Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds.

It should have been Dad. Dad should have been the one sat in this seat, watching over his son with a proud smile on his face and sharing the wonders of the universe for the first time. The loss of Dad was still raw, too raw, sometimes, but selfishly – just this once – John was glad it was him.

Space was his thing. Scott had stopped when gravity did, but John had kept going, reaching for the stars because Earth was too small, too crowded for him. Virgil had, as ever, followed Scott, while Gordon stubbornly took the path no-one else had swum.

Now it was Alan's turn to find his way, and even though it should have been Dad – the first Tracy to go to space, their father – to take him up, away from the chaos of Earth to the tranquillity of space, it was John, and he wouldn't have traded it for the world.

He'd already had to fight Scott for the seat, big brother too determined to fill Dad's shoes. It had taken some hard words about who was the astronaut in the family, rather than the hot-shot pilot, to get him to back off – and he was still the other side of the comms.

Muted comms. John refused to let Scott's mother-henning interfere with Alan's first true view of space, sat as he was in the co-pilot seat of the Thunderbird that would one day be his (John was looking forwards to surrendering his role as primary pilot and getting back to Thunderbird Five). Scott was no doubt already gearing up to give him absolute hell for it, but right then John didn't care as he guided the gigantic red rocket towards Thunderbird Five.

Nothing too adventurous for Alan's first space flight. Alan had complained to start with, typical teenager wanting to rush into everything head first, but he'd silenced his complaints when he'd been told it was that or no space flight at all. Sparing a glance at his silent brother now, John could see any and all grievances were well and truly forgotten.

Had he looked like that the first time he'd gone into space? Jaw slightly agape, eyes open as wide as they could go, drinking in the sight as though terrified he'd blink and find it was all a dream. John remembered those feelings all too well. The view from space was breath-taking – even now, he never tired of it – and seeing it for the first time was, in a word, magical.

Just for a moment, all the science had left his brain, leaving him with that same innocent wonder he'd started out with as a child first discovering the stars. Even without asking, he could tell the same process was happening to Alan.

Normally, shutting Alan up was all but impossible, but the stars had done it. John was content with the silence as he moored up against his home in the stars, running through the checks to make sure the two Thunderbirds were secure, before leaning back in the chair and just watching. Watching Alan, watching the stars, watching the sun sweep across the surface of the Earth.

It was sunset on Tracy Island. The island itself was far too small to be seen from space, but John had the position long memorised regardless. The sharp line of shadow traversed the invisible date line, then New Zealand, and continued the unrelenting march up to and across Australia as they watched.

In space, time felt like it stood still. There was no concept of day or night like there was on Earth, just the sun and the stars, and the blue and green marble of home below them. If John wanted to, he could check his comm to see how long it had been since they'd left Tracy Island. He could probably hazard an accurate guess from the movement of the shadow over Earth.

Scott had wanted them home in two hours. A short flight, he'd stressed, citing acclimatisation and safety and don't overdo it with all the aggressive worry of an overprotective big brother. John would deal with that later, because Alan was still sat in that same co-pilot seat, staring out at the universe with a silent joy on his face, and yes, it was his first trip and John did have to make sure they didn't overdo it, but he was keeping an eye on things. Alan was fine, delighting in the view in a way none of his brothers ever had, and maybe this should have been Dad's place, but John was here instead and there was nothing that could have made him miss this.

Scott had Virgil, following him into the skies but no further. Gordon was his own creature, striking out into the waves with no desire for a guide.

John had Alan, as eagerly excited for the stars as he'd ever been. He missed Dad, of course he did, but this was his to share with his youngest brother.

Scott – and the rest of Earth – could wait a while longer.

Day six and "Sunset", with a John who demanded to be the voice of this fic then stopped talking to me halfway through, so who knows how this has ended up…

Thanks for reading!
Tsari