'What are we going to do now?'

Alan's voice was scared and quiet, and it prompted Gordon to pull him into a one-armed hug. It said something that Alan didn't resist at all. But then, this had not shaped up to be a normal day for any of them.

Sally looked her remaining boys over. She couldn't help Scott now; he'd removed himself from the situation and from contact until such time he was ready to talk. Sally said a silent prayer that he wouldn't do anything stupid and that he'd be in contact soon. She knew the longer he maintained radio silence, the harder this would be on all of them.

She'd be fooling herself if she said her concern for the eldest two present wasn't more immediate than the youngest two. She knew full well that Gordon would look out for Alan, and keeping those two busy would be the best thing. John, too, would benefit from keeping his mind engaged on the issues raised. Virgil was a different matter altogether.

It was time for her to take charge of her family. Again.

'Gordon, I want you and Alan to work with Brains. Go over One with everything we have, go over Two as well. Fine-tooth comb inside and out. Let's see if we can uncover anything. John, I want you to concentrate on the data being fed to Scott. See if there are any discrepancies. Liaise with EOS and see if you can track any interference, any outside influences.

'EOS, please can you continue to monitor rescues and transfer them to the appropriate authorities. Until we find the source of any disruptions we are grounded for all but the most serious rescues. If someone else can handle it, then pass it over.' EOS signalled her agreement. She looked at the boys, still sitting there, staring at her as if she had grown an extra head. It would have been amusing if it wasn't for the circumstances. 'Off you all go, the quicker we get started the quicker we can sort this mess out.' That got them moving.

As the two younger boys disappeared off on their assigned task and John took the desk, Sally turned to Virgil. She knew that he would be taking this the hardest, and it was going to be up to her to help him. Again the thought that Scott was beyond her help caught in her chest, but here was one grandson she could. John would need very different handling.

Virgil was still sitting on the couch, looking bewildered. He had no idea what was going on, his brain had stopped working when Scott had accused him of dropping the vault. A hand on his arm startled him out of his stupor, and he looked up into the sympathetic face of his grandmother. She smiled gently and pulled him up off the couch. 'Let's go so John can get on. Come help me make coffee for everyone.'

John watched them leave, concern for his immediately younger brother etched on his face. Although he had been shocked by Scott's accusations too, he was furious at how Scott had treated Virgil, and surprised. They had always been the closest of the brothers through everything. When Scott eventually showed up John had a good mind to punch him on the nose. John sighed at the thought. If Scott showed up now the reality was John would hug him tightly. Something had definitely happened to his big brother for him to react so severely and to leave them like that.

'EOS, are you there?' Her hologram appeared above the desk. 'I'm here, John.' His fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up reports and data. EOS regarded him for a minute.

'John, when are you coming back up to Five?' John sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Much as he loved EOS, this was not a line of questioning he wanted to get into right now. But he also knew he owed her an explanation just as much as his brothers. 'I assume you heard that Scott has left us?' EOS nodded. 'I can't come home at the moment; the guys need me here to help out. And we have work to do, you and I.' His attention was solely on the screen and the data. EOS estimated it would take about three days to go through everything if she factored in breaks and sleep, something she was sure that Grandma would insist on.

EOS paused. She had assumed that with Scott gone, John would take charge, and everything would just carry one as normal. How had she got that so wrong? Firstly, it seemed that Grandma Tracy was taking charge, something EOS simply had never even considered. Then, it looked like the family were not going to be content at leaving things as they stood now. There was some urgency in double checking everything, they were looking for answers as to why Scott reacted. EOS wasn't too worried about her own role in this, she was pretty sure she'd covered her tracks well, and even if John – the only one even remotely capable of working this out – did indeed discover what had happened, EOS was sure that he would accept her premise.

However, she was starting to think that she had seriously misjudged how the family as a whole would react to Scott leaving, even if it was in their best interests. EOS wondered if she would ever truly understand them, they were so irrational.

She listened closely as John outline the data they were going to go through and how they were to do it. It was a simple search through the data banks for an incursion that she knew had not happened, but she was quite happy to go through everything if it put John's mind at ease. Maybe then he would come home to her.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Gordon and Alan met Brains in the hanger, passing a chirping MAX on the way. Brains had already set up the diagnostics on all four Thunderbirds and was sitting at the portable console while the computer whirled, beeped and flashed. Looking up as the boys approached, Brains stood up and gestured at the screen. 'I, I er started the, er, started the program al..already. Do you, er, you want to ch..check the ships, er, themselves?' Gordon nodded.

The pair made their way over to One first. Neither could help the sighs that escaped them as they gazed on their eldest brother's ship. A fine-tooth comb meant they would be checking every inch by hand and eye, and then double checking. Good job they both had a head for heights.

'Inside or out?' Alan asked his immediate brother. He knew that they would both cover all areas of the craft, but he gave Gordon first pick. Gordon smirked at him. 'Rock, Paper, Scissors – loser goes outside first?' and he was delighted by Alan's response: 'you're on Fishface. Prepare to lose!'

Of course, Gordon didn't lose. The day he couldn't remember that Alan always played Rock first was the day that he resigned himself to getting old. He helped Alan into the harness and watched as his brother was lifted off the ground. Brains would spot Alan to ensure he was safe at all times, so Gordon made his way up the stairs to his brother's entrance, clinging to the plate as the chair extended. He hated this entranceway.

Looking over every inch of any Thunderbird was more complex than people would think. The cockpit and cargo bays were pretty standard and easy to cover. The hidden wirework and engines and everything else that kept the 'birds in flight were far more complex and far harder to navigate. Brains estimated it would take them three days to cover every inch of just One and Two, but they were the priority since Scott had been in those two the most.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Sally didn't need help making coffee. That was because her coffee looked and tasted like mud, so she never bothered. Virgil knew this, they all knew this, so she didn't need to keep the pretence up. MAX was already heading up with coffee curtesy of Brains and his thoughtfulness, and they arrived at the kitchen to two steaming coffees.

She gently pushed Virgil onto one of the chairs and took the one next to her, making sure that she maintained some form of physical contact. Virgil might be the powerhouse out of them all, but he was also both the most sensitive and the closest to Scott. Scott's words would have hurt him the most. She cursed her short sightedness.

When John and Virgil had approached her after Scott had left for TI and explained that they felt he needed a break from things, it had not occurred to her that Scott could possibly take it the wrong way. In hindsight Sally felt she should have known better, should have seen that he could misread the entire situation. After all, even she had begun to worry over the events of the past couple of months and she hadn't been directly involved in any of them. Sally wasn't entirely sure what she could say to help this situation. So she sat there, shoulder against shoulder with Virgil, and drank her coffee in silence, just being there for her (favourite) grandson.

Virgil stared into his giant mug of coffee. It was like his brain had just stopped working. All he could see and hear was his brother saying he had let go of the reactor, that he wanted to get rid of Scott, that they wanted him gone. Virgil just couldn't get his head around the fact that his best friend, his closest friend for his entire life, seemed to truly believe that he wanted rid of him.

He started suddenly as his grandma reached up and wiped a tear away he hadn't been aware he had shed. The tender action broke him, and Sally gathered her heartbroken grandson into her arms as he sobbed his heart out.

Once Virgil had got himself together Sally insisted he go to bed. It was getting late in the evening and he had been an emotionally trying day for all of them. An early night would do them all the world of good; and mean that they would be searching tomorrow with fresh eyes. She shooed them all to bed, even Brains, and stood in the kitchen alone. She glanced out of the window up at the sky and said a silent prayer for her eldest.

Both Brains and John assured Sally that they would have answers one way or another in around three days. It would take that long to physically go through everything.

It did take three days to find out some answers.

But the answer did not come from their searches.

And the answer came in the worst way possible.