

He collapsed into the chair, exhausted. Thank goodness the events of Spring Break had left him with a mental link to the youngest Tracy. One he meant to use to the full.

He'd already started.