Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds.
Episode tag for 1.10 "Tunnels of Time"
"I'd better go see Scott."
When he'd said that, before the disaster of a conversation with Lady Penelope that he was torn between hyper-analysing and trying to forget ever happened, it had been a simple thought, powered by one thing. Gordon knew his biggest brother, knew Scott would have been frantic with worry the entire time he was trapped, knew he wouldn't settle until he looked him over with those worried blue eyes and saw for himself that he was absolutely fine.
It was routine. Get in trouble, get out of trouble, go to Scott so big brother could calm down before he worked himself into an aneurysm. Gordon long since had that down to an art – after the hydrofoil, he'd had to. Scott had barely let him out of his sight for months afterwards.
This was not routine.
The fact that Scott hadn't immediately run over to him as soon as they were clear should have been the first clue that something was wrong, but Gordon had been – entirely understandably, in his opinion – distracted by Lady Penelope and had missed the warnings signs.
He found Scott in the tent.
Professor Harold was on the ground in front of him, and something twisted in Gordon's gut as he took everything in properly.
Scott looked furious. Was furious, in a way Gordon didn't often see. His eldest brother had a temper, and sometimes it perched on a hair trigger, but there were different types of temper, depending on the situation. Temper for dealing with idiots like Fischer and Lemaire. Temper for incompetence almost costing lives. Temper when his family was threatened.
This rage fell into the third category. He could see it in the way Scott wasn't quite still, rigid but an itch to move betraying his desire to be elsewhere – to be with whoever was threatened. That twitch was unique to this sort of anger, where Scott's mind was in two places at once. He wanted to attack, but he wanted to protect.
Virgil's absence was poignant. Usually, they'd be tag-teaming in that situation, Scott the first line of offence while Virgil backed him up as the defender of whoever they saw as being in danger. The fact that Virgil wasn't here, was presumably putting everything away and getting ready to go home, spoke volumes to Gordon.
There was no united front here. Virgil was deliberately denying Scott the back-up, his absence in this case a restraint.
And as always, it was working.
The professor was on the ground, but Gordon knew that wasn't Scott's doing. Not for a lack of temptation, and from the way the fraud was snivelling as he scrabbled his way back towards the tent entrance and away from the furious commander the archaeologist had already had a taste of what Scott could do earlier, but Scott hadn't hit him. Gordon wasn't an idiot – Thunderbird One was faster than Thunderbird Two; Scott would have arrived first, and in that situation Virgil's absence wasn't a restraint.
The relationship between his two brothers was complex. When Scott was alone, Virgil still far behind and no other little brothers in his immediate vicinity, he was free to do as he wished. That was when he was at his most volatile, with nothing to hold him back. When Virgil was around, had the option to be there but wasn't, it broadcast Virgil's opinion loud and clear.
Virgil didn't approve. For whatever reason, likely because sometimes words were futile when it came to their biggest brother, he wasn't talking Scott out of it, but he didn't approve and Gordon knew that Scott felt that.
Scott's arms were crossed, his back was military-straight, and his hands were twitching in and out of fists. Signs of restraint. There was a heavy silence in the tent.
Gordon decided to break it.
"Hey, Scott," he said. "Everything okay?"
Blue eyes snapped to him, rage instantly taking a backseat behind concern, and without a second glance at the man on the floor he strode across the tent. Hands moved but didn't touch him, not in hesitation but caution. Even Scott could be cautious when it came to his physical condition.
Gordon put him out of his misery and stretched, the motion exaggerated in its obnoxiousness and informing his brother that he was perfectly fine and intact.
It worked, and those hands landed on his shoulders for a brief moment before Gordon found himself in a crushing embrace. He returned it, a reassurance for both of them. Scott was still stiff beneath his grip.
"Next time, you're not going alone."
Gordon scoffed. "I wasn't alone." He knew Scott didn't mean it in that way, but the words needed to be said and Scott gave a small hum of acknowledgement, if not agreement. The declaration wasn't anything Scott could enforce, anyway. Big brother wished he could be there for every incident, every rescue, but there were just too many for that to be possible. He said it every time something went wrong and he wasn't around.
The tent flap rustled, and then there was a warm body behind him, one hand on his shoulder and another arm encircling around to where Scott was.
It was an instant feeling of safety.
"Only you, Gordon." Virgil's chest rumbled against his back as he spoke, and Gordon let out a laugh in response.
"Oh, I don't know," he said airily. "What with all those games Alan plays, I think he'd jump at the chance to explore a booby-trapped pyramid."
Scott's arms, muscles slowly unwinding as he reassured himself that Gordon was really alright, tensed again for a moment before his brother sighed.
"Don't even joke about that," he warned. Gordon thought about Alan dodging all those spears and winced.
"Point taken."
He resolved not to tell the two big brothers currently clinging to him about the precise details of his little adventure.
They stood in silence for several minutes, Scott's arms still tightly around him and Virgil's around both of them, and the tension from the pyramid began to seep away. He'd gone to see Scott to calm his big brother down, but it went the other way, too. Scott was safety, Virgil was safety, both of them together were the ultimate in security.
If he squeezed Scott a little tighter and buried his head a little further into his shoulder, revelling in the tight hold from both brothers as he finally started to process what had happened, well, who could blame him?
Day Five of Earth&Sky Week on tumblr, based on several prompts this time - 'sword and shield', 'guardian and fortress' and the quote "people are just for a lifetime, history is forever". I knew I wasn't going to keep Gordon out of these forever, whoops...
Thanks for reading!
Tsari