Main Title: Between the Rescues
Chapter Title: Master Guitar
Chapter Number: 1
Summary: A collection of short, hopefully humorous stories that take a look at what the characters get up to during those long off-duty hours on Tracy Island.
Author: Brosle-Cub
Disclaimer: Thunderbirds does not belong to me - I heavily grieve this fact.
It is unknown just how many chapters there will be in this story, so I ask you all to keep an open mind. Basically, I was inspired to write this when I started getting all these little scenarios in my head which I had to write about - however, I could not think of any surrounding stories. Then I decided to write this. It will be updated whenever I think of a little scene, but realistically, I'd imagine there will be no more than four chapters at least. Like I said, keep an open mind.
In this chapter, I am open to suggestions about Parker's accent. I was a bit worried about it, and I'd appreciate any good advice on how to improve it.
Master Guitar
The pool at Tracy Island was the most popular and well-loved place for relaxing and socialising. The cool water was always occupied, and it was also a common notion to sit at the side and read a book, or talk, or sleep, or do whatever one desired on hot days, which were extremely frequent.
But, sadly, it is a well-known fact that there are limits to everything in life, even the wonderfully positive things which bring us joy and happiness.
"Caaaaaallllin' ooout a-rooound the wooorld, are you ready for a braaand neeeew beeeat?"
Yes, believe it. There are limits to bad things and good things - there is only so much that a mere human-being can take. And Gordon Tracy's guitar-playing and 'singing' is not one of them.
Virgil hung his head in his copy of 'Kine', as he wondered how much longer he could prevent himself from smashing his lemonade glass over his younger brother's head in an effort to stop the awful warbling that was preventing him from concentrating. What made the situation even worse was the fact that Virgil was sitting next to one of the most beautiful women of her time, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, who was visiting Tracy Island for a week along with her faithful butler, Parker.
"Sorry about this," he muttered yet again to the visiting pair. Lady Penelope nodded graciously.
"You must stop apologising, Virgil. I have seen much worse in my time."
"h'I don' know, M'Lady." Parker, serving her Ladyship a drink, was wearing an expression which mirrored how Virgil was feeling. "h'In all 'onesty, h'I'd rather be involved h'in a car-chase with t'e world's most dang'rous criminals than lissen to that 'orrible banter."
"Yes, thank you, Parker," Lady Penelope said quickly. Virgil, however, was summoning all of his self-control not to jump up and bang Parker hard on the back for his well-chosen comments.
"I wiisssh I could share - all the looooove in ma heeeeeart!" Gordon, wearing shades and his favourite spotty shirt, was settled on the seat-swing nearby, his guitar in hand. Virgil longed to take the guitar in his hand and cause some lovely, wonderful pain with it. His fist clenched as he wistfully considered the possibilities and he came to the conclusion that he would rather be back at the atomic station, trying to control the severity of its explosion, than here, having to endure this kind of torture.
Suddenly, the awful sounds stopped. Virgil froze. Was it truly over? Could he get back to investigating the murder with Mr. Kine? Were they all free? He could hear nothing else and finally, he gave a big sigh of relief and was amused to see Parker doing the same thing as the butler seated himself comfortably on the spare lounge.
Quiet.
Total quiet.
Virgil's eyes re-discovered his place on his current page, and a smile starting to return to his lips, the pilot settled down to read.
Then the plucking of guitar strings started anew. The book fell to Virgil's lap yet again, and Parker sat up on his seat.
"Oh, for pity's sake - "
"Ah, naw - "
The two desperate men, allies in their hour of need, looked to one another for help and then one's facial expression turned to that of humour, and the other's to horror, and both looked to Lady Penelope as Gordon started singing the 'Danger Mouse' theme, his voice louder than before. The butler and the pilot were both all too aware of how Penelope felt around mice, and Virgil had experienced a first-seat view of her Ladyship's reaction just a couple of days before, when a member of the species had somehow found its way onto Thunderbird Two whilst Penelope was a guest passenger on there. They noted how tightly she was suddenly grasping her magazine, and her eyes were fixed, unmoving, on the page, which, Virgil suddenly realised, she had not turned for the past ten minutes.
"What is that awful noise?!?!"
The group jumped as a whole as Scott approached them, looking as threatening as his swimming-trunks allowed. His eyes immediately fell on Gordon, and he paled when he saw what he was holding.
"Gordon, put the guitar down."
Gordon sighed and rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. "Ah, come on, learn to live a little."
"You won't be living in a moment if you carry on making that racket!" Scott growled, as in the background, Parker pulled a small flask of whiskey from the inside pocket of his jacket and offered it to Virgil. "What about her Ladyship? Have you not considered her feelings?"
Gordon nodded. "Sure, bro. I'm entertaining."
Virgil and Parker, both taking sips of the whisky, spat the liquid out in unison as Scott desperately tried to keep his arms to his sides, and not where they were itching to go - around Gordon's neck. Oblivious to this, Gordon's fingers strummed the strings yet again, and Scott decided that now would be a good time to go and drown himself in the pool. Exchanging a pitying look with Virgil, the eldest Tracy brother then jumped into the water, splashing the side slightly as the redhead who was perfectly capable of serving as a convict's punishment in several ways opened his mouth to sing anew.
What was that song I heard on the radio the other week? Oh, yes…
His hands working that complete lack of magic, the aquanaut absolutely belted the tune out, and this time, both Virgil and Penelope were taken aback by Parker's reaction. The butler had slowly looked up, and there was a fire in his eyes that had not been there before. His lip was set in a furious scowl and his hands twitched with rage.
'Ow dare 'e violate that song! 'Ow dare 'e! h'I can take h'a lotta things, but h'I h'am not goin' to sit by now and watch 'im put that glorious piece o' work to shame!
"Roight," Parker said aloud, "h'It's time summink was done h'about this."
And before anyone could stop him, he had stood up and marched right over to Gordon and when he reached him, stood right in front of the sun. Looking down at the redhead, he waited for him to register his presence - when he did, the sunglasses slid down the aquanaut's nose and amber eyes looked over the rim at him.
"Oh, hi, Parker."
"Sir," Parker said, in what he felt was a calm tone. "h'I was just wonderin'. Do you take requests?"
Virgil and Scott both looked at the butler with ill-disguised terror, and both tried to communicate a signal across to him that said, No, no, anything but that…Gordon, however, was pleased, and took his glasses off completely, feeling slightly smug.
"Sure, I take requests." Hope it's something I know, he added silently.
"h'In that case, sir," said Parker, making the word 'sir' sound like 'worm', "Would you mind h'if we 'ad h'a bit of 'ush? T'ank you."
Confident his message had sunk in, he turned on his heel and went back to where Lady Penelope and Virgil were sitting. All three Tracy brothers present had their jaws open, and Gordon was struggling to put a sentence together in the wake of Parker's unexpected outburst. Scott and Virgil exchanged a look that said everything before bursting into peals of laughter and applause. Penelope, meanwhile, was giving Parker a hard, thoughtful look.
"I never knew you felt so strongly about that particular song, Parker. I can't pretend I'm not surprised - I didn't think you were in to that sort of thing."
"Say wot you must, M'Lady." The butler knew that he was going to pay dearly for his moment of authority, but how could she expect him to stand by and listen to that young idiot mutilate a song that was far too good to be performed by the likes of him?
"Do you know, Parker," Penelope replied, still eyeing him up and down, "I think you've just earned yourself the rest of the afternoon off."
Parker blinked, caught off-guard. "h'I - beg your pardon, M'Lady? But wot h'about you?"
Penelope turned back to her magazine. "Oh, I think I can cope. I've good company here." She flashed a smile at Virgil, who hid his reddening face behind his book. Parker looked from one to the other, and deciding that he should take the chance before her Ladyship changed her mind, he practically fled back to the house, tearing off his jacket and tie along the way and startling a passing Tin-Tin.
Scott clambered out of the pool and laughed again at the expression on Gordon's face. "You weren't expecting that, were you, champ?"
"Not really," the redhead mumbled, trying and failing to swallow his humiliation. Scott, chuckling, went to occupy the spare lounge, making a mental note along the way:
Ensure Parker gets triple helpings tonight.
Fin.