It's Family Night on Tracy Island!

Alan sat in the living room with Rose in his lap as his family trickled in one by one. Excitement bubbled in his chest.

They talked loudly amongst each other. Virgil carried a tray of drinks. Scott held a bowl of popcorn above his head as Gordon attempted to jump and steal a handful.

"I'm going to put it down in just a moment, Gordon!" Scott laughed. "Let Alan get some before you devour it all."

"You'll have to make a second bowl Scotty, cuz this one is all mine!" Gordon exclaimed. He jumped up just enough to snag the bowl from Scott's grip and immediately stuff a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

"You're like a child," John said fondly as he walked calmly beside them while holding a red box.

They didn't get to do it often, but when they could, after dinner when everyone was full, everything was cleaned up, and the world was quiet for just a moment, they had a family night.

One precious night without the stress of the world weighing down on their shoulders.

One night to be a family and nothing more.

Tonight was one of those special nights.

And this time, John chose their activity.

Everyone at some point gets to choose the family night activity. Previous family night activities consisted of a movie night, chosen from a list of pre-selected movies that didn't have triggers in them (no one's trying to have a panic attack during family night), a night hike, a jam session, etc.

John set down an old worn-out box of Scrabble on the coffee table.

Because John, apparently, liked chaos every once in a while.

"Oh ho," Gordon said upon seeing the game, "You are going down."

"As if Gordo," Virgil challenged him. "You don't even read Thunderbird 4's manual."

"Hey," Gordon exclaimed, "You leave my bird out of this!"

They all broke out in laughter as Virgil raised his hands in mock surrender.

The entire Tracy clan sat around the lounge's roundtable prepared for a game of wit, spelling, and arguments. The first couple of words always came quickly and soon enough the family settled into their game.

For the first time in a long time, they got to just be brothers.

"And this lady," Gordon went on as he popped a few popcorn kernels into his mouth, "was wearing with most 2030's outfit I've seen in a while! I'm talking about polka-dots head to toe!"

"This is coming from a guy who mainly wears Hawaiian shirts," Virgil snarked. "It's your turn."

"All I'm saying," Gordon sat up and clapped his hands together. "We may be first responders but there is no saving her sense of fashion… And Hawaiian shirts are always in style."

Virgil lets out an exasperated sigh and Alan lets a small giggle slip.

After a few moments, Gordon pulled away from the board with a proud 'ah-ha!', revealing the word borked.

"That's not a word," John immediately protested.

Gordon had, for the entire game so far, been attempting to win by only using words from the Urban Dictionary, much to John's dismay.

"Yes it is, Johnny boy," Gordon said as he leaned back against the couch. "You can't argue out of this one."

"He right," Scott spoke up, sounding impressed. "Even outside of urban context, it's a political term, although not commonly used."

"Alright," John rolled his eyes. "Do I even want to know how you know that?"

"You don't want to know what goes on in those Tracy Industries meetings." Scott waved his hand dismissively.

"Yeesh. Ok, how many points is that?"

EOS tallied up the total and kept the score, "12 for Gordon".

Virgil whistled impressively, "You better watch out John. He's catching up. Alan, it's your turn."

Alan sat up and considered his letters.

He had, for the most part, played seriously. He racked his brain for letter combination after letter combination. While he might not have had the broadest vocabulary, most of his words came out childish and misspelled, he was beating Dad, so he counted that as a small success.

He yawned and laid down the word card.

"Six points for Alan" EOS sang out.

Ok. Not bad. It didn't beat Gordon's score but the game wasn't over yet.

He reached to replace the tiles he had used. He scrubbed a hand over his eyes before looking at the tiles: 'Q', 'A', 'H'.

He grimaced at the 'Q'. Nobody likes receiving the 'Q'. Now he had to find a 'U' somewhere.

"Feeling sleepy, Sprout?" Scott said softly.

Alan stiffened at the question. "No." He said, maybe a little too fast.

"It is getting late," Virgil observed.

"I'm not tired!" Alan protested.

Scott hummed. "Ok, my turn then."

And the game went on. Grandma and Jeff even teamed up to outwit John who had been the lead up until then.

"This should be against the rules," Gordon groaned. "You two always do this."

"You have young sharp minds," Grandma said, "Can't you outwit a couple of old folks?"

Alan stared at the board. His mind slowly took in all the words on the board. He had been avoiding his 'Q' until now, but the tiles were running out and if he didn't use it soon, he was going to be in trouble.

He searched the board, tuning out his family. The answer was right in front of him. He could feel it.

There was an empty 'U' on 'turban' that he could build off of, but would it run into another word?

Slowly he placed his letters quial.

It fit!

"Uh," Gordon spoke up, "'A' before 'I', Al"

"Huh?" Alan rubbed his eyes. "Oh."

Quail.

Alan fixed the word.

"14 points for Alan. Good job." EOS rang out.

Alan's mind buzzed. His eyes felt so heavy but…

But they hardly ever got to do this.

Scott quickly placed down his next word. Gordon jumped up, exclaiming that Scott stole his spot.

"I got to it first, Squid," Scott teased.

"Now I gotta come up with a new plan," Gordon grumbled.

John laughed. He cracked open a soda and popped a couple of popcorn kernels into his mouth. Virgil was intensely studying his tiles. Kayo was rambling on about a recent podcast she listened to.

Alan didn't want this night to end. He didn't want tomorrow to come. Tomorrow they had to go back to being Thunderbirds. To being Tracy's. To being a hope and a light that the world depended on. Tonight, they just had to be themselves.

Wordlessly, Alan got up and went to sit next to Scott.

Scott said nothing but opened his arm up for Alan to sit beside him.

He hugged Rose to his chest and brought his knees up, effectively curling into Scott's side. He was able to see Scott's letters this way. He was pretty sure that was cheating.

It's ok. He was done playing anyways.

Scott wrapped an arm around him. "Are you going to help me come up with my next move?"

Alan nodded.

"Ok then," Scott said softly. "What words can we make?"

Alan studied the letters.

"It is too a word!" Gordon suddenly shouted.

"'Guac' is an abbreviation, and abbreviations don't count," John said firmly.

"Since when don't abbreviations count?" Gordon challenged. "Was it before or after you played ACT?"

"ACT is an acronym and a word," John said.

"Guys," Scott interrupted, "Softer, ok?"

They both looked over at Scott, then briefly at Alan, before continuing their argument in muted tones.

Alan shifted and pushed slightly against Scott. He didn't want John and Gordon to be quieter.

"Go to sleep," Scott whispered and gently brushed the fringe from Alan's forehead, "We'll still be here when you wake up. You won't miss anything."

"Promise?"

Scott hesitated.

"I promise we'll still be here," he said after a couple of moments.

Alan shook his head. His eyelids were becoming too heavy to keep open anymore. Scott rumbled as he said something to contribute to the ongoing argument. The last thing he heard, before losing his battle with sleep, was Virgil confirming that 'guac' was indeed a word.

—

Alan was brought to the brink of wakefulness by the every so gently, but definitely noticeable shift of movement around him and hushed voices.

He felt a hand slip under his back and another hand under his shoulders before he was lifted. His head found a shoulder to rest on and his arms automatically came up to wrap around his carrier's neck. He let out a sleepy grumble from going from horizontal to vertical so quickly.

A hand came down to rub his back, accompanied by a gentle shush that was so Scott, that Alan nearly fell back asleep then and there.

Nearly.

There was something that nagged him at the back of his mind that prevented him from fully falling back asleep.

"Rose?" Alan murmured. Even to him, the word sounded like a slurred grumble.

"Virgil has her," Scott said softly. "He's just ahead of us. He going to open the door us."

Alan nodded against Scott's shoulder. That was ok. Virgil would take good care of Rose.

The air changed, got slightly colder, and Scott lightly said, "No lights," before Alan was lowered onto his bed. Scott gently pulled Alan's arms away from his neck and Alan whined slightly at the loss of contact before his arms were then filled with the familiar softness of Rose.

Scott pulled the blankets around him and ran a hand through his hair.

"Good night, Sprout."

Surprise!

Actually, my favorite game is Bananagrams. I think it's better than Scramble!

Honestly, for those still reading this after such a long break, thank you for sticking around and being so patient!

I hope you all enjoyed it! Stay tuned for more!

Although, I make no promises for the next update.