Title: We'll be home for Christmas
Day Two – Aboard This Tiny Ship – Part 3
Author: Gumnut
18 - 23 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: 4029
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.
Mentions of ship in this bit, but only in discussion. There may be more later (that I haven't written yet :D)
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-
Gordon told him it was unnecessary, but John didn't agree. He had a brother deployed, it was his job to keep an eye on him. Besides, he hadn't spoken to Eos for nearly twenty-four hours.
He sat down at the same table Gordon had been using for his fish studies. "Eos, can you relay Gordon's mission stats down to my tablet? Also, I need seismic readings, wildlife mapping and all the latest observational data for the volcanics around the caldera."
"Hello, John."
"Hello, Eos. How are you?"
"Functional." A pause. "A bit bored."
Oh no. "What have you been doing?"
"Nothing."
"Eos!"
"You should have seen them. They were so poor. They were almost starving."
"What did you do?"
"I saved them."
"How?"
"They won the lottery."
"You rigged a lottery? How? They are all manual."
"I have my ways."
"Who did you bribe?"
"I didn't bribe anyone."
"Who did you blackmail?"
"Honestly, he wasn't a very nice man anyway."
John closed his eyes. Thank god Scott was on the other side of the boat helping Alan load up the dingy.
Virgil sat on the lounge opposite staring at him.
"Eos doesn't like injustice very much."
His brother arched an eyebrow.
"Eos, we will discuss this later. Deploy the mission to my tablet. Oh, and can you move Gordon's sensor buoy into range so we can sharpen our reception. Thank you."
Virgil's eyebrow was still arched.
"You know if you leave it that way long enough, the wind will change and you will become permanently half Vulcan."
His brother ignored him. "We will discuss this later, John. Scott hears about it and the shit will hit the fan."
"Yes, I know." Scott would likely always be sensitive where Eos was concerned. John had to tread lightly.
Turning to his tablet, he brought up the sensor relay from the buoy and propelled it to one side of the table. Gordon's vitals, followed by Four's telemetry were deployed to another corner, followed by a submarine map of the area.
"What is that?"
John jumped as Virgil sat down beside him and pointed at the map. "Is that the caldera?"
"Yes." John swiped at his tablet and brought up the necessary information. "The island itself is only a fragment of the volcano."
"That's considerably bigger than our caldera. When did it last erupt?"
"It's still active."
"What?! We just sent Gordon down there."
John stared at Virgil and wondered if his brother had been taking painkillers and was loopy as a result. "Gordon knows what he is doing."
Virgil ran a hand over his face and sighed. "Yeah, I know. Just with his accident..."
"He'll be fine. We are just looking at hydrothermal vents in this case. There is no lava field down there. It shouldn't take much time to replace the sensor as long as he doesn't get distracted."
"Distracted? Gordon?"
"Hmmm, yeah. You have a point."
-o-o-o-
Gordon was in heaven.
Well, if heaven had this many starfish and in Gordon's book, it definitely did. Clustered around the heat generating hydrothermal vents, the patches and swarms of specialised life down here were amazing to see. He had read several studies on the ecosystems of the Kermadec chain, but it was always a wonder to see them thriving like this in the darkness.
The caldera was massive. He knew the geological history of the Kermadec chain. They all did as Tracy Island was technically part of it. He knew it had a habit of exploding quite regularly and this caldera was no different, various child cones spewing forth hydrothermal concoctions. It had last blown up quite spectacularly over 6000 years ago, collapsing what used to be a much larger island into this undersea ring of vents.
The heat supported scores of mussels, farmed by starfish and the occasional white crab. He had done a lot of diving around Tracy Island, but that underseascape was considerably different. Higher water temperatures and a dead volcano produced a different ecosystem to what Macauley supported.
Four's spots lit up the underwater mountain range, volcanic remnants were scattered across the sea floor. The sensor bank was closest to one of the dominant cones to the north-west of the island, placed there specifically to monitor the active spot. The moment he approached it, he knew exactly what the problem was.
"Thunderbird Four to Raoul."
"Raoul receiving. Thunderfish, did you get your 'bird out just for me? I thought you were on vacation."
"Eh, I owe you one." If he was honest, coasting about the waterline for a couple days without the facility to drop below it at will had left him a little longing for the depths. "I found your sensor problem."
"Yeah, what do we have?"
"A brand new baby hydrothermal vent right on top of the sensor bank"
"Again? That's the third this year."
Gordon frowned. "This happens a lot?"
"You bet your ass it does. This whole bloody volcanic chain does what it bloody wants. Hell, Giggenbach just a little north-west of Macauley threw a fit just last year and dumped a pile of rubble on all our sensor equipment. I'm lucky Tracy Industries continues to provide me with new supplies or I would have had to close up shop years ago. The Kermadecs eat sensors for breakfast."
"So, what did you want me to do?"
"You got one of those temporary seismic monitors?"
"Not on Four, but Two stocks vibration sensors."
"Sensitive enough to catch a below 0.0001?"
"I'll send you the specs. Virgil would be the one to confirm."
"Really?"
"Be kind to him, Mel. He's not at his best."
"Would I do anything to hurt such a gorgeous man?"
"Mel."
"Okay, okay, I'll talk nice to the dark-haired hunk."
"Mel."
"What?"
-o-o-o-
Alan eyed Virgil as he made his way down the side of the yacht, one arm clutched to his belly. He hated it when his older brothers were injured. It always shook his foundations.
Sure, Alan was an adult, he could handle it, but his eldest brothers had pretty much been his parents for half his life and seeing one them taken down by a medical condition, even one as paltry as appendicitis, struck a nerve.
It didn't help that Gordon had been so sick, so injured, so recently. To only just have him back in the air and for Virgil to fall out of the sky like that.
It was scary.
"Alan, you okay?"
Scott was standing in the little inflatable dingy, waiting for Alan to hand him the heat cube equipment. The plan was to have a 'bonfire' dinner on the beach without the actual bonfire. Gordon's description of what the Director at Raoul would do to them if they lit a fire on one of her islands was graphic and to the point. So, heat cube it was.
The marshmallows never quite tasted the same.
He shrugged. "Should Virgil be doing that?"
His eldest brother glanced over to where Virgil was making his way in their direction. "As long as he isn't over doing it, he should be okay." Scott stared up at him. "He's going to be fine, Alan."
Alan grimaced and turned back to watching Virgil slowly approach. He could still hear his brother groaning on that hover stretcher as Gordon maxed out Two's engines to get them across the Tasman Sea.
A hand touched his arm and he jumped a little. Scott was back on the yacht beside him, earnest blue eyes trying to pin him down. "He is going to be fine."
Alan sighed. "I know. I guess he just scared me." A swallow. "For a second there, all I could think was that Virg was going to be as sick as Gords, or worse, and it...it terrified me."
An arm wrapped around his shoulders and Alan suddenly felt twelve again, big brother Scott ever looking after him. "He scared all of us, but he is recovering. A couple of weeks and he'll be back on Two nagging Gordon, a month and you won't even know he was ill.
"It could have been worse."
"It wasn't." Scott squeezed his shoulder and as Virgil finally made it the last few steps into hearing range, challenged the convalescent. "And what do you think you are doing out here?"
"Just checking out what you two are up to." Virgil leant on the railing.
"We are preparing a feast for your senses, little brother, and you are not lifting a finger. Alan and I will be your heavy lifters for this dining experience."
Virgil grunted at his brother.
Alan grinned, hiding his thoughts. "Hey, bro, take the opportunity for what it is and just sit back and relax."
A lopsided half smile and a mumbled, "Not sure I know how to do that." Virgil leant both of his elbows on the railing and stared up at the island cliffs looming over them. Alan had to admit, for a tiny chunk of volcano, it was pretty damn big.
"You could always ask Alan for some instruction." Scott was grinning.
"Hey!" But the twinkle in his brother's eyes made it clear it was all in jest. "Just because I find efficiencies in everything I do."
And it was Virgil's turn to grin and reach out to wrap an arm around his shoulders.
Sometimes being the youngest of five had its challenges. Over protective and mother-henning older brothers was one of them. Half the challenge was working out whether he should accept the gestures or stand more securely on his own two feet.
Considering they were isolated, in the middle of nowhere and his brother had recently scared the shit out of him, he was inclined to accept any and all reassurances.
"You okay, Alan?" Dark eyes and brows were peering at him. Oh, for the love of...
He shouldered off Virgil's arm and grabbed the heat cube equipment. "Are we packing this before or after sunset?"
Scott rolled his eyes and stepped back into the dingy while Virgil frowned at Alan even more." I'm fine, Virgil. You're the one who has the holes in his gut."
"I'm fine." It was automatic and defensive.
Scott snorted as Alan handed him a crate.
Hmm, maybe he wasn't the only one being mother-henned.
-o-o-o-
As afternoon waned and evening moved in, the sun lit up the west side of the island in sharp white gold, riddled with the emerald green of recovering forest. The huge cliffs that ringed the volcanic remnant were a stark mixture of pale tephra and black basalt, an echo of a volcano that had had many moods in its relatively short life.
It was a dramatic background to their rather everyday activities.
Gordon surfaced with little fuss. Mel contacted Virgil and he arranged for Kayo to bring some vibration sensors when she came back to collect Four. Gordon was stunned to discover Virgil addressed her as Ms Fisher. What the hell?
"What century were you born in, Virg?"
His brother shrugged. "Never hurts to be polite."
Gordon stared until Virgil glared at him. "What?"
"Nothing."
Another brown-eyed stab and his brother turned his back on him.
Some smart targeting with Two's forward cannon and several of the temporary devices were deployed at the foot of the volcanic cone around five hundred metres underwater. Gordon dipped down to check their placement, John looped Mel into their feed via Five and the job was considered complete. Tin picked up Four and with a cheery farewell to her brothers, flew back to Tracy Island.
Gordon did note that Virgil stood staring after his vanished 'bird a lot longer than necessary. He wasn't sure which his brother was missing more, Two or her temporary pilot.
He stepped up to the rocks beside his brother. "Hey, she'll take care of her."
"I know."
"Tin knows far more than she ever lets on."
"I know."
Gordon placed a hand on his shoulder and stuck a kebab stick with a white blob on one end in front of him. "Want a toasted marshmallow?"
Virgil looked at it and then at Gordon. "It appears to be missing the toasted part."
Gordon grinned. "Then I guess you better get cooking."
His brother rolled his eyes, but it appeared to snap him out of his moroseness, which had been the plan.
"Gimme that." Virgil grabbed the marshmallow on its stick and stalked back to the little camp set up on the island's excuse for a beach.
He used the term 'beach' very broadly, if you could consider a mixture of powdered pumice and basalt dumped like frosting on tumbled rocks, some of which were damn sharp, a 'beach'.
It had taken both Scott and John to help Virgil first into the inflatable dingy and then onto the rocks and across to the 'sand'. There were at least two moments where Gordon could see his eldest brother regretting the decision to let Virgil off the yacht. But a determined glare from that brother coupled with at least one whispered profane word appeared to stop Scott from saying anything.
Virgil did sit down in a camp chair and stay that way for some time after that so it was fairly obvious it had hurt.
When Two returned, Gordon found himself caught up with the sensor deployment. The only reason he had been on the beach when the green behemoth finally left was because Tin had delayed her departure to speak to Virgil.
He hadn't heard what they said to each other, but Virgil was unusually quiet when he returned to the circle with Gordon.
The heat cube was set to cook and Alan had some bacon and eggs sizzling in one pan and Scott was keeping an eye on some pancake batter in another. His eldest brother handed Virgil a soda and the engineer found his seat again, lowering himself slowly into it. Gordon didn't miss the frustrated exhale.
John even had some fries cooking in a camp quick-oven. All-in-all a decent feast on the rocky beach was almost ready.
The next fifteen minutes or so were spent consuming said food.
"These pancakes are fantastic, Scott." It was muffled and muttered around one of those pancakes, but Gordon meant every word of it.
"So they should be. Dad's recipe."
"Legendary." Virgil's voice was equally muffled by another pancake.
"Toasted marshmallows and chocolate mud-cake with cream for dessert." Alan was grinning. "We packed the best."
"Oh, god, thank you." Virgil was always one to appreciate good food.
"Don't choke yourself, bro. There is plenty to go around."
"Yes, thank you, guys, so much."
"Stop talking with your mouth full." But Scott was grinning like a loon.
Virgil grinned back at him with pancake stuck in his teeth.
Gordon snorted, Alan laughed out loud, and John smiled.
"I would like to raise a toast." Virgil grabbed his can of soda and held it up and all four brothers scrambled for their own drinks. "To Gordon! For having one of the best ideas ever!" There was a resounding yell of agreement, but Virgil raised his drink again. "Also, to all my brothers for making it happen. I couldn't ask for a better family than the one I have. I am truly blessed. Thank you, guys, for everything you have done." And the big dope was all seriousness and, god, was he getting teary? What the hell had Tin said to him?
Every can, cup and glass around the heat cube was lifted, but Gordon stood up so he was taller than everyone for once in his life. "To the Tracy brothers!"
"Hear, hear!" It was shouted and cheered.
Virgil smiled up at him and caught Gordon's eyes as he drank.
Alan broke the tableau.
"Who want's mud-cake?!"
-o-o-o-
It was a very satisfied group of brothers who watched the sun dip below the horizon sometime later. The cube temperature had been lowered, but not entirely extinguished. They weren't in tropical latitudes yet and although the days were warm, the nights got chilly. The sea breeze was gentle and the ocean only mumbled against the rocks.
Virgil had slipped into bit of a stupor, his body determined to digest and removing resources from his brain to do it. Consequently, he missed the beginning of the conversation between his brothers while he stared after the disappearing sun.
"So how long has this been going on?"
"It is just a bit of friendly recreation, Alan."
A Gordon snort. "Yeah, John, but how friendly and what kind of recreation?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Gordon."
"I'm only following yours, spacebro."
"There is nothing untoward occurring between Captain O'Bannon and myself."
"Ooh, 'untoward' no, but there are two lonely space souls stuck up there together, none other than each other's company."
This time it was Scott's snort. "Oh, only the resident AI who sees and hears all, and about twenty-odd GDF specialists."
"Oh, yes, Eos!" Virgil arched an eyebrow as he realised his fishbrother was tapping his collar comms. "Hey, Eos, are you willing to share the goss on your Dad and Captain Ridley O'Bannon."
"Hello, Gordon. What would you like to know?"
"Does John have a 'thing' for the girl next door?"
"Most definitely."
"Eos!" John shot up ramrod straight in his seat as Gordon cracked up laughing.
"It is true, John. You have sixteen processors, four electronic clipboards and twenty-three bottles of moisturiser set aside for Captain O'Bannon. These are all things you have for the girl next door."
Virgil couldn't help himself and had to smother a laugh.
The expression on Gordon's face was a mixture of confusion and incredulity. "Twenty-three bottles of moisturiser?"
"It is her favourite brand and she was unable to purchase it before beginning her last rotation, so I acquired some for her." He glared at his aquanaut brother. "Just like friends do."
"But twenty-three bottles?" Even Scott was staring at John as if he was a little weirded out.
"You obviously like her. Why don't you ask her out?" Trust Gordon to poke the issue further.
John shrugged. "Hasn't come up."
Gordon groaned. "Really?" His hands dropped to his knees. "I thought it would be obvious."
John's glare was acidic. "I can't see why you can talk. How long did it take you to ask Penny out? Hmm, let me think, oh, yes, that's right. You didn't. She asked you."
"Hey, I was bedridden!"
"Excuses, excuses..."
"Well, at least I'm making progress. Please tell me at least one of you guys has a possibility in your back pocket. Hell, we're all tough and buff and saving people. Hasn't anyone swooned for any of you?" Gordon's eyes raked around the circle and to Virgil's horror landed on him. "What about you, Virg. You and Tin have a bit of thing happening, don't you?"
His heart missed a beat. "What? No!"
"Virg and Kayo? Are you kidding me?" Alan was glaring at Gordon, but then seemed to second guess himself and turned that glare on Virgil. "She's our sister, bro."
Virgil held up his hands. "Hey, it wasn't me who postulated the idea."
"Postulated? Really, Virg? Me thinks you be hiding behind a dictionary."
"Shut up, Gordon."
"I think he doth protest too much."
"I think you should look into the fact she is spending the next month with Wayne Rigby and not entirely for mission related reasons."
There was no satisfaction in seeing Gordon freeze like that, or Scott's "What?"
"She's with us for New Years, but then it is onto Siberia on the third of January. Something about the possibility of a Chaos Crew tech lab infiltration." Virgil grabbed the carafe of hot chocolate off the heat cube and poured himself a good dose. He ignored the voice in the back of his head that wished it was something ever so much stronger.
"She hasn't told me about any mission." Scott was frowning at him.
Virgil hid behind his mug. "Only just came in apparently. She only mentioned it in passing while she was saying goodbye. I have no doubt she will brief you when we get home."
Gordon was staring at him. He opened his mouth but failed to say anything.
Virgil took another sip and just stared straight back. It took a moment, but eventually Gordon appeared to shake it off, frowning just a little before turning to Scott. "What about you, bro? You've always been our leader in the girlfriend department. What's the count now?"
"Thirty-two." John was smug behind his own mug of hot chocolate.
His eldest brother shifted in his seat as if suddenly uncomfortable. "Okay, I'm with Virgil on this - shut up, Gordon."
Gordon held up his hands in all his innocent glory. "Hey, I'm just brotherly bonding around the fire."
"Go bond with the volcano." John's voice was dry. "Or a whale, I hear a few pass through on occasion."
"Hey, you were the one keeping count."
"I can't help it, I'm good with numbers."
Virgil snorted. "Not good enough. You're at least two out."
The glare Scott shot him could have scorched his hair off.
"Don't worry, Scott, I'm not going to tell them about Petunia."
"Virgil!"
"What?"
"Shut it or lose it."
"Hey, I said I wasn't going to tell them."
"Tell us what?" Both Alan and Gordon were about ready to fall off their chairs with glee.
John just rolled his eyes.
"About Petunia."
"Who is Petunia?"
"You're an idiot, Virg." Scott's glare was becoming more resigned and flatter by the second. "I am so gonna let them know about Gertrude now."
Virgil snorted. "As if I'd care. She really wanted you anyway."
"Not true, you were her favourite."
"Yeah, sure, she'd turn to anyone who would give her what she wanted. I just had it more often than you."
"You planned it that way."
"I thought you of all people would appreciate a few tactics. With you around, I need all the help I can get."
"What?"
Okay, so that had come out a little too serious for Petunia talk, but then Virgil's count was far smaller than thirty-two or thirty-four depending on how you counted. Early on he had tried to get out and about like his eldest brother, but honestly it wasn't in him. He wasn't a one-nighter like Scott. Besides standing next to the heir of Tracy Industries, tall and female magnet was like trying to catch moths while standing next to a bug zapper.
"Virgil?"
"Petunia was a goose."
"What?!" It was choral from both Alan and Gordon and quickly followed by a "Virgil!" from Scott.
"She used to follow him around everywhere about the farm. It was hilarious.
"Yeah, well, Gertrude was goat and she once ate Virgil's pants. He's lucky he didn't lose more."
Scott and Virgil glared at each other across the heat cube while Gordon and Alan played eyeball tennis between them.
John just drank his chocolate, a vaguely amused expression on his face.
Virgil held his brother's furious gaze as long as he could, but he had to bite his lip. The moment he realised Scott was doing the same, it became oh so much harder.
Two seconds later he cracked up laughing. Scott followed not a moment after and both of them laughed even harder when they caught sight of the expressions on Gordon and Alan's faces.
Virgil laughed so hard he had to hold his stitches in place.
Which of course Scott saw and it drew the night to a close as big brother shifted gears into smother brother.
They cleared off the island leaving no mark behind. Gordon clucking like a hen and claiming death threats from Melissa Fisher if they left anything behind.
Making it back to the boat in the dark was easily done, but awkward and a little painful for Virgil and by the time he made it to his bed, he was worn out.
Regardless, he didn't fall asleep immediately, despite the gentle rocking of the boat. Thoughts of what could be, what could have been and what he actually wanted bounced around the inside of his skull.
It took a long time for them to fall quiet.
-o-o-o-
End Day Two.