Huge thanks for all the reviews! Sorry about the awful spelling and grammar in the last chapter - I have spell check and went through the whole thing about five times but my eyes seemed to have a temporal blindness to the obvious. I will go back through asap and make all the relevant corrections. Speaking of which - how do I find one of those reader people that will check it through for me? I'm not familiar with how stuff works on here /fail.

Back to the chapter - it's a bit short but i've been having trouble trying to get the organise the chapters and events, in a way it's just a filler but they are much needed so you'll have to put up with it! I'll try to get the other chapter up faster, my mind just seems to have hit a fog at the moment which i'm still stumbling through, occasionally hitting the odd lamppost along the way.

Whilst I remember - can someone explain the whole hydrofoil incident? Everyone mentions it yet I have no idea what it's about. ::)

Taa, please review! It helps me along with the next chapters ;)

It was a week later and Alan was fed up, his idea of summer holidays from school did not include laying in the infirmary waiting for Virgil to decide whether he was well enough to leave. Especially seeing as none of his brothers, nor dad for that matter, seemed to want him out of their sight. Apparently the best place for someone to keep an eye on him was in the infirmary.

"Can't I just sit by the pool?" It was the umpteenth time he'd asked yet he was getting bored silly sat indoors. "Gordon practically lives in there, it's not like I'm going to be on my own."

"Alan you have a head injury, I still need to monitor you." Virgil sighed, again probably one of the countless times he'd done so. "If you go to the pool then I'll have to keep coming to check on things, I've got enough work to do as it is to sprout, I can't just take a holiday to watch you."

"I'm not a kid Virg, I've got my watch... You can just buzz me and ask. Plus I think things are healing pretty well, even you said that."

"Hmm." Virgil leant over the bed Alan was sat on, he pulled a penlight from his pocket and shone it into Alan's eyes, one at a time as he gauged his pupil's responce. "How's the headache going?"

Blinking away the light imprint on his eyes Alan grinned. "You know what? I can hardly feel it."

"Truthfully?" He put the penlight back in his pocket and frowned, one eyebrow raised in mocking disbelief.

"Ok, so I've got a bit of a headache," Alan's wide eyed commitment to the case was impressive but Virgil had heard it all before, "but nothing like it was. If you think about it, it's probably just because I've been stuck in here. It's not healthy, lack of sunlight and all, I'm sure I'm losing vitamins or something."

Virgil chuckled to himself at his younger brother's loose concept of well being. "Vitamin D."

"Huh?"

The brunette retreated to the end of the bed to put some notes on Alan's ever growing chart.

"Vitamin D." He repeated. "You get it from sunlight, helps your body absorb other vitamins." Looking down at the papers in front of him he was glad to see the improvement in his younger brother, even though his slowly renewing health was driving him up the wall.

"Ah right. That's exactly why I shouldn't be stuck in here then!" Alan swung his legs over the bed and almost hopped down before remembering that his left foot was in a splint, his ribs gave a painful twang and he tried, and hopelessly failed, to keep the pained expression from his face. "How long do I have to wear this foot thing for?" He asked, motioning down at the straps around his foot whilst blinking away pained tears, he'd bruised his ribs before and even cracked a rib once - if he'd ever thought they were painful then this was on a whole new level.

"Take it easy Alan, it's going to be up to six weeks."

His older brother came back over and pulled the leg in question back onto the bed, mindful of further pain the action may have caused. "Of course that's dependant on how much you're going to listen to me, I actually have a vague idea about what I'm on about you know. And as for the vitamin thing, you only need half an hour of sunlight a week to get the vitamin D your body requires to help release other vitamins. Somehow I think you meet that criteria just by sitting by the window."

"Humph." Alan rolled his eyes. "I'm not exactly doing any marathons, I don't see why I can't just go and sit outside, it's only a tiny bit further than the window… it's not like anything's going to happen."

It was one of the many moments that had happened in the last week that had begun to make Alan slightly quizzical towards what was going on in the rest of the house - Virgil seemed to go off into his own little world for a moment, his eyes glazing as he stared straight through Alan's foot before shaking himself and ruffling his younger brother's hair with a smile.

Alan frowned, not quite comfortable with the action.

Virgil on the other hand couldn't help but worry, although they were on Tracy Island, the safest place any of them could hope to be, it didn't quite quell that fear in the pit of his stomach of something happening to Alan that once again he might not be able to control.

He himself still had a bump on the back of his head from the fight he'd had with Smith, luckily Alan knew nothing about it but it was ever the reminder of how close he'd come to losing Alan. Sure, going outside and sitting by the pool didn't sound dangerous, but neither did going to a Tracy Industries event.

"Let's just get you back on your feet." The brunette let out a long sigh and put the chart back at the end of the bed. "It can't be that bad hanging out with me, can it?"

Folding his arms Alan repeated the action, letting out his own sigh as he opened his mouth to try and argue the point but a second later the klaxon sounded and Virgil made a beeline for the door, turning as he walked and pointing to his youngest brother with both hands. "You stay right there!"

Perfect.

Alan gave a wide toothy smile, as the door closed behind Virgil he once again swivelled his legs over the side of the bed, this time slowly and with more awareness to his ribs. "No manners Virgil." He muttered, slowly settling his weight on his right foot before gingerly testing the broken left. "You don't get anything if you don't say please."

Virgil jogged along the corridor to his father's office, by the time he arrived his other brother's were already there, nodding in greeting as he came in. Frowning Virgil noticed that the control centre wasn't out, it took him a moment to understand why they'd been called.

Jeff was sat behind his desk, a pen in his hand absentmindedly tapping against his knee as he turned to Scott.

"Can you go and keep an eye of Alan for me? I'd quite like a word with your brothers." He held his gaze on his eldest, waiting for him to move.

Scott frowned but a prolonged stare from his father sent him hesitantly away, if he needed to know then he'd be told, it probably wasn't worth an argument that he knew he wouldn't win. He paused at the door briefly. "So… no rescue?" He asked, rather pathetically, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand.

Jeff smiled widely as he took in the disappointment in Scott's voice. "No son, no rescue."

"Hmm." He frowned round at the room, rather irritated that they were allowed to stay.

"I'll tell you later Scott, just go and make sure Alan's not planning the great escape will you?" Jeff nodded to the doorway Scott had seemingly forgotten about, a few moments of silence followed before Scott frowned suspiciously around at the room and left, leaving his father and younger siblings grinning after him, Virgil mumbled something about hoping Alan wasn't dumb enough to try an escape attempt but from previous experience they all knew it was useless to think otherwise.

"So what are we here for, dad?" Gordon asked, lounging on one of the long sofa's by the window and letting his legs hang over one of the arms. John sat on the opposite sofa, perched on the edge almost nervously, thoughts running over what they'd been called for.

"It's about Alan isn't it?" He couldn't really see why it would be about Scott, and if it was they'd have involved Alan. It didn't take a detective to work out, though by the blank look on Gordon's face he hadn't quite twigged on yet.

It wasn't Jeff that explained though, Virgil gave a light cough and rather hesitantly stood forward, turning to Gordon and John.

"Well… I wanted to run this past you before Scott for soon to be obvious reasons. I want to take Alan to the mainland…"

"What?" Gordon swung his legs from the armrest of the sofa and sat up straight, eyes widening for a moment. "Why?"

"Not exactly the best time for a shopping trip Virg." John sighed. "I'm guessing there's a reason for this?"

"Let him explain." Standing Jeff walked around the desk and placed a hand on his middle child's shoulder, nodding for him to continue.

"It's not for shopping." Rolling his eyes Virgil sighed. "I need a second opinion of how the sprout's ankle's been set, I want to make sure the bone's setting correctly. Plus I'd like to do some more scans to make sure I got everything." He sat besides John, slowly looking up to him and Gordon for a response.

Gordon spoke first, running a hand through his dark hair. "At least we now know why you sent Scott out of the room."

"Ah, well there was truth in that. Alan needs someone to keep him in one place and if Scott was here then what's to say Alan wouldn't come snooping?"

"Well he's going to be suspicious anyway, maybe slightly paranoid." John said, leaning back in the sofa and looking to his father. "It's not often you use the klaxon to form a family meeting dad, we do have our watches."

Jeff visibly paled, an unusual sight which seemed oddly disconcerting as his eyes looked to the floor for just a moment, his cheeks reddening slightly as he ignored the comment and looked to Virgil. "We were thinking we'd go tomorrow, the longer we leave it of the longer we'll avoid the issue."

Gordon chuckled causing the three men to look at him, an eyebrow raised on John theatrically wondering if Gordon had lost the plot. Though he was still looking up at his dad, a grin spreading across his face as his eyes sparkled with a familiar evilness Gordon seemed to flaunt all to well.

"You pressed it by accident again, didn't you?" He sat up straighter and craned his neck to the usually tidy desk and the mountains of papers that had slowly been building up. The button for the klaxon was obscured by a fallen pile. "Oops. Two times in a week dad, not good!"

Jeff reddened even more, embarrassed to be caught out by one of his sons. He eyed the ceiling with a silent prayer for it never to happen again.

"Twice?" John let out a soft laugh. "I'm guessing the first time was when you called us in to discuss running around the pool… I knew something wasn't right!"

Virgil snorted, unable to keep the laughter away he tried to compose himself as his father shot him a glare.

"It was an accident!" He knew it was a losing battle, he was slightly disappointed that Gordon was there to add up the two occasions, he was far too quick sometimes. Jeff shook his head, all too aware that this wouldn't be lived down any time soon. "Plus we needed a family meeting anyway, so back to Alan. We need to sort this out."

Pulling himself together Virgil sat up straight once more, turning to John who unlike Gordon had managed to put on a straight face, Gordon on the other hand was still sniggering behind a hand.

"I'm going with Alan tomorrow to the hospital, Dad's coming along but needs to pop to the office to pick up some stuff. We're not going to be long, it shouldn't take more than half a day."

John held a hand up to stop his younger brother and frowned. "You know we're not going to let you go on your own, don't you? After what happened with Alan, and you for that matter, we're going to be following you like shadows."

"Especially if that creeps about." Gordon muttered, suddenly growing serious. "You have equipment for scans on the island, can't you just use what you have?"

Shaking his head Virgil knew it was a pointless argument, they'd stowaway on the plane if that's what it took to make sure Alan was well guarded, especially after hearing about the threat Zucco made to keep trying.

"Alan needs a second opinion on his foot, no one here can do that so we need to go to the mainland, plus I'd like to do a larger scan. Sure we can do scans here but I want to make sure nothing's been missed."

"As Virgil said, it'll hopefully only take half the day tops." Jeff took his seat behind his desk once more and began stacking his papers back into piles. Mindfully aware of how much work he needed to catch up on, the worry since the run in with Zucco had slowed everything down, he'd spent most of his time besides Alan's bed trying to reassure the teenager that none of it was his fault and that he wasn't mad at him. If he hadn't felt guilty about lying before, he certainly did now. "We haven't spoken to the hospital yet, I don't want anyone knowing we're on our way until they really need to, that way there's less of a risk of anyone finding out." He let out a long breath and addressed Gordon and John. "I've tried to find ways around this but after talking to Virgil I think it's our only option, we still need to deal with the issue head on but for now we just need to concentrate on getting Alan to the mainland and back and getting the scans sorted."

Gordon stood, his dad's posture indicating that they were coming to the end of their conversation. "I'm not happy with it but I can see the reasoning." He turned to John who nodded in agreement. "We're coming with you though, I'm sure the Thunderbirds can go offline for one day."

Jeff looked like he was about to object but John quickly cut him off. "Alan is worth more to us than anything in the world, if something happened and we weren't there to protect him…" He sighed. "Again. I don't think I could live with myself."

"One day offline dad." It was strange seeing Gordon so serious, his eyes were begging his father to agree but the thought of Alan being in danger once more made him easily cave.

"Ok, we'll all go. Though I still have to explain to Scott…"

"Good luck with that!" Gordon grinned once more, heading to the doorway and sharing a look with John and Virgil. "Hey Virg? Hopefully we'll be seeing you on the other side!"

Standing John brushed down his jeans and went to follow Gordon. "You want us to send him down?"

"Oh that's right!" Virgil rolled his eyes. "Running away to avoid the wrath of Scott, leaving your poor brother and father to face it… How kind."

"Yup." Gordon winked. "Us survivors will need to stick together."

"Ok boys, I'm sure he won't be that bad."

"Dad? Have you ever met Scott?"

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