NIGHTMARE by BOOMERCAT RATED FRPT

Alan has trouble sleeping.

Scott Tracy threw off the covers and sat up in his bed. He looked blearily at his alarm clock, then wished he hadn't. It was only 3am in the morning. He had been in bed for less than two hours, and had spent most of that time tossing and turning. Sighing, he got up and padded to his bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet Scott searched for relief. He was sure there was Alka-Seltzer, or at least Pepto-Bismol. His search was futile, and he walked back to his bed, wondering if there was any chance for sleep.

After having sat for several minutes just staring off into space, Scott remembered his Grandma's old remedy for an upset stomach... Seven-Up and soda crackers. Thinking it was better than nothing, he gave in to the inevitable and got up and headed for his door.

As he walked down the hallway, he automatically kept an ear cocked for his brothers sleeping in their rooms. Scott found the complete silence annoying. None of his brothers seemed to have any problems eating pizza at midnight. To Scott, it was yet another reminder that he wasn't a teenager anymore. He had known at the time that eating the pepperoni, sausage and jalapeno pizza was not a good idea, but it had smelled so good, and the sight of his brothers chowing down caused him to overindulge right along with them.

Coming out into the lounge, he was obscurely relieved to find his brother Virgil sitting slumped on the couch, head flung back, soda and crackers on the table in front of him. Walking over, Scott flopped down next to his brother and helped himself to a swig of the soda. Virgil cracked open one eye and groaned, "Kill me now."

Adopting his brother's pose, Scott wearily replied, "Only if I can find two bullets. If there's only one, you're out of luck."

"No, if you find two bullets I vote we kill them."

"Who?"

"Them." Virgil's tone indicated there could only be one 'them' and in truth, Scott knew exactly who his brother was talking about.

"Okay. Fine. We'll kill them... Any particular reason?"

"This is all their fault. Remember? The movie was over and we were all set to go to bed, then Alan says 'Let's make a pizza'. And not just any pizza, oh no, it had to be one with extra grease and those damn peppers. He deserves to die, Scott."

Scott would have laughed, but even a smile was too much effort. "Okay, I agree, Alan deserves to die, but what did Gordon do?"

"He went along with it." Virgil said darkly.

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"But not tonight. Killing takes effort."

"Yeah. Not tonight."

The two brothers fell silent in shared misery. Scott had almost dozed off when a shriek startled him to his feet. "What the hell..."

Virgil had leapt to his feet as quickly as his brother had, and when the second cry came, he immediately identified it. "That sounds like Alan!"

The two brothers strode quickly to their youngest brother's bedroom. Scott didn't waste any time knocking but just pushed his way in, hitting the light switch in passing. He found Alan twisted in his sheets, in the throes of a nightmare. "No! Please... No... No, you can't be!"

"Alan! Alan, wake up!" Scott knew from experience that with Alan, the quicker you woke him up, the better things went. He sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed his brother by the shoulders, gently shaking him. "Alan? Come on, wake up now."

Alan's eyes flew open but he didn't seem to focus, still moaning, "No... I don't understand... No!"

"Alan! Wake up!" Scott shook his brother again.

This time, with a gasp, Alan woke up. "S-S-Scott? Aaah... Is it really you?"

"Of course it's me. Who else would it be? Come on, Alan, wake up!"

Wide-eyed, Alan looked around and spotted Virgil standing at the foot of his bed. "Gawd, what a nightmare! Did I wake you guys up?"

"No, we were already awake, but it's a miracle you didn't wake everyone else up. You were screaming."

"Sorry..."

Scott could see that his brother hadn't quite shaken of the horror of whatever nightmare he had been caught up in. Reaching out to rub his brother's back, Scott sat on the edge of the bed, saying, "It's okay. So, what was it about?"

"What? Oh, uh, it was weird. I dreamed I was here at home, but everything had gone really strange."

Virgil sat down at the foot of the bed. Truly curious, he asked, "Strange? How?"

Feeling safe in his older brother's presence, Alan laughed ruefully. "Well, I dreamed I was a kid again, and you guys were all younger too, but everything was all mixed up. I dreamed you and John switched places."

Scott frowned, "Switched places? What, you mean I was in Thunderbird Five?"

"No, I mean John was the oldest. You were like eighteen, and Virg, I think you were like, twenty. Gordie was sixteen and I was fourteen. I have no idea how old Johnny was, but he was acting a lot like you, Scott. Oh, and another weird thing... Dad was a lot younger too, and Brains was like as old as Dad was. But we still were International Rescue. Only, Dad flew Thunderbird One."

"So I was up in Thunderbird Five?"

"No, you were here. John was up in Thunderbird Five."

"Soooo, I was flying Thunderbird Two?"

"No, Virg was still flying Thunderbird Two."

"Damn straight I was."

"Wait, if Dad was flying One, and Virg was flying Two, what was I doing? Manning the desk?"

"No, you and Gordon were passengers with Virgil." Alan frowned. "And Gordon had brown hair."

That caused a laugh from Virgil, but Alan was still caught up in the nightmare. "And Tin-Tin was there, but she was just a kid too. Oh, and there was this other kid. I think his name was Vermin. Or maybe Fermin, I don't know. All I know is you guys all went off on some rescue and left me behind. It was entirely too freaky."

"Serves you right. That pizza was enough to give anyone nightmares." Virgil said indignantly.

Alan shuddered. "Trust me, nobody deserves a nightmare like that. It was like being caught up in a particularly rotten movie."

"You okay now?" Scott said with gruff affection. "I'd like to get at least a little sleep tonight."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine now. Uh, thanks for listening."

"No problem. Go back to sleep. We'll see you in the morning."

Alan pulled the covers up, and suddenly sleepy, mumbled his goodnights.

Scott and Virgil left their brother, turning off the light and heading for their own bedrooms. Virgil, in the lead, stopped suddenly causing Scott to bump into him in the darkened hallway. "Watch it!"

"Well, what did you stop for?"

"Gordon."

"What about him?"

"Scott, with all that yelling, Gordon didn't wake up. It's not fair. We're all wide awake and he's asleep."

Gordon had always had a cast iron stomach, so Scott wasn't surprised that the pizza didn't affect him as it did his brothers. In the dim light he saw Virgil slowly start to smile. It wasn't a good smile. Warily, Scott asked, "What are you thinking, Virg?"

"I'm thinking brown hair dye."

Scott's eyebrows climbed up his head, but after a few moments consideration, he developed a smile that matched his brother. "Yeah."