"Virgil." Her voice was like the breeze, a whisper of memory. Every smile, every kind word, every single image his brain possessed that had been reviewed again and again throughout his life dare he forget could not prepare him.

She was exactly as he remembered her.

Her dark hair glittered in the sunlight, her eyes, so much like his, like Gordy's, were lit like tiger-eye, frowning up at him.

"Virgil, what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be in the cornfield, you know that."

"I..."

Her hand reached up and cupped his cheek.

He leant into her touch. Mom. Emotion clogged his throat. His last memory of her was nightmare material as she let go and was swallowed by snow.

Saving him.

"Mom."

"Why didn't you listen to your grandfather?"

Grandpa.

Grandpa had been here.

He drew in a shaky breath. "I've missed you."

Her expression crumpled. "I know, sweetie, but you can't be here."

"I..." Where were his words?

A snake slithered over his boots.

He jumped backwards. God.

His mother ignored the reptile and closed the distance between her and him. Her hands resting on his biceps. "Sweetie, you need to return to your brothers."

Scott. Scott had been yelling. Virgil had tried to reach him, to run back to the farmhouse, but now he was here...

"They need you."

Gordon. He had been looking after Gordon!

She picked up on his sudden agitation, her grip tightening on his arms. "They need you and you need them."

It was his turn to reach out and touch her. Her skin was soft against his callused fingertips. Her hair brushed his knuckles in the breeze.

She reached up and placed her hand over his, drawing it away and clasping it in both of hers. She stared up at him a moment, everything, just everything in her eyes as she brought that hand up and kissed the back of his fingers. "You need to go, Virgil. It is not your time."

He broke and pulled her into a hug ever so tight. "Mom..." It seemed to be the only word he could say.

"I'm so proud of you!" It was muffled into his shirt and for a moment she was clinging as much as he, but then she began to struggle, pushing him away. "Virgil, you need to go now. Before it is too late."

He loosened his grip and she stepped back. There were tears on her face, but resolution as well. "Think of what this is doing to your brothers."

His brothers.

Scott's voice was suddenly riding the breeze, despairing and desperate, calling Virgil's name.

Corn plants rattled as if in warning and his mother's eyes widened. "You need to go now, Virgil, please." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Please, sweetie, you need to go." She pushed at him gently.

"I love you, Mom."

"I know. Now go!" This time she shoved him and he staggered, barely catching himself. But then she pushed at him again and he was suddenly falling.

"I love you, Virgil."

But it was little more than a whisper, an echo of words said oh so long ago as she fell away from him into the roaring snow.

Except this time, he was the one falling.

-o-o-o-

Alan sat beside his unconscious brother and sniffled.

John had physically dragged a protesting Scott out of the room a moment before and he could still hear them arguing in the hallway.

His eldest brother hadn't slept. Hell, none of them had slept and it was beginning to show.

Gordon was still with Penny. His fish brother didn't do hospitals very well and there was something about Virgil that was setting him off bad.

Grandma was consulting with the doctors. She was just as unhappy as Scott and that scared Alan even more.

The thing was, they all said Virgil should recover. The news was positive, despite some questions regarding the head injury. But any Tracy who sat beside this bed knew there was something wrong. It wasn't anything quantifiable, more instinctual. They all knew Virgil so well.

And something was very wrong.

Something in the way he just lay there ever so quiet. Their brother had been seriously injured before, even with worse injuries than this, but not like this.

It was both terrifying and devastating at the same time.

They were on day three and the cracks weren't beginning to show, they were forming canyons and landslides. The strain on Scott and Gordon in particular was visible from space. John, Grandma and Penny were doing their best to hold each of them together, but it was eroding them slowly away as well.

They were all hurting so much.

Virgil needed to come back from wherever it was he had gone.

A single tear tracked down Alan's face and he rubbed it away with one hand.

He had tried so hard with that generator. He knew he wasn't dumb, but those moments of trying to do something that was supposed to be simple and yet had proven almost impossible with so much at risk...

He couldn't help but think that if he had completed the task, if he had known exactly what to do, like Virgil would have, they could have pulled their brother out from under that building so much faster and maybe they wouldn't be in this position, maybe Virgil would still be with them.

His fingers tightened around his brother's giant hand and squeezed tight.

"I'm so sorry." It was little more than a whisper.

Scott's voice in the corridor hissed and burned.

Virgil's hand twitched.

Alan blinked.

"Virgil?"

His hand squeezed Alan's and suddenly Virgil was there with him, eyes still shut, but scrunched up. He groaned. "Mom?"

"Virgil!" Alan was on his feet and leaning over his brother as he tossed his head. Alan stabbed his collar comms. "Scott! John! Get in here! Virgil's waking up!"

"Mom!" His brother's voice was parched and little more than a whimper, but Alan was ever so grateful when those deep brown eyes opened and blinked in confusion before latching onto him. "Alan? Where's Mom?" Those eyes searched the room before closing again with a groan. "Mom..."

Virgil's hand gripped his so tight it was painful.

But then Scott and John were there. Scott's intense presence blotting Alan out like the sun outshone the moon.

"Virgil?" Scott's voice held hope and jubilation all in that one word.

Dark eyes opened again and latched onto Scott. They stared silently up at their eldest brother for a full moment.

Then Virgil was crying.

So much.

His almost voiceless keen cut Alan to shreds and tears the astronaut had managed to control a moment before were suddenly on his cheeks and dripping off his chin.

Virgil's distress was intermixed with groans of pain and his words became unintelligible.

Scott's face was also wet, but he was doing his best to calm Virgil down. Whatever had upset their injured brother, it somehow involved their mother and grandfather and that mere fact excluded Alan from the equation as he remembered neither.

But he knew Virgil and he clung to that one hand he still had a grip on. "Virgil?"

Somehow, despite the brilliance of Scott, Virgil heard him.

Wet brown eyes turned to stare as the room fell silent.

"It's okay. You're going to be okay." He squeezed those fingers.

A single tear tracked down Virgil's cheek, but his eyes were latched onto Alan with an intensity that should have burnt.

"Allie?"

"Yeah?"

Virgil squeezed his eyes shut and let out a pain-filled breath that ended in another whimper.

Alan wrapped his other hand around Virgil's trapping his big brother's fingers between his own and stroking gently. "It's going to be okay." So much experience working with distressed rescuees...

Virgil sagged back into the bed, falling limp enough for Alan to suddenly fear he was going to disappear on them again. "Virgil?"

But his brother's brow crinkled a moment before smoothing out a little, exhaustion obviously overtaking him. "Mom..." It was little more than breath.

Moments and their brother was asleep again, tears drying on his cheeks.

But now he was there. Whatever had been missing before had now returned.

Alan looked up at Scott and his big brother's wet and red rimmed eyes. John didn't look much better behind him.

Alan opened his mouth to make words, but none came out.

On the bed, Virgil began to snore.

-o-o-o-