Brains wasn't a hard man to find. If he wasn't in his room, or the hangers he would be in his labs. Gordon leant in the doorway, taking in the scene for a moment, assessing the situation. Never leap before you look, that was his motto. Not that he followed that motto, but anyway.

Brains was sketching on a large piece of paper taped down to an even larger drafting table. He was working furiously, pencil in hand and pen behind his ear, in broad strokes. He paused in his frantic movements to make a few annotations. "What do you want, Gordon?"

"Scott is on, he's going to give us an update. John's out of surgery."

"That's really good news." Brains said, but continued on drawing.

Gordon frowned in annoyance "Yeah, it is. You coming up to hear the details?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Seriously Brains? You have something better do to?" He crossed his arms.

"I have work to do." Brains said absently, turning the page round to view from a different angle.

"Work?" Gordon stormed fully into the room, and slammed his hand on the page, almost incoherent with a sudden rage that anyone would be doing anything apart from anxiously waiting for news right now. "John is in hospital. Did you see the look on Alan's face when he got back? This is serious, really serious, and we all need to be together for this."

Brains tried to move Gordon's hand, not doubt to continue whatever doodling he was doing.

"Do you not care?" Gordon hissed.

"Of course I care."

"Well it doesn't look like it."

"Maybe you should go Gordon, they'll be waiting."

Gordon did, turning on his heal before he said something he would later regret. He got out a lot of aggression stomping up the stairs and tried not to let his foul mood bleed over as he joined the others on the couch, circled around where Scott appeared, translucent as a ghost. Bad phrasing Gordon he thought to himself.

"Where's Brains?" Virgil asked.

"Not coming" Gordon replied curtly.

Virgil raised a curious eyebrow but Gordon shook his head – he'd tell him later. Maybe.

They'd all spent the last six or so hours distracting themselves in their own way. Gordon was still damp from swimming laps. Grandma had been stress baking and they would all pay for it later. Kayo had been working out, and whoever crossed her next would be the one paying for it. Virgil was meant to be resting and had been all but banned from the hanger so had taken apart and reassembled the toaster three times. Alan had been pulled from his room where he was doing homework of all things.

"Spit it out Scott." And for a wonder Scott didn't dress Gordon down for his tone, and did indeed spit it out.

"He's out of surgery and stable." A collectively held breath was released in the room, though the tension remained. "They only gave me an overview of his injuries like I was some sort of civilian, so I had to get most of it out of the med-displays."

Although far from medical professionals they all had much more than basic first aid training and would easily be able to interpret a read out if it was already provided.

"Three broken ribs and a hairline fracture to the shoulder blade. Second degree burns to both arms and some to the chest. Shrapnel... shrapnel pierced his liver but was successfully removed, as were some other pieces that didn't do as much damage. He's got a lot of bruising internal and external. He's had four ….. four...pints of blood." With each sentence Scott's voice wavered more and he visibly had to force himself to go on. "He's had a serious blow... or blows... to the head... they don't know when he is going to wake up."

"But, he'll be alright, won't he Scott?" Alan asked, hopeful. "He's in a hospital. He just needs some time."

Gordon tried not to lock eyes with anyone and swallowed suddenly rising bile at the list of John's injuries ranging from serious to critical. His fists clenched in the fabric of his shorts.

Scott glanced off to one side briefly, to where John probably lay. "He's breathing on his own. Blood pressure has come up. Heart rate is steady."

"Then he'll be fine. Just you wait. Just you see." Alan was bolstered by this but the other's faces – the ones with a little more experience - were grim.

Rather than address that, Virgil asked "What's the situation on visitors?"

"Not too many at a time. And we still have an operation to run."

"You are not serious Scott?" Kayo was aghast. "No way does anyone heave their head in the game enough to be safe out there. And if you were thinking straight you would realise it."

Scott nodded absently, again glancing to one side. "Sure, that's fine. Tell the GDF they are on their own for a bit."

"We'll take it in turns" Virgil decided. "To make sure we don't overwhelm him."

"Good plan. I'll leave it to you. I'll see you soon." And Scott signed off with an abruptness that didn't go unnoticed.

"Rude." muttered Gordon but Alan was looking thoughtful.

"You know," the youngest said "I think he just came off a flight before he went to pick Brains up – I think he's been up over twenty four hours at this point."

"Ok, I'll give him a pass but only for now." Gordon stood and stretched. "Who's going to visit first?"

I've had to slow down a little with my updates while I work out where this is going. Well, I do know where it's going but have to decide how and where to end it.