Chapter 81.

It was another hour before the Tracys and their cohorts abandoned playing hide and seek with Havoc and returned to what remained of Kayo's birthday celebration.

Havoc had nearly died twice during the aforementioned hour. Once when Sherbert started snuffling around the base of the fireplace (thankfully, his non-existent snout meant he failed to fully detect her presence), and again when Virgil and Penelope arrived late to the party to join the search (with Penelope complaining loudly about her lack of suitable footwear).

The Tracys may have been poor guard dogs, but they were excellent sniffer dogs. Every conceivable hiding spot in the entire room had been exposed and scrutinised. Furniture had been moved, floorboards lifted, the room scanned for heartbeats and unregistered heat signatures.

Havoc thanked the stars for her jamming tech.

After checking both neighbouring rooms to make sure their target wasn't walking through walls, the Tracy party had called it quits and relinquished all responsibility to Casey and Rigby. Gordon and Kayo's desire to catch Havoc may have had personal origins, but even they knew where the boundaries of professionalism started and ended.

What really baffled Havoc was how a not one of the brothers had thought to stick their head up the chimney. Scott, Virgil and John all held advanced degrees from some of the world's top universities, Gordon was an Olympic level athlete and Alan was one of the youngest astronauts in the world.

Havoc sincerely hoped she'd never end up in a position where her life was in the hands of such intellect.

Then again, being wedged up a chimney that was in desperate need of a sweep wasn't representative of a particularly high IQ either. Still, things could be worse. At least she could finally stop bracing her legs against the wall and give her thighs a well-earned rest.

Too bad she hadn't anticipated getting stuck.

-x-

Kayo's eyes began to water when she returned to find the terrace deserted and two of the windows leading to the indoor living area smashed.

A debrief from EOS revealed that Fuse had stormed the premises looking for his sister a little while after Virgil and Penelope had headed down to the basement. Guests had panicked and scattered, stuff had been blown up and Kayo's pile of gifts had mysteriously gone walkabouts.

She didn't want to think about what Fuse would do with the silk bras Penelope had custom ordered for her.

Worst of all, Scott's gift was among those stolen.

Sure, he'd gotten her the massive bouquet of hideously expensive flowers, but he'd also bought her another one (much to the horror of his slower thinking brothers). Medium-sized, rectangular, blue paper with a blue bow perched on top. Kayo had seen him drop it off shortly before he and Penelope had been called away for their photoshoot with Kat.

Gordon, ever the attentive one, was quick to note Kayo's distress.

"Chin up, girl!" the aquanaut chirped, his earlier anger completely absent, "We can still throw you a Tracy style party! There's a twenty four hour convenience store half a block away from here. I'll go and pick up and a cake. Alan? Can you and Virgil call some of the people who've left and get them to come back? We don't need many; Grandma, Kip, Ned, Gladys, Brendon, Kat and O'Bannon will suffice. Maybe extend invites to Captain Taylor, Brains and Moffie while you're at it. John, you're in charge of music. I've heard you DJ'ing up on Five when you think the comms are off and you've got some serious skills, bro."

John's cheeks darkened to the same shade as Thunderbird Three. He'd intended to keep his ABBA obsession a secret. Trust Gordon to find out…

Scott butted in before his redheaded brother could start babbling himself into a hole, "Actually Gordon, we'll all come with you. From the looks of things, Kayo's gifts weren't the only souvenirs Fuse helped himself to."

Caramel eyes locked onto the luxurious buffet Penelope had gone to a great deal of time (and expense) to organise. All that remained was a single plate of steamed broccoli.

Apparently, Fuse's affinity for explosives didn't extend to the gastrointestinal variety.

"He took all the food?!" Gordon sputtered, shock radiating to the tips of his hair, "But-? Why-? How-? And, wha-? Why?!"

Ignorant to the food-induced distress of his younger brother, John turned his nose up before summing Havoc's brother up in a single word, "Pig."

Penelope rolled her eyes, yanked her phone out and began to speed dial Brains, "Quite."

-x-

Twenty minutes of sweet-talking and string-pulling later, Penelope had managed to re-secure the attendance of forty five of their original seventy guests.

"We're going to need a good amount of food to keep all these people happy," Penelope announced, "Gordon, I don't think this is a task you can complete on your own. Why don't all five of you go together? Parker can finish tidying up and I'll take care of welcoming people when they return."

"What about Kayo?" Alan asked, peering shyly at the rather sullen form of Thunderbird Shadow's pilot.

"She could come with us?" Gordon suggested, nudging Scott playfully, "I can't think of a better place to spend a birthday than the bread aisle of a convenience store in the middle of an unfamiliar city."

The aquanaut was rewarded for his wit with a cuff around the ear from Virgil.

-x-

Five Tracys (including Kayo) sashaying down a deserted pavement in the middle of the night in Buenos Aires wasn't a sight one saw every day.

Yet, it was this very scene that the local residents were treated to when they began to close their curtains and put their children to bed. Even without their gear and Thunderbird vehicles, the boys were fairly easy to identity, even from a distance.

Two by two they strolled down the street, three different conversations overlapping as the peace of the night was (temporarily) shattered.

"Hey, what was your gift to Kayo?" Virgil queried, glancing sideways at Scott, "I thought you got her that rather sickening bunch of flowers?"

Scott shrugged and kept his eyes fixed on the horizon, "Nothing, just a small token."

Thunderbird Two's pilot snorted as he recalled the size of Kayo's 'token', "Pull the other one, bro. Whatever you got her was big and you deliberately didn't tell any of us about it. C'mon, you can trust me."

Again, Scott refused to make eye contact, "It's nothing Virg, okay? I just picked something up on the flight over that I thought she'd appreciate. End of story."

Virgil frowned, "That explains why we monetarily lost you over New Zealand."

Up ahead, Gordon and Alan were locked in an intense debate over a video game whose release date had been delayed (for the second time, apparently). Scott sighed and cast an anxious glance over his shoulder at Kayo and John, who were happily gabbing away about a meteor shower that was due to arrive in a few weeks, "She's been complaining about Shadow giving her a bad back during long flights. I grabbed her one of those AirSpine pillows her search history is littered with."

Virgil felt his eyelids recede into his head, "Scott, those are four hundred dollars apiece!"

A shrug, "Mine cost three hundred and eighty five."

A long silence ensued, during which the only sounds were those of John prattling on about space debris and Alan's gaming lamentations. Scott's chemistry with Kayo was wonky, but undeniably apparent. He met Kayo's attitude head-on with one of his own and possessed enough natural charisma to deflect the worst of her sassiness.

He also lacked the patience for a woman like Penelope (despite what the media claimed). While he considered the blond woman to be more of a family member than a colleague, he'd never been able to view Kayo in the same sisterly light that John, Gordon and Virgil did. Alan was an entirely different story, but then again, he was a teenager…

There could be no denying it. While Gordon would quite happily totter after Penelope with designer shopping bags clutched in his hands and teeth, Scott was much more independent. He wasn't in possession of the same breed of sensitivity as his brown-eyed brothers and worked well with people who craved action.

People like Kayo.

Thunderbird Dos had seen and heard enough.

"Oh, this is so stupid," Virgil muttered, "Stand back and shut up."

Scott barely had time to process his brother's words before Virgil turned around and began walking backwards, his eyes fixed on the jabbering duo that was Kayo and John.

"Hey, Kayo!" Virgil interrupted, ignoring John's all too common look of irritation, "Do me a favour and go out with my brother here, will you? That gift of his that Fuse nicked was a four hundred dollar pillow. Coming from a guy as frugal as him, that speaks volumes. All I got from him for Christmas was a set of batteries to go with the flashlight he got me last year. Just promise that you'll give him at least three seconds warning before you snog him again, okay?"

Much to everyone's surprise, Kayo flicked her eyes to Scott and beamed, "You're on. Pizza and a movie, eight o'clock, Friday. Make sure to keep your mitts off my margherita though, otherwise I'll only give you two seconds warning."

Virgil smiled as Kayo detached herself from John and quickened her pace so that she could walk alongside Scott. Ever the sensitive one, Virgil fell back to give his older brother some space and his younger brother some company.

"That was so cheesy I could smell it from back here," John grouched, his discomfort at Virgil's 'intervention' evident, "You know we're all adults here, right? I'm fairly certain Scott doesn't need your help."

Virgil was about to counter with something about John needing the help more, but was cut off by his phone pinging. Digging it out of his pocket, he was surprised to see that it was a text from the very brother he'd just 'helped'. A quick glance at Scott showed that he had his arm around Kayo and was good-naturedly ribbing her over her earlier fury at Havoc. The eldest was an expert at sending discreet texts.

Punching in his password, Virgil opened the message and felt his heart warm.

A lone smiley face emoji.

Apparently, even the great Scott Tracy required some navigational assistance when traversing the minefield that was dating.

Up front, Gordon and Alan were taking turns sipping from a can of cola they'd mysteriously acquired. John's scowl of irritation turned into a grimace of disgust when Gordon thumped his chest and let out a loud burp, much to Alan's amusement.

"Gordon!" the redhead snapped, "Cut it out!"

"Loosen up, space carrot!" the aquanaut drawled, passing the can back to Alan and motioning to his diaphragm, "Okay Al, breathe deeply, then when you feel an air bubble begin to form, block the front of your mouth with your tongue. Oh, don't look at me like that, John. It was only a belch."

The redhead's expression was as deadpan as a corpse, "I literally just heard an icecap disintegrate."

A snort of laughter ripped out of Virgil's nose as Kayo ducked from underneath Scott's arm, seized the can from Alan and knocked back a generous slug. A tense silence ensued as she tried to ascertain if she'd gotten the correct ratio of air to fizz, only to be broken two seconds later by a burp that made Gordon's sound like a hiccup.

Virgil's snort turned into a full blown cackle as he drank in the disgusted expression on Scott's face, "She's all yours, bro."