Just a scene. Science!Gordon from We'll Be Home For Christmas saw the ep today and had a fit in my head and had to be heard.

SPOILERS FOR 3.21.

Now I just have to write a little scene for the Virg, cos yeah, that thing that happened to him needs a little Nutty attention ::cackles::

-o-o-o-

"You're kidding me."

"N-no, I'm n-not." Brains was obviously clueless.

"You can't do that."

"I'm afraid we have to, Gordon." Scott's blue eyes flashed at him, that furious determination, now bordering on obsession.

The aquanaut stared at his brother and their friend. "Do it in space."

"N-not possible. I-I'm s-sorry, G-Gordon."

"Why not? Everything is dead in space. Why do you have to do it on the ocean?!" Already his mind was calculating the species that would be endangered by the testing if something went wrong. Not to mention the immediate geological effects.

"There is a n-need for atmospheric pressure."

"Then put it in a space capsule. It's going to be in one eventually anyway. Why risk lives?"

"What lives?"

Gordon stared at Scott. "I'm going to act like I didn't hear that." Or it might get physical. He reined himself in. He was used to the lack of understanding his eldest brother had regarding Gordon's love for all things ocean, but this was beyond it.

"No, you can't do this. We are in an environmentally fragile area. You know that. Dad knew that. We have a responsi-"

Scott erupted. "We are doing this! We have to. Dad is relying on us!"

"Hey! I understand that, but you are risking too much!"

"It is the only way!"

"How do you know that?!"

"We don't have time! Dad could be dying!"

The room fell silent.

Fury boiled in his bones. "You would risk all those lives for the chance of one?"

"He's our father!"

"He matters, yes, but are you going to put his life above the thousands in the blast area?"

"Gordon-"

"I thought you cared for all life, Scott. 'Everyone is worth saving'? Is species a requirement?"

"Gordon, we can't-"

Gordon shoved himself in his brother's face, his finger gesticulating millimetres from his nose. "Yes, you can! We are International Rescue, we save, WE DO NOT KILL!"

"FINE! Then what the hell do we do? Leave Dad out there?"

The aquanaut turned to Brains. "What are the chances of a major explosion?"

Brains looked extremely uncomfortable and obviously would have preferred to be anywhere but in the middle of a Tracy brother showdown. "It is always a p-possibility." But Gordon could see it in the man's face. There was no doubt. This was testing. He had no way of guaranteeing any positive result and the possibility of a negative was all too likely.

"Don't do it."

"I-I'm sorry, G-Gordon." Brains straightened up and set his shoulders. "It is the only way."

Gordon stared at him and then back at his eldest brother.

The blue eyes glaring back at him were cold.

"So much for Tracy honour." The words were spat in his brother's face and Gordon spun on his heels and stormed out. Hell, how was he going to evacuate several square kilometres of open ocean? Deterrent harmonics. Virgil was going to love that. Force fields? Could they cover that much area?

The list of possibilities, details of migration routes, the disruptions this would cause, the loss of ocean flora…hell, they were only miles from a major ocean sanctuary…as his hand hit the glass of the aquarium the world blurred in front of him and he had to blink madly.

The elevator dropped, the spinners deposited his uniform, and he had to blink again.

It was betrayal. Betrayal in everything he believed. A sacrifice for a need that he and his brothers had, that would take innocent lives. He wanted to save his Dad. God, did he. He ached for his father, dreaded to find they were too late. He understood the urgency.

But.

His elevator slowed to its stop at the bottom of the shaft and Gordon wilted just a little for just a moment, his gloved hand reaching to lean on the wall.

It hurt.

God, it hurt.

To see the disregard, the obsession in his brother's eyes and he wondered just how far Scott would go, how far over the line he would step to reach his goal.

Because he had just taken the first step,

-o-o-o-