Standing in the sterile hospital room, a woozy yet talking Gordon slowly starting to make more sense, Scott was hyper aware of everything around him. From the soft electric hum of the life saving equipment to the shuffle of footsteps in the corridor his sense were on such high alert he was positively vibrating. Everyone was shifting slightly: nervous, worried, relieved - coming down from their own adrenaline spikes – which only made John's stillness more noticeable.
John usually had excellent posture but there was something else to him right now. A stiffness that can only come from keeping your emotions tightly under wraps. And he looked – calm. Too calm. Not the calm of an everyday-stressful shift on Thunderbird Five, or of relaxing at home with family. This was calm masking anger in a way only family would see through.
Scott had only seen him this angry once before, many years ago. Alan had just been getting into video games and was deemed old enough to play online unsupervised. Scott never found out what the other player had said to upset Alan so much he didn't touch a controller for a month, or what that person's real name was. He did find out what John did and let's just say that reset passwords and suddenly empty in-game purses were the least of their worries.
"John," he said, softly so as to not draw attention, "I know that look, and -"
"Don't," John cut across him, not even turning. He also kept his voice to a murmur, harsh as it was. "Don't give me another lecture on 'proportional response' or 'misuse of IR tech' or 'we're all about the rescue'- "
"I wasn't - "
" - This wasn't an accident or an unintended consequence. The Hood tried to kill my little brother - "
"I know, I - "
" - And he nearly succeeded. As soon as I'm back on Five I'm going to re-task EOS: I'll install her a hundred new processors if I have to - "
"I was going to say - "
" - with her one hundred percent focused there will be no-where he can hide. I'm going to have him."
"If you will just let me finish!" Scott hissed frustrated, and John at last turned to glower at him. Scott returned his stare, no stranger to matching his will against a head strong younger brother.
"I was going to say that we can not under any circumstances compromise the operation - " Scott raised an eyebrow as John looked like he was going to interrupt again " but at the first opportunity I want you to hunt the bastard down."
They shared a moment of resolute fury and John gave a barely-there nod, before turning back to Gordon. Scott had every confidence that The Hood's days of freedom were numbered, and he better hope the GDF found him first.