Title: We'll be home for Christmas
Day Two – Aboard This Tiny Ship – Part 2
Author: Gumnut
14 - 18 Dec 2019
Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS
Rating: Teen
Summary: The boys can't fly home for Christmas, so they have to find another way.
Word count: 2576
Spoilers & warnings: language and so, so much fluff. Science!Gordon. Minor various ships, mostly background.
Timeline: Christmas Season 3, I have also kinda ignored the main storyline of Season 3. The boys needed a break, so I gave them one. Post season 3B, before Season 3C cos we haven't seen it yet.
Author's note: For scattergraph. This is my 2019 TAG Secret Santa fic :D I hope you enjoy it.
This section is a touch shorter than the last one, but the next section will be much bigger.
Many thanks to vegetacide and scribbles97 for cheering me on and their wonderful support through this craziness. And to onereyofstarlight for geeking out with me over the setting.
Disclaimer: Mine? You've got to be kidding. Money? Don't have any, don't bother.
-o-o-o-
Scott was ready to chew an arm off just to entertain himself by the time Gordon announced they were approaching L'Esperance Rock just after lunch. He'd seen it enough from the air to know it meant they were around halfway home. The thought did give him some relief and he stood at the bow of the boat watching the islet come into view.
A grunt behind him had him turning to find Virgil making his way forward, coffee in one hand, abdomen in the other. He darted in to help his brother up the steps.
"I'm okay."
"I know you are. Just being useful."
That earned him a stare and an arched eyebrow. "You're bored shitless, aren't you." It wasn't a question.
"I'm okay."
Virgil snorted. "I had a bet with John you'd last until tonight at least. You've shafted me fifty bucks, big brother."
Scott grunted. "Well, that explains why he was so happy to steal my phone."
"He stole your phone?" Brown eyes frowned up at him.
"Oh, yes. On Grandma's orders apparently."
"That's cheating."
"Heh, that's between the two of you. I'm only the subject of the bet, not the umpire."
"Null and void. He's not getting a cent."
Scott grinned as he held his brother's elbow, surprised he hadn't been shook off.
"It is beautiful, isn't it?" Virgil's voice was wistful as they approached the railing. "Sometimes I think we get too busy or just take it all for granted. We do live in a stunning corner of the planet."
"Dad always thought so. I wouldn't have called him much of an environmentalist, but he knew what was important."
"Hmm, I think you underestimate him. You were off the Island when Alan brought two rats home as pets."
"He did what?!"
Another arched eyebrow. "Yes, he did, early on. Snuck them in. Dad went ballistic when he found out. The words he used had Grandma blushing. Let's just say that Beau and Belle were deported rather abruptly and Alan now has an unofficial degree in environmental management."
"Hmph, serves him right."
Virgil smiled at him. "Sounds like you might be a bit of an environmentalist yourself."
A tolerant glare at his brother. "I do what is necessary."
Scott was surprised when Virgil's response to that statement was a sigh. His brother's expression was almost sad.
"What?"
"You need to relax."
"I am relaxing."
"No, you're not. You're wired tighter than Two's primary generator. You need to find a way to wind down. We're on vacation."
"We're on mandatory lockdown."
"Grandma is right. We need a break. Preferably before we break something we can't repair."
"It's not just about us!"
"Yes, it is! You need to let go! Focus on you for a change."
"Dad-"
"Is not here! You have the right to a life, Scott. You have the right to look after yourself, to have a little fun, for god's sake. When was the last time you read a fiction book? Flew a kite? Sat in front of the projector and binge watched an old television show?"
"There are more important things-"
"Importance is relative. It was you who blew my head off a matter of days ago about priorities, was it not? Our business forces us to prioritise according to lives at risk, I get it. I know it. I live it beside you. But you are my big brother, you are the leader of this team, your health affects our effectiveness. To put it harshly, some may die today, so many more can be saved in the future." Virgil visibly swallowed. "I know International Rescue is important, but please, take the time, Scott. If you have to, do it for IR, do it for us or me or whatever gets you going, but most of all please do it for yourself." Quietly. "I can't lose you."
What the hell? "You're not going to lose me."
"If you don't look after yourself, we will!" He didn't think it was physically possible for his brother to frown harder.
"If you don't look after yourself, you're going to blow your stitches."
"This isn't about me, it's about you!"
"So, what are you thinking? Yell at me until I crack? I'm not finding this relaxing at all, Virg."
"Well, it seems I need volume for you to actually hear me, because you certainly don't listen otherwise."
He couldn't think of an immediate retort to that and to be honest he was worried Virgil was going hurt himself if he wasn't careful, he appeared so uncharacteristically angry. "You're that worried?"
"Of course, I'm fucking worried!"
Whoops, wrong thing to say.
"Virgil! Calm down. You're the one who needs to relax." He reached out and placed his hands on his brother's shoulders. "Take a breath."
To his surprise, Virgil was actually trembling a little. He was that passionate about this? He hadn't been doing that badly, had he?
His brother did as requested and took a deep breath. "You are so hard to look after sometimes." It was breathy and full of exhaled tension.
"You don't have to look after me, Virg."
"Somebody has to." He looked up and brown eyes caught his. "Because you don't."
Ah, shit. A sigh and Scott gently drew his brother into a hug. "Okay, I'm sorry, I'll try to do better."
His brother didn't answer, but he did lean in a little, one big hand reaching around Scott's back and returning the embrace. "Please try."
"Okay."
Virgil pulled away slowly, not looking up at his brother, but focussing on the coffee he held in his other hand. He brought it to his lips and turned away slightly.
Scott stared at the back of his brother's head and frowned.
The boat slowed as they approached the Rock. As jagged as its distant cousin, the Rock was like a miniature version of their home, the very top of a huge undersea volcano.
"Are we stopping here?"
Virgil's question echoed his own thoughts. He thumbed his comms. "Gordon, are we stopping here?"
"Only for a moment. Just grabbing a sensor snapshot for Mel."
Melissa Fisher, their closest neighbour. Blonde and sharp, she would remind him of Penny if it wasn't for her obsession with all things Kermadec. That and the twigs in her hair. Even Dad had been a little wary of stepping on anything living when visiting Raoul Island. And visit they had. They needed to keep up relations and the woman was a mine of information when it came to ecological stabilisation and rehabilitation. Tracy Island had its issues when his father bought it and ever aware of the ecological importance of the area, once Brains had built the necessary infrastructure, his father had attempted to re-stabilise the ecosystem.
Melissa had been very helpful.
Gordon had taken to her immediately, jabbering in biology terms. For a bit there, Scott had wondered if the two of them might get involved with a different kind of biology, she was a little older than Gordon, only a year younger than Scott, but that might just float his brother's boat. But apparently, they were too distracted by what they were discussing to notice each other.
Scott hadn't seen her in years.
The boat came to a complete stop not far from the Rock and a moment later, Gordon appeared on the starboard side and threw out his sensor buoy.
Virgil was staring at him.
Scott blinked. "What is it?"
His brother didn't answer immediately, those dark eyes assessing him a moment longer before sipping his coffee. But then a decision flickered across his expression and his hand reached out and gently took Scott's arm. "Come with me."
His brother turned slowly and led him off the bow. He negotiated the stairs and walked Scott back into the living area where Gordon was once again staring at holographic fish.
"Sit down and wait a moment." His brother disappeared off into the depths of the living quarters."
"Yes!"
Gordon's jubilant yell made Scott jump. What?
His little brother was staring at a huge fish. A huge and weird looking fish. "What is that?"
"That, my wonderful big brother, is a sunfish or Mola mola, to be more specific."
"And that is?"
Gordon glanced at him and frowned. "Heaviest bony fish on the planet. Came close to extinction twenty years ago. Saved by the World Council and its endangered species bill in 2039." He turned back to the holographic display. "Though this one appears to have had some challenges." Gordon's fingers traced some gouges on the fish's flank. "Old, but nasty."
"Shark?"
His brother snorted. "No. That's net scar. It's been caught in a fishing net at some point. I can't see any trace of the net, so this has to be one of the lucky ones." The giant fish drifted lazily across the table as Gordon grabbed his tablet and stabbed his finger into it several times. "It must be well travelled. We are quite a distance from the fishing zones here."
"I thought I told you to sit down." Virgil edged carefully back into the room carrying his keyboard.
"And I thought you weren't supposed to be lifting anything." Scott hurried over and took the instrument from his brother's hands.
"It's not heavy."
"So I have to look after myself, yet you don't?"
Virgil's shoulders dropped. "Okay, okay. Give me a second." His brother grabbed a couple of cushions and shoved them together on a lounge chair to support his back and lowered himself into it. "Put it here." He gestured across the arms of the chair and his lap.
Wary, Scott put the keyboard, that, yes, actually was quite heavy, down where his brother told him too. "Be careful."
Virgil frowned up him with an expression that plainly said, 'What am I? Stupid?'
"Well, you did carry the keyboard out here, did you not?"
His brother muttered something Scott couldn't quite hear and wasn't sure he wanted to.
"Now, you sit down and close your eyes." A pause. "No, actually, lie down on the couch and close your eyes."
"Why?"
"Just do as I ask."
Scott rolled his eyes, but lay down. "You didn't used to be this bossy."
"You didn't used to be this stubborn. Call it evolution in trying times."
"Smart ass."
"Shut up and close your eyes."
Scott muttered under his breath, wriggled where he lay and did as his brother told him. Anything to stop the man from freaking out.
His brother began to play, the keys soft and blending with the water lapping against the hull. With his eyes closed, his mind focussed on the sounds around him. Gordon's fingers on his tablet, heard just under the music. The distant calls of seabirds. Actually, it wasn't much of a step from the sounds of home. Virgil playing his piano. Gordon sitting on the lounge playing with his tablet. The balcony doors open to the breeze, the distant sound of the waves on Tracy Island rock, the distant call of the bird colony on Mateo. John would be in his room reading. Alan would be playing a video game in the kitchen while Grandma attempted to make dinner. Brains, as always, would be in his lab.
Virgil playing the piano.
Waves against the rocks.
Birds calling...
Home.
-o-o-o-
Virgil kept playing ever so softly. Gordon had stopped working and was staring at the two of them, frowning.
Scott started snoring.
Gordon's eyes widened and he mouthed words at Virgil. 'How do you do that?'
Virgil just smiled and kept on playing, drifting into a long, gentle piece his mother had taught him long ago.
At some point he closed his eyes, too, and let himself go with the music, let his fingers do what the music asked.
He woke to find both Scott and John sitting opposite him.
"That was dirty pool, Virg."
He blinked. Someone had taken the keyboard away and shoved a few extra pillows into the chair to support him. "You knew what I was doing. I'm just your excuse. How long did you last?"
It was John who spoke up. "About twenty minutes. It was enough. Gordon had to get the boat moving. He woke up the moment the engine started."
"You, on the other hand, have been out for over two hours." Scott was smug. "You missed the active volcano."
Virgil turned to John. "Anything worth looking at?"
His younger brother shrugged. "Looked like an island to me. Bigger than the Rock. No activity at the moment."
Virgil turned back to Scott. "Sounds like I didn't miss anything. Where are we now?"
"Anchored at Macauley Island." Gordon strode across the room. "Hey, Virg. Good to see you awake. You might like to see this." His fish brother's grin was highly suspicious.
It took both Scott and John to get him out of the chair. He should not sleep sitting up with abdominal incisions. Ow.
For a moment there he thought Scott was going to send him to bed or demand he take painkillers, but he didn't. His brother didn't say anything, and even if he did, a familiar roar distracted Virgil enough that he wouldn't have noticed if his brother said anything anyway.
He pushed himself forward, leaving his helping hands behind and stepped out onto the deck.
His beautiful 'bird was roaring in from the north. She moved so fast, he blinked and she was coming to a halt some distance away, VTOL firing her into a hover.
He just stared as she dropped her module.
He blinked as Gordon and Alan suddenly started the engine of an inflatable dingy and tore off towards the module sporting its proud number four.
"Thunderbird Two to Virgil." Kayo's voice startled him out of his stare. "So how did I do? Score out of ten."
The door to the module lowered and Gordon leapt out of the little boat and jumped on board.
"Oh, ten, I guess."
"Ten?!" Gordon's outrage yelped across comms as the aquanaut turned in the distance and put both hands on his hips. "I knew he liked you more than me. I haven't managed anything higher than an eight and I've been trying for years!"
Kayo didn't answer as his 'bird turned and took off for home, but Virgil grinned. "Keeps you on your toes, bro."
"You suck."
Their sister snorted across comms as Alan turned the dingy around and headed back. Gordon glared a glare that made it across the ocean despite the distance and stormed off into the module.
Virgil's grin just got wider. "Why did he call for Four?"
"Something about helping Melissa. A sensor malfunction in the Macauley caldera." A glance at Scott found him grinning, too. "You know he's not going to let that go, don't you?"
"Yep."
"We're stuck on a boat, captained by him, in the middle of the ocean and you want to set Gordon off?"
Virgil shrugged. "He'll enjoy it."
"We won't."
"We'll live."
"If I wake up with pink hair, you're dead."
"I love you, too." Virgil was still grinning.
"You do know that you still have your comms on, don't you?" His aquanaut brother's voice was admittedly amused.
"Yes, Gordon, I do. Got some good ideas?"
"I guess you'll have to wait and see." And with that, Four's rear thrusters fired and she shot out of the module and into the ocean.
"You got your uniform on?"
"Yes, Mom."
"Fly safe."
"FAB."
-o-o-o-
End Day Two, Part Two