Fork In The Road

By Sapphire

Disclaimer is in chapter 1

Part 8 – Two Scotts

Joyce struggled to get back to the house, but Scott and Gordon each held one of her arms, pulling her towards the jungle.

"Let me go," she hissed, but both brothers refused to let go.

"Come, mom," Gordon almost pleaded. "We have to hide."

"Your father…," she started, but Scott interrupted her.

"He will be fine. Those guys are after money, nothing else. I'm sure those were only warning shots. Dad will be fine."

Finally, Joyce accepted the help of her sons and followed them down a small path cut through the jungle.

They had come maybe five hundred yards, when they heard somebody else coming from up ahead. Scott and Gordon pulled their mother into the bushes, hunkering down behind some large leaved plant.

The sound of running feet came closer, until they saw a dark-haired man turning around a corner in the path.

It was a very familiar looking man.

"Scott!" Joyce couldn't help calling out.

Scott – that was the one who was crouched down next to her – couldn't exactly blame her. He stood up, forgetting that they were supposed to hide.

There on the path directly in front of them, stood an exact copy of himself. Same dark hair, same eyes, same dimples, same everything. Even the small cut on their foreheads from the fall into the cave the other day was identical. The only difference was his clothing.

The other Scott had stopped and tried to peer into the gloom of the forest.

"Mom?" he called softly.

Joyce stepped back onto the path, followed by Scott and Gordon.

"Scott?" she said, looking confused from one Scott to another. Gordon mirrored her look of utter confusion.

The newcomer saw Scott and his eyes widened. "Wow, this is weird."

Scott swallowed. "You can say that again. What's going on here? Who are you?"

The other Scott grinned. "I'm you. And you are me. Brains had this long explanation about parallel dimensions and such, but he'd better explain when you're back."

Scott only registered that the other him had said 'Brains'.

"You know Brains?!?," he exclaimed grabbing the other man at the arm. For a moment he had forgotten about the danger they were in. This other Scott knew Brains. And if the other him knew Brains and he really existed, than he wasn't crazy after all, and everything was well. Scott didn't know if he ever had felt so relieved in his life.

"Yeah, I do. To make a long story short, there are an infinite number of parallel dimensions. During that earthquake, you and I swapped places. Brains figured it out, and now your Virgil came over with me to get you back. I was supposed to wait in the cave, but then I heard the shooting and had to investigate."

Parallel dimensions. Wow, that was a lot to swallow.

But there were more pressing matters. "You said my Virgil is here as well?"

"Yes, he headed for the house to find you. What is going on there? What is that about the shooting?"

Joyce and Gordon had finally come over their surprise at seeing two Scotts standing there, and rushed to bring the other Scott up to date.

Scott saw that the other Scott took his mother in his arms, giving her a quick hug. He whispered something into her ear, but couldn't hear what he was saying. As it really wasn't his business, he didn't pry.

"Okay," he took control. "Is Virgil armed?"

'Scott' nodded. "He mentioned something about a knockout gun. I wasn't too happy at first that he brought a gun over, but in retrospect, it seems like it was a good idea after all."

Good. That meant Virgil would be able to defend himself. Knowing him, his younger brother wouldn't just ignore a situation like this. He would try to help.

Scott wished he had a way to contact Virgil. But his watch had been smashed when he had fallen into that cave, and anyway, without Thunderbird 5 as a relay station, it wouldn't work.

"Good. Gordon, you bring mother to someplace safe. Scott and I will head back and try to locate Virgil. Knowing him, he's already working on reducing the numbers of those pirates. This means he should have some extra weapons we can use."

"But…" Gordon started to protest, but 'Scott' cut him off.

"Scott is right. You protect mom. We can handle this."

Gordon looked from one identical brother to the other as if he wanted to protest, but then nodded, though clearly not happy.

"You know it's not fair having two of you bossing me around," he said, as he took Joyce's arm and started to move down the path.

Obviously, Joyce wasn't happy about the situation herself, but saw the wisdom in their plan and followed her second youngest son.

"You two be careful," they heard her say, as she rounded the corner in the path.

ooooo

The two Scotts aimed their steps back to the house. They hadn't come more than two hundred yards when they heard a sound coming from up ahead. Immediately they split up, hiding to either side of the path. A second later, a man came into view. He was holding a gun.

Scott and 'Scott' looked at each other through the foliage. Thinking the same thing, they had no problem coming up with a plan on the spot.

'Scott' made to move a few leaves and the man on the path looked to the left.

"Hey, come out of there," he yelled, pointing his gun into the greenery.

"Please, don't shoot," 'Scott' called back, his voice sounding sufficiently subdued. He made a big show of working his way out of the foliage, making as much noise as possible.

Under the cover of that noise, Scott also made his way back to the path, his knife ready in his hand. He didn't feel comfortable to attack a man with just a knife, especially when that man had a gun in his hands. But it had to be done, and so he would do it.

'Scott' was now on the path, holding his hands in the air, eyeing the gun in the man's left hand with obvious fear.

"Please, I will do whatever you want," he whined as if he were scared half to death.

The man's concentration was fully on 'Scott'.

Scott came from behind, reaching with his left arm around and over the man's arms, pressing them down. With his right he placed the knife at the man's throat.

"Drop the gun," he whispered into the man's ear.

The man, feeling the cold steel pressing against his throat, did as he was told. 'Scott' wasted no time to pick up the gun and cover him, as Scott stepped back and out of reach.

The two men exchanged grins.

"We need to tie him somehow," 'Scott' said, looking at the stranger with calculating eyes.

Scott nodded. "We also should gag him, so he can't warn his friends."

"Good idea."

Waving with the gun, 'Scott' directed the stranger off the path and towards a tall, out of sight palm tree. They used his belt and shoelaces to tie him down and his shirt to gag him. After they were satisfied that the man wouldn't get away on his own or call for help, they returned to the path.

"How good a shot are you?" 'Scott' asked, studying the gun he was holding.

"I'm so-so to be honest. I did pass the test, but that's about it. What about you?"

'Scott' snorted. "Same here. Give me a plane to fly any day, but shooting … it's just not really my thing."

They grinned at each other.

"You should have a go on Thunderbird 1 one day. That is flying," Scott said, as they turned their steps back towards the house.

"Hmmm," the other 'Scott' said noncommittal. "You think we can visit each other's world once this is over? I wouldn't mind taking a shot at that bird of yours. How fast is she going anyway?"

Scott didn't need any prompting to talk about his beloved rocket plane.

Now that there was a logical explanation to the whole situation, all the tension of the last two days fell off him. Okay, walking next to an identical copy of oneself wasn't exactly normal, but at least he now knew that what he had remembered as his life was in fact true. He loved the life he was living, loved to work for International Rescue, loved the excitement, the danger and the plain good feeling when he and his brothers were saving lives around the world.

He believed that if he had dreamt it all up, as he had thought for a while and there would have been no International Rescue, he would have somehow learned to live with it as well. Was it in this dimension or back in his own, his family was still his family. He knew they would have helped him to put his life together. But he also knew that a big chunk of who he was would have been missing forever.

They reached the back door to the kitchen and keyed it open. The room seemed to be empty, so they stepped inside, weapons at the ready.

"Dad was in the lower living room when those goons showed up. Maybe we should head there?"

'Scott' shook his head. "No, he should be safe for now. But there're still a couple of them searching the place, if the one we caught is any indication. It would be better to take care of them first."

Scott thought for a moment, but then nodded. "Okay. Let's head for the bedrooms then."

A sudden crashing sound made them whirl toward the storage area to the left of the kitchen. There were a couple of rooms there: a large walk-in freezer and some dry storage rooms. With the island as remote at it was, they usually bought food in bulk once a month and needed lots of space to store it.

'Scott' with the gun took the lead, the other Scott only a step behind.

Suddenly a blond head popped up from around the corner.

'Scott' exhaled deeply. "Alan. What are you doing back there?"

"Playing hide and seek. What did you think, Scott?" The youngest Tracy came in full view.

As he caught sight of his oldest brother and one who looked identical to his oldest brother, his eyes grew as wide as saucers and his mouth dropped open.

"Holy cow!"

He blinked, obviously believing he was having hallucinations. But as he opened his eyes, there were still two Scotts there.

"What …? How …?"

"We'll explain later," 'Scott' stepped in. "Have you seen any of those goons searching the house?"

It still took a moment for Alan to get his voice back, but then he reacted to his big brother's voice of authority. A grin spread over his face.

"Yep. He's back there," he pointed over his shoulder. "He must have had a run-in with a frying pan, because he's not talking."

Now the two Scotts could see that Alan was holding a large, heavy frying pan in his hand.

"You clobbered him with a pan," Scott noted impressed. "Is he still alive?"

"I don't know. I heard you in the kitchen and had no time to check yet."

They all moved into the storage room where one of the pirates was sprawled on the ground. A thin trickle of blood was running down his face, but he seemed to be breathing all right. Scott still checked for a pulse and found its steady beat without problems.

"We could lock him in here," he proposed.

"Where is his gun?" 'Scott' asked Alan.

Alan dove behind one of the shelves, pulling out the goon's gun. "He dropped it when I hit him," he explained, clearly pleased with himself. As he had every right to be.

"Do you know how to handle a gun?" Scott asked, reaching for the weapon. He knew his Alan could handle a gun – in fact he was the best shot of the brothers – but wasn't so sure about this version of Alan. He didn't even know what this Alan was doing for a living. Though Scott was sure whatever it was, it had something to do with very fast cars.

Alan nodded, looking insulted. "You know I do, Scott," he said, retaining the hold on the gun. "Or are you maybe not Scott?" he asked, suddenly apprehensive. "Why are there two of you?"

They explained the situation to him as quickly as possible, as they locked the storage room with the bad guy inside.

"This is weird," he exclaimed, after they headed back to the kitchen. "Two of you. As if one oldest brother wasn't enough. How am I going to keep you apart?"

"Believe me," 'Scott' said, "it's at least as weird to us."

tbc

As you can see, even without 'real' weapons, the Tracy boys know how to handle bad guys. The pirates have no idea what's coming at them.

The next chapter is the one where Virgil gets … well, you got to read it ;)