I'm sorry for the long wait for an update. Once again, life got a bit crazy. Things are calmer now, so I'm hoping to be back on track with regular updates, not to mention revisiting 'Nothing Lasts Forever'.
Chapter Seven - Challenge Two: Tin-Tin
After lunch, everyone gathered in Thunderbird Two's silo and awaited Tin-Tin's appearance. As Penny had feared, the Tracy brothers were indeed clad in overalls, but even so, she wasn't too disappointed. How could she be, when not half an hour ago, she'd discovered Scott gingerly rotating a shoulder, confessing that maybe he'd overdone it a little in the swimming challenge. She'd brushed aside his protests that he was absolutely fine and insisted on massaging the offending deltoid. Of course, she'd had to ask him to remove his shirt in order to do so, and he'd obviously needed to flex those firm muscles several times in order for her to establish the nature of the damage. Scott had been impressed with her technique, declaring himself perfectly recovered after just a few minutes, but Penny had insisted on giving his other shoulder a going-over too, just in case.
She'd never had so much fun on any of her previous visits to Tracy Island.
She was jolted out of her reverie as Gordon suddenly crashed into her, almost knocking her over. It was Jeff who steadied her, fixing his second-youngest with a steely glare. "Enough!" The gaze was turned onto Alan. "Both of you."
A mortified Gordon apologised to Penny.
"Where's my apology?" Alan asked.
"What am I apologising for?" the redhead asked.
"Insulting Tin-Tin. You're lucky I only pushed you. I should have hit you."
Gordon looked bemused. "I didn't insult Tin-Tin."
"You did! You suggested she'd given me a heads-up on this challenge."
"No I didn't. I only asked why you seemed so confident. Even Virg is tense, and he's the engineer of the team, but you're whistling and you've got that big grin on your face. You know something, Al - I know you do."
Alan fixed him with a look of the utmost innocence. "I swear on Grandma's apple pie that Tin-Tin hasn't said anything to me. As for the rest, well, I'm just pleased the Tracylimpics are going so well."
Gordon didn't look convinced, but he said nothing, instead moving to join the rest of his brothers who were gathered outside one of the workrooms that they used for repairs.
"Are you ready?" Tin-Tin asked.
Five heads nodded in response.
"When I open the door, you can go in, choose a booth and make a start. You'll find your instructions on your workbench. Parker will be keeping an eye on you, so behave yourselves. Good luck everyone."
With that, she pressed the button which controlled the door. Five brothers scrambled through, with an amused Parker bringing up the rear. The door closed behind them and Tin-Tin, Penny and Jeff headed up to the lounge to watch the proceedings in comfort.
Inside the workroom, the five brothers had settled themselves at a workbench, each one screened off from the others to avoid prying eyes. Typically, Gordon immediately grabbed a couple of components which seemed to belong together, snapping the connectors in place before he even glanced at Tin-Tin's instructions. Not that they gave much help, simply being a guide to the various stages of the challenge. Even so, it was no surprise to those watching that Scott, John and Virgil read the information carefully - twice! - before beginning to sort through the pile of components Tin-Tin had left out for them. However, it was certainly a surprise when Alan also appeared to be reading his sheet of paper carefully. Jeff had expected his hyper-competitive youngest to be as keen as Gordon to get started.
"How long do you think this will take?" Penny asked.
"That depends," Tin-Tin told her. "There are quite a few red herrings in the kit I put out for them, but once they work out which are the key pieces they'll make quick progress." She indicated a crate standing on Jeff's desk. Of course, they'll have to come up here to finish it off and complete the final part of the challenge."
"That's right." Jeff smiled. "And in the event of a tie, I get to make the final decision, depending on the quality of their work."
It looked as though there might indeed be a tie. After a number of false starts, most of the brothers seemed to be making progress. Scott had begun well, but had clearly gone wrong somewhere, cursing as he pulled his work apart and started again, throwing a couple of pieces of circuitry over his shoulder in frustration, before having to scrabble round the floor to retrieve a piece he decided he needed after all.
John seemed to know exactly what he was doing, but he worked slowly and methodically, no match for Virgil, who was not only the most highly-trained in such matters, but who was used to making quick repairs under difficult circumstances during rescues. Having a workroom with everything he could possibly need laid out for him was quite a luxury, and the middle Tracy was progressing well. Not as well as Alan, though. After much studying of his components, the young man had scratched his head for a while, then, with a triumphant - and in Penny's opinion, unnecessarily dramatic - cry, grabbed a few wires and started to connect them.
Only Gordon still looked bewildered, clearly uncertain as to what he was actually making.
"Looks like it's between Virgil and Alan," Jeff said.
Tin-Tin smiled, clearly having a favourite, whilst Penny had to bite her tongue. Not only would it be very unladylike to shout at the vid-screen as Scott once again dismantled something he'd spent ten minutes putting together, but it would also be rather embarrassing to have everyone discover her feelings for Scott.
Twenty minutes later, it was Alan who jumped up from his bench, grabbed the machine he'd assembled and, with a cheerful, "See you later, losers!", left the workroom. Two minutes later, he emerged from the elevator, cheerfully greeted his father and Penny, blew a kiss towards Tin-Tin and strolled over to the crate where he casually picked out the pieces of casing and the attachments he needed to complete the task.
"There you go!" he announced, several minutes later. "One coffee machine. Nice idea, Tin-Tin. Something you'd find in all the 'Birds - and the thing that keeps International Rescue going."
He flung himself into his father's chair and put his feet on the desk.
Jeff opened his mouth, then closed it again, clearly wanting to say something but restraining himself.
Alan grinned and removed his feet. "Sorry, Dad. Just enjoying my victory."
"Virgil is on his way," Tin-Tin said, glancing over at the feed from the workshop camera. "Alan, did you hear what I just said?"
Alan made himself more comfortable. "Sure I heard you. So Virg comes in second again. Well, I suppose two is his favourite number."
Oblivious to the looks Jeff, Penny and Tin-Tin were exchanging, Alan fixed his gaze on the door to the elevator, his grin becoming even wider as it opened and Virgil came out.
"Well done, Virg," he said. "You put up a good fight but I was just too... Virgil?"
Virgil had initially looked resigned to his fate as runner-up, but now an incredulous expression stole over his face. One glance at his father, who shrugged and raised a confused eyebrow, was enough and the middle brother dashed over to the crate, pulled out the remaining parts of his coffee machine, assembled it - and then, to Alan's surprise, headed into the kitchen.
Tin-Tin put her head in her hands. "Oh, Alan," she sighed.
"What?" Alan stood up and stared in the direction of the kitchen, from which the sound of coffee brewing could be heard. But he got no response from anyone.
Virgil came back a few minutes later, a cup of steaming hot coffee in his hand which he handed to his father with a smile. "Cream and two sugars. Just the way you like it, Dad."
"Thank you." Jeff took the cup and sipped at his coffee. "Perfect. Well done, son. First place."
"Huh?" Alan looked totally confused. "But I won."
"No you didn't," Jeff told him.
"But I got up here first. I put the thing together first. There it is, look."
"But that wasn't the end of the challenge," Tin-Tin said, somewhat sadly.
"It wasn't?"
Virgil was laughing so much he could barely get his words out. "You didn't turn the paper over, did you?"
"Turn over?" Alan stared at him. "There was a second page?"
"Yep."
"The final part of the challenge was to prove the quality of the assembly by making coffee," Tin-Tin told him. "Which I'm afraid makes Virgil the winner."
Alan wasn't happy. It was only the realisation that John was on his way up that put a stop to his complaining. As the elevator doors opened once again, he caught up his coffee machine and made a dash for the kitchen...
When all the brothers were finally assembled in the lounge, Virgil accepted the winner's medal with good grace. Gordon, however, couldn't resist poking fun at his younger brother. Jeff, too, could see the funny side, but when he saw the warning signs that Alan was about to lose his temper, he called a halt to Gordon's fun.
"Leave your brother alone," he admonished.
"Well, at least you proved you didn't get any help from Tin-Tin," Gordon said, holding out his hand for Alan to shake.
Alan managed a sickly smile. No, Tin-Tin hadn't helped him - she was far too honourable to do such a thing. It had merely been a happy coincidence that when he'd decided to surprise her with a bunch of wild flowers he'd picked for her, she'd been in the process of ordering the five coffee machines. He'd heard her through the open window as he'd approached the house.
He tried to console himself with the thought that although he'd rather have had the win and lived with the resulting guilt, at least now his conscience was clear.
It didn't work.