Epilogue

And so this concludes An English Vacation. Thank you so much to all of those who stuck with this to the end, I really enjoyed writing this one and I hoped you liked it all the way through! I am working on another story but it will be a standalone so watch this space!

The blast of jets out of the pool was a sure-fire guarantee that brother dearest had now left the island. Gordon had called a family meeting in the kitchen area away from his father's looks of disapproval and Tin's tutting. Poor Brains was oblivious to it all and Kyrano knew to give the boys a wide birth when they were scheming. They had left it a couple of hours to meet since Scott had left because John would have still been sleeping on Five.

Alan was perched at the end of the table; John had been summoned on the screen that was hidden behind the abstract fruit bowl painting and Virgil was causally leant across the counter looking back at them all. Gordon was pacing up and down.

"Right! You know why I have gathered us all here today, back along I orchestrated a little friendly bet into how long Scott and Rose had been dating. Now a reminder of what you bet starting with John."

"Eight months" chimed John, taking a sip of his morning brew.

"A month" muttered Alan already knowing he'd lost.

"One week" Virgil tried not to look too gleeful.

"And I said six months."

The only one that didn't know was John so to make it a bit more fun and seeing as they all knew he was the ultimate loser; Gordon had emailed him with a DO NOT OPEN UNTIL I SAY subject line. "John you may now open the email and deliver the result!"

John tapped the screen in front of him and brought up the email which had one week at the top and then a gif of John himself falling into the pool on loop from when Gordon had run out of the shrubs and pushed him. His face was one of complete surprise and fear as plunged into the water.

He turned from the screen and looked at them in disgust. Damnit! He couldn't even remember what all the forfeits were. He groaned and leant back in his chair. At least Virgil had won, he wouldn't lord it over him like the other two.

"Congratulations Virgil it seems I'm to be in your debt. Remind me what the hell we agreed to again?

"Well Virgil bargained four Sundays worth of interior thunderbird cleaning for all earth-based thunderbirds." John shoulders slumped; he was back on earth in two weeks what a treat!

"I betted exterior thunderbird 3 respray with Brains, I've been putting it off for months it's a rather hideous task." John slumped lower in his chair in despair.

"Gords do I even want to know?" John was slumped at his desk with a hand over his eyes at this point.

"You have to organise what to buy dad for his birthday next month and his party. You know how hard it is to buy for the man who has everything." John gave a sigh of relief compared to the other two that sounded manageable.

"Just one question? Why do I have done all of these? You two lost as well! we should rock, paper scissors for a task each!"

"John you're just a sore loser" remarked Alan with that smug little smirk.

"Remember John it was loser takes all!" He smiled.

"This is the last time I play one of your little schemes Gordon." John scowled, it was unbecoming to see that handsome face so scornful when usually he was so jovial.

"No, it's not" all three of them chorused.

John shook his head. "Well I'm signing out before I get in more trob-"…..

GORDON! an irate familiar voice shouted from the lounge.

"YOU! Gordon pointed accusingly at the screen, were meant to tell us when he was home!"

John set his coffee down, a wide smile across his face "Goodbye Gordon" and cut the transmission.

"Why that little S- "Gordon didn't get to finish his insult as the eldest flew through the sliding door. One look at Scott's thunderous face and he was gone! Virgil knew he would be legging it to the pool, it was the only place Scott wouldn't make the effort to extract him from. He'd hide in there in the middle until it was considered safe like he always did.

Scott turned his attentions to the other two, John (once he realised he had lost) had typed a quick voice message to Scott knowing he was near the island and filled him in completely on Gordon's little betting game.

"I told you what was waiting for you if you told them!" He looked pointedly at Alan who shrunk a little in his chair.

"I didn't I swear!" (That was a lie but not one Scott needed to know, he's only told one sibling it didn't count) "We started the bet at the beginning of your leave and we only found out when Rose told me yesterday in the lounge."

Scott huffed. It seemed this was all Gordon's doing. Why they were so interested in him having a girlfriend he didn't know! granted he'd not had a relationship since USAF with Trixie. That ended well when she got drunk and ended up sleeping with Gordon (They had never met or seen each other before until Gordon had come to visit Scott at barracks for the first time and bumped into her at the local bar whilst he was on manoeuvres. To be fair that wasn't Gordon's fault Trixie was the one who had cheated. Still that hadn't made finding Gordon in her bed any easier and it had taken quite a while to forgive him until he came to the conclusion, he had dodged a bullet).

"I expect Alan to follow Gordon like a sheep but you Virgil?" Scott looked incredulous.

"Well Scott, you should have heard the bets! it really was hard to resist with stakes like those! I've saved myself a lot of time for the next couple of weeks where I can concentrate on practicing for my next concert piece."

"You haven't saved anything because John isn't doing all those things by himself."

Virgil looked surprised; Alan looked annoyed. "Look we won –

"No Virgil won but none of you should have been betting in the first place, you all have assigned duties for a reason and you will complete them!"

"But!" Virgil looked pained.

"You're not dad you can't just order us about." Pouted Alan.

"And you can't keep out of my personal business but there you are! You'll do as your told. You've had months to complete that re-spray and you kept fobbing it off and trying to get other people to do it, she's your bird. Your responsibility (John also had time to throw that little snippet into the update too).

Poor Scott he was really riled, probably not helped by the fact he had just said goodbye to Rose. It really was a good thing he had four brothers to wind him up to keep him occupied or so Virgil thought anyway. Virgil pulled out his last trump card which he had prepared for if everything went south. He bent down to the oven he had been leaning near and produced a warm apple pie which he placed on the counter.

"Peace offering?" he smiled oven gloves extended.