The pre-dawn light coloured the world with steely hues as Scott gingerly pulled his sore left ankle in for a closer inspection. Out for his morning run, he'd misjudged the height of a section of the path and his foot landed in just the right (wrong?) way to send him tumbling, his ankle buckling underneath him. He'd picked up some grazes but those were minor, what worried him was the blooming pain he could feel- two distinct crescents of discomfort that sat snugly under the projecting bones of the ankle on both sides.

Huffing a sigh of frustration, Scott worked through his differential diagnosis tree before deciding on what to do next. It was more sore than painful, perhaps a 3/10 if he had to score it, not throbbing but steady, so that was a positive indication for just a sprain. He wiggled his toes carefully- yep, he could move them. A little careful unlacing let him open up his running shoe and he could see his foot- no swelling or bruising yet, also good. So 99% probability of just a sprain. He'd be grounded for 24 hours, parked behind the desk with his foot elevated, bandaged and decorated with an ice pack, but it wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Leaving the shoe on for now as it protected his foot and provided at least a little compression in lieu of an actual bandage, Scott carefully levered himself to his feet and took an experimental hobbling step.

Nope. The flare of pain instantly pointed out that it was a bad idea and Scott carefully sat down again. He cast about, looking for a branch he could use for a crutch, but he was on the loop track that ran around the island and right now he was on the back side of the island, a craggy and wind blasted landscape that boasted little more than a handful of scruffy bushes and lichen.

"Ugh, I don't want to do this." Scott sighed and hung his head. Gordon would be in the pool right now and he never wore his communicator during his morning laps. Grandma and Kayo were off the Island and the other two slept like rocks, he knew from previous experience they'd quite easily sleep through a comms call so that left John as the only viable option.

"Scott to Thunderbird Five, you up John?" He radioed.

"Morning." John's voice was croaky, Scott realised he must have woken up to answer the call. "Y'alright?" He yawned out the question.

"Can you poke Virgil with a stick and send him out to come get me? I've sprained my ankle." Scott asked. "I'm about midpoint on the loop track."

"You want pre-coffee Virgil to come and get you?" John teased, sounding somewhat more alert now. "Sure you don't want to limp back on your own and spare yourself the trauma?"

"And get the lecture from post-coffee Virgil while he wraps my ankle? Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, but the most important thing is rest." Scott recited the oft-repeated refrain their mother had drilled into them. "If I try walk back on this he'll throttle me on principle, and he'll tell Grandma."

"Good point. Just a moment, I'll wake him." John left the radio link open as he triggered the wake up alarm in Virgil's room. Scott couldn't help but chuckle at the muffled yelp and subsequent growl of 'what the hell John!?'.

A morning person, Virgil was not.

Scott listened in as John managed to convey the situation to Virgil in terms his recently wakened and decaffeinated state could comprehend. Virgil grunted an acknowledgement, made a reply of some sort to John and signed off.

"Virgil says he'll be there in ten minutes with a hoverbike and trailer." John relayed to Scott.

"I'm glad you could make sense of that, I had no idea what he was saying." Scott chuckled. Around him the dawn chorus of the Island was reaching full voice as more birds woke with the rising sun.

"16 languages, including Drowsy Brother." Scott could hear John's grin. "Do you want me to stay on the line with you?"

"Nah, I'll be fine. Go have breakfast, John."

"F.A.B." John signed off.

Scott leaned back on his hands and waited, listening for the distinctive whine of the hoverbikes, a much more advanced model of the ones back at the ranch. A short time later, Virgil appeared, squinting in the golden light of sunrise and his hair sticking every which way. He was dressed though, and looked alert enough to not drive the 'bike off the path. He parked the trailer right beside Scott and stepped down, crouching beside his brother and peering at the injured ankle.

"Looks sprained." He grunted at last. "Weight bear?"

"Not really." Scott shook his head. "But I can move my toes, it's sore not painful and I didn't hear or feel anything break."

Virgil placed one hand on the top of Scott's foot. "Pull up." He instructed, nodding when Scott was able to pull up against his hand, then moved his hand to the sole. "Push down." Again Scott did so, and when told to he moved the foot from side to side, rotating at the ankle, but that was done gingerly. "Yeah, sprained." He nodded. "How?"

Scott pointed to the section of track beside him. "See how it dips just a little there? I didn't see it and my foot landed in the wrong position."

"Yeah, I see." Virgil glowered at the offending section of track and Scott half smiled to himself. He wouldn't be surprised if that section had been resurfaced by the time he could run again. Virgil was probably calculating the instructions for their exterior maintenance bots now.

"Okay, let's go." Virgil shuffled over to crouch facing Scott and support him by holding his forearms."Up on three. Ready?"

"Ready."

"One, two, three." He smoothly stood and pulled Scott up with him. Despite his near monosyllabic verbiage, the middle son handled his brother gently and with care, assisting him over to the trailer and helping him sit comfortably. "Bandage now or at home?" He asked, holding out a small collection of painkillers and anti-inflammatories and a bottle of water to wash them down with.

"Home and shower first, then bandage." Scott replied as he took the pills, not daring to refuse the medications when Virgil was in this state.

"Good idea. You stink." Virgil said as he swung himself back into the saddle of the hoverbike.

"Hey!"

A/N:

Sprains involve a joint, strains are muscular, both need care.

Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation is the acronym usually used in NZ and there's a lot of debate about the middle two. Going by the information that I use, ice is a nice to have to reduce inflammation, but not a must have. Wrap the ice pack in a tea towel or similar first, 20min on, 20 min off so you don't get frostbite. It only really does anything clinically significant for the first hour or so, but the placebo effect is useful and it's a great way to keep a kid still for a while. Compression- wrapping it in a bandage- is only really useful if there's visible bruising and/or swelling and I recommend getting that done by a professional or someone trained on how to do it properly like a sports physio, especially when it comes to ankles. Elevation is useful for ankles, mostly helps with swelling.

Rest, at minimum 24 hours, is the most important thing. When you sprain or strain something you hyperextend the soft tissues- muscles, ligaments, tendons- and if you keep using it you'll keep overstretching the overstretched tissue and exponentially increase the damage and your healing time. It can quite literally be the difference between one day with your foot up, two days of light duties and then you're good to go or and a week off your feet, a week on light duties and a weakened ankle for months afterwards.

The tricky thing about sprains and strains is that the soft tissue damage can conceal a minor fracture underneath. Soft tissue tends to be sore and steady/constant, fractures tend to be painful and throbbing. Instant swelling or bruising is more indicative of a fracture and the checks that Virgil did would have indicated a potential fracture if Scott had been unable to do any of them, not just have a restriction of movement. If someone reports hearing or feeling a crack or pop, that's probably a fracture. If there's no improvement after 24 hours of rest or putting an ice pack or bandage on makes the pain worse, get an x-ray, there could be a fracture in there.

Snapped tendons feel like and behave like broken bones so they're treated as broken bones until proven otherwise.

Simple pain relief like paracetamol/acetaminophen and ibuprofen can also help with soft tissue injury, but please oh please follow the instructions on the packet. Liver failure from paracetamol overdose is a particularly nasty way to die.

Leaving shoes on or off is another point of debate. For me it really depends on what's going on because once that shoe is off, it's unlikely to be able to go back on. If I can get at the injury without taking the shoe off, or we have to cross terrain like a bitumen car park in summer and I don't have a carry chair to wheel them, I'll leave the shoe on. It's not going to do much if it's a running shoe, but it'll do a little bit, and I want to protect their foot. If my patient is howling and giving me signs that something bad has happened I'll take the shoe off to do limb baselines and figure out what's wrong.

Using liniments like Deep Heat on a sprain or strain isn't something I'd recommend. When the soft tissue is damaged it swells and becomes inflamed. Rubbing Deep Heat or Tiger Balm on it will increase the inflammation, not reduce it, and it can impede healing.