Chapter 2

A few hours earlier

John and Scott's heads snapped up from their cooling refreshments at the sound of an almighty slip and splash. It was easy to determine, from Gordon's rather demonic laugh, that his game of 'annoy Alan and get chased round the pool'...ended with Alan in the pool. Another splash raised the two eldest to their feet to witness Alan's arms emerging from the water, followed by his head; almost immediately Alan shouted and cursed at Gordon who was bouncing up and down in giddy pleasure at the sight of his younger brother.

"I'm going to kill you Gordon! You ba-"

"ALAN!" Both Scott and John sniggered for a moment at their unison, this wasn't uncommon in the house of Tracy as Alan was the youngest and still didn't know how to hold his tongue...even if he was 21!

"But guys! You didn't see what Gordon did to me!"

"Oh give it up squirt! You fell in all by your ikkle wikkle self." Gordon had crouched down by the side of the pool and was teasing the golden blonde with baby faces.

"That's it! I'm going to rip your tongue out and shove it where the sun don't shine!"

Hearing some seriousness in Alan's voice, Gordon had already sprinted across the pool side and slid into the house but lost his footing, which sent him frantically skidding and fumbling straight into the kitchen island..legs wide apart.

"AHHHHH! Oh my god! Jesuuu...ahhhhhh! My ba-"

"Golden Nuggets, Meat and two Veg, Little soldier, love spuds?"

Scott and John listed various substitutes for their brother in his moment of agony and pain. He continued to roll helplessly on the floor with no assistance from his siblings who returned to their drinks and proceeded into the heat of the day. Alan trod in to the stylish kitchen with its clean, slick surfaces with characteristics of all who lived their either neatly piled on the edge of the counters or sprawled across the whole surface to be left to be cleaned up by someone who was a lot less lazy and because of Scott's early rises this duty usually fell to him. Alan stepped into a place for food and comfort, dripping in chlorine, with scarlet eyes and the taste of chemicals in his mouth; but to Alan's greatest amusement to which he could not contain he to flopped on to the floor with laughter at the sight of his tormenter in a position of the worst pain possible that can be caused to a man.

Scott and John were both relieved that the pool side was now free of chaos so they could enjoy the patio in peace. Scott let himself fully relax into the sun lounger not caring for his posture or appearance; on any normal day he would not have let himself release such tension but the heat had burnt away any will Scott had to give an example to his brothers. John had already started to continue his lecture on the new constellations he had been observing and their movement, position and what he was deciding to name them; this lead him into talking about the new book idea he was thinking of and was verbally brainstorming to Scott about the whole thing. Scott of course was interested in all his brother had to say but was neither to hot or to bothered to listen; this was when Scott realised he needed to be alone for a while. He did not want to offend his brother by not listening to him about his interests and ambitions so therefore he decided that he would escape for a while before he lost his wit and said something that would upset John.

Realising he was ranting slightly; John stopped and apologized for going on.

"Goodness I've gone off on one; sorry about that Scott, sometimes if I don't tell someone my ideas straight away they don't make sense. Ill shut up now and let nature do the talking"

"No don't worry John, you have some amazing ideas, at least write them all down so if you don't write about them this time you could for your next book"

"Will do Scotty!"

Scott gave John a jesting stern look at the sound of one of his childhood nicknames and John laughed with a look of glee on his face as he rose to make his way to the bar to mix himself another concoction of alcohols and fruit juices. The patio door crashed open as Gordon was now chasing Alan all around the patio with water gun the size of a canon; both brothers were shrieking and laughing at the top their voices because now they were fighting just for the fun of it.

Jeff and Grandma Tracy stepped outside to view the scene of both boys acting like children and giggled with memories flooding back to them about their children and great children's childhoods. By this point Scott had risen from his lounger and was standing close to the steps with his drink firmly in his hand facing the pool but his eyes did not once dart to look towards his brothers; his pupils were completely fixed on a two birds playing in the trees, much like his brothers, the birds chased each other; the red of their breasts and the shimming blue of their wings danced in the sky around them, but very much unlike his brothers the birds were dancing, flirting and their constant twittering gave the sign of their own languages laughter.

Jeff noticed that his eldest had not quite been himself since the previous mission and been somewhat distracted; when seeing him place his glass down on the wall surrounding the patio and moving towards the steps; Jeff called out to his first born.

"Scott!"

On hearing his father's voice Scott spun on the spot to face his authority figure. Giving a small smile and inquisitive look towards him, Jeff replied quickly to his first child's questioning expression.

"Is everything alright?"

Jeff had to raise his voice slightly over the noise of his two youngest but this did not disturb their game of war or John from falling slightly off of his bar stool as his head gave in to a cloud of cocktails and spirits.

"Oh fine sir, just going to get some fresh air" Instigating with a slight nod of his head that his destination was the beach, Jeff gave a small nod and a agreeing smile towards his son who had turned with a small jog down the white long steps towards the jungle.

Jeff was worried for his sons response, there was the same amount of air here as there would be on the beach and Scott only ever called him Sir if he was in trouble which was very rare or on a mission.

"Be careful!" The boys Grandma shouted towards her first grandchild, who by this point was too far away to hear her.

Thank you to all those who reviewed my first chapter, you were all very kind! As promised this one is a bit longer and i know not much isnt happening yet but i promise there is more to come...i just need to write it! So thank you for all your support and comments and i hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the first! - LeahMB95