~#~ (Chapter 8)
Andy stood by the Firefly and watched as Tin-Tin, Alan, Ben and Luke walked away. He motioned for his men to start unloading Virgil and wandered over to Gordon.
"Well done again," he said as he approached. "Have the four of them gone to the other ship? Your Thunderbird 1?"
Gordon nodded. "Yeah. Tin-Tin's going to stay there and the others'll come back when I send for them." He turned and watched as a pair of burly firemen slowly walked across the site with Virgil's stretcher. "I see what you mean about the padding. I take it you'll be OK with us taking the stretcher? You won't get in trouble or anything?"
Andy let out a snort. "Not likely," he replied. "…and if anyone thinks about trying anything on then I'll just pay for the replacement myself. It's no big deal; I'm sure I'll explain it, the boss'll grumble then he'll go away and think about it and it'll never be mentioned again. OK?"
Gordon nodded. "OK."
~#~
It didn't take long to get Virgil loaded into the sickbay. Gordon asked the firemen to lay him on the bed which sat at right angles to the one Scott was lying on and then carefully strapped him down.
"I'd like a minute alone," he told Andy, who had remained with him when the others went back outside.
Andy nodded. "I'll get the lads to clear a path between your two machines," he replied. "That way it'll be quicker and easier to get the little yellow one inside. I'll be outside if you need me."
Gordon nodded and stepped into the gap created between the ends of both beds. He rested a hand on the section of each bag which held his brothers' heads and closed his eyes. "We'll be home soon, guys," he whispered. "There…there'll be people waiting to take you away from me as soon as we land so I'm going to say my goodbyes now. Virg, I promise to look after this big, green bug of yours for as long as I'm capable. I'll clean, maintain and love her, just like you always have. Scotty, you…well I guess you've gone to watch over Virgil. I don't…I don't…I don't understand why you couldn't have stuck around for the rest of us…at least for a little while but…I…I guess you had your reasons." Gordon scrubbed at the tears which were trickling down his cheeks. "I…I…just don't get it, Scott. How could you do that to us? How could you leave us? Dad's a complete wreck…so's John and Grandma…God only knows how Grandma's going to react when she finds out."
Gordon's face crumbled. His knees buckled and he had to catch himself on the edge of Scott's bed to stop from falling to the floor. This had the unfortunate effect of putting Gordon's head level with Scott's and the red-head let out a heart-broken wail as he pressed his face against the cold, unforgiving plastic that held the remains of his eldest brother. "I don't know what I'm going to do without you," he cried. "I…I…I don't know what any of us are going to do."
~#~
Gordon spent another twenty minutes in the chilly, antiseptic-scented sickbay. He cried, wailed, howled and screamed until he was barely able to stand upright and then simply sat on the floor, panting, with his head resting on one of the walls.
Alan eventually began to get worried about not being called and tried to contact Gordon's watch. His calls went unanswered for several minutes but the youngest Tracy was nothing if not persistent and after six attempts, Gordon finally answered him. "Al?" he lifted his hand and peered into his watch. "You OK?"
Alan frowned at the state of Gordon's red, puffy eyes but knew better than to call his brother on it. "I'm OK," he replied softly. "It's just…you've been a while. I…I was getting worried."
Gordon sniffed loudly and wiped his nose on the cuff of his flight-suit's sleeve. "Have you heard from Dad at all?" he asked. "I might not have heard him while I've been in here. In…interference, you know? From all the equipment in here."
Alan looked blankly at this brother for a moment, knowing full well that there was nowhere inside Thunderbird 2 where Gordon's communicator watch wouldn't work. "Interference," he repeated. "Yeah, that must be why you missed him. He…he's not holding up too well, Gords. He's tearful and irritable and he's just not being himself. He's shut us down and he's had Penny put out a worldwide announcement saying that we're no longer in service. He's also seems to be filling the island with people. As well as Nineteen and Twenty-Three, there's a whole hoard of other people heading that way. Agent 7's having to go and get Twenty-Three 'cos she can't get a flight out of Germany until tomorrow. Nineteen asked if he could pick up Twelve on the way through because he reckoned that Brains would need more help than just he and Twenty-Three could give him and Dad mentioned that Agent 3 was coming too. I can't work out who Three is but a lot of them will already be there when we arrive and I…I…Gords, I don't know if I want there to be a load of strangers waiting for us."
Gordon sniffed again and a tear escaped from his left eye. "Me neither," he agreed. "I have to agree with Dad though; we do need the help and we did need to be shut down. It was hard enough with the five of us, now there's just three, well…" Gordon looked into Alan's eyes and shrugged.
Alan blinked several times as he mulled over Gordon's words. "You think we're shut down forever?" he asked eventually.
Gordon shrugged again. "No longer in service," he said slowly. "Not 'temporarily out of action', 'currently unavailable' or 'offline for the time being' but 'no longer in service'. That's a permanent statement, Al. Complete, permanent, everlasting and…I think he's probably right."
Alan nodded his head in understanding. "…and Agent 3?" he asked. "Do you know who he, or she, is?"
Gordon lowered his head for a moment before looking back up at his brother. "Three is Father Fletcher," he explained quietly. "He's the pastor from the church back in Kansas. You were probably just a bit too little to remember him but…but he…" Gordon stopped and sucked in a deep, shaky breath. "He buried Mom."
"Shit," Alan whispered softly. "I'm sorry, Gordon. I wouldn't have asked if I'd known. Are you OK?"
Gordon shrugged and let out a strangled chuckle. "Not really," he replied. "But I've just got to put up with that for now. Haven't I?"
Alan had no way of answering that and fell silent for a couple of seconds. "Can I come back and load the 'fly now?" he asked eventually. "Then we can go home."
"Yeah, I guess you can come back now," Gordon replied. "As long as Tin-Tin's safe and situated. I…I'm going to have a quick wash and I'll meet you on the ramp."
Alan nodded, realising that Gordon needed a few moments to compose himself before heading back into the outside world. "You do that," he whispered. "I'll wait for you if I get there first."
~#~
As it turned out, Gordon walked out onto the top of the ramp at almost the same time as Alan, Ben and Luke stepped onto the bottom of it. "Thanks guys." He nodded his thanks to Ben and Luke who stepped back off the ramp and headed back towards the fire trucks where they correctly guessed that the rest of their team were located. Once they had gone, Gordon turned back to Alan. "Is Tin-Tin secure?"
Alan nodded his head and then reached up to flatten a rogue piece of Gordon's soaking wet hair back against his head. "You're wet," he commented.
"It…it was quicker to just stick my whole head in the sink," Gordon explained with a shrug. "It…it…it seemed like a good idea at the time." He turned and motioned towards the Firefly. "How are you planning on shifting that? Do I need to use the grapples or are you just going to winch her in?"
Alan walked past him into the pod and hefted the large towing hook up and over his shoulder. "Winch," he replied. "The Mole's well out of the way so it doesn't matter how straight, or not straight, she is when she gets in there and, let's face it, if we're shut down now then she'll never be used again anyway."
Gordon nodded sadly. "I'd already thought that," he whispered. "I'm sure Dad will keep pretty much everything just how it is for the time being though. One, Two, Three and Four will stay on the island. Five…well, I don't know what he'll do with her but Johnny, sure as damn it, won't be up there any more. He's going to have to take Scott's place as 'number one son and heir to it all' now and he'll be lucky if Dad lets him out of his sight before he's fifty."
Alan nodded and started walking towards the Firefly with the winch cable trailing behind him. "Do you reckon he'll give the Mole to someone? One of the emergency services maybe? Somewhere that regularly has…I don't know, landslides or earthquakes or…something."
Gordon shrugged. "I doubt it," he replied. "I guess he might do something with the plans though. Get them out into the public domain where they can build lots of mini-moles for themselves so each country can rescue their own people more easily. He…he'll only do it if it can be done fairly though. The US, for example, wouldn't be able to make a load and keep them for themselves. He'd find a way to make sure that each country had one within a useable distance of its major cities so if something happened there'd be one, or more, available pretty much straight away. Oh, are we done here?"
While Gordon had been talking, Alan had connected the towing hook to the Firefly and used the remote control to take the slack out of the winch cable. "Yeah," he agreed. "She's ready to go. I think it'd be right to walk with her for her final journey, what do you reckon?"
"Yeah," Gordon replied. "I think that'd be good." He swallowed hard and looked up at the Firefly towering above him. "She…she's been a real workhorse over the years and she's looked after us and served us well until today. I don't…I don't think Dad will forgive her for her failing today though and I think if one single thing gets broken up, scrapped or disposed of then it'll be her." He reached up, patted the side of the machine and then waved in the direction of the pod. "I'm getting maudlin," he complained. "…and I've still got to fly us home. Get her loaded then we can say our goodbyes and get going."
