Jeff blinked in shock as Virgil dumped his soaking wet daughter-in-law as gently as possible into a chair. Gordon, for his part, tossed a towelling robe in her direction, uncaring that it landed on her head.

"What's up, John?" Virgil asked, turning to address the floating hologram of his brother.

"Other than you treating my wife like a sack of potatoes?"

"Not important," Selene told him, brushing it off with a wave of her hand as she awkwardly dragged the robe on without getting up. "I'm fine, it's all good, carry on."

John watched her for a moment until he was sure she was alright before he answered the original question.

"A small, five-storey residential apartment block has collapsed in Mumbai," he reported, flipping effortlessly into rescue mode as if nothing had happened. "Cause as yet unknown. We registered no seismic activity, but that region is an earthquake hotspot and the area of the collapse looks to be one of the older parts of the city."

"Could be that previous activity had damaged the structure," Jeff suggested. "Earthquakes can weaken the foundations of the load bearing walls, then it's just a ticking time bomb."

"It's highly likely," John agreed. "The buildings in and around the collapse are all in various states of disrepair and likely haven't been checked for structural integrity since the last tremor."

"That's the unfortunate thing in this world, not everyone is on an equal footing, some have less than others and some have too much." Jeff sighed, shaking his head sadly. "Get going, boys, help where you can, Scott is preparing for takeoff and Alan is already waiting in Two."

"FAB." Virgil ran for his chute, Gordon doing the same.

"I'll give you more details inflight," John told them just before they disappeared. "I'm still liaising with the local authority on the ground."

Gordon shot him a thumbs up and Virgil waved a hand in acknowledgement as he disappeared headfirst into the wall.

"I still don't know how he can be comfortable hurtling backwards like that," Selene muttered to herself.

Jeff chuckled. "Brains offered to make him one that rotated like Scott's but he argued that backwards would be more fun," he said with a dismissive shrug. "Boys will be boys."

Selene stifled a giggle at his comment, Virgil was the one she least expected to subscribe to the 'boys' reasoning for anything. If it had been Scott she would have simply nodded and accepted it, that was him all over.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the red nose and sleek silver body of Thunderbird One shot past the window in a whine of engines and exhaust smoke.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" John asked her, although his eyes were focused on something off-screen as he followed Scott's progression into the sky. "Do you want me to come down?"

Selene huffed dismissively. "Of course I'll be alright, it's not like I'm alone."

"I'll take care of her," Jeff promised.

"I don't need babysitting."

"No, but you do need watching to make sure you don't do anything you shouldn't," Jeff insisted.

John, knowing when to back out of a situation, cleared his throat to get their attention. "I'll be getting back to work then but make sure you text me if you need me."

"We'll be fine, I'm going to get changed but if I get stuck then Kayo can help as soon as she's back from her supply run, she's getting us some decent ice cream, chocolate and face masks for our next movie session," she assured him. "So stop fussing."

"Fine, I'm going, I'm going." He lifted his hand in a little wave as the hologram blinked out. The distant sound of rumbling accompanied his exit as Thunderbird Two took off from the other side of the island.

"He's ridiculous," Selene groaned once the boys were airborne, settling back into her chair. "He won't stop stressing, which in turn is stressing me out."

"He's worried," Jeff pointed out. "It's because he loves you."

"I know, but does he have to be so-"

"Full on?" Jeff suggested.

"You could say that."

Jeff sighed, leaning back in his desk chair. "It wasn't just you, you know."

"I know, Alan was hurt too," she said, a small frown creasing her forehead.

"No," he corrected gently. "I mean that you weren't the only one going through it. I know you were the one that was hurt physically, but it did a number on us mentally too."

Selene opened her mouth to argue but thought better of it. "Sorry."

"There's no need to be sorry," Jeff assured her. "I'm just reminding you that John is, unfortunately, used to losing people closest to him. This scared him more than he'll ever let on, and fussing over you is his way of making sure he doesn't have to go through that again."

"I know." Selene smoothed the robe down over her legs, feeling uncomfortably exposed with just her swimsuit on underneath. It was cold and damp and she wanted nothing more than to dry off and get into some warm clothes, but there was little chance of that at the moment. She couldn't get to their room without her chair, which was still down by the pool and she didn't want to ask Jeff to fetch it for her while they were talking. She would just have to put up with it for the foreseeable future.

"It's not that I'm not grateful or that I don't appreciate him," she explained, wanting him to understand how she was feeling. "I just hate that he has to worry at all."

"I sure get that. It was the same when I came home, everyone was fussing around me and treating me like I was made of glass." He gave her a pointed look, she had been worse than all of them, running around after him and constantly trying to feed him or fetch him things he hadn't asked for and didn't really need, just so she could feel like she was being useful.

Selene didn't even have the grace to look ashamed of her contribution to proceedings as she stared at him, waiting for whatever wisdom he saw fit to dish out next. Jeff stared right back at her, not saying a word, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stand the silence for too long.

"OK, OK, I get it, we only did that because we cared," she blurted out, proving him right yet again. "But it was a different situation, you had been gone for so long and they thought they had lost you, they grieved you, you were gone for eight years, I was knocked out for a few days. It's totally different."

"Not to them, it wasn't."

"Of course it was," she insisted. "You can't compare the two, you're their dad, they needed you."

"They need you too."

Selene shook her head dismissively. "No, they like having me around, that's different. They don't need me, they already have everything they need."

"They had the same things after my accident that they had before," Jeff calmly pointed out, steepling his fingers as he regarded her thoughtfully. "More in fact, because they inherited all this. But you say they still needed me. There's no difference. They needed the person, not the things. They need you just as much as they need me, as they need each other."

"You're just trying to make me feel better, aren't you?"

"Not entirely, I'm trying to stop you thinking such ridiculous things, if the byproduct of that is that you feel better, then it's a win-win situation. Now, be honest, do you really think they don't need you?"

Selene stayed quiet for a moment or two. Jeff continued to watch her, though he did so in such a casual manner, his feet now propped up on his desk, that she didn't feel like she was being scrutinised too much.

"No," she finally admitted. "I know they need me for some things, but that's the problem."

"What is? You might have to spell it out for me, honey."

"I can't do anything they need me to do at the moment. I'm useless to them. All I'm doing is causing them more work and more stress. I just have to sit here while they are off saving the world and wait for them to come back and save me too. I'm nothing but a hindrance to them at the moment. I just want to be able to help them again."

Jeff sighed, shaking his head softly. He swung his feet down from their perch and made his way slowly over to the seating area. He lowered himself carefully onto the couch next to her chair, mindful that, even though he was as fully healed as he would ever be, he wasn't as fit as he used to be and still had to be gentle to himself.

"Honey, if you think that all they need you for is physical help you're crazier than a dog in a hubcap factory."

"Is that a Kansas thing?"

"No, that's a you thing, so none of your cheek, young lady."

"Sorry, Dad," she said, but there was a small smile on her face that hadn't been there before.

"Good, enough of your silly talk, you hear me?" He waggled his finger sternly at her but it was all for show. "Now say, yes, Dad."

"Yes, Dad," she repeated dutifully, though she did it with much eye rolling.

"Now, I've got a hankerin' for some monkey bread and you're just the girl to help me make it," he said, getting slowly to his feet

"Woah, woah, wait a minute. One," Selene gestured to her lower half, "I can't exactly walk around a kitchen baking anything at the moment, and two," she paused, her head tipped to the side, nose scrunching up in confusion, "what the hell is monkey bread?"

"Monkey bread is the most delicious thing you'll ever taste, Scott used to be addicted to it as a boy."

"Scott's addicted to anything that's food," she pointed out. "That's not a rousing endorsement."

"John loved it too."

"Oh, you're sneaky."

"Never claimed otherwise, now, I'm gonna fetch your chair and you're gonna quit your yappin'. I figure I can move but can't bake, you can bake but can't move, so together I think we'll just about pull it off. What do you reckon?"

Selene eyed him suspiciously for a moment or two but then she nodded. "Fine, get my chair, we'll give it a try."

-x-

Monkey bread, it transpired, turned out to be something akin to miniature cinnamon buns all squashed together in a bundt tin.

Jeff was somewhat better than some of his sons when it came to taking instructions, he bowed down to her superior baking knowledge and did his best to follow her orders to the letter.

The dough was simple enough to make. Jeff fetched all the ingredients while she read up on the instructions on her phone. As per usual they tripled the recipe, knowing that what was supposed to feed a family of four wouldn't touch the sides with his hungry brood.

Jeff took care of the pan in which milk and butter were gently simmering while she continued to guide him as best she could from her less than lofty perch. It was quite frustrating, not being able to stand up and get involved with it herself, but she managed to keep her complaining to a minimum.

"Thunderbird Five to Tracy Island," John's voice broke through their quiet conversation, his hologram popping up out of the portable comm they had left on the kitchen table. "What are you two doing in the kitchen?"

"Making-" Selene started but Jeff cut her off.

"Mind you're own, now what's wrong?"

"We've received a stand-down call," John reported his tone grave. "We're awaiting further information."

"But you only just left, they can't even be there yet," Selene said.

"They aren't, Scott is almost there but Thunderbird Two is only halfway. They're maintaining their position for now until we know what's happening."

"Alright, son, keep in touch."

"FAB, and you," John paused to point at Selene, "don't be doing too much, and don't keep getting out of that chair."

"Dude, what do you take me for? An idiot? I'm allowed to move about a bit now, so I got out of it to get changed because I didn't particularly relish the idea of sitting around getting a wrinkled arse from a wet swimsuit."

"That's an image I never thought I'd have, nor did I particularly want." He paused, closing his eyes briefly as he prayed for strength. "Just… behave, OK? Do as Dad says." John's hologram vanished with that parting shot, leaving them alone again.

"Why do you think they've been told to stand down?" Selene asked Jeff the moment John was gone.

"Could be any number of reasons," he pondered, his focus on the contents of the pan he was slowly stirring. "Good or bad."

"I've never known it to happen before, have you?"

"Once or twice," Jeff said. "Pass me those eggs, will you?"

Selene handed him the bowl of eggs she had cracked and whisked with a fork ready to be added to the buttery milk. "What happened those times, it must have been early on in the organisation?"

"Yeah, it was. What do I do with these again?"

"Turn off the heat and let the milk cool a little first or you'll cook the eggs when you add them."

"Can do." Jeff switched off the burner and moved the pan aside to a cooler part of the stovetop. "Do I assume you want to know the story while we wait to hear back from John?"

"You assume right," Selene said, busily measuring flour, sugar and yeast into their largest bowl.

"Well, there's one time I'll always remember, not because of the stand down but because of what happened after." Jeff dipped the thermometer in the pan, testing the mixture. "John had received the call and I sent Scott out to scout as I was busy in Thunderbird Three, I think I was dropping off a new guidance processor to Lee for Alfie."

"Alfie?"

"Sorry, you wouldn't know of it. I meant Shadow Alpha, the moonbase we used to run together. Of course, there was a full team with him at the time and I had to drop it off without anyone seeing my face."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why couldn't anyone see your face?"

"Because at that time International Rescue was a secret organisation, no one was supposed to know who we were."

Selene snorted delicately. "Yeah, that lasted a long time. I found out in about ten minutes of googling and that was only because I didn't know anything about you all at the time."

"Yeah, well, that was in the beginning," Jeff muttered, clearing his throat.

"Why is it no longer a secret?" Selene asked, always one to be curious.

Jeff chuckled to himself as he tested the milk again and then slowly added the eggs, whisking them in with a fork. "It was harder than I expected. We had automatic camera detectors onboard so we'd know if anyone took a picture, but there were cameras everywhere and it was too hard to stop them all. Everyone has one on their phone or on their building and, much as we tried, some images got out."

"But surely that was just the crafts? What could they tell from the outside?"

"Well, as it happened, it turned out that my sons were pretty useless at keeping a secret."

Selene frowned. "They were?"

"Scott especially, bring me that bowl, will ya?"

Selene wheeled herself over, the bowl balanced on her lap, allowing him to take it.

"I'm not surprised it was Scott."

It was Jeff's turn to snort in mild amusement. "No, me neither. I probably should have seen it coming."

"What did he do?"

"Oh, it wasn't just him, but he was the worst. He kept introducing himself to people."

Selene burst out laughing, mostly because she'd seen him do that very thing too many times to count.

"We tried having codenames, but they kept forgetting to use them, especially in high-pressure situations. The problem came when one would say their name over the radio, then another would try to be clever and just introduce themselves as Tracy but it was soon figured out. John was just as bad, he'd forget and answer a call with his full name like he was taught at Tracy College."

Jeff poured the eggy milky mixture slowly into the bowl she'd given him, threw in a pinch of salt and, on her instruction, started mixing it with his hands. "For the first few years, people just went with it, keeping our secret to a certain point, maybe out of loyalty or gratitude for us saving them."

"So when did the efforts at secrecy stop?"

"I heard it was after my accident," Jeff said, still working on the dough. "It was reported that International Rescue had gone after the Zero-X and then Thunderbird One came back without me. Scott wanted to go out there, but I'm glad I overruled him." There was a slight catch in his voice that he tried to hide, but Selene heard it, though she ignored it as he wanted her to do.

"I guess the world knew after that," she mused. "There's no way to hide it."

"No, there wasn't, besides I think the boys were secretly pleased that they didn't have to worry about me chewing them out for messing up, which brings me back to the time I was going to tell you about."

"You were in space and Scott was, I'm assuming, in One," she parrotted back, proving that she had indeed been listening.

"Yeah, so we'd been alerted to a fire in Tokyo, I liaised with John in the space station and we sent Scott out to assess the situation and see what equipment would be required, this was in the days before the pod vehicles were customisable in the module, back then we had to guess what we needed and hope we picked the right thing."

"Sounds like a lot more work."

"Yeah," Jeff agreed with a little harrumph noise that didn't sound exactly positive but still a little proud. "We were just starting out, Brains and the boys have done a lot of improvements in the years since, but I still like to think we were doing good things back then."

"Oh, you definitely would have been," she agreed. "I'll admit, when John and the boys came out to rescue me, I didn't know much about you all. I'd heard of the GDF of course, but I rarely followed current affairs. When you were starting out I would have been about eighteen and at that time I didn't pay attention to much other than my own life. And, by the time you started getting more recognition and had your accident, I was with Nathaniel and he didn't let me watch television or listen to the news and I guess the habit stuck as I never bothered when I lived alone. I figured that if anything important happened one of my friends or my parents would tell me about it."

"Do you think knowing about us would have helped?" Jeff asked quietly, covering the dough he'd been mixing with a warm towel and setting the bowl aside.

"With the Nathaniel thing?"

Jeff nodded.

Selene thought about it for a moment or two. At first it seemed like a strange question, she hadn't been in an emergency situation, it wasn't something she could have been rescued from. But, maybe the thought of someone out there that would help you no matter the situation might have been a comfort to her.

"You know, I think it would have. I've been with John long enough to know that he does more than just answer the calls. Yes, he's the first point of contact for people needing physical help, but he's also the one that listens to people, not everything can be fixed with a Thunderbird machine, sometimes you just need someone to tell your problems to and feel like someone genuinely cares."

She fiddled with the bag of sugar she had been measuring from, needing the distraction, knowing that he would be watching her as closely as his son would. "I think if I had known about you guys back then, and I had called for help, feeling like I had nowhere else to turn, I would have gotten it."

"Do you regret it?"

Selene shook her head. "Not now. It sucked going through it but if I had called for help and gotten it, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I wouldn't have met John either. Because I would have been too damaged, too hurt and too vulnerable for him to have been anything else but nice to me. I would have been a call that was listened to and then passed on to someone more qualified to help. And he would have been right to do it." She smiled to herself as she sprinkled cinnamon into the sugar bowl. "It worked out just how it was supposed to."

"That's a good way to look at it."

"It's the only way to look at it," she said, shrugging lightly. "Shoulda, woulda, coulda, as Nan used to say. There's no point looking back, you aren't going that way. If you spend your entire life dwelling on how things could have been you'll miss the magic of what's to come. And honestly, I'd go through it a hundred times if I knew I'd get you guys at the end of it."

Jeff tutted lightly as he moved to the coffee maker. "And you think you have nothing to offer at the moment."

It wasn't often that Selene found herself unable to find something to answer back with, but the pink staining of her cheeks told him how much she appreciated the compliment, even though she would never admit it. Instead, she said, "Are you ever going to tell me the rest of this story?"

Jeff chuckled to himself, knowing exactly what she was trying to do. "Coffee?"

"Always, but only if you tell me the rest."

"I don't think it's as exciting as you think it will be," he hedged, pouring them a cup each and doctoring them to their individual liking, just cream in his, sugar and milk in hers.

"Tell me anyway, before I make one up."

"Now that I'd like to hear." He sipped his drink, knowing he was teasing her but unable to stop himself. She delighted him in that way. She was nothing like his boys or Kayo, she reacted in a completely different way, one that, despite her tough-as-nails attitude and bossy manner, was charmingly innocent. He imagined that, as a young child, she would have viewed the world through wonder-filled eyes, seeing fairies in the woodland and Santa on her roof. She took his teasing in good humour, more so than she would with even Scott, whom she was incredibly close to, acting more like a daughter would with her father. He wished that he had had more time to get to know Rufus Tempest, but the few hours that he had known him showed him to be a loving, kind and devoted father and husband, just as he himself hoped he had been.

"Dad," she whined, pouting out her bottom lip. "Why are you picking on me?"

"Because you make it so easy." He couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips every time she called him Dad instead of Jeff. He knew that he'd been a little underhanded in introducing himself that way in an effort to gain access to her hospital room, but she had taken it in her stride and ran with it. He didn't mind in the slightest, in fact, he loved it. He liked the lightness she brought to the house with her cheerfulness and caring nature that she extended to everyone on the island. If she wanted to adopt him as her father he was more than willing to accept the job.

She continued to pout, making no effort to stop until she got her way.

"Scott had flown to Tokyo in order to assess the severity of the fire and see what we could offer in the way of aid. Our equipment is less about tackling fires and more about saving lives, so we were expecting Virgil to follow along with the Firefly, the Firecat or maybe even the Mole if there were people trapped anywhere. But, as it turned out, reports of the fire had been greatly exaggerated and, by the time that Scott got there, the local authority had it under control and he was turned back."

"That's it? Selene demanded, staring at him like he had grown a second head.

"Yep."

"Seriously? That's the whole story?"

"I did tell you it was probably less exciting than you were imagining."

"I know, but I figured it would be more than that since you said you'd always remember it."

He swigged a little more of his coffee before answering her. "Ah, but I said I remembered it because of what happened after," Jeff reminded her. This was how conversations always went with her, she would meander around, asking more questions, pushing you off into tangents that had nothing to do with the original point, but they were enjoyable nonetheless.

"Yes, so why do you remember it?" She was leaning forward in her chair, her eyes brighter, more alert and interested than he'd seen in weeks. This was their girl, the one that was endlessly positive, not the one they had been used to seeing recently.

"Oh, well that was on account of Scott getting shot down and crash landing in the desert where he met-"

"Thunderbird One to base." Scott's hologram appeared where John's had previously been.

"Talk of the devil," Selene muttered.

"Hi, Son," Jeff greeted him. "What's occurring?"

"All Thunderbirds are returning to base," Scott reported. His words were clipped and businesslike, but the tone and his downcast eyes gave away his true emotions. "Local authorities have downgraded the situation from a search and rescue to a search and recovery."

"Alright, Son, we'll see you when you get home."

"FAB." Scott's hologram cut off, leaving the kitchen a little darker in the dimming evening light.

"What does he mean by that?" Selene asked, although she had a horrible feeling she knew the answer.

"He means there are no lives left to save," Jeff told her gently. "No doubt John will have confirmed it with a scan but if there are no life signs then there is no need for International Rescue."

"But surely they could help in some way…" she trailed off, not knowing what to say next. The relaxed, fun atmosphere they had created as they worked had been replaced with one of sad hopelessness.

"It's better they come home," Jeff told her. "Our primary goal has always been to save lives and if there are no lives to be saved we aren't needed. Imagine if another call came in and the boys had been out all day working there? They might not be able to get to another rescue in time, or they might be too tired or their crafts under-fueled. No, it's better to know when to quit than to keep trying at something that is impossible."

"I suppose I can understand when you put it that way." She sighed deeply, slumping a little in her chair. Her poor boys. They hated it when they had to give up on anyone. Failing to rescue someone was their worst nightmare, one they thankfully didn't have to face very often. But this was different, in this, they hadn't even been able to try. "They must be devastated."

"Yeah," Jeff agreed. "But that's where you come in."

"Me?" She looked up at him like he held the answer to the mysteries of the universe in his hands. "What can I do to help them when I'm like this?"

Jeff sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. How could she still be so blind? Did she not realise that the only thing his sons needed at that moment was for her to be there for them as she always was? She could still hug them, she could still talk to them, just as she always did. And it appeared it was his job to make sure she realised that.

"First off, you can help me finish this monkey bread, then, when they get home you'll do what you always do, you'll make them feel better."