A/N: Should have put this at the end of the last one, but I forgot. I know nothing about the Olympics, I don't watch them, I don't enjoy them, all I know is that Gordon's bio (which I read years ago when I started this) said he won a medal at the Olympics, so it's going into the story. So whatever I write about them is probably going to be wrong. Not that we'll hear anymore about that after this chapter, which I think you can all reasonably guess what's going to happen. -Happy grin-

Olympics Again

"She's an Aquaphibian as well, right?" Gordon asked, nodding towards the silent woman Captain Troy was talking to.

Bob looked across and nodded. "Near as we can figure. He calls her a mermaid, but…" he shrugged expansively, and Gordon understood.

"She's like Scenchia isn't she?" he pressed further.

Bob looked at him speculatively. "How do you know about him?"

Gordon shrugged easily. "Ran into him a few times, hoping the next time I do is going to be his last." He didn't mean for it to come out as viciously as it did.

Bob gave him a long and considering look, and changed the topic. "So, when's your next qualifier?"

"Saturday."

"You been practicing?"

"All the time, Bob, you know me." He flashed him a grin. Bob snorted and went back to his work. Gordon kept his eyes on the woman; Marina, and wondered why she and Scenchia looked so different to their green skinned, and aquatic looking brethren. He made a note to ask Commander Shore about it the next time he was speaking with the man.

"Fish! Call for you!" the shout rang out across the yard, and Gordon went to answer it. Going back to his rooms he grinned when he saw Leo and Jenna crowed into the space in front of the screen.

"We have some good news for you Gordo!" Leo grinned.

Gordon grinned. "You two have finally had sex, so I won't have to listen to your UST anymore?" he asked innocently.

Jenna glared, and smacked Leo across the head when he snickered. "Don't be an ass Gordon." She told him primly. "Or we might not come see you this Saturday."

Gordon's eyes lit up. "You got the day off?" he asked.

Leo nodded enthusiastically. "Unless there's going to be some serious thing, we're all going, Taylor, Boyle, Collette and us."

"That's brilliant!" Gordon cheered.

"Thought you'd like that." Jenna smiled.

Gordon couldn't wait until Saturday.

X

"Dad, are we doing the right thing?"

Jeff frowned across at the door to his room, where John was standing, playing nervously with the sleeve of his shirt. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"This." John elaborated. "Confronting Gordon like this. Is it the right thing to do?" Jeff frowned, and his son sighed deeply. "I want to see him as much as you do. I want to find out why he left, and why he thought he couldn't come back. But I just think… I think maybe confronting him might just push him further away."

"John." Jeff said warningly.

John refused to look at him. "I don't like it dad. I hate what I'm saying with every single part of myself. But someone has to say it, and I know I'm the only one who's bothered to think about the possibility." He looked up finally, but dropped his eyes almost immediately. "We're all just assuming that Gordon's going to just come home with us. That he'll just drop everything, beg our forgiveness and come home. Like he hasn't spent three years out there being someone else, making a whole new life for himself. One that doesn't have us in it."

"So you're saying we shouldn't go?" Jeff asked, feeling sick, he hadn't even considered the possibility that Gordon might not want to come home.

"No! No, that's not what I meant… I just… I just think we ought to be prepared. In… incase he doesn't want to come back."

Jeff sat on his bed, and stared distantly at the floor. "But why… why wouldn't he want to come home. In his letters…"

John swallowed and came to settle beside him. "Three years is a long time dad. He might be scared. I just. It just came to me last night, and it's a possibility that I had to raise. I don't like it anymore than you do."

Jeff nodded tiredly, reaching over to pull John into a one armed hug.

X

Gordon didn't even notice them until after his qualifier; when he was changed and surrounded by his friends from the Seals, and Todd who was grumbling something about the money he would most likely be losing. Gordon was too busy grinning and basking in his victory to do more than gaze dizzily around him. But all that froze on the spot when he did see them clustered nervously no more than twenty feet away, all eyes on his hungrily.

He switched to pure panic mode in an instant.

"Fish, what the hell?" Boyle snapped.

Gordon swallowed hard. "My… my family. I can't… shit! Let's just get out of here please!" he begged softly.

Jenna looked round frowning. "Your family?" Gordon could see the exact moment she caught on and he back peddled quickly, spinning on his heel and walking as quickly as he could in the opposite direction. He couldn't face them. He'd thought he would be able to. Every stray thought of meeting them again was filled with hugs and smiles; not those desperate hungry looks, and not with the fear that was flashing through him right now.

Thankfully his friends did not question him further, just followed him quietly, forming a protective circle, and got out and into the van in the parking lot.

"The Tracy's?" Jenna asked, though it came out as more of a statement than a question. "You're fucking Gordon Tracy!" she accused.

Gordon suddenly wished he wasn't there. This was too much. But there was no point lying anymore. "Yeah, yeah I am."

Leo whistled, long and low. "But that makes you only…"

"Nearly 19." Gordon affirmed.

"Does Commander Shore know?" Todd asked briskly.

Gordon shut his eyes, refusing to look up at any of them and nodded slowly.

"That's something then." Todd said.

There was complete silence, and Gordon began to fidget, keeping his eyes deliberately lowered, not wanting to see the faces of the people he had looked to for security for so long. Finally he heard Jenna sigh.

"It explains some stuff now." She said quietly.

"Gordon Tracy." Taylor sighed.

"Shows how good out observation skills are." Boyle added.

"What now?" Leo asked.

Gordon stayed silent; waiting. For what he didn't quite know. But he was waiting.

"We get Gordon home." Todd said easily. "Because I think he has some serious thinking to do."

And that was the end of it.

X

As the Olympics progressed Gordon looked to drop out more than once, especially when he knew his family would be there, watching him. But Todd refused to let him back out of their bet. No one had said anything after that day, but his calls with Leo and Jenna were stilted and uncomfortable.

It was a big adjustment. He understood that.

But he didn't know what to do? Or who to speak to. It was weeks later, and the main event was looming over his head, and the overwhelming fear that his family would be there, when he finally plucked up the courage to go to Commander Shore.

He explained the situation as much as he could, explained everything, and the Commander listened intently, and waited patiently for him to finish, before leaning back in his chair and giving Gordon an appraising look.

"Did I ever tell you how I knew your father?" he asked after a moment of considering silence.

Gordon shook his head mutely.

"I met Jeff Tracy when he was 17, and trying to bluff his way into the air force. This was long before WASP, and I was still in the Navy. We were in talks at the time about some aircraft we wanted on the ships. I was just along as guard detail. I ended up talking with your father; he told me all about a fight he'd had with his parents about him joining the air force. Your grandfather had been a pilot before he was injured, and your grandmother hadn't wanted your father to end up the same way. So he'd run away from home, intending to join anyway and prove that he could make his own decisions about his future. I listened to him, and do you know what I told him?"

Gordon shook his head, wide eyed.

"I told him to talk to his parents. Even if he decided not to return home, he should at least talk to them."

Gordon swallowed. "So what should I do sir?" he asked, feeling tears prick at his eyes.

Commander Shore smiled. "I think you should talk to them Gordon. You're a grown man now, and you need to let them see that. And you need to explain. You all need to heal from the experience I think."

Gordon nodded slowly, and quietly returned to his rooms.

He spent the night staring at the vidphone, trying to make the number for home dial itself. Too afraid to lift his hand to press the buttons himself.

X

He'd won the gold.

But though he smiled and accepted it; there was a hollow feeling in his stomach the whole time, as his eyes swept the crowd of people, hoping and dreading to see his family in the stands. It was a sick mix of relief, shame and disappointment when he didn't see them. So he got his medal, he smiled and he posed for the pictures, he told the press he was ecstatic with his win, and then he disappeared into the changing rooms.

"Congratulations."

Gordon spun round, eyes wide, hand automatically going to where his knife usually was, but it was not there and he cursed.

"You swim beautifully."

Gordon swallowed, but turned fully, settling himself in preparation for a fight. Eyes darting, searching for the source of that hated voice.

"I'm sure you'll drown beautifully too."

The door of the changing rooms opened and closed, and Gordon dived out of the cubicle he'd been in and rushed to the door, shoving it open, only to be brought up short by his family.

"Did a man come out here?" he asked, too agitated to really notice who was in front of him.

"Gordon…"

Gordon frowned and pushed past them to see down the corridor, but could see no one. He swept his gaze over them. "Did a man come out of the changing room before me?"

"Yeah." Alan said in startled surprise. "But… Gordon…"

Gordon looked at them, and felt his heart twinge, and he knew he needed to talk to them, he owed them that much; but right now he needed to find Scenchia, he needed to deal with the biggest problem first. "I'm sorry." He said voice tight and cold. "I have a job to do." And he took off in a run down the corridor, pulling his phone from his pocket as he went.

Knew he was being a coward. Knew he didn't have to go after Scenchia himself. But it was a convenient excuse to avoid the inevitable confrontation with his family; and right now he would use it. He wasn't ready. He hated that a part of him might never be ready.

He shoved those thoughts aside when the phone was picked up. "Scenchia is on Olympic grounds right now. No visual, but I'm certain it's him."

X

Ok, chapter 10 finished. I am sorry for the really long wait. I hope this makes up for it. I know It might seem a little extreme for Gordon to react this way, but, as I had John try to explain, three years is a long time; Gordon's been away from them for so long, that he's just scared to go back, scared to see how much they've changed, and how much he's changed. He's afraid he'll never be able to fit back in with them.