A/N: Thank u for all the reviews so far :D I dunno why but seems to have messed up the first chapter (or at least it had last time I checked) but hopefully I can get it to go back to normal. So if it's the first time you're reading that it's not supposed to be like that. Anyhoo, second chapter up, please review and let me know what u think. I warn u now I have an issue with commas. I dunno why but I put them in EVERYWHERE. I always re read a good few times to make sure I get rid of the ones that aren't needed but I may have missed a few, so for that I'm sorry. Please rnr n let me know what u think :D thankies!

Choice & Consequence

-

"Men must suffer the consequences of their own mistakes and learn by their own failures and their own successes." – Lawson Purdy

Two

Penelope looked at Parker despairingly. "This is the last time we do this." She told him, her voice low and firm. "I don't care what he say's or what I say, don't bring him again Parker." She paused and looked at the doors Jeff had just walked through. "Please."

Parker nodded, remaining silent, following her gaze before turning back to look out the windscreen on FAB 1.

Penny sighed and rested her head on the dashboard in front of her, sitting in the front passenger seat for a change as Jeff had sat in the back. "This can't be healthy. Hell I'm not even sure it's legal."

"With all due respect m'lady, he's a man in mourning. He's coping the only way he knows how."

Penny sat up and raised an eyebrow. "I'd hardly call this coping Parker. This is more like self destruction." She glanced over to the building again. "I don't know how many times a man can see the corpses of his dead children before it kills him."

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing." Parker mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Penelope asked, anger appearing out of nowhere as she turned on her butler. "What are you suggesting?"

"No disrespect ma'am, but I never fully agreed with what he did. A rescue organisation? Fair enough. But to put his own children in the line of fire like he did? That's not right, and now he has to live with that decision." Parker stumbled slightly at Penelope's unwavering face of anger, but continued. "Don't misunderstand me, I loved those boys like they were my own, you know that, and I'll stand by their father because that's what they would want. But that man has a lot of guilt to overcome and a lot of consequences he has to face. And if death is the only way he sees fit, then I for one will not stand in his way."

Penelope opened her mouth to reply before pursing her lips back shut and clenching her jaw. She gave him an unappreciative and unamused look before opening her door. "I'll be back when he's ready." She told the older man, before slamming the door shut behind her and heading into the building after Jeff.

--

"Mr. Tracy?" Dr. Luintel asked quietly, carefully entering the room that held the billionaires sons. "Mr. Tracy?" He asked again.

Jeff looked up from where he stood next to Gordon. "Yes?" He asked, seeming slightly dazed.

The doctor sighed, thinking how best to put his words to the man. "Mr. Tracy, I'm sorry for your loss." He paused. "But there's a rather significant matter I need to discuss with you." He sighed again as Jeff's attention turned back to his fourth son. "About your children Jeff." He said softly.

Jeff looked back up at the younger man. Waiting for him to continue.

"The bodies won't stay this preserved for much longer. We've done the best we could aside freezing them, and they've lasted considerably longer than expected, than they should have done. But within the week they will need to be buried, or cremated, or whatever it is you wish to do to lay them to rest. You can't keep them like this Jeff. It won't work, and… it's not fair." Dr. Luintel watched as the other man took his words in. "On you, or them."

Jeff paused before he answered the doctor, taking in Gordon's features. He remembered so well when they had been full of life. Remembered Gordon's laugh, and his smile. How the corners of his mouth twitched when he had been up to something. How his eyes darkened when he got angry. He remembered every tiny detail about the boy's entire life, and nothing hurt more knowing that it had come to an end. Jeff was aware the doctor was talking to him again, but he couldn't make out the words. They'd become a blur of sound. He smiled down sadly at his son. "I miss you." He said softly, leaning down and kissing Gordon's forehead. "I'd do anything to bring you back Gordy. Really I would… I'm so sorry."

Dr. Luintel watched as Jeff straightened up to his full height and walked towards him. "Good day James." He said, holding out his hand for the younger man to shake.

The doctor sighed and shook it. "Good day Jeff. And please, let us know within five days what you would like to be done with your son's bodies. They can't stay like this."

Jeff nodded before walking out of the room, leaving the doctor alone with his sons. He didn't want to bury them. Couldn't bury them. Couldn't accept they were actually gone. He replayed what the doctor had told him over and over as he walked back towards the exit.

"Jeff." Penelope was headed towards him; the same sympathetic look on her face. "How are you doing?"

"Fine." He murmured in response. "The doctors want me to bury the boys."

"Oh Jeff." Was the only thing Penelope could manage to come up with, as they headed back towards the exit. "Perhaps it's for the best."

Jeff nodded, pushing open the door and holding it for her, she shuddered slightly as she walked back out into the winter air. "It's freezing out here." She mumbled as she headed down the steps to the car. Jeff stopped. "Jeff?" She turned around and looked at him concerned. "Jeff are you alright?"

Jeff's mind was racing a mile a minute as he stood rooted to the spot. Freezing. The word was spinning round his head.

"Jeff?" Penelope asked, running back up the steps to him. "Jeff, what's wrong?"

He looked up at her and genuinely grinned. Penelope was taken aback. Jeff hadn't smiled since the boys had died. "Penny, you're a genius." He told her before running back into the building.

"Jeff?" She called out, concerned at what suddenly had him so happy. "Oh God." She mumbled to herself. "Parker, we'll be back in a minute." She called out to him, as he sat waiting in the car, before running into the building. "Jeff?" She called, running down the hospital corridors. "Dammit." She cursed, finding herself lost. "Jeff?" She called out again.

"Can I help you Miss?" A young nurse asked, approaching her.

"Yes. Could you please tell me where Jeff Tracy will have gone?"

The nurse nodded with a look of knowing. Jeff's visits had been a frequent occurrence and he was well known by all the hospital staff. "If you take that elevator down to the basement level and turn right, it's the second door on the left."

Penelope nodded. "Thank you." She said, before following his directions. She bounced nervously on the balls of her feet as the elevator took her down three levels. Unlike Jeff she had no desire to see the corpses of the boys. She had enough trouble dealing with images of them alive; she didn't need the added stress of nightmares with their corpses in. Slowly she walked out of the elevator and towards the room that Jeff was in, mentally preparing herself for what she would see.

"Jeff, I didn't mean… it's not a fully researched area of medicine. It could have consequences far beyond our comprehension."

Penelope frowned as the conversation reached her ears.

"James, please. I don't care. I'll pay for the research; hell I'll do the research myself. But I won't bury my children."

"Jeff, when you hired me you asked me to always be honest with you especially when it came to your boys, so listen to me when I say. This isn't worth it—"

"Don't tell me what is and is not worth the lives of my children." Jeff interrupted immediately. "I know it can be done, and you know it can be done. And yes it can be risky, but I don't care. I won't give up on them. Not yet."

Penelope heard Dr. Luintel sigh as she stood outside the room, refusing to look in and see the corpses of the Tracy sons. "Mr. Tracy, cryogenic freezing is a highly unrefined method. Even if it did work there's not saying your son's would survive longer than a week, a day even. The gas could still be in the lungs, or the water, and even if we got that out… in Alan's case…" Dr. Luintel paused. "His injuries were so extensive… the loss of blood… it just wouldn't be worth it."

Penelope felt tears sting her eyes at the mention of Alan's injuries and she hung her head, memories of his and Virgil's abduction flooding back to her.

--

"Penny, something's wrong with Alan we gotta go." Virgil had come running into her sitting room, panicked

"Is he alright?" She'd asked concerned. The youngest of the five brothers had been attending a funeral in England, and with Virgil accompanying him on the trip they had stayed with Penelope in her country residence.

"I don't know." Virgil was frantic. "Gordon just rang and said he'd been talking to him on the phone when he'd gotten cut off."

"Perhaps his battery just died." She suggested, standing up and calling for Parker anyway. "Parker ready the car, we need to pick Alan up from the funeral.

"He was calling for help Penny." Virgil told her.

She paused. "Are you sure this isn't one of Gordon's pranks?"

"Gordon wouldn't joke about something like this." Virgil told her seriously.

She nodded. "Okay, let's go."

Virgil had been unable to sit still the entire journey to the church where the funeral had taken place, and upon their arrival had thrown himself out of the car running through the graveyard to where John had told him Alan's position had been. "Alan!" He had screamed. "Alan where are you?"

"Virgil, calm down!" Penelope had called after him, cursing her high heels as she ran through the grass. "You're not going to do anyone any good by…" She had trailed off, as she came level with him and saw the sight before her.

Virgil was dark with fury. "Put him down."

Before them had stood three men, one sat on a nearby bench smiling at Virgil, the slighter of the three. Another stood behind him, at least twice his size and much bigger than Virgil. The third stood slightly aside of them, Alan dangling above the ground in his large grasp.

"Gentlemen," Penelope had begun. "Let the boy go. Virgil, calm down." She had said slowly, placing a hand on Virgil's wrist, noticing the guns the men held that Virgil seemed to have missed.

Virgil had ignored her. "I swear to God. Put him down now."

The man on the bench looked at the one holding Alan and nodded. "Okay."

"Hey!" Virgil had screamed angrily as the large man dropped his brothers limp body. It hit the ground with a sickening thud and it had been all Penelope could manage to stop Virgil throwing himself at his brother's assailant. "What do you want?" He seethed at them.

The man on the bench stood up and smiled. "You."

"Then you've got me." Virgil said without hesitation. "Let him go."

The first man again smiled. "Exactly as expected." He told the other two. He turned to Virgil. "By you, I mean you and your brother."

Virgil shook his head. "Leave Alan out of this. Whatever it is you want, you can have me, but not him."

"I'm afraid you alone won't do Virg."

Penelope had flinched at the man's use of Virg. "Virgil, listen to me, don't go throwing yourself in harms way, it—"

"Get Alan." He'd commanded so firmly that she felt herself comply, despite her not wanting to.

"Miss. Creighton-Ward if you would like young Virgil to remain in one piece I suggest you don't move." The first man told her, as the second made his way over to him. "Virgil are you going to come along or do we have to make this difficult."

"Penny help him." Virgil said again, not struggling as the second man roughly took hold of him. Penelope took a small step forwards but stopped as the man holding Virgil roughly twisted the boys arm behind his back and wrapped his own around his neck.

Virgil involuntarily let out a gasp of pain. "Help him!" He choked, struggling in the man's grasp.

"I thought this was going to be easy." The first man said disappointedly. "Virgil you're making things difficult."

"Let Alan go!" He managed to choke out. "Penny help him!"

"Virgil one more word and you will regret the day you were born."

There was a stirring from where Alan lay and the group of people stopped. "Alan." Virgil breathed.

Alan had slowly pushed himself up from the grass, and touched a hand to his forehead. It was all Penelope could do not to cry, having been convinced he was dead. He had looked at his hand fearfully, seeing it covered with blood. "Shit." He muttered to himself, unable to help the fear coursing through him as what had happened returned. He looked up and saw her. "Penny… help." The words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"Penny!" Virgil screamed as loud as he could. "Get him out of here!!"

The first man rolled his eyes irritably. "Virgil. Shut up."

"Make me." Virgil had spat.

The first man nodded. "Very well."

"No!" Penny had screamed running towards Alan as the third man roughly picked him up by the scruff of his neck. "Put him down!" The man had easily kicked her back and she had landed a few feet away.

"Lady Penelope move again and Virgil will have a new hole in his head to breathe out of."

She had frozen, unable to move as the third man began to hit Alan. Kicking, punching, smacking, strangling, throwing him to the ground. And she had felt sick. She couldn't watch.

"Penny! Penny please!" Virgil had begun to scream as Alan fell to the floor, hitting his head on a gravestone on the way. "Penny! He's not moving help him!" He struggled in the large mans grip. "I swear to God!" He spat at the first man. "I swear to God, leave him the fuck alone! Leave him alone!" He repeated, growing more and more angry as the third man continued to attack his brother. "Please!"

The first man had shaken his head. "It's your own fault Virg. All you had to do was come away nicely."

"Please!" Virgil had repeated, his voice hoarse as tears began to form. "Leave him alone! Penny!"

She had looked at Virgil helplessly. "I can't." She told him, her voice nearly gone, as she watched the man holding Virgil place his gun to his temple.

"You bitch! Help him! Forget me just help him! He's just a kid! Penny, PLEASE!" Virgil had screamed at her, as the third man held Alan in a vice like grip around his neck. "Please." Virgil began to sob as his brother dropped to the floor one last time. "Please."

"Miss. Creighton-Ward." The first man said, walking towards where Alan's limp body lay. He prodded at Alan's side with his foot. The blonde didn't stir. "You will take these." He told her, bending down and removing Alan's watch. He held his hand out as the man holding Virgil roughly pulled of his of Virgil's arm. "You will tell Jeff that Alan is upset over the funeral and that he and Virgil are staying an extra few days to recover." He dropped the communicators at her feet. "If you do anything otherwise. I will kill them." He motioned at the two brothers. "And I will know… Understand?"

She had nodded, and the three men had drug away Virgil and Alan, leaving her alone in the graveyard. It had been the last time she saw them alive.

--

"Then it's agreed." Jeff's words brought her back to the present.

Dr. Luintel sighed. "I won't promise this will work Jeff."

"I'll make it work. This time, I'll get it right for them."