Seventy Four - BF
Scott had spent much of the morning trying to remember how things had looked the last time he'd seen them. Some things had been easy, such as his family's faces, but others, like the pattern of the wallpaper in the hallway had been just on impossible.
It was time to see how good his memory had been.
The lights were turned down low.
"Now Scott..." Professor Bunsen said, "... I'll take the pads off your eyes. Then, when you are ready, you can open them. Then we'll slowly increase the light levels..."
"I have done this before." Scott interrupted impatiently.
The Professor sat back and folded his arms. "And we are going to do this properly this time. And that includes ensuring that you understand fully what's going to happen. Now... Are you listening?"
"Yes." Scott said with a hint of frustration in his voice.
"Good." Professor Bunsen started his recitation again. That finished he shifted forward in his chair again. "Are you ready?"
Scott bit back a sarcastic reply. "Yes."
"Right. We'll lower the light levels more."
The room was totally dark. The Professor donned a pair of night vision goggles. "Robot Head! These are amazing." He looked around the room. "Why I can see almost as clearly as if it were daylight. I can even read the writing on those canisters in the cupboards. Sodium Ni..."
"Hello! Remember me? The patient?" Scott asked. "I'd like to see the cupboards too. Can we get on with this?"
"Of course!" Scott felt the eye pads be gently removed. For all the Professors idiosyncrasies, he couldn't fault the man's care. "Open your eyes when you are ready."
"They're open." Scott informed him.
"I can see that. Robot Head, you must make me a pair of these goggles!"
Jeff heard Scott sigh in exasperation and squeezed him reassuringly on the shoulder.
"Let there be light!" Professor Bunsen said grandly and threw a switch.
There was a whirring sound.
"Uh, Bunny... I-I think you've just turned on the extractor fan." Brains informed him.
"Oops." The Professor gave a little giggle. "So I have." The fan went silent. Another switch was toggled on.
"Give me strength." Scott muttered under his breath, and felt his father squeeze his shoulder again.
Scott remembered the last time he'd been in this situation, sitting in a darkened room with his family surrounding him, waiting for some sign that all would be well. Last time had been a bitter disappointment. In fact it had been worse than that. What would this time bring?
He blinked. Was his imagination running away with him or was he seeing some light?
He held his breath.
Jeff heard the inhalation. "Scott?" he said in concern.
"I-I think I can see some light!"
"You think!" Alan exclaimed. "Can't you be more specific than that?"
"No... Yes! Yes I can definitely see light!"
"Is it getting brighter?" Professor Bunsen asked.
"Yes! I can't see anything specifically, but I'm definitely starting to see blocks of colour."
"Don't forget that it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to see clearly." The Professor reminded him. "Don't get your hopes up too much. Your body's got to readjust to being sighted again. I doubt that you'll be able to focus on much initially." He sat back.
"You moved! I saw you move!" Scott said excitedly. "I can see movement! Gordon, stop waving your hand in front of my face."
"How'd you know it was me?"
"I could smell chlorine. You've been for a swim."
"Scott..." Jeff squatted down so that he was eye level with his son.
Scott turned to look at him and his already broad smile broadened some more. "Hi Father. You look great!"
"You can see me?"
"Not really. I can make out your shape, though you tend to merge into the background until you move."
Jeff had a smile of his own. "How do your eyes feel?"
"Slightly gritty, but otherwise not bad." Scott stood and turned so that he was facing everyone else. "Where's the rest of my family! I want to see you all. It's been too long."
They were all grinning. The room had an air of constrained exhilaration as if each person wanted to yell and cheer, but didn't want to be the one to make the initial move.
They all watched Scott's eyes, which, although they were bloodshot, for the first time in a long time, looked normal. Instead of staring sightlessly ahead, they were darting about, trying to take in as much information as they could.
"This is brilliant!" Alan exclaimed.
"Brains!" Scott had a thought.
"Y-Yes, Scott."
"Can I borrow your glasses for a moment. Maybe they'll help."
"Of course." Brains removed his spectacles and handed them over.
"I could fix your eyesight, Robot Head." Professor Bunsen told him.
"I-I know you could, Bunny." Brains sighed.
Scott donned the bright blue spectacles and looked around. "Hey, that's much better. I never realised your eyesight was so bad, Brains. Maybe you should let Professor Bunsen look at you."
He received a murderous, shortsighted look from the little scientist.
"So how do we look, Scott?" John asked.
"Gee you guys have aged. You all look so old!"
"Thank you, Scott." His grandmother said grumpily.
"All except you Grandma." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You look as beautiful as you ever did. The same goes for Tin-Tin."
The pretty Malaysian gave a giggle. "Thank you, Scott."
Scott spied her father. "You were right, Kyrano. You've all hardly changed." He sighed. "I guess I'd better give these back to you, Brains."
"I have a spare p-pair you are welcome to borrow. I'll go get them now."
"Thanks. I always liked blue." Before removing the spectacles, Scott took another look at his family. Then his smile faded. "Where's Virgil?"
"Huh. He was here beside me a moment ago." John looked behind him. "Where'd he go to?"
Scott glanced over at his father and then returned the glasses to their owner. "I'll go find him."
***
The first place Scott headed to was the lounge. As expected Virgil was seated at the piano, keyboard closed.
Scott wandered over to him. "Boy! Are you a sight for sore eyes." He said cheerfully.
Virgil looked away. "Really?" he said quietly.
"Brains is going to lend me a spare pair of specs. I'll be able to see much better then."
"That's nice."
"It's great to see everyone again."
"We're all pleased for you." Virgil was still quiet.
"You left quickly."
"It was a bit crowded."
"You know yesterday, when I said I wanted you to tell me about the machine..."
"I'm sorry. We never did get that talk did we."
"It wasn't that that I wanted to talk about. Brains had already explained it pretty well."
"I thought it was a bit odd. You've never had any problems with Brains' explanations in the past." Virgil was concentrating on the keyboard lid.
Scott frowned and put a hand to his head.
Virgil saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. "Are you alright?" He asked, a sudden expression of concern on his face.
"I've got a bit of a headache." Scott admitted. "I guess the light's a bit bright."
"Hang on. I'll shut the blinds." Virgil did so. "Is that better?"
"Not really."
"Do you want to continue this later."
"No, this has waited too long." Then Scott took a breath. "On second thoughts, this is a killer. Maybe we'd better leave it."
Virgil's concern grew. "Why don't you go lie down?"
"Yeah. I think I might." Scott took a step and stopped. "Uh. Can you give me a hand?"
"Come on. Then I'll get the Professor to have a look at you."
They started off. Virgil had every intention of assisting Scott to his room, but changed his mind as his brother's steps became slower and more leaden. He raised his arm and spoke into his watch. "Virgil to Professor Bunsen."
"Yes! A call for me!" In the hospital the Professor looked at his watch eagerly. He'd been hoping he'd get a genuine call so that he could try his new toy out. He adopted a serious tone. "Go ahead Virgil."
Virgil's worried face appeared in place of the dial. "Where are you?"
"In the hospital."
"Good I'm bringing Scott there now. He's got a bad headache. Can you send someone out with a wheelchair..." Scott went boneless and sagged, nearly slipping out of Virgil's grasp, "... uh, you'd better make that a stretcher."
Also in the hospital, Brains and Jeff looked at each other, grabbed a gurney and raced for the door.
Virgil assisted Scott to the floor. "How do you feel?" he asked as he gently laid him down.
Scott kept his eyes tightly closed. "As if Thunderbird Three's trying to blast through the top of my head... and Thunderbird's One and Two are trying to launch themselves out my ears." He grimaced against the pain.
"Okay. Just hang in there, we'll get you some help." Virgil said quietly.
"Not so loud." Scott groaned.
The gurney banged against the wall.
"Shhh." Virgil said urgently as Scott flinched.
The gurney was brought up beside the prone man. "What happened?" Jeff asked as they eased Scott on board.
"Tell you in a moment." Virgil said quickly, conscious that every sound was causing pain to his brother.
His other brothers entered the hallway. "What's going on?!" John asked in alarm.
Alan heard a gasp from behind them. He turned and put an arm around his Grandma. "He's okay..." he reassured her.
"But..."
In the hospital Professor Bunsen was all business. "What happened?"
Virgil pulled him into the hall so that he could restrict the level of noise in the infirmary. He then explained what had happened.
"Interesting..." The professor said and without further comment returned to the infirmary. "Right! Everyone out!"
Scott let out a moan of pain at the sounds.
"But..." Brains began to protest.
"That includes you Robot Head." Brains was pushed out the door. "Mr Tracy..." Bunny Bunsen turned to the family's patriarch.
Jeff was standing there immobile, his arms crossed, a severe frown on his face. "This is my son we're talking about. I'm not leaving."
"Oh, very well." The professor said irritably and began his examination.
***
Brains found the rest of the family in an adjacent room. It was the one that now housed the machine that he and Virgil had worked so carefully on. Virgil was scowling at it as if it were the cause of all their problems.
"What do you think, Brains?" Virgil asked tightly. "Do we run more tests, or do we reverse engineer it to see if we'd made a mistake?"
Brains took a seat and looked at the machine more speculatively. "The m-machine worked, Virgil." He said quietly.
"I know that. But look what's happened!"
"What has happened?" Gordon asked worriedly. "He seemed fine!"
"I-I think that we should not be worried."
"Not worried!" John exclaimed. "You saw him Brains. He was in agony!"
"I-I think what has happened is p-possibly perfectly natural."
"Natural!" Alan exclaimed. "That's not natural!"
"You didn't see how quickly he deteriorated. One minute he was talking to me, the next he's flat out on the floor!" Virgil snapped in frustration. "How can that be natural?"
"H-He has been without sight for a year." Brains explained patiently. "His brain will have 'rewired' itself to take that into account. Suddenly it's e-experiencing 'new' sensations. I-I believe that what Scott is experiencing is his brain trying to make s-sense of this new information. I-In time it will pass."
"How long Brains?" Mrs Tracy asked.
"I-I don't know. It is only an h-hypothesis."
Virgil leant back against the wall and ran his hand through his hair. "I sure hope you're right..."
He was interrupted by his father entering the room. Jeff gave a reassuring smile. "Professor Bunsen thinks he's going to be all right. It just his..." he screwed up his face as he tried to remember, "...his synapse's linking up the ophthmallum with the cerebellum after a period of inactivity. At least I think that's what he said. I'm an astronaut, not a medical man. The words are probably wrong."
They looked to Brains for clarification.
"I-It's just what I said." He explained smugly.
John smiled. "Boy am I glad you're here Brains. I need a translator with that guy."
"So how long does the nutty Professor say it'll be before he's back to normal?" Alan asked.
"He'll keep Scott under light sedation for 24 hours and then he thinks it'll be a couple of months before his vision will be as it was before the accident." Jeff said.
"So, I guess the party's off for tonight then." Gordon noted.
"Afraid so."
Scott had spent much of the morning trying to remember how things had looked the last time he'd seen them. Some things had been easy, such as his family's faces, but others, like the pattern of the wallpaper in the hallway had been just on impossible.
It was time to see how good his memory had been.
The lights were turned down low.
"Now Scott..." Professor Bunsen said, "... I'll take the pads off your eyes. Then, when you are ready, you can open them. Then we'll slowly increase the light levels..."
"I have done this before." Scott interrupted impatiently.
The Professor sat back and folded his arms. "And we are going to do this properly this time. And that includes ensuring that you understand fully what's going to happen. Now... Are you listening?"
"Yes." Scott said with a hint of frustration in his voice.
"Good." Professor Bunsen started his recitation again. That finished he shifted forward in his chair again. "Are you ready?"
Scott bit back a sarcastic reply. "Yes."
"Right. We'll lower the light levels more."
The room was totally dark. The Professor donned a pair of night vision goggles. "Robot Head! These are amazing." He looked around the room. "Why I can see almost as clearly as if it were daylight. I can even read the writing on those canisters in the cupboards. Sodium Ni..."
"Hello! Remember me? The patient?" Scott asked. "I'd like to see the cupboards too. Can we get on with this?"
"Of course!" Scott felt the eye pads be gently removed. For all the Professors idiosyncrasies, he couldn't fault the man's care. "Open your eyes when you are ready."
"They're open." Scott informed him.
"I can see that. Robot Head, you must make me a pair of these goggles!"
Jeff heard Scott sigh in exasperation and squeezed him reassuringly on the shoulder.
"Let there be light!" Professor Bunsen said grandly and threw a switch.
There was a whirring sound.
"Uh, Bunny... I-I think you've just turned on the extractor fan." Brains informed him.
"Oops." The Professor gave a little giggle. "So I have." The fan went silent. Another switch was toggled on.
"Give me strength." Scott muttered under his breath, and felt his father squeeze his shoulder again.
Scott remembered the last time he'd been in this situation, sitting in a darkened room with his family surrounding him, waiting for some sign that all would be well. Last time had been a bitter disappointment. In fact it had been worse than that. What would this time bring?
He blinked. Was his imagination running away with him or was he seeing some light?
He held his breath.
Jeff heard the inhalation. "Scott?" he said in concern.
"I-I think I can see some light!"
"You think!" Alan exclaimed. "Can't you be more specific than that?"
"No... Yes! Yes I can definitely see light!"
"Is it getting brighter?" Professor Bunsen asked.
"Yes! I can't see anything specifically, but I'm definitely starting to see blocks of colour."
"Don't forget that it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to see clearly." The Professor reminded him. "Don't get your hopes up too much. Your body's got to readjust to being sighted again. I doubt that you'll be able to focus on much initially." He sat back.
"You moved! I saw you move!" Scott said excitedly. "I can see movement! Gordon, stop waving your hand in front of my face."
"How'd you know it was me?"
"I could smell chlorine. You've been for a swim."
"Scott..." Jeff squatted down so that he was eye level with his son.
Scott turned to look at him and his already broad smile broadened some more. "Hi Father. You look great!"
"You can see me?"
"Not really. I can make out your shape, though you tend to merge into the background until you move."
Jeff had a smile of his own. "How do your eyes feel?"
"Slightly gritty, but otherwise not bad." Scott stood and turned so that he was facing everyone else. "Where's the rest of my family! I want to see you all. It's been too long."
They were all grinning. The room had an air of constrained exhilaration as if each person wanted to yell and cheer, but didn't want to be the one to make the initial move.
They all watched Scott's eyes, which, although they were bloodshot, for the first time in a long time, looked normal. Instead of staring sightlessly ahead, they were darting about, trying to take in as much information as they could.
"This is brilliant!" Alan exclaimed.
"Brains!" Scott had a thought.
"Y-Yes, Scott."
"Can I borrow your glasses for a moment. Maybe they'll help."
"Of course." Brains removed his spectacles and handed them over.
"I could fix your eyesight, Robot Head." Professor Bunsen told him.
"I-I know you could, Bunny." Brains sighed.
Scott donned the bright blue spectacles and looked around. "Hey, that's much better. I never realised your eyesight was so bad, Brains. Maybe you should let Professor Bunsen look at you."
He received a murderous, shortsighted look from the little scientist.
"So how do we look, Scott?" John asked.
"Gee you guys have aged. You all look so old!"
"Thank you, Scott." His grandmother said grumpily.
"All except you Grandma." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You look as beautiful as you ever did. The same goes for Tin-Tin."
The pretty Malaysian gave a giggle. "Thank you, Scott."
Scott spied her father. "You were right, Kyrano. You've all hardly changed." He sighed. "I guess I'd better give these back to you, Brains."
"I have a spare p-pair you are welcome to borrow. I'll go get them now."
"Thanks. I always liked blue." Before removing the spectacles, Scott took another look at his family. Then his smile faded. "Where's Virgil?"
"Huh. He was here beside me a moment ago." John looked behind him. "Where'd he go to?"
Scott glanced over at his father and then returned the glasses to their owner. "I'll go find him."
***
The first place Scott headed to was the lounge. As expected Virgil was seated at the piano, keyboard closed.
Scott wandered over to him. "Boy! Are you a sight for sore eyes." He said cheerfully.
Virgil looked away. "Really?" he said quietly.
"Brains is going to lend me a spare pair of specs. I'll be able to see much better then."
"That's nice."
"It's great to see everyone again."
"We're all pleased for you." Virgil was still quiet.
"You left quickly."
"It was a bit crowded."
"You know yesterday, when I said I wanted you to tell me about the machine..."
"I'm sorry. We never did get that talk did we."
"It wasn't that that I wanted to talk about. Brains had already explained it pretty well."
"I thought it was a bit odd. You've never had any problems with Brains' explanations in the past." Virgil was concentrating on the keyboard lid.
Scott frowned and put a hand to his head.
Virgil saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. "Are you alright?" He asked, a sudden expression of concern on his face.
"I've got a bit of a headache." Scott admitted. "I guess the light's a bit bright."
"Hang on. I'll shut the blinds." Virgil did so. "Is that better?"
"Not really."
"Do you want to continue this later."
"No, this has waited too long." Then Scott took a breath. "On second thoughts, this is a killer. Maybe we'd better leave it."
Virgil's concern grew. "Why don't you go lie down?"
"Yeah. I think I might." Scott took a step and stopped. "Uh. Can you give me a hand?"
"Come on. Then I'll get the Professor to have a look at you."
They started off. Virgil had every intention of assisting Scott to his room, but changed his mind as his brother's steps became slower and more leaden. He raised his arm and spoke into his watch. "Virgil to Professor Bunsen."
"Yes! A call for me!" In the hospital the Professor looked at his watch eagerly. He'd been hoping he'd get a genuine call so that he could try his new toy out. He adopted a serious tone. "Go ahead Virgil."
Virgil's worried face appeared in place of the dial. "Where are you?"
"In the hospital."
"Good I'm bringing Scott there now. He's got a bad headache. Can you send someone out with a wheelchair..." Scott went boneless and sagged, nearly slipping out of Virgil's grasp, "... uh, you'd better make that a stretcher."
Also in the hospital, Brains and Jeff looked at each other, grabbed a gurney and raced for the door.
Virgil assisted Scott to the floor. "How do you feel?" he asked as he gently laid him down.
Scott kept his eyes tightly closed. "As if Thunderbird Three's trying to blast through the top of my head... and Thunderbird's One and Two are trying to launch themselves out my ears." He grimaced against the pain.
"Okay. Just hang in there, we'll get you some help." Virgil said quietly.
"Not so loud." Scott groaned.
The gurney banged against the wall.
"Shhh." Virgil said urgently as Scott flinched.
The gurney was brought up beside the prone man. "What happened?" Jeff asked as they eased Scott on board.
"Tell you in a moment." Virgil said quickly, conscious that every sound was causing pain to his brother.
His other brothers entered the hallway. "What's going on?!" John asked in alarm.
Alan heard a gasp from behind them. He turned and put an arm around his Grandma. "He's okay..." he reassured her.
"But..."
In the hospital Professor Bunsen was all business. "What happened?"
Virgil pulled him into the hall so that he could restrict the level of noise in the infirmary. He then explained what had happened.
"Interesting..." The professor said and without further comment returned to the infirmary. "Right! Everyone out!"
Scott let out a moan of pain at the sounds.
"But..." Brains began to protest.
"That includes you Robot Head." Brains was pushed out the door. "Mr Tracy..." Bunny Bunsen turned to the family's patriarch.
Jeff was standing there immobile, his arms crossed, a severe frown on his face. "This is my son we're talking about. I'm not leaving."
"Oh, very well." The professor said irritably and began his examination.
***
Brains found the rest of the family in an adjacent room. It was the one that now housed the machine that he and Virgil had worked so carefully on. Virgil was scowling at it as if it were the cause of all their problems.
"What do you think, Brains?" Virgil asked tightly. "Do we run more tests, or do we reverse engineer it to see if we'd made a mistake?"
Brains took a seat and looked at the machine more speculatively. "The m-machine worked, Virgil." He said quietly.
"I know that. But look what's happened!"
"What has happened?" Gordon asked worriedly. "He seemed fine!"
"I-I think that we should not be worried."
"Not worried!" John exclaimed. "You saw him Brains. He was in agony!"
"I-I think what has happened is p-possibly perfectly natural."
"Natural!" Alan exclaimed. "That's not natural!"
"You didn't see how quickly he deteriorated. One minute he was talking to me, the next he's flat out on the floor!" Virgil snapped in frustration. "How can that be natural?"
"H-He has been without sight for a year." Brains explained patiently. "His brain will have 'rewired' itself to take that into account. Suddenly it's e-experiencing 'new' sensations. I-I believe that what Scott is experiencing is his brain trying to make s-sense of this new information. I-In time it will pass."
"How long Brains?" Mrs Tracy asked.
"I-I don't know. It is only an h-hypothesis."
Virgil leant back against the wall and ran his hand through his hair. "I sure hope you're right..."
He was interrupted by his father entering the room. Jeff gave a reassuring smile. "Professor Bunsen thinks he's going to be all right. It just his..." he screwed up his face as he tried to remember, "...his synapse's linking up the ophthmallum with the cerebellum after a period of inactivity. At least I think that's what he said. I'm an astronaut, not a medical man. The words are probably wrong."
They looked to Brains for clarification.
"I-It's just what I said." He explained smugly.
John smiled. "Boy am I glad you're here Brains. I need a translator with that guy."
"So how long does the nutty Professor say it'll be before he's back to normal?" Alan asked.
"He'll keep Scott under light sedation for 24 hours and then he thinks it'll be a couple of months before his vision will be as it was before the accident." Jeff said.
"So, I guess the party's off for tonight then." Gordon noted.
"Afraid so."