I am sorry that this update has taken so long, but a painful injury has been taking up all of my attention and draining me of enthusiasm for anything else. Please bear with me and hopefully I will be back to full strength in a few weeks. In the meantime I will do what I can when I am able.
My thanks to Helensg and thunderbird shadow for your comments on the last chapter. I am sorry for not thanking you both personally, but I truly do value every single comment.
Warning: this chapter contains oodles of shameless fluff!
A Difficult Question to Answer
Lady Penelope made a move to the door when the colonel held up her hand.
"Please wait for a moment Lady Penelope."
Lady Penelope paused and watched as the colonel pushed a button on her desk.
"Captain James, will you come in here please."
There was an acknowledging mumble, and a moment later a uniformed man in his early forties with prematurely greying hair and pale grey eyes stamped into the room, slipped his automatic pistol into his holster before saluting.
"Colonel Casey sir!"
Lady Penelope was familiar with this officer. He was a colourless `by the book' man, without a single flicker of imagination anywhere in his body. He followed orders to the letter, and was oblivious to other concerns. He was fiercely loyal to Colonel Casey. Alone. He was one man whom had stood beside Casey during her struggle with the treacherous `Colonel' Martin Janus and his attempts to take over the GDF in order to capture the Thunderbirds. That fact alone would have made him a welcome sight had it not been for the gun at his hip, and the way his fingers twitched slightly. She had a feeling she knew why Casey had brought this man into the room. Her suspicions were confirmed a moment later.
"Captain James, this information is for your ears only, do you understand?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"We have discovered that our escaped prisoner disguised himself as Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in order to get out of the building unchallenged. That leaves us with the unhappy task of proving that this is indeed the real Lady Penelope and not professor Tock in disguise. We will investigate in order to establish the facts. You will come along as a witness to...whatever we discover."
"And as additional security if necessary, Colonel?"
Casey turned her eyes on Lady Penelope and gave a quick nod.
"Yes." She replied.
Lady Penelope drew herself up and lifted her chin slightly defiantly.
"And am I to be handcuffed too, Colonel?"
Casey narrowed her eyes at the aristocrat.
"This is not an indication of any doubt about your integrity Lady Penelope, but rather at the ingenuity of our enemy. I have not reached my current rank through intuition alone. I must follow the regulations. I can give you the benefit of the doubt, but I must also cover all the bases. You of all people understand that."
Lady Penelope glanced at the captain, standing ramrod straight, his right hand poised over his gun and watching her carefully. She finally nodded and gave the grey man a faint smile.
"I understand. I am not going to try anything, captain."
The man gave an acknowledging bob of the head, but his eyes never left hers. He too knew what the professor was capable of. He had read all the reports. There was no way that he would escape this time if this...beautiful...aristo turned out to be a disguise. He stepped away from the door and positioned himself so that he had both her Ladyship and the colonel in his sights.
"Whenever you are ready, Colonel Casey."
Jeff Tracy stood as if frozen in position, long after Tee-Kay had flicked off his holo-image to begin the task Kayo had assigned to him. Brains looked at his old friend uncertainly.
"Are you alright, Mister Tracy?"
Jeff nodded, then shook his head and planted the heels of his hands into his eyes.
"You know Brains, sometimes I wish I could selectively turn off some of my memories."
Saying this, he turned abruptly and left the room, leaving Brains faintly troubled.
Virgil opened his eyes and blinked as the sun shone brightly on him, making him blink and sit up with a grunt. There was a chuckle beside him.
"Well-rested, bro?"
He realised he was slumped uncomfortably on one of the sun-loungers beside the pool, with a blanket twisted about his legs. John was sitting on he edge of the pool nearby dressed in his orange swim trunks, his feet dangling in the water. He was rubbing his hair dry with a towel. Gordon was still in the pool, powering his way up and down on his morning workout.
John got himself up and perched on the edge of Virgil's sun-lounger, and gave him a smile.
"Are you alright, Virge? You look like you've been here a few hours."
Virgil nodded, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
"Couldn't sleep. Went for a moonlit walk last night with our big brother, drank cocoa..."
John nodded, and he smiled, although he felt his heart lurch. Yet again Virgil had gone to Scott instead of to him. Why did no one ever come to him with their problems? Surely he wasn't so bad at being a big brother that no on was ever willing to come to him? He got up, and flung his towel into Virgil's face with a grin.
"Well I'm hungry if you aren't. Fancy a proper English breakfast, John Tracy-style?"
John knew that he was usually very skilled at the traditional poker-face, so he was surprised when his younger brother grabbed his arm before he could disappear. Virgil must have caught a moment of something in his eyes. The dark haired younger man took hold of both of John's hands and pulled him back down onto the lounger beside him.
"Johnny, I..."
To John's dismay, a tear appeared in Virgil's eye, but the younger man blinked it away and shook his head to clear it.
"Virge?"
"John, I'm sorry you know."
"For what?"
John thought he knew what his younger brother was referring to, but he chose to deliberately misunderstand.
"You are always the first to notice when something is up, and you always ask me, and I brush you off every time. Don't I?"
John kept his eyes focussed on Gordon, still powering up and down in the pool. He nodded without looking round.
"You always tell me you're fine, then ten minutes later you're crying on Scott's shoulder. It's...it's just not very flattering Virgil, knowing that you don't trust me."
Virgil's eyes turned wide at that, his expression twisted into one of horror.
"Oh Johnny, no, no, no, it isn't that at all! Please don't think I don't trust you! Out of all of us I would say that I trust you the most of all! It's only that..."
He broke off, clearly wondering how to express what he wanted to say. John finally turned his head and looked Virgil in the eye.
"It's what Virgil? Sorry if I seem to lack humility or something, but you're my little brother, and I care about you more than you..."
He blushed and broke off, then got up and turned back toward the house. Virgil struggled to free himself from his blanket, then hurried after him.
He finally caught up with his older brother on the patio, and grabbed his arm.
"John, stop please!"
John paused and turned around and gave Virgil a quick hug.
"Sorry Virgil, I've just..." he paused and shook his head. "I'll see you later."
John hurried away. Virgil stared after him for a few stunned seconds. Were those tears he had seen in his big brother's eyes? Johnny wasn't one to cry! Virgil could count the number of times he had seen John cry on one hand!
"Morning Virgil. Ready for breakfast?"
Virgil jumped as his father's voice came from behind. He started running for the stairs after his brother. He called back over his shoulder.
"Sorry dad, I gotta talk to Johnny!"
There was silence from John's bedroom, but Virgil was certain that the blond man was there al the same. He knocked, but got no response. Finally, he passed his hand over the locking pad.
"Medical override. Virgil Green Three-Two."
The door clicked open, and he crept into John's room, closing and locking the door after him.
The room was in semi darkness.
"I should have disabled your medical access."
"You wouldn't do that, Johnny." Virgil replied, and swept the curtains open, then raised the blind. The brilliant sun shine into the room, revealing John sitting on his bed, his knees drawn up to his chin, his arms hugging his ankles. Virgil sat on the bed facing him. He said nothing.
John's eyes were damp, but he actually looked calm. Haunted, but calm. After a long silence, he seemed to realise that Virgil was waiting for him to say something.
"You won't talk to me but you expect me to talk to you? I'm sorry to make this an issue Virgil. It isn't really, but you have no idea how scared I have been! I suppose that spending s much time up on Five, I should be used to having to wait around for news, but even with my being here on the ground, I was still sat around waiting! I was so scared for you Virgil! First you took off like a..."
He raised his eyes and saw the ashamed look in his little brother's eyes and reached out a hand.
"Sorry Virge, I know you had good reason fr doing it, but I was worried for you, and wishing that we could have helped you better to deal with everything. Then you got kidnapped, and we...I was helpless. If it hadn't been for Kayo and Tee-Kay..."
Virgil nodded.
"...And the rescue plan needed someone sitting at home on the computer, dealing with all the information and coordination. The job you're always the one saddled with."
John nodded, and wiped his eyes, cursed softly, and fished a handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose.
"I know it's more my bag than anyone else's, and normally I wouldn't have had a problem with it. But it was you, Virgil! My baby brother that needed rescuing. My first baby brother whom I couldn't protect then, and even when I can..."
Virgil waited for John to compose himself, then he rested his hand lightly on his brother's knee.
"John, what you don't know is that you always help me, every time I need it. You are able to help me without ever opening your mouth!"
John blinked.
"Come again?"
Virgil smirked.
"Alright John listen to me. Scott was born with one great big TROUBLE detector lodged in the front of his brain. Agreed? He always knows when something is wrong, no matter what we try to do to hide it. He always knows and he nags and nags and nags like an old woman until he finds out everything he wants to know. I don't know about you, but I generally find it much less hassle to roll with it. It helps that Scott and I are pretty close, but that is why I talk to Scott."
"Because he gives you little choice about it?"
Virgil nodded.
"Exactly. I know you have the same thing with him, and so do the others. But answer me this John, do any of the others talk to you about their problems?"
John shook his head.
"None of them...well, I tell a lie. Alan does, but neither you, Scott or Gordon will. I was beginning to think it is something I was doing wrong. I suppose you are going to put me right about that?"
"Too right I am, John. We all rely on you. You know, I once had someone on a call tell me how amazing your voice was when you answered their call. They had been panicking and the calm sound of your voice took away all their fears and let them know that everything was going to be alright. It is that same calmness in your professional voice, and in your whole professional manner that we all count on when we are out there. You, always with your finger on the pulse, all the information of the world at your fingertips and always in control. But you don't put on that professional manner as a front, do you?"
Bewildered, John shook his head.
"No, I just stay calm and be myself."
"That is what we need here at home when things are falling about our ears. We don't need another agony uncle, John. Scott is all the agony uncle we can handle. When we've gone crying to Scott, or even dad or grandma, and we are trying to put ourselves together again, we need the soothing calmness of someone who never gets angry or overly upset. Someone who never judges and never asks lots of awkward questions. You are like a cold drink of water on a scorching hot day, John. Nothing that happens ever seems to upset your world. You are always in control, John, when you're up on Five. You give that same impression when you're here at home too. We all of us feel that when something terrible happens, if our Johnny can still be calm and upbeat, then everything will always be alright. That might sound silly to you, but that is how we all feel."
John was silent, taking in all that his brother had said to him. After a moment, he frowned.
"Okay,, thanks for the vote of confidence, but how does that explain why you refuse to tell me anything at all? You simply leave me to worry about you, Virgil, and that really isn't fair. I'm glad I am able to be of some help to everyone after all, but it doesn't help me."
Virgil got up and paced to the window and looked across towards the ocean. John watched him, concerned. Virgil turned back to face John, but because of the sunlight from the window, Virgil's face was in shadow. John got up and joined his brother by the window. Virgil looked slightly uncomfortable.
"What is it Virge? What aren't you telling me?"
Virgil responded with a slight shrug.
"Sorry John, it's just that I'd never really thought about how you would feel about it. I just don't want you to ever change."
John eyebrows raised high.
"Why on earth should I change? Whatever are you on about?"
"I'll tell you, but if you ever repeat what I said to Alan and Gordon, I will tell them about your secret chocolate stashes..."
John raised his eyebrow smugly.
"What chocolate stashes? Virgil, what is this all about bro?"
Virgil shrugged.
"John, when mom died, you were the first one to start pulling us together. I remember it was you who got Scott back on side, wasn't it? Without your help he might've gone right off the rails, and it would have been a few weeks before dad noticed. Through me getting sick, then Gordon's accident, then dad disappearing, and all the time through International Rescue, you have always been the one calm centre of the mad, mad Tracy world. You seem to have kept yourself pure and untouched, and I for one want you to stay that way. I can't poison you Johnny with all the fallout from our chaos. So long as you always remain our calm centre, as long as you always stay the same, everything will always be alright."
He gave his big brother a slightly embarrassed smile.
"I can be deep in a fug, John, stressed and hurting, and not knowing how to get myself out of it. Then you walk into the room bringing a feeling of calm and normality with you and ask me how I am in that calm way you have. Suddenly, I feel better straight away. That is why I never tell you my problems Johnny."
John stared at him for a long time, then his face broke into a gentle smile.
"Wow, that was quite a speech, Virgil. It might have been easier on you though, if you had just told me to stop trying to be Scott, and just be myself!"
Virgil laughed.
"I wish I had thought of that one. Come on brother, breakfast is on dad this morning. Shall we go and grab some before the bottomless pit eats it all?"
