"I'll Try Anything Once"
By Phoenix Sparrow
We all know the events of the episode "Cry Wolf", including Scott's misadventure with the Williams boys' 'emergency exit'. But what else happened at that weather station outpost? Virgil and Alan were there too; surely they had something to say about this?
This story picks up from when Scott returns to the weather station outpost and is suitable for all readers.
Big thanks goes to Tikatue for Beta-reading for me! Greatly appreciated!
Scott slowed his hoverbike to a stop in the shadow of his Thunderbird craft. The chase through the hot Australian sun was over, and he had recovered the vital photos Williams had been entrusted to guard.
Wiping his brow, Scott put the hoverbike back into the hold of Thunderbird One and headed back towards the house just as Virgil and Alan arrived with young Tony and Bob Williams.
"Hi, boys," he called out, going over to them. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, we're alright," Tony answered, glancing at his brother, who nodded. Both boys looked a little worn out and very dusty, but essentially fine.
Scott glanced up at his own brothers. Virgil understood the silent question. "We found them okay, Scott. They'll both have sore legs for a while, but they're brave lads, aren't you, boys?" he said, looking down at them, a hand resting gently on each of their shoulders.
The two Williams brothers looked up at the International Rescue man, their faces showing the complete adoration they had for the men who had saved them. "Yes, sir," Bob answered with a grin.
Alan looked around, wiping his brow. "Come on, fellers," he said. "Let's head inside. It's so warm out here and you two need to clean up."
"It's not that warm, Mr Tracy, sir," Tony said.
The Tracy brothers exchanged glances, smirking slightly. After all, they were all formally known as 'Mr Tracy', though the brothers were far more used to their father being referred to with this title than they were.
"You're more used to these sorts of temperatures, I'd expect," Virgil said, leading them inside.
They were greeted in one of the inner rooms by a worried looking Williams, Senior. "Tony! Bob!" he exclaimed, going straight over to them and pulling them close. "I'm so relieved to see you're okay."
Virgil, Scott and Alan waited quietly and patiently while the brothers and their father embraced, then suddenly, the two boys seemed to remember they had company.
"Dad! Dad! International Rescue saved us!" Tony said excitedly as Scott perched himself on the corner of a desk, his left leg on the floor to help him maintain balance without actually vaulting up onto the desk fully.
"Yeah, and we rode back on their hoverbikes!" Bob added, just as thrilled at the idea.
Williams smiled at his sons as they all stood up. Alan had found a chair and spun it around so he could sit on it and still lean on the backrest, while Virgil was leaning against the same desk Scott was perched on.
Williams looked up at the three rescuers and locked eyes with Scott. The eldest Tracy stepped forward, holding out the photos he had in his hand. "I believe these are yours," he said, as Williams took them from him.
The Australian looked at them, and then looked back up at Scott as the Tracy brother settled back on the edge of the desk. Williams took the photos back around to his main desk and sat down, looking through them, while Tony and Bob stood at his side, wanting to have a look as well.
"Mr Tracy, I don't know what to say," he said, looking back up at Scott. "You saved the photographs, sure, but more than that you saved my sons' lives."
"We're glad that we were able to, Mr Williams," Scott said, then glanced at the two boys, offering them an apologetic smile. "I should have known that Tony and Bob wouldn't have broken their promise."
The two Williams brothers exchanged glances, then Tony spoke up. "Scott, before we have tea, there's something Bob and I would like to show you."
"Sure, Tony, you lead the way," Scott answered, getting up and following them.
Virgil and Alan exchanged glances. "What d'you suppose they want to show him?" Alan said.
Williams looked up from filing away the photographs. The Tracy brothers were surprised to see a slight grin on the other man's face. "They have a sort of, uh, 'emergency exit' up there. At least, that's what I think they call it. I built it, as a sort of means to get to their makeshift Thunderbird."
"An emergency exit?" Virgil asked.
"Yes, it's like a slide from their bedroom window upstairs."
"This I've gotta see!" Alan exclaimed, grinning. "Will you show us where this exit emerges?"
"Of course," Williams said. "This way."
The Australian led the two Americans outside where they immediately felt the effects of no air conditioning. Ahead of them they saw a long slide leading down to a mostly green buggy with white lettering down the side saying "Thunderbird 2" in untidy child scrawl.
Virgil and Alan exchanged glances again. If they knew their oldest brother, he'd be coming down that slide any minute. As he'd said many times before, he'd try anything at least once.
The two young Williams boys had led Scott through the house and up the stairs that led to their bedroom. It was a typical boys' room with posters and toys of various things like rockets and cars, but with a desk that held a few of their pretend play International Rescue items.
Looking around again, Scott spotted a bright red sign next to the door that the boys had made up. It read: "Shute reles Thunderbird 2". Upon closer inspection, Scott came to realise that there was a rope hooked up beside it, attached to a pulley on the ceiling. He followed the rope from here, across the ceiling, spanning most of the width of their room, to another pulley parallel to their window. At this point the rope was tied to another that was attached to each side of a table sitting snugly against the wall below the open window.
"Dad fixed it up for us," Bob explained.
"Now you have to lie on the table, Mr Tracy," Tony requested and watched as Scott looked at the table dubiously then back at the hopeful looking boys.
"Oh well, I'll try anything once," he said to himself and walked over to the table. He looked down at it, wondering at first if it was even long enough for him, but shrugged and sat down on it, turning so he could lie down.
He felt a little self-conscious as he felt his head come to rest on the table top, but kept the smile on his face.
"Okay, Bob," he heard Tony say, then saw him look his direction. "Emergency, Scott! Away you go!"
Scott afforded himself a slight grin as he heard the young lad almost perfectly echo the words he heard his father say so often, but it became slightly unsteady as the head end of the table began to rise from the floor. Glancing over, he saw Bob pulling the rope that hung by the door, thus pulling the table into the air.
Soon Scott felt himself sliding downwards and was slightly worried until he felt himself come to a stop. The feeling of ease disappeared as soon as the surface he'd stopped on suddenly started moving away at quite a fast speed. Looking down at the makeshift vehicle, he realised he had no control over it and was also quite stuck so he couldn't jump off either.
The buggy was picking up speed and Scott was finding it hard to sit upright. His arms flailed as he sped on, spotting the open door of a barn ahead of him. He screwed his eyes shut when he saw the huge pile of hay he was headed straight for, but instead of it stopping him, he ploughed straight through it, taking a considerable amount of it with him. It was piled on the front of the buggy, sticking in his hair and uniform, and still the buggy sped on.
Bob and Tony were watching the whole event from their window, cringing slightly when they realised what Scott was heading for. Bob covered his eyes just as the crashing could be heard. The little green buggy had finally come to a halt, crashing into a dustbin.
"Gee, Mr Scott, we're sorry," Bob said apologetically.
"I guess you're too heavy for our emergency exit," Tony added, glancing at his brother who simply tilted his head at the scene before him.
"The things I do for International Rescue!" Scott said, trying his best to get out of the bin he was now stuck in. The pile of hay he'd gathered was scattered all around, his normally blue uniform was smudged with dirt and grime, and on top of his head sat a bruised looking banana peel.
It was at this point that he recognised a noise that was heading towards him and groaned. Virgil and Alan were walking over and were laughing so hard that when they stopped in front of him, Alan had to crouch down and Virgil leaned against the fence behind the bins.
"I don't suppose either of you would be kind enough to help me out of here?" Scott said, irritably.
"Sure, Scott," Virgil said, wiping his eyes slightly as he offered Scott his other hand. Alan moved behind to remove the bin and between them, they managed to free their trapped brother.
Alan was still laughing hard as Scott turned to him. "How much of that did you see?"
"Oh, not much," Virgil answered when he realised his youngest brother wasn't able to speak for himself for laughing. "Just since you emerged from their window!" He started laughing again as Scott rolled his eyes.
"And I thought you were the mature one!" Scott said, raising an eyebrow.
"We thought you were!" Alan said, after drawing in a deep breath. "Then we saw this little escapade and we were proved very wrong!"
Scott just tutted and walked off, his two younger brothers jogging to catch up. He saw Williams and his sons waiting up ahead. "Just keep your mouths shut about this, if only for a minute," Scott asked of them.
They both nodded, still grinning and trying to hold back further bouts of laughter as they approached the family.
"We're sorry, Mr Scott," Tony apologised as his brother had done before.
"Don't worry about it, boys," he said, offering them a smile. "I've experienced worse." Scott could hear his brothers behind him, still trying their best not to laugh, and chose to ignore them, though he could see the same in the two boys in front of him.
"I offer my apologies, too, Mr Tracy," Williams said. "If I'd known that would have happened, I would have asked them not to."
"And as I said to Tony and Bob, don't worry about it. Despite the crash at the end, that was quite fun."
Virgil and Alan looked at each other again, grinning.
"I'm afraid to say though, that we must now leave. If we do receive another emergency call, we have to be prepared so we'll bid you goodbye."
"So soon?" Tony and Bob said almost immediately and in perfect unison.
"I'm afraid so," Scott said. He crouched down in front of them. "It was nice to meet you both," he said, offering his hand first to Tony, then to Bob, who both took it in turn and shook.
Both Virgil and Alan did the same, then, standing up repeated the gesture with Williams, Senior.
"Thanks again for all your help," he said.
"Don't mention it," Virgil said.
"'We're helping people all the time'," Scott said, repeating something he'd heard Tony say when he'd first met him. The young lad grinned.
The three Tracy men departed and headed for their Thunderbirds, Scott to Thunderbird One, Virgil with Alan to Thunderbird Two. The two younger brothers were still grinning and exchanging glances as they headed back.
Scott climbed wearily into Thunderbird One and sat down at the controls, leaning forward slightly so he could rub his aching back. 'I've tried it once,' he thought to himself, then he strapped in and started up the engines, ready to head back to the island.
In Thunderbird Two, Alan and Virgil were laughing again as they followed similar procedures as Scott.
"And he said he enjoyed it!" Alan said between laughs. "His face when he was on it, though! He looked terrified!"
Virgil, still chuckling away, started up his Bird as effectively as always, and set it in the direction of their base without flaw. "I wish we'd had a camera!" he replied, his eyes on the way ahead of him.
"Hey, Virge," Alan said, grinning. "Can I radio base and, uh, report the situation?"
Virgil looked at his youngest brother and smirked. "I think we may have to. You know what Dad's like for wanting to know just what's happened."
Alan unbuckled again now that they were safely on their way and opened a channel to the island.
"Thunderbird Two to base, come in please," Alan said, doing his very best to keep his voice even.
"Go ahead," came the voice of their father, Jeff Tracy. "Alan, what's wrong?" He could see through the video screen the tears of laughter that were still in his son's eyes though he had no idea that this was what they were.
"Nothing's wrong, Dad. Not really."
"You're being very cryptic, Alan. What's going on?"
Alan glanced at Virgil and started grinning again. "Scott was invited to use a sort of Thunderbird chute of sorts and got in a bit of a jam," Alan said, trying his hardest not to burst out laughing again. He knew that if he did, he'd have trouble relaying the story.
"What do you mean? What happened on the mission, anyway? Were the kids all right?"
"Oh yeah, the boys are fine," Alan said, then went on to explain how the mission went before finally telling their father what happened to Scott.
By the time he finished, he was in full hysterics again and his father was laughing heartily as well. Beside him, Virgil was laughing, but doing his best to keep his vision clear in order to get them home safely.
"You realise that Scott'll be home before us?" Alan asked.
"Yes, he usually is," Jeff answered.
"Poor Scott," came another voice. Tin-Tin had entered the lounge not long after Alan had started his story. She too was laughing though. "I have to go and tell the others!" she said, and Alan saw her disappear from the view on his screen.
"D'you think Scott'll be mad for us telling them?" Alan asked.
"More than likely, but it was funny!"
Scott arrived back at base to find his father sitting alone at his desk and wearing a slight grin.
"Hi, Dad," Scott said, walking in. He was still in his uniform because it had gotten so messy during his little misadventure.
Jeff looked up. "Why are you such a mess?" he asked, the grin not slipping from his features. "I thought you only went out to take care of Williams? Does he have hay in his house?"
"Uh, no, not exactly," Scott said, his face beginning to warm up.
Jeff chuckled. "No, I know. I heard what happened. So you tried a chute, have you?"
Scott looked crestfallen as his father grinned wider. "They told you?"
"They debriefed me on the mission, that's all," Jeff said, his voice portraying innocence.
Scott nodded. "They told you."
"Yeah, and Tin-Tin told us!" came the voice of his second youngest brother, Gordon. The younger man stood in the doorway with Brains, both of whom were wearing grins. "Were the bins comfortable?" Gordon asked.
"Very funny, Gords, very funny," Scott said, feeling very red in the face now. "I suppose the whole island knows now?"
"Of course," Gordon replied.
Scott was about to reply when they heard the familiar sound of Thunderbird Two's jets approaching.
"The culprits have returned," Scott said, eyeing the area of the room where the passenger elevator appeared.
"Scott, it's not their fault, don't take it out on them," Jeff warned, though his tone was still light. He knew his son well enough.
"Oh, I know," Scott said, looking down at his still mucky uniform. Grinning himself, he walked over to the elevator entrance and waited for Alan and Virgil to reappear.
"Hi, folks," Alan said as they did, apparently not noticing Scott straight away.
Both he and Virgil were still in their uniforms because they needed to wash the dust from the mine out of them.
"Hi, boys," Scott said, wiping his hands in the muck covering the front of his uniform and flicking them at his brothers.
"Hey!" they both complained, stepping back. "What was that for?" Virgil asked. "He's the one who radioed!"
Scott shrugged, offering a grin. "You both laughed at me. Now we're even. I can now think of that event without having to cringe." He turned to face the others and felt the sharp pain in his back from his awkward landing in the bin. "Well, maybe not much," he confessed, rubbing his back again and grinning sheepishly, which raised yet another laugh from all present in the room.