Jamie looked up nervously at the nurse with light grey hair as she helped make sure the scrubs he was being fitted into fit well enough so he wouldn't trip and fall. He was nervous about how this plan was going to work, but one of the nurses - the same one fitting him for the scrubs winked at Jeff when he said that Jamie was his nephew.

"There we go, that looks like it'll work well." The nurse, who's name badge identified her as Jennifer said before she prompted Jamie to turn and look in the mirror.

When Jamie looked at his reflection, he couldn't help but to think that he looked like a five-year-old playing dress-up with his mom and dad's clothes. He did his best to disguise the cringe he wanted to give at his reflection but instead he offered up a smile to Jennifer. He didn't want to hurt her feelings especially after she had stepped away from her own work in order to help him get into the scrubs and make sure they fit since they only had the one size fits all scrubs though the specification of that size was questionable.

"Thank you Jennifer." Jamie said as he held his hands out when Jennifer commented under her breath that Jamie would need a bouffant surgical cap to keep his curly brown hair out of his face as well as to make sure he didn't unintentionally bring in contaminants. Finally, a face mask was fitted over his mouth and the loops over his ears. Gloves were stretched over his hands and the next time Jamie gazed at his reflection, he failed to recognize himself. He looked like either a really short doctor or nurse, his eyes were a dead giveaway to his youth though. They held the light often associated with youth and Jamie felt much older.

Once finished, Jennifer led Jamie from the scrub room and took him down the hall towards Alan's room. She made Jamie wait in the hall while she stepped in to make sure Alan was decent, since Alan was prone to going without his gown most the time due to the constriction to his injuries…not that Jamie knew that.

When Jennifer opened the door, she commented quietly to Jamie to enjoy his visit with his 'cousin' and Jamie nodded excitedly. Without further ado, Jamie stepped in past the threshold and noticed Alan was struggling to sit up. The blanket slid down Alan's midsection, revealing the bandaging that was still looped around his torso, keeping the still healing wounds covered for the time being.

Alan looked surprised at his visitor and Jamie stood stock still for a moment until he took big steps to Alan's bed. Jamie was pulled into a tight hug by Alan and both teens wouldn't admit later, but they cried tears of joy at being reunited.

"Jamie?! Oh my god! Jamie!" Alan whispered as he hugged Jamie tightly. Jamie didn't tell Alan that his hug was making him short of breath, he was just happy to see one of his very best friends and pseudo brothers okay and kicking.

"Alan!" Jamie whispered back. He was more than happy to be caught up in the world's biggest bear hug by Alan. If nothing else, it made him feel doubly loved that he had best friends out there that had missed him like they would a limb.

"How? I can't have any visitors that aren't family." Alan whispered to Jamie who seemed to smile widely behind his mask.

"Well, for the sake of today – I'm your cousin and your dad's nephew." Jamie said with a laugh. "It was your dad's idea."

"What?" Alan asked as he felt legitimately shocked that his dad had executed quite possibly the best surprise ever. "He did…?"

"When we were getting ready to leave the courthouse, your dad asked my mom and dad if I could join you guys and come see you to visit. They agreed as long as I was back before curfew." Jamie said with a carefree shrug of his shoulders.

"What time is curfew?" Alan asked, not immediately remembering if Jamie had ever told him his curfew when he wasn't at school.

"Nine, but we've got seven hours. Your dad and brothers will switch out with me in a little bit but then I can come back in for the last hour before I need to go home." Jamie said softly.

"Sweet." Alan said, he trailed off because honestly; what could they talk about? It'd been so long since Alan last interacted with anyone outside of his family and Fermat didn't count because he was family. "So, how have you been?"

Jamie pulled back from the hug and sat by Alan on the bed when his friend motioned he sit next to him. Looking at Alan, Jamie could see that Alan was still recovering from his many surgeries. He shrugged as a way to tell Alan how things have been since they'd been forced to leave Wharton's. Alan in return gave Jamie "the look" similar to the looks given to some children by a parent when they were looking at getting into trouble. At the look Jamie heaved a sigh before he spoke.

"It's been good, I guess. I miss seeing you…you and Fermat every day." Jamie said as he hung his head. "I was hoping we could go do the things we said we'd do for summer break, but I don't think it's going to happen."

"Why do you think that?" Alan asked though he knew what Jamie was getting at. Months ago, just prior to the fire they as a group decided that when Eddy got his learner's permit – they'd try to convince Eddy and Jamie's dad to take them on a road trip to see the famous landmarks of the US. Mount Rushmore, Seattle Space Needle, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon, Alcatraz Island, French Quarter, and as the finale – hike the Appalachian Trail but with Alan recovering from the fire, he'd never be able to hike through Yellowstone and certainly not the Appalachian Trail. Alan had already talked with his dad about it before the fire and Jeff hadn't said no but he hadn't said yes either. He left it open with a "We'll see".

"I don't mean to say it and sound like a spoiled brat, but you won't be healed enough yet. It'd be too hard on you and Fermat to try to hike." Jamie said as his shoulder visibly dropped. "It was a stupid plan for us to want to be adventurous."

"There's nothing saying we can't go when me and Fermat are all healed, and we'll know to treasure the experience more when we do take the trip. And we will do it." Alan said as he leaned back into his bed and tugged the sheet up a bit to cover his midsection. He hadn't wanted to put on his gown when he was told he had a visitor and just chose to have an extra sheet draped over him to provide cover. He'd assumed it was one of his brothers or his dad and they'd seen him in almost every form of undress since he was born. He'd had to wear a gown for the four hours that they'd been kept at the secret location after the impromptu evacuation of the hospital and he had to say he'd never been more uncomfortable. When they'd gotten back and settled in their rooms again, Alan practically ripped the gown off and tossed it across the room to get it away from him.

"I don't know Dodger." Jamie said as he became disheartened. He wasn't a fool, he'd heard people talk about the injuries Alan sustained and Alan had told all of them that there was a possibility he'd never be able to feel in his feet let alone walk and sure he feels fleeting sensations now, but that's all they are…fleeting. "I just don't want you to be disappointed."

"Jem, nothing would disappoint me more than letting Robert win. He won't because I won't let him. If he wanted me dead that bad, he should have done something more than set our dorm on fire." Alan spoke sharply.

It pissed him off that it seemed like Robert still had control over his life, but he wasn't going to let him win. Robert was nothing but a bully that wanted everything his way. He called Alan spoiled rotten, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Alan earned a lot of what he got from his dad. He did chores and saved his allowance when it was given to him by his dad. But nothing that he had was given to him on a silver platter. His dad had been a working man who started out as a farm boy in Kansas, so he instilled the values into each of his sons.

Jamie nodded morosely before he changed the subject. "How have things been here?"

Alan rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue to display his own form of exasperation. It made Jamie laugh and that's what Alan wanted.

"How is it ever in when you're in the hospital? I honestly wouldn't recommend being put in the hospital when you want to catch up on your sleep. The nurses mean well, but they periodically wake me up to check my vitals when I'm trying to sleep."

"That sucks." Jamie said before noticing a picture on Alan's nightstand. "What's this?"

Alan looked over to what Jamie pointed out and he blushed. "That's me and Brook. There were some magicians here about a week ago and Brook asked me to go with her to see the show. One of the nurses got a picture of us together at Brook's request."

"She's pretty." Jamie commented when he picked up the picture frame and smiled behind the mask at the look of happiness on both teens faces. "Is she also here in the hospital?"

"Yeah, she's a few doors down." Alan said as he shrugged. "She's here recovering from an accident."

"What kind of accident?" Jamie asked as he looked at the picture but didn't see any injuries on Brook that would warrant a stay in the hospital.

"She's a burn patient. She used to be a fire dancer at her family's restaurant and she was burned when the chains she was using got wrapped around her hands and burned her." Alan said as he held up his hand to demonstrate where she was burned.

"I burned my hands too, but I'm not still in the hospital." Jamie commented, confused at why Brook was still in the hospital.

"It wasn't just her hands that were burned. Her arms were too and she had to have a couple fingers amputated because of the burns. Her hands are still in bandages, so I'd imagine she's not healed enough yet to leave." Alan said with a shrug.

Jamie observed Alan and his body language before he understood.

"You have a crush on her." Jamie said with a smile. "How did you meet her?"

"I met her when one of my nurses took me to the sun lounge to socialize with the other peds patients. There are a bunch of kids our age there and Brook was with them. We've kind of become friends." Alan said before shaking his head. "And I don't have a crush on Brook."

"Right Alan." Jamie replied with mirth. "Sure."

"It's true!" Alan cried softly as his face lit up with blush.

"Keep telling yourself that." Jamie murmured.

Alan and Jamie continued talking for a long time before there was a knock on the door. Jamie gave Alan a quick hug before he stepped out since that was the agreed upon alert that Jamie would switch out with Alan's family members to give them ample time to visit with their youngest also. As much as he was enjoying spending time with Alan, and wanted all of his friend's attention all to himself it wouldn't be fair to the rest of Alan's family especially after the scare they'd gotten upon discovering the hospital had been evacuated.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Scott heaved a sigh of relief as he swapped places with Jamie and he made a b-line for Alan. Once within reach, Scott was hugging Alan like they were both little boys again. Alan smiled as he felt at ease getting a hug from his oldest brother. It didn't matter how old he got, he'd always love his big brother's hugs.

"We were so worried when we got to the hospital to find out that it'd been evacuated." Scott murmured as he ran a hand across his brother's cheek and pushed back his hair to get a good look at his brother's face. "We thought something happened."

"Imagine being one of the ones being evacuated from a facility that's meant to care for you. I was terrified when Dr. Andreessen and Dr. McNulty came in and began unhooking everything and silencing the alarms to prevent them from going off and driving us crazy. When Fermat and I were loaded into the medical transport vans, we didn't know what was going on at the time, but we were told it was a court ordered protection order." Alan said as he leaned his head onto Scott's chest. "When they started evacuating us, they didn't tell us everyone was being evacuated also."

"Yeah, we weren't told of the court ordered protection order. I'm guessing the judge didn't want to make known what was going on though I wish she'd told us." Scott said as he thought back on it. "Dad nearly had a heart attack when we got here and saw police crawling all over the place."

"Can we change the subject please? Jamie and I have already been through this." Alan said softly.

He wanted to enjoy his visits with his family not reflect on things he couldn't change.

"What do you want to talk about?" Scott asked as he looked down to meet his brother's eyes.

"Anything else but that." Alan muttered. He pets Gemma on the head and gently scratched behind her ears and watched as she got comfy and stretched out on her belly. Alan smiled at Gemma and her cuteness. He was glad that his dad agreed to let him have her. "How are you doing?"

Scott paused before answering and when he did it made Alan feel better.

"I'm good, I'm not sore from the surgery anymore. Though I have to say I never knew quite what a pain in my ass that would be." Scott said as he thought back to it. They'd taken skin from his thighs and parts of his butt cheek to use as grafts for Alan.

"Sorry." Alan commented softly, not wanting Scott to be mad at him.

As if he were reading his mind, Scott commented further. "I'm not mad at you little brother. It's just I never would have pictured myself as a donor for a surgery of any kind, unless it was a kidney…though I only have two of those and I'd really rather not donate to each of my little brothers."

"So, changing the subject again…have you heard anything yet on my recovery? Dr. Andreesen has been really busy and hasn't been able to hold a conference with me about how I'm doing. At most all I ever get anymore are comments from my nurses when they're changing my bandages about how well I seem to be healing up." Alan said as he shifted slightly so that he was resting against Scott. The oldest wrapped an arm around his baby brother and held him close, taking comfort that his brother was contented to use him as a pillow. He didn't mind it, he really didn't.

"No, dad's got a meeting with Dr. Andreesen about something regarding your treatment but they had to schedule it several days out since Dr. Andreesen has been so busy." Scott said before he took notice of someone missing. "Where's Fermat?"

"Oh, when we got back…his physical therapist decided to graduate Fermat from doing exercises in bed to in the gym. Fermat is there doing stretches to see if he's going to need any additional surgeries or not." Alan replied, longing looking at Fermat's bed. "I wish I was well enough to drag myself from my bed."

"You'll get there bud, just be patient." Scott said to which he found his brother glaring daggers at him. "What?"

"You know patience isn't my strongest suit…you've known me for fifteen years." Alan said with a roll of his eyes at his brother's suggestion of patience.

"Yep, you were impatient to be born and you've been an impatient kid your whole life. Even impatient with potty training." Scott said with a quirk to his eyebrows telling Alan that his brother was smiling.

"I was not!" Alan hissed as he hunkered down as if to hide.

"Alan running around buck naked at dad's work was not a good idea, no matter how liberating it felt. You still made a bunch of the biddies that worked for dad swoon at your display." Scott teased.

"Scott, I was two freaking years old. A lot of kids prefer being naked at that age." Alan tried to defend himself despite the growing blush on his face.

"Alan, you were the one that tore your own clothes off every time mom or dad dressed you. And the one time you were at work with dad and you decided that your pull up had to come off too was mortifying." Scott said with a chuckle.

"I'm not hearing this…I'm not hearing this!" Alan covered his ears to avoid any further teasing from his brother that sadly knew everything about Alan ever since he was born.

"Anyway, I hate to cut our visit short but I believe I've got another certain blonde brother who is practically bursting at the seams to see you." Scott said as he stood and prepared to leave. He glanced at the clock above the door in Alan's hospital room and was surprised that an hour had passed so quickly. "I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast."

"Kay, thanks Scott." Alan said as he leaned up to accept the hug from his big brother. Scott pet Gemma gently before he left right as there was a soft knock. It however wasn't who anyone would have expected and were mildly surprised at one of the nurses carrying a bin.

"Hello, I'm Candy." The nurse introduced herself to Scott and the oldest brother had to tell himself not to cringe visibly when she brushed shoulders with him. He hadn't met with her personally, but he was still creeped out by her and her constant peppiness.

"Hi Candy, I'm Scott." The older brother said before he took notice of the bin she carried. "What's all this?"

"Oh, it's time for Alan's bandage change." Candy said with a smile heard in her voice.

"Oh Scott, you said you wanted to see how it was done. Might as well stick around then huh?" Alan said to which Scott turned to look and noticed his brother making the 'please' face.

"Sure." Scott said before he walked back over and sitting beside Alan, taking Gemma from his little brother and scratching behind her ears.

Candy smiled at her patient and his brother before setting to work with helping Alan roll over onto his stomach. Scott watched as Candy used her special scissors to cut through the tight material binding Alan's injuries. Scott winced as Candy gently peeled the bandages away from Alan's injuries and he got his first real look at his little brother's healing wounds and to be honest, they weren't pretty. The skin that had the grafts were oddly colored, though you could see that the blood flow had been restored. The skin color just didn't match quite as close as Alan's natural skin tone and Scott wasn't the type of person that took notice of that normally, but he could notice that much about his baby brother.

Scott observed the nurse applying the ointments to his brother's lower back and sides and couldn't help but to notice how many different ointments were being used. He spied a few of the tubes being used and he marveled over a few. Anti-pruritic creams and lotions along with various ointments and salves to treat the itching that Alan felt from the constant healing of his wounds. Santyl Topical, Silver sulfadiazine to treat Alan's burns…or what remained of them.

Candy picked up a tube of medicine and squirted a healthy amount into her gloved hand before she began rubbing her hands together in order to warm the medicine. She warned Alan softly before she began to apply the medicine to his back. It wasn't warm enough yet to not make Alan tense up, but it didn't make him jump like it had when he was still getting used to the treatment.

Scott watched as Candy smoothed the creams and lotions into Alan's skin. She left them uncovered for a few moments while she went about unwrapping gauze and flattening it out onto the burns and grafts to cover them before she cut strips of tape to secure the gauze. After she'd finished doing that she began to wrap Alan in a gauze wrap so as to keep everything tidy and in order. Alan turned his head so that he made eye contact with Scott. Scott could see the look of humiliation written plain as day all over Alan's face at being so exposed and in such a vulnerable position. Offering his hand out, Scott gently took Alan by the hand and gave a gentle squeeze to reassure him. Looking back at his older brother, Alan gave his brother a sheepish smile.

When Candy had finished, she peeled off her gloves and sighed softly though you could tell she felt bad for the boy in her care.

"You know; I wish all my patients would be as compliant as you." Candy said softly before she pulled the sheets up to cover Alan properly. Once she'd done as such, she grabbed her bin of gauze and salves and patted Alan on the top of his head. She turned and left them alone.

Once the door had closed, Alan seemed to retreat into himself.

"Alan?" Scott had asked with a tilt to his head.

"Thank you." Alan murmured with his face buried into the pillow.

"What's wrong?" Scott asked though he knew Alan was embarrassed.

"I wouldn't…wouldn't have had you in here with me if one of my other nurses had been the one changing my bandages. But Candy creeps me out. She's always happy and it never seems to quit for her. I didn't want to be alone with her, I know seeing this is probably the last thing you want to see, but I appreciate you staying." Alan murmured.

"Alan, I've seen the good and bad sides of you, sure I don't like seeing your injuries but you're my little brother and I'm used to being the one who would kiss your ouches when you were little. I wouldn't be a good brother nor a good field commander if I couldn't stomach the ouches." Scott said as he set Gemma on the bed beside Alan. The baby bunny seemed to come awake for a few minutes before she took notice of the boy that was her constant companion and she hopped over until she was snuggled into his side. Alan and Scott both smiled at the baby bunny and her antics.

Both brothers remained in silence for a few more minutes until they'd heard another knock on the door, Scott looked back at Alan and seemed to smile sadly at his brother.

"Looks like I've got to go." Scott said softly as he stood up and leaned down to kiss the back of Alan's head. "Do you want me to help you turn over?"

"Can't…if I turn over I'll make the bandages stick." Alan replied softly. "Promise me that if a mission should ever involve fire, that you'll get out before you get as bad as me."

"You know it bro." Scott said before he left the room to let the others get their visitation time with Alan.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

It was a few hours later that Jamie was allowed back in. They'd had maybe two more hours until Jamie would have to go back home. That time was spent with both boys watching a video on Alan's laptop. Jamie was sitting beside Alan on his bed and both were trying to remain quiet so Fermat could sleep. He came back to his and Alan's hospital room, sore and in severe pain from his physical therapy appointment. He refused to greet Jamie or Alan and seemed short with both boys, telling them to keep quiet and leave him alone. As a result, Jamie stood up and pulled the privacy curtain around Alan's bed and Jamie sat on the bed with Alan so they could share headsets.

They whispered to each other and tried to keep any laughter or chuckles to a dull roar so as to make sure Fermat could sleep. Jamie selected a movie off of Alan's e-library on his computer and they both settled down to watch it. They turned the lights out in the room, and they made sure it wasn't a movie with a lot of flashing lights.

It kind of put a damper on their time together, but it was nice in the meantime to just spend time in each other's presence.

"I hope my therapy won't be as bad like Fermat's seemed to be." Alan whispered to Jamie. He was really worried when Fermat came back from therapy and was short with not only him but Jamie. He was even short when his own dad came in and he snapped at his dad more than once – making Brains have to make Fermat go to bed like he was a crabby five-year-old. The father went out to have a nurse bring Fermat some strong pain medications and muscle relaxants to make sure Fermat got sleep. It wasn't long after getting the requested medications that Fermat was out like a light and Brains came over to advise both boys to try and stay quiet so his son could sleep without interruption.

"You'll be fine; your injuries are different than Fermat's." Jamie whispered knowing next to nothing about the type of therapy that Fermat was undergoing or for that matter what Alan would soon be forced to deal with.

"That's what has me so worried." Alan whispered back. His injuries were worlds different than Fermat's and he knew he'd have to undergo months if not years of therapy just to be considered normal again.

Alan felt his eyes droop as he felt like he was moments away from falling asleep. He glanced surreptitiously at his friend and noticed the younger boy was also close to falling asleep. The movie they put on wasn't boring, but they'd both had long days. Alan's was long because he'd been visiting all day so he hadn't had his usual mid afternoon nap like he'd taken a liking to. And Jamie because he had to be up early to get to the court house and testify – he also hadn't been sleeping well since the fire. He was too afraid that he'd wake up one of these days and discover the house was on fire like what happened in the dorms.

Alan considered jostling his friend and telling him to go home but he ignored it in favor of closing his eyes. He was only resting his eyes after all.

Jeff knocked on the door after a while, having checked his watch and realizing that Jamie was getting close to his curfew. He didn't want to get Jamie in trouble with his family nor did Jeff want to give them a bad name as the Tracy family for keeping Jamie out late. When he didn't hear a reply, Jeff lightly opened the door and went over to Alan's side of the room. The lights were dimmed though not completely off and when Jeff opened the curtain, he hesitated in waking either boy.

Both Jamie and Alan were asleep side by side, heads tipped against the other's head. Jeff contemplated contacting Jamie's parents before realizing he didn't have their numbers. Heaving a sigh, Jeff lightly shook each boy to wake them up. He didn't want Alan to panic if he woke up to find Jamie was gone and he didn't want either boy to startle and potentially wake Fermat who seemed to be sleeping soundly across the room.

"Huh?" Alan snuffled as he came awake. He looked around and saw Jamie looking around with his eyes looking weighted down.

"It's time for Jamie to go home." Jeff whispered before he stepped back to let Jamie climb off the side of the bed where he'd perched. Jeff moved Alan's laptop and closed the lid before offering a smile to both boys. "I promise sometime soon we can sneak Jamie back in."

"I don't want you to get in trouble." Jamie said tiredly as he rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"I won't, besides I'm pretty sure the staff knows I snuck you in." Jeff said revealing what he knew. It was public knowledge that both he and Lucy had been only children in their family, so Jeff couldn't have had a nephew if anyone decided to flip their lid over Jeff sneaking an unauthorized visitor in. But any friends of his sons were unofficial sons or daughters to him. A few of his sons when they were all growing up had called him dad or papa Jeff – but that was when they were really young.

If Alan or Jamie freaked out over being found out, then nobody recognized it. Jeff wasn't phased by it and he still prodded both boys to say their good nights before Jamie was late for his curfew.

"See you later Dodger, don't cause too much grief for the nurses." Jamie whispered as he hugged his best friend. He didn't know when he'd get to see him again and he hoped he'd get to see him soon.

"Later Jem, you be good for your parents." Alan said before he waved to Jamie and his dad as they left the room.

After they'd left the hospital, Jeff escorted Jamie to the car they'd been renting and prompted the kid to sit in the front seat.

"I'll need directions to get to your place, I've never seen where you live." Jeff said as he and Jamie both fastened their seatbelts.

"I can direct you." Jamie said as he settled into his seat.

They both rode along in companionable silence for a while until they'd reached the turn that Jamie had begun to recognize.

"Turn here." Jamie said. "Right."

"Okay." Jeff followed Jamie's directions until he'd stopped outside of a brownstone he'd recognized. "I didn't know you lived here."

It was one of the few brownstones on this block, but it looked familiar to Jeff for some reason. Sure it was an hour and eleven minutes roughly outside of Manhattan, but a lot of his employees resided in Long Island or the surroundings. He wondered why this place looked so familiar.

"Yeah, you hired my new dad about five years ago. He works with David Kerrigan." Jamie said as he smiled to the Tracy patriarch. That was when it occurred to him that he'd met Jamie and Eddy's parents before the trial. Dennis Alexander and his wife Marnie had hosted a small dinner party at their brownstone as a business dinner. Eddy, Alan and Jamie were away at school at the time so they hadn't met yet.

"Okay, I've met your parents before." Jeff commented before he pulled up in front of the brownstone and parked. The porchlight had come on and the door opened to reveal Marnie. She was bundled in his housecoat and slippers and she waved when Jamie climbed out of the car. Jeff waved back before he pulled away.

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Sad-Blue-Eyed-Angel 2010