This is Robert's last POV chapter, as this story won't be about him.

Also this is technically Chapter One. That first bit was just a little evil foreshadowing :D

Thousands of miles above Earth, cloaked and invisible, was the space station named Thunderbird Five. It's sole occupant, Robert Tracy, emerged into the darkened main console room. He sipped his coffee, his thick black hair still damp from the shower. He was looking immaculate in his bright blue uniform complete with crimson sash. He checked his watch and knew it was time to imitate the morning. Time meant nothing up here, but to make life easier for himself he kept his day running in synchronisation with his home below.

He hit a couple of buttons that brightened the lights and opened the anti-glare windows, allowing him to glimpse the stars. Earth was full of colour, glowing and bright. It always brought to reminded him of a globe lamp he once owned as a child.

A sweeping glance at the console reassured him all was well so far. It had been a relatively quiet night. There was an incident where some amatuer divers off the Caribbean coast had got into difficulties, but all Robert had to do was alert the local coastguard. There had been no casualties. All in all, he had gotten five hours of unbroken sleep, topped up with another two after the emergency call. A new record.

It had been four years and five months since John Tracy had passed away, the man he had thought he would spend the rest of his life with. Early on, his grief manifested in occasional bouts of insomnia. Nowadays, any lack of sleep was a sure indicator of stress. He had been checked out for depression when training for IR, but knew that often he was walking on a tightrope when it came to his sanity. He had been all his life. Virgil understood. He was probably the only one that did. He was relieved that he was so at peace he could now sleep as easily as he once did as a teenager.

He smiled as he thought of Virgil, the light in his life. He had been blessed enough to have been loved once and certainly didn't expect to find it again. It was Virgil who took him to Italy and (in a ceremony officiated by Scott) married him. Robert changed his surname from Christie to Tracy. One girls name to another, as Gordon once correctly pointed out.

He had last seen Virgil about twenty hours ago. There had been no calls to interrupt their private goodbyes in his room. Even though they had now been together for over three years, they were still learning about each other. Virgil was intensely private in the beginning, for a variety of reasons. Their relationship had begun under strange circumstances, having lost a lover and a brother the year before. Even now, happily married, Virgil would never kiss in public or even in front of the family. It would be easy to assume he was physically shy but Robert could vouch that behind closed doors that was not the case. It wasn't a matter of shame or self-consciousness. He was just extremely old fashioned. Gentlemanly. Robert liked that.

When he got up to Five yesterday morning, he found out why Virgil seemed so pleased with himself when he left. When he arrived on the station, Alan led him to the food storage area. He explained he'd been asked to take up a huge cardboard box with Robert's name on it. They discovered the box contained a treasure trove of sweets and biscuits - Milky Bars, peppermint creams, butter candies, Cadbury caramels, Black Jacks, custard creams, Minstrels, Jammie Dodgers, Maltesers, Aeros, Galaxy bars... Robert had a deadly sweet tooth and often complained to Virgil that the chocolate they got on Tracy Island never hit the spot. He had no idea how he got them all, as Alan had never seen 'candy' like it. Virgil may be a man of few words when it came to romance, but he could sometimes be (literally) the sweetest. He had gone to a lot of trouble find all those.

Robert was debating whether it would wise to dig into a packet of Jammie Dodgers for breakfast, when his thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing noise.

"Thunderbird Five from base. Come in, Robert."

Robert smiled as his father-in-law's face appeared on the display.

"Hello, Jeff."

"All the boys are here. What is it that had you so concerned earlier?"

Robert swigged the last of his coffee as he dug out the transmissions he recorded earlier, "I've been piecing together news from London. You're not going to like this..."