Title: We'll be home for Christmas
Day Three - If not for the courage of the fearless crew – Part 5
Author: Gumnut
4 - 11 Jan 2020
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: 3231
Spoilers & warnings: language and so, so much fluff. Science!Gordon. Artist!Virgil, 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
Took me a while with work getting in the way and a stubborn muse that just wouldn't behave, but here is the next bit. I hope you enjoy it.
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-
"So, you spoke to a whale today?"
Gordon elbowed the surfer in the ribs. "Sam!"
"Hey, it's the elephant on the island, I just want to acknowledge it."
A sigh and Virgil held up his hand. "It's okay, what did you want to know?"
"How did you do it? Many have tried before and none succeeded."
Quiet. "I don't know."
There was a silence after that, Sam staring at him.
"Then how?"
"I'm sorry, Sam, I honestly don't know. It just happened."
"Do you think you could do it again?"
Virgil stared at him. "I-"
"Sam! Leave it." Gordon's voice was cutting.
The surfer frowned and held up his hands defensively. "Sorry."
Virgil reached out a hand and placed it on Gordon's shoulder. His fish brother was still glaring at the surfer. "It's fine. But I'm sorry, Sam, I don't have the answers right now."
Sam held his gaze for the next few moments. Quiet. "You felt it, didn't you? You weren't in the water, but you felt it. The connection."
Sam's eyes weren't the same colour as Gordon's, closer to John's or Scott's being a pale green-blue, but they sparked with as much vivacity and energy as his fish brother on his inspired days.
Virgil frowned. "What do you mean?"
"That dolphin, the one who saved me? There was a moment where I thought that this was it, I was going to drown, there was nothing but the blue of the sea left and I was almost welcoming the end, I was that exhausted. But then she was there, she was lifting me, nudging me towards the sun. I felt her skin under my fingers. She spoke to me in high pitched barks. And her eyes. Those eyes pierced me to my soul." The surfer swallowed and looked away a moment. Liam reached over and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, rubbing gently. "He or she...she was there and she was communicating in a way I could not understand, but communicating nonetheless and for a moment, I connected. I knew what she wanted me to do and I made that extra effort." Another pause and Sam looked down at his hands. "She carried my exhausted ass into shore as far as she could go. I managed to get my feet under me and she disappeared into the waves. I never saw her again." Sam straightened and caught Virgil's eyes. "But for that moment, I understood. She communicated on my level and gave me a gift I will be trying to repay for the rest of my life." Those eyes held him. "It was the same for you wasn't it. They got inside you, reached in and tied knots in your soul."
There was a stunned silence after that. Virgil was still held by the passion in the man's eyes, but what he said rang so true, it bounced off the back of his skull and down his throat into his heart.
"I save people." The words fell out of his mouth, dry and parched. "It's what I do." He swallowed as Sam continued to stare at him with that expectant gaze. His mind was a turbulent mess, thoughts churning with emotion and images and sound.
Notes cascaded through the back of his mind, pain-filled cries that could only be answered from inside.
His fingers twitched with a sudden need for his keyboard as if to answer the man through his fingers.
A smaller hand wrapped around those fingers and he startled, turning his head to find Gordon's familiar russet eyes frowning at him in concern. His brother's hand felt ever so small in his, but its warmth buzzed with energy. "Virgil?"
Clearing his throat, Virgil straightened in his seat. "Yeah, I felt it. A...a connection."
"You understand? You get it?" Sam's eyes were wide and once again he was almost bouncing. Liam still had his arm around his husband and appeared to be literally holding him in his seat.
"I get it."
His brother's fingers tightened around his.
-o-o-o-
Gordon stared at his artistic brother and saw the struggle behind the man's eyes. Something was freaking him out. Had been ever since the rescue. It was somewhat alarming to see his usually unflappable and calm brother so suddenly at a loss as to what to do with himself.
"Virgil, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to."
Gordon knew for a fact that there were several aspects of the rescue he had no wish to share with anyone. The emotion in those gorgeous eyes, the pain, the pleading, the touch of soft skin beneath his fingertips. He kept those moments close to his heart, deep inside, cherished and safe.
Virgil...was his artistic brother. He saw things differently...this was the only way Gordon could explain it. He couldn't understand it, but then understanding wasn't needed, only acceptance. Virgil saw things in a way that enabled him to transform his interpretations into art and music. Today, he had somehow transformed emotion into sound, and it had cost...something.
Virgil frowned, looking down at a random spot in the middle of the table before straightening again and facing Sam head on. "What do you know about humpback whale communication?"
Sam's face split into a grin. "A lot. I know a lot. I have access to all the studies done with the Kermadec whales and all the literature from elsewhere."
Gordon's mind quite easily supplied a few sources Sam didn't have access to, but John or Eos could get their grotty little paws into. He might have to have a chat with Johnny over the next couple of days.
"I would be very interested in learning more." Virgil's fingers were twitching again. Gordon frowned down at them. It wasn't random, more like a beat.
Sam's grin grew wide enough to take in half the island. "That's great. I would love to help you with that."
Gordon's eyes bounced back and forth between his brother and his friend. He'd known Sam for years. They had met during WASP training, but Sam had washed out when both the erratic wannabe surfer and his superiors agreed that WASP was not a good career choice. Gordon had lost contact for a short period of time and then encountered him again as an undergraduate working alongside WASP in undersea agriculture. Gordon had picked up his degree with WASP, but then was lured into marine biology even further by the blooming cetacean biologist. Gordon's specialities were much broader, and tended towards marine ecosystems as a whole. Sam, of course, focussed on cetaceans and the larger creatures of the deep. By the time Gordon relocated to Tracy Island, Sam was following the great ocean behemoths all over the planet.
It was just convenient that those behemoths passed through the Kermadecs on a regular basis, because once Sam met Liam, he chose to specialise in those particular whales and relocated to Raoul. He still disappeared every now and again, chasing a migration here or there, but his base was Raoul and Gordon loved having not only Mel nearby, but Sam for a neighbour as well.
This was the first time any of his brothers had met the man. Last time the Raoul resident volcano had thrown a fit, Sam and Liam had been off site, a fact that had been a relief to Gordon, but consequently, Virgil hadn't met him...and Gordon had been too busy ribbing Virgil about Mel.
A glance in the direction of where he had last seen Scott found the chairs empty and neither his big brother or Mel anywhere to be seen.
Hmmm...
But then he realised that both John and Alan were missing as well, along with Elspeth.
The impromptu party was empty except for himself, Virgil, Sam and Liam. Where the hell had everyone gone?
-o-o-o-
Alan was enjoying a rare moment with his space brother.
It had started with a polite conversation with Elspeth about their individual interests. Elspeth was somewhat a rarity in that she was a fully ground-based astronomer. Apparently, her body couldn't tolerate either zero-g or strong g-forces, so she couldn't go into space.
Of course, she still had access to orbital and interplanetary telescopes, so she could get the specific data she was looking for, but to be confined to the planet...? Alan found the concept horrifying.
To not be able to experience the rush of launch, the relief of zero-g and to see that blue marble...it wasn't for him and to be honest, he dreaded the day he could no longer launch his 'bird into the sky.
John was polite, but Alan could see his big brother had a similar reaction. Neither of them liked to think that one day, space might be denied them. It didn't help that neither of them had been up in the last fortnight. Alan knew John was missing Five and Eos and while Alan himself was based on Tracy Island, his love of space was no less a passion.
He missed it.
So as the night wore on and Elspeth eventually excused herself, Scott disappeared with Mel, and since the deep conversation Virgil and Gordon were involved in reeked of exclusivity, Alan suggested to his brother that they do a little stargazing.
He was quite happy when John agreed.
This boat trip had given them more time together in one rush than they'd had in months, possibly years. Sure a good part of that had involved a violent competition of skill as he fought his brother to become master of the universe, but it had been good nonetheless.
They didn't go far, mindful of the restrictions placed on visitors to the island, but behind one of the buildings, between it and the sea, they found a dark spot filled with stars.
The grass was long and it cushioned his body as he lay back. Orion and the Southern Cross hung in the sky. His mind automatically calculated exactly where each of the major satellites sat in their orbits and where John's beloved Five hovered far above them.
"How's Eos?"
John sighed. "I have her on a project." His brother was hidden in the shadows, but his voice was clear and confident in the dark. "She's listening to whale song."
Alan frowned. "Why?"
"I assume you saw Virgil's reaction to today's rescue?"
"Well, yeah, he's been weird ever since."
Another sigh from his big brother. "I just thought Eos might be able to shed some light on what happened."
"Why Eos? What would she know about whales?"
"Alan, don't underestimate her."
"I wasn't. I just don't see how she could help."
"She's a sentient artificial intelligence. The humpback whale is another intelligence. Both are different from our own. This is an opportunity to see if she might interpret things differently and be able to translate what we, so far, have been unable to."
"Oh, okay." He still wasn't entirely clear on how Eos could see anything different, but if John thought she might, there had to be a chance. John was the resident genius around here, after all. "You think it will help Virgil?"
"I don't know. Maybe." His brother's shadow shrugged and lay down in the grass. "It is so quiet here."
"Uh huh."
And they sat for a while and just stared up into the cosmos and counting shooting stars.
"What did you want for Christmas, Alan?"
His brother's voice startled him out of his thoughts. "Wha-?"
"It's Christmas day after next."
"Well, yeah."
"I was just wondering if you had any last minute additions to your Christmas wish list."
"John, I haven't had a Christmas wish list since I discovered you guys were Santa Claus and wouldn't give me a rocket ship for Christmas."
His brother snorted. "You had plenty of rocket ships for Christmas."
"A real one."
"You fly a real one, Alan. You got your wish eventually."
Okay, so that was true, but honestly discovering Scott and Virgil stashing presents under the Christmas tree at 2am had been a traumatic experience for a nine year old.
"Yeah, well, what more could I ask for? I've got everything possible."
His brother fell silent and Alan regretted it immediately, the not-possible list included things that his older brothers wanted more than anything to give him. To give themselves.
"I mean, I've got you guys. We're billionaires. We do great stuff. Really, we've got pretty much everything." How could he say this? "Like, don't get me wrong, I love the stuff you guys give me, it's just, there are more important things, you know?"
"I know." John's voice was quiet.
They fell silent again.
"So you don't want that portrait of you Virgil has finally finished?"
"He finished it?!"
John snorted. "Maybe."
"Is it good?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Well, there was last time."
"You asked for that."
"I did not!"
"Even I could see from space you were being a right prod."
"I was a little enthusiastic, that's all."
"You were being an idiot."
"He painted a Salvador Dali of my head!"
"Do you even know who Salvador Dali is?"
"No, but Scott was very descriptive!"
Another snort. "Does Scott know who Salvador Dali is?"
Alan pulled out his phone and lit up the dark as he pulled up a net search. The images associated with the name were weird, but strangely interesting. "I see the resemblance."
"You should check out Van Gogh, then."
"What? Why? Isn't he the guy with the missing ear?"
How did he know John was rolling his eyes when he couldn't see them?
"Just look him up." There was that annoying tolerant tone his older brothers often used on him.
"Fine." So he did. "Really?" His brother had painted his last portrait attempt...before Max destroyed it - the fallout from that had been massive - in a very similar style to the ear guy. "Why?"
"You would have to ask Virgil that question."
Alan stared at several of Van Gogh's self-portraits and their swirly paint marks. It was nothing like the style Virgil had used to paint the whales. Had his brother been mocking him again?
Ah, who knows.
But John had indicated that Virgil might have finished his latest painting...
Another shooting star tore across the sky.
"So what do you what for Christmas?" Fair's fair that he ask his brother the same question in return.
John sighed. "To be honest, I think I've already got it."
"What?"
"Time."
"Huh?"
"Grandma was right. We needed time."
"You wanted to be grounded for Christmas?"
"No. But this has been good."
"Being stuck on a boat together?"
Quiet. "Yeah. I know it hasn't been your thing-"
"Hey, I love you guys. It's you who can't seem to stay with us any length of time."
Oh, um, he hadn't meant to say that.
"Alan?"
"Well, you are always going back up to Five early. We hardly ever see you anymore. I know the gravity thing sucks, but I miss you."
"You can always visit me."
"I do, but the rest of the guys can't always do that."
"Because we are always busy. Grandma saw that and that's why she grounded us."
"You didn't go willingly."
"No."
"Yet now you agree with her."
"Hindsight is twenty-twenty."
The silence fell again along with two more meteors. Alan briefly wondered if the object Elspeth had been tracking through the solar system was increasing the Earth's meteoroid collection at the moment. It would be an interesting topic of discussion in the morning if it was. "Eos on meteor watch?"
"As always and yes, there has been a small increase, but she reports nothing of concern."
It was always convenient to have an eye in the sky for such random questions.
Conversation fell into a lull at that point, both brothers happy to just stare up into the sky. Alan was at the point of almost nodding off, when they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps on grass.
"Hey, guys, watcha doin'?"
Gordon.
"What does it look like?" Was it wrong to feel interrupted and a little possessive of his time with John?
"Ooh, excuse me. Virgil and I will just go our merry way elsewhere then."
"Hey!" Yes, John, ever considerate of his brothers then proceeded to invite them to their patch of grass. Apparently, Sam and Liam had called it a night and their two brothers had consequently come looking for their missing brothers.
Gordon parked his butt right next to Alan as Virgil lowered himself with a sigh on the other side of John. His spacebro muttered some concern at the convalescent which was replied with the mandatory 'I'm fine!' God, the guy needed a t-shirt with those words printed on it. One that glowed in the dark for all occasions.
"So, you guys talking balls of burning gas?"
"Beware, Gordon knows how to manage gas." It was dry and came from the Virgil shaped shadow now stretched out on the grass.
"God, yeah, tell me about it. I was trapped with him on Three for a month once, remember? This is why you don't see me in Four unless I'm drowning." He loved Gordon, but that month had been...um.
"Are you saying I stink?"
"Yeah! Do you have any idea what all that canned cheese does to your digestive system?"
-o-o-o-
John had to smile. The silence of the stars was shattered with the addition of extra brothers. The distant and giant balls of gas still shone down on him, but his soundscape was no longer lacking.
"Where's Scott?" Virgil's voice was quiet on his right.
"Disappeared with Ms Fisher about an hour ago. I think we may be looking at number thirty-three."
"Thirty-five."
"Fine, count the goose, but I don't know where you are getting the other missing number from."
"You don't need to know."
"Virgil?"
A snort. "Don't worry about it. This is Scott we're talking about. He has his own stress relief methods."
"Which reminds me, you owe me fifty bucks."
"Nah, you cheated."
"Cheated?"
"You stole his phone."
"On orders from Grandma."
"Yeah, well, that accelerated the issue to your advantage. I'm calling foul."
"Sore loser."
"Cheater."
"Such a harsh word."
"Wear it."
"Double or nothing on tomorrow morning's contented smile?"
"Are you kidding? No contest. More a bet on how often he visits Raoul or how soon Ms Fisher gets invited to Tracy Island."
He frowned. "Why would Scott invite her home? He's never invited a date home before."
"The fact we don't find that unusual is disturbing in itself." Virgil's words were little more than a grumble. "Never before has an 'interest' been so close to home and so well known."
"Okay, one hundred dollars says he doesn't invite her over in the next month."
"Deal." Virgil's voice dropped to a whisper. "Another fifty says Gordo freaks out."
John snorted. "Sure. Your loss."
Another shooting star shot across the sky as the argument about gas and cheese beside them shot into beans and brie territory and the possibility that Gordon may be lactose intolerant.
This was followed by the concept that Alan may be Gordon intolerant.
John smiled and, as he heard a laugh from his right, he concluded that yes, despite the day's challenges and Virgil's illness, this trip had been a great present and he was a bit sad that tomorrow would see an end to it.
-o-o-o-
End Day Three