Hey guys, if you're on a computer now and could see the title of this chapter you would know that this is another version of Tracy's story. And I've decided I will re- write some of the older characters while still of course going on with the story and its newer characters. This means I can update this story more often and things will change from the earlier chapters, whole stories might change, names, people, ages. But several of the chapters of the kids' of the TSOTB- series will be written and of course added to this story

So? Everyone gets it? Everyone's happy? That's good then.

Oh, and that too- I finished two stories since I put Finn's chapter up. First "The little girl" and then "Dancing in the rain" and ditr I've had so much fun writing since I started it in 2014. But the chapters have always been awfully long and has taken weeks to finish so I'm so relieved that one is finally finished. Now, that makes nine stories to work on, meanwhile two of them are almost finished.

Thanks to "Guest" and Justice237 for reviewing.

Guest
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
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Now I've listened to that song closer many times I must say thank you. It makes me so happy that you're liking this story so much you're using such a big word for it. Thanks for reading and reviewing.

I just had to start with the one who got the very first chapter of this story.

In the first series of The story of Tracy Beaker there is one episode when an illness spreads through the dumping ground. In this Tracy claims her mum was the best (as so many times before) and we actually see a flashback with what really happened and… Here you go.

Kinleigh looks like Julie Walters.

Tracy Beaker

On the old, ragged couch in her and her mum's old, ragged flat laid ten year old Tracy Beaker.

Or laid… She was shivering cold one second, the next kicking her blanket off and dripping with sweat, twisting and turning, sniveling and coughing so hard with every cough her whole body trembled.

As for now, Tracy Beaker was half asleep, it was morning and the whole night she'd have drifted off into unconsciousness. Only to be woken up only seconds later from more coughing or a stuffed nose.

At last, two hours ago she had fallen asleep from pure exhaustion, as it was for a ten- year- old who'd spent the night with a worse cold than she'd ever have experienced before.

With coughing, once more Tracy woke up from the coughing and her throat burning like fire. To put it out Tracy reached for a cup and a glass of water that stood on the table next to the sofa.

Only to find them both empty after the long night.

"Mum…" Tracy tried to shout. "Mum…"

There was no answer, except for this ill ten- year- old the flat was quiet and empty.

Tracy hadn't been lonely at the moment she fell asleep. When Carly and her monster- boyfriend Dave (Or "Gorilla" as Tracy preferred) must have left Tracy knowing she was at a point where she couldn't be left alone.

At least that was something Tracy knew other parents would… The parents of her friends, Jake and Nick and Laura had all been sick at one time or the other and had then told Tracy how their parents had stayed home, dabbed warm foreheads with a wet, cold cloth, fed them ice cream or hot chocolate, soothing sore throats, and putting the sheets in the laundry machine when they started getting wet and disgusting.

Tracy could have needed someone to wash the blanket she had… It wasn't even warm. And it was now drenched in old sweat with stains of snot and Lord knows what else.

Knowing her mum wasn't here, and neither was anyone else Tracy forced herself up on shaky legs and stumbled towards the kitchen. She felt as if she was coughing her lungs out, and obviously so was the case because the first thing she had to do was to stumble over to the sink when she coughed so much it made her gag.

Phlegm and bile scattered down into the sink, before Tracy was finally able to force a breath down her throat and closed her mouth. And then just left her glass at the table while stumbling back to the couch where she collapsed…

"Hey Tracy." Suddenly the door to the flat flew open and morning light flooded in with Tracy's mum Carly and her boyfriend Dave who came right after. "My dear. Are you feeling any better?" Carly came right into the living room and over to Tracy, and when she leaned forward Tracy could smell the alcohol on her breath. "I'm sorry. We said we were going to be back earlier but there was a party and it was Dave's birthday and then we just forgot about time. But that was good wasn't it, gave you the time to rest and now you feel better. Don't you?"

Dave had disappeared into the kitchen, that would usually mean Tracy answered her mum. But this time she didn't get the time.

"YUK." Tracy woke up from her half- asleep state when Dave shouted loudly from the kitchen. "TRACY BEAKER, DID YOU THROW UP IN THE KITCHEN SINK? AND DID YOU EVEN KNOW CLEAN UP AFTER YOU? THIS IS DISGUSTING." Dave stomped into the living room, lifted Tracy up by the shirt and then pushed her into the kitchen. "YOU CAN CLEAN THIS UP. I'LL GO GET YOUR TOOTHBRUSH…"

Tracy coughed so loudly she couldn't even stand, at the moment having to clean the sink with a toothbrush was pushed into the back of her mind while she sank to the floor against the lower kitchen cupboard.

Carly came and kneeled by her daughter, once again Tracy could smell her breath but she couldn't bear lifting her hand and pushing her mum away. She did move anyway when Dave came stomping back, lifted Tracy up in her shirt again, then slapped her hard and shoved her toothbrush into her hand.

"Now clean this up. And I want this shiny clean when we're back again. Now come on Carls. I don't know about you. But I don't want to be stuck here listening to your daughter cough and sneeze and whatever else. Either we both go out. Or I go out and leave you here to do just that…"

"I don't know Dave." Carly said and felt Tracy's forehead. "I think Tracy's really ill. Maybe I should take her to the A&E. Just in case there's something more serious than just a regular cold."

"I SAID COME ON."

As usual Dave "the monster gorilla" was in charge. Carly hesitated, then went into the living room and filled the cup and the glass up with new water, before she patted Tracy's cheek and with a smile she walked to the door.

"We'll be back soon. Okay baby? I'll leave the window open, that might help you breathe."

Tracy didn't stay in the kitchen to clean the sink with her toothbrush. Neither did she hold onto the brush, but her hand just fell open making the brush fall to the floor while she stumbled back to the sofa.

The open window did not help Tracy breathe.

One after the other, despite the water she now had again Tracy was sent into yet one coughing fit after the other, every cough sending a tremble through her whole body, every cough burning in her throat and chest.

Barely having slept tonight Tracy was so tired she could have fallen asleep standing up. Well, that was if she stood. But she still couldn't sleep through the coughing. The stuffed nose, heat and cold and sneezing bothered her too but not half as much…

And when there was a knock on the door Tracy had to just force herself up and stumble to the front door of the house, to find nearest neighbor Kinleigh James.

"Hello dear." Kinleigh greeted with a smile. "Are you feeling alright today?" Tracy didn't answer, but the answer was obvious. I can hear your coughing all the way into mine and I just saw your mum and her boyfriend leaving." Tracy leaned against the door frame. "So I just wanted to check if you're okay. Can I get you anything? Do you want to come to mine? I can make some soup or get ice cream and maybe that will help for your throat?"

Tracy could have started crying. After all of this time and all of this sick and finally someone seemed like they could actually care for her.

But she didn't have the time to answer this time neither, because suddenly, in the middle of a new coughing fit everything went dark and she could feel herself falling.

She would have been afraid, she'd never have admitted it but maybe she really should have been afraid. But she wasn't, this dark wasn't scary and falling into unconsciousness the pain finally disappeared.

"Tracy?... Tracy?"

When she started drifting back to waken Tracy felt that she was moving, she half laid on something soft and she was moving towards the direction she had her back against.

"Tracy?"

Tracy forced her eyes open. It was heavily and hard and for a second she felt herself being brought back into the dark that was safe and soft, with nothing to fear at all.

Then at last she managed to look up, at first she didn't recognize the small space, with medical items all around. But as she noticed she was half lying on a stretch- like bed, and a guy sitting right by her, and the mask over her mouth she realized what this must be.

"You're in an ambulance. Your neighbor called 999 when she couldn't get you to wake up. We're near the hospital now. You'll be okay, just try to relax… My name is Lucas. Once you're at the hospital you'll meet more nurses and doctors. They'll examine you so they can know what's wrong."

"No."

The mask over Tracy's mouth and nose was big and uncomfortable, Tracy tried to pull it off and unbuckled the straps that had stuck her to the bed like seatbelts.

"Don't try to pull it off." Lucas laid a hand on Tracy's for a second, then lowered his hands and to the straps and buckled them again. "These are seatbelts. You need to keep them on, just like you would in a regular car… This mask is helping you breathe."

"I only have a co…"

Tracy tried to say that it wasn't so bad. But before she had the time she was cut off by a coughing fit even worse than the ones she had had before. And when the phlegm in her throat made her gag Lucas finally helped her pull the mask off while he held a Styrofoam basin in front of her.

"Don't try to swallow it." Lucas mumbled when that was just what she did. "Spit it out."

"I just have a cold." Tracy managed to say when she was leaned back and had the mask on. "Can't you just take me home again?"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. See this?" Lucas pointed to the basin he'd been holding. "Green and blood- stained. That's usually an indication of something being wrong. Good thing you're young and strong and you'll be able to fight it. But you might have to stay at the hospital for a couple of days." Tracy could feel the ambulance turning and looking out the window she could see they drove into a garage. "We're there now. I have to leave but you just relax. You've got nothing here to fear."

At first Tracy just forced herself to be tense as the stretcher she half laid on was lifted out, the nurses coming to her sides spoke their names but it was as in a fog. The mask over Tracy's mouth and nose really did help her breathe and now she finally wasn't coughing anymore she was just so tired she drifted away from consciousness again.

What felt like half a second later her eyes flew open again while she had once again started coughing. For the moment she felt trapped, so she grabbed the mask she was wearing and threw it as far away as she could. And before she knew anything else someone, like Lucas had in the ambulance before held a basin in front of her.

"Where am I?"

Tracy managed to croak one short question once the white- dressed woman next to her had picked the mask up from the floor and put it over Tracy's face again.

"You're in the A&E." The nurse told her, her voice sounding calm and kind and soothing. "You came in with an ambulance about an hour and a half ago but you've been sleeping tightly ever since then. We've put a needle in your hand and ran some blood tests. You're very dehydrated so we already gave you an IV to give you some fluid."

Tracy's mind was spinning and she barely understood a word about what the woman said.

"Now, my name is Leah and I'm a nurse here. We're waiting for the test results to see whether we can give you any medication or whether there's nothing we can do but wait it out. While waiting, maybe you'd like an ice cream or hot chocolate and it will be soothing for your throat?"

Tracy shook her head, her stomach felt like it was turning inside out from all the swallowed phlegm and cramping, her head was spinning which made her feel even more ill and her whole body hurt and ached.

"Okay, I'm going to have to go and check on some other patients but if you need anything you can only shout or press that red button." She hung a hose holding a small brick with a red button on the side of Tracy's bed. "And someone will be right here with you. Rather press ten times too many than once too little." Tracy coughed another few times but thankfully not as much as before. "I will get something that will help against that cough. Just wait a minute."

Tracy didn't mind holding her head up even. She'd barely even heard what Leah had said or what it meant. She was just so tired and when Leah came back with a disgustingly tasting fluid into her mouth and down her throat she didn't even care to taste it or spit it out.

"You must be very tired. Now get some more sleep."

Tracy wasn't awake for long enough to hear the last…

"Hello." Leah was suddenly back on the side of the curtain Tracy laid and from a half- drowsy state Tracy looked up. "We had some test results now. We're going to start with taking you up for some x-ray- pictures. Have you ever had x- ray- pictures taken?" Tracy nodded, when she had broken her arm two years ago. "That's good. Then you know that it doesn't hurt. But you, come down into this wheelchair. Can you get into this wheelchair on your own or should I lift you?"

Tracy didn't answer, she didn't even stand up before she just fell into the wheelchair, and then just sat there and half slept until she had to stand up and collapse down onto the x- ray- machine- stretcher.

Once there she knew she had to stand up (or something like it) and get into the wheelchair again and half sleeping she did notice for the first time the needle she had in her hands, with a hose that led up to an IV bag on a rolling stand she had next to her. Then she noticed that she actually hadn't been coughing since she woke up. That disgusting medicine she had gotten must have done its work, and then she noticed that she was bathing in old sweat- but she just couldn't bother to care about it.

"Now…" Leah pushed Tracy in the wheelchair into a new room in the children's ward. "I can't stay with you. Because I work at the A&E. But I can talk to the others here, and make sure they promise not to wake you up under any circumstances. Here comes Dr. Arnold, and he's going to put this plastic item on your finger, it doesn't hurt. It just leads up to this screen here where we can see your vitals. So now. I think that's everything… I'll go too and make sure someone tries to get in touch with your mum. I'm sure she'll come soon… Now. Sleep tight."

Tracy was just too tired to heard half of what she had just been told… Or to even think it was uncomfortable when Dr. Arnold put a plastic item with a hose over the tip of her finger and then she was faded away again.

One thing she had heard though was that from the hospital they were trying to call up Carly…

Tracy knew her mother way too well though, and even though she'd never have admitted it neither to herself nor to anyone else she wasn't surprised when she woke up drowsily by a doctor coming into the room and Carly wasn't there. Neither was she when Tracy woke up from coughing like she had so many times these past few days or when she was given more medication to stop it.

Or the time she woke up just to go to the bathroom.

Or when she slept all through the night without waking up at all.

Neither when Tracy woke up and sat up, stiff and achy everywhere but she could take a breath without coughing. Even more so when she was given more coughing medication- it tasted so bad it made her gag this time.

"How long has it been since you last ate anything?"

Just as Tracy had taken the medicine another new, male nurse came into the room, and behind him came…

"Miss Kinleigh? What are you doing here?"

Wow! She could even speak without coughing, this was a first. Even though her voice was still hoarse and weak.

"I happen to know your mum or her boyfriend hasn't been here yet." Kinleigh sat down on the chair next to the bed. "And I thought you could use some company… Now, answer…" She checked the name tag. "Jacob's question. How long has it been since you last anything?"

Tracy tried to remember, one day? Two days? Three? She couldn't quite remember, but her throat still felt so raspy and sore.

"What's your favorite type of ice cream?"

"Chocolate."

"Chocolate ice cream for my lady. Be right back."

Nurse Jacob left the room, Tracy would have wanted to lean back if this had been yesterday. But it wasn't yesterday it was today and she was finally feeling only a little bit better than when she'd fallen asleep last.

"Here." Kinleigh reached down her bag and pulled up a book that she reached Tracy. "I know that spending time in hospital is terribly boring. So I wanted to get you something that can help you make time go by faster when you feel better. I would guess that until now you've mostly slept, or so the doctors tells me. But for when you're awake… This book was one of my favorites when I was about your age."

"That must have been like a million years ago."

Kinleigh snorted and rolled her eyes at Tracy's snarky comment and laid a copy of Anne of Green Gables on the bed next to her hand.

"Only a thousand. Now, I hope you like it. But here comes Jacob with your chocolate ice cream so I'm going to go back home. Your mum is home by now and I talked to her so she should show up today. Until then, I hope you like that book."

Tracy tiredly nodded, then took the chocolate ice cream bowl in one hand and the book in another when she started the story of Anne Shirley.

Tracy only managed to read for a little while even after she'd finished that bowl of ice cream, until she was too tired to go on, with that she laid the book on her bedside table, laid down to sleep, slept for an hour and then read some more. And every time someone came or went into the room she looked up believing it would be her mum.

"Oh Tracy." Not until the next day, two days after Tracy had arrived at the hospital, the door opened and Carly came rushing in and over to her. "I am so, so sorry. When I and Dave came home and you weren't there… And then that Kinleigh came and told us what had happened and no… She should have waited for us… You shouldn't have been taken here so quickly and especially not while I didn't know it…"

"But we're very lucky Miss James acted the way she did."

Dr. Arnold had followed Carly into the hospital room and interrupted, he nodded slightly and looked with a serious expression towards them two and then walked across the room and to the light board where the x- ray- pictures of Tracy's lungs still hung.

"Mrs. Beaker, your daughter had a very severe double- sided pneumonia. It can be easily treated with good care in time but when she arrived here she was also severely dehydrated, her temperature had risen over forty degrees Celsius, and it didn't look as anything would have been able to get better if she wasn't here. Miss James has also told us that Tracy here was alo…"

"Tracy is ten years old, and perfectly old enough to be left home alone." Carly interrupted and fizzled at the doctor. "Whenever she is, is only on my business and hers."

"Of course Mrs. Beaker. But now, we gave you Tracy some fluids and rest, also ibuprofen for the temperature and when the blood test results and the x-ray pictures came back we've also given you antibiotics for the pneumonia. And we've run some new tests earlier today and it's already going in the right direction. Anyhow, we think that you are going to have to stay here for another couple of days, and when you go home you'll get some pills with you of antibiotics. And those are very important that you take as often and as long as they're prescribed for you to take them. And if you stop taking them too soon… well… That's another illness and we won't have to talk about it now. Anyway, dinner should be in a couple of hours. If you need anything you know what to do."

Dr. Arnold left the room again and Tracy leaned her head back and coughed. She might be feeling a lot better now only two days after coming to the hospital, but she was still weak and the coughs still made it hurt and burn in her throat and chest.

"Oh my darling Tracy…" Carly sat down on the chair next to Tracy's bed and stroke a hand over Tracy's curly hair. "I'm so sorry. First Dave wanted to go to that birthday party of his, even though his birthday was two weeks ago. And then we didn't come back until late at night. Miss Kinleigh was only there for a minute to tell us where you were but I was so worried. I was going to pass by the hospital yesterday but I woke up with the worst headache and it wouldn't get better all day…"

Carly didn't have to mention why she'd had a headache, Tracy knew…

"It's okay now mum." Tracy said, her voice hoarse and weak- but at least talking didn't send her into another coughing fit like it would have only hours before. "You're here now. And when I came here and then yesterday I was only sleeping anyway, so I wouldn't have been able to even see you at all… And yesterday Miss Kinleigh came by and she gave me this book…" Tracy held it up. "I haven't read much yet but it's really good. And Miss Kinleigh said it was one of her favorites when she was my age- about a thousand years ago."

Carly smiled at her daughter and stroke a hand over Tracy's hair one more time. But then she suddenly moved her hand towards herself and laid the both of her hands towards her lap.

"We talked a bit with Miss Kinleigh, I and Dave yesterday… And… The thing is Tracy… With you and Dave and everything, we're going to have to sell our flat for me to get a new job and… It's just a bit hard for me to cope now."

"I know that mum." Tracy croaked hoarsely. "That's okay. Just as long as we're together."

Carly wiped her hands together as if she was nervous about something. As if she hadn't already made the decision she was about to let hear.

"That's just it Tracy… I've decided that… I need some time on my own. And some time to focus on my career so that I maybe… So that I will finally get somewhere with my job and then I can become… I can become one who I've dreamed about ever since I can remember. But I need to focus on that. Then of course I want you to be happy and safe so I…" Carly looked to the door when it opened and a dark- skinned, maybe Indian woman stepped in.

"Hello Tracy. My name is Elaine. Your mother told me about you. And she told me you will need somewhere to stay while she focuses on her job…"

A million years seem to pass by only when Elaine made a pause and Tracy, with her breath heavier and wheezier than ever looked from Elaine, to Carly, back to Elaine, back to Carly and then at last at Elaine while she pushed herself upwards on the bed as far away from this woman as she possibly could.

"NO! No way did you say that mum! Don't you mean that we can just get all our things and I can come with you. Don't you mean that I can come with you but you're going to spend so much time working that you think I need a babysitter? I don't need a babysitter. Don't you mean that mum? You're not going to just push me out of your life and leave me alone? Will you?"

Tracy could just as well have stopped breathing right then and there. She could see the answer on Carly's facial expression before she had said anything more.

"Look." Carly said once again rubbing her hands together in that nervous way. "I won't be gone forever. You will just go with Elaine now… or when you get out of this hospital. And I'll come and visit. And I'll come and get you again… soon. In… six months at the most. I'll come and get you when things are working out and then, at the time we can go straight to Hollywood I bet… But I promise I'll visit you before then…." Carly turned to Elaine for her to speak.

"My name is Elaine Boyak." She spoke her name again. "I'm a social worker. Do you know what a social worker does Tracy?"

Tracy didn't know, and neither did she care.

Neither did she when three days later she stood for the first time in front of a big house with many windows…

"I know it all looks big and scary now…" Elaine told her. "But if we just go inside and then you'll meet the people here and get your own room and then you'll meet loads of new friends."

Tracy only glared back on Elaine, then glared again but down on the book that Kinleigh had given her. And for a second memories passed by of Anne of the green gables' story. Her time in an orphanage and how she'd ended up there.

"I don't need an orphanage. I have my mum and I want to be with her."

It was meaningless and she knew it. Tracy had already said, shouted and protested everything she could to Carly herself, the gorilla, the staff at the hospital and Elaine about going here. It had all ended with Carly saying goodbye at the hospital, mumbling that she couldn't see her daughter leave and Dave would turn up here with Tracy's things…

"Oh, it's not an orphanage." Elaine said with her annoying, light voice. "It's a care home. A lot of the kids that live her. Like you, do have a parent or two. But either temporarily- like you, or for longer they just can't live with them for different reasons. But it doesn't mean they're orphans."

It just means that it's a house for kids that no one can or want to care for.

"It's like a dumping ground for kids."

What happens after this chapter is in the oneshot "A promise is always a promise"

And before anyone comments on it, I do know Tracy's story wasn't about Carly being an alcoholic, But I've done my research and it said that Carly did leave Tracy home going to the pub so I thought that detail with Carly's breath smelling of alcohol suited.

Random fact

I had two reasons for Tracy being the first character I did with writing new chapters. The first was that she was the first character I wrote for starting this story, the second was that my best friend on here is x snow- pony x and she's a great, big fan of Tracy. And here we are!

I hope you liked it.