Standard Disclaimer, don't own the thunderbirds.

Thank you for the reviews. It is really encouraging to get such good reviews. Here is the next chapter... the following ones will be posted later in the week, hopefully.

Double Trouble

Chapter 4: Tears and Tree houses

In the kitchen of the Tracy house John assembles a quick salad, boils some eggs and cuts up some cheese to go with it then putting it on the table. He goes to the pantry to grab a packet of potatoe chips, pouring them into a bowl. He lay out plates and cutlery, glasses of water and napkins.

"Gordon, Alan, dinners ready."

Gordon and Alan come charging into the kitchen sit at the table and start loading their plates with chips. John sits between them, and helps to serve salad, eggs and cheese onto their plates. "Com'on, not just the chips." He encourages.

Serving himself, he sits and clasps his hands, Gordon realising what is going on puts down his knife and fork and swallows the mouthful of food he is chewing. He nudges Alan under the table, nodding his head towards John; wide eyed Alan puts his own cutlery down, clasps his hands and looks down at his plate.

"Thank you lord for giving us this food…" John prays, Gordon reaches for his cutlery only to realise that John hasn't finished. "…And please lord watch over us tonight until our family comes home. Amen" Looking at his impatient brothers John nods that they can continue eating. He picks at his own dinner, his appetite not as strong as it was earlier in the day.

The meal quickly over, John sends the younger boys to get changed into pyjamas while he clears the table and washes the dishes.

He then gathers the dirty clothes from earlier and takes them down to the utility room dumping them in the washing machine and setting it going. Upstairs he can hear yelling, stomping and doors slamming.

--

Alan stamps down the stairs carry his brown teddy bear clutched to his side, his socked feet making little noise despite his heavy tread. He clumps out into the gathering darkness of the back yard, looking around nervously at the shadows. Somewhere out here he left his rocket ship.

Switching the kitchen light on and leaving the door open he creeps hesitantly out into the yard towards the shed where he had been playing, the shadows beneath the large Cottonwood trees are a deep disturbing black. Looking over his shoulders at the reassuring light of the kitchen door Alan creeps further into the shadows, clutching his teddy close.

Beneath the tree Alan searches for his rocket ship its small shape hidden in the long dry grass. As he nears the shed and a chilling growl echoes around the yard, freezing in place, eyes open wide he looks around for the source of the sound.

"Gordon?" he calls, perhaps Gordo is playing a trick. Getting no response Alan moves back towards the light of kitchen door, his rocket ship forgotten.

A second growl echoes through the yard and a large furtive moving shadow dashes from the shed to the shrubs between Alan and the light. Taking a step back against the tree Alan clutches his teddy bear, "John!" "Gordon!" Another growl this time closer has Alan darting around the tree away from the noise; he finds the first slats of wood that lead up the tree to the tree house in place of a ladder.

Without thinking Alan shoves his teddy bear down his shirt and starts climbing part way up a slat give way causing Alan slip and seize at a low branch wrenching his wrist, crying in pain Alan reaches for another slat and pulls himself up higher.

Another growl from directly below him causes Alan to hurry up the last slats and dives into the rickety tree house, he curls up in the shadows arms wrapped around his knees holding his teddy bear close, shaking in fear, tears pouring from his tightly closed eye, "Scotty… Scotty… I'm scared Scotty…. Scotty Help me…please Scotty…." He sobs quietly.

--

Sighing in frustration John clumps up the stairs and goes looking for his suddenly quiet brothers.

Gordon is sitting in the lounge a grumpy look on his face. "Where's Alan?" John asks the redhead, Gordon shrugs. Sighing again John continues up the stairs in search of his youngest brother.

It's getting late and Alan should be getting ready for bed, outside the sun is starting to set, the long twilight stretching across the fields, the day's heat starting to dissipate a little. John looks into Alan and Gordon's room, he checks under the beds and in the closet, no Alan.

Moving on to the next bedroom across the hall, he pushes open the door, Scott's neat room, no sign of Alan there either. The next bedroom is the other side of the bathroom from Alan and Gordon's room, his own and Virgil's room, John looks in the closet and under the beds, still no Alan, just to be sure he checks the bathroom between the bedrooms.

Finally he turns to the fourth and last bedroom on this floor; his father's room next door to Scott's bedroom. Unwillingly he pushes the door open, his father doesn't welcome anyone in this room anymore, once the boys would have come and gone without thinking, but that was before their mother died.

John pokes his head in to the room, no sign of Alan 'I better check properly'. He hesitantly walks into the room, checking under the bed and in the closet, and then looking in the attached bathroom, still no Alan.

As he walks back through the bedroom he notices a photo on the bedside table, it is picture of his mother, one he hasn't seen before, drawn to the picture he sits on the bed clutching the frame tears trickling down his face, "I'm scared Mom, no-ones here, how do I look after the kids by myself?"

The growing shadows pull John from his reverie; he looks up at the window noticing that it is quite dark outside now. Quickly he puts the photo back on the table and stomps back down stairs.

Looking back in the lounge he sees Gordon with his eyes glued to the TV. "Gordon, where's Alan?" Reluctantly pulling his eyes from the TV Gordon frowns up at John, "Don't know." He turns back to the TV.

"Gordon, I can't find him, where is he?" John snaps.

Registering his brothers concern at last Gordon looks out the window, it's getting late, standing he asks, "Did you check the office."

"No." John turns to go and look in their father's office, Gordon following. After checking the office the boys carried on down the hall and checked their Grandmothers rooms as well as the guest room and second bathroom.

"Where is he?" John shouts in frustration. "What happened, what did You do to him?" John turned stormy pale eyes on his younger brother. Gordon steps back defensively, of all the brothers John is the least likely to show anger, but is the most hazardous when he shows it; and this is the third time Gordon has seen anger in his brothers eye today, it is a record Gordon doesn't want to improve on.

"Um, I… I… don't know…" John looks at Gordon disbelief obvious in his eyes, "…I don't OK. He was whinging about something he left outside." Awareness suddenly dawns in amber and blue eyes, "Damn! I told him to go out and get it himself."

John clips Gordon upside the head, "Idiot! Com'on lets go find him, it's getting real dark out there."

The two boys march out the back door into the darkening back yard, "Alan!" "Allie." "Com'on Al where are you." They separate and start searching the yard looking behind bushes and under the step, in the shed all the places John had searched earlier, all now deep in shadow.

They meet up again under the yawning shadow of the trees by the back gate. "He wouldn't have gone back out into the field, would he", Gordon asks. John shakes his head, reluctant to wander further; he looks out into the dark path leading through the sunflower field.

Deciding he'll have to check the path out for the missing Alan, John instructs Gordon to stay put while he goes to get a torch.

While waiting under the tree below the forgotten tree house Gordon hears quiet sobs, he looks around trying to trace the sound; his eyes rising up into the canopy "Al? Allie is that you?" with no reply but the sobs, Gordon moves around the tree to find the slats of wood nailed to the trunk as steps, he quickly scales up the steps reaching over a large space where two slats of wood have pulled loose, as Gordon grabs one it gives way completely and drops to the leaf littered ground, Gordon clutches at the trees trunk, until his heart stops racing.

Clambering the rest of the way up he reaches the decrepit tree house, its walls tilting outward, pieces of word having fallen in from the roof to reveal holes. Gordon looks around the dark interior to find Alan crouching against the tree trunk arms wrapped around drawn up legs and his head on his knees. Gordon crawls over to his baby brother and puts his hand on the crying boys shoulder. Alan looks up startled only just realising that he is no longer alone. "Gordon!" he flings himself into Gordon's arms sobbing even harder.

Down on the ground John returns to the gate to find his second youngest brother missing as well.

"Damn it, I told him to wait." John huffs, "Gordon come back here. GORDON!" he shouts.

In the tree Gordon hears John's calls and hollers down to him, "John, up here, I've found Alan. He's in the tree house." Looking up in surprise John circumnavigates the tree to find the steps and starts climbing.

"Careful of the sixth one, it's loose," Gordon calls.

Heeding the warning John reaches over the sixth slat of wood and pull himself up into the tree house, to find Alan sobbing hysterically in Gordon's arms. "Hey Allie, it's OK." John strokes Alan's hair, the small boy looks up tears streaming down his face, he reaches for his older brother, and John takes him from a reluctant Gordon, "Allie, what happened? What are you doing up here?"

Alan unintelligibly mumbles into John's shoulder, Gordon rubbing his back tries to calm the boy. "Allie talk to us, what happened?" hiccoughing Alan looks at his brothers in the light of the torch, "Monster chased me."

The older boys exchange looks, 'Monster?' "What monster Allie?" John asks the distressed boy in his arms.

"Under the shed, there's a big monster, it growled at me." Alan appeals to his brother begging to be believed. "OK Allie, we believe you." John frowns at Gordon, cutting him off from arguing the point, "DON'T we Gordon." Gordon nods his head, "Sure we do Allie."

John wipes Alan's tears away and sits him up, "Com'on lets get back inside."

"No." Alan pulls away, "I can't get down."

"'Course you can. The monster is gone." John insists.

"No" Alan holds up his hand, "I hurt my hand I can't hold the steps." John looks at the injured limb, feeling it, he notices that the wrist is swollen. 'Great now how do I get him down now?' John wonders, he looks down to the dark foot of the tree, some six meters below him, then looks at Gordon, "Any ideas?"

Gordon shakes his head, "Nope. Could try calling Scott again?" John nods in agreement. "Wait here I'll go try." He hands the torch to Gordon and sits a quiet Alan back against the tree trunk, then clambers back down the tree.

John hurries into the house, he dials Scott's mobile number, but the phone is still turned off, he hangs up without leaving a message. Cursing his older brother John slumps against the wall, "What do I do?"

The hall clock chimes 9 o'clock, John looks out the back door, its quiet dark out now. Coming to a swift decision John goes into the lounge and gathers the sleeping bags, he collects another two torches from the hall cupboard and the remote phone off the wall in the kitchen and makes his way back out to the tree house, 'at least it's warm and dry.' he thinks.

Dropping the bits and pieces at the base of the tree, John goes into the shed and pulls a rope down from the hook on the wall. He then clambers back up the tree to secure the rope, 'If it was light we could lower Alan down, but it's not safe in the dark.'

He looks at his expectant brothers, "Scott's phone's still off. I've brought the sleeping bags and more torches, we're gonna camp out up here."

Gordon looks at the precarious walls of the tree house, "Is that safe?"

John shrugs, "We can't get Allie down till morning and we can't leave him here on his own."

"No! Don't leave me." Alan bawls.

"Hush we aren't going to Alan." John reassures him. He looks back at Gordon, "if we stay close to the trunk we'll be fine."

He hands the rope to Gordon, "Here I'm gonna tie the sleeping bags and stuff to the end of the rope, you pull them up, then drop the rope down again, I'm just gonna get some supplies."

John scrambles back down the tree and ties the torches and sleeping bags to the rope, "OK haul away Gordo." The bundle rises and John runs back to the house to collect more supplies for their camp out.

--

Once John and Gordon have laid out the mats and sleeping bags, stretched a tarpaulin across the worst of the damaged roof and hung the camping light from a handy branch, they settled down either side of the dosing Alan.

John pulls a packet of chips a couple of chocolate bars from his stash, and a can of drink each, from his back pack and hands them to Gordon. He tucks the remote phone under his pillow after checking that he has a signal this far from the house. He has already locked the front door of the house, but has left the front porch light on as well as the bright spot lights that illuminated the back yard deck area around the pool. The rest of the house is in darkness.

Gordon tucks a tired Alan into his sleeping bag and pulls his own sleeping bag up around himself; he lies back against the tree trunk. "Well this is different," he smirks to John.

"Yeah!" John agrees, "…still could be worse."

"No! Don't say it. You know what will happen if you do." Gordon remonstrates.

Shaking his head John leans back munching on a piece of chocolate and looks up at the sky between the holes in the roof, the tarpaulin and leaves of the trees he can't see much, but the stars seem to be much closer than he expects and moving more than they usually do.

"Hey," he exclaims awaking a drowsing Alan with his shout, "What's that?" He points upward.

"What?" asks Gordon, following Johns line of sight, he to notices the lights flickering above them.

"Oh…" Gordon scrambles out of his sleeping bag and crawls over to John, Alan joins them looking up at the phenomenon, "its lightning bugs." Gordon cries in excitement.

"Lightning bugs?" asks Alan.

Recognising the insects John agrees, "Yeah, they're fire flies. I didn't know we had them here."

Quietly the boys watch the insects flutter around the tops of the tree. Tiring of the sight, Alan crawls back into his sleeping bag and falls asleep. Half-heartedly Gordon follows, watching his brothers' settle, John also climbs into his sleeping bag, making sure everything is secure and that the phone is still working he closes his eyes. Above the sleeping boys the full moon rises and the fire flies dance the night away.

TBC…

Oh isn't that sweet… all cuddled up together, I hope nothing disturbs them during the long dark night. LOL :-)

Next Chapter up soon:

Chapter 5, It is split into three parts, the first and third part regarding Scott, be warned they are definitely rated T+ (Scott is in trouble! Big time!) It's not critical to the story, (So you can skip it if you want) but it does explains his reactions to the sleepover later in the story and a conversation with John and Virgil – don't want to spoil the ending.

Also it ties into a previous story of mine. "No identifying features." Mary Lou's Sixteenth birthday party, an event Scott has spent years trying to forget, but John just won't let him… hee, hee, hee.

Chapter 5 part II is about John, Alan and Gordon and still on a K+ rating. All three will be posted at the same time.

Sorry for the confusion.

See ya next time… Oh please review. thanks.

TBZ.