Gordon was still laying on the couch with a pile of celery crunch bars in reach—Parker's gift to keep him happy for awhile—when his brother's arrived home from their errand. He had listened in to everything that had happened, though his comments had petered out as things started to get serious.
Scott had held onto that escape pod. Gordon had told him to let it go, that it was going to pull him under. But Scott hadn't listened. Soon, his brand new Thunderbird was under all that sea sludge, his brother inside of it.
Gordon just about blurted out, wanting to ask his brother what the hell he had been thinking, but then Virgil had decided that his bird was actually some flying turtle and splashed down into the ocean to go get Scott!
Gordon didn't know what to think, but he bit his lip and stayed silent.
And that was what he was still doing, waiting for his brothers to come back so he could be annoyed at them.
Scott came into the lounge first and went straight to their father's desk and sat down.
"Where's Virgil?" Gordon wasn't looking at his brother, but at the table, his one good arm hung over the side of the couch his fingers playing with the ends of the crunch bars' wrappers.
"He's draining his bird." Scott smirked a little at that.
Gordon frowned. He snatched one of the bars from the floor and bit into one corner of the wrapper to tear it open. He crunched as loud as he could until the bar was gone, then crinkled the wrapper up in his hand and tossed it.
It landed just short of the desk.
Scott glanced up at his brother but shook his head.
So, Gordon ate another bar, and tossed the wrapper again, this time landing on the desk.
Scott's smile just stayed and he brushed the wrapper away and continued with his work.
Another bar, another wrapper. But Scott just ignored it and kept on working.
Gordon was getting annoyed so he started opening the bars, but not eating them—he just wanted the wrappers. He started tossing them and finally started to hit his target, Scott's head.
But Scott just ignored him, his shoulders shaking a little as he chuckled.
Fed up, he tossed one of the unwrapped bars and hit him square in the head.
"Alright, Gordon, that is going a bit far, don't you think?" A smile still played on his lips a little, but when he saw Gordon's frown it disappeared. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that I had told someone that they needed to let go cause sea sludge could pull you under and they just ignored me and shocker, they went under as well! And then another idiot decides he needs to fly his plane into the ocean to rescue the first idiot!" Gordon turned his head away from his brother, his good arm coming up to rest on his eyes.
Scott took in a deep breath, sat up, and rubbed at his face. He stood and made his way down to where his brother was laying, he picked up his booted leg and sat down, laying the leg in his lap. "Gordon, that capsule could be the only way of knowing if Dad could possibly still be out there. We had to take that chance." There was a pause as Scott pinched his lips for a moment. "Don't-Don't you want to find him?
"Of course I do!" The reply was a little thick and there was a sniff at the end of it. "But I don't want to loose my brothers in the process!"
"Gordon we're not going to go down that easily—"
"Scott, I pilot that sub all the time and look what happened to me! I told you you'd go under, but you wouldn't listen! And-and then Virgil—" His voice seemed to be suddenly stuck in his throat.
Scott looked down at the boot in his lap and started messing with one of the velcro straps. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you—guess I had a bit of tunnel vision. I was only thinking of finding Dad."
"No kidding." Gordon had found his voice again and it was a little clearer. "Dad wouldn't want any of us getting hurt—or killed—trying to find him. You know that."
Scott nodded. "Yeah, I know." He was silent for just a moment before a chuckle escaped.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I think the rolls got reversed at some point here. Isn't the big brother supposed to be lecturing the younger brother?"
"Not when the big brothers are the stupid ones." Gordon tried to pout, but his lip started to curl up into a smile.
"Alright. You have my permission to yell at me if I ever start to do something like that again."
Gordon finally moved his arm, the tears were gone, but his eyes were still a little pink. "Really? And you won't tell me to be quiet."
"Well, I'll try not to." Scott stood up and pulled Gordon's feet off of the couch.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Scott then took Gordon's good arm and lifted him to his feet. "You've been on this couch all day. Figured you might like a change of view." Scott took his good arm and tucked it into his elbow and helped him up the stairs. He paused for a moment next to the desk and grabbed a tissue and wiped at Gordon's face.
"Wha—what are you doing?" Gordon turned his face to and fro trying to escape the onslaught.
"I'm taking you down to the pool deck and I believe Lady Penelope is down there as well."
Gordon's eyes widened and he froze which allowed Scott the moment he needed to clean his brother up. "I can't go down there."
"It was her idea to take Two under."
"What? You want me to tell her off?"
"if you're going to be mad at Virgil, might as well be mad at her too."
"B-b-but I can't. It was just a suggestion." Gordon struggled a little against his brother's grasp, but there was no way he was going to get away with an arm and leg still immobilized.
"Well, maybe you can tell her how scared you were."
Gordon stopped making sound at that but his eyes were wide and he and just started opening and closing his mouth very much like a fish as they made their way down the stairs.