Sorry this is so late - just as things settled down at work my laptop picked up a virus (that was fun!). As always a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, especially Whirlgirl (I can't say how much I appreciate all the feedback you give me), Sunny and Rachel who I can't thank personally.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Scott was used to keeping his feelings under control, presenting an aura of calm when all around him was chaos. But he'd never had to fight so hard to stop himself from cracking as he did that afternoon when he joined his father and Beth in the lounge. It was hard to see his father so upset over Virgil when he knew that with just a few words he could make it right. But it was doubly difficult as he watched Beth fussing over the man, her insistence that Brains would make everything better making him feel sick, especially as his father looked at her so fondly as he patted her hand.
"You haven't had much chance to see him since we came back, have you? When this is over maybe the two of you should take some time off together. You're away on that first aid course next week, aren't you? Maybe Brains could go along with you." Beth's frown made him remember that he was supposed to be keeping the relationship quiet, but a glance across at Scott reassured him that his son hadn't registered his comment. At that moment Scott was lost in his thoughts, presumably full of anxiety for his brother.
Scott was indeed anxious, but it wasn't Virgil he was worrying about. He'd forgotten all about Beth's upcoming course. The last thing he wanted was for Beth to get off the island, even if Brains was around to keep an eye on her. He'd have to put a stop to it. There was no way he was going to allow his friend to endure another vacation with Beth. Who knew what she'd get him to do next time?
Which, of course, led him onto thoughts of his father... He found it hard to look at him. Could he really believe that he'd beaten another man to death? To his sorrow he had to admit he could. His father might not be as strong as he once was, but he'd worked hard to regain his fitness over the past few months. Scott consoled himself with the knowledge that such an action was so out of character that it had to be the fault of the drug. He'd never have done it otherwise. Even in the heat of the moment, with the future of International Rescue at stake, his father would have tried to negotiate, tried to find some way of stopping Byron which didn't involve violence. It was all Beth's fault, he thought, and, as she touched his shoulder and asked him if he was feeling alright, he once again found himself fighting to keep himself from telling her that it was all over, that he knew exactly what she'd done - before he picked her up and threw her into the sea! Soon, he thought, avoiding her eyes. Very soon...
"I'm fine," he muttered.
"Don't worry about Virgil, son," his father said. "You heard what Brains said. Everything's going to be fine."
"Yeah," Scott agreed, little conviction in his voice. He got to his feet. "I think I'm going to call Penny."
"You do that," Jeff said. "Ask her if she's had any more thoughts about the idea I ran past her this morning."
Scott looked enquiringly back at his father, but at that moment Tin-Tin came in. Not sure how to react around the girl he made his escape, debating whether to call into the infirmary, then deciding it would be best to keep his distance just in case anyone saw him going in when Virgil was supposed to be in isolation.
"Hey, Scott! Any more news on Virg?"
It was Alan. Scott wondered what his brother would say if he knew that he might have been drugged by Beth. He knew he was right to want to keep everything from the young man until they knew exactly what was going on and had worked out what to do, but even so, his brother's concern for Virgil made him feel terrible. He wished Brains had come up with some other way of getting his father to take a blood test.
He slung an arm around his brother. "Brains says he'll be okay. You know Virg, tomorrow we'll be wondering what all the fuss was about."
"Guess so." Alan didn't look any more cheerful.
"How are things with you and Tin-Tin?" Scott asked.
Scott wouldn't have thought it was possible, but Alan looked even more depressed.
"Just the same. I've tried talking to her but she insists it's over."
"What does Beth say?"
"To give her time. I know she's tried to put a good word in for me, but it hasn't worked."
"You're pleased she's on the team?" Scott was curious to know just how his brother felt about their cousin.
"Yeah, I guess so. Whatever she did in the past she seems to have put it all behind her now and she did well on that rescue. Why? You're still not sure about her?"
Scott shrugged.
"If she was going to betray us she'd have done it by now," Alan pointed out. "She's okay, Scott. You said yourself she was coming on well with her training. No one would put up with you pushing them around like that if they weren't serious about joining IR."
"Maybe you're right." Scott ruffled his brother's hair, apologising when he accidentally pulled out a few strands. "I guess I'm going to see if there's any more news on Virg."
He made his way back to the infirmary wondering if it would be as easy to get a sample of Tin-Tin's hair. Despite Alan's enthusiasm about Beth he didn't believe his brother was still drugged. After all, Beth had been good to him. She'd done nothing to give him any reason to doubt her aside from her initial lie. She'd fooled them all to some degree. Scott himself had been coming around to the idea of her being a permanent fixture in IR until Brains' bombshell. In some ways he was pleased Alan was so friendly towards her: the more secure Beth felt, the less likely she was to suspect that anyone was plotting against her.
In the infirmary, Brains and Virgil were sitting in silence. Brains couldn't look at his friend, feeling totally humiliated after his confession. It didn't matter how often Virgil tried to reassure him, he just couldn't help feeling that he should have guessed weeks ago that Jeff had been drugged. No matter that no one else had worked it out either - as Virgil repeatedly pointed out - Brains was determined to blame himself, guilt over New York still eating away at him. As a result he was slumped miserably in his chair, staring at the blood samples and wishing it was dinnertime so that he and Virgil could search Beth's room and find out exactly what she'd been doing to Jeff Tracy – and to him.
Virgil had asked him what effect the drug had had on him, but Brains wasn't really sure. He tried to think of a time when Beth could have used it, hoping that it would have been before she persuaded him to cover up Byron's murder, but, as desperately as he wanted it to be true, he knew it wasn't. What he'd done then, he'd done because he hadn't been strong enough to stand up against her. Okay, he'd wanted to protect Jeff and as a consequence, his friends and International Rescue, but he knew that his actions that awful night had been of his own choosing. The following day, however... He remembered suggesting that they talk to Penny. After all, what was done was done, so what could it hurt to seek a little advice and reassurance. It was Penny, after all, she'd never betray them and she might well have a few useful ideas. Beth had brought him a coffee, insisted he have a refill... then, after once more telling him it was a bad idea and swearing him to secrecy, she'd left him alone. And somehow - he'd put it down to Beth's powers of persuasion at the time - the idea had lost its attraction. Brains knew now that the drug which had made him so suggestible had been in the coffee. With the amount there appeared to be in Jeff's system - he drank a lot of coffee, often prepared by his niece - no wonder his behaviour had been uncharacteristically erratic lately, with Beth always the beneficiary of whatever strange decision he made. Oh, it all made sense. Why hadn't he seen it before?
Virgil eventually gave up trying to make Brains feel better, recognising a hopeless task when he saw one. He still found it hard to accept all that he'd been told and, whilst he was utterly relieved that all the friction with his father could more than likely be put down to the drug, he still didn't want to believe that they'd let Beth get away with so much. Now that he knew about the drug it all seemed so obvious. If only he hadn't been so wrapped up in his own feelings, if only he'd been able to look at the situation logically, he thought he might have worked it out earlier. From the brief conversation he'd had with John half an hour ago when Brains had gone off to get some things from his lab, he knew his older brother felt the same way. Scott too, he supposed, hoping his eldest brother was managing to keep himself calm in Beth's presence.
His fears on that score were alleviated when Scott announced via the wrist-comm that he was outside the infirmary. Brains went over to let him in.
"I've got Alan's hair for you," Scott announced, handing over the strands he'd just pulled out of his brother's head.
Brains thanked him, though he informed him that he didn't have the necessary equipment to test it on the island.
"I'll get Tin-Tin's then I'll fly out to the mainland tomorrow," Scott told him. "How long will it take?"
"A f-few h-hours, b-but they w-won't d-do it straight a-away," Brains told him.
"They will if I offer them enough incentive," Scott said. Brains guessed that between Scott's formidable personality and the likely price he'd offer to pay, the job would be given priority. He felt better knowing that they were finally making progress.
"Is that yours or...?" Scott caught sight of the painting Virgil had set down beside him on the bed.
"Byron's," Virgil said gloomily, picking up the canvas and staring at it, unable to believe that this was the second Picasso original he'd touched in the past couple of days. "Brains brought it along for me to see."
"B-Beth is g-going to w-want it d-destroyed," Brains said nervously.
"No!" Virgil's horror would have been laughable if the situation hadn't been so serious. "Brains, you can't... you just can't."
Brains looked even more distraught. He didn't like the idea either, although there was surely no other way. Thankfully he hadn't seen too much of Beth lately, so there had been no opportunity to discuss the fate of the things they'd taken from Byron's apartment, but he knew he couldn't avoid her forever, especially when Jeff would be watching to make sure their relationship didn't falter now that they were back on the island.
He pointed this out, only to have Scott inform him that the senior Tracy was planning another little trip for the couple.
"Don't worry, though," Scott told him. "She's not going anywhere. Right now I want Beth where I can keep an eye on her. I was thinking of getting Penny over early. Once we're ready to confront Beth we could do with having her along."
"You're not going to tell her what's happened?" Virgil asked. "We haven't even told Gordon or Alan yet, remember."
"She'll need to know about Beth eventually," Scott reminded his brother. "As for the other, of course I'm not going to say anything. I'm as desperate as you are to protect Dad."
Virgil nodded. "Only half an hour till dinner," he pointed out, glancing at the clock. "You'll let us know when it's safe to search her room?"
"I'll signal you when it's all clear. You should have plenty of time. If there's any problem I'll let you know." He got up. "I'll come back later. Hopefully by then you'll have some news about whatever it is she's been giving Dad."
Scott made his way to his room to change for dinner. Finding himself with ten minutes to spare he put in a call to Penny.
"Scott! I was going to call you after you'd all finished dinner. How is Virgil?"
"You heard?"
"Yes, your father told me. He said he's going to be alright."
"Yes," Scott said softly, wishing he could tell Penny the truth. Right now he needed her advice and comfort more than ever.
"That's good. I'll be sure to bring him something to cheer him up when I come over."
"About that, Penny... I know we said we'd start Beth's training in a couple of weeks, but how are you set for starting earlier?"
"Oh, Scott, I'm sorry. Your father's given me a new mission. I'll be in New York."
"New York?" Scott didn't like the sound of this.
"That's right. Jeff wants me to look into Joel Byron's murder. The police don't seem to be making much progress and your father wonders if they simply don't know where to look. Given that International Rescue is already linked to Mr Byron due to the kidnapping, it seems logical for me to see if I can find anything out."
"You can't!" Scott snapped at Penny before he could stop himself. The last thing he needed was Penny inadvertently discovering his father's role in Byron's death.
"I can't?" Penny asked, more than a little surprised.
"I mean, there are other things that you could be doing. Why not leave the police to do their job? You still haven't found the guy who attacked Tin-Tin. Maybe you should be working on that." Scott knew it sounded as if he was criticising Penny, but right now he didn't know what else to do. There was no way he could let her loose in New York. And, until he'd discussed the matter with John and Virgil – Brains too, since he was the one in danger of arrest – he didn't dare confess everything to her. Not to mention the sense of betrayal Gordon and Alan would feel if they discovered that Penny had found out before them.
Of course, Penny had no idea what was going through Scott's mind. The coldness of her tone made it clear that she'd taken offence to this apparent disparagement of her recent efforts. "As you know, Scott, the man who attacked Tin-Tin has apparently changed his identity. Since the rather large reward your father put up has failed to provide us with any further information, it seems - as unfortunate as it might be - that the man has evaded us. I assure you that I haven't given up, but it may take some time."
"What about Beth?" Scott asked. "If she's going to be any use to us we need her fully trained. Surely that should be your priority?"
"You worked out her schedule," Penny pointed out. "Perhaps you should have considered that at the time. I fully intend to follow your father's instructions, Scott. If you have a problem with that perhaps you should discuss it with him."
"But..."
"Scott, I'm going to New York. Perhaps I can redeem myself in your eyes by finding this particular criminal. I don't seem to have impressed you very much recently elsewhere." She tried, but she couldn't quite hide the hurt she was feeling.
"Penny, I didn't mean-"
"Goodbye, Scott."
Scott found himself looking at an ordinary watch-face. Barely resisting the desire to punch the wall, he threw himself onto the bed wondering how a bad day had just got a whole lot worse.
No one was surprised when Scott was out of sorts at dinner, putting it down to anxiety over Virgil and frustration that he wasn't allowed to see his brother. He picked at his food, ignoring the concerned looks he was getting from the others and barely responding to their enquiries as to his state of mind. It was all he could do to stop himself snapping at Grandma when she'd told him for the third time that everything was going to be alright, but when Beth too expressed her concern for him he had to leave the table to give himself a breathing space. Only the need to make sure no one wandered off and discovered what Virgil and Brains were up to forced him back to the table where the meal seemed to drag on interminably.
Meanwhile, Virgil and Brains had left the infirmary and slipped unnoticed along the hallways until they reached Beth's room. Brains overrode the code for the door and they hurried inside, only relaxing when the door slid closed behind them.
"Okay, Johnny, we're in. Where do we start?" Virgil asked. John had insisted that everything be transmitted back to him. He couldn't bear just sitting and waiting to hear what happened.
"Underwear drawer?" John grinned. He didn't need to see Brains' face to know that the man would be blushing.
Unsurprisingly Brains ignored John's suggestion, turning to the wardrobe and leaving Virgil to search the drawers. Sure enough John was right – tucked neatly away amongst the ribbon and lace was a small glass bottle.
"Got it, Brains!" Virgil called, pulling it out and handing it over. Brains took it and quickly poured the contents into a container he'd brought with him. Since the liquid was clear he refilled the bottle from the tap, hoping that Beth would never notice the difference – at least not until she tried her drug on some other unsuspecting victim.
Virgil replaced the bottle and tidied the drawer, making sure it looked undisturbed.
"That was interesting," John smirked. He got some strange images from his brothers' watches, but the contents of a girl's underwear drawer had to be one of the most enjoyable. Just a pity it was his cousin's...
"V-Virgil, I-I think I-I've found s-something."
"What?" Virgil hurried across to the wardrobe where Brains had opened up the suitcase he'd used to move Byron's body. The pair of them stared at a laptop and phone.
"Byron's?" Virgil asked.
"I don't see who else they could belong to," John said. "Try turning them on."
"Battery's flat on the phone," Virgil said after a few moments. "Scott's got this model though so we can charge it up easily enough. What about the laptop, Brains?"
Brains shook his head. "N-nothing I-I can d-do without a p-password."
"Can you scan it, Brains?" John asked.
"Y-yes," Brains said. "I-I'll have to g-get the equipment." With a promise that he'd be back in five minutes, Brains left the room. For want of anything better to do Virgil had one last look around, finally returning to the suitcase and running his hands through the pockets in the side.
"What's that?" John asked as his brother drew out a leather-bound book.
"Diary," Virgil told him.
"Has she recorded her evil schemes for us?" John asked. "That'll make things easier. Dear Diary, today I met my cousins. John's so much better-looking than the others. Drugged my uncle then stole his money..."
Virgil cut across his brother. "It's not hers."
"Whose is it?"
Virgil held it so that John could see the initials on the front.
"JB? Byron? I can see a reason for taking his phone and laptop, but why would she want his diary?"
Virgil was flicking through it. "There are some pages missing."
"Why would Beth tear pages out of Byron's diary? It can't be anything to do with the murder - or Dad. He never had anything to do with him until the kidnapping."
"It's not Dad," Virgil told him. "The page for the day he had dinner with Byron is still there."
The brothers stared at each other, trying to make sense of all this. Before they could say any more, however, they were startled by the sound of the door sliding open. Virgil almost made a dive for cover under the bed before he worked out that it was only Brains coming back.
"I-I took S-Scott's phone," he said, oblivious to the panic he'd caused. "W-we can swap them a-and find out what's on this one."
"Good idea, Brains," Virgil said, making sure the phone was turned off before placing it in the suitcase. The last thing they needed was for it to ring and alert Beth to the switch. He filled his friend in on the latest discovery as Brains downloaded the data from Byron's laptop.
"With a bit of luck you'll find something to tell us what was happening on the missing dates," Virgil said. Surely between the phone and the laptop, Byron's - and Beth's - secrets would be revealed.
Ten minutes later, with everything safely restored to its correct place and Beth's room looking just as it had before, Virgil and Brains were back in the infirmary.
Scott joined them half an hour later. "What did you find?"
Virgil explained. "Sorry about your phone, but we needed to make sure nothing was out of place in case she checked. We can swap them over again later."
"Don't worry about it," Scott said. "What about this data?"
Brains had transferred the information he'd copied from Byron's laptop onto his own computer but he wasn't having any luck in reading it. "I-it's en-encrypted," he told them. "I-I'm sure I-I can c-crack it b-but it's going to take some t-time."
"I could do it faster," John said. "That's if you can get me down there. I'd like to be around when you confront Beth anyway."
"It's not time for a rotation," Scott said. "And I can't see Al volunteering to go up early."
"We could t-tell him why we n-need him to," Brains said.
"There's no way we'll convince him to leave if he knows what Beth's been up to," Virgil pointed out. "He's going to want to be here when we speak to her. And if he was drugged too he deserves to be in on it."
"You're right," Scott said. He thought for a moment. "Looks like there's only one thing for it. Sorry, Virg."
"What?" Virgil said uneasily as Brains and Scott exchanged glances. "Oh, no. No, Scott. I'm not doing that again."
"But if you have a relapse and you're at death's door Dad will have to bring John down," Scott said. "I don't want to put you through it and I hate to worry Dad and the others again but it's the best way I can think of to get John home quickly."
Virgil didn't like it but he didn't have any better ideas. Even so he asked Brains to have one last go at hacking into Byron's files, hoping for a last-minute miracle. Scott left the infirmary, deciding that he'd better show his face in the lounge again in case someone wondered where he kept disappearing to. He returned a couple of hours later to find a sullen Virgil preparing for another dose of Brains' drug.
"You know, we could use Beth's drug on Dad," Virgil suggested hopefully, though he wasn't surprised when the others refused.
"Dad's had enough of it," Scott said. "Anyway, Brains needs all of it to test. Sorry, Virg. We're going to have to do this the hard way."
"We?" Virgil muttered sarcastically, holding out his arm and flinching as Brains injected the drug. "Just hurry up and get everything sorted."
"We will," Scott said. "Half an hour at the most, Virg. Just long enough for Dad to see that you're sick again." He patted his brother on the shoulder before making his way to his room to await the call which would tell the family that Virgil was once again in trouble. He didn't like making his brother suffer, but one thing was for sure, it was something else that Beth was going to have to pay for.