Fork In The Road

By Sapphire

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

Part 4 – In the Real World

Same time but someplace else

A frozen silence had settled around the breakfast table. Virgil, Gordon, Alan and Jeff all looked at Scott, their mouths hanging open with almost identical expressions of shock on their faces. The centre of their attention just looked confused.

"What?" Scott asked, clearly not quite understanding why his family reacted in such a way.

Virgil was the first to find his voice again. "What do you mean with 'Where is Mom? You know as well as anybody here she's been dead for thirteen years."

'And that we don't speak about her, if we can avoid it', he added in his mind.

Joyce Tracy was a topic which was not spoken of in the Tracy Family. Even after thirteen years, they managed not to mention her, though she certainly was on their minds almost on a daily basis. Sometimes Virgil wished they would talk about her, but the few times he had brought her up, one look from their father had squelched that thought quickly. After some time he had just given up.

Scott tilted his head as if he was gauging if Virgil was trying to play a joke on him. But the expression on everybody's face soon persuaded him that this was – for once – not the case.

Pushing his chair back, he jumped up, his breakfast almost untouched. He put up his hands, as if he wanted to fend them off.

"I don't know what you all are playing at," he started, his voice a little shaky, "but I've got no clue what's going on here. Mom is alive. I've spoken to her just the other day. And where's the family portrait in the living room. It's gone! And who the heck are you?"

His voice had risen with every word and he basically screamed out the last question at a startled Brains, who had just entered the dining room from the kitchen. As he was talking, Scott had been taking small steps backwards, until he bumped with his back against a wall.

The family exchanged looks as they tried to understand what was going on, waiting for who would be the first to move in. Finally, Jeff got up and moved around the table towards Scott, who looked at him with wide eyes as his father came closer his hand held out in a placating gesture.

"Son, I don't know what's wrong, but you better try to calm down a little. Then we can start working on finding a solution."

Virgil wondered if Scott would bolt any minute. He couldn't remember if he had ever seen his big brother looking as scared and confused as this.

Scott, as the oldest, had always been the one to look out for his younger brothers. He was the rock they all could lean against. He had helped them out of more scraps than Virgil could remember. He was also an excellent field commander on a rescue, always calm and in control may the situation be as bad as could be. When Scott made a decision he stood by it, but if there was need to change it he was able to make a 180 degree turn at the blink of an eye without any regrets. Though this rarely happened for usually he was right the first time round.

The day before there had been a mild earthquake on the Island. After a quick headcount had revealed that Scott was missing, they had started searching for him. They hadn't been able to pick him up on his communicator watch, so they had spread out. Gordon finally spotted him lying unconscious in an underground cave which must have had opened during the quake. Together they got him out – one of the easiest rescues they've every head, as Alan put it after Scott was safe again – and got him back to the house and into the sick room where Brains checked him over. Besides a bump on his head there seemed to be nothing wrong with him.

Father had consulted with their doctor on the mainland, but since he was busy with other victims from the quake, which had been felt on all the other islands in the area, and Scott's case had been considered a mild one, it was decided to keep him on the island and just to observe.

Luckily, the quake hadn't caused any damage that required the Thunderbirds to go out.

According to dad, Scott had finally woken up during the afternoon. He seemed to be a little confused and complained about a major headache, but else seemed to be fine. Father gave him the pills the doctor had prescribed (the island's apothecary was well stocked and there had been no need to have anything flown in) and he went quickly back to sleep.

So far, nothing really to worry about. A small bump on the head was nothing that would put down a Tracy for long. Even when Gordon had picked him up for breakfast he had seemed pretty normal.

So, why did he react like this now? And where did he get that idea from that mom was still alive?

Father was now only a hand span away from Scott, moving an inch at a time. Scott regarded him with wide eyes, looking ready to turn and run any minute. Suddenly a loud beeping sound from the study interrupted the tableau.

The rescue alarm.

All eyes went to Jeff, waiting for instructions how to react to it. Normally they would all rush into the study, but with Scott as he was, the brothers weren't sure what to do.

Jeff hesitated only for a second.

"I promise you, we'll talk later, son. We'll find out what's going on," he told Scott in a low voice. Then he turned and walked with firm steps toward his study.

The Tracy brothers san Scott followed him.

When Virgil entered the study, John's portrait on the wall had already converted into the two-way communication system.

"... 300 miles off the Chilean coast. I've just got a call from the Coast Guard, telling me that there's no way they can get out there with that storm going on. At the moment the yacht is upside down and the crew managed to save themselves into the hull, but there's no saying how long the ship can stay afloat."

"Okay, John. We take over. Thank you."

With that, Jeff Tracy cut the communication with his middle son.

"Boys, you heard what's going on. Virgil and Gordon, you take Thunderbird 2 with pod 4. Alan, you take Thunderbird 1. Thunderbirds are go!"

ooooo

Even though the rescue went without a hitch, Virgil felt vaguely uneasy for the whole time. As far as he remembered, this had been his first rescue ever without Scott. Even though Alan did a good job at evaluating the situation and guiding him in the correct action from Thunderbird 1, Virgil couldn't deny that he missed Scott and his calming voice.

He also couldn't help to worry about his big brother. What was wrong with Scott? Why did he have the illusion that mom was still alive? Was it the knock on the head Scott had received when he had fallen into that cave? But then, Virgil had never heard about anything like that before.

Scott had followed them after all into the study Virgil had noted, his expression more and more confused. But that had been nothing to the look of pure shock on his face when Virgil had stepped up to the portrait of the tall moon rocket and flipped over as he went on his way to Thunderbird 2. For the whole duration of the rescue, Virgil had not been able to shake the memory of that look.

After they managed to pull the crew out of their ship, Virgil flew them to Santiago de Chile. Then he turned around and hoofed it back home at top speed.

Stepping back into the study together with Gordon, he found Alan and Brains already on one of the couches. Father sat behind the desk. Scott had pulled up a chair and sat next to the desk. He looked much calmer now, though still a long way away from the confident man Virgil knew so well.

Their father waved them to take a seat as well and they sat down together on the other couch.

After all were settled down, Jeff Tracy cleared his throat.

"We do have a problem," he announced. "This is not Scott."

Virgil felt his jaw hit the floor and judging from the expressions on his brothers' faces, he was not alone in his shock. Scott - or at least the man who looked and sounded exactly like his oldest brother - studied some spot on the carpet not looking up at anyone.

"And, of course, this is Scott."

"What now?" Alan asked. "Is he, or is he not Scott?"

Jeff sighed, though if this was because of the situation or because they didn't get it, Virgil couldn't say. Virgil agreed with Alan's statement, though.

"Let me rephrase this. This is not 'our' Scott?"

For a moment 'Scott' cast a look sideways to Jeff, then went back to the study of the carpet pattern.

"W...w...while you've b...b...been out on the rescue I ran some tests on 'Scott' and found that t...t...though he's genetically definitely Scott Tracy, h...h...his Wiebrecht Resonance Constant is off by f...f...five point seven pico-lambda," Brains explained.

"His what constant?" Gordon and Virgil asked in unison. For a second they grinned at each other then they got quickly serious again.

"T...t...the WRC is a constant which is an indicator to what dimension one belongs to. T...t...the fact that his factor is o...o...off by such a large amount indicates that he is f...f...from another dimension."

"Another dimension?" This time Gordon was faster than Virgil in asking the obvious question.

"Ruth Wiebrecht p...p...proofed 2046 that there is an infinite number of dimensions, universes if you want. E...e...each dimension however has its own resonance constant. S...s...o everybody and everything in one specific universe has the same Wiebrecht Resonance Constant."

"And Scott's constant is off by five point seven pico-lambda," said Alan.

"E...e...exactly," Brains said, beaming at the youngest Tracy.

For a couple of minutes nobody said a word.

"And that means ...?" Alan asked.

Jeff sighed. "That means that this is not Scott as we know him. While you've been out on the rescue, we've talked, and it looks like his memory is pretty much in line with what we know until the day your mother died." As always when Jeff talked about Joyce Tracy's death - which was rare enough - he had to swallow. However, he collected himself quickly and ploughed on. "But after that, it's different. In his world, your mother didn't die. And I never started International Rescue. In his world Scott is a commander in the US Air Force, currently home on leave. Virgil and Alan both work at Tracy Industries as engineers, Gordon is with WASP and John is still with NASA."

Finally, 'Scott' looked up from his carpet study. "You gave me quite a turn, Virg, when you did that vanishing behind the portrait thing. I thought somebody put me in a bad movie. Though this was nothing compared to seeing a rocket come out of the swimming pool."

Virgil had to grin at that. Though he was used to all those secret doors and passages to be found in the Tracy household, he imagined somebody who didn't know about them might be a little surprised. Especially, if he thought he knew they didn't exist.

He realized that he had somehow no problems swallowing Brains' explanation about parallel dimensions and that the 'Scott' sitting in front of him was in fact from another one. After all, it explained everything. For once why his brother had reacted the way he did. He imagined if he had been in 'Scott's' shoes, he would have some problems accepting the cloak and dagger set-up that was part of International Rescue. It also explained why though Scott was different, he was still the same somehow.

Besides, if Brains said it was the explanation, then who was he to doubt him?

"Okay, if this Scott is not our Scott, where is our Scott and how do we get him back? Nothing against you, 'Scott', but I'd rather have the Scott I know in the pilot seat of Thunderbird 1 than Alan any day."

"Hey," Alan protested, but was shushed down, when they all began to plan International Rescue's very first inter-dimensional rescue.

tbc

See, there's an explanation for everything. But now, how to get Scott back where he belongs to ...

Next chapter is for some much needed comfort for poor Scott.