A/N Whoever invented the ATCL Performance exam should be introduced to the Hangman's noose.
Chapter 27: Visitation Rights
A few weeks after the patch-up between Alan and Gordon, the former was lounging around the house, watching old movies he found in his father's collection.
About 15 minutes into the last movie he switched it off, and got up, stretching, and heading into the kitchen for a drink. He opened the fridge, wondering what he'd chose.
Instead of a bounty of drinks, however, he found a single slip of paper.
I O U the contents of a fridge
"GORDON!"
Later that day, the youngest Tracy was upstairs in his room, lying back on his bed whilst he read the latest Rolling Stone magazine, finding a fascinating article about the Beatles revivement movement.
It was then he heard a car roll up on the driveway. And, of course, his head snapped up and he listened carefully.
"I know those engines," he whispered, springing off his bed, and looking out the window.
"FAB 1,"
And he was downstairs in an instant, in the hope of seeing the young blonde teen he'd become increasingly fond of.
"Where's the fire?" Scott quipped, earning only a dark look from his youngest brother.
"Bite me," Scott grimaced.
"That would be called Cannibalism, little brother, and is indeed frowned upon in most societies,"
"Very funny, Scott. I can barely keep my sides from splitting," Alan's deadpan only received a wide grin from his brother.
"I thought so,"
"Knob," Alan muttered under his breath, continuing down the stairs. The eldest Tracy, on the other hand, laughed and made his way up to his room.
"Penny!" Jeff beamed as the elegant lady entered the Tracy dining area. She surveyed the room, resting a hand on her hip as she raised her eyebrows.
"This is remarkably empty for lunch time, Jeff,"
"They're all asleep," he laughed, "Speaking of which, where is that daughter of yours?"
"Tara? Oh she's—"
"Lady P!" and the rest of the family came thundering down the stairs.
"Gordon! Virgil! Scott! Alan! How lovely to see you all!"
"Where's Tara?" Alan piped up, trying (oh so hard) to sound nonchalant.
Behind him, Virgil and Scott exchanged smirks (in their opinion, he failed.)
"As I was just telling your father, my daughter is currently at Cambridge University, looking around in the open day,"
"So she's finally decided what she wants to be, eh?" Gordon held a hand to his heart, "Our little Tars is finally growing up,"
Lady Penelope laughed.
"Well, with her International Baccalaureate final marks, Tara's gained admission to medicine in several universities across the globe. So now it's just an issue of where,"
"Medicine?" Virgil was incredulous, "Tara-the-delinquent is going to be a doctor?" Penelope fixed him with a look.
"Tara-the-delinquent, as you so eloquently put it, Virgil, put a lot of thought into this. She ultimately decided that medicine would most benefit International Rescue,"
"Atta girl," Jeff beamed, "She's certainly matured, Penny,"
"Indeed she has," the blonde nodded in agreement, before a darker look crossed her features, "Though I'm still not happy about that belly-button piercing," the boys laughed at that.
"Miss. Tara sends you all 'er best, 'owever," Parker took off his white driving-gloves and hat, "She was most disappointed tha' she could not be 'ere when she found out where 'er mother was going this hafternoon,"
"She's not the only one," Gordon muttered to Virgil, who bit back a laugh. Alan (thank God) didn't hear his brother's comment, so couldn't reply with the standard "SHUT UP GORDON!" which the situation normally warranted from the youngest Tracy.
"Now what does a lady have to do for a cup of tea?" Penelope took a seat at the table opposite Jeff, and Kyrano appeared in the doorway, carrying a tray.
"Lady Grey, M'Lady?" Penelope beamed, taking the teacup.
"You read my mind, Kyrano," the housekeeper beamed, resting the tray on the table.
"And here are some snacks for the boys while I finish lunch,"
"Awesome!" Gordon dove onto the nibblies, earning a disapproving look from both his father and the Lady.
Parker, however, just laughed along with his brothers.
Weeks later.
"Calling International Rescue! Come in International Rescue!"
John Tracy looked up from his book (The true and unequivocal story explaining lack of updates – The Flame Faerie) and slid his chair over to the panel.
"This is International Rescue. What seems to be the problem?"
"Oh thank God we got on to you! We need help! The Lucas Heights reactor is going to meltdown any minute! There's a huge problem with the cooling rods and we don't have the equipment to get in there and fix them!"
"Have the staff been evacuated?"
"Yes! But the reactor is in the middle of suburbia! We can't evacuate them all!" John groaned, scrawling the details down.
"I'll contact our home base and we'll be out there shortly,"
"Oh Thankyou International Rescue!"
"International Rescue base, this is Thunderbird 5..."
"Virgil, you and Alan will head into the facility and see what you can do about the cooling rods. Gordon, Scott, you two will clear the area of residents should something happen,"
Alan frowned.
"Way to instil confidence, Dad," Jeff shot his youngest a withering look and the young man pouted, glancing at his brothers.
"Thunderbirds are go," the four stood, heading to their various transport locations.
"Thunderbird one, this is Thunderbird two,"
"Go ahead Virg,"
"We're about 15 minutes away, Scott. How's crowd control going?"
"We've cleared a 100m radius of houses. Gordon and I are still working, but some people don't appear to want to leave,"
"Well, would you Scott?" the elder Tracy seemed to consider this.
"If I were going to die if I didn't, then yes,"
"Some people will sacrifice themselves to stay with their belongings and loved ones, Scott. It happens all the time. Remember when we learnt about the Australian 1994 Bushfires in school? Or the Titanic and the families onboard,"
"Alright Virg. We'll see you when you get here,"
"FAB,"
When Thunderbird two touched down in Lucas Heights, Scott and Gordon came to meet Virgil and Alan as they descended from the ship. Both were dressed in radiation heat suits, their true identities obscured by the helmets.
"Ready to go in, Alan?" Gordon asked his youngest brother, patting him on the shoulder.
"Ready as I'll ever be," the youngest shrugged, glancing at Virgil.
"FAB, little brother," Gordon gave him a hug, "Good Luck,"
"You too, Gordo,"
"Virgil!" The blood was pounding in Alan's ears.
"Virgil!" he coughed, his chest and throat tight. He didn't know when it had all gone wrong.
"Virgil, where are you?!" Blue eye watered as the smog in the air grew thicker.
Somewhere in the distance, the youngest Tracy heard a faint voice call his name.
Alan.
He stumbled towards it; closer to the bright light that peered through the thick, hot air.
"Virgil?"
Through here, Alan.
Alan wasn't sure when he'd lost his headgear, or even when he'd misplaced his brother in the reactor.
He just hoped that Virgil had done something to fix the reactor while Alan had cleared it of its workers.
Alan, over here.
"The danger zone is cleared, Scott. Everyone's out and prepared. Any word from Alan and Virgil?"
"None," Scott watched the reactor with a pensive face, "Neither of them are responding to hails,"
Gordon swore, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his IR uniform, "I hope they're alright,"
"They will be Gordon. They always are,"
"Virgil!" Alan gasped, stumbling into the reactor room, "What's with the steam?"
The darker haired brother span to face the blonde, eyes widening immediately.
"Alan," his deep voice crackled through the radiation helmet, "Where's your headgear?"
"I lost it," Alan gulped in air, "How much longer?"
"A few more minutes, Alan. Think you can hold on?"
"Yeah," and he promptly passed out.
Virgil swore, dragging his brother to a sitting position before he turned back to the cooling rods and releasing the last load of cold water onto the nuclear reactor. A loud sizzling sound rose from the rod pit, filling the room with another, final lot of hot steam.
The danger had passed from the suburb of Lucas Heights.
It was more than he could say for his brother.
Virgil sat by Alan's bed, watching his brother over laced fingers.
"How is he?" Tin-Tin stood behind the middle Tracy, resting a small hand on Virgil's shoulder.
"Stable. The doctors say he was just overheated and dehydrated. He should be waking up any day now,"
"But he hasn't yet," Scott said from the doorway, sighing.
"He will," Gordon's voice was firm as he pushed past his eldest brother, "Alan has this amazing ability to bounce back from things,"
A/N Having written the last chapters of Kryptonite, you have no idea how much that last line cracks me up.
So really, nothing happened in this chapter... apart from Alan going into a weird coma because he got overheated and dehydrated.
Really, it's just a giant filler.
… well, not giant. It peaks at just over five pages long in MS Word. But an update is an update closer to Tara's father, yes?
… okay. I'll be quiet and go write Chapter 26 – From the desk of Tara Belle.
Also, I'm sorry the chapter sucked. I'll try to do better next time.
Ooh. and Reviews - yes, I'm grinning like an idiot:
hope99: Hehe. Sadly, the idea of locking them in a room together came from the Simpsons. Good ol' cable had a re-run and I watched it, before being suddenly struck by the thought "Hang on. What if I did that to Alan and Gordon" and devious thoughts sprung from there :) Thanks for the review!
Zac's my boyfriend: :) I live to give. Thanks for reviewing!
money makes me smile: hugs Thanks for sticking with me all this time :) I promise I'll get Tara's father chapter out as soon as humanely possible (I'm thinking before the end of February). Thanks so much for the support and review:)
lopasded123: Hehe. I'll try to update sooner, I promise. Thanks for the review :)
ukficchick: Hahaha. I'm glad I could keep you entertained while you're in bed sick (It's a bummer. I know). And lucky you for finishing school. Seriously. I'm going insane and I haven't even started my penultimate year. Gaah. Thanks for the review!
PadFootCc: :). I'm seriously promising faster updates. For now. Promise. Thanks for reviewing:P
AshleyEH: :) Short and sweet. I like it :D. Thanks for reviewing!
Aswen: I know! It was forever since the last chapter, but you'll be pleased to know it was finding your review that made me kick myself and finish this absolutely terrible chapter. The next one is slightly better... ... kinda. Thanks for reviewing!
Harmonic-Bad-Wolf: Oooh! That "Bad Wolf" wouldn't happen to be from Doctor Who, would it? grins Yeah. I've vowed never, ever, ever to watch "New Earth" while writing again. Or Tooth and Claw... teehee...
... or Doomsday and Runaway bride. Can we say tissues, tears and comfort cookies? (if you're in the TGA: Comfort David Cookies...)
It's awesome to hear from other Tennantitis sufferers though. Thanks for the wonderful comments and David fan love!
Cheers,
Flame Faerie