Problem 1: Brains had not left his workshop since John had been taken to hospital.
Brains was one of those men that had periods of intense focus so 36 hours stints in the workshop weren't unusual when an idea gripped him. When that first flush of inspiration passed he would emerge to eat, badly explain his latest innovation to the nearest ear – even if that were Max - before passing out. Sometimes even in his own bed.
This was different.
Everybody had been a bit distracted, a bit restless: odd sleeping patterns exacerbating the usual chaos of so many people living so closely together, so it was easy to miss. That was just an excuse though, and one that didn't set well with Virgil. They should be better than this. They should notice this stuff. He should have noticed much sooner.
Loading up with the best weapons he had to hand Virgil made his way into the depths of the island. Their Dad had put Brain's equipment right in the centre – close to the hangers for access but far away from the bustle of the house to minimise distractions. It had a large skylight from a light well but no normal windows – at the engineer's request – so that he had maximum wall space for when he ran out of board space.
Entering the room, Virgil thought that he had never seen the walls used so much. Not just a couple of sheets, but layers faced him, taped one on tip of another. Sidling in Virgil looked at the nearest one, lifting the corner to see underneath. Circuit diagrams and structural calculations, some angrily crossed out where they obviously weren't correct.
Brians had his back to the door, manipulating a holographic simulation in the middle of the room. Up close Virgil couldn't make out what it was, but when Brains zoomed out it was clearly one of Five's power arrays. Of course.
With Brains this focused there could be no subtle hints, no dancing around the subject. You had to get straight into the conversation.
"Brains," Virgil announced himself. "You need to eat" He brandished the sandwiches, pork pie, and millionaires shortcake he had piled up from upstairs.
"I've eaten!" Brains didn't turn around, waving at a pile of protein bar wrappers in the bin.
"Doesn't count." Virgil moved round so he was directly in Brain's eyeline, then walked through the hologram. Brains frowned as his work was interrupted, and was forced to take the outflung food. "First you are going to eat this. Then you are going to get some sleep that isn't pr-opped across a desk. Then you are going to see John."
"I don't have time. I have work to do." Brains spoke around the sandwich that he had stuffed in his mouth, the speed at which he was chewing telegraphing just how much it was needed.
"What's so urgent?"
"I have to plan repairs, strengthen the internal walls, reroute the power conduits, install additional firewalls - "
"Yeah, and though that's necessary it's not urgent, is it?" Virgil said, thinking none of that was actually needed until Five was manned again. Luckily the satellite was still fully functional, with all processes diverted to the island, it just wasn't powered enough to be habitable.
"Neither is a trip to Texas. I can't do any good there, but I can here."
"You don't believe that surely? I'm sure you know how having family around is believed to be beneficial for a patient." Virgil had been reading up.
"I'm not family." Brains said gruffly.
"Like hell you are." Virgil frowned "You are just as much family as Kayo and to be honest it's starting to seem a little bit cold to me that you won't go. He had serious injuries, you know."
"Of course I know," Brains snapped, throwing the pie at the floor where it landed with a sad little splat. "I'm the one who put him there."
They looked down at the pile of fallen food between them, Brains shoulders slumping. "I tried to kill him, Virgil" the words ripped out of him.
"That wasn't you - "
"I tried to kill him and I almost succeeded. I can't go to the hospital. I just can't"
Virgil dumped the remainder of the food on a nearby surface and grabbed Brains by the shoulders, resisting the urge to shake him. Up close Brains was rumpled, eyes blood shot and red rimmed.
"That wasn't you. You aren't responsible for what happened."
"And yet I'm the one who sent the commands. I let my guard down while I was away and the Hood found his window of opportunity, the weak link."
"You are not a weak link, how could you think that?"
"Well it happened didn't it?"
"Brains, this sort of talk isn't like you. Have you had any sleep at all?"
Brains shook his head. "Not really. I keep having dreams. Nightmares. Flashbacks maybe. Of trying to take Two, trying to destroy Five. Of back in the hotel room." The man shuddered and Virgil held in a sigh: it was worse than he thought.
"Then sleep is the first order of the day."
"No" Brains shook himself free of Virgil's hold "I have work to do."
"It can wait. Honestly Brains, whatever you are thinking up I'm sure it will be great. You'll replace and upgrade the tech, patch whatever backdoors or weaknesses are there. That's going to be easy. But I need you to do the hard part first. You need to take care of yourself, or let us do it."
"Why would you want to, after what I've done?"
"Because you are family, and no matter what the Hood tried to use you to do, nothing will change that." Brains didn't look convinced. "We're here for you. I've got a couple of things that will help you sleep if you like."
Brians glanced at the sprawled mess of paperwork that littered the room. "Maybe I would think a little bit clearer after some sleep." he admitted. "I'm not up to seeing John though – "
Virgil raised a hand to stop him "Let's come back to that later when you're feeling more yourself" and Brains nodded in reluctant agreement.
One problem at a time.