Unexpected Encounter
A/N – I hope no one hates me too much for the last chapter. Thanks to my reviewers, again. I'm also sorry it's been so late, but I've had a case of writers block! I've written the next chapter too, so it should be up soon.
Also, Happy Thanksgiving to all American/Canadian readers!
DISCLAIMER – I have no rights over the Thunderbird characters. Story all mine though.
Chapter Twenty-One – Angel
To their surprise a dishevelled John met Virgil and Gordon as they stepped off the craft. He was covered in dust and debris and bleeding from a small cut on his temple, sustained when he had slammed the chair backwards into Goatee and then on to the floor. Along with the worried expression he did nothing to calm his brothers' fears.
"Are you ok?" Virgil asked, concern in his voice mirroring his expression.
John touched his head gently, not even realising it was cut. Seeing blood on his hand he smiled ironically. "You should see the other guy."
"What's happened John? All your trackers going, then we turn up and you look like you've been in a fight and covered in dust…what's been going on?"
John sighed while shaking dust out his hair. "We were tricked and kidnapped, again. But this time Scott and I got free, and we've managed to capture the people that did it. But Brains is still unconscious and Scott…isn't well."
This sparked several questions at once. "You were kidnapped?", "Unconscious?!", "What's wrong with Scott?"
John silenced them with his hand. "We first need to call the police, get them to come and get the men we've captured. Then we need to load the others on to 2 and get home as soon as possible."
"The police, of course," Gordon cried as he grabbed his radio, and then hesitated with it halfway to his mouth. "What do I tell them?"
"Tell them the truth – that three men were captured by a criminal gang intent on luring International Rescue here, that they managed to overcome their kidnappers but took some injuries and now are going to be taken to hospital by you while the police get the perpetrators."
"Oh, right." Gordon got on the radio and repeated what John had told him almost verbatim. Meanwhile Virgil followed John into the building, gazing around him at the dust covered room and cracked floor. The large base of the statue hid Brains and Scott from view at the entrance, but the destroyed room was hard to miss.
"What happened here?" Virgil whispered as he looked at the destruction. John didn't reply, but instead led him around the base of the statue to where Brains was sitting up groggily now. "Brains! Are you ok?"
"I-I think so, Virgil. W-what happened? Why are you here?"
"We were drugged by the businessmen Brains, and you've been out of it. But the men are all restrained, Virgil's here to take you and Scott home."
"T-there were four of them – m-men in suits."
"Four!" Virgil turned to John. "How did you and Scott manage that?"
"I'm not entirely sure," John replied. "Two are tied up in that room over there, I don't know where the others are. And there were five in total."
"So three could still be at large?"
"No, they've been contained somewhere. Scott took care of them. Brains, why don't you go and find Gordon? He's just outside and will help you into Thunderbird 2."
John watched Brains stumble out of the room before turning to his brother again. "You'll need to help me with Scott, I want to get him into '2 before the police get here."
"What's wrong with him?" Virgil repeated, but John's only reply was to gesture towards the huddled form sat next to the statue.
Scott was sat clutching his knees to his chest, looking out over the ocean. He was silent and brooding, but his expression was completely blank. He didn't recognise Virgil's presence as the brunette walked over, just kept staring into the distance. He almost seemed to have shrunk, his usual commanding posture completely gone and all that remained was a shell. Virgil had never seen him like this before, just so empty.
"Scott, Scott can you hear me?" When he got no answer Virgil reached out to touch his brother's shoulder, causing Scott to flinch away but at last acknowledge him. "Come on Scott, you can't stay here. Let's get you home." Scott made no move to follow his brother, so John came over.
"Scott you need to leave here." He indicated for Virgil to leave them, so the brunette went outside to get in touch with base and inform them about everything that had happened. Meanwhile, John crouched next to Scott and forced his brother to look him in the eye.
"Scott you have to go home now. Staying here won't bring her back, and we need to take Brains home to get checked over." John's plan worked, implying that Brains needed to be back at the Island to help recover broke into Scott's reverie and slowly the elder allowed him to help him up. Scott didn't lose the blank expression, but at least now he was moving.
Slowly the brothers moved out of the building, every step seeming to cause Scott more pain. Physically he appeared to be fine, but as John helped him into the large aircraft he suspected that the true damage would take far longer to heal than anyone else expected.
-x-x-
When the police arrived, Virgil and Gordon gave them the story of the kidnapping, explaining that the victims had been injured and were in their craft awaiting treatment. The police duly took statements from them and John who came to give a victim's account before hauling the men away in a secure van. On a search of the building the police had found all the other men, tied up in the corridors in the basement and all five were now facing a long jail sentence.
"Four of them are part of a gang we've been trying to track for a long time that are involved in arms smuggling," the police officer explained to John. "The other man could well be the head of the outfit, this lot don't have the brains between them to pull off some of the things they've done. We have enough to pin on them to keep them behind bars for a long time."
John thanked the police officer before reluctantly getting into Thunderbird 2 to return home. He didn't want to have to go back in there and see Scott again, not with the emptiness in his eyes. Virgil was busy taking control of the situation, directing the police and keeping base informed, something John was very thankful for. He knew that it should be him, as he was the second oldest and had witnessed everything first hand. But with Scott incapacitated Virgil had stepped up, citing John's traumatic experience as the reason. Whatever it was, John was relieved as Virgil was much better than him at this anyway. Being stuck up on '5 meant that he only got involved in half the rescues whereas Virgil was at nearly every one with the green juggernaut of an aircraft and therefore had much more experience.
Once inside the craft John hesitated briefly, before telling himself to man up and get down to the sickbay. Once there he sought out Gordon, busy running checks on Brains who looked much better. The pair smiled at him as he approached, although Gordon's vanished quickly to be replaced with a worried frown.
"Is Brains okay" John asked, alarmed.
"Oh Brains is fine, you'll be pleased to hear," the redhead gave Brains a clap on the back that made him wince. "It's not Brains I'm worried about."
John followed Gordon's eyes into the corner of the sick bay where Scott was sat. He was sitting on the edge of a bunk, his elbows resting on his thighs with his hands clasped loosely between his knees. He sat leaning forwards with his head bowed, his eyes fixed on his hands and utterly still.
"Do you have any idea what's happened to him?" Gordon whispered, his mouth close to John's ear.
"Not all of it," John replied truthfully. "I can only guess, and none of it good. I think we need to get him home quickly."
Gordon nodded, and indicated that John should sit with the two men while he ran to tell Virgil to get a move on. John hesitantly sat down, but was soon being quizzed by Brains about everything that happened while he was asleep. John answered as much as he could without discussing Angel, and he kept flicking his eyes to Scott to see if the older man would respond to anything being said, but to no avail.
His story was interrupted by Gordon re-entering. "I'm happy to stay down here with them is you want to fly with Virge up front?"
John nodded his silent agreement and went to join his brother in the cockpit. Virgil smiled wanly at him before engaging the thrusters that would take them home.
-x-x-
The Island was tense. When Thunderbird 2 had returned everyone exploded with questions directed at the three men but Virgil had calmly and firmly put a stop to it, allowing Gordon to take Scott to his room and Brains to go to his lab for some peace. Again John was impressed by his younger brother's maturity – he had thought that Virgil was sometimes temperamental and moody but judging by his current behaviour he had underestimated the artist. As the thought crossed his mind, Virgil was escorting their father and Tin-Tin towards the study, promising to fill them in on everything he knew. John felt put out for a moment, it was his story after all, but Virgil winked at him and he closed the door behind them and John realised he was being given some peace.
Berating himself for underestimating Virgil yet again, John went to find some much needed food, running into Kyrano in the kitchen. The elderly man was just putting together some trays of food for all three of them, and smiled up as John entered.
"You have saved me a trip, Mr. John."
John smiled at him. "You are a saviour, Kyrano. I'm so hungry I could eat an elephant. Brains is in his lab and I think Scott is in his room."
Kyrano nodded and placed on tray in front of John before leaving with the others. John began to eat hungrily and was almost halfway through his meal when Kyrano returned.
"Will that be sufficient, Mr. John? I do not think we have any elephants."
John put his forkful down and smiled as he reached for a glass of water. "This is just fine, Kyrano. Thank you."
"You're welcome," the man paused, and John sensed there was more that he wanted to say. He waited while Kyrano cleared up, knowing that he would talk when ready. Eventually his patience worked.
"Mr. Scott is not himself."
Looking at the kindly, knowing eyes John felt himself talking without thinking. "It was terrible Kyrano, I saw it happen. The moment he seemed to break inside. I realised they were close but when she fell, it was almost like a bit of him was lost with her." Realising what he said, his hand flew to his mouth. "I'm sorry, I wasn't going to mention anything. I don't think Scott wanted me to."
"Then I haven't heard anything." Kyrano returned to cleaning the worktops in the kitchen, pausing in the middle of one swipe to add "But if something was lost, then he may need help to find it again."
-x-x-
The next few days dragged on. John was due to return to '5, but he seemed to be the only person who could get a response of any kind from Scott who otherwise remained unchanged so his father insisted he remained at the Island. Both he and Brains had fully recovered from their ordeal, helped by the knowledge that the gang had been charged with their abduction and due to go on trial.
Eventually John went to his father and asked to return to duty on '5.
Jeff Tracy poured himself a small glass of scotch before he answered. "I don't know, John. You're the only one who can get through to Scott at all, I don't know what else we can do." The strain was showing on the head of the family. He depended on Scott for a lot, and to have lost his eldest son to this strange despair was almost more than he could handle. They all believed that the depression came from some form of torture during their ordeal, and John hadn't felt it necessary to enlighten them further.
"I don't think there's anything else I can do for him either," John pointed out reasonable. "I just think he needs time now to put himself straight. Also, Alan's been up on '5 for longer than usual by now, it's about time he had a break from it."
Jeff finally agreed, but only on condition that John would return in four weeks exactly. Soon, John and Brains were launching through the roundhouse on the way to bring Alan home.
-x-x-
The four weeks while John was away didn't change much on the Islands. There were a couple of call outs, nothing too disastrous which was good given that Alan had taken over piloting Thunderbird 1. Scott was still sunk into depression, and nothing that his family did could break the emptiness filling him. John received reports but his brother never came to talk to him. From what John could gather, Scott wasn't really talking to anybody. And John heard a lot about it, from nearly every member of the extended family at some time or another. He even got a call from an agitated Lady Penelope, who had been trying to contact Scott but had no success and appeared to be very upset about it.
John had asked to return to the space station but when there he found himself unable to concentrate on his work like usual, he spent so much time worrying about his brother. He tried to piece together all the information he could glean about the girl and a suspicion began to form in his mind that she had been around for longer than he had previously guessed. His thoughts could run away with him on the space station, and it was a relief when Alan finally turned up to replace him.
Returning, John found the Island almost exactly as he left it. His father was showing signs of even more strain and the tension had rocketed up another notch. To escape, Tin-Tin had gone to stay with Lady Penelope again and Gordon had taken some leave, and John couldn't say he blamed them. Scott still drifted ghostlike through their lives, no improvement whatsoever over the last few weeks. Everyone just waited and watched to see what would happen next.
-x-x-
A few days after he returned to the Island, John decided that enough was enough and that he would talk to his older brother regardless of whether he was prepared to listen or not. He searched for him in his room, but found it empty. Looking round the Island he couldn't find a trace of him, but then something made him check the observation deck.
Sure enough, when John climbed the last few steps to the platform he could make out the slight form leaning against the rail on the far side, gazing out across the Island at the Pacific in the distance. He was shocked by how thin Scott was, his normally muscular build had diminished in the last month and his face had a new gauntness that accentuated his delicate features more. John braced himself and walked over to the figure, rewarded when Scott turned his head to look at him.
"I'm not very good at lectures, but you need to hear me out." His older brother sighed and turned his gaze back to the ocean, which John interpreted as consent. In a way he was disappointed, he had expected to find this harder. He wondered briefly how often his family had just tried to talk to Scott about what he'd been through while John had been gone.
"I've never been in love, not properly, so I don't know about how much it hurts, but the way you've been ever since that day…it reminds me of dad, after mum died. I know you remember how withdrawn he was, no matter how young we were then. But he came out of it, he found a reason to. Now I don't know what was going on or who she was, but I reckon you loved her and I think now you need to find the reason to keep going. Let us be your reason, as we were for dad, let International Rescue give you a purpose.
"Dad came through it, and he and mum had been together years and had five children. I'm not saying that means that you should hurt less, more that if he managed it then you can too. You're both so alike and you still have that support there for you. And this time we're old and ugly enough to be able to understand better how to help." He paused then, unsure how to continue. "I…I know it's not okay, and I know it will never be okay, but you need to try anyway. She saved your life, so that you can live it." John saw a flash of comprehension in his brother's eyes, not a lot but enough to give him some hope. "That's better. I doubt she would want you to mope around like this."
"No, she would have wanted me to get revenge." Scott's words startled John, some of the first words he'd heard his brother speak freely for a long time.
"Well then, get revenge. Go and witness their trial. You never know, you may even find you get the closure you need."
Scott was silent again, but John had a suspicion that this time it was more due to him needing to think about the idea than the desperate pain that had been silencing him before. John thought that maybe, at last, Scott would start to heal. It wasn't much, but it was more than they'd been given so far. He turned to leave, stopping at the top of the stairway and turning once more towards his brother.
"She must have been one hell of a woman Scotty. She managed to break your barriers, after all." He then descended, leaving Scott alone with his thoughts. He almost didn't hear the reply that floated down out of the night.
"Angel. Her name was Angel."
John paused in his descent, an ironic smile playing over his lips. "Figures."