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International rescue always came with difficulties. Why wouldn’t it? Having to travel across the world at supersonic speed, getting into dangerous situations to save people in need would always have a risk of injury somewhere. Alan felt like he had less chance of being injured. The reason for this was because he had four older brothers always looking out for him. Four older brothers that would easily get in front of him or move him out the way before the harm even got close. He was used to this type of life. Yes, he went on missions that were more dangerous than others, but his brothers were always there for him. It was somewhat of a comfort to Alan, to know he was never truly alone.
But things were different right now. International rescue had been hit hard. A seemingly simple mission, to which Gordon politely jinxed in saying ‘When is a mission ever this simple’, had gone horribly wrong and Scott was missing. Two days had gone by. Two days of Virgil keeping constant communications with John trying to find the oldest brother in the family. Two days of the family almost breaking apart. They all knew it, but it was never said. Scott kept this family together. He was the super smother hen glue that never failed to keep everything just as it should be. But now he was no longer here, and the family was breaking.
By the third day, everyone was on minimal sleep. Virgil, Gordon and Kayo were needed on another rescue despite Scott missing. John was the first to say that Scott would still want them to help the public, even if he was in trouble. This left Alan, alone on the island feeling completely useless. He walked into the main room, sitting at their fathers’ desk. The desk that Scott had taken over since their dad went missing. Despite everything, sitting here, he felt he was somewhat closer to Scott, but it felt wrong to sit here. Alan agreed to himself that he should never sit in this chair, something felt so utterly wrong about that thought. He sighed, leaning back in the loved leather chair, looking over the splurge of information that was projected in front of him. John had clearly broken a lot of laws to get some of the information Alan was seeing. Under better circumstances, he would be teasing John, saying how he was being more like the younger Tracys’ with their rebellious natures. But this was another worst-case scenario. The last time a family member went missing was almost eight years ago, and Alan would know everyone would break knowing that Scott was gone too. Alan shook his head. He couldn’t think like that. Not now, every other brother was breaking apart at the seams, he couldn’t do that too. He needed to help, wanted to help. As if on cue, a blue hologram lit up in front of him.
“John! Did you find anything?” Alan said quickly, preying this wasn’t just Johns older brother instincts to check on him since he was alone.
“I might do. I’ve been tracking some very strange communications happening under most of the GDF’s radars. At first, I thought it was small amounts of jargon before I kept seeing the same initials pop up over the course of two days,” John said calmly before Alan saw him do a few hand movements and more images appeared in front of him.
How John could read any of this was a miracle to Alan. Even looking at what was in front of him made Alan's own head hurt. But what John was trying to get across soon stuck out like a sore thumb. Two letters together, even on their own people would recognise what that abbreviation meant. I and R. Alan's eyes widened, hope starting to fill the chasm that had been getting bigger over the last three days.
“Scott…” Alan mumbled, looking back to John and received a nod from him.
“I’m almost certain, I haven’t found any other references, and this was very well hidden. Whoever did this, didn’t want anyone out of their known group to know about this,”
“So, what now?”
Alan immediately thought of contacting Virgil, Gordon and Kayo, saying that John had probably found Scott and they should mobilise immediately. But Alan guessed John knew what he was thinking.
“The others can’t leave the site, another seven-point-three magnitude earthquake just hit off the coast of Japan, causing the already damaged structures to start collapsing. They can’t leave that many people in danger,” John said with a slight frown.
“Then let me go. I take Thunderbird three to wherever Scott is and bring him home,” Alan said almost immediately after John finish. But if Alan was being honest, he expected a ‘no’. That he was too young and inexperienced. That is was too dangerous. There were a few seconds of silence.
“Get suited up, I’ll relay the position of the messages to Thunderbird Three once you are in the air,”
“F.A.B,” Alan had never run so fast to the sofa in all his life.
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“ETA fifteen minutes John,” Alan stated, once he was clear of the island. Those fifteen minutes were going to feel like hours, but he wasn’t going to let his mind wander, not this time.
“Once the others have finished up, I will send them your way as well. We don’t know what the situation is going to be like, the building I suspect Scott is in is heavily shielded. These guys mean business. This was no fluke that Scott was taken,”
“They knew what they were doing. They targeted him,” Alan added and hollo John nodded.
“I think he was,”
Alan landed quite a way off from the building, making sure to stay under any radar, which for Thunderbird Three wasn’t exactly easy. But this was Alans Thunderbird, he knew how she worked, how she flew through the sky. It took another thirty minutes to eventually see the complex John has discussed in the flight over. It was well camouflaged in the dense forest surrounding it, he doubted that without radar you wouldn’t have seen the building at all if you flew over it. As he got closer, he noticed there weren’t any guards outside. Not even surveillance. But with how dense the forest was, Alan doubted they got many ‘visitors’ here. Getting into the building would be easy, getting out would be the hard part.
“Once you get inside Alan, I can’t guarantee I can contact you. Be safe,” John said, and Alan nodded.
“I bring him home John, I promise,”
“I know you will, I never would have agreed if I didn’t think you couldn’t,” John gave a small smile to Alan, but Alan saw the tell-tale signs of worry. This wasn’t just a normal semi ‘dangerous’ mission.
Alan shut his comms off and began the first task of getting inside. The walls were unusually thick, Alan guessed the inner walls were no different, roughly thirty centimetres of concrete which would be heavily reinforced if even John couldn’t penetrate the walls. There were no signs on the walls, no indication on whether he was going the right way at all. This place was a maze, a maze designed to thwart any chance of a rescue attempt. But Alan wasn’t just any rescuer.
“Where could you be?” Alan mumbled to himself, searching all the rooms he came across, in hopes of seeing his brother.
He heard hushed voices coming down another unmarked corridor, though this one had some outlining factors. The main one being large steel type doors on each side. He silently made his way down, hearing the voices grow louder, confirming he was going in the right direction. Once he got close enough, he could make out some words. ‘Information’, ‘regret’, ‘dead’. Those words causing alarm bells to ring in Alan's head. His brother could only be a few metres away and it pained Alan to wait, knowing his brother was in danger. The corridor gave little in terms of safe hiding spots, so Alan walked back, finding an open and disused room. The dust has settled everywhere meaning no one had come in here…yet. But this was the best hiding place Alan was going to get until it was safe to approach the room that he just knew his brother was in. He chanced an opportunity to try and contact John, but as he stated earlier, there wasn’t a link. This place was too shielded. So, he waited, hearing the distinct sound of someone hitting something solid down the other end of the corridor. Alan shut his eyes, he knew what was happening to his brother and couldn’t do a damn thing about it right now. This situation was messing with Alan’s head slightly. Knowing he was only a few metres away, hearing his brother probably getting beaten for information about International Rescue, was driving Alan closer and closer to the edge of insanity. He was standing there in a corner in mental anguish knowing Scott was in physical pain.
A blessing finally occurred when the faint noise of metal sliding on concrete passed into his ear. The voices growing louder the closer they got to the room Alan was situated in. He held his breath, hearing their heavy footsteps walk past. He heard them joking, joking about how they almost felt sorry for beating a retrained prisoner. Alan found himself snarling in the darkness. He moved swiftly and silently over to the slightly ajar door, the only ajar door in this corridor. With a huge amount of restraint to just fling it open, Alan moved it slowly, causing minimal noise. The sight that was in front of him, made him gasp in horror. Scott, his oldest brother, the one who for so many years Alan thought was invincible, untouchable was slumped over in a chair. His face bruised, lip bleeding, wrists bloody from the rope keeping him in place. It was an image Alan knew would be in his nightmares for many weeks to come. He slowly walked forward, kneeling in front of his brother, placing a hand over his. The flinch Scott replied with almost broke Alan right there and then. He’d never seen Scott flinch like that before, not even when he’s accidentally called him ‘dad’ from time to time.
“Scott, it’s me, Alan,” Alan said quietly. Scott’s head lifted slowly, giving Alan a better look at his face. Apart from the busted lip and bruises, he now saw one of Scott’s eye had completely closed, refusing to open. “Oh Scott.”
Alan set about working the ropes, forcing the tears that threatened to spill outback down. Now was not the time. After a few painstaking minutes of undoing the first rope knot, Scott’s left side was essentially free. Free enough for him to lean forward, and Alan having to grab hold of him to stop causing more damage to his right wrist and more importantly, not make any noise. Scott seemed conscious enough when Alan first checked him over, but with how much of a dead weight Scott was now, Alan worried that there was much more wrong with his brother than he initially thought. With some skill and a bit of luck, Alan managed to untie the last knot keeping his brother to the chair and helped him to the floor, holding Scott close to his chest. He checked his pulse, slightly elevated but it felt strong, some of the best news Alan had got in the three days he’d been searching for him. His brother was alive, he wasn’t gone.
After giving him the once over to make sure there wasn’t any more physical damage, Alan set about thinking of a way to escape. He didn’t think Scott would be hurt this bad to the point of being cradled in his arms as Alan used to when he first found out his dad had disappeared. Scott was always there, waiting, arms open allowing Alan to curl up. Now the roles were reversed, and Alan didn’t like it at all.
“Come on Scott, we need to get out of here, the others will show up soon and Virgil will get you properly checked out. We’ll be home. Me and Gordon messing around, you sitting in dads chair looking over us like you always do,” Alan couldn’t help but let a single tear fall before wiping his face quickly. Damn it he was on a mission he couldn’t let emotion get in the way now, he still needed to get Scott out of here.
Alans head shot up towards the door, hearing footsteps come closer. He couldn’t move Scott into the other room he had found earlier, Alan was trapped. He couldn’t do anything; he couldn’t protect his brother for the men that had already done so much harm to him. They were so close until the building visibly shook. Debris fell from the ceiling and Alan covered Scott with his own body. He would not let his brother get hurt more now. This was his mission, to be his brother’s keeper. The footsteps hurried away in the opposite direction and Alan heard another sound that gave hope to anyone in trouble. The unique sound of Thunderbird Two’s engines. Alan felt a small movement in his arms. Even though Alan knew Scott was out of it, he was sure Scott was reacting to the sound of Thunderbird Two, the sound of safety and help.
“We’re almost home Scott…Almost home,”
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To say the week went by like a blur was not an exaggeration when Scott said it. When he woke up in the island infirmary, he believed that he was probably hit around the head due to falling rocks. One day, not wearing his helmet will be the end of him. But when Virgil filled him in that four days has passed since then filled Scott with dread, and worry. He wasn’t worried about himself; he was worried that his brothers had to help him, regardless of the situation. Scott was meant to be the team leader, the brother to lead the way, to help all his younger brothers, stop them from getting hurt and now he was the one being suffocated by every one of them. All but one, the youngest who he was trying to find late at night. If Virgil hadn’t gone for a nap, Scott never would have been able to escape the infirmary unattended, but he had to find Alan. John had filled him in on most of what happened. How Alan found him, dragged him from his confinement and outside to Thunderbird Two. Apparently, Alan never left his side during the journey and that night, leaving the room when Scott started to stir.
Scott slowly made his way into the main room; he didn’t have to see properly to know where to walk. This was his home; he knew every placement of every item. He also knew that his brother wouldn’t be in the house. Alan was always good at hiding when not wanting to be found, but Scott was equally as good at finding him, eventually. He stopped at his dads’ desk to take a breather, his body not quite recovered after three days without food and water but a lot of beatings. He looked around the darkened room as well as looking out the window to see if Alan was near the pool. But it was deathly silent, no little brother insight. Unless that’s what he thought.
“He’s in the hanger, last seen heading to Thunderbird One,” Scott jumped slightly, he hated jumping but his body was only having negative reactions to being startled now. He turned around and looked up to, seeing John leaning against the stair bannister and small smile on his lips. “You should also be in bed still Scott,”
“I need to see him,” was all Scott could say.
“I know,” John replied and walked down the stairs. “He’s been there for a while as far as EOS has told me,”
Scott nodded in appreciation, before slowly making his way to the hanger. The hanger was lit at all times since International Rescue never really slept, but John had done a good job in redirecting the calls in from today to the GDF. John would only ever do that if he was concerned that they weren’t fully up to the task. Scott silently admitted to himself they weren’t, and he was to blame. He’d got himself caught, got himself beat up to the point that his youngest brother, the one he should be caring for not the other way around, had to rescue him. Scott’s mind went into autopilot as his body lead him over to Thunderbird One, he’d done this long walk many times to conduct repairs or see the latest system update. He could do it blindfolded. Once he turned the corner, he got a glimpse of Alan, sitting down against a wall, starring up to Thunderbird One. The bridge to his beloved bird was outstretched and the cockpit open. Scott concluded Alan was sitting in the chair for a period before eventually coming out and sitting down nearby. He didn’t understand why though.
Scott made his way over as quietly as he could seeing Alan staring blankly at Thunderbird One, clearly distracted, not realising what was going on in his surroundings. Just how long had Alan been sitting there for? Scott’s luck eventually ran out as Alan turned his head, looking Scott straight in the eye. Alan went to stand up, but Scott was now too close and held onto his arm as he slid down the wall, a sigh escaping his lips as his aching muscles were now allowed a moment of rest. Alan pulled his arm a little, but Scott made sure to hold on as tightly as he could. Scott couldn’t recall how long they had sat there in silence, his backside slowly getting numb was a good indicator though.
“John gave me a rundown of what happened,” Scott said finally breaking the silence, but Alan didn’t budge, his eyes still fixated on Thunderbird One. “You did good kid…”
“I didn’t do anything,” Alan snapped slightly causing Scott to look a little surprised.
“Alan, breaking into a reinforced building with armed men and not getting caught isn’t nothing you know,”
“Yeah? And then what? I find you barely responsive beaten and battered because I let that happen. I heard them, Scott. I heard what they were doing to you and I just…. I hid in a corner doing nothing. I was useless,” Alan said, his bottom lip trembling as he looked away from Thunderbird One.
“Alan, you weren’t useless. John was able to pinpoint our location thanks to you. Once Virgil had destroyed the main generator area that housed the jammer, John traced your signal to find us, mine got busted. If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be there,” Scott squeezed Alans' arm though he saw it didn’t help relax him at all.
“You were gone for three days Scott. Three days this house felt…empty. Everyone was at each other’s throats they didn’t eat, sleep. Do you why that is? Because they all have fresh memories of dad and how hard it was for them, realising they couldn’t make more of those memories. I don’t. When mum died…dad threw himself into work, coming home late when I was forced to go to bed because of you and the others. I didn’t see him for days on end sometimes, and the rare days we did sit down as the family….those memories I cherish, that I cling on to because I have nothing else. I don’t remember spending time alone with dad. I don’t remember him telling me tales of space expeditions. I don’t remember the pain of him leaving our lives,” Alan said, and Scott heard his voice tremble at certain parts.
“But I remember you. I remember you reading me tales of dad’s adventures and yours. I remember you coming back from meetings and sitting down with us having dinner, talking, laughing. I remember our first mission together. Just us, in space, doing a boring ‘safe’ mission. I remember all of that and it reminded me of how much I was going to lose if I lost you,” Alan looked over to Scott and he noticed that Alan’s eyes were red, tears collecting in the corners. Scott frowned slightly before holding his arm out and Alan moved over, pushing himself up against Scott’s chest.
They didn’t speak for a while after that. Scott moved a hand through Alans' hair slowly whilst he felt his top slowly get damp with tears. Scott knew he couldn’t stop Alan from crying, he knew he couldn’t stop the pain and he so desperately wanted to. He held Alan close, his grip not once faltering whilst they both let out their emotions in different ways. Scott didn’t cry, he didn’t feel like he had the right, but he held onto what was dear to him. Moving a hand through Alans' hair further proved that he was here in this moment and not back in that dreaded room, alone without anyone.
“Don’t leave me….” Alan said into Scott’s chest.
“I’m not going anywhere Alan, I’m right here because you saved me,” Scott replied, planting a soft kiss on top of Alans' head before going back to running a hand through his hair. This wasn’t over, both of them would need to recover after this. But they would be able to recover together, as a family.