Family Ties. [M] - (4 Parts)

[LOSTfreak]

OK, I am EXTREMELY nervous right now. This is my first fan fic EVER. So, comments and friendly tips are greatly appreciated because I'm sure that this story really sucks. I'm sorry if there are any spelling or grammer mistakes. No flames please. I hope that you enjoy....It's a Family Ties fan fic. Alex Keaton has a cold. Hehe. Sorry, that the beggining is so short and if anyone like this *Crosses fingers.* Then, I will try and write more soon.

“Huh-tchoo!” Alex Keaton was near the end of his rope. “Huh-CHOO!...Ah.” Alex pulled what seemed to be the millionth tissue that day from the nearby Kleenex box sitting on his desk, in his room, where he was currently working on his thesis for History class, which was due tomorrow. “Huh….Huh-ishh!” He sneezed into the tissue fiercely. His nose was fairly red by this time and he was utterly sick of sneezing. He had a cold, he knew. But there was absolutely no way he was actually going to admit to it. No way. The symptoms had started the day before, but were much too mild for him to give anything but minor attention to. So, he took absolutely no pre-cautions whatsoever and went about his daily routine, pushing himself to be the best, to be on top of the world, to not let anybody down by not giving absolutely everything he had. And where did he end up? Exhausted, miserable, and sick. Was this how he got repaid for all his hard work and efforts? Alex picked up his pencil again, trying to ignore how rotten he felt.

After about an hour or so more of writing, the Civil War was starting to seem a bit unappealing. Everything was. All he wanted to do now was get in bed, under the nice warm covers, and sleep. His family would surely notice something was wrong though, if he was in bed at 4:30pm. The sun was still up. Alex sighed, the action quickly turning into a mild coughing fit. He gave up, tossing the pencil back onto the hopeless excuse for a history paper. At least in his opinion. “How did this happen?” He muttered. Throughout the whole day his cold had grown steadily worse. At first, it was just a bit of a sore throat, stuffy nose, and a small headache. Now, he was constantly sneezing and coughing, his head was pounding, he could hardly breathe through his nose, and his throat was burning. Clonk-Clonk! Came the knock at his door. “Who is it?” He called. “It’s Mallory!” His incredible annoying sister called back. Reluctantly, he dragged himself out of his chair and cracked his door open just enough so he could peek his head through and see Mallory. “What do you want?” He asked tiredly. “Mom says that dinner will be ready soon and she’d like us to help set the table.” She stared at him wearily for a second as if he was some strange creature from another planet. “Are you okay?” She asked. “You look kind of pale….” “I’m fine” Alex snapped, the words coming a bit harsher than he intended. “I’m just a little tired, that’s all.” He said a bit softer. “I’ll be down in a minute, OK?” “Yeah, sure.” Mallory said a bit uncertainly. Her brother was acting strange today. Mallory turned and headed back down to the kitchen.

After his sister left, Alex grabbed a few tissues and tried to clear his nose as best he could before heading down stairs. However, blowing his nose just seemed to emit a faint, but all familiar tickle. He rubbed it in an attempt to ward it off for a little while. Hopefully, at least until after dinner where he could be safely back in his room when it blossomed into a sneeze. Hopefully….

[aggedy_ann]

SQUEEEE!!!!

It's Alex

Seriously, this is a good start. Please, please, please write more.

[tma]

Seconds the SQUEEE!! This SO took me back. I was in love with Alex. And OMG the one episode where he sneezed... I was Majorly disappointed that there wasn't more. I thought that it was unfair not to give him a cold and have him hide it.

*Sigh* now I can get what I've been waiting for all these years. *happy, dreamy grin*

Thanks... can't wait to see more.

[Sneesee]

This is wonderful! I love it! I can't wait for the rest! Very nice job on the writing! You describe his cold oh so well! Yummy! Thank you!

[silentdreamer789]

Never even heard of the fandom, but loved this! I'm gonna go look it up now....

silentdreamer789

[LOSTfreak]

YAY! There are people who like it! Thank you all so much! I will try to write more soon. Durn it....I just realized one mistake already in my story....I left out his age but, dunno where to put it in....If anybody would really like me to specify his age just let me know, or if you would be OK with just picturing him at any age that he was on the show, that's fine too.

[Vetinari]

I've never heard of the fandom before but it's a great start nevertheless. More please!

[LOSTfreak]

Thanks to brigidmn, tma, Sneesee, silentdreamer789, and Vetinari for all replying! Here is the next part. I'm sorry it's pretty short, like the last one, and doesn't have much sneezing, but hopefully the next part will have much more. And it will hopefully be longer as well. I typed this one up pretty fast. Enjoy!

Alex sniffled wetly as he made his way down the stairs, blowing his nose, it seemed, hadn’t really helped all that much. He really didn’t feel like eating, but if he skipped dinner, his parents would want to know why. He couldn’t say studying—His parents always made him study after dinner….Besides, they liked to have everyone at the table when it was time to eat. It was a family thing. Alex sighed wearily as he entered the kitchen. It felt like the walk from his bedroom to the kitchen had gotten longer than he remembered it. Weird. He plopped down in his chair just as his mother Elyse was setting the soy meal and hearts of palm casserole on the table and she was able to get a good look at him for the first time that day. She didn’t like what she saw. Her son’s cheeks were a little flushed, as were the rims of his nose, but his face was otherwise pale and he looked exhausted. Elyse almost immediately switched into worried mother mode. “Alex, are you feeling okay, you don’t look very good.” She said, reaching out her hand and gently laying in on his forehead. Before she could get the slightest idea as to whether he had a fever or not however, Alex quickly brushed her hand away. “I’m fine Mom, just a little tired.” He looked down at the food, paused, made an expression of mild distaste and confusion, then asked uncertainly, “What’s for dinner?” “Soy meal and hearts of palm casserole.” Elyse said, grinning. Mallory and Jennifer both groaned. “Great,” Alex said sarcastically. “sounds delicious.” “Yeah, real appetizing.” Jennifer added. “Oh come on kids, try it, you’ll like it.” Alex’s dad, Steven said, trying to help his wife out. The kids reluctantly picked up their forks, but didn’t voice any more complaint about it. They were used to the strange “health” dishes his parents usually cooked up anyways. But, that didn’t always stop them from trying to get their parents to cook up something normal, even if it was clear that it was hopeless.

As soon as Alex stuck his fork into the casserole, he felt the tickle from earlier re-appear at the back of his nose. ‘Oh no, not now!’ He thought. Trying to be as discreet as possible, he stuck his first under his nose for a minute, pretending to just lean on his elbow that way. It was a good thing that his parents weren’t strict about the no elbows on the table thing. The tickle backed off again and he mentally sighed in relief, and resumed eating, actually more like picking, at his meal. A few minutes later however, the tickle flared up again with vigor. He knew that this time he wouldn’t be able to hold it off…. For very long anyways. “Um….Can I be excused? I’m full.” He asked quickly, while working on keeping the sneeze at bay, which wasn’t that easy at the moment. He had to keep his fist under his nose like the last time, and press on his nose kind of hard to keep from sneezing right then and there. “But you’ve hardly touched your food, how can you be full?” Elyse asked incredulously. “Uh….I had a really big lunch at school and I just remembered, I have a paper that I really need to finish, I’ll clear my plate later, if that’s OK.” He didn’t wait for an answer. He couldn’t wait for an answer. He stood up and fast-walked up to his room, taking the stairs two at a time. He just managed to get to his room and shut his door, before he couldn’t hold it back any longer. His eyes fluttered shut as his breath hitched and he quickly stuck a hand out in front of his face as he was about to sneeze. “Heh…Heh…Heh-!” Lost. No, he couldn’t have just done all that just to lose the stupid sneeze. Clonk-Clonk! “Alex, are you okay?” It was his Mom. Geez, he probably had looked like a loon and she was coming to make sure he didn’t need to be committed. “Yeah Mom I’m F-uh….huh…I’m….heh-tchoo!” “Alex?” His Mom opened the door as he was recovering. Without a word, Elyse stepped over to Alex once again and touched his cheek, then his forehead. Alex didn’t even bother pushing her away this time. That last sneeze had taken even more of his energy away from him and he didn’t feel like fighting it anymore. “You’ve got a fever.” Elyse declared, taking her hand away. “It’s probably just a cold, I’ll be fine.” He said weakly. But he knew what his Mom was going to do….Make him stay in bed.

Dun dun dun....LOL. Sorry, if this sucks. *Hides.*

[Vetinari]

Sorry, if this sucks. *Hides.*

It doesn't suck.

And stop hiding (unless you are going to sneeze obviously)

[silentdreamer789]

Definately doesn't suck! It's really good, I can't WAIT for more...

silentdreamer789

[Gallatea]

Michael J. Fox sneezing and with a cold.

...

Gimme a second....

Fantastic! Please add another part soon--I can't wait!

[aggedy_ann]

Nope, doesn't suck. Love it.

[shy_obsession]

*Weee!* That's awesome! You're only fourteen? You write like you're older. This is really great and I can't wait to read more!

[Guest Christine]

This is AWESOME!

[LOSTfreak]

Thank you all so much! I'm really glad that you guys like it. I've never done a fan fic before, only school stuff, so I'm glad that you guys don't think that it sucks. I'll try to write more soon. I'll probably write tonight, because I slept all day since I was up all night last night, so I'll most likely be up all night again. Hehe.

[LOSTfreak]

*Sing the Sanford and Son theme song Turk and J.D. style from scrubs.* Okey dokey, Here is the next part. I hope that you enjoy! And I would like to thank, Vetinari, silentdreamer789, Lady_Gallatea_Ravenclaw, brigidmn, shy_obsession, and Christine for all the really nice and welcome replies. On with the story.

“All right class, settle down! Settle down!” Alex’s history teacher, Mr. McDowell said as he entered the packed but otherwise roomy classroom and headed up towards the front to set his briefcase on his desk.

The class lapsed into silence and all took their seats as the professor continued talking. “I have your history essays to hand back and I must say,” He paused as he took the papers out of his briefcase. Alex hoped that his was somewhere on top. He couldn’t wait to get his paper back and see what he got. An A, no doubt.

“I’m rather pleased with most of these papers that I graded.” He went to the right side of the classroom, the side across from Alex, and started handing the papers back.

“However,” He continued. “There is one paper that I am rather disappointed in. Alex’s eyes wandered around the room, wondering who the culprit was. Poor kid. But hey, that’s what you get when you don’t apply yourself….

Mr. McDowell walked over and stopped in front of Alex, a rather displeased look on his face. “Mr. Keaton.” Alex looked up, surprised. Mr. McDowell set a paper on Alex’s desk, in front of him. Alex looked down. On the top of the page in the left hand corner, in bright red, was one very distinct letter. “F.” Mr. McDowell announced rather loudly. “F?” Alex asked incredulously. “But- but, that’s impossible!” He sputtered.

“Actually, Mr. Keaton, it is quite possible. Well, with a paper like this.” Mr. McDowell said as he gestured to the paper with hardly disguised disgust.

“Ha! Keaton got an F! Finally! Can you believe that?” A guy sitting behind Alex said for the whole class to hear. “Hey, nice goin’ Keaton!” Another kid said somewhere in the room, mocking him. Everybody was laughing now. Suddenly, the room felt very hot and he couldn’t breathe.

“No, wait!” He shouted over the laughter. “P-please professor, let me re-do it, I-I can do better!” But the professor didn’t hear him because he was laughing too. This was it. His life was over. He failed. He failed….

“No!” Alex sat up in bed, bathed in cold sweat. “What a nightmare…”.He thought.

A moment later he pitched forward with a wet and messy, “Huh-tchoo!” that sprayed his hand. “Ugh….” Groggily, Alex groped for the tissue box on his nightstand and wiped his hand, before grabbing a few more and giving a wet, gurgily blow, then tossed the used tissues into the overflowing trash can by his bed.

Shortly after being declared sick, his mother put him strait to bed (Pausing to giving him some Tylenol.) and he was to stay there—No exceptions. Looking at the digital clock on his nightstand, he saw that it was only 6:42pm. He had only slept a little less than two hours.

Sighing, Alex threw back his covers, threw on his robe, and shuffled over to his desk. As he sat down an unexpected, “Huh-ishh!” escaped from him that he quickly directed toward the floor. Coughing a little, Alex picked up his pencil, looked over his shoulder and listened for a minute; just to make sure that no one was going to be knocking on his door within the next few minutes, then began working on his history paper.

He was not going to let anything close to what had happened in his nightmare come true. No way. All he had to do was, finish his paper and miraculously become well by tomorrow morning…He was screwed. ‘Unless I just make everybody think I’m better.’ It was a very tempting thought, but would he be able to pull it off?

There was of course, body temperature to consider, and not coughing or sneezing until he was out the door. He put his head down on his desk for a moment, trying to think. ‘How is this going to work’ He thought. A tickle interrupted his train of thought and he lifted a hand near his face, too tired to grab a tissue. “Huh-tchoo!...Tchoo!...Ugh.” He sniffled, desperately needing to blow his nose. Why hadn’t he just brought the dang tissues with him?

His mind was working incredibly slow today, which was exactly what he didn’t need at the moment. He needed a plan. But first thing first, he needed to finish his history paper. He could worry about dealing with his family later.

Sniffling some more, Alex began to write. He wrote about a page and a half, sneezing or coughing every now and then, before he heard the faint sound of footsteps ascending the stairs.

Jumping up from his chair, Alex literally threw himself back in bed, and pulled the covers over himself before turning on his left side and feigning sleep.

A second later, his door opened. He let his mouth fall open and tried to look as relaxed as possible, while listening intently. He heard the intruder set something that sounded mildly heavy on his nightstand, and then they tucked the covers in around him more securely and brushed his bangs out of his eyes, before leaving the room and closing the door behind them.

Alex let out a long breath that he had been unaware he was holding in and rolled over to lie on his back, opening his eyes. In the short time he was up, he had used up most of the little energy that he had had. Sitting up, Alex looked over at his nightstand and saw that whoever had been there had brought him a cup of herbal tea.

Alex started to reach for the cup, but reached for a tissue instead when he felt a sneeze appear suddenly. “Huh…Huh-chshh!” He sniffled and blew his nose a few times, hoping to clear it up a little. He was really started to feel the effects of his cold now and for the first time wondered if he’d actually be able to make it through a whole day of school. He knew that It’d probably be better to just stay home and rest and get over this thing, but he feared falling behind in class.

He had been a strait A student since the sandbox. If his grades slipped, he would never get into one of the prestigious schools that he dreamed of one day going to, like Harford or Princeton.

Sighing wearily, Alex sat up, grabbed the hot tea, and took a sip. There was one way he could decide what he was going to do…If he still felt this bad or worse tomorrow, he would stay home. But if he was feeling even the slightest bit better, he would force himself to go to school. That didn’t sound too complicated to him. His mind made up, Alex settled back into bed and drifted off into a wonderful nightmare free sleep.

K, that's the next part! Hmmmm....What do you think I should do? Keep him home? Force him to school? End the story here? I just hope that I won't write myself into a corner of any kind or anything if I continue. I like to write....

[shy_obsession]

Oh, I say definitely send him to school! Aw, I'm so mean. I love reading this, though. You know exactly how to make him sound miserable! Let me repeat: Aw, I'm so mean!

[Guest magazines]

This gets better and better!!! I just thought of something - wasn't there an episode where Alex did have a cold? On TarotGal's Realm under sounds there is a clip from the show where he coughs and sneezes and then Mallory yells at him. lol. Have you heard it?

[Guest magazines]

This gets better and better!!! I just thought of something - wasn't there an episode where Alex did have a cold? On TarotGal's Realm under sounds there is a clip from the show where he coughs and sneezes and then Mallory yells at him. lol. Have you heard it?

Found your other thread!!!! Hahaa, ignore that please.

[aggedy_ann]

Yes, he definately needs to go to school. You Know Alex wouldn't miss school for something like a cold. Major surgery, maybe, but definately not for a cold.

I'm soo loving this. I have tried to start a family ties fic sooo many times, and just never been able to, so Thanks So Much for writing one.

[Gallatea]

YES! This is fantastic!

I can't wait for the next part--so please continue. I really don't mind if he goes to school or not (as I haven't seen much of the show), but it would be so cute for him to try and go to school; and then get sent back to bed when his cold gets too much for him.

More please!!

[LOSTfreak]

Bwah ha ha! Thank you all! Yeah, It'd definitly be fun to send him to school.... . I'll try and have the next part up soon, thank you all for your comments, they are very appreciated and make me feel all good inside.

[LOSTfreak]

Hi, sorry I haven't updated this in forever and I'm sorry to say that this still isn't an update. I've been really busy lately and stuff with school starting next week and I just got back from camping and going to a reunion thing at my Dad's, so I haven't had the time to write. I think that I'm going to have to temporarily put this story on hold....I'm not sure for how long. I'm so sorry!

[count tiszula]

I've only just found this, and I enjoyed it muchly, especially the holding back and on/off sneezing. Very well written; if you do go on, I'd go with continuing his sneezing at school; lots of possibilities there.

[Vetinari]

Hi, sorry I haven't updated this in forever and I'm sorry to say that this still isn't an update. I've been really busy lately and stuff with school starting next week and I just got back from camping and going to a reunion thing at my Dad's, so I haven't had the time to write. I think that I'm going to have to temporarily put this story on hold....I'm not sure for how long. I'm so sorry!

Still great. You're not nearly as slow at writing as I am.