Disclaimer: I don't own International Rescue, the Thunderbirds, or the Tracys.
A/N: This is for Angel-Sue who is feeling a bit under the weather at the moment. Enjoy!
Torture Tracy Style
"John, knock it off," Gordon snapped.
"G'way, Gordy, and take that damn torture device with you." Reaching for his comforter, John attempted to glare at his next youngest brother but failed as he lacked the energy.
"I need to check your lungs," the younger Tracy insisted. "Virg told me that he wanted your vitals checked hourly. And that was to include listening to your lungs." Once again, he tugged the comforter from John's grasp. After a brief tug-o-war, he succeeded in getting the comforter away from him and attempted to lift his sweatshirt.
Seeing the torture device coming closer, John shifted just enough that Gordon lost whatever advantage he thought he had in listening to his brother's lungs. "Touch me with that damn thing again and I swear I will shove it where you'll have to have a surgeon retrieve it."
Gordon decided that it was time to change tactics. "Fine, I give up. Stay here and let your lungs get all filled with gross, disgusting, germ infested fluid that will result in pneumonia. I'm quite sure the lovely coughing fits you'll have will do wonders with trying to get any sleep."
"I'm quite content to do just that. Now go and let me sleep." The middle Tracy sat up enough to grab his comforter again and pulled it over his body. Gradually the shaking that wracked his body eased up. Cocooning himself within his warm comforter, he fell into a restless sleep.
Determined to do what his second oldest brother ordered, Gordon carefully shifted the comforter away from his brother. "I am not going to face Dr. Paranoid because you want to be a stubborn pain-in-the-ass. He's way more frightening than you and he has the ability to stick me with needles under the guise of them being necessary." Shuddering at the image of Virgil with a syringe or two, Gordon once again attempted to lift his brother's sweatshirt up enough to slip the stethoscope under it.
"Gordon, what the hell are you doing?" The red head wasn't expecting that particular voice for another couple of hours.
A decidedly unmasculine yelp escaped his lips. His hand jerked and suddenly the cold stethoscope met John's warm abdomen.
"Arrgghh! Gordon, I'm going to shove that thing up your ass," John growled, yanking the torture device from his brother with one hand and grabbing Gordon's wrist with the other.
"Let go, John," Gordon whined. "I was just doing what Dr. P ordered."
Reaching over the prankster, Virgil snatched his stethoscope from John's hand. "That, I believe, is mine and is not being shoved up anyone's posterior." He calmly felt the bell and sighed, "Gordon, did it not occur to you that maybe warming it up would keep John from freaking out and threatening you with bodily harm? You know I hate having to clean you up after he's whumped you a few times." He pulled his brother away from his blond brother. "Get out of here, Gords. John, settle down before you have a coughing fit."
Gordon moved a safe distance from his middle brother and watched Virgil calm their brother down. "John, I just need to listen to your lungs and then I promise to leave you alone for four hours, okay?" Virgil waited until John acquiesced and then warmed the bell of the stethoscope. Once he felt it was warm enough, he held it up for John to feel. "Warm enough?"
Shrugging, John leaned forward so that his brother could listen and reassure himself that he wasn't drowning in "gross, disgusting, germ infested fluid" as Gordon so eloquently put it.
After a few minutes, Virgil shifted John's sweatshirt back down and patted his shoulder. "Everything still sounds clear and now we'll clear out so you can get some sleep. You need us, call, okay?"
"'kay." His eyelids fluttered as he struggled to stay awake. "Thanks, Smother Brothers for looking after me."
Gordon's snort of laughter triggered one from Virgil as well. A small smile played on John's mouth as he let himself drift to sleep. Before he was lost to the sleep he so needed, he thanked the powers that be for having such a caring family.