Virgil was worshiping his morning coffee when a cough from behind him caught his attention. He looked over his shoulder to see Grandma shuffle into the kitchen, still in her dressing gown.
"Morning, Grandma. You okay?" he asked concerned. It wasn't like her to wander round in her night clothes. Not even when they were little, and getting Alan dressed in the morning a particular chore, did you find Grandma anything other then presentable and 'ready to face the day.'
"I'm fine, dear" she coughed again and reached for the coffee machine. She didn't look fine though. Virgil set his mug down and gently moved her aside to make coffee for her. It was a test. Usually, he'd receive a swat on the arm and a brief admonishment to stop being a pest if he tried to take over a task from her. This morning though she let herself be led to the breakfast bar and deposited on a stool.
"You don't look fine" he said pouring the drink and setting it in front of her.
"Nonsense. One cup of joe and I'll be raring to go. Plenty to do today, after all. I've got letters to answer from some of your father's old colleagues, I'm chairing that meeting on Care in the Community for Lady Penelope and the washing is backed up so far you boys will be lucky if you're not attending rescues commando."
Virgil grimaced at that. The neoprene uniforms were generally comfortable but without pants they could be known to, well, chafe, a bit. It was with that thought he found himself saying;
"I'll sort the washing, Grandma. I'm all caught up on maintenance for Two and have nothing else planned for this morning." It wasn't strictly true; he'd been looking forward to some quality time with his piano and an old series of mazurka's he'd dug up online but Grandma clearly needed a hand.
"That's very sweet of you dear, you've always been such a good boy."
Damn it if that didn't make him feel like he was twelve again and basking in the praise from his beloved Grandma. He offered her a smile and turned to make his way to the laundry room.
Once he arrived, he was both regretting his decision and glad he'd made it simultaneously. Laundry on Tracy Island was an industrial affair, what with the five brothers (yes John bought bedding down from Five to get cleaned though he sorted everything else himself) Kayo, Grandma and Brains. The boys themselves seemed to generate far more than their fair share as they could easily go through two or three sets of uniforms in a working day. But it wasn't uniforms or bed linen that that had Virgil taking a fortifying breath. It was the sheer amount of clean socks and underwear, pikes and piles of them which had been pulled from the machines then left to 'sort later.' Virgil didn't even know who to be mad at as this was a particular trick of both Gordon and Allen. Neither seemed to realise that leaving it for 'later' actually meant leaving it for Grandma.
"Gordon, really ought to know better" Virgil groused to himself as he found and laid out eight different baskets. "I'm sure WASP taught him how to do his own washing."
But there was nothing for it other than to make a start.
"Computer play Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth" he called and as the music began, he started looking for the coloured tags Grandma has sewn into everyone's socks years ago after the incident now only referred to as Sock-a-Geddon.
It was sometime later when Gordon crept into the room unnoticed by Virgil who was either engrossed in the music or the repetitiveness of the task at hand. It didn't look to Gordon like he'd made all that much progress. There was still a huge pile of unsorted underwear on the table in the middle of the room but only four of the eight baskets had anything in them. The fullest basket was near to the furthest machine from Virgil and, well, it'd be rude not to. What would people think if Gordon Cooper Tracy had passed up an opportunity as good as this one?
Waiting for Virgil to turn away, Gordon shot across the room and wedged himself between the machine and the wall grabbing a few pairs of socks as he did so. He waited patiently, (because Gordon could be patient, thank you very much!) until Virgil turned away again and let fly.
The first balled pair caught Virgil right on the back of the head and he spun round in surprise.
"Gordon?" Virgil scanned the room and Gordon concentrated very hard on keeping his breathing even. He couldn't afford to give away his position now! It was clear Virgil didn't have a clue where the soft missile has come from. Virgil's eyes narrowed and Gordon knew the game was on. Poking the bear was a dangerous game. Best left to professionals, like him, and right now Gordon knew he could wait his brother out.
Eventually Virgil turned back to his task and Gordon took the opportunity to arm himself more fully. Then he waited. It wouldn't do to hit Virgil again straight away. Then he'd know someone was here. Right now, there was the possibility the first attack had been a hit and run. Gordon knew it would be driving him nuts, and he loved it. He waited for Virgil to turn away and back three more times before taking aim again, this time catching Virgil on the side of the face as he turned back.
"What the?" Virgil spluttered spinning back to the direction of the attack. "I know you're in here Gordon!" But he didn't know where. From here it didn't look like there was enough room between the machines and the wall for a person. Very slowly he stalked round the table, arming himself with a pair of Scott's hiking socks as he did. Gordon had to have gotten into one of the machines. He spotted one with the top loading door not fully closed and, quietly as he could, crept over to it.
Gordon knew he was sunk as soon as Virgil started coming in his direction. He couldn't believe his luck when Virgil pulled open a machine flinging the socks in with a triumphant "Ah-ha!"
Seizing the moment Gordon stood hitting Virgil rapid fire with his five remaining pairs of socks. As Virgil defended himself from the deadly missiles, he dove round his brother putting the table and the huge pile of unsorted washing between them. He then had to duck as Virgil had managed to catch one of the pairs of socks and return it force ten.
Gordon poked his head up and slowly stood catching his brother's eye. Virgil turned back to face him and they found themselves caught in a bizarre version of a Mexican stand-off. Slowly Gordon began to smile and his eyes flicked down to the table and the pile of washing.
"Don't you dare" Virgil said, his voice low and threatening. But Gordon did dare, and they both knew it. Slowly Gordon moved to catch the edge of the table. "Gordon…" Virgil dove forwards. In one swift move Gordon upended the table catching his brother in an avalanche of unsorted socks and dove behind his new barricade. Reaching around Gordon grabbed handfuls of socks and pants and began to fling them at Virgil with deadly accuracy. The dark-haired Tracy had no choice but to defend himself. Scrabbling backwards he took hold of the closest basket turning it into a makeshift shield. His own paired socks made much better ammunition than the singles Gordon was throwing and he let out a triumphant "ha!" when Gordon yelped from an impact.
In no time at all he'd made his own barricade from the remaining baskets and the sock war had well and truly begun.
"You can't win" Gordon shouted ducking a rain of Allen's smallclothes. "I have the ammo dump and the better barricade, give it up now and I'll be merciful!"
"Not a chance!" Virgil knew what Gordon's idea of merciful was. He'd be swimming in mismatched socks for days. "I have the only entry covered" he aimed a pair of socks he'd bunched tightly together and let fly. They smacked off the table with a satisfying whump. "I can make better ammo than you" he let another pair go "and you will have to come out sometime."
"You're forgetting" came Gordon's slightly breathless reply. "The one thing I have that you don't."
There was a sudden ominous silence. It ticked on until Virgil finally caved in.
"And that is?"
"Military training!" and with that Gordon let loose a barrage of all the socks Virgil had tightly wrapped and thrown his way. The stack of baskets was no match, the socks pushing them aside like kindling. Virgil took shots to the arms, chest and back as he covered his head trying to make himself as small as possible behind the remaining two baskets.
"What are you doing?" Both boys looked up as Scott strode into the room. "Grandma is feeling under the weather so this is how you decide to 'help out'?" Virgil was about to say something to his saviour. Tell him that it was only a joke, thank him for stopping it but what Scott said next changed his mind entirely. "I'd expect this from Gordon but from you, Virgil?" He even looked disappointed and it made Virgil's blood boil. Who did he think he was? It wasn't like he'd offered to help Grandma out. Virgil may have, temporarily forgotten that Gordon could be a military whizz when he wanted to, but Scott had forgotten something as well. Scott had forgotten that the pilots of Thunderbirds Two and Four worked closely together, more often than any of the others. Virgil threw a look to Gordon and Gordon retuned it. The look said one thing: Amnesty Achieved – New Target.
Scooping yet more of the endless pile of unsorted washing Gordon pelted Scott in such a way that made it impossible for him to reach the door. At the same time Virgil bolted from what was left of his meagre cover and darted behind the upturned table. From there they worked as a seamless team, Virgil balling socks into hard packed missiles and Gordon taking deadly aim. Scott found himself backed into the same corner Gordon had hid in but his larger frame made it impossible for him to take full shelter there.
"Gordon, knock it off!"
"What's the matter Scott?" Gordon taunted. "Can't bear it that you're losing to your younger brothers?"
"Okay, that does it" Gordon had to duck sharply as socks and underwear started returning at double the speed Gordon was able to dish them out.
"You'll have to do better than that Scott" Virgil joined in. "It's two against one."
"I've never had any problems dealing with both of you before!" Oh yeah, Scott was in. Virgil peaked round the edge of the table and took a pair of pants to the face. "I'm not going to break a sweat this time either."
Gordon and Virgil shared a look and then moved together to attack from opposite ends of the make shift cover. But Scott had seen it coming. Brandishing a basket as a bat he returned Gordon's fire straight to him and with the other arm hurled a sock that's caught Virgil in the shoulder had enough to knock him backwards.
"Smells like victory to me" he said lining up for a final devastating blow to Gordon.
"SCOTT TRACY WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY KNICKERS?" Kayo's incredulous screech froze everyone. She looked angry enough to spit nails.
Scott's gaze travelled up his arm to his hand where he was indeed holding Kayo's underwear. He didn't know how he'd missed it. Everyone knew Kayo's things were off limits for pranks or similar. He dropped them like he'd been scalded and turned an impressive shade of red.
"Kayo! I'm sorry – I didn't mean" he stumbled under his adoptive sister's wrath. Desperately he looked to his brothers for help but all they did was burst out laughing.
"What did you think you were doing?" she stormed into the room getting right up in his face.
"I didn't, it was just, Gordon started it and," he gestured to the blond brother but Gordon was now laughing so hard he was crying, he had hold of the table to keep himself upright. Virgil wasn't much better.
"I know exactly what happened here" she said, eyes flashing.
"You do?" Scott answered hopefully.
"Yes. I heard Virgil offer to help Grandma this morning and later I heard Gordon say he was going to see what Virgil was doing. So," she poked Scott hard in the chest "you found them helping Grandma out and decided to start a war."
"What?!" Scott's eyes were blown wide. "No! Kayo that's not what happened! Gordon-"
"Don't give me that. You had both of them pinned down."
"No! Well, yes, but-"
"Glad you agree. Now, you can tidy all this away."
"Now hang on a minute!"
Virgil was on his feet like a shot pulling a still snorting Gordon with him.
"We had a system going until you came in, Scott" he said. "It's in a mess now but I'm sure you can figure it out." With that all three of them left before Scott was able to get a response together. He looked around him at the utter carnage of the room and put his face in his hands wondering how it had all gone so wrong so fast.