Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds.
IRRelief fic, using fictivekaleidoscope's prompt "Any aged bro – The missing Teddy Bear."
He was, rather unimaginatively, named Scott. That was all Lee Taylor, the man who after much debate and hair-pulling over what, exactly was an appropriate toy for a new born baby (a build-it-yourself rocket was vetoed by Lucille before he could even suggest it), had appeared with a bog-standard fluffy teddy bear and presented it to a two hour old Scott Tracy.
You didn't need two new names to remember, he reasoned. Scott the boy, and Scott the bear. Simple.
(It would have been more convincing if he hadn't started calling the baby 'Sam' the next time he saw him).
Why no-one ever changed the name before baby Scott was old enough to recognise that his favourite teddy shared his name, no-one ever knew. Perhaps it just never occurred to them that they didn't have to go along with Lee's idiosyncrasies, or maybe they couldn't pick a better one. Whatever the reason, his name was Scott, and Scott it stayed.
Scott the bear, eventually nicknamed Scotty-Bear after one too many occasions of a too smart toddler with an attitude ignoring his parents because "I thought you meant him!" despite knowing perfectly well that the scolding for scribbling on the wall was for him, became the heart of one brotherly tradition as the Tracy clan began to grow.
Scott the boy was four when he realised Scotty-Bear wasn't in his bed. Lucille promised that she hadn't moved him while he'd been out at kindergarden, making friends and already showing his future colours as a leader, but the fact remained that Scotty-Bear was missing.
A thorough search of the house ensued, Scott running up and down the stairs with reckless abandon during his search and about ready to scream at Jeff when he walked in through the front door. Luckily for Jeff, he didn't return home from work to an irate Scott with accusations of bear-napping after a suspicious search into his younger brother's room revealed an unlikely culprit.
Two year old John was curled up in his bed, taking a nap. Around him were various stuffed toys, as usual, but in his arms Scotty-Bear was tightly clutched. Scott was furious, waking up his younger brother with a shove that almost knocked him off the bed and wrestling him for control of the bear until Lucille stepped in to stop him.
"Why did you take Scotty-Bear?" she asked her sobbing ginger son gently, holding Scott at bay as she gathered him into his arms. "You know it's not nice to take things that aren't yours."
"Scott not here," was the hiccupped reply. "Wanted Scott."
Scott stared at his brother before walking out of the room, and that was how Scotty-Bear changed hands for the first time.
At this point, the tale of Scotty-Bear is probably already clear. With a toy passing down from the elder to the younger, it was a given that the pattern would continue for as long as there were more youngers.
Virgil's acquisition had occurred with less temper tantrums, but that was probably more to do with the milder dispositions of both boys involved, as opposed to their eldest brother and his fiery temper.
At four years old himself, John was no less willing to part with the bear than Scott had been, but Virgil was enamoured with his biggest brother, and found it highly unfair that John had a bear called Scott and he didn't.
"There can't be two Scotty-Bears," John said bluntly when Virgil declared he would get his own. "This is Scotty-Bear, and he's the only Scotty-Bear."
Scott himself, now six, was away at school and didn't hear the exchange. Jeff was largely ignorant to the events that had transpired for the original handover, barring the fact that however it had happened, Scotty-Bear now lived in John's bed, but Lucille saw the signs and gave a subtle prompt to her second son.
"You can share Scotty-Bear with Virgil, can't you, John?" she asked, gently. John thought about it, defensively holding the teddy close with a frown on his face. In front of him, Virgil employed large brown puppy dog eyes and a quivering lip.
Just as Scott before him, John caved, and thus Scotty-Bear once again changed beds.
Virgil held Scotty-Bear for the longest time yet, a larger age gap between him and the eventual next younger sibling giving him plenty of time to drag the little bear everywhere with him, and drag him around he did. Virgil and Scotty-Bear were inseparable, to the point that Scott himself began to sulk that he'd been replaced by a 'stupid stuffed toy' when Virgil had tried to give Scotty-Bear the last sweet from the packet rather than his actual brother.
Lucille had to intervene more than once when Scott's temper started to flair, convincing Virgil that Scotty-Bear would be just fine without his attention for a few minutes and "Mommy will look after him, so why don't you play with your brother for a bit?"
However, all things must come to an and, and so did Virgil's time with Scotty-Bear.
Gordon was a monster. Loud, inquisitive, and determined to follow Virgil around like a limpet as soon as he could crawl, there was nowhere for the dark haired brother to escape from his blond shadow. Attempts to palm him off onto John were met with a raised eyebrow – John had learnt that one young – and Scott was reaching the age where he was always busy with friends, and rarely in the house for any length of time.
It was an act of despair, Virgil determined to shake the nuisance once and for all, that he turned to the stuffed toy equivalent of his elder brother. Scott might be too busy to play with little Gordon, but Scotty-Bear had no such restrictions. Two years older than either of his brothers had been when they had surrendered the toy, and markedly less selfish than either to boot, it was a more mature boy who hugged Scotty-Bear goodbye and quietly snuck him onto the blond menace's bed during one of the toddler's naps.
Gordon stopped following him around immediately, the cut-off so abrupt that the thought crossed Virgil's mind that, somehow, the bear was all Gordon had wanted. Lucille was quick to comfort him as the idea upset the kind-hearted boy, assuring him that Gordon was just distracted by a new toy and would still want to play with his brother.
As always, mothers knew best. After a week of insistently playing with Scotty-Bear (to the amusement of John and Scott, who both shared amused 'join the club' looks with Virgil), Gordon decided that actually his brothers were cooler than a stuffed toy who by that point had seen better days, and started to trail behind them all again.
Still, Scotty-Bear was never relegated from Gordon's bed, and was found once or twice stuffed inside a swimming bag smelling of chlorine and in need of a wash. Lucille swore the toy had never needed so many washes in the hands of his other three brothers combined.
The fourth handover, Gordon to toddler Alan, was a far more sombre affair. Despite his penchant for sneaking the toy with him wherever he went, amid claims that Scotty-Bear was no more special than any other toy – transparent claims that no-one believed but no-one called him out on, either – when the time came, it was without any hesitation at all.
Alan was crying.
Mommy was gone, Daddy was somewhere off planet, Scott was trying to get the microwave to work with help from Virgil after John hurt his hand with water from the kettle, and Alan was crying. Gordon wasn't allowed to pick Alan up until he was bigger – Mommy had said so, and Gordon was going to be a good boy for Mommy in case that would help her come back – so he did the next best thing.
The appearance of a teddy bear seemingly from nowhere had Alan pausing mid wail, staring at the coveted, tatty bear Gordon made dance towards him. Alan knew the bear – of course he did, the stories of hand-me-downs had been recounted several times and even young as he was, he'd known that meant that one day it would be his.
He'd been scheming to steal it with Mommy just last week. Now, Gordon was holding it in front of him with a sad smile, and Alan wanted that bear. He snatched it, and Gordon let him.
Scotty-Bear was Alan's faithful companion for many years. Kids laughed at the threadbare toy when it was found in his school bag, and harder when they found out it was named after his biggest brother. Alan refused to be dissuaded – Scotty-Bear was special and if they didn't understand that then that was their problem. Known troublemaker and big brother Gordon stepped in from time to time when Alan's classmates got too raucous, and word quickly spread that it wasn't worth picking on the teddy bear.
With no younger brother to pass Scotty-Bear down to, Alan believed that Scotty-Bear would be his forever. First the death of his Mommy, and then the world-shattering loss of Dad had him clinging tightly to the toy. His brothers doing the same thing Dad had been doing when he'd disappeared terrified him, and Scotty-Bear was the keeper of his fears as he listened dutifully with fabric ears to Alan's confessions in the middle of the night when he was the only one home.
It was only once he joined their ranks that Scotty-Bear was set aside, a childhood toy not suitable for the launches into space and beyond, and the well-loved old toy ended up in the bottom of his closet, out of sight and, eventually, out of mind.
But that was not the end of Scotty-Bear's travels. For the cycle of brother-to-brother to complete, there was one more transition to make.
Scott, a young man who had owned the bear for all of four years and barely remembered that it had ever been his past stories and photos, found Scotty-Bear in Alan's closet one day in the weeks leading up to the launch of the Zero-XL. A fine layer of dust had settled over his fur, adding to the illusion of age, but Scott made no move to clean him.
Life was stressful, with the piles of responsibilities on his shoulders growing ever heavier, and the realisation that soon they would be chasing after Dad, to whatever end that might lead, just another one to add to the pile. He was a fully grown man, and had no need for childhood comforts, but Scotty-Bear looked at him with chipped beads for eyes and almost without realising it, Scott took the toy back to his own room.
John noticed, because of course he did, but it wasn't until Dad was home and safe and recalling, amongst many other things, Alan and his favourite bear, that Alan discovered Scotty-Bear's disappearance.
Before it could get too out of hand, Alan threatening to tear the villa apart for the sake of a teddy bear he hadn't looked at in years, John pointed the finger and stopped all arguments in their tracks.
"He was always Scott's. We just borrowed him."
Scott wasn't the only one dumbfounded at the admission, but it didn't take three devious younger brothers long to agree that of course the old-age teddy belonged to the old-age brother, and why didn't they see it before?
Jeff watched with delight as four sons (John declared guilty by association) found themselves thrown into a pool by an older brother trying and failing to feign offence, who himself ended up dragged in when he didn't back away from the edge fast enough. It was good to be home.
(If Scotty-Bear ended up back in Scott's bed again that night, no-one commented.)
IRRelief is an amazing idea and bless Gumnut for coming up with it! For those that don't know, it's a collection of prompts anyone can add to and use on tumblr, with a focus on fluff, to give us something to do while we're stuck indoors. Full details are on tumblr under the tags #irrelief and #irrelief2020
Thanks for reading!
Tsari