Chapter 78.
Virgil Tracy had been an emotionally sensitive baby.
From the moment he came home from the hospital, Jeff and Lucy knew that he was the polar opposite of Scott.
Angry words distressed him, sudden movements startled him and loud noises terrified him. He cried incessantly and exhibited 'clingy' behaviour, a challenging trait when Jeff and Lucy's hands were already full with the boisterous, don't-take-orders-from-nobody Scott, who seemed intent on tormenting his baby brother into an early grave.
Despite being only eleven months older, Scott quickly assumed the role of alpha and made it his top priority to antagonise his new brother at every opportunity. Beakers of milk intended for Virgil somehow always ended up in Scott's mouth, toys intended for Virgil somehow always ended up in Scott's room, and cuddles intended for Virgil somehow always ended up taking detours down Scott Street before arriving at Virgil Avenue.
Still, it wasn't all bad. Despite the apparent glee he got from making his new brother regret his existence, Scott was besotted with his new companion and quickly began to demonstrate a fierce kind of protectiveness. One of his favourite things to do was to sit next to Virgil's crib and insert his hands through the bars, his little fingers tracing lines on his sleeping brother's face.
Virgil responded well to such treatment. On the occasions where he started crying and couldn't stop, Scott would gently draw lines on whichever part of his body he could reach; back, arms and forehead were the most profitable locations. So successful were Scott's interventions that Lucy and Jeff bypassed the ritual of nappy/feed/burp and just handed their second son over to his older brother whenever he began to fuss.
A true blessing when they found themselves preoccupied with baby John two years later.
Scott Tracy had learnt to be a caretaker before he'd even mastered his two times tables.
Unfortunately, his caretaker instinct was both his greatest asset and worst enemy. Being the eldest of five was a full-time job, and Scott had struggled all his life with locating the line that divided brotherhood from parenthood. The struggle had been taken out of his hands when Lucy had died and Jeff had disappeared, however there had been no relief. Just sad, broken acceptance at being the legal caretaker for two minors when he was barely an adult himself.
Emotionally sensitive Virgil had borne the brunt of Scott's stress as they'd struggled to carry on after losing their parents. Gordon and Alan hadn't been bad kids, but Scott's smothering instinct hadn't made growing up under his care a breeze. Fortunately, Virgil had been there to act as his emotionally stable counterpart.
Unfortunately, the same emotional stability that made Virgil the yin to Scott's yang was beginning to crack under the tirade of verbal abuse the eldest Tracy was hurling at the engineer's face. As it turned out, the bee in Scott's bonnet had nothing to do with his jealousy over Kayo, and everything to do with life in general.
Alan's latest report card contained several comments that had Scott concerned. Their youngest brother's attention sometimes waned in English and his grades were starting to react. Did he perhaps have an undiagnosed learning disability? Should Scott get him tested? Should Scott have already gotten him tested? Was the school expecting Scott to get him tested? Had he been deprived of some essential nutrient as a baby?
Gordon's savaged arm was another source of worry. The aquanaut's bloodwork wasn't due to come through for a few days, and until then, he was to keep his pulse as low as possible. The lingering Havoc-themed nightmares Gordon was still plagued with was going to make this a challenge, and Scott was already a ridiculously light sleeper. Recent life events had seen him cut down to just four hours a night.
John's aversion to going on a date with Ridley O'Bannon was yet another worry. Was the redhead that socially inept, or was he hiding something? Had Scott set a bad example to his second brother growing up? Would John ever form a meaningful relationship with another human, or was he destined to live out his days in a monastery on some dim, distant asteroid? Also, why didn't he come home more often? Did he really love Thunderbird Five that much, or was he deliberately trying to put distance between himself and the rest of the family?
Virgil's sensitivity was and had always been a cause for concern in Scott's book. What if he gave his heart to the wrong person and ended up broken beyond repair? Or what if he never gave it to anyone, period? The engineer had made it clear in the past that he had no interest in stepping on Scott's toes, but what if it was Scott himself who was holding Virgil back? What if Virgil's sensitivity to Scott's moods meant that he deliberately sacrificed his own desires in order to appease his overly stressed older brother?
There could be no arguing with Scott once he got locked in a downward spiral. Within the confines of his sleep-deprived, stress-addled brain, he'd managed to convince himself that he was single-handedly responsible for all the imaginary flaws his brothers possessed. Thanks to him, their destiny could be summed up in two words: eternal misery.
Virgil sighed and shook his head. He knew he'd have more luck trying to pull an elephant along with an elastic band than try and convince Scott that he wasn't to blame for anything.
"And of course, you just had to bulldoze in and complicate things with Kayo," Scott spat, rounding his monologue off with a glare that turned his blue eyes into icicles.
Virgil blinked. He was aware that Scott was trying to transfer his frustration and was quite happy to act as a sponge for his brother's stress, but not without a fair trial first. The evidence was in the engineer's favour, since Kayo had been the one to ask him to be her date. Not the other way around.
"You're overreacting," Virgil muttered, quirking a brow when Scott pushed his wet hair out of his eyes and began to squelch off in the general direction of the exit, "Oh, c'mon Scott! Quit being a pain in the ass and come and have a drink. You're acting like a spoilt brat."
Icicles turned to icebergs as the eldest Tracy whirled around and stormed back over towards his first brother, "And who do you think is responsible for driving me to this point, huh? You may like to think of yourself as the peacekeeper, but the only peace you've ever brought me is that piece of untuned trash you call a piano. All those lessons and you still can't nail a C13 chord properly. Shameful."
It took three whole seconds for Scott to realise that he'd just conformed perfectly to Virgil's description of a spoilt brat. Unfortunately, he'd already spun on his heel and started the furious journey towards the nearest source of alcohol. His heart was racing and his head hurt. That last thing he felt like doing was losing face by turning back and apologising to his emotionally bruised brother.
Besides, the stone cold guilt that was starting to gnaw at his stomach was a much more fitting punishment than any apology.
As Virgil squeezed his eyes shut and tried frantically to call upon the emotional calmness he was acclaimed for, Havoc made her move.
Swooping in like a designer wearing demon, she sidled up next to the engineer, her expression a painted picture of ardent worship. As far as he knew, she was just another besotted young woman whose lifetime ambition had been to meet him and his big green bathtub.
A sniff and a clumsy drag of a large hand across a chiselled face revealed a pair of watery caramel eyes.
Havoc's own eyes widened with glee.
Virgil Tracy was, quite bluntly, a sitting duck.
-x-
Scott felt regret slicing at his heartstrings as he steamrolled his way over to John and accepted the glass of wine the redhead wordlessly pushed into his hand.
"I swear, that pansy of a painter will be the death of me," Scott muttered, taking an overgenerous swig of what tasted like a very expensive Pinot Noir.
John shrugged and toyed with the collar of his shirt, "He's not done anything wrong. You've been faffing around with Kayo for ages, so she took matters into her own hands and stirred the jealousy casserole by asking him instead of you. And you fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Stop kidding yourself and just ask her out already. "
Scott felt his forehead crease in confusion, "How do you know all this?"
A turquoise eyeroll was his only answer, "EOS has the entire house rigged with cameras and microphones. Privacy is a thing of the past."
A sigh travelled up Scott's throat as he cast his eyes around the room. Penelope and Kat were sat on a sofa tucked away in one of the far corners, comforting Kayo who looked on the verge of crying. Alan was chatting animatedly to Brandon Berrenger (who'd invited him?) while enthusiastically pointing at a holographic display of Thunderbird Three's blueprints. Grandma and Kip Harris were trying their hands at salsa dancing, while Colonel Casey, Ned Tedford and Captain Rigby yelled out unhelpful sounding feedback. Gordon was nowhere to be seen.
Out on the terrace, Virgil seemed to be enjoying the company of a woman Scott didn't recognise. Like Kayo, the engineer also looked on the verge of crying.
What a mess.
-x-
Virgil's eyes widened somewhat as an attractive and overly confident young woman sashayed up to him and smiled brightly, "Uh, can I help you?"
"Virgil Tracy?" the woman asked, squinting slightly as she scanned his features. Her voice sounded vaguely familiar, but not enough to raise suspicion.
Thunderbird Two's pilot hiccupped slightly and nodded, "At your service."
Havoc resisted the urge to snort. The biggest, most imposing Tracy brother holding back tears like an oestrogen saturated pre-teen girl was nothing short of hilarious.
'At my service indeed.'
Havoc quickly schooled her features into an expression of barely contained excitement, "Oh, Mr Tracy, it's such an honour to finally meet you! You saved my family's lives from that terrible hurricane that tore through Tallahassee six months ago. Thanks to you, my mother lived to see her sixtieth birthday last week."
Virgil managed a misty smile, "The pleasure is all mine. Did the local government live up to their promise and compensate you for the property you lost?"
Havoc felt herself falter, her lifelong habit of not doing her homework coming back to bite her in the ass.
"I'm sorry, I didn't even ask your name," Virgil slapped a palm against his forehead, "Forgive me, I'm not operating at full power right now."
A surge of confidence blasted away the tendrils of panic travelling up Havoc's spine. She may have forgotten to do her research on her character's hometown, but she hadn't forgotten to do her research on the Tracys. She'd picked her character's name with care and had found inspiration from beyond the grave.
"Lucy," Havoc replied, smirking inwardly when her target visibly flinched, "Lucy Nicholson."
The hold Virgil had on his emotions seemed to slip slightly, "That's a lovely name. My mom was called Lucy, you know."
Havoc knew…but didn't care.
"I wouldn't be alive today without you," Havoc gushed, glossing over Virgil's comment about his mother. Her plan had worked; the engineer was now twice as emotionally unbalanced as he'd been four minutes ago.
"Just doing my job," Virgil replied, forcing a shaky smile onto his face.
"And now you're going to let me do mine," Havoc purred, zeroing in on the second Tracy's lips. To her utter shock, Virgil firmly (yet politely) managed to twist his head away at the last possible second. His chivalry was rewarded with an angry whine.
"Uh, thank you," Virgil stammered, the cringe in his voice evident, "But you owe me nothing."
Havoc scowled, "That's my decision to make, pal. I just said that you saved my family's life. How would you feel if a stranger saved one of your brother's lives, huh? Wouldn't you want to repay them?"
"Thank you, but we don't accept this kind of gratitude," Virgil replied firmly, turning his head to the side again when Havoc leant in a second time, "Have you been drinking? I'm happy to cover the cost of a taxi if you need to get home safely."
A girlish giggle skipped out of Havoc's throat as she seized Virgil by the hair, locking him momentarily in place. He was bigger and stronger than she was, but Havoc knew the odds of Virgil Tracy using his strength against a (seemingly) defenceless woman were about as slim as Fuse's chances of getting into college.
"Your attempts at resistance are endearing," Havoc whispered, only to freeze when she spied Scott and John marching across the terrace towards them.
"Hey, Virg," Scott began casually, his blue eyes fixed on the hold Havoc had on his first brother's scalp, "Who's your friend?"
"Guys, this is Lucy," Virgil began, smiling in spite of his obvious discomfort, "I saved her and her family from Hurricane Chelsea a few months ago. I think she's a bit tipsy, so go easy on her."
John scowled at the way his older brother was allowing himself to be treated, "Intoxication is no excuse for violence, Virgil. Excuse me? Lucy, was it? Kindly relinquish the hold you have on my brother."
Havoc could feel herself start to panic. Under normal circumstances, she would have decked the arrogant redhead for daring to speak to her in such a way. As things stood, she was outnumbered three to one and still didn't have an ounce of DNA for her efforts.
Time for desperate measures.
Switching her focus from the prudish Virgil onto the warmer-blooded Scott, Havoc catapulted herself at the eldest Tracy and urgently smashed her face against his.
John dropped his glass in shock.
Twenty feet away, an apocalyptic expression descended over Kayo's features. Knocking back the contents of her shot glass in one effortless slug, Thunderbird Shadow's pilot kicked off her heels and began to stalk towards the stranger snogging the man she fancied.
Snogging that, unbeknownst to her, was actually DNA farming.
"Cheers, sucker!" Havoc hissed upon breaking free from one thoroughly stupefied/petrified/horrified/traumatised Scott Tracy. Taking advantage of the temporary pause that ensued as everyone tried to wrap their heads around what had just happened, Havoc seized and yanked a fistful of the eldest Tracy's hair before bolting off like a cheetah. After charting a course towards the nearest exit, she pulled out a small glass vial and spat into it.
"Boss!" Havoc yelled, sprinting past a small cluster of thoroughly confused guests in a blur of black, "I got the samples! Fingerprints are on my dress, saliva is in the test tube, and I even got some hair!"
"Excellent work," The Hood drawled, "Report back to the Chaos Cruiser immediately. I'm sending Fuse your location."
"Copy that," Havoc panted, skidding around a corner and charging towards the coordinates that had just flagged up on her holographic communicator.
CRASH
All the air was knocked out of Havoc's lungs as someone smashed into her from behind, sending her sprawling on the floor. The combined weight of two bodies hitting the deck in perfect unison was sufficient to shatter the glass vial containing the coveted Tracy DNA.
A shriek of rage tore out of Havoc's throat as she twisted to face her pursuer, only to be met with the same pair of caramel eyes she'd last seen at the bottom of the Marindata Ventfields.
Gordon Tracy.
