The Bet
Summary.
The Tracy siblings are alone on the Island and Gordon is bored. A game of hide and seek begins. With the stakes so high, no one wants to lose. Set after Thunderbird 1 down. Humour.
It was a peaceful day on Tracy Island. The Tracy siblings were sat around the pool, the boys wearing loose fitting shorts and Evie wearing a light dress. Jeff had gone to New York for the week to attend meetings for Tracy Industries. Kyrano, Onaha and Tintin had gone on a cruise for some time alone and the Hackenbackers were currently spending some bonding time on Thunderbird 5. G, Evie's fiancée, had gone to LA for a few days to help out his team on a case.
"I'm bored!" Gordon whined from where he sat next to the pool, his feet dangling in the water.
"Then do something." Alan snapped, not looking up from the game he was playing on his Ipad. Scott was looking around him in confusion, not realising that the drops of water falling on him was his sister messing with her powers and not rain. Gordon looked back at the water before jumping up.
"I know!" He shouted, making Evie move her hand too fast, causing a lot of water fall on her oldest brother, soaking him from head to toe.
"Evie!" Scott yelled, jumping up in surprise.
"Sorry Scott." She said, looking at the red-head. "What do you know?"
"What to do! Let's play hide and seek!" Gordon shouted, making all his siblings look at him like he had two heads.
"What?" John asked, not sure if he heard his younger brother right. "Did you say hide and seek?"
"Yeah! It will be fun!" He replied.
"Yeah, if we were 5." Alan muttered.
"Oh come on! We're all bored and we haven't had a rescue in 4 days!" He whined, reminding Evie of the little kid who tried anything to get out of going to bed.
"Hide and seek is boring and pointless." Scott replied, rubbing his hair with a towel he found on the floor.
"Then let's make it interesting." Evie said, a smirk on her face.
"And how do we do that?" Virgil asked, not knowing what his twin was thinking.
"We make a bet." She replied, grabbing all of her brother's attention. "Gordon, since it was your idea, you have to find us. If you find all of us before sundown, then we will do all of the chores until Onaha and Kyrano return, including cleaning the 'birds and doing inventory."
"And if I lose?" Gordon asked, wanting to know what his siblings would win.
"You have to take the next 3 rotations on 5." She replied, making her brothers smile and Gordon frown, before smiling and looking up.
"Deal. What's the rules?" He asked.
"First, let's get changed. Meet back here in 10 minutes." She said as they all ran up to their rooms. She pulled on shorts and a tank top, making sure to grab her sunglasses and the 6 rucksacks in the cupboard, filling them with food and water. They met back at the pool deck, the boys all wearing shorts and t-shirts. "Right, we can hide anywhere on the Island, but we need to be able to get back to the villa in 10 minutes in case of a call out. We can hide in groups or individually, that's up to us. You have until sundown to find us, and you are not allowed to use our watch GPS or the security cameras. You need to see us with your own eyes and whoever you find has to go to the living room and stay there." She said.
"Ok. I just have one rule for you Evie. No hiding in water." Gordon said with a pointed look.
"Fair enough." She replied.
"I'll give Brains and Fermat a call, let them know what's going on." Scott said, pressing a button on his watch.
"I'll set up a timer on our watches for how long we have to hide." John replied as Virgil grabbed some medical supplies and put them in everyone's bags.
"I'll call G." Evie said, pulling her phone out and dialling the familiar number.
"Hey! Little miss Tracy!" Sam's voice answered, making her laugh.
"Hey Sam. Where's G?" She replied, hearing a scuffle on the other end.
"Hey Evie. What's up?" G asked. Evie guessed that he was wrestling his phone from Sam.
"Any idea when you're getting back?" She asked, aware of her brothers listening in.
"Hopefully before sundown. It depends on if I can convince Granger that I don't need to fill in paperwork." He grumbled.
"Good luck with that. And you might want to stay in LA tonight. We have a bet going on." She said.
"What sort of bet?" He asked.
"A bet involving hide and seek." She said with a laugh.
"Hide and seek? Let me guess, Gordon was bored." He said.
"You guessed it. But the bet bit was my idea. Anyway, we're going to be out of the villa for a while, so you think you can brave the paperwork for one more night?" She asked, a teasing tone in her voice.
"I guess. I miss you." He said. She could hear Deeks making a comment, but couldn't quite hear what he said.
"I miss you too. And tell Deeks that if he wants to live to see his birthday, he had better shut up." She said, making him laugh.
"I'm sure he knows. I'll see you tomorrow then. Love you." He said.
"Love you too." She hung up and turned back to her brothers, seeing them smirking at her. "Jealous of my relationship are we?" She teased.
"Course we're not. Anyway, I've set the timer for 5 minutes. Gordon, if you would go to your room." John said, watching as the red-head went to his room. "I also set a lock on his room so he can't get out until the times up."
"Nice thinking John. Right. Let's go." Evie said before they all split up. Alan went straight to the vents above Jeff's office. He had been going up there when he wanted some time alone ever since the Hood first attacked. He replaced the vent and curled up, using his arm as a pillow. Scott and John went to the cave on the other side of the mountain the house resided on. They moved some vines so that they could keep an eye on anyone approaching, but stay hidden.
Evie and Virgil hiked up to Satellite Mountain, sitting down on the ledge at the top. Evie lay back, her sunglasses covering her face when the alarm on Virgil's phone went off, signalling the 5 minutes were up.
"Ok, what gave you the idea of sending Gordon up to 5?" Virgil asked, looking at his twin with an amused look.
"Dad was talking about getting Gordon to take a few rotations so that John has some more time on Earth. This just made it better." She smiled, making him laugh.
"Well, it was a good idea. Where do you think the others are?" He asked, looking out at the blue ocean.
"Scott and John will be close to the house and will probably get caught soon. Alan will be in the vents above Dad's office. He goes up there a lot now and thinks that no one knows about it, but both Dad and I have caught him going up and falling asleep." She replied. She looked up at the sky and sighed.
"You ok?" Virgil asked, frowning at the look on her face
"Yeah. Just thinking." She said.
"About what?" He asked.
"Thunderbird 1. Something's bugging me about what happened when we crashed." She replied, making Virgil flinch at the reminder of the incident.
"What is it?" He asked.
"I don't know yet. But I will." She said. She sat up and grabbed her backpack, pulling her laptop out.
"What are you doing?" He asked, leaning forwards.
"I said that Gordon couldn't use the cameras, I didn't say anything about us using them." She replied, a small smile on her lips. "Ok, he's still in the house, and it looks like he found Alan."
"No surprise there. Sprout was always bad at hide and seek." He replied, having a drink of water.
"Let's move. Get a bit of exercise." She said before standing up and walking down the mountain, Virgil right behind her.
On the other side of the Island, John was pacing the cave while Scott just lay with his arms under his head.
"We need to move. Gordon will find us in a second." John said, looking at his older brother.
"Why? It's just a stupid game." Scott replied.
"A stupid game that could give us 6 months free of Gordon's pranks." John said, making Scott's head snap up. He had forgotten what they got if they won the bet.
"What do you suggest we do?" He asked, making John smile.
"Divide and concur?" Scott smiled, nodding his head.
"Divide and concur. Let's go." They grabbed their bags and walked out of the cave, hoping to win this bet and finally get some peace on the Island.
JxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxxJxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxxJxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxx
"What's that?" Virgil asked, watching as Evie picked something up from the sand and smile.
"G's watch. He lost it last week." She laughed, dropping her bag and looking out at the water as Virgil sat down.
"How's the wedding planning going?" He asked, seeing her play with her ring.
"It would be better if Lady P stopped suggesting having everything in pink!" She replied with a laugh.
"So, you gonna let anyone see the dress?" He asked with a smirk. Evie had taken Onaha and Tintin to LA to meet Kensi and Rachel and pick out her wedding dress a few days ago. The wedding was a month away and she had yet to show any of her brothers the dress.
"Nope. You're gonna have to wait and see. I don't want any of you to give G a hint!" She laughed, starting to get pretty hot in the evening sunshine. She took her tank top off, revealing the blue bikini she was wearing underneath. She turned around and saw the pained look on Virgil's face, knowing what he was looking at. "Virge! Will you stop it! You couldn't do anything to stop it."
"I could! I could have prevented it!" He said. She grabbed his hand and put it on the jagged scar on her back.
"Virgil, this is something that happened, and every day I think of what might have happened if this didn't happen. This scar gives me strength, it lets me remember what I survived and what I have to live for." She said.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?" He sighed, taking his hand away as she sat next to him. "I should have stopped him the second I thought something was off."
"Virgil, I like to think that everything happens for a reason." She said, earning a strange look from him. "Think about it. If Richard didn't beat me, Dad would have never brought the Island and he would probably still be burying himself in his work to escape his pain. If he didn't buy the Island, then he would have never started International Rescue and we wouldn't all live here. I wouldn't have become a federal agent and I would have never met G. If Richard didn't kidnap me, and then stab me, then maybe I wouldn't have told G about International Rescue and we probably wouldn't be engaged. Maybe this was something that had to happen so that everything else could happen."
"You've got a point." He sighed. Before they had the chance to say anything else, they saw Gordon walk onto the beach in the distance, looking away from them. They grabbed their stuff and ran into the jungle, getting to higher ground so that they could keep an eye on anyone approaching. "So, what's new with you and G?"
"Oh please. You guys seem to know more about my love life than I do." She laughed. "I'm just glad you lot didn't scare him off."
"Like we would do that." He said with a smirk. "At least Gordon waited a month before pranking him."
"Yeah, but he didn't have to put it on YouTube. G spent a week trying to convince Assistant Director Granger that it wasn't his fault." She said, leaning against a tree. "Hey Virge, sorry for earlier. I didn't mean to get snappy at you."
"It's ok sis. Just remember that you can always talk to me. No matter what." He smiled. "How long till sundown?"
"2 hours. We are so gonna win this! There is no way I am doing all of the housework." She replied with a laugh.
Gordon sighed and walked off the beach, heading towards the house. He had found Alan when he fell asleep in the vents, and started to snore. It could be heard all through the house. He had then found Scott and John when they started to shout about who was a better tree climber. The 3 were currently locked in the living room on the 2nd floor of the house, Scott and John still arguing.
He now had 2 hours to find Evie and Virgil. Knowing the twins, they would be sticking together. And with Evie being a trained federal agent, it would be hard to find them. He just had to hope that they got careless. Something that was very unlikely, but he had to hope none the less.
"Hey Evie, what are you doing?" Virgil asked, looking at Evie kneeling on the floor, poking at something.
"There's something here." She said, digging at the soil at the base of the tree. She finally dislodged it and laughed, finally seeing what it was. "You remember when we lost Alan's favourite toy car and told him Santa had to take it to an orphan?"
"Yeah…" He replied hesitantly.
"I found it." She laughed, holding it up for Virgil to see. The first Christmas after they moved to the Island, Alan had been obsessed with his toy car, and when he fell asleep on the beach, they assumed he had left it at the house, only for him to drop it as they carried him back to the villa. When he realised, he had cried and cried and the kids spent 2 days searching for it. When they couldn't find it, they told him that Santa had to take it to an orphan who had never seen a car before. It cheered him up a little and they had all forgotten about it.
"What's the betting Alan kills us when he finds out about it?" He laughed as Evie stood up and put the car in her bag.
"I'll blame Gordon and Scott. Get a bit of payback for them telling Dad that G slept in my room the first night he spent here." She replied with a cheeky grin. "Let's start heading back. It'll be sundown soon and I want to see the look on Gordon's face when he realises he has to spend 6 months without water." She laughed before they slowly started to walk back to the hose, planning on hiding in the jungle just off the pool deck.
JxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxxJxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxxJxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxx
Gordon looked up when he heard an alarm ring across the Island, signalling the end of the game. He looked up in horror as he saw Virgil and Evie walk out of the jungle and onto the pool deck, at the same time that Scott, John and Alan walked out of the house, huge smiles on all of their faces.
"And that is the end of it. Virgil and Evie won, which means, Gordon lost." Scott announced, unable to keep the smile off his face.
"You might want to go pack. Your rotation on 5 starts tomorrow." Evie teased, seeing his pout. "Oh, and you have to be professional at all times up there. So no using the tech to prank us."
"Off you pop Nemo." Alan said with a smirk as the red head walked into the house, looking extremely sad.
"I almost feel bad." John said. "But then I just think of all the peace we'll have." They laughed, walking into the house.
"Oh Alan, guess what Evie found in the jungle." Virgil said, making Evie freeze.
"Nothing. I found nothing." She said, not able to stop Virgil from grabbing her bag. He pulled out the toy car, making Scott and John freeze. They knew that car too well.
"Is that the car you told me went to an orphan?" He asked, looking at his siblings in shock.
"Umm… Yeah. You dropped it in the jungle and we couldn't find it, so we made up that Santa took it to someone who needed it more." Scott replied.
"Oh, I am so going to get you guys back for that!" He laughed, going up to his room to make sure it was clean for Jeff's return.
JxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxxJxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxxJxxSxxJxxVxxExxGxxAxx
"Evie!" Fermat shouted as he ran out to the pool deck. "How d-did you get G-G-Gordon to spend th-th-th- a few rotations on f-f-five?"
"Oh, I used his own ignorance and confidence against him." She laughed as her brothers smirked.
"Yeah, and she used her federal agent training against him!" Alan laughed as Fermat walked over to him with a smile.
"It was a good idea to make him do the chores as well Evie." Scott commented from his sunbed. "How did you get him to do it?"
"I threatened to go up to 5 and turn the gravity off, making it so that he couldn't turn it back on." She said, making him laugh.
"It's nice to be in the pool and not get dunked." John said as he and Virgil threw a ball around in the pool.
"Wait till Evie gets in." Virgil laughed, making his twin use her powers to pull him under the water. "Hey!" He spluttered as he resurfaced.
"I don't need to be in the pool to drown you." She replied with a smirk at his scared expression.
"Can we have a new rule that Evie is not allowed to use her powers anywhere near us?" He asked.
"You can try, but you know she won't listen." Jeff said as he and G walked onto the pool deck from the path to the hangers. "I picked up a stowaway on the way back." He joked as G walked over to Evie.
"Hey." She said, giving him a light kiss.
"Where's Gordon?" Jeff asked, confused that Fermat was by the pool, and so was John.
"Oh, he is spending the next 6 months with the stars." Evie laughed, making Jeff frown.
"What did you do?" He asked, assuming that his children tricked the red head into being stuck on the space station.
"He lost a bet." John said, a huge smirk on his face.
"Was this the bet involving hide and seek?" G asked.
"Yep." Alan replied. "Evie bet Gordon that he couldn't find all of us by sundown, and she used her training against him." Jeff laughed before going to his office to complete some paperwork. He was starting to regret telling Evie that he wanted Gordon to spend some rotations on 5. But he knew that it would all work out in the end.
Here you go guys, a little one shot I thought of while babysitting my cousin.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Emma