The sound of the dinner bell pulled my head out of the maintenance hatch on the Firefly. I checked my watch, a bit surprised at how fast the day had gone. Al and I had gotten back from Thunderbird Five several hours ago, and since then, I'd been stuck down in the bowels of Thunderbird Two's pod five, working on a recalcitrant track assembly. I stared down at my work. I was almost done, and I really hated to leave it, but if I didn't show up at the dinner table, I'd be in for it.

Oh well, it would still be here after dinner. I headed over to the wash station to clean up, then headed up to the house. I liked working on mechanical things like the Firefly. My brothers and I had all cut our teeth on farm equipment, and there really wasn't anything quite like the satisfaction of identifying and repairing a big piece of machinery. Especially when it wasn't really expected of you.

Sometimes my brothers underestimated my abilities. I think it had to do with the fact that I was… different. They saw me as, I dunno, some kind of ecologist or something. I admit, I did have a bent for living things, but that didn't mean I couldn't get as down and dirty as the rest of them.

I mean, I'm no engineer like Scott or Virg, or a mechanical genius like Al or Dad, but I could hold my own in the repair shop. And what made me think of that? I shook my head at the thoughts and by the time I hit the dining room, I was ready to eat.

I walked in, then came to stop. Everybody was at the table as usual, except for Scott who was probably still asleep in his bed. It was a very mundane scene, but Virgil had this look on his face, and my stomach just dropped.

My mouth was dry as dust, but with feigned casualness, I asked, "Hey, Virg, why so gloomy? The piano bite you?"

He looked up, raising an eyebrow. "Did you get the Firefly squared away?"

"Almost. I still have to align the secondary track."

"Do you need help with that, son?" My dad looked over at me.

"Nope. Scott still sick?"

"Yes. Brains is looking into it." Dad said quietly, his concern obvious in his tone.

I couldn't help but notice that Virgil had shifted in his seat, looking only at his plate. Something was definitely up, and I was going to get to the bottom of it, but not in front of Dad and Grandma. "Chili? Great! Al, pass the bread, please."

Alan handed over the bread basket. Grandma's chili was the best in the world as far as I was concerned. It had just enough of a bite. I took a chunk of the crusty bread that she always served with the chili and slathered it with butter. Unlike Virgil and Dad, I didn't need any extra cheese or onions. The chili was just that good on its own.

We ate dinner, talking about this and that. I noticed that Virgil worked hard to keep up his end of the conversation, but by the time Kyrano brought in the homemade ice cream for dessert, he had fallen silent, and he was getting glances from everyone at the table.

"Son? Something on your mind?"

Virgil started, a bit guiltily. "Uh, no, nothing Dad. I guess I'm just a bit tired."

Dad nodded his head. "I can understand that. Boys, with your brothers sidelined, you're all going to have to watch yourselves. No late nights, no taking any chances. As I'm sure you all appreciate, if you three get sick, we'll have to suspend operations entirely, and that could have serious consequences. Understood?"

I joined my brothers in somber agreement. The last thing I'd want is for some poor soul to die because I was playing video games after midnight, and was too tired to do the job right.

Dinner ended, and Al and I started clearing the table. It wasn't required. If we just walked away, Kyrano would do it, but the habit had been ingrained in us since we were kids, and it was just a good time to talk to my brother.

We carried the bowls and platters into the empty kitchen. We'd barely cleared the door before Al said, "What's up with Virg? Did you see that look on his face when Dad asked him if there was anything on his mind?"

"Yeah. As soon as we're done here, I'm going to track him down and find out."

Alan stood stock still. "Um, you are?"

I looked over at my brother. It was pretty apparent that he didn't really see anything to worry about and had just been making conversation. But that look on Virgil's face when I first entered the dining room had really hit me pretty hard. I was pretty sure it was the same look I had on my face when John had first snapped at me. I wanted to make sure Virgil hadn't had a similar experience with Scott.

Still, no need to alarm Alan if it wasn't necessary… "Yup. I'm gonna make sure he's feeling okay. Last thing we need is for him to keel over on a rescue."

"You want me to come with you?"

"No. He'll just clam up if he thinks we're ganging up on him."

"Yeah, okay. Well, I'll see you later, then."

"Yeah, sure."

Alan hung up the dish towel he'd been holding and headed out the door. I closed the door on the dishwasher, and set it to work, then went out to track down my brother.

I figured the first place to check was Scott's room, so I headed for the bedroom wing of the house. When I got there, I found the do not disturb light on by the door control. I considered overriding the door, just to check on my brother. But knowing if I woke him, he'd be, uh, cranky, I decided to give it a pass.

The door to Virgil's room had no such restriction, so with a short knock, I opened it. "Hey, Virg?"

No sign of him. Well, despite saying he was tired, it was still pretty early, so I headed over to the lounge to see if he was there at the piano. I didn't have to enter the room to know he wasn't there. The big baby grand was untouched. Still, I walked through and out onto the balcony.

This particular balcony had a panoramic view of gardens and pool area and you could also see a good part of the beach. I paused for a moment to breathe in the salt air, and watch the sunset. There were a few clouds that the sun was painting all gold and pink, and the sky was that really pretty shade of red into blue into purple. I really loved sunsets here.

Apparently so did Virgil. I spotted my brother down on the beach staring off over the water. I took a moment to grab a couple of beers from the refrigerator, then I headed out. When I came out of Grandma's flower garden onto the sand, I found Virgil still sitting there.

I made my way over to him, clinking the bottles as I walked to keep from startling him. I could have snuck up on him, of course, but it seemed like a bad idea when I just wanted to talk to him. I got to where he was sitting in the sand, and plopped my butt down and offered him one of the bottles.

"Thanks," he said quietly.

"You're welcome."

Together we sat in silence watching as the last bit of color left the sky and the stars came out. "I can never quite paint a sunset like that without it looking fake," Virgil said in a tone of regret.

I nodded. "I guess some things are just better left in the moment."

"Yeah."

I waited to see if he'd say anything else. I didn't want to push. I figured if there was anything really wrong, he'd say it. After a few minutes, he finished his beer, and suddenly stood up, brushing off the sand. "Well, I guess I'll head up to the house. Are you going to finish up on the Firefly tonight, or tomorrow?"

So much for that. "I was going to do it after dinner, but with what Dad said about not pushing too hard, I think I'll wait. I was practically done. It'll only take an hour or so in the morning."

"And you're sure you don't need any help with it?"

You know, you can get tired of that question. "Well, I don't know. The LX6 sections keep wanting to curl up at the edges. But I've hammered most of them down. If you feel like hammering, you could give me a hand."

For a guy who prided himself on his stoic manner, it sure didn't take much to get him going. All you had to do was say you'd put the track sections on upside down then wrecked them with a hammer. His jaw dropped, and this look of horror came over him. "Gordon… they're supposed to curl downward. You put them on with the double hatch marking up, didn't you?"

"Double hatch marking? I didn't see any hatch marking."

He was breathing hard now. "How many sections?"

"Huh?"

"How many sections did you hammer?"

"Well, I got all but two put on, so that's what? Twenty-eight?"

He slapped his forehead. "Oh, God, that's practically our whole stock! It'll take a month to get replacements."

The next part was tricky. I casually got up off the sand, putting distance between myself and my brother. Hopefully, it looked accidental. "Of course, on the other hand, if you actually trusted me, you'd realize that I know what I'm doing, Virgil."

Wow. I didn't really mean it to sound so bitter. Virgil started, looking me in the eye. I was ready to run if he decided to thump on me. He surprised me by slowly smiling. "It was a joke?" He shook his head. "Oh, geez, I should have realized. Not really funny, Gordy. And believe it or not, I do trust you. Things are just so screwed right now, I didn't think. Sorry."

"What's so screwed, Virg?" I asked. I really wanted to know. I mean, sure, we were shorthanded, but we'd been shorthanded before. And with TB5 switched over to automatic, it was really as if we were only short one man. It really wasn't all that different than if one of us took a short vacation.

"Well, if you didn't mess up the Firefly's tracks, I guess we aren't really that screwed," Virgil said quietly. But I noticed he wasn't looking me in the eye.

"Virgil, tell me what's going on. Just tell me."

My brother turned to me and looked me square in the eye. "Nothing I can't handle," he said firmly.

"Look…" We both suddenly started. The klaxon alerting us to a rescue was ringing. We both broke into a run for the house. That's one of the problems with a job like ours. Interruptions could come at any time, and it usually was when I needed it the least. Well, I could try again as we flew to wherever it was we were needed.