I feel this doesn't go anywhere properly, and I should probably write more, but I've run completely out of time and have to dash to work.

Virgil/Kayo, for vegetacide and you may need a tissue for this. Fluffember prompt - flower, but it is not fluffy.

Sorry I couldn't write more ::hugs::

-o-o-o-

It was a ritual.

No matter the state of his life at the time, no matter the shit pile of rescues he was buried under, he made the time.

Well, not to the point of risking lives, but there had to be a time for her.

His brothers knew it, his grandmother knew it, Kayo knew it and it was respected every year. It was his way of coping.

But not this time.

This time he had taken a fall.

This time he should be in a damned hospital, not honouring the dead.

But it had been a lone rescue and a bad one. He had pulled himself off the side of the mountain along with the remaining rescuees. John had pleaded with him when he delivered them to the hospital, but she suspected that he knew that once confined by medical walls, he wouldn't be going anywhere soon.

So he had left.

Scott was tangled up with the GDF on the other side of the planet with two other rescuees in the balance, so it was left to her to chase him up and catch him before he killed himself with skewed priorities.

Thunderbird Two had her own parking space at the cemetery. Virgil had purchased the land himself adjacent to the property. It was a far field in Job Jensen's back lot and the family friend had been happy to help. It may have had something to do with the fact that Scott had saved his son once, but either way, Virgil needed the land and paid the man handsomely for it just so he could park his 'bird there when he needed to.

Of course, there was security involved. Kayo had seen to that herself and each of the brothers used the spot as needed.

But most of all Virgil.

Today was no different. The dawn sky was overcast and grey in appropriate sympathy. This time of the year left the weather prone to that skyscape and as she dipped below the cloud cover, memories surfaced at the sight of the Tracy's hometown.

Shadow was silent as she landed beside her massive sister, claws denting the worn grass that same farmer kept manicured. Two's rear thrusters were still steaming in the morning chill, curls of lost heat wafting up into the sky.

Kayo leapt out of her 'bird quietly. She knew where she would find him, she was just unsure what his state would be.

"John, vitals?"

Her tired brother responded immediately. "Strong, but he is losing blood." A pause. "I can see him, but he is not moving."

For the love of…she quickened her pace, jumping the fence and darting between the rows of headstones.

Lucille Tracy was buried in a quiet corner of the graveyard. The rise of the Tracy name had led to the sad need for security around her grave, so a fence had been erected. The one time a vandal had damaged the site, Kayo had hunted him down herself, furious in her own right, but devastated at how it affected her brothers.

Now the site was secure and monitored…and just that little more heartbreaking.

She found him. He was on his knees, still in uniform, hunched over at the foot of his mother's grave, head bowed and hidden, a single flower in his hands.

The grief in his form simply broke her heart.

But it was the tear in his sleeve and the bleeding gash scoring his bicep that propelled her forward to interrupt his privacy.

"Virgil?" Her voice was soft, hesitant.

He looked up and her heart shattered into pieces. A gash above his right eye bled sluggishly, blood mixing with the tears staining his face. Red brown eyes stared up at her in pain.

"Kay?"

"Love…" She stepped in close crouched down beside him, her hands automatically reaching out to touch him, to reassure herself as well as give him what comfort she could. "What are you doing?"

"Visiting Mom."

"But you are injured. Your mother would be horrified." She ran her fingers through the hair at his temple and he leant into her touch.

"I lost one."

Her blood chilled.

"Mountain took her, just like Mom." He drew in a breath and wiped a hand across his face. Blood smeared everywhere. "Wasn't fast enough."

Today of all days.

She reached up and gently drew him into her arms. He came willingly, his dirty hair stiff against her skin.

"I'm sorry, love."

"I tried. I tried so hard."

That explained the fall, the injuries, the everything. She drew him in gently, but hugged him tightly, her own throat caught up in emotion.

"Not your fault."

He didn't answer, but his shoulders shook silently.

So she just held him.

The single flower in his hand crumpled against her flightsuit.

-o-o-o-