I would like to thank Tikatu for being my betareader.

Disclamer: I do not own the Thunderbirds, but the boy and the dog are charracters created by me.

The Meadow

A boy and his dog looked up as a shadow moved quickly over a meadow.They watched in horror as the giant ship crashed into the ground at the far end of the meadow.

Immediately, his dog raced toward the fallen aircraft with the boy running behind. As the wreckage settled, a smaller aircraft slipped slowly off the wing of the larger one. The small plane soon stopped sliding. The boy knew he had to do something quickly.

First, he checked out the small craft. The pilot was badly beaten up, but alive. The single passanger, on the other hand, was clearly dead. With great difficulty, the boy moved the pilot out onto the soft meadow grass. His Golden Retriever stayed with the unconcious pilot while the boy went for the big craft, which looked oddly familiar, though he had trouble placing why that was.

After some difficulty, he found the entrance. He slowly made his way up to the cockpit where he found three similarly unconcious people. Two of them were in uniforms, and the other was in civilian clothes. He checked them all out. The pilot had gotten the worst of the three and had a bad gash on his forehead. The civilian-looking one seemed to have a broken or dislocated arm, and the last seemed to be unharmed except for some cuts from debris.

He first moved to get the pilot out, who he placed near the other pilot. He feared that one or both of the two aircraft could explode at any time. As he was moving the man without a uniformout of the chair, another uniformed man came into the cockpit.

"Gordon! Brains!" His eyes fell on the boy for a second then shifted to the empty pilot's chair. "Where's Virgil?"

There was a short silence as the boy tried to figure out what to say to the man who had suddenly appeared. The silence was broken by a groan from the uniformed man with the orange sash. "What happened?" he asked as his eyes fluttered open. His eyes widened as he remembered where he was, but he quickly closed them again when the light hurt his eyes. "Where's Virgil? Did we do it? Is the person in the plane safe?

The boy watched quietly with the man, who was either named Gordon or Brains, draped heavily over his young shoulders. The man had said 'person' not 'people'. That must mean that they either didn't know about the passanger or they already knew he was dead. His thoughts were disturbed as he saw the two men look at him.

The man with the light blue sash moved over to him. "Here, let me help you with him." The man lifted the still unconcious man off the boy's back. The two men examined the senseless one and then looked down as if searching for something on the floor. The boy glanced down and then saw what they were obviously looking for. He went around the pilot chair and picked up a pair of blue rimmed glasses. Since the man holding the unconcious man had his hands full, the other one took the glasses.

"Thanks. Now, can you tell us where the pilot is?" asked the orange-sashed man. The boy then spoke up even though it was just a couple of words. "This way."

He led the orange-sashed guyout of the large green ship to the spot in the meadow where his dog had been licking the two pilots' faces. The blue guyhad taken the other one elsewhere. The uniformed one was stirring at this point and was trying to get away from the dog's excited licks.

"Virgil!" The man in orange raced forward and helped the one with the yellow sash into a sitting position. The dog immediately knocked him back down and continued to lick the man's face.

"Toby! Get off of him!" The boy grabbed the dog by the collar and pulled the large Golden Retriever off the man. The boy stood back with his dog as the two men conversed. The uniformed pilot tried to stand up, but was obviously too woozy to do it on his own. He sat back down and pointed for the other one to take care of the other pilot first.

Soon the blue-sashed guy came out with a hovering stretcher in tow. Together, he and the orange guy moved the badly injured man onto the stretcher and tookhim back toward the green craft.

The boy looked back at Virgil who by this time was looking at him. Virgil beckoned him over. "Where you the one who pulled me and the other pilotout?" The boy nodded. The man smiled. "Thank you."

At that point, Toby broke loose of the boy's hand and was again on top of Virgil. "Your dog... sure seems to... like me." he said as he tried to speak through the licking. The boy let out a chuckle, then moved to remove his dog from the man again.

Just then,the man in blue had returned from the downed ship to aidVirgil. He helped Virgil to his feet and turned around to go back to the ship. A few steps off, he looked back and motioned for the boy to follow.

Inside the green ship, they made their way to another room. The boy waited at the doorway as he watched the two men enter what looked like a hospital room. He looked around at the people within. The still unconcious pilot was lying on a bed, while the rest were sitting in chairs or on other beds. The man with the glasses was rubbing his shoulder, but otherwise he looked fine. The man in orange was laughing at the bespectacled man'spained look. He must have just set the other man's shoulder. The man in blue set Virgil down on a bed.

Mister Blue then came over to the boy and started talking to him. "My name is Scott. I want to thank you for helping my brothers, Brains, and that pilot."

Brothers! The boy looked at the people in the room. He guessed that Virgil was one of the brothers, and after a good look at the two other men who had been in the cockpit, he deturmined that orangy was the one named...what was it? He forgot. But the one with glasses he guessed was the one named Brains. He looked back at Scott. "You're welcome."

Toby barked and again broke loose from his owner. Scott tried to catch the dog but was bowled over himself. The dog was mere inches from Virgil when...what was his name? Oh yeah, Gordon...when Gordon caught him and dragged him back out of the room.

"Uh-uh-uh thank you, young man," came a voice from the room. The boy turned as Virgil also thanked him. Gordon also said thank you from the passage way as he led the dog outside. Toby almost broke away again, but Gordon tightened his grip and the dog reluctantly continued away from the hospital room.

Scott then turned and headed out of the ship, too. The boy followed when the man called himagain. Outside the ship, Scott directed him to go over with his dog and Gordon. By the time the boy looked back, Scott was out of sight. Suddenly a roar erupted from behind the large green craft, and a sleek silver rocket appeared over the top. It suddenly dawned on him that this was International Rescue he was helping out, and he had just been in Thunderbird 2. His eyes widened at the realization. He had been inside the big workhorse aircraft of International Rescue. He watched in awe as Thunderbird 1 shifted the small plane all the way off the wing of Thunderbird 2. Again the silver rocket set down and they all went back inside.

Leaving Toby tied to the landing strut of the rocket, the boy followed the men inside and watched at they made repairs on the large ship. He stood in the cockpit and took in the surroundings. He looked out the broken window when he heard what sounded like a helijet. He reached the hatchway in time to see Gordon and Scott place the injured pilot in the belly of the medical helijet. He continued to watch them for three more hours before he looked out again and saw that it was getting dark. Excusing himself, he raced out to retrieve his dog and head home. His parents were relieved to have him back home.

As he cleaned up after dinner, he heared a distant rumble and looked out toward the unseen meadow. A minute later he saw the large bulk of the craft he had spent so much time in that day, fly low and slowly over the house. The silver rocket glittered in the moonlight as it paced the now darkened sister ship. He laughed as Toby barked at the low flying craft, jumpingup and down inside the kennel fencing.

Some time later, Thunderbird 2 appeared again. This time it landed softly on the grass of the meadow. The boy looked up from his homework as he heard his dog barking again. Going outside, he put the leash on the dog and followed him back to the meadow. In front of the now spotless craft stood Virgil and Scott. With joy of seeing them again, he raced over and hugged Scott. Virgil got another licking from Toby.

The boy lead the two men to his home where he introduced them to his parents. After some talking between the five, the boy found himself strapped in next to Scott in the passenger seat of the big green craft. He was now on his way to their base where the other members of International Rescue awaited to welcome him and thank him once again.