"I told you to ignore that rustle in the bushes." Scott said as he held his arm up in front of his nose and mouth, trying not to gag. His eyes were watering profusely. "Pew, you desperately need a bath Sprout!"
Gordon had a bandanna tied over his face as he pushed his little brother's head into the wastebasket he held. The youngest Tracy kept on dry heaving despite having nothing in his stomach.
You see, they'd been on a rescue these last 48 hours and hadn't eaten much but cheese and crackers. They were assisting local fire crews with getting an out of control forest fire under control and Alan had been unfortunate enough to mistake a skunk for an injured cat. He got doused with that horrendous spray, and it'd gotten into his eyes. Almost immediately Alan started hurling on site and stumbled away from where they'd set up base. He'd been blinded by the skunk's odiferous spray and if it wasn't for Virgil dragging the younger man to the nearby creek, he might have stumbled headlong into the fire lines and directly into the face of danger.
"Call ahead to the house and see if Onaha or grandma have some extra tomato sauce…something to kill this smell. I am not sharing a room with him at this rate." Gordon said.
"Trust me, I don't want to share a room with myself at this rate." Alan mumbled from where his head was still buried in the wastebasket.
"Not so cute and fluffy anymore are they, eh Sprout?" Gordon asked.
"Shut up…God this stuff burns!" Alan moaned.
"I just contacted grandma and she's got everything gathered for your bath. As soon as we land, Gordon since you've been the one most in contact with Alan you'll need to take him to the outdoor shower. Grandma will be ready for Alan and she'll use her secret weapon to hopefully neutralize the smell." John chimed in over the speaker. "How're Alan's eyes? Can he see?"
"My vision is blurry." Alan said as he picked up his head and looked at the red blur in front of his face.
"His eyes are puffy Johnny, what can we do for that?" Gordon asked.
"Virgil and Grandma can flush his eyes some more when you guys get home. Just keep him from rubbing his eyes or touching his face. And for god's sake don't let him touch anything until he's been un-skunked." John instructed.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Once they'd landed, Gordon did as he'd been ordered and hauled his younger brother up from where he'd been kneeling on the floor of Thunderbird 2. They'd been forced to go all four of them in Thunderbird 2 to the rescue since Thunderbird 1 was under repairs until further notice. It was for the best though, Scott had been Virgil's copilot since Gordon was trying to keep Alan from rubbing his eyes or touching anything besides the metal flooring.
Virgil ran ahead of them, trusting Scott to run diagnostic testing and cool down the middle brother's bird. When Gordon and Alan came up out of the lift from the silo of Thunderbird 2, they'd made a b-line to the outdoor showers not far from the house. As they walked past the pool where Tin-Tin and Fermat were floating on inflatable chairs, Gordon couldn't help stifling a laugh when the two teens blanched at the smell and their hands flew up to cover their noses.
Getting Alan just beyond the bamboo dressing screen, Gordon and Virgil combined their efforts in undressing Alan. The blond tried to help but he was still woozy from the rescue combined with sickness and trying to restrain the urge to rub at his eyes. Grandma had come prepared, having the foresight to retrieve an old tatty pair of swim trunks for Alan to wear while he got de-skunked. Alan shimmied into the old trunks, feeling better now that he wasn't naked as the day he was born. He wasn't given much of a chance to catch his breath before having a bucket of warm sudsy water upended over his head. He groaned in shock before his grandma was scrubbing him with a soapy clothe. Alan recognized the smell of the soap before he looked at his grandma.
"Is this dish soap?" Alan asked even as his grandma shushed him, telling him to close his eyes before Alan had a warm soapy clothe scrubbing his face, paying close attention to the area near his eyes.
"It is dish soap and baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. I used this on your father when he got skunked after he and his friend Danny went camping in the back yard." Grandma replied even as she moved the scrubbing to Alan's neck and shoulders. "Works every time."
Alan cracked his eyes, feeling the burn from the soap that got in his eyes but opening his eyes further to see his brothers were submerging Alan's flight suit and gloves in another bucket of the concoction in attempt to salvage it. "How many times was dad sprayed by a skunk?"
"More than you want to know." Grandma muttered under her breath as she turned Alan to scrub his back next. True Alan didn't get sprayed anywhere but in the face, but it was better to be safe than sorry. "Sit on the ground for me Alan."
Alan heeded his grandma's order and sat on the wooden flooring and tried to hold still as his grandma squirted a bit of dish soap in Alan's hair before working it into a lather.
"When will we know if this works grandma?" Alan asked even as he tried to hold his head steady under the rough scrubbing he was getting from his grandma.
"Can't you smell it? The odor has already lessened." Grandma replied.
"I can still smell it, though I can tell it's a lot less pungent than it was." Gordon commented.
"You can still smell it because you were there when it happened. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you got a small taste yourselves." Grandma said before gesturing to the other pairs of swim trunks. "Go on head and hop into these, I won't have this villa smelling like you all bathed in a pig pen. You all are getting a bath."
Virgil and Gordon shared a look before heaving similar sighs. They both hurried to strip out of their flight suits and into the trunks before waiting their turn for the outside shower. When Alan was done, and had rinsed off, he made a comment like he was going to brush his teeth before running inside. The other boys suffered under the same treatment, not needing as rough a scrubbing as Alan had gotten before they could go in and get dressed.
Later that evening as they sat in their dad's office debriefing, it didn't escape the family's notice that Alan was chewing gum…and he hated chewing gum.
"Did you get it in your mouth too Sprout?" Scott asked with a sympathetic frown.
"I think so…do you think grandma's solution would work for my mouth?" Alan asked as he seriously considered running to his grandma and begging her to wash his mouth out since brushing his teeth and chewing gum just weren't cutting it for him.
"I don't think it'd be a good idea to get soap in your mouth aside from toothpaste." Virgil said.
"But grandma is always commenting that she can't wait until she can wash my mouth out with soap one day. Maybe she'll do it if I come to her willingly." Alan replied morosely.
"So, did we learn a lesson today boys?" Jeff asked even as he was surprised that he couldn't smell Alan after his mother's miracle de-skunk wash. Hearing his sons carrying on while they were flying home was enough to make Jeff's stomach churn with sympathy for his youngest son.
"Let all of Smokey the Bear's little woodland friends cook until extra crispy next time." Alan replied with a bite.
And it was that comment that made Jeff feel bad for his youngest son. His youngest was the boy that was forever bringing stray animals home to care for, even when they moved to the island. Alan would wander the island when his brothers were off on rescues or running errands and he found all sorts of creatures to heal and release back into the wild.
Jeff knew Alan was still a bleeding heart to those sad little eyes that looked at him when they walked through the streets of New York, stopping to feed stray cats or traveling to animal shelters to volunteer as a dog walker.
"I think the lesson is to be aware of your surroundings and approach with caution." Jeff said, knowing that Alan wouldn't want any animals to die. The boy still had funerals for his goldfish when they floated belly up in the tank in his room so Jeff knew Alan still adored animals of all shapes and sizes regardless of being nineteen. "Am I understood?"
Echoes of 'yes sir' signaled the end of the debriefing and the boys all separated to go do whatever they wanted for the rest of the night. Once he was alone, Jeff couldn't stop the laughter that rumbled up from his chest at the ridiculousness that was his son getting sprayed by a skunk. This was a first for any of Jeff's sons to get sprayed by a skunk and Jeff was sure it wasn't their last.
A/N: I don't support going against Smokey the Bear, I love all of the little woodland creatures and I have had a face to face encounter with more than my fair share of big furries and little furries. Thankfully I haven't been sprayed by a skunk yet though I anticipate that it will happen eventually.
One of my friends got sprayed by a skunk though and it wasn't pleasant. Poor guy was sick as a dog until his mom and grandma were able to get him bathed and de-skunked.
Hope you enjoyed and keep your eyes peeled for the latest updates to Rising From The Ashes - I will be posting to that tonight.
Reviews are appreciated but keep in mind that I won't tolerate rude comments. If you don't like, don't read.
Thanks!
Sad-Blue-Eyed-Angel 2010