A/N: Hey guys, yes, I'm back. I've been gone for a little while, but that is because I've had RL stuff that I've had to deal with. Well, this is my first story being back at home after writing my last story back in California. I hope you enjoy it. It is something that has been rolling around my brain for a couple of days, and I just had to get it out before it drove me mad (-der than what is usual for me.) As always, I do not own the Tracy's or any of the other characters. They belong to Gerry Anderson. I just pull them out and play with them every now and again. ~Dasha
Tracy Untitled
By Dasha Hashiba
There was always the calm before the storm, and for the residents of Tracy Island, one never knew what that could be. It could be good, or it could be bad. Of course, depending on what the good could be, it could still turn out to be bad, especially when one copper top second youngest brother had something to do with it. Or of course, it could go the other way around, and be a bad situation or a very bad situation in just a very short matter of time. These were usually the worst types of situations to be called out for, and the Tracy men had truly learned to despise them, only a little bit more than when their brother Gordon decided that a prank was in order. It was those times when John Tracy, astronaut, second eldest brother, and primary pilot of TB5 was thankful that he spent most of his time up on the space station monitoring all the major band waves, waiting for the distress call that would send the rest of his family out on a mission to save another grateful citizen of the world population.
Of course, there was always a downside to his job. Being up in space so much, he was always missing the good times with his family, just being able to sit around with his family, catching up with the news, or even seeing and hearing the reactions of one of his brothers as they fell into one of Gordon's pranks. Sure, he heard from his brothers and fathers nearly every night, and they kept him up to date on things, Gordon even sometimes showing him vids of his brother's reactions to pranks, but it just wasn't the same. He wasn't THERE, seeing the pranks and reactions first hand. No, he was stuck up in space, doing what needed to be done, being the eyes and ears of International Rescue. Not for the first time, he wished that he were not stuck up here all the time; that he were able to spend more time with his family. Life for him, about TB5 was a very lonely existence. True yes, he loved his bird and the job that he did up here, but after months at a time with only a vidphone for communications, and occasional supply runs to keep his bird stocked with food, life could get very abysmal.
As it was right now, it had been some time since the last supply run, as business had been very busy with lots of calls for rescues, and so his brothers had not had the time to bring John needed supplies. He had run out of most of his food to the point that he was only eating once a day to conserve food. His coffee and chocolate had run out weeks ago, and he was truly missing them. All his brothers knew that John loved his chocolate, and he could get rather grumpy when his supply ran out.
Sighing, John stared out the window to the view of the earth below him. Usually he would love the sight of the earth, but at this point, it got no reaction out of him. If he looked closely, he could swear that he could see Tracy Island down in the South Pacific. If he closed his eyes, he could see his home; his brother Gordon swimming in the pool, Virgil playing the piano or painting, Scott watching TV or reading, and his youngest brother Alan spending time with his two best friends, Fermat and TinTin. If he concentrated hard enough, he could smell Onaha's cooking, and it set his mouth to watering, and his stomach to growling, reminding John that he had yet to eat today, even though the day was almost over. But with his seriously dwindling food supply, he was seriously considering not eating today. As he looked out over the earth, a tear slipped out his eye and rolled down his chook. He wanted to go home. He didn't want to be stuck up here any longer.
A beeping from the comm. system brought John out of his thoughts, and he turned his attention to the giant screen suspended over the window where the sight of the Earth turning filled his vision. He flipped on the switch to open the line. A look of surprise and happiness crossed his face when he saw his father's smiling visage on the screen.
"Hey Dad." He greeted warmly.
"Hey John." His father replied wearily, and John could see the exhaustion on the older man's face.
"You look exhausted Dad." He told him, studying his father's face.
"I am." Jeff replied. "I'm heading to bed soon, but I just wanted to check in with you first. With all the rescues we have been going on lately, it has been a few days since I've talked to you, and I just wanted to check up on you. How're you doing, Son?"
'I'm miserable up here!' he wanted to cry out. 'I want to come home!' But instead, he gave his father a wan smile. "I'm doing okay Dad. Things are quiet right now. Go and get some sleep while you can." He missed his father's eyes narrowing as John looked away and checked one of his monitors quickly.
"Are you sure about that?" Jeff asked.
John winced. He knew that tone. "Yeah, I'm okay Dad. I just miss you guys is all. Starting to get rather lonely up here is all." He was embarrassed to feel tears fill his eyes and start to spill down his cheeks. He tried to wipe them away before his father spotted them, but with the narrowing of Jeff's eyes, John knew he had spotted them.
"We're coming up to get you John." His father told him.
"No, Dad." John tried to argue. He saw Jeff hesitate for a moment. When it looked like his Dad was going to say something more, John continued. "This is my job, Dad. I am the eyes and ears of International Rescue. Everyone is depending on me to do my job, and I can't let them down. I have two weeks left to this rotation, and I am going to finish it!" He was not like certain other brothers of his that tried to get out of finishing their full rotations. He felt his father's gaze on him, as if studying him, and John tried to put on a brave face, trying to convince him, even though he wanted nothing more than for his father; no, his commander, to give him an order that he was coming home. But he knew that would not be coming. He knew his father. Jefferson Tracy was the sort to trust his sons to know when they had reached their breaking point, and would do that smart thing and take a step back and take a break.
This might have been true for his Earth-bound sons, but the same could not be said for Jeff Tracy's Space-bound son. John was the sort of person to disregard his breaking point and continue right past it. As the Space Monitor for the Thunderbirds, usually he did not have a choice. Being up in space, he had developed his own set of rules, and when it came to the times when his father and brothers were away from the safety of the island on a rescue, he would commonly push himself way beyond his breaking point, and he would never be able to relax until they were safely back at home on Tracy Island.
John watched his father's brow furrow as he contemplated and debated on John's words.
"Are you sure John?" He asked finally.
John nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure." He replied.
But Jeff didn't seem to be listening or paying attention to his second born son. His attention seemed to be taken by something off camera that John could not see.
"Brains, what is the verdict?" He heard his father ask.
"W-w-well it is as you feared, Mr. Tracy. D-d-d surely broken." Those words made John sit forward in his chair. What had happened during the rescue? Were his brothers okay? He hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary while he had monitored the rescue.
"Damn it!" He heard his father exclaim. His next words however, were ones that made John's heart drop. "And we can't send him up to TB5 with a broken arm."
"Dad, what happened?" John demanded. He wanted to know what was going on. He knew that Alan was supposed to come up and relieve him in two weeks so he could have some time at home. He did not want to be stuck up here longer. This time, he would put his foot down.
As if remembering he had been talking to his non Earth-bound son, Jeff turned back to the monitor with almost what could be called a sheepish look on his face.
"Apparently your youngest brother Alan has suffered a broken arm. He injured it during the rescue and didn't tell anyone. Your brother Virgil noticed it as we were coming in to land. I'm sorry John, but it doesn't look like he will be able to come up and relieve you like he is supposed to. And I know you are looking forward to coming home when your tour is over. You have been up there almost three months, and you are due some time at home. But don't worry, we will figure something out so that you can still come home."
After that, John didn't hear too much more of what his father said. He made a few half-hearted replies when he was supposed to, and signed off not too soon after.
That night, it started.
John was woken up only two short hours after finally falling asleep after hours of trying, by an excruciating pounding in his head. Everything hurt, from the top of his head, to the bottom of his toes, and everything in between. A moan of pain escaped him as he sat up and turned on the light next to his bed. This turned into a gasp of agony as the light shot into his eyes and set off even more pain in him. This, of course, was followed by a moan, and finally a scream of the worst kind of pain as John somehow got to his feet and stumbled over to where the first aid kit was bolted to the bulkhead. Every step felt like boulders crashing against each other in his head. Somehow he made it to the kit and took a couple of the aspirin that he found in there. After a little while, the aspirin kicked in, and the headache went away. Feeling better, John went back to bed not realizing that more was yet to come, and it would be getting much worse.
A few days later found John in a very bad predicament. The headaches had gotten much worse in frequency and intensity. Nothing seemed to help lessen the brunt of them, and now John had an extra added bonus along with them. As of that morning, vomiting could be included with them. So now, anything that John ate to try and satisfy himself for the day was guaranteed to make a repeat showing. This was not good, considering the fact that John was down to only enough food to last him another two days at the most. After the food was gone, he didn't know what he was going to do.
As he was on his way back to the command deck to answer an incoming signal, he stopped as he had a moment of blackness. Just for a moment, his vision had gone completely black, leaving John blind. It was back almost immediately, but it left him puzzled. After sending his family out on the newest rescue, he tried to figure out what was going on with him. It had started with blinding headaches, and then progressed to nausea and vomiting, and now he had the most disturbing addition; blackouts and blindness. He did not want to even think of what the next step could be. In fact, he would prefer not to know at this point. If there was something seriously wrong with him, he didn't want to know. He did not want to put any added stress on his family. They had enough with all the rescues they had been going on lately. No, he would just wait and see what happened, and if it got any worse, then he would tell his family. His brothers were not the only ones in the family that were stubborn. John just hid it better than they did.
The deciding factor on whether or not John should tell his family what was going on with him came just a little while later. His brothers had been sent out on a rescue earlier to Toyama, Japan, where a commuter train had derailed after the signals had stopped functioning, and the tracks had failed to switch, causing a train to be in a perilous position. His brothers were the only ones that could safely attempt to move the train and save all the passengers aboard.
At the beginning of the rescue, everything had been fine. He had eaten something, and so he was feeling good. But as the rescue had progressed, he had felt the beginnings of one of the worst migraines yet. It had progressed so quickly that John had no defenses against it. Within the span of just fifteen minutes, he had vomited three times. He sat with his head resting on the console, his eyes closed, the fingers of both hands pressed against both of his temples, massaging them, trying to relieve some of the pressure pounding his head with no success. The cool steel of the console felt good under his face, and it seemed to be the only sort of relief that he was going to be able to find at that moment.
It took a little while for him to feel the liquid pooling in the palm of his hand, and he opened his eyes and looked down at his hand, staring at it in disbelief. There was no way that he could not recognize the red looking liquid congealing on the palm of his hand. Sitting up slowly, he raised his other hand to touch his face, and felt worry race through him as he pulled his fingers away to find them covered with blood. As he stared at it, he could hear a roaring in his ears that just seemed to get louder as he fumbled towards the switch that would connect him to Tracy Island.
"John, is everything okay?" He heard his father say dimly after a few moments, but he was only able to gasp two words before collapsing out of his chair and to the floor in a boneless heap.
"Help Me!"
Well, what do you guys think? Good? Bad?
