Jeff was on his seventh cup of coffee in the space of three hours. Despite having told everyone to rest and get some sleep tonight, he was up and reflecting on the last forty-eight hours. Only two days ago, he had grounded Alan for starting up Thunderbird 1. It felt so insignificant now. Clearly Alan knew how to pilot the ships, as demonstrated by his good show in TB4 earlier that day. Jeff knew that Alan had been secretly getting lessons behind his back by his brothers. Scott of all of them was the first to sneak Alan into TB1 at the age of twelve to drill into him the basics. It grew from there until Alan became quite well versed with the controls of all but TB5. John's bird. The one currently scattered in Earth's orbit in a shower of debris. Useless, useless, debris.
Jeff sighed and looked at the time.
13:46am
This was going to be a long night. He hoped that John would be much better in the morning, but Virgil warned that with the adrenaline starting to wear off, John could easily feel ten times worse in the morning. John certainly wasn't going to be very much help in this mission. Jeff would be lying if he said he wasn't happy about that. It would be good for John to stay on medical leave for Alan's sake when he finally woke up. If he woke up.
'Damn it, Jeff, stop thinking like that!'
John would be the first face that Alan sees waking up, thankfully, because he seemed to he the only one Alan currently trusted. How did he miss his youngest son stuggling so much?
His thoughts were interrupted by someone entering his office.
"Virgil, sit." Jeff said as he saw his third born walk in. His middle child. The one who should famously have more issues than any other child, yet turned out to have less than everyone put together.
"I couldn't sleep, but you already knew that." Virgil said. Jeff nodded, knowing Virgil would have been checking in on Alan and John every so often.
"How are they?" Jeff asked.
"Oh John's feeling it now." Virgil smirked. "Had to hook up an IV with a constant flow of painkillers."
"Can't say we didn't see that one coming." Jeff chuckled.
"Yeah, could have been a lot worse." Virgil replied, sobering them both instantly.
"Alan still the same?" Jeff asked, already knowing the answer.
"No better, no worse. It's still early stages yet, we have no idea how bad the Hood's powers have affected him. Brains wants to do a scan in the morning if he hasn't changed, see what's going on in Alan's head." Virgil said. "Did you know you can identify depression in a persons brain scan?"
"No... I didn't actually. Really?" Jeff asked, genuinely intruged.
"We'll find out by lunchtime how bad it is for him." Virgil said.
"How are you holding up?" Jeff asked.
"Heck, Alan and John are out for the count, Scott's just a mess right now, and Gordon's missing. I have to hold up the fort. I'm fine dad, I'm tired, but I'm fine." Virgil replied, smiling, though it didn't reach his eyes.
They sat in silence for a little while longer before they heard a soft knock on the door. Without waiting for permission to enter, Scott appeared around the door, eyes red as if he had been crying. Jeff gestured towards the sofa, to sit next to Virgil, and Scott accepted.
"I couldn't sleep." Scott simply said.
"Same here bro." Virgil replied, sympathetically. He knew Scott was punishing himself quite severely in the last few hours, Virgil took pity on him and pulled him into a long hug, one which saw Scott break down all over again.
"I failed Allie so badly, Virge. I drove him to this point and he could just never wake up again!" Scott said. "I'm supposed to be the one he looks up to!"
"Scotty, hush, we all messed up, it's not all on you." Virgil said.
"I'm the eldest, it is all on me." He argued back.
"What does that make me?" Jeff asked, leaning back in his chair.
"Dad, you did well to raise us all-" Virgil began.
"All of us except Alan. John saw it all along and he wasn't even here. Alan's a troubled kid and made stupid decisions because he wanted the same recognition as the rest of us." Scott said.
"It started when International Rescue began." Jeff said.
"This isn't the Thunderbirds faults, just ours for not keeping work and life at arms length from each other." Scott said. He pulled away from Virgil's embrace at last, wiping them remaining tears off his face.
"Then you know what we have to do?" Virgil asked. The other two men turned their attention to him. "Alan wakes up and we persuade him gently to lay out his problems for us- he's past the time of hiding it all now. The sooner we smooth things out with him, even just a little, then the sooner we can work as a team again and find Gordon."
"Is it really going to be that easy? Allie might have been hiding this for years." Scott pointed out.
"We'll never know if we don't ask." Virgil said.
"Then it's settled." Jeff announced. A moment of silence passed, minus the slight vibration sounding through the office.
"What is that?" Virgil asked, watching the mug of coffee shake and ripple.
"No way- It's 1! Someone's taking 1!" Scott shouted as he ran to the balcony.
"Who? John's unable to get out of bed and Fermat would never... wait... it can't be..." Virgil faltered.
"Tracy Island to Thunderbird 1, come in immediately." Jeff said, attempting to contact the craft that had just turned into horizontal flight and flown away.
"No one's answering." Scott said, running out the door. The other two followed, Jeff hitting an alarm to force everyone into the living room so he could headcount them. He was positive that Alan was missing though. They ran first to the infirmary where they saw John struggling to unlock a set of handcuffs that bound his only good arm to the railing of the bed.
"Little squirt cuffed me to the bed! I tried to call for help but I couldn't!" John said as soon as they ran in. Alan's bed was empty.
"It's alright son, it's alright. Stay here, rest." Jeff said, pulling the other two out as soon as Scott managed to take the handcuffs off John. They headed to the living room where the staff were waiting, sleep in their eyes and curious about what was happening. All except a panicked looking Onaha.
"Tin-Tin's missing!" She exclaimed. "She wasn't in her bed when the alarm sounded."
"She and Alan must be together." Virgil said.
"W-what happened?" Brains asked.
"Alan and Tin-Tin took Thunderbird 1." Jeff said, unsure how else to break it.
"H-how? W-why? Alan was j-just asleep with n-no chances of waking anytime s-soon." Brains said.
"We'll ask John, for now we need to establish connection with 1." Jeff said. "Kyrano, Onaha, try to contact them, they might pick up for you."
"Okay Mr Tracy." Kyrano said, taking lead of a desk in the living room that had been swapped for a console.
"Tracy Island to Thunderbird 1, Tin-Tin please answer." Kyrano said, his voice calm but inside he was shaking.
There was still silence.
"You don't think Alan is refusing to let her pick up calls?" Scott frowned.
"We don't know what's going on in there and we won't be speculating. The good thing is that Alan isn't alone and Tin-Tin is pretty level headed." Jeff said.
"Th-they went to find Gordon." Fermat said. All eyes turned to him.
"Alan did say he knew where they were taking him." Virgil said.
"The tracking device Alan said that Gordon would have placed on their submarine." Jeff said.
"Lady Penelope has been tracking it though." Virgil said.
"Then let's ask her, shall we?" Scott said, moving over to the desk and taking over from Kyrano. "Tracy Island to Lady Penelope, come in."
No answer.
"What the hell, it's very unusual she wouldn't answer." Scott said, turning to Jeff.
"Virgil, Scott, Thunderbird 2, go to the Creighton-Ward residence, find out what's happening over there." Jeff ordered.
"FAB!" They answered, then left quickly.
"What c-can I do Mr Tracy?" Fermat asked.
"Follow me, let's go see John." Jeff said. Fermat nodded and followed.
He could he have been so stupid! Where did Alan even procure a pair of handcuffs in the first place? John was kicking himself for being injured, sure it wasn't really his fault, but he couldn't help his family when they needed him badly.
"Hey Dad, Fermat." He greeted when they walked in.
"John, what happened prior to Alan taking off?" Jeff asked. Fermat took a set next to John's bed.
"He was just sleeping peacrfully and then he seemed to be having a nightmare so I tried waking him up from it, which is extremely difficult when you can't move very far. Eventually I did though, and he was rambling about knowing where Gordon was and about some vision he had in his state of unconciousness." John said.
"Vision? Caused by the Hood?" Jeff asked.
"He kept going on about knowing how to stop the Hood, and needing Tin-Tin. She's gone too isn't she?" John asked.
"Yeah." Fermat whispered.
"John, in your opinion, is Alan in immediate danger?" Jeff asked bluntly.
"In terms of his mental health you mean? He's too focussed on Gordon to worry about that. He took his medication before he left but he was fine anyway, only worried sick about Gordon."John said. "I told him that he had to stay and rest, and I threatened to call someone in to stop him but then... well you know what happened."
"I see." Jeff replied.
"In my opinion, you should let Alan go. Kid's smarter than all of us. He knows what he's doing and believe it or not, he definitely knows what lines not to cross." John said, giving his father a meaningful look.
"Scott and Virgil are on route to Lady Penelope's mansion, she's not picking up her calls." Jeff explained as John noticed TB2 leaving the island.
"Lady P? Alan mentioned her too, said she needed him there." John said, frowning.
Jeff immediately tapped into his watch. "Tracy island to Thunderbird 2, the kids are on their way to Lady Penelope's mansion too. Keep an eye out."
"FAB, ETA four minutes." Virgil announced.
"Did Alan see th-the present or th-the future?" Fermat asked.
"I couldn't tell, but is it important?" John asked.
"It c-could be, if it's the future th-then Alan might n-not even go to Lady P-Penelope's house in the first place." Fermat said.
The line was still open so Scott answered. "Either way we're going in to find out why she isn't answering. Finding Alan and Tin-Tin there will only be an added bonus but if you think the kids aren't a priority right now...?"
"Negative, the kids will be fine for now. Just focus on your mission." Jeff said, exchanging a meaningful glance at John.
"FAB." The two boys on 2 replied.
"Dad, I want in on this mission." John said. "It involves family, our two youngest brothers."
"What can you do? You're bedridden." Jeff replied bluntly.
"Help me set up a mobile control right here then. Let me be the central point of communications again. Let me do my job now more than ever." John insisted.
A few seconds passed and Jeff could see no reason why John couldn't help in that aspect. He turned to his watch, seeking Virgil's opinion.
"Let him do it dad, he won't be going anywhere and while I hate to admit it, we rely on John and 5 too much for both to be out of action for very long." Virgil said. John grinned and nodded to Fermat, who jumped up and ran out of the room to seek his father and begin setting up a makeshift mobile control right in the infirmary.
Jeff could only wait until the boys arrived at the estate and called in.