She's blood to the man who took away their father. This sentiment drops into the abyss that appears to have opened beneath the other three boys, and there's no sound as it hits. They're all staring and silent, Alan having pushed himself up into a proper sitting position, looking up at Kayo with the biggest blue eyes in the room. She doesn't meet his gaze, but continues, "I'm sorry I haven't told you before. Your dad knew. Your grandma knows, Brains knows. Lady Penelope...?"

Lady Penelope inclines her head briefly, and sits back down. "It was Jeff who had me look into your history intially, one of my first assignments for International Rescue. Your family has a very...muddled past. For my part, Kayo, I've always trusted you completely."

"Thank you, Lady Penelope. It means a lot." Kayo nods, grateful for the London Agent's support. It'll go a long way to making sure the boys still trust her. "I'm telling you now so that it doesn't accidentally come to light later and make you all doubt me, because we can't afford that now. Someone-whether it's the Hood or someone else-wanted to kill John. We were lucky-he was lucky-they very easily could have succeeded."

She's hitting her stride now, there's no time to let the boys react to the bomb she's dropped on them-it's not that she's afraid of how they'll feel, it's not-she has a job to do. "Scott, you're being assigned a protection detail. I've spoken with TI security, they agree that you're a high profile target, and you'll be getting the same treatment your father did when he was stateside. Your bodyguards do not report to you, they report to me. Do what they tell you. And I know you're not going to like it, but you'll make my life easier if you try not to make their jobs any harder. The rest of you are grounded and rescue ops are suspended indefinitely. No leaving the island, not without me."

This is, partially, a means leveraging Scott's tacit support against him. The eldest is going to be a nightmare under surveillance, used to being the babysitter instead of the babysat. "...right. Right, of course, Kayo. Guys, I know this is...I know this is all out of left field, but we've all known Kayo since we were kids. You said it, Alan, she's family. That hasn't changed."

Alan's on his feet now, his hands clenched and his face pale and stricken. For a moment she's afraid of what he'll say, certain he'll feel betrayed and rightly so, but when he finally meets her eyes, nothing's changed. He's still the little brother-still her little brother-and it's one of those rare moments when he stops trying to impress everyone else and admits that he's afraid. "Kayo, why's he doing this to us?"

Us. The way he says it leaves no doubt that she's still included when he says the word. It's getting a little misty under her cool, professional mask. "I don't know, Alan. It may not even be him, but if it is, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I've never known why. It was your father's affair. Jeff kept me safe. He kept me from a life that would have turned me against all of you, and I never got to thank him the way I wanted to. All I can do now is what he asked me to, and make sure no one hurts his boys." She pauses, and she has to swallow back tears, before she can correct herself, "-our family."

The room still feels a little full of things that want to be said, and Virgil clears his throat and attempts to say them. "Okay. Kayo, you know that means a lot to all of us. I think we can all agree that no one here would change a thing about this family. This...this is gonna take some time to process, but-"

Gordon interrupts, "Whoa, hold up. I disagree. I've always thought I ought to be taller. Other than that though..." Penelope laughs lightly and the tension starts to break. The knot of dread that had tightened in Kayo's stomach is loosening. Gordon-and it was Gordon she'd been afraid of-even gives her a sympathetic grin, keeps cracking jokes to lighten the mood. To let her know it's all right. "Man, Kayo. Been sitting on that one for a while, huh? Well, we all have secrets. If it helps, I'm not a natural blond."

Penelope arches an eyebrow across the room. "...I beg your pardon? Yes, you are."

"...it was a joke, but how do you know?"

Lady Penelope's unbreakable exterior can apparently be marred ever so slightly by a flush of colour in her cheeks. "Never you mind."

Scott clears his throat and looks at his watch. "Okay. Let's get back on track. Some of us are trying to save the family's reputation."

"Is it that bad, Scott?" Lady Penelope asks, crossing her legs at the ankles and pulling out her compact. She bites her lip as she flicks through a handful of information. "Who's running your damage control? From a public relations perspective?"

Scott looks a little like a deer in the headlights. "I don't know, actually. How bad it is. Is it bad? They're trying to get me to have a press-conference. I don't have the time and I'm not...they have people for this, this isn't my job."

Penelope's got that glint in her eye again, "International Rescue should issue a statement. It would go a long way towards mitigating any of the fallout from John's data breach-"

"From Thunderbird 5's data breach," Scott corrects, his expression slightly pained. "I'm not supposed to mention John. They want to keep the spotlight off him as much as possible, with EOS, and the legal question of it all, and-"

Gordon huffs at this, derisive, "Oh sure, keep the spotlight off John. Yeah, that does us a hell of a lot of good. The GDF gives him malaria, and we're doing them a favour by keeping our damn mouths shut about it."

Virgil intercedes, ever the voice of reason, "To be fair, it wasn't the GDF per se, we don't actually know-"

"Like hell! We don't have anybody else to blame, but a disease that's killed millions of people is back in the world, and we're just supposed to sit on that? Because they had a security breach? We...what, we let some schematics slip, we lost hold of some databases, some passwords...I don't even know. I do know that John was in a coma for three damn days. None of us have even really seen him-except you, Scotty, and you said he looked like death. So, okay, we don't know why this happened. We sure as hell know how. You ask me, the GDF have plenty to answer for, and if they don't lay off John-"

Virgil clears his throat. "Well, I mean, if they hadn't been the ones to get to him, though-"

If Gordon gets riled up, inevitably Alan gets riled up right along with him and he's caught his brother's eye, caught fire right along with him. "If the GDF had been up to handling a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico without us, then I could've been there first. Easy."

"Yeah! Yeah, you got it, Al. We've always made the difference. And now..."

Scott holds a hand up before Gordon can finish and the look on his face is so stern that Gordon stops short. "Cool it, both of you. Alan, Gordon, rein it in. I'll handle the press, it's my responsibility, and-"

Penelope interrupts, "I'd be happy to help you there, Scott. You have plenty to deal with already, and there's a certain…a certain sense about these things that one needs. It's not that you don't have it, Scott, it's just that it's a little...underdeveloped, and now really is the time for effortless charisma."

The eldest is visibly relieved by this proposition and he nods immediately. "Right. Yeah, no, of course. Sure, you're more than welcome to take over as IR's representative here, I'll tell-"

"Oh, no, no. Not me. No, dearest, I can't represent IR. Not publically, at least. I'll takeover the campaign itself, but I certainly can't be the face of it. No, you're going to have to give me Gordon."

Scott's blinking at this, and Gordon's staring, a little wild-eyed. "Give you who now?"

Penelope nods to herself and glances at Kayo. "If you're amenable, of course? I'll keep a very close eye on him, I'm not... well, I'm hardly Parker, but I can keep him quite safe. If that's all right?"

Kayo nods slowly, considering it. "Yeah. No, yeah, it's a good idea. Keep him on the move. I'm starting to think we'd be best served to split the boys up. Virgil, if Scott could use you in New York-"

"I need all the help I can get," Scott agrees, though he's backtracking, "Hang on a minute, though, Gordon-"

"-Is a tremendously good speaker, is naturally charismatic and-Gordon?" Penelope tilts her head and squints at him just slightly, "Who won the Olympic gold for the women's hundred metre butterfly in 1984?"

This is a trick that Gordon does at parties. It's not a trick, per se, it's just how his brain works, lightning fast with figures and dates and anything he decides to commit to memory. He almost can't help it. "Mary Meagher, USA, time fifty-nine point twenty-six seconds. But I dont-"

Penelope's eyes are glinting again, and it's impossible not to see that she relishes this. "Gordon, how much has IR saved a given corporation in environmental damage fees? Gordon, how much faster than the average GDF craft is Thunderbird 1? Gordon, on average, how many hours does Thunderbird 2 spend on rescue work in a week? He's handsome, he's photogenic, he's charming. He can quote data from memory. He was an Olympian. He's very wholesome looking. He'll be useful. Let me stick him in front of a camera."

"Gordon, how do you change a tire?" Virgil asks dryly. "Gordon, which one is the seafood fork? Gordon, how do you tie a half-windsor?"

"Hey. I'm right here, guys, come on-"

"Let's call and ask John what he thinks," Alan interrupts, glancing up at the place where their brother should be. Scott's hologram is projecting from the wrong place, small and a little hazy. "We should. Right? He's been so much better and we still keep leaving him out, because none of us wants to...to tell him all the hard stuff. It's not fair. I know this is all awful and I know it's gonna be hard to tell him everything but...it seems wrong, doesn't it?"

There's a way he says it, with a little break in his voice, a way he sounds sort of lost. Alan's casting about for the surest thing he knows, the person he knows is missing. And he's right. Kayo's just told the whole family her deepest darkest secret, and John wasn't there to hear it. They're talking about John's future, and John's not there to hear it. Alan's got a point and he knows so.

So Scott's the one who agrees, kindly, "Sure, Al. You're right. Call him up."

Alan, good old Alan. Alan who believes in his brother, who just misses him more than anything else. Alan's the one who kneels on the carpet and punches in the code to bring up the holocomm in John's room. Grandma and Brains have joined them in the living room, and everyone's cheerful. It's Alan whose heart starts to thud painfully in his chest as there's no answer. It's Alan who forces through an override, turns John's comm on remotely. It's Alan who first realizes there's something terribly wrong when the call goes through, and John just isn't there.