Virgil sighed heavily as he threw his bag down on the hotel room bed. His shoulder was aching fiercely and though his joke to Oracle – Jasmine he corrected himself – had been off hand, he really had crossed time zones after missing dinner. Now that he was alone, he knew he should check in with John. He was also itching to know how his brothers were doing on the rescue. But a shower called and the siren song of hot water won. After all, there was nothing he could do to help his brothers from here, and John would call if anything had gone wrong. In a way, John's silence was a blessing.

Stepping from the shower he towelled off and stopped in front of the mirror to inspect the bruising down his left shoulder. It was looking a lot better, though he knew if he twisted to see the shoulder blade there would be mottling still to be seen. Carefully he rotated it, testing the range of movement and then running through the physical therapy exercises he and Grandma had agreed on.

It just wasn't healing as fast as he wanted. He knew it would take time and had talked his brothers, (Scott in particular) out of an injury induced hissy fit more than once. But knowing it would take time and actually going through that time were two different things. The wound also pulled a lot more than he felt it should and he frowned at his own reflection before getting dressed and calling John.

"How'd the rescue go?" he said by way of greeting.

"They're just heading home now. Relatively straight forward. People stuck at the top of a lookout tower with a severe weather front moving in. Alan sorted the wiring on the sightseeing platform and Scott took all the credit" John said. Virgil could tell from his tone that they'd been winding Scott up about it for a while now. Usually, the joke was that Virgil did all the work whilst Scott stood around looking impressive, but if Virgil had been subbed out for Alan, then Scott would be taking the comments extra personally. Virgil looked forward to joining in.

"I'm glad it went well" he said sitting on the bed and shuffling backward so he could rest against the headboard.

"What about you? What's she like in person?"

"Confusing" he admitted. "Half the time it's like trying to coax a wild animal and the other I could swear she's, uh" he broke off not sure he actually wanted to finish that sentence.

"You could swear she's what?" John prompted.

"No, it's probably nothing. I couldn't exactly perform a physical exam but -"

"Virgil you're on a fact-finding mission" John broke in. "Every observation counts. You could swear she's what?"

"Flirting" he finished a little lamely.

"It's probably a defence mechanism" John dismissed it.

"Thank you, John" Virgil frowned. "I take it she flirts with you on your calls too then?"

John paused.

"Not that I'd noticed."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't."

"Thank you, Virgil" John echoed Virgil's tone from a moment ago.

"Seriously John, you know you don't notice these kinds of things."

"Of course, I do" John said a little defensively. He then turned and appeared to be manipulating one of his off-camera screens."

"Uh-huh. Do you remember Brian Chmenik?"

"Che-my-nik" John corrected automatically.

"He gave you his number so you could call him and get help with your math homework."

"Yeah." John was still pretending to be involved in whatever was just off screen.

"You were top of the class John, you didn't need help."

"I know. I never did understand Brain. He stopped talking to me a short time later."

Virgil shook his head, a fond smile on his lips. How many people had passed John by just because he simply wasn't wired quite like everyone else? Virgil had often wondered what sort of person it would take to properly turn John's head. Presumably someone who could keep up with quantum theory and had a fondness for zero gravity.

"He was trying to get your attention John."

"He talked to me in class, he had my attention then."

"No" Virgil mentally facepalmed. "He wanted you to call so he could ask you out."

"What?! But I don't… I'm not… No that's not it." But John suddenly turned inward. "Oh" he said finally.

"Ten plus years and he finally gets the hint" Virgil teased.

"But at school I wasn't interested in anyone. I just never got it. You know that."

"Yeah, I do but a lot of people thought you were into guys because you weren't into the girls. Relax John" he said to try and ease the brief look of panic that had crossed John's pale features. "Brain trying to get you to call him in a compliment. It doesn't matter if you're into guys or not. If someone is trying to tell you they like you it's always a compliment. You're not required to feel anything in return."

"It's probably a bit too late to explain that one to him huh?" John said wryly.

"I would think. He's well over it by now in any case, no one carries on over a school crush for this long, particularly if it didn't go anywhere."

"It's a good job flirting isn't part of my remit" John sighed. "We'd never get any call outs."

"If flirting was part of dispatch we'd send Gordon up. Or Scott for that matter."

John laughed.

"Yeah, he is the worst!"

"Anything in a skirt if he's in full First Born Tracy mode" Virgil agreed. "Not that he'd ever admit to such a thing."

"Heavens forfend" John agreed. "Though it was very easy setting up the playboy cover story for him. Easier than Gordon, and that's saying a lot." John tapered off looking thoughtful. "Maybe up here is the best place for me. It's a lot easier to talk to people when they're thousands of miles away."

"John, you have pale-and-interesting working for you. The problem is that at all the stupid events we used to get dragged to, all the girls who like that seem to have an IQ of about 10. You need someone who can keep up with that space brain of yours."

"I don't think so" John said in a rare moment of personal honestly about his love life. "I scare people off."

"One time" Virgil said kindly. "We all have ex-girlfriends we'd rather forget. Really though" he said deliberately lightening his tone and changing the topic. Getting to John to open up in that way at all was a rarity, and Virgil was grateful for this brief moment, but he also knew it would only go so far before John got too uncomfortable and hung up and Virgil still needed to talk to him about today. "You were listening in on us, weren't you? You didn't notice anything, uh, of anything?"

"I was coordinating the rescue at the same time" John said dryly. "Once I realised you'd decided to take her on a date I thought you could probably handle it on your own."

"It wasn't a date!" Virgil exclaimed before noticing John was laughing at him. "Oh, very funny."

"I don't know. It seemed like a date, you took her out, got her number and arranged to see her again."

"John" Virgil warned, exasperated at just how quickly John had turned Virgil's olive branch back on him.

"Sorry" he said but his expression said the exact opposite. "Did you learn anything?"

Virgil ran a tired hand through his damp hair.

"She's much the same as before. Signs of malnutrition, though less dehydrated. No obvious bruising. Though I suspect that will change this evening."

"How so?"

"Remember the messages from her new boss?"

"Yes."

"I think they were arrangements for fights. She seemed to indicate as much. The most recent message was for tonight."

"Are you sure? She said she was working tomorrow, not tonight."

"I'm sure."

"Okay, well then we'll have to see what tomorrow brings." John paused and regarded his brother. "You're not thinking of going, are you?"

"No. I'm beat John. Besides, I need to earn her trust here. I don't think she'll see me showing up this evening as anything other than us stalking her."

"Probably true." Virgil did look tired, John thought and with a shake he reminded himself that Virgil was still healing. He was also dealing with the stress of the threat that'd been made to him and now John himself had thrown him in front of Oracle with little more than the feeling she was telling the truth. "It's 5am island time Virgil. Get some sleep and go again tomorrow."

"Yeah" Virgil yawned. "Hey John? Do you think Scott will tell dad?"

"Not tonight" John said. "They're more tired than you are. Thunderbird One just touched down and the only comprehensible word I got from Scott was 'shower'."

"Good" Virgil nodded. "I just need a little time here."

"I know, I'll do what I can to make sure you get it. Get some sleep Virgil."

"You too John. Really" he said when John didn't acknowledge. "You've been up as long as we have. We might have some long days ahead." Virgil couldn't explain why but he had a funny feeling that he couldn't put down to being out of sync with the daylight outside. Meeting Orac- Jasmine - and seeing that Salvatore was auditioning her – as she'd said – made everything all the more real.

"I will" John finally promised. "Goodnight Virgil."

"Goodnight."