Yellow was the colour of the sun. At least most people would say so.
In reality, Virgil often used a combination of Indian Yellow and Cadmium Yellow often with a touch of Hansa Light Yellow, sometimes with a touch of Transparent Green Gold mixed with Titanium White, and often a smattering of Venetian Red. A lot depended on the time of day he was painting it, but his favourite was late afternoon. He always felt the sun was warmest then.
Yellow was the colour of his younger brothers hair.
A mixture of Aureolin Yellow, Light Red and Buff Titanium on a base of washed Raw Umber or occasionally an Olive Green Yellow. A touch of Phthalo Turquoise for shading.
Yellow was the colour of Thunderbird Four.
Called an unimaginative Utility Yellow, it had been hand-picked by Gordon to be easily seen under water.
Gordon's favourite colour was yellow.
Gordon's hair was yellow.
Gordon was a happy, sunny person.
Gordon was warm like the sun.
Gordon was Cadmium Yellow with a hint of Winsor Lemon.
Except today he wasn't.
Gordon wasn't Cadmium Yellow. He was more Yellow Ochre, a meh kind of colour.
Gordon wasn't warm.
Gordon wasn't sunny.
Gordon's hair wasn't yellow.
Gordon wouldn't be for a long time.
Virgil watched the monitors attached to his brother. Watched his heart beating. Watched his pulse rate. Watched his oxygen saturation.
Watched his chest rise and fall.
Rise and fall.
Rise and fall.
Rise and fall.
He could almost fall asleep to the mesmerising motion. But he could not. He would not. Instead he sat beside his brother and mapped the monitoring.
Virgil was aware of Scott. He was aware that he was doing what Scott would usually do. Scott was the smother hen, a title well-earned and well deserved. And even now, Scott was fussing about Gordon's bed, straightening the covers, checking and rechecking. But Scott was also checking and rechecking him.
And Virgil was not surprised at all. In the few days that Gordon had been admitted Virgil had not left his side. He had refused to move to sleep, to leave to eat or to drink. He had heard the murmurings of his Grandmother and Scott, whispers of needing to sedate him to get him to rest.
He ignored them. They wouldn't dare.
Actually, they probably would. But Virgil was clinging to the doctor's predictions that Gordon would be waking up soon. He could rest then, and Scott could take over, a fact that Scott was well aware of and the only reason that they had not tranked Virgil's ass by now.
He thought he probably looked as bad as Scott did. He knew their commander had not slept since the incident, liaising with the GDF and WASP trying to find the Chaos cruiser, trying to prevent this ever happening again. Because unless the sea was a safer place, they may well not be able to let Gordon return to the ocean. May not want to let him return.
His wingman would not like that and would fight them tooth and nail.
But he wanted his brother safe.
Hadn't his brother been through enough in his short life?
What was it about Gordon that attracted such absolute disaster?
Virgil thought that maybe, just maybe, the warmth and sunshine that was Gordon was too much for the horror of the real world. Then he would shake off his melancholy and laugh at the absurdity of his tired, tired brain.
He sighed, prompting Scott to swivel his eyes in Virgil's direction and gracing him with a small smile. It was a measure of just how much Scott and Virgil could read each other that his big brother had not even attempted to shift him. In fact, it was Scott who got up, even though he had only just arrived, and disappeared to procure decent coffee for them both.
He wondered where his grandmother was. She had been there almost as much as he had, and only slightly more than Scott. Then he remembered she'd taken Alan and John off to the hotel for rest. Alan had reacted to his best friend's hospitalisation by turning into his twelve-year-old self, how he had been when it had been Scott in Gordon's place and he had not been allowed to visit. Alan was scared and pretending he was fine.
John was almost as bad as Scott. He had also been trying to trace the cruiser, spending hours with EOS tracking anything that could give them a clue. Both of his older brothers had lost weight in the three days Gordon had been unconscious, and Virgil was aware that he probably had too.
The only brightness that had happened in the past three days was the light that Lady Penelope had brought with her. She had been present as often as Scott, the two working jointly on WASP and the GDF, and spending every spare minute at Gordon's side. If they had had a suspicion of the relationship between the aquanaut and their London agent, this incident had put them to rest. There was no doubt in the three older brothers' minds, although Virgil was pretty certain that Alan was oblivious. Not that they would set him straight – it was not their place.
His attention returned to Gordon. His head was bandaged still, his arm and leg in casts, neck brace still fitted. There were signs he was coming around, subtle changes in his breathing, in eye movement.
By the time Scott made it back with two cups of steaming coffee and a cup of tea for Penny, Gordon was in the last dregs of unconsciousness. Drinks forgotten, they held their collective breath…and Gordon opened his eyes. There was a joint sigh.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Gordon had been back with them for four days now. Gone was the neck brace, as long as Gordon was careful – they had already threatened him with bringing it back – and the stark whiteness of the casts had been covered by Virgil's paintings. His leg was now a seascape with a tiny Four and lots and lots of fish and coral. His arm was the sunset over Tracy Island. There was not a jot of unpainted cast visible, and Gordon had been delighted.
Despite the seriousness of his injuries, Gordon's sunny disposition and warm personality had not been diminished. Virgil grinned to himself at that thought. For sunny disposition read annoying little brother, for warm personality read loud and still obnoxious joker.
No-one complained, though. This was their Gordon, their brother. Much as they may complain about him, they would not be without him for a second. Alan had perked up, John had returned to Five, promising just a flying visit and he would be back, Scott had started to relax a little, frown a little less and Virgil himself had felt so much lighter.
Penny had stayed. Parker had grumbled but said no more.
Gordon was Burnt Sienna. Still quite dark, but lighter than before.
Gordon wasn't warm yet, but he was getting there.
Gordon wasn't sunny yet, but he was having his lighter moments.
Gordon's hair wasn't yet the yellow-blonde of before – he'd been out of the sunlight for too long.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Virgil brought his brother home a week later. They had everything they needed for his rehabilitation – after all, it wasn't the first time Gordon had been in need of physio, and although he would still be out for months, it wouldn't be as long as that first time.
They all worked in rotation to get their aquanaut back on his feet – literally and metaphorically. It was hard work, but each day was easier than the last, Gordon's legendary joker side coming out in full force and helping them all along.
Even Scott almost disappearing in his new Four did not get the squid down for long – once he'd given his older brother a piece of his mind. But Scott paid for it – he had to scrub Four inside and out – and be Gordon's 'slave for the day', which turned out to be almost a week. Scott secretly didn't mind as it meant he was on hand to intensely smother Gordon – a fact the fish had forgotten to his peril.
Thus it was Scott who started Gordon's physio in the pool. And the water, as usual, performed miracles on their brother. He progressed in leaps and bounds from that point on.
And one day Virgil came home from a rescue to find Gordon asleep on the sun lounger.
And Gordon was the sun.
And Gordon was warm.
And Gordon was Cadmium Yellow with a hint of Winsor Lemon.
Gordon woke up to see Virgil staring at him. He wiggled his eyebrows in that ridiculously annoying way that he thought was funny but was not. Virgil smiled. Gordon burst out laughing.
The warmth from Gordon made Virgil's heart soar once more.
NOTE:
References made to SOS.