Disclaimer: I just don't own it. I really don't!

Authors note: Hey everyone!! I'm back finally with a sequel to Somewhere in Between. Not really much to say, except sorry that it's taken me so bloody long! I've gone back to listening to the same album I listened to a lot when I was writing the original story, and I find it scary how one album has leant itself to so many ideas in the last few years, anywho, it's Lifehouse's 2000 album, No Name Face, worth a listen!

Only One.

By Bubblegum Thai.

Chapter One.

I guess you're the only one, that nobody changes.

I guess you're the only one, that will never change faces.

I guess you're the only one.

It was early and normally the day would only be barely beginning for the Tracy family and their co-inhabitants of the private island. However, the peaceful serenity of dawn was violently shattered with a loud whir followed by a gush, a column of steam shooting down into the large crevice where the swimming pool usually sat. The silver shaft of Thunderbird One disappeared into the gaping darkness and slowly the swimming pool rolled over like the peel-back lid off of a can of sardines.

It was only a few minutes later where the newly settled calm was disturbed once again as the great monster that was Thunderbird Two also returned home, lumbering through the sky at a surprising speed, it's bulk slowly beginning to lower itself upon the run way before retreating into the cliff face.

Up stairs in the living room of the villa, the heroes were greeted with their usual welcome, their Father, Jeff Tracy, sat behind his desk. He looked up to acknowledge the exhausted duo as they trudged towards him, dropping into the seats before him. He smiled warmly,

"Good job, boys." He beamed, "I know it's difficult there only being the two of you for now, but you did wonderfully. All that's left is a quick report and then you can retire to your beds for a few hours."

Scott nodded weakly,

"Well…" He trailed off, "God, sorry Father, I'm so tired…" He shook his head in an attempt to rouse himself, "It was fairly routine, just long. The foundations of the building had not been properly researched when they decided to extend, so as they've put on all that extra weight, the foundations have slowly begun to crumble."

"Ahhh, I see." Jeff mused as he nodded,

"Yeah! The entire thing just came tumbling down!" Virgil exclaimed, "But, we used the Mole to tunnel under and reinforce before attempting any sort of rescue, we knew the structure was far too unstable for us to attempt moving around with in using our equipment."

"Excellent job!" Jeff oozed with pride, "Well, off to be with the both of you…"

Virgil had to nudge his brother awake as Scott had slowly dozed off in his seat, practically spilling onto the floor. The pair stumbled off to their respective bedrooms, leaving Jeff sitting alone in the large family room, staring at his son's video portraits, all lined up in a perfect row. Things were a little difficult at the moment, not through anyone's faults, John was up in the space station whilst Alan was away on his honeymoon, it had just been unfortunate timing that Gordon had taken a nasty fall out on the cliffs and broken his arm, leaving only two of his sons left. His daughter, Suzan was off of the island again, back living in Japan and working as under-cover agent after the current agent died tragically from a heart disease. He'd been a close friend of Jeff's, and it had saddened him in his passing, however, left him in a panic as the entire country (despite it's tiny size) was completely void of an agent. As his daughter had been nearing her nineteenth birthday, and she was fluent in the language, he figured it would be easier than finding a new agent to trust.

So there they were, not quite a complete family, but they were doing fine, despite their lack of numbers, the only thing that couple possibly go wrong now was if there was a major disaster, and seeing as they were few and far between, Jeff allowed himself the luxury of relaxing, causing him to slowly drift off to sleep.

On the other side of the globe in Japan, it was nearing the end of the day. Where her brothers had returned home at nearly six in the morning, it was almost eight p.m. in Tokyo where, happily shopping away in the Harajuku district was Suzan, the youngest of the Tracy family, her shoulder-length dark brown hair bobbing along as she walked along side of a small handful of Japanese girls of a similar age. She had a small, part-time job working in a fashion boutique which she worked a couple of afternoons during the week, after all, as a secret agent, she couldn't very well have a full-time job in case something came up at short notice, it wasn't as if crooks gave a twenty-four hour warning before doing something stupidly dangerous and illegal, not to mention, her Father was a billionaire, it wasn't like they were short of money, however, she insisted on at least doing most of it by herself. Of course, her Father, being the man is was, was terrified she'd wind up working on a hostess bar, and continuously sent Scott to check in on her for the first three months. However, once he was satisfied that she was earning a meagre, yet respectable living, he gave up. It had been nearly a years since she'd moved there, and was yet to investigate a single incident, and although half-tempted to return to the island for a surprise visit, she knew that as soon as she set foot off of the small island of Japan, something big would happen. She just couldn't afford to take that risk. Not to mention her Father would kill her,

"Suzan, konomu aisukuriimu o ka?"

"Suzan, would you like an ice cream?"

Suzan was startled out of her wandering day dream through the market-place by her friend, Hikaru, a short girl with a black bob-haircut and deep brown eyes, cutting into, popping up in front of her with a smile,

"Hai yorokobashi nasai!" Suzan smiled in return, reaching into her red bag made from an old baseball jersey and a pair of blue jeans, for her purse. Hikaru giggled and touched her arm with the shake of her head to signal that the snack was on her.

"Yes please!"

When Hikaru returned with the ice cream, Suzan's eyes widened at the size of the thing! It was three scoops high, teetering perilously a top of the cone, one scoop strawberry, one scoop chocolate and one scoop vanilla (or she assumed it was vanilla, at the end of the day, this was Japan and they were not above creating bizarre combinations). She daintily brushed back strands of her wavy hair as she tentatively liked the top scoop. Yes, it was vanilla, she silently thanked God for that and smiled at her friend,

"Arigatou."

"Thank you."

Suzan smiled fondly, the ice cream was delicious and it reminded her of the ones that her brother John had used to buy her every week of the summer holidays back in New York. Okay, New York wasn't that hot of a place, but in the summer, most places get pretty hot for their residents,

"I really should give Dad a call…" She mused aloud, earning herself a few curious looks from her fellow shoppers. She grinned sheepishly, "Gomen Nasai." She mumbled, ducking her head before rushing to catch-up with her friends.

"I'm very sorry."

"Hey, look!" Gordon exclaimed as Virgil stumbled wearily into the living room, silently wondering where he hadn't chosen a normal vocation, one with office hours like all of his school friends had. Of course, he didn't really mean it, but it were times like this that he did wonder such things,

"What?" He asked with a frown,

"Alan and Tin-tin's wedding photos are back!" He beamed, holing them up with his one working arm. Virgil smiled slightly,

"Well put them down before you damage them!" He scolded, "Alan'll murder you if he finds out you were waving them around like a maniac!"

"Ahhh, relax will ya? They're not back for another fortnight!"

"Two weeks…" Virgil whimpered. He and Scott would be working the missions alone for another two weeks, another two exhausting weeks, "If only Brains' automated system for Thunderbird Five was up and ready."

"Yeah…too bad it's still in the testing stages, huh?" Gordon sighed, "I can't wait to get this cast off and get back out there!" He growled, "It kills me inside to see you and Scott worked to the bone like this."

"Anything from Suzan?" Virgil asked suddenly, looking over to the weeks stack of mail,

"Nah…sorry." Gordon answered, heaving himself to his feet, "I'm starving…" He mumbled, more to himself than to his brother was he wandered towards the kitchen.

Virgil sighed heavily, he was bored. Bored and lonely. It wasn't that he didn't get on with Scott and Gordon, because he did, they were his brothers and he loved them very much, he just missed John and Suzan a lot also, and, he supposed, Alan, though he missed Alan because he was his kid brother, he misses the others because they had vague similar interests and there was never a dull moment when the three of them were together, talking about music, and art and just generally having a laugh.

That wasn't the only reason he felt lonely, he'd felt especially empty in the last couple of months, when the relationship he'd had with Lady Penelope had ended. She'd not really been very specific about what it was about him that she hadn't loved, but he suspected that it was because he'd decided it was time to tell his Father about their quiet meetings and near-secret relationship. Of course Scott knew, Scott knew everything, or, at least, he liked to think that he did. His sister had known, though, because she'd moved just a few weeks in, she didn't know all too much as they'd seen one another once in the past year or so that she'd been living away. When he'd announced to her that he wanted to finally tell their Father, she hadn't taken to it as well as he'd of liked, in fact, she had seemed very opposed to his intentions, and to this day, he still didn't know why.

This wasn't him and he knew it. He hated the fact that he was becoming, in his mind, the freak of the family, he had to be happy. He had to be happy for everyone else. He wanted so badly to slap himself and force himself to pick of the pieces of his shattered heart and carry on with life, but he just, couldn't. He'd never felt like this way, and as much as he hated to admit it, he wanted his little sister. He sighed heavily,

"I've got an idea." Scott beamed brightly as he walked into the living room, "On my next stretch of leave, I'm going to go to Tokyo and see Suzan." He said proudly as he sat beside Virgil on the sofa, "What do you think?"

Virgil cracked a smile,

"Sounds like a great idea, Scott!"

"You should go. Obviously not at the same time, but when Alan comes back, it'll be me, you, John and Tin-tin. Tin-tin can help out, so I'm sure Dad'll let you take a week off. You've been working twice as hard as I have…you know how to use more of the machines than I do. I just tend to supervise. Seriously Virg', it'd do you the world of good."

Virgil gave his brother and exhausted, yet appreciative look,

"Thanks, Scott."

"Just two more weeks…" Scott breathed, "So, sound like a plan?"

"Yeah…" Virgil sighed, "It does."

"Maybe it'll cheer you up, y'know? Stuck on this island isn't good for us all sometimes. That's why we go onto the mainland and so on."

"Moshi moshi?" Suzan cooed as she ran into her apartment to answer the phone that she'd head ringing all the way down the hall outside.

"Hello?"

"Suzan. It's your Father."

"Hey Daddy!" She beamed, shutting the front door with her foot, as she stretched her leg out and nudged it closed, "What's up?"

"Not much, I just thought I'd give you a call to see how you were."

Suzan frowned,

"Daddy…you're fourteen hours behind me…it's got to be three a.m. there right now!" She said suddenly, "Please don't scare me like that! I thought something bad had happened for you to be calling me at three in the morning!"

"I'm sorry I scared you, but I wanted to catch you at a time that was convenient for you."

"Well that's very considerate. Thank you." She said with a smile, "You look tired, Dad." She observed on the video phone,

"You look lovely." He countered with a smile, "What've you been up to?"

"Not much. The usual really. I was at work this afternoon, hence the mad dash through the front door a few minutes ago." She grinned, "Other than that, very little. Dad, are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm worried about your brother."

"My…brother…?" Suzan repeated slowly, as if to point out his error, without actually saying so,

"Yes."

"You're going to have to be more specific, Father." She sighed, rubbing at her temples as a small black cat wound itself around her ankles with a mew,

"Virgil."

"Oh." Suzan bit her lower lip, "Is he alright? I mean…what's wrong with him?" She panicked, "He's alright, you said everyone was fine…right?!"

"Calm down. I'm just a little concerned for his health. He's been so tired and miserable lately."

"Hmmm. That's not like him. Nothing ever gets Virg' down."

"Exactly."

"He has stopped writing me letters though…" She admitted, "but I figured you guys were just busy."

"We have been,"

"I know. We get the news on this side of the world too." She joked, "What would you like me to do about Virgil, Father? You guys are under-manned over there as it is. Would you like me to come home until Alan gets back, at least?"

"I…no…I don't think that's a good idea."

"Dad. You said so yourself, Virgil's exhausted, how long is it going to be until he makes a mistake? A mistake that costs someone's life. That costs HIS life?"

"…" Jeff fell silent, as if his daughter had finally rammed in home for him,

"How long until Scott gets in the same condition?"

"…very well…" Jeff sighed, "Come home."

Suzan almost squealed with delight, excited to see her family for the first time in months, since Christmas,

"Great! I'll book myself a ticket on the next Fireflash back to the States."

Jeff smiled weakly,

"I'm not happy about this, after all…this leaves Japan completely without an agent for several weeks."

"Ahh…nothing happens here anyway!" She beamed, "And I'll be back soon enough, Japan won't sink without me!" She laughed softly, flipping a strand of hair over her shoulder,

"Well that may be but I…" Jeff trailed off, his eyes darting to somewhere in the house, "Suzan, I've got to go, John's radioing in! It must be an emergency."

"Alright Daddy! Love you, bye!" She called before disconnecting the video-phone.

"Another mission…another rescue…another long journey home…" Scott drawled lazily as he put Thunderbird One into auto pilot and leant back in his seat. His scanners showed that Thunderbird Two was close behind but was slipping further and further behind him time wise as the slender Thunderbird One was a lot faster than the bulky green transport craft.

It was an hour or so into their journey home and Scott was in his final stretch of reaching home. There was fizzing sound that suddenly came from the radio,

"That was weird…" Scott mumbled to himself, frowning at the radio, "Thunderbird One to base, everything alright down there?"

"Fine Scott, why?"

"My radio just fizzed. It was weird."

"Probably just static from one of the fishing ships, check with Virgil to make sure though."

"Right." Scott nodded, "Thunderbird One to Thunderbird Two, come in Virgil."

Silence.

"Thunderbird One to Thunderbird Two. Come. In. Virgil." Scott repeated louder and clearly, "VIRGIL!" He yelled into the radio, "Thunderbird One to base, no response from Thunderbird Two."

"Alright. I'm sure it's just communication problems. Calm down, turn around and back track."

"I can't, I'm running low on fuel. I've got just enough to make it home."

"Very well. Come in, if he's not back by the time you've refuelled then you'll have to go back and look for him."

"…" Scott fell silent,

"Scott?!"

"Yes…Father…"

"I'm worried about him too, but you must stay calm, it's probably just a radio malfunction. He's probably cruising along none the wiser."

"Right."

- - - To be continued…

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