2. Parents

The following morning, Amanda was woken by a roar. "What's that noise?"

Virgil glanced at his watch. "That'll be Scott and Alan returning home. Sounds like our cue to get up."

By the time Amanda had dressed and found her way to the kitchen, she entered to see a blond figure with his head inside the fridge. "Good morning!" she said in a cheerful voice, causing the figure to stand up suddenly – too suddenly, it seemed, as he banged his head on the roof of the fridge.

He turned, rubbing his head. "Good morning" he replied, smiling at the pretty girl standing before him and extending his hand, "we haven't met. I'm Alan."
"Hey, Alan is that you in there?" called Virgil, entering the kitchen. The two brothers embraced.

"Virgil, you're looking a heck of a lot better than last time I saw you! I bet you didn't get that tan in England." He turned to Amanda. "I was just admiring this beautiful 'English Rose' you've brought back with you – yes, definitely worth breaking a leg for." He grinned at Amanda and winked.

"Amanda, don't believe anything this one tells you," said Virgil, grinning to show that he was joking.

"It's all right, I'm starting to get used to you Tracys en masse!" she replied.

Just then Gordon entered the room. "Hi, there, Virg. I see you managed to get out of bed at last!" he smirked, then paused, "I'm taking the catamaran out this afternoon to see some friends of mine. Would you and Amanda like to come?"

"They're back again, are they?" asked Virgil.

"Yes, Alan picked up their signals this morning. We're setting off about 2pm. You're welcome to come"

Virgil turned to Amanda. "Fancy a sea trip?"

"Sounds fun!"

So later that day Amanda found herself accompanying the other Tracy brothers and their partners down to the boathouse. To her surprise, Alan and Tin Tin dropped their load of swimming gear outside the boathouse, and continue along the path, waving as the others called their goodbyes.

"Aren't they coming too?" she asked.

"No," said Virgil, smiling after the receding figures, "they've got a bit of catching up to do. This is only a small island, and sometimes it's hard to get any privacy. We just give them some time to themselves."

As they entered the boathouse, Amanda was impressed by the range of craft inside. There seemed to be everything from the ocean-going yacht that she supposed no self-respecting millionaire could do without, to speedboats, kayaks, surfboards and jet-skis. Gordon, however was stowing the gear aboard a sleek catamaran, and issuing orders that his brothers jumped to obey.

Once out in open water the boat sped along under sail "We only use the engine if an emergency call comes in and we have to get back in a hurry" explained Virgil, when Amanda asked.

They had been sailing about half an hour, when Gordon, standing in the bows, called out "There they are!" and pointed.

Amanda looked, but couldn't see another boat. Then she saw a grey body arching out of the water. "Gordon's 'friends' are dolphins?"

"Yes, he's been studying them for over ten years now. Some of them are tagged and we can track them from Thunderbird 5. He's given them all names, and knows who is related to who."

Gordon peeled off his sweatshirt, and with a cry of "See you in a minute, guys!" made a swift dive off the bow.

Amanda watched the way his body cut through the water. "He's a good swimmer."

"Yes," said Virgil, dryly, "that's probably why he's got an Olympic gold medal for it hanging on his bedroom wall."

Amanda looked at her fiancé. "Are you having me on?"

Virgil shook his head, "No, don't you remember the stories in the papers about 'Coppertop' Tracy at the '64 Olympics?"

"That name rings a bell. Didn't he survive some terrible accident and go on to win his medal?"

Scott looked at his brother. "Looks like John was right to get us to drop that name."

While they were talking the boys had been reefing the sails, dropping anchor, and lowering a diving platform from the stern, while Amanda watched Gordon cavorting with his friends in the distance. "So," she said with a smile. "lets see if I've got this straight. Gordon's best friend is a dolphin, and Virgil's is a big, green aeroplane. Are there any other 'best friends' I need to know about?"

"Well," said Virgil, "Alan's got a pet alligator – but it's not exactly friendly."

She gave him a withering look. "Now I know you're kidding!"

"No, honest!" he protested. "It's only a little one." He held his hands about three feet apart to illustrate. "It lives in a pen in the garden. If you ask him nicely, he'll introduce you."

By now Gordon and his 'friends' had swum alongside the boat. "Aren't you coming in, folks?" he called up to them.

The group entered the water, to be met by sleek, grey bodies that slid around them in welcome. "They always seem pleased to see us" commented Scott, stroking the back of the creature that swam past him.

"They'll even take you for a ride if you want" said Virgil to Amanda.

"Yes," put in Scott, "sometimes we can get a couple of them to pull two of us along at once. They seem to enjoy the race as much as we do."

"Here," said Gordon, "I'll show you." He patted the water a couple of times with the palm of his hand, then held his hand curved just above the surface. A grey shape shot up from below and towed him away across the waves.

"That looks fun" said Amanda.

"Yes, it's great fun," added Elizabeth, "though if it's one of the younger ones it can be a bit rough – a bit like being on a very wet roller-coaster." She copied Gordon's movements and another slim form appeared and yanked her away. However they had only travelled a few yards when another, larger dolphin cut across their path, forcing them to stop abruptly. Elizabeth disappeared beneath the waves and came up spluttering.

"What on earth..?" she said, spitting out water.

"They've never done that before," said Scott, looking puzzled.

Just then Gordon returned and looked at the confused expressions. "What's going on?" he asked.

"We're not sure," answered Scott. "That dolphin was just taking Elizabeth for a ride when this one stopped it, but we don't know why. Any ideas?"

Gordon looked at the two dolphins. "The smaller one is Frisbee – he's one of the young males – a teenager in dolphin terms. The larger one is Martha. She's one of the matriarchs who look after the pod, keep an eye on the calves, that sort of thing." He broke off, a small smile forming, and turned to Scott. "See if she'll let you ride with him."

Scott signalled and this time the larger dolphin made no move as the smaller one towed him across the waves. Gordon then turned to Elizabeth. "Now you signal to Martha." Elizabeth did as instructed and the large dolphin towed her very slowly round in a circle and back to Gordon, then circled around Elizabeth, making clicking sounds. Gordon turned to Elizabeth, the grin on his face nearly as wide as the dolphin's. "Elizabeth, you're not pregnant, are you?"

By now Scott was swimming back towards them. "Have you found out what happened?"

Elizabeth turned to him. "Gordon says the dolphin thinks I'm pregnant," she said, indignantly.

"Well, are you?"

Elizabeth blushed. "I don't know, I might be. How would they know, anyway?"

Gordon grinned. "The sonar they use for echo-location can see right through our bodies. When I came back after my hydrofoil accident they examined me all over – they could see where all the breaks had been in my limbs. That was the first time I had got really close to them. I think they knew I had been hurt and somehow wanted to help."

Scott swam over to Elizabeth and whispered in her ear. She smiled and gave him a hug.

"I don't suppose we've got any pregnancy testing kits in sick-bay, have we?" he said with a smile.

"No," said Virgil, grinning. "It's not something we've ever needed before."

"In that case," said Scott, still looking at Elizabeth and smiling, "I think we'll be taking a quick trip to the mainland tomorrow. Alan can cover for me until I get back. No one will be too surprised if I say Elizabeth wants to do some more shopping. Ow!" he finished as she punched him on the arm.

Elizabeth looked a the faces in front of her. "Look, guys," she said, hesitating, "this is a bit personal…"

"OK," said Virgil, "we won't spill the beans. We'll wait 'til we've been 'officially' informed, rather than by dolphin."

"I suppose" said Gordon, with a grin, "that's what you'd call 'sea-mail'"

"Gordon!" exclaimed his brothers, wincing at the joke.

As Scott gave his wife another embrace, Gordon whispered to Virgil, "I've just thought, you know how over-protective Scott can be as a big brother. Can you imagine what he's going to be like as a father?"

The following evening Jeff stood on the balcony watching the sunset. He heard someone come out and turned to see his mother standing beside him.

"Well, Jeff," she said, smiling, "how do you like the thought of being a grandfather?"

Jeff shook his head, "Once I get used to the idea, I think I'll be thrilled. At the moment I'm still trying to get my head round it. I had thought from the way the boys were acting last night that we were in for some major prank from Gordon, but I never expected this." He turned to his mother, "I must say, you didn't seem very surprised when they told us the news."

Ruth Tracy smiled again. "I noticed the way Scott was looking at Elizabeth last night. I've seen that look on young men's faces before when they look at their wives – including yours, Jeff Tracy. It's a sort of mixture of pride and awe, like they can't quite believe what's happening."

Jeff turned so he could see Scott and Elizabeth sitting on the couch. "Still, it leaves me with a decision to make. Do I take Scott off operations now, or wait until the baby is born?"

Ruth looked at her son "Would you have wanted to be pulled off the moon-shot because Lucille was expecting Scott?"

"Of course not! Besides, we didn't know she was expecting until I got back."

His mother snorted. "You didn't, you mean."

Jeff turned to look at her. "Mother? What are you saying?"

"Lucille knew she was having a baby before you left for the moon, so did I. We decided not to tell you so you wouldn't be distracted."

Jeff was dumbfounded. "Well, of all the…My own mother…!"

"And if you had known, would you still have wanted to go?"

"Of course I would – but that was different!"

"Yes," said his mother. "Very different. Scott never goes over a quarter of a million miles from home. Scott is never out of contact with everyone else on the planet. Scott always has at least one of his brothers with him who will do their damnedest to make sure he doesn't come to any harm."

Jeff looked at his mother. "I never realised you worried about me so much."

Ruth smiled. "It's a parent's job to worry about their children." She looked past her son to the young couple on the couch. "And maybe if Scott takes a few less risks with his own skin because he's got a family at home to worry about, then that will be no bad thing either. Now, I wonder where I put those knitting patterns for baby clothes?"