Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds.

Characters: Lemaire, Madeline. Rating: K. Warnings: None

Drabble challenge from janetm74: "You're breaking my heart, babe.", "I don't know why I married you.", "The door's locked." and "Take notes, sweetheart."

"The door's locked!" It was declared with all the indignation of someone who had just closed an automatically-locking door behind him and was surprised when it wouldn't open again.

"It's one way." The response was slightly sarcastic, accompanied by the rolling of eyes. "To get out, we go this way, Francois."

"Oh, of course. I knew that." Francois Lemaire straightened his back with a huff. "Terribly designed, this place. I mean, honestly, they didn't even give us a map!"

"There are arrows on the floor." His wife rolled her eyes again, arms crossed and fifteen-thousand-Euro designer handbag dangling from her fingertips.

"Ah! When did those get there?"

Before we did, Madeline thought, but kept that particular thought to herself. Her darling husband could be such a child at times, and this occasion was no different. Some might think it wouldn't matter if she said it out loud - after all, Francois never seemed to listen to her - but she knew better.

He did listen to her. It was sometimes a battle to get the words out in time before his impulsiveness kicked in and landed them in some sort of trouble, but if she managed to finish a sentence, he did listen.

Honestly, as though she'd marry a man who didn't pay her any attention.

That being said, when it came to his hare-brained schemes, even her voice of reason wasn't enough to stop him.

"Ah hah!" He was fiddling with something on the wall. Madeline wasn't entirely sure what it was, but no doubt it wasn't what he was hoping it was. "Take notes, sweetheart. I'm about to re-route the power to illuminate the magnificent display ahead! Millions of people have walked through these caverns, but I, Francois Lemaire, will be the first to locate the evidence that they were dug out by giants!"

That was only going to end badly. "Francois-"

The lights went out entirely, leaving them in pitch black.

"Oh, well that wasn't supposed to happen," her wayward husband muttered. She rolled her eyes again. It was a common action around Francois. "Who designed it like that?"

"The engineers who didn't want anyone tampering with it," she replied, pulling a torch out of her handbag and turning it on.

"Well that was silly of them," he huffed, before snatching the torch from her and immediately pointing it at the ceiling. "Look! See those deep crevasses - made by the chisels of giants!"

Somehow she doubted it, but she let him have his moment.

"Madeline, roll the camera!"

Her true passion: photography and writing. There was a reason she was her husband's biographer, and not just because no-one else dared follow him into his adventures; in fact, it was how they'd met.

The device was extracted from her handbag and she pointed it at her husband, who beamed loudly before beginning his spiel-to-camera. The actual words she tuned out for the moment, knowing that the recording device would pick it up perfectly for her to listen to later, so she focused on making sure the images were perfect. Those, she couldn't re-record once they'd left.

And it looked like the words might need to be re-recorded, because a loud banging interrupted them as the door behind them was pounded upon. Her husband's tampering had not gone unnoticed, and she prepared herself for the blustering confrontation once they made it through the door.

This was the less fun part of their adventures - the trouble - and it was times like these that the words I don't know why I married you, sometimes slipped off her tongue. Not today, but then today they were simply in a well-constructed and well maintained cave. There was no real danger here, and some autographs and perhaps a slip of money would pacify the irate warden.

It wouldn't be the first time.

Sure enough, a quick conversation, an interjection of a bribe when Francois got too blustery and the warden looked to be getting too angry, and they were being shepherded back out of the cave and into the hustle and bustle of humanity.

"Honestly, the nerve of some people," Francois huffed as he strode towards their car - self-driving and large enough to fit a small plane, of course. "There I am, trying to open their eyes to the wonder of their site and they kick us out! Some people really are cultureless."

"It could have been worse," she commented dryly. "There could have been ducks."

He shuddered. "You're breaking my heart, babe. We don't mention the, urgh, ducks."

"Of course," she agreed pleasantly, knowing that the next time they ended up anywhere remotely muddy or inconvenient, he'd be the one mentioning them again.

Her husband was an idiot, but she wouldn't have him any other way.

A shippy prompt! But with no specified ship it meant I could go play in a sandbox I've had my eye on for a little while - the Lemaires' relationship fascinates me and I'm delighted I got an excuse to poke at them!

Thanks for reading!
Tsari