Yarol asks: For Whumptober, #15 the Mechanic and Brains?

Prompts chosen: New Scars/Breathing Through The Pain


Characters: Brains, The Mechanic

Warnings: Burns


The flash had blinded Tracy Island. Once more Scott threw his binoculars aside and strode from the balcony muttering to himself.

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks since they had 'rescued' the Mechanic from the clutches of both the Hood and the GDF.

This was their first test since then, and Scott had been so hopeful. They all had been. Brains looked after their Commander, but then turned to the man beside him.

'I-I-It's early d-d-days.'

The Mechanic shrugged off his hand and stormed off back to the lab. Brains sighed and set off after him, MA whistling beside him.

'I know, MAX, but he has been through so much. He doesn't have the confidence in the T-Drive that he should have.'

*Whistle-beep-beep*

'Ye-yes, MAX. You are absolutely right.'

The next few months were busy. It wasn't just building and testing the T-Drive, but designing a whole new ship, one that would fit every Thunderbird in its design yet allow them to separate out into their individual ships as needed, and a launch platform.

Life didn't stop for International Rescue either, which meant Brains was sometimes split four ways with his time. The Mechanic only had one task – build the T-Drive.

Today was no worse than any other. The Mechanic had made good progress and he was actually happy. The thought made him scowl at himself. One more day and they would have a new T-Drive complete to test. Maybe it would be enough to get Scott Tracy off his back.

He sighed. He couldn't blame the man for his feelings, Scott had been quite right when he had pointed out that he had tried to kill all of his brothers at some point. Didn't matter that some of those times were due to the control the Hood had over him.

The Mechanic understood that there would be little or no forgiveness for his actions. He swore, throwing the tool he was using across the room.

Damn the Hood! He'd destroyed not only the Mechanic's future back then, he'd guaranteed no future ever, not with any hope of doing good. It was particularly galling when surrounded by people whose whole lives revolved around the doing of good.

Reaching across, he picked up the welder and began again. Planning to get this unit build for tomorrow was a pressure in and of itself.

So lost in thought was he that he didn't hear Brains and MAX enter the workshop. He didn't hear the man talking to that robot of his, didn't register the beeping that was the bot's replies.

Didn't hear when Brains ask if he wanted a coffee.

Brains, no stranger to being so involved in his work that he forgot to eat and drink, had taken it upon himself to ensure that the Mechanic didn't suffer the same way. If they were to finish the T-Drive then he needed to keep the engineer designing her in the best condition possible.

So he carefully placed the coffee within the Mechanic's eyesight. He was not prepared for the man's reactions.

Seeing something appearing in his eyeline, the Mechanic reacted badly, jumping up and away. There was the sound of smashing and the smell of burning.

The mechanic blinked. One minute ago he had been welding, the next he was across the workshop, Brains was on the floor holding his arm as if it was hurt, and MAX was standing between the two, threatening him with…a whisk?

'It-it-it's ok, MAX! Stand-stand down.'

The robot didn't move, beeping angrily. There was a pounding on the door and Virgil rushed in once Brains had released it, Scott hot on his heels.

Brains spun around, now standing between the Mechanic and the Tracy boys. Scott's nostrils flared at the sight, but Brains held out a hand.

'M-m-my fault. I su-su-surprised him, Scott. He di-di-didn't mean to!.'

Scott growled but did little more. He of all people knew what it was like to have reflexes like that. He turned to his brother.

'Check everyone out and report back.

'Everyone?'

Scott gestured to the Mechanic. The man looked down. Sure enough there was a new wound there. He'd somehow managed to burn his arm with the welder. Virgil stepped forward and the Mechanic automatically held his arm closer, away from the medic.

Virgil held his hands up and backed away, turning to Brains and checking his arm out. The Medscanner showed only a sprained wrist, and Virgil sighed in relief. It was an easy fix and he backed away to fetch the machine that would fix it, leaving Brains to deal with the Mechanic.

Brains moved forward. The Mechanic was breathing hard, the burn was painful and now that he was aware of it the pain was overwhelming. He allowed the man to gently take his arm and lead him back to the workstation and sat him down before Brains bustled away out of the room.

He was back quickly, balm and bandages in hand. Neither said anything as Brains liberally applied the cream and then covered and wrapped his arm. Once he had done they both sat back and regarded each other silently.

'Ya-ya-you're going to have a n-n-nice new scar th-th-there.'

'I think you might be right.'

'How cl-cl-close are you to f-f-finishing?'

'Practically done. You can finish it and it will still be ready for tomorrow's test.'

'That is g-g-good news.'

The pair got back to work, the Mechanic sitting and directing Brains and by the end of the day they had finished the T-Drive test unit.

The next day the sky outside Tracy Island lit up again, but this time it wasn't due to an explosion.

It worked.

The T-Drive was ready.

The Mechanic smiled.