"John?" Virgil frantically called for his brother. "John, what going on?" For a moment the only sound was of the driverless taxi as it pootled round a part of London Virgil didn't recognise.

Pootled was definitely the right word for it, but, being driverless, there was no way to get it to speed up. Right now the safety conscious vehicle grated on Virgil's nerves.

"I" John swallowed. "I don't know. She's cut the line; I can't get it back. Okay" John reined himself in falling back into Thunderbird Five as easily as he fell out of bed. Virgil hated him for it for a moment. "This is what she does. We have to remember that. Hell, she reminded me of that a little earlier. She's got this."

"I'm still ten minutes away" Virgil huffed. "How did we get to this John? Letting people literally fight our battles for us in the name of protecting International Rescue?"

"Easy Virgil" John intentionally parroted his younger brother. Oddly, now that something had happened, John felt calmer. There was a situation now and he was good at managing situations. "Like you said, we have to be who she needs us to be right now."

"I know." Outside the taxi, London became distinctly rougher. More and more boarded up shop fronts could be seen, all of which were covered in graffiti. The streetlighting was sporadically broken and cracks could be seen in the paved flagstones.

"The taxi will only take you so far. It can't enter the gentrification zone as it's officially off limits to the public. I've sent directions to your comm."

"FAB." The response was automatic, as was the way he flicked through and memorised the directions. "What's the plan for when I get there?"

He wouldn't be able to get in to the club, they both knew that. But John would have thought of a contingency and right now Virgil needed a reminder of his calm-in-the-face-of-everything brother's abilities.

"Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait for her to come out. We know she doesn't like to hang around after the fights but she might have to this time. You'll need somewhere to hide, Virgil, so scope it out. If she leaves with Salvatore or worse Steven, you can't be seen."

Virgil ran a hand through his hair. It was possible he'd high-tailed it from France just to watch as an injured Jasmine was dragged off by Steven. He closed his eyes and got a hold of himself. He wasn't usually fatalistic.

The taxi chimed as it came to a stop and Virgil exited heading straight for the maze of streets like he was meant to be there. It only took him a few minutes before the old shops became warehouses became dilapidated warehouses. Everywhere in London that he'd been so far was been beautiful but this? This was ugly. It reeked of neglect so much that the air itself seemed stale.

As instructed, once he'd found the warehouse containing Jasmine and whatever was happening to her, Virgil checked out the area. There were plenty of places he could hide if needed. The question was rather whether he could do it. Could he really hide away if she needed help?

Of course he couldn't. He knew that. John knew that. Yet John was asking him to anyway.

The warehouse in question had its own pot holed carpark out front and several small alleys leading away from it. Other, older building hunkered down on every side of the building in question creating a closed in feeling despite being outdoors. Very few of the street lights worked here, those that did cast sallow yellow light onto the glistening pavement. Methodically Virgil checked the area, using the same procedure as he would for search and rescue. He quickly realised that two of the alleys looped round and could get him back out to the road he'd left the taxi on and so he ducked into the darkest of these and settled into wait.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long.

The warehouse's single door on this side swung open, propelled by the arm of an overly muscled bouncer and Jasmine strode out as though she hadn't a care in the world.

Virgil let out a relieved breath and steadied himself against the brick wall at his back. He hadn't realised how tightly wound he'd become. He sent a quick signal to John that she had left and seemed okay and that he was moving to intercept.

When Virgil looked up from his watch she'd gone. Quickly he stepped from the shadows head swivelling to try and find a trace of her.

There!

She'd bent down by one of the cars and was using the wingmirror to check her reflection. She pushed back her hair and swiped a hand across her cheek before rubbing it against her jeans and repeating the motion again. She almost looks like she's checking her makeup Virgil thought incredulously.

As she went to straighten up it became clear that something was wrong. He right leg bucked and she caught herself on the car to prevent herself from falling. Virgil crossed the carpark in quick strides and knelt down in front of her. She was supporting her weight on a bent left leg, her left arm splayed across the car bonnet to prevent her going all the way to the ground. Her right hand was probing her ribs.

"Jasmine, are you alright?"

Her head shot up and her eyes widened to saucers at the sight of him.

"What are you doing here? You can't be here. You need to go. Now!" She cast a glance over her shoulder but the warehouse door stayed firmly closed.

"You need help, Jasmine. I'm going to get you out of here." He'd slipped into Thunderbird voice. He knew he had by the way Jasmine regarded him for a moment then held out her right hand for his to grasp.

"Wait" he said. "Why did your leg give out? We need to know if it's safe for you to be walking on it."

"What's not safe is for us to be found together out here, right now. I just threw an epic diva fit to get out of spending the rest of the night in there with Salvatore. Do you know what that means? It means" she carried on not waiting for him to answer "that it won't be long before Steven comes sniffing. He might be checking on his fighter - if we're lucky because I highly doubt he cares – and that might hold him up for a bit. But I doubt it. We need to go."

"Jasmine, I need to know where you're injured" he said noting that this was as close as he'd ever seen her to babbling. His quick examination showed her to be breathing rapidly, her hand still held in his was cool to the touch and when she squeezed it, it had hardly any strength to it. In short, she was in danger of going into shock but didn't seem to realise it. "Where did you get hit?" He cupped her cheek with his free hand, angling her head so he could use the pathetic street lighting to check her pupil reactions. She made a face and pulled away but not before he'd caught the sluggish reaction time.

"Mostly here" she said indicating her right flank. "I don't know why my leg buckled. Well…" she tailed off looking unhappy.

"What about your head?" Virgil prompted when it became clear she wasn't going to say anything more.

"No."

"Are you sure, you have a bruise developing here" he said as his fingers delicately probed her cheek. He satisfied himself that it wasn't causing her any pain before he remembered and mentally kicked himself.

"No, I rolled most of that one. It might go a funny colour but it's not a problem. This is." She guided his hand to her side and made his fingers follow along her lower ribs. "Cracked" she said stopping at certain points. "Here and here and maybe here. No movement though, so not broken. Come on, help me up."

"How do you know?" through the think material of her shirt he couldn't feel any difference in the areas she had indicated.

"Tell you later, let's go!" She began pushing herself up and Virgil hurried to assist. Once standing she seemed eerily fine. She dusted of her trousers but as soon as she tried to put weight on her right leg it collapsed on her again. "What the hell?" Using Virgil for balance with her left arm her right hand began to dig her fingers into her hip and down her leg. "Seriously, not now" she muttered under her breath.

"Hey, hey" he pulled her hand away. "Easy, you don't want to make it worse. Let get you to a hospital and-"

"Don't start" she said wearily. "I'm not having that discussion again."

"Jasmine, you're going into shock, you have cracked ribs at the very least and you can't walk. I'm taking you to get some proper help." It was the voice he used on his brothers when they insisted nothing was wrong after a rescue. It was the final voice, the final tone. The one that said his brothers had pushed it too far and they needed to let him help them. It always worked. So naturally Jasmine planted a hand on his chest and attempted to push him away.

"There's nothing wrong with my leg" she said looking annoyed when she couldn't get him to budge.

"Nothing?" he said disbelieving. Instead of shrugging her weak attempt off he took her arm and put it around his own waist then circled her shoulders with one of his. She had no choice but to move with him, using him as a crutch for her injured leg.

"Yes, nothing. If you take me to a hospital they'll tell you the same thing. Then they'll get all excited about my condition and I'll end up as some other doctor's pin cushion as they try to work out why, every now and then, my nervous system shuts itself down. I know why. It's because I'm knackerd and some guy hit me in the side with a bat. I just need about 12 hours sleep and it'll be fine."

"I doubt that somehow." They'd crossed the car park and made it to one of the smaller roads which would lead back to the taxi. It was slow going. No matter what Jasmine said, her body knew it was hurt and it was protesting the movement. Virgil contemplated carrying her but there was the very real possibility that she'd take that badly.

"I don't need you to believe me" she said irritably. She shook her head suddenly and gripped on to him tighter. He waited for the dizziness to pass before getting them moving again. "Yes, my ribs are slightly cracked but, as you well know Mr Medic, no one ever died from a cracked rib."

Virgil could feel his patience start to wear thin.

"It's not like it matters anyway" she said. "I can't feel it, it won't stop me from doing the job."

"Oh for…" Virgil stopped himself. "The job isn't important right now. Right now, I need to get you somewhere safe and preferably some proper medical care."

"How about this?" she managed after a moment. "12 hours. If I'm not right by then we can go to a hospital."

"Yeah, sure because you wouldn't try and ditch me before the 12 hours are up or try to convince me nothing was wrong when you woke up because you feel fine."

"I won't. I promise." Something in her tone made him look at her sharply. He could swear he'd upset her. "I've never lied to you Virgil. I don't plan on starting now."

"She had to have gone this way!" A female voice cut through the air and both Virgil and Jasmine whipped their heard round to the way they'd come.

"It doesn't matter sis" came the broad south London accent that Virgil recognised from earlier.

"She nearly killed you, how can you say it doesn't matter?" came the incredulous screech it was shortly followed by the sounds of retching. "For god's sake, pull yourself together."

"My head really hurts sis. I need a hospital."

Virgil turned to Jasmine.

"What did you do?" he asked quietly.

"Hit him with a bat" she said. "It seemed fair, he hit me first" she added defensively.

"In the head?" Virgil's stomach recoiled at the idea and it must have shown on his face because she once again tried to pull away from him.

"Not a lot else was going to keep him down, have you seen the size of him? Besides, I do know how to do my job without killing people. He'll be sore for a while but that's all."

Virgil turned back and made Jasmine move again. "We need to go." She huffed a laugh then tried her best to speed up.

"How come when it's your idea it's suddenly a good one?"

Virgil didn't dignify that with a response. Internally he was in turmoil. It was quite different knowing that she fought and seeing the results of it. A part of him had clearly thought that she wasn't all that dangerous. Maybe it was because she was so clearly undernourished, maybe it was because she was so disarming to talk to. Either way, he hadn't believed it – until now. Suddenly he was faced with someone who thought nothing of taking a bat to another person. But he'd known, damnit he'd known that this was who she was. She'd never hidden it. In that way she'd been more honest with him than he'd ever been with her.

"You take that one, I'll take this" the woman's voice said bring Virgil back to the present. The voice was far closer than Virgil was happy with. "They both lead back to the main road, so she had to have gone one of these two ways if she wanted to get back into the city."

"Alright" came the tired voice. Suddenly boots could be heard echoing off the close walls behind them. Boots that were moving far faster than Jasmine was able to.

"Stop" Jasmine said pulling him to a halt. "You keep going, I'll deal with this."

"What? You have got to be kidding!" But he saw the determination on her face. One legged or not she had already turned back towards the approaching woman and using one hand one the wall was getting herself stabilised. Virgil's thoughts from a moment ago resurfaced. Jasmine fully expected to have to look after herself because, the way she was raised, no one was going to do it for her.

"I don't mean this nastily but violence really isn't your thing. You stay here, you'll get hurt." She said over her shoulder to him.

Virgil had had enough. Couldn't she see that what she was doing was beyond foolish? She couldn't stand for God's sake never mind walk, never mind fight! He spun her back around and with one hand pushed her into the wall.

"You need to get some perspective here. You aren't invincible just because you can't feel that you're hurt."

Anger clouded her features.

"Get off me!" she slapped his hand away but he replaced it with the other.

"NO! You're not a one-woman army and you don't have to do this by yourself!"

"I'm always by myself" she countered trying once again to dislodge him.

"No, not any more you aren't."

"What? Because you fly in from where-the-hell-ever and think you can look after me. I don't need looking after!"

Her eyes burned up into his and she shifted as though to aim a kick at his shin, but she still favoured her right leg and it still didn't respond. He pushed himself into her personal space.

"Oh really? You want to strike out at me? The one person who is trying to help you?"

"Oi! The shout came from their pursuer and Virgil didn't think. Jasmine's eyes burned up into his and he returned the look, refusing to back down. He'd wonder later what exactly had made him do it but, instead of confronting the unknown woman, instead of picking Jasmine up and carrying her out of there, he kissed her.

For a split-second Jasmine stiffened and flattened herself into the wall. But then she kissed him back and all he could think of was her, the feel of her pressed so tightly against him, the taste of her as their kiss grew. Suddenly her legs were round his waist, his arm underneath her for support as he pressed against her. One of her hands tangled in his hair causing little spikes of electricity to run down his spine.

There was a splash and the sound of boots running again. Virgil got some of his wits about him. Unwilling to let go of the kiss he angled his body so that it hid Jasmine and freed an arm to give the woman the two fingered gesture he'd learnt about only a few days before as the boots skidded to a halt.

"Shit, sorry mate" the voice said before the boots moved on. Virgil waited until he couldn't hear them any more then finally broke away, breathing hard. Jasmine's eyes were wide as she too tried to catch her breath.

Gently her lowered her back to the floor, careful not to let go all together.

"Are you alright" he asked.

"Yes" she squeaked. "Yes, I'm fine. I'm good. I um…"

Virgil's own heart was still pounding in his ears and he took a few deep breaths to try and calm it.

"Good, that's good. Alright, let's get out of here."