The summer before, Scott had met Doctor Hope Dawson at the wedding. The groom had been a friend of his from his USAF days. Hope was a close friend of the bride, having been her roommate at college.
With his father's permission, Scott had invited Hope to the Island. He was going to tell her about them being International Rescue.
x-x
Scott had returned to Tracy Island with Hope the day before. He had been about to take her down to the silos, to show her Thunderbird One, when the alarm went. As they ran to the office, Scott briefly explained everything, asking that this information was not ever revealed. Hope agreed to keep it to herself.
"What we got?" Jeff asked, the office transforming into Command and Control. John's fiancée Lou placed their baby son Tyler in a bassinet in the corner of the room before joining everyone else at the computer.
"A group of hikers stranded in the Rockies, Canadian side. Mountain Rescue can't get to them. We have a few injuries reported" Virgil said from up on Five.
"I'm coming with you" Hope said. "You could use my skills as a doctor."
"Are you sure?" Jeff asked. She nodded. "Scott, find her a uniform. Lou, Brains; Command and Control. I'll fly One, everyone else in Two. Scott, show Hope where everything is. Thunderbirds are go!"
x-x
Scott had taken Hope to the storage locker on Thunderbird Two and she had quickly checked the content of the emergency pack. Satisfied she knew what was in the pack, she went with Scott back to the cockpit where Gordon and John were piloting the vessel. Lou was liaising with one of the climbers and relaying the information to them. There were four climbers, one of whom, a young woman, had broken their ankle. She had slipped and fallen a fair distance. She was conscious though and had, miraculously, avoided hitting her head. Another had a cut to their arm and there were a few other minor injuries.
Scott and Hope had been lowered down with a rescue stretcher for the one with the broken ankle.
"Hi there. You can call me Operative Juliette. I'm an Emergency Doctor with International Rescue" Hope said to them. She had been told her code-name on the flight. "What's your name?" Hope asked
"Trudy. Trudy Morgan" the injured woman replied
"Alpha, you got the Nos ready?" she asked. Scott nodded and handed the mouth piece for the Nitrous Oxide to Trudy, who took a deep breath of it. As Hope stabilised Trudy's ankle, Scott got the others loaded onto the rescue platform. Once Trudy was also aboard, they raised the platform and took the four of them to the nearest hospital with space to land Thunderbird Two.
x-x
"So. Not how I intended for you to find out about this" Scott said as they walked back to his bedroom. They had landed back at base a quarter of an hour ago and would be debriefing in an hour.
"Got to admit, wasn't what I expected to discover today" Hope replied. "Thank you for trusting me with this knowledge." Scott smiled and kissed her lightly on the lips. "I don't know about you," Hope said as she broke the kiss, "but I need a shower. Care to join me?" Scott's response was to pick her up and carry her to his en-suite kissing her deeply.