They've found many strange items and antiques on rescue missions, people come first of course, but if there's time after a successful mission on more occasion they've gone exploring and taken home recovered relics. There is one that has always stood out for Virgil when he, Gordon, Kayo and Scott had completed extinguishing a house fire in France, they were making their way back to their ships when the second eldest spotted a derelict chateau, his siblings followed him reluctantly as he ran ahead and almost lost him inside.

"Virg, quit messing, we've got to go home!" Scott called as Kayo sighed, "why does he do this?"

"He's a sucker for art," Kayo grinned looking up at the grand staircase.

Scott frowned as he heard music coming from the ballroom, "what the?"

Gordon stood up from the steps, "he hasn't?"

Scott stepped over the rubble in the doorway into the hall and looked over at Virgil who was sitting at a broken grand piano, one of its legs was balancing on concrete slabs and from noticing the discarded jaws of life, Scott concluded that his brother may have propped the piano up himself, "Virg?" He started but Kayo clamped her hand over his mouth.

Gordon smirked at them and walked over to the piano, "so what's this then?" He went to lean on the piano when Virgil's eyes shot open.

"Don't Gordon, it's not stable!"

"How did you know I was there, your eyes were closed?"

"I can sense your stupidity," Virgil smirked as he played.

"That sounds horrendous Virgil," Scott chewed his lip walking over to the piano, "my ears are bleeding."

"Can you believe someone left this in this state," Virgil sighed as he looked down at the cracked ivory in front of him.

Kayo winced at the twang of notes, "umm, well it's certainly tuneful."

"Alright, I agree, the sound is awful, but this piano is gorgeous, look at it."

Kayo's eyes drifted along the frame and nodded, elements of faded brown caught the sunlight and she spotted twirls of gold lettering on the front panel above his hands, "I'm surprised no-one has tried to rip that gold off."

Virgil shifted his baldric up slightly as the harness moved up and down on his leg, "this isn't worth anything anymore," he said sadly and Scott tapped his fingers on the frame impatiently.

"Virg, you have a working piano at home, why are you so interested in this one?"

Virgil didn't answer and simply continued to play, the sound of the piano was excruciating but the more they listened the more they began to ignore the creaks and thuds to focus on the hidden melody, the old pedal squeaked loudly under Virgil's boot and Gordon watched the hammers lift up and down irregularly noticing some were broken or hanging limply from worn-out strings, and yet somehow his brother was making a tune out of what was left, Kayo watched his fingers skip over broken blocks and dust particles fall slowly to the floor as vibrations disturbed the stillness the piano was used to, Scott walked over to join Gordon and placed his hands on his shoulders keeping his eyes on Virgil smiling slightly.

"Does anyone else want to play it?" Virgil looked up at them with a smirk, "you've all gone quiet suddenly."

Scott smiled, "how do you turn something so bad into something good?"

Virgil crossed his arms, "it's what I do," he replied smugly and Kayo moved round to hug him resting her chin on his head.

Gordon nodded, "yeah that's great but can we go now?"

"I suppose so," Virgil sighed stroking his hand over the keys, "if it wasn't stealing I would load it into the module."

"Why would it be stealing? This place has been abandoned."

"I can't just take a piano out of a building."

"Says who?"

"I do," a woman's voice came from the door, her accent was heavy but she spoke to them in English, "International Rescue?"

Virgil shot up from the stool, "we didn't mean to come in here, we're sorry."

The woman smiled, "I haven't 'eard this piano in years, this used to be uh magnifique."

Scott stood back with Virgil, "we didn't mean to trespass, our brother is a musician and we couldn't stop him."

"Un musicien? Ah, I wish I had the time to repair this piano, but no-one, how do you say it, uh cares, for this house anymore."

"Madame, I can repair this piano for you but I would need to take it away first," Virgil scuffed his toe on the dusty floor.

"Ah, I was wondering when one of you would ask politely. Tres bon, that is all I wanted to hear," she smiled as she held her hand out to Virgil, "take it et care for it."

"Merci beaucoup," Virgil grinned, "are you sure?"

"Je vous en prie," she shook his hand then walked out.

"What just happened?" Gordon raised an eyebrow.

"I just got a new piano," he sat down on the stool and took out a control device to launch Thunderbird 2, "now to get it into the module, I'm going to need your help guys."

Gordon groaned, "ohhh I really do hate you sometimes."

"Feeling is mutual fish boy," Virgil rolled his eyes as he heard his ship land outside, "it can only be pushed on two wheels so I need two of you on the broken side," he stood up and slipped the jaws of life back on, "close the lid Scott, if it does close."

"I hope you know what you're doing?"

"I have a rough idea. Now let's move this thing."

With language of many colours and groans, they got the broken piano into the module and secured it tightly against the wall, Virgil stood back with a smile and Scott shook his head.

"Where will it live?"

"I think in my studio, so that's where we need to drop it off, I can't work on it then move it again."

"See you at home then," Scott left the module and went back to Thunderbird 1.

"I can't wait to hear you play this properly," Kayo smiled at the dusty instrument.

Virgil kissed her forehead, "I'll have a piece ready just for you."

Gordon tapped the door to the cockpit impatiently, "oi, some of us would like to get home, today if possible."

Virgil glared at him, "fine, we're coming."

The piano was dropped off gently into the roundhouse and once the birds had landed and put on auto clean, Virgil made his way up to his studio with various tools, the first thing to do was to clean off the dust and see what really needed doing; the sustain pedal was too bouncy as well as squeaky so that was one thing which needed fixing, the keys themselves needed fixing and replacing, the hinges on the lid needed tightening and hammers needed tuning with new strings, well thank goodness he had spare piano strings but this still meant a shopping trip both online and in person, it would take ages. A few weeks passed by and he had been interrupted multiple times by rescues, but it was finally the day to try out the new furnished piano properly, he had purchased a new stool and the instrument itself shone with polish in the sunlight, he sat down and opened the fallboard displaying a whole 88 range block of white and black keys, the new lid was wide open and strings were pulled taught attached to new hammers which danced up and down rapidly, happy to be reconnected, he ran his fingers up and down with a smile and heard a knock at the door.

"Come in?"

Kayo walked in and shut the glass door behind her, "wow Virgil."

"You wouldn't believe it was mahogany at first would you?"

Kayo ran her hands over the smooth surface, "it's gorgeous."

"Would you like to hear that piece I promised you?"

"I'd love to," she looked for a chair to sit down on and Virgil moved across the stool, "what is the piece called?" she asked as she sat beside him pressing a kiss into his shirt.

"I'll tell you at the end, I think you'll like it," he smiled warmly at her then looked down at the keys moving his right hand to the top octaves, he stretched his little finger to a 9th and smirked seeing Kayo's eyebrows raise in his peripheral vision, then brought his hand back to the middle of the piano in a complicated turn crossing his left hand over, the pedal no longer squeaked and moved up and down gently with the tiniest thud matching the quietness of the piece and Kayo watched the hammers in the reflection of the lid dance individually then as a group under the constant dampener, she smiled lovingly and moved closer to his hip knee to knee as he closed his eyes with a sigh, his body moved beside hers and the piece was beautifully romantic. As opposed to him losing himself, she felt home and noticed he had repainted the golden leaf design onto the front panel and on the far right he had painted her name, so tiny but so intricate she was amazed to have even spotted it, golden loops spelt out 'to Kayo' and with a small squeak she wrapped an arm around his back and he opened his eyes forcing down the final chords with intense passion, he brought his feet back from the pedals and his hands wound themselves around her.

"Well, what do you think?"

"You've named the piano after me?" Kayo smiled almost tearfully.

"You mean so much to me, Kayo."

Kayo gazed up at him, "as do you to me. What have you called the piece?"

Virgil grinned, "Ton Ombre."

"What does that mean?"

"'Your Shadow', this is your piece."

"Is it really?"

Virgil nodded, "of course it is."

"Thank you so much sweet pea, and you've done such a great job restoring this, it's truly spectacular," she ran her fingers across the shiny wooden blocks, thankful they were no longer ivory, "can I try it?"

"Sure," Virgil stood up to give her the full stool and moved round to stand beside the instrument, "the hammers were the hardest to fix," he smiled as he watched them move.

"Really? I would've thought the pedals would've been harder."

Virgil shook his head, "they either need tightening or just screwing in, how does it feel to you?"

"Does it make a difference to the player?"

"Sometimes, I'm much heavier than you so I've loosened the sustain slightly so I don't have to force it down."

"It feels fine to me," she released it with a smile, "this is amazing work, it's so smooth to play."

"Thank you, sweetheart."

"You should show Scott," Kayo stopped playing and stood up to admire the instrument, "I'll call him," she turned her wrist controller to her and opened a call with the eldest, "hey Scott? It's done."

"About time too, I'm on my way."

Virgil smiled, "I had no idea he would be so interested?"

Kayo shrugged, "he still can't believe you were given a piano to take home after a rescue so he wants to make sure that almost breaking his back moving it was worth it."

"You're such a tease."

"But I'm not teasing, that's what he really said," Kayo laughed as Virgil's face fell, "awh don't look so down, he couldn't be happier you've put together a piano by yourself that works."

Scott opened the door and grinned as he got his breath back, "wow Virgil, it looks amazing," he walked over, "it's mahogany?"

"Yeah, I was stunned when I cleaned the dust off, this would cost thousands if I were to sell it."

"And would you?"

"Absolutely not, it's taken me weeks to fix this."

Scott chuckled as he sat down on the stool running his hands across the new blocks, "no ivory then?"

"No, it doesn't need to be ivory, sure it's more poetic but it's a cruel process."

Scott nodded, "okay, let's give this a go, it sounded awful in that house," he began to play Chopin's Waltz No.2 and smiled at the fluid pedal now quiet against the floor, "score 1, the squeak has gone," he moved with the music and Kayo leaned against the ledge watching him.

"If you ever take the mick out of Virgil being a pianist, I'll make you play this in front of everyone."

Scott smiled up at her as he ran a perfect chromatic up into the top octaves to finish the first section after each cluster was played and perfectly pedalled, "hmm, nice one Virgil."

"Since when have you become such a good pianist?" Virgil frowned as his brother tried out different styles of pedalling with the piece.

"Listening to you and practising when you're not around. You got Kayo by being able to wow her so maybe I can get someone doing the same thing."

Kayo hit him and he laughed, "you know that's not the reason I fell for your brother."

"It's a contributing factor though, right?" Virgil smirked winking at Scott.

"Maybe," Kayo tucked a strand of hair back over her ear.

Scott brought the piece to an end and sat back on the stool rubbing his hands down his jeans, "I'm impressed, Mum would be so proud of you if she knew you could build pianos."

"Simple engineering, if I can fix Thunderbird 2 I can easily fix a piano."