A moment that Scott remembered
There was a moment that Scott remembered with utmost clarity.
He stood in his room before the full length mirror affixed to his wardrobe door, his uniform on, a baldric in his hands, buckling the last pouch shut. It was still slightly warm from the fabricators that had finished weaving it together only minutes earlier, fusing components into place and laminating layers of silicone and circuitry.
He raised his eyes from the baldric in his hands to the other baldric hooked over the back of a chair, its pockets and pouches now empty of grapple packs, launcher and trauma kit. That baldric was blue, like the sky in the morning. The one in his hands was steel grey.
Scott had gone into International Rescue knowing he was in line for Thunderbird One- Jeff had known that at his age he wouldn't be able to take the dirtside frontline role forever so they'd made the plan that he'd start with One, then Scott would take over One and he'd be shifting over to primarily man Three as soon as Virgil had finished training up for Two, which would free up John to move up to Five full time.
While he waited for his 'Bird and was the Jack of all Trades- manning Two, Four and co-piloting Three, Scott's baldric was blue- like One's engine cowling- because she would be his one day.
It had been a thing that people picked up on fairly quickly, that Jeff Tracy's baldric matched the main body of Thunderbird One. What they hadn't intended was for people to equate the grey baldric with International Rescue's Commander. It had already caused some issues, when people wouldn't speak to him or listen to him because of his blue baldric, they wanted the Commander with the grey baldric and said so. Yesterday's mission, the first without Dad, had cemented this. People looked for the Commander, not the 2IC.
He hadn't intended to take up the grey baldric. He'd only ever wanted blue.
Scott sighed and hefted the new baldric, ducked his head, looped it over his shoulder and buckled it into place. It fitted perfectly, of course. Functionally it was exactly the same as his old baldric, but for the colour.
But for some reason, as he looked at himself in the mirror, the grey baldric felt so much heavier.