Chapter 102.

Alan woke up nose to nose with something cold and wet.

Instinctively and without authorisation, a scream tore out of him.

The sound was sufficient to rouse all three of his brothers simultaneously, each one making the transition from unconscious to conscious in less than a second. Celery yelped and dove under the bed for cover as Gordon, John and Virgil all frantically scanned the room for the source of their youngest brother's distress, their eyes on stalks.

After freeing himself from his sleeping bag and back-peddling several feet, Alan was relieved (and disgusted) to spy his perpetrator peeking out from around one of the bed legs, her eyes wide and fearful.

"False alarm," the youngest confessed, wincing as John smacked his head on underside of the window sill in his haste to stand upright, "It was just Celery. Sorry for waking you."

Gordon pivoted his head around and Alan fought the urge to laugh. The aquanaut's hair had lost all of its volume and was sticking up in random directions. Combined with the slightly glazed expression on his face, it looked very much as if the fourth Tracy was channelling the electrical output of a small town.

Gordon himself was happy to admit that he'd been on the receiving end of better wake up calls.

"What is wrong with you?" John spat, cradling his rapidly bruising skull, "Please tell me you're not still in shock over us finally having a dog?"

Alan flushed crimson and hastily set about rolling up his sleeping bag. The previous night hadn't been kind to him, but his brothers didn't need to know why. No doubt they'd all be too busy dreaming up ways of making Scott pay for his betrayal.

Virgil grunted with fatigue and cast his gaze over towards Gordon, who was sat up and doing spinal rotations, "How's your back?"

"Better," the aquanaut replied, yanking his pyjama shirt off and groping madly for his thermal vest, "What's the plan for today? I take it Scott didn't bolt during the night?"

John reached for his discarded comm gauntlet and pulled up the coordinates for Thunderbird One, "Scans show he should still be in the vicinity. Looks like he and Kayo are several doors down from us, as luck would have it."

A brow was quirked as Virgil threw a towel over his shoulder and headed towards the shower, "Call it luck if you must, but he knows we're here and has made the conscious decision not to flee this time. Be on your guard."

Alan scoffed and stuffed his sleeping bag back into its sleeve, "Man up, Virg. Scott's no threat. Besides, there are four of us and one of him."

A pyjama leg was hoisted up to reveal the angry-looking injection site on Virgil's thigh.

"Speak for yourself."

-x-

Scott blinked his eyes open.

He was somewhere warm and soft. His limbs felt rubbery and well rested, and his head felt clearer than it had done in days. A quick glance at his phone revealed that he'd been asleep for just shy of eleven hours, which was almost triple what he'd been surviving on for the last few months.

A spark of panic shot through the eldest Tracy when he realised that his jacket was missing. It would take at least another ten minutes, plus a cold shower and a black coffee before he was operating at peak cerebral efficiency, however the few neurons that were online were screaming at him that his jacket had contained something important.

Ah, yes. His mom's ring.

The same ring that was sitting innocently on the bedside table.

With a sticky note attached to it.

Scott felt himself die a little on the inside.

Clawing his way to the other side of the mattress, the eldest brother plucked the note free and squinted at the writing on it, ignoring the little voice in his head that suggested he invest in some reading glasses.

'Ask me when you're sober. Love Kayo.'

"Shit."

The expletive fell from Scott's lips as naturally as his name. He seriously needed to work on his language. He'd always been a prolific swearer, but the last couple of months had seen his vocabulary disappear down the toilet.

He blamed life. And lack of work. And Gordon. Especially, Gordon.

And, apparently, Kayo.

"Oh good, you're awake!"

The blood in Scott's body dropped twenty degrees as he twisted his head and locked gazes with the devil herself, who was stood in the doorway with two steaming mugs of coffee. Her choice of attire did little to dilute the eldest brother's flight instinct; a fluffy white dressing gown over black pyjamas.

"You've been out for hours," Kayo commented, crossing the room and offering one of the mugs, "I had to come in and check you were still breathing at one point. I was worried you'd snuffed it in your sleep."

Scott managed a strangled laugh that sounded like a cat with tonsillitis. Maybe if he just kept his trap shut, everything would be fine…

"Ignore the note," Kayo smirked, plonking her butt down on the floor, "I was bored and felt like messing around. Bet it scared the pants off you, huh?"

Scott did a quick check. Thankfully, the aforementioned pants were still accounted for.

"So, what's the plan?" Kayo asked, taking a sip of her coffee and cringing when it burnt the roof of her mouth, "I mean, it's obvious that they're after you, not me. As if you'd be the kind of cheapskate who'd recycle a family ring for a proposal."

Scott opened his mouth, calculated his options, then promptly closed it. He thought it was actually rather a nice idea, but was apparently wrong. As usual.

"Give them a call and explain the situation," Kayo advised, "They're pursuing us out of confusion, not malice. Why you didn't tell them about the ring when I first found it is beyond me."

A grumble hovered at the back of Scott's throat as he sat up and took a gulp of coffee, "I was hoping to keep it a surprise…"

Kayo quirked a brow and wordlessly tightened the cord of her dressing gown, "Some surprises just aren't worth the hospital bills. I'm going to go for a quick jog around town. I expect you to have made contact with the enemy and negotiated a peace treaty by the time I get back. Then, you can treat me to a day out as payment for roping me into this crazy scheme of yours."

Sapphire orbs narrowed to slits, "Why does everything involving you end with me being out of pocket?"

"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," Kayo replied, blowing a sarcastic kiss over her shoulder before disappearing back out the door.

Scott felt his features contort into their default scowl. He was about to throw something snarky back at Kayo to help level the pitch, but was interrupted by the buzzing of his phone.

An incoming video call. From Alan.

"Double shit."

-x-

"Come on bro, pick up," Alan hissed, terminating the call after seven unanswered rings. His plan to subtly warn Scott of the storm on the horizon had failed.

The eldest brother had been steadfastly ignoring all communication attempts. He hadn't switched his phone off, but seemed determined nonetheless to make his brothers play the chasing game.

"They're leaving," Virgil announced, unsticking his face from the window and lunging for his boots, "Look alive, people. I'm not returning to this cabin until I get a confession out of our resident flyboy, and I except the rest of you to assist me in this endeavour."

Gordon stooped to clip a leash onto Celery, nodding his affirmative as he did so. Over by the sink, John offered a steely look of determination as confirmation.

Alan blanched and busied himself with a fake sneeze when Virgil's gaze swivelled to him.

"Our brother in blood and arms has betrayed us," the engineer began, sweeping an arm as if addressing a nation, "The clandestine way in which he has tried to initiate the bonds of holy matrimony with our esteemed Head of Security is nothing short of deceitful. Together, we will ensure he pays for his treachery…"

"I vote we lock him in the bathroom five minutes after Gordons been in there," John announced, "Painful, yet slow enough to give him plenty of time to think about what he's done."

Gordon, of course, looked thoroughly offended, "Well, I vote we lock him up on Five with ol' Johnny boy here on laundry day. Nothing like a pile of fruity spacesuits in an orbiting tin can filled with recycled air, huh?"

John sputtered in offense, not even having the time to stumble upon a satisfying insult to spit back at the aquanaut before Virgil and his size thirteens waded back in.

"Guys!" the engineer snapped, his expression nothing short of murderous as he planted one hand on the door, "Focus, would you. This is serious!"

A loud 'twang' echoed around the cabin as Virgil snapped a pair of ski goggles onto his face.

Oh, he meant business alright.

-x-

There were numerous occasions where Scott's height came in handy.

From changing lightbulbs without the need for a footstool, to keeping track of his younger (and shorter, bar John) brothers in large crowds, the list went on and on. He'd even managed to snag a spot on the basketball team during his sophomore year of high school without attending a single trial…

Virgil was still sore over that one.

Ten minutes in the eldest Tracy's company in a city that thrived on winter sports, and Kayo had drawn up yet another advantage to add to the list.

A perfect ice skating partner.

It wasn't so much Scott's skill on skates that won him this title. More the fact that his height (and the strength that came as part of the package) meant that he was able to hoist Kayo back onto her feet every time she took a tumble without splattering across the ice himself.

"Upsy-daisy!" the eldest brother chuckled, raising his arm slightly so that Kayo was once again vertical. The death grip Thunderbird Shadow's pilot had on his hand was sure to leave a bruise, but he was a gentleman, and a gentleman never complained.

Kayo was quickly beginning to regret her decision of choosing ice skating as her 'day out' activity. It oozed elegance and grace, but certainly didn't look anywhere near as hard as it was turning out to be. Her martial arts training had blessed her with an extremely refined sense of balance, however this didn't seem to translate when her feet were balanced on a pair of wafer-thin blades.

"I've got you!" Scott assured, laughing when Kayo's legs slid out from under her for the fifth time in as many minutes. He was no pro himself, but the years he'd spent teaching both Alan and Gordon to rollerblade were finally paying dividends.

A honk of outrage escaped from Kayo when she felt her balance threaten to resign altogether. Scott hastily relocated his spare hand to her back in an effort to stabilise her, eliciting a couple of jealous sniffs from a gaggle of nearby women in the process.

"Try and point your gaze upwards," the eldest Tracy coached, "Look at what's in front of you rather than down at the ground. It'll help realign your centre of gravity."

Two pints of blood were forced out of Scott's arm as Kayo's death grip migrated north. Thankfully, the marginal improvement her balance gained as a result of his instruction made the sacrifice worthwhile.

For the first time since stepping onto the ice, Kayo lifted her head and took the time to (carefully) marvel at the beauty of her surroundings. The flashes of colour as several schoolkids pirouetted around her and Scott, their scarves and coats flapping in the chilly air. The conifer-clad backdrop of Mount Juneau, it's majestic outline standing sentinel over the city below. The profiles of several nearby reindeer, their bridles jingling as a passer-by slipped them each a snack of unknown origin.

And, finally, a sight that almost gave Kayo unforgivable gas.

The faces of Virgil, John, Gordon, Alan (and Celery), all gathered at the edge of the rink.

And, if her observations were correct, blocking the only available exit.

"Triple shit."