People thought that Tracy Island was always a buzz of activity. Afterall there were at least five fully grown adults coming and going at all hours and four Thunderbirds ever ready should they get a call out. There was also the everyday part of life that people didn't generally think about when it came to International Rescue; getting breakfast, doing chores, organising meetings or maintenance. From the outside it seemed as though there was always someone doing something on the Island. But that was only from the outside. Those who lived there knew that, in reality, the Island could be their oasis of calm. That, unless a rescue was called, once the evening drew in the young men that lived there would often settle down early, each caught in their own ideals of winding down. Secretly it was moments like this that they all treasured.
Now, as the clock was getting ready to strike midnight, Virgil Tracy was happily asleep in bed, the light breeze coming through the balcony door keeping the room comfortably cool. Not an hour earlier he'd sat reading, listening as his brothers shuffled through through their own nightly routines and letting the familiar sounds relax him completely. He was now deeply asleep.
When the emergency claxon sounded, he briefly entertained the idea of cutting the wires and turning it off. But only briefly. One, he would never do that when he was needed and two it would mean digging the wires out of the walls which, at this time of night, was definitely more trouble than it was worth.
"Virgil, you need to come up here now!" a young female voice shouted at him. Momentarily derailed, (for he had been expecting his older brother not said brothers sort-of daughter) he paused half way through flinging his shirt on.
"Eos? Up Where?"
"Here! Thunderbird Five. There's something wrong with John!"
Virgil was moving before she'd finished her sentence.
"I've already sent the space elevator down for you. I can't raise him. He's been acting odd for a few hours then he retired to his quarters and now he isn't answering."
"Can't you override?" Virgil swung into the lift to the silos mentally going through the medical supplies on Five and what else he should grab from the emergency kit on the hanger.
"No!" the AI sounded positively distressed. "The door has no power to it."
"And you can't physically open it" Virgil finished. Deciding on the whole kit he pulled himself into the elevator and had only just sat down when Eos began the lift procedure. "Alright" he said slipping into rescuer mode, "tell me everything Eos." He knew they had about ten minutes till they reached Five. Eos could push the lift faster but Virgil wasn't an astronaut. John and Alan might be able to handle a launch like that but he'd be hard pushed. He kept half an eye on the altimeter just in case she forgot that.
"He was fine this morning" she said. "He was working on the research paper with Cambridge University, he took a call from Captain O'Bannon and a bit later I started getting strange readings from his suit."
"Strange how?"
"I noticed his blood pressure increasing and he started to make errors in his calculations, but when I asked about it, he said he was fine."
"Well, he would" Virgil responded. Increased blood pressure could mean all sorts of things or nothing at all. John was living in space, after all. The environment wasn't conducive for the long-term health of the human body. But John had been back planet side just over two weeks ago and, once he'd reacclimated to gravity and weather, he'd been 100% fit. Virgil had done the physical himself.
"What do you mean?" Eos managed to sound alarmed and indignant at the same time.
"Eos, you need to calm down" Virgil said. "All I meant is that John would shrug it off. We all do it, especially if we don't actually feel that bad at the time."
"But you didn't see him! He wasn't himself the past hour before he went into his quarters."
That had Virgil concerned.
"Wasn't himself how?"
"He just wasn't. He was working on something and he wouldn't let me help. He got very snappy after a while. But I could tell he was making mistakes."
"Then he locked himself in his quarters?"
"Yes. I know we agreed that I would never go in there without an invitation but his blood pressure kept increasing, as did his heart rate and breathing then I lost all monitoring from his suit so I tried to go in anyway but I can't!" the AI practically wailed. "I even tried the emergency signal. He always responds to that but Five detected it wasn't real and turned it off." The lights around her camera briefly turned red as she grumbled "treacherous machine."
"It's alright Eos, we'll get to the bottom of this. You've done everything you could."
"I have!" she insisted, not calming in the slightest. "I even tried calling Global One but the lines to it have been severed somehow and I can't get through."
"Why would you call Global One?" asked Virgil, thrown by the non-sequitur. Eos' first port of call should have been Tracy Island if something had happened to John.
Virgil was thinking furiously. Increased blood pressure, heart rate and breathing, lack of concentration.
"Because Captain O'Bannon is in his quarters with him. What if it's an infection and she now has it too?"
Then what Eos said fully registered.
Oh God.
"Eos send me back down, right now!" He slammed his hand down on the emergency stop and reversed the elevator himself just to be sure. It can't have descended more than a few meters before it halted again and began to rise.
"Eos, John is fine." Probably the best he's felt in ages Virgil thought to himself. "You have to send me back down."
"But you haven't even seen him! How can you know?"
"Trust me, I know. Both he and Captain O'Bannon are absolutely fine and they won't take kindly to me showing up." He struggled to keep a tone of desperation from his voice. John was naturally introverted and wouldn't take kindly to an unexpected visit at a time like this. The bothers were all different when it came to their private lives. Gordon was an open book who probably had more experience than the rest of them put together. Unfortunately, he could be a little too open and Scott had had to reign him in when Alan had got to the age where he started asking questions. Scott had his moments, claiming that being the first born of billionaire Jeff Tracy had to come with some perks. If Scott's Tracy Industry's meeting occasionally ran into the next day, well no one was going to begrudge him a little stress relief. Virgil had pulled a similar card himself once or twice but he found that he needed an emotional connection to really get the most out of the experience. That didn't mean that it hadn't been fun trying it out. But John wasn't like that. He was intensely private about that side of his life. So much so that at one time there had been a serious talk between his father and grandmother about whether John was struggling coming out as gay. He wasn't, and the brothers all knew that and wouldn't have cared if he was. It had been Virgil himself who had accidentally walked in on that conversation and had managed to put an end to it. He liked to think he'd handled it clearly and maturely but he'd only been sixteen at the time and having to confess to your father and grandmother that you knew more about your older brother's love life than you should was a situation he'd actively pay to never be put in again. Gordon had even tried talking to him about Gordon's own more open-minded life style but that had ended spectacularly for everyone in the vicinity. John was just a private person, something his family had long since accepted. Not that it didn't stop the occasional brotherly ribbing. But the thought of Virgil interrupting him now… he shuddered.
"No! That's not good enough. You have to come up and help him!" Eos demanded.
Virgil felt his own cheeks colouring at the unintentional faux pas.
"No" he squeaked, then cleared his throat. "I'm sure John has everything under control."
"But he could be ill. The readings from his suit-"
"Are very healthy" Virgil interrupted. "Very healthy." Virgil hit the emergency stop button once again and took a deep breath. "Eos, John and Captain O'Bannon are fine-"
"You keep saying that but you don't say how you know" the AI cut in, not in the least placated by his best International Rescue medic voice.
Medic…
"Eos, who is responsible for the health and wellbeing of the members of International Rescue?"
"You are" she replied promptly.
"Yes, I am, and, in my capacity as team medic I am telling you that nothing is wrong."
"But why?" she whined. Virgil noticed the panel flashing to signal it was ready to be raised again and pressed on quickly.
"You've heard about doctor/patient confidentiality, right?"
"Yes but you aren't a doctor-"
"It still applies" he said firmly. "Now I am telling you there is nothing to worry about and John will tell you himself when he emerges from his quarters."
Because there is no way on earth, I am going to be the one to explain things to you.
"So, Eos, release the space elevator and send me back down."
Nothing happened for a long moment and Virgil held his breath. Though he didn't hold any animosity towards the AI, right now he could see Scott's point about her having too much control over John in Five. If she decided Virgil was going up to Five then there was precious little he could do about it. No doubt she would even find a way to make him exit the space elevator. He pointedly turned his thoughts away from atmospheric venting.
He puffed out a breath as he felt the elevator begin to descend once more.
"I am trusting you here Virgil Tracy" she said haughtily. "I will wait until John's usual morning alarm but if he doesn't emerge or I find he is not perfectly okay I will expect you up here on the double."
"You don't need to worry Eos" Virgil said trying not to hear the implied threat. "Everything will be alright in the morning. You'll see." He didn't relax though. Not until the space elevator had touched down and he was safely back in his own quarters. Only then did he realise he was still carrying the emergency medical kit.
"John, if you end up needing this then I really don't want to know what you got up to" he said shaking his head and climbing back into bed.
The following morning graced Virgil with a much-needed lie-in. After a long shower he stumbled into the kitchen his mind only on coffee. Once he had a mug full of blessed warm brown, he wandered through to the lounge not in the least surprised to see John's hologram chatting with Scott.
"Morning sleepy head" Scott said turning to him. "Late night?"
"You could say that" Virgil peered over his mug at John but his older brother didn't give any indication that he knew about Virgil's late-night escapade.
John suddenly shuddered.
"Eos turn the air conditioning off!" he barked. "I've apologised already for not letting you I had company coming, now cut it out."
"You had company?" Scott inquired mildly.
"Yes, Captain O'Bannon and I play hand-ball every week."
Virgil choked on his coffee.
"I didn't tell Eos she was coming and Eos hasn't taken it well."
Any hope Virgil had of getting his breath back was lost.
"Odd thing for Eos to get wound up about" Scott said taking Virgil's mug from him and thumping him on the back. "If the Captain comes regularly, I mean."
"That's not-" Eos started but was cut off by another bark from John.
"Everything okay, Virgil?" John asked.
"Yeah" Virgil rasped back. Looking up at his brother's hologram Virgil realised what John was really asking. "Yes, it's fine John." He tried to reassure him but Virgil could see that John didn't look convinced. He turned to Scott;
"Before I tried to inhale my coffee, I came to tell you that Gordon said something about One and was heading towards the silo."
Scott rolled his eyes.
"Oh for God's sake. I'll have to catch up with you later John." He waved goodbye and headed off.
Unfortunately, that left Virgil and John staring awkwardly at each other.
"I'm sorry Virgil" he said scrubbing a hand though the back on his hair. "That wasn't supposed to happen."
"Which part?" Virgil smirked. John shot him a look.
"I just haven't worked out how to have" he halted, "that conversation with Eos yet."
"Well, make sure you've had it by the next time you and the captain decide to play handball" Virgil said with an arched eyebrow. "I am not getting in the middle of that again."
John was fighting it but he was steadily turning the colour of his hair. He shivered again.
"Eos will you knock it off with the damn air-conditioning!" he snapped looking up at what Virgil assumed was Eos' camera.
"No, I clearly need to cool you down and since I can't access your shower control this will have to do" she stormed back.
"What the..?" John looked perplexed but that was enough for Virgil. The look on John's face was enough and once he started laughing, he found he couldn't stop.
"Oh John" he finally managed. "Eos might not have understood last night but I think she gets it now!"
"Oh God"
"I bet that what Captain O'Bannon said" Virgil replied, making John colour more.
"Virgil." John's voice had a note of warning but Virgil waved it off.
"Your secret is safe with me John. I'm happy for you."
"Eos, it's like the damn artic in here!"
"You should have told me what was going on, I was worried" Eos replied clearly not ready to forgive him yet.
"You have fun with that, brother of mine" Virgil said cutting the connection after John's unamused grunt. Chuckling to himself he retrieved his coffee and wandered over to his piano a beautiful romantic ballad could soon be heard filtering throughout the villa.