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It wasn’t unusual to find Gordon hanging around outside of their bedrooms, as weird as that sounded. Their fish brother had a plethora of pranks to pull, most of which were targeted and set up in their rooms. One of the number one rules on the Island was that if you saw Gordon acting suspiciously outside of their rooms, you informed every brother you were able to get a hold of so that they could enter their room with extreme caution. However, Gordon had just gotten more slippery over the years, harder to catch, which led the brothers to getting pranked more and more often, Gordon’s cackle haunting their nightmares.
What was unusual though was to see Gordon just staring in confusion through the bedroom door, as though he himself couldn’t understand what was going on. And this was exactly how Alan had found him. Suspicion was raised immediately and he frowned at him, stepping closer.
“Gordon, what are you-”
“Shh!” Gordon flapped a hand at him, clearly a signal for him to shut up and come closer simultaneously. Putting a finger to his lips, Gordon moved slightly so that Alan could peek through the door. Scott’s door, he realised.
“What are you doing with Scott’s room?!” He hissed quietly.
“Would you just look and see for yourself?!”
Alan rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to be dragged into whatever Gordon had cooked up, but curiosity eventually got the better of him and he peeked around the door frame. And then he paused. He straightened up and blinked in confusion, adopting a similar expression to the one Gordon had had not moments prior.
“Is that-”
“Yep.”
“Voluntarily?”
“I think so.”
“...Really?”
“Apparently.”
Alan blinked again and rubbed his eyes before looking back into Scott’s room. There, tucked up under the covers and sleeping soundly was…well…Scott. Asleep. In his bed. Which shouldn’t be an issue, but it left Alan feeling uneasy. Scott..as much as Alan hated to say it, Scott didn’t sleep. Well, he did, but rarely in his room. Scott worked himself until he fell asleep almost anywhere, his desk, the sofa, one memorable time in Thunderbird One, the infirmary on the island, basically anywhere but his room, unless Virgil risked carrying him there, which only happened on very rare occasions, since Scott was a notoriously light sleeper.
“Is he….ill?”
“Dunno.”
“Does Virgil know?”
“Doubt it.”
“Should we tell him?”
Gordon debated for a second and then shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, if he’s sleeping, we should leave him to sleep, right?”
“Yeah, of course, but…he’s sleeping in his bed without being drugged.”
“What are you two gremlins doing outside of Scott’s room?”
Alan absolutely did not squeak as he was startled, absolutely not. Though speak of the devil and he shall appear. During their conversation, they hadn’t heard Virgil come up the stairs, and he startled the life out of them. “Shh! Scott’s sleeping!”
Virgil gave them a look, the look he usually gave them when they were being ridiculous and he didn’t have the patience to deal with them. “Ha ha guys.”
“No, seriously, look, he’s in there sleeping.” Gordon tugged on his arm, and Virgil soon became the third Tracy with a dumbfounded expression, looking into Scott’s room.
“He’s sleeping?”
“Yep.”
“Voluntarily?”
“That’s what I said.” Alan piped up.
“Is he ill?”
“I said that too.”
“You guys haven’t given him anything in his coffee, have you?”
“No!”
“Huh.” Virgil stood back then, and went into his own room, coming back out with a scanner. A scanner. From his bedroom. Gordon narrowed his eyes at their older brother.
“Virgil, why do you have a scanner in your room?”
“Is that really important right now?”
“I think it is.”
Virgil shrugged. “I think it’s a good idea to have first aid available close by. I have a kit in each of your rooms. The kitchen, the den, every hangar has at least four, just to be on the safe side, you know? Safety first and all that.” He pointed the scanner at Scott, barely stepping into the room to try and avoid accidentally waking him. Luckily for them, the range on the scanners had recently been improved by Brains, just in case they had a casualty at a distance that they needed to be prepared for. “Huh.” Virgil left and went into Alan’s room, coming back with a second scanner, you know, just in case the first one was broken. “Huh.”
“What, what does ‘huh’ mean?” Alan asked, trying to peer at the readouts.
“It means he’s just asleep. He’s not ill, he’s not injured, he’s not even drugged, or concussed, he’s just…asleep.”
“In his bed.”
“Yep.”
“But Scott doesn’t sleep in his bed.”
“Astute observation, Alan, well done. Except he’s there, right now.”
“Maybe he decided he didn’t want to wake up with back pain again.” Gordon said as he was taking pictures and sending them to John with the caption, Proof that Scott knows what a bed is.
And 3….2….1…..
“Sorry, is Scott dying and you guys didn’t tell me?”
“Hello John, welcome to the party.”
“Don’t start Gordon, what’s wrong with Scott?”
“Nothing! I promise, Virgil will tell you, he ran scans, he’s just sleeping.”
“But he’s in his bed.”
“Yes he is.”
John paused. “I wasn’t aware he knew it existed.”
“Hence the sending of proof that he knows what one is.” Gordon smiled smugly, though that quickly turned to a frown when Virgil closed the door. “What?”
“We should leave him to sleep. Come on, we all have stuff we need to be getting on with. Scott is sleeping and that’s a miracle itself, let alone in his actual bed.” Virgil started herding the terrible two away from Scott’s room. “We shouldn’t be stood talking, we might wake him up and then the whole thing would have been pointless.”
“Fine, fine.” Gordon rolled his eyes, but then challenged Alan to a race to the pool, the loser being tasked with dish duty for a week. Virgil watched them go fondly and double checked Scott’s door before John spoke up again.
“He’s really alright?”
Virgil nodded and smiled. “Yeah, he’s fine, just sleeping. Maybe he’s finally listening to us.”
“Never thought that would happen.”
“Me neither.” Virgil chuckled slightly. “But there’s a first for everything.”
“I suppose so. I’ll check in with you all later, make sure Scott isn’t actually dying, you know?”
“FAB, John.”
John’s hologram blinked out of existence and for a moment, Virgil was left with the quiet of the hallway before he sighed and shook his head fondly at the closed door of Scott’s room. “Only you could manage to panic everyone whilst sleeping, Scooter.”