OK, here it is, Virgil's story. There is no gap in time, just a change in featured characters.

Disclaim - I do not, nor have I ever owned the Thunderbirds.

Chapter One – Unwanted Attention

Sarah Woodbury sat at the kitchen table of Station 18 for the Boston Fire Department. She had to write up the rescue runs for the day before heading off. Looking temptingly at the e-mail icon on her laptop, she knew there would be another e-mail from Virgil Tracy. Resisting the desire to hear from him – yet again – Sarah sighed and dove back into her reports. Rescue reports were a pain; Virgil was so lucky he didn't have to worry about them. He worked as a mechanical engineer for his father, businessman Jeff Tracy. A boring, stable life must be nice to have.

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Virgil Tracy was exhausted. The mudslide in Peru had been a mess but they had gotten everyone out alive. The Thunderbirds had returned to base, filthy and tired. Post-flight checks were done and they headed back into their house. Scott and Kate veered off to their own villa, stopping at John and Emily's to pick up their son. While John was up on Five, Emily was happy to watch baby Jason during rescues. Lost in thought, Virgil was watching his brother and sister-in-law cuddle their son as they walked home. If he knew his family, Kate would get Jason to bed, shower and then sit down to write up her report before heading to bed. Scott would shower and head to bed with Dad nagging him to finish the report two days later.

Entering his own ensuite, Virgil shed his uniform, turning on his laptop as he went. Seeing a message from Sarah Woodbury, the childhood friend who he had become reacquainted with recently, brought a smile to his tired face. Opening the e-mail, Virgil laughed as she recounted a few recent rescues, particularly one involving a golden retriever, two bridesmaids and a punch bowl. Sarah always could make him smile but seeing the fascinating woman the awkward teenager had blossomed into fascinated him as nothing had in some time. Virgil dashed off a message to her before heading for his bathroom and a long, hot shower.

Having Sarah back in his life was making it richer, fuller and more promising. Virgil had always thought his family was enough, when balancing it with his Tracy Industries work, the Thunderbirds, his music and his art. Yet hadn't his brothers become happier, with a greater sense of balance from starting their own branches of the family tree? As the water poured over his form, Virgil had wondered if Sarah was the missing piece in his own life. Time would tell. His kid brother Alan was heading back to his boarding school tomorrow. Virgil had persuaded his father to let him fly his brother back to Massachusetts. And if he happened to swing over to Boston just to say hi to Sarah while he was there?

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"Hey Woody!" Sarah looked up from her report as her partner Stan "Tommy" Tomlinson walked into the kitchen caring a newspaper. "Seen the latest story, cover-girl?" Sarah began to slowly bang her head on the table. Ever since she had rescued Alan Tracy from his burning hotel room, her name had been mentioned in the paper as "the courageous Boston Firefighter who rescued the son of Billionaire Jeff Tracy." The media found it fascinating how she had miraculously gotten to the boy just ahead of the flames, saving him with the help of the Thunderbirds. Then, it had gotten into the press that she had known the Tracys when both families had lived in Kansas. Yesterday, it had been revealed that Sarah's own family had died in a fire that had nearly claimed her own life. What did they have today the media want from her today?

Glaring at Tommy, Sarah snagged the paper out of his hand. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "I haven't gotten to read that yet!"

"Then you shouldn't be tossing it in my….oh, crap."

By this time, the rest of C shift of Station 18 had come in. Sarah looked up from the paper, opened her mouth, and snapped it shut again before slamming the newspaper down and storming out of the kitchen. No one said a word, shocked beyond measure. The only woman in the station for all three shifts, Woody had learned to have the patience of a saint when it came to most things but the media attention from this latest rescue was beginning to really draw on the young woman. Captain Luis Goya reached out and picked up the paper. Shaking his head, he showed the shift what had bothered Woody. Above the fold were pictures of the arsonist, the burned-out hotel and a department-issued picture of Firefighter S. Woodbury. Below the fold, her partner saw the "human interest" story and photo that had pissed off the redhead. Accompanying the story entitled "Is Hero Firefighter Virgil Tracy's Childhood Sweetheart?" was a picture of Sarah hugging the middle Tracy son.

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Damn media. Damn vultures. Damn telephoto lens. How did they come up with this? Someone in their hometown "confessed" how Sarah "practically lived at the Tracy house the couple's Senior year". No mention of how she had been either tutoring Virgil or babysitting Alan. Another off-the-source telling how the couple had been "torn apart by circumstances beyond the young lovers' control". Yeah, like the fact Virgil's family had moved out of town and Sarah had been more dead than alive at that point?

Tommy came in to check on his partner. "Hey, Woody, sorry about that, I should have looked at the story first." He came around the screened off area where Sarah slept (the towel she tossed over if she "wasn't decent" was down, so he knew it was all clear). To his surprise, Sarah was sitting on her bed, crying. They had been partners for almost two years and in all that time, the only time he had ever seen Woody cry was the day they had buried her Aunt Harry. Harriet Simpson had worked at Massachusetts General Hospital for forty years, so more than a few firefighters, cops and medical personnel had wept at the fiery woman's passing. But hazing, rude comments, even outright harassment never seemed to faze Woody. So why did this stuff with the Tracys?

"Woody, talk to me buddy. What is it?"

Sarah shook her head slowly. "Ah, Tommy, you don't know what it was like back then. I was Holly Woodbury's dumpy, geek of a sister. The Tracys were kind to me, nicer than my own family. Hell, half the time I pretended they were my family. I had – for a few hours a week – two cool older brothers, a couple of funny little brothers, occasionally a brave, neat father and a wonderful grandma who was always telling me I was a rose about to bloom." Tommy mused that Grandma Tracy had sure called it. Sarah Woodbury was beautiful. If his wife hadn't been so sure of their seventeen year marriage, he could have problems with a partner who looked like Sarah did. "And then there was Virgil. Tommy, he was the football star, the most talented kid in our class, popular, good looking…"

"And lousy at math?!?" Tommy had heard Sarah mention she had been his calculus tutor.

"Not that great at studies period. I started out as a calculus tutor, I became his overall tutor. But he wanted to go to Princeton and become a mechanical engineer. No chance with the grades he had squeaked out so far. Even with football, his only chance was to pull up his GPA and keep it up for his entire Senior year. I helped him with that. My reward was he took a cheerleader to the prom while I baby-sat his little brother."

"Not the captain of the cheerleading squad?" Tommy teased, regretting it when he saw Sarah tense up,

"Please, as if it could have been made worse by him asking my sister to the prom."

Anything else Tommy could have said to his partner was stalled when the shift's engineer Jorge Hernandez stuck his head in. "Hey Woody, another fan letter for you." Sarah caught the letter tossed at her, shaking her head at the mail she had been receiving since the rescue had first been reported.

Tommy had begun to walk back out of the sleeping quarters when he heard Sarah suck in her breath. Spinning around, he was shocked at her pale features and shaking hands. Pulling the letter from his grasp, he quickly became as distressed as his partner, calling out, "Cap! Guys! Get up here!"

As the shift filled the area, Goya read the letter out loud as Tommy knelt by Woody, grasping his partner's shaking hands. "You are a worthless, ugly bitch. You don't deserve him. You have stolen my life and I will take it back. You will wish you had died back in Kansas."

"Woody…" Sarah looked at her partner, shocked to see he was as upset as she was. "You have to call him. You have to tell Virgil about this."

a/n - I have gotten the ball rolling, hope you will come along. Sarah is just as strong as the other ladies, but with additional emotional vulnerabilities. You'll see what I mean. As always, reviews are oh, so appreciated.