Chapter 14: Recovery

Scott awoke in a bath of white light. He thought 'I can't be dead…can I?' while his eyes adjusted he realized he was in the infirmary on Tracy island. Scott looked around and noticed he had a bandage on his head.

He started to get out of bed when Brains walked in. "Hey Scott you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Great" he lied with a smile.

After checking Scott's vitals and marking his chart Brains said "I'll go ge…ge…retrieve your father" and left the room.

Scott settled back down in bed wondering what happened and how did he get here. His thoughts were interrupted when Jeff entered the room.

"Good Afternoon, how are you son?"

"I'm fine I guess. How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" Scott shook his head. "Well, the Hood returned and tried to get to us again" answered Jeff.

Scott just sat there trying to remember anything "I don't know why I can't remember."

"What do you remember?"

"I remember going to Japan, but after that it's all fuzzy"

"Well…it'll come back in time. You have some bruised ribs and a concussion, so if you don't rest I'll make your brothers come in and sing you to sleep" Jeff smiled and left Scott who was smiling and started to drift off back to sleep from exhaustion of talking to his father.

Flashback

"…if you harm a hair on her head I will hunt you down to the centre of the earth and kill you!"… extreme worry and fear for Christine.

"Christine it's me Scott. How can you do this? I thought we were family?" …feeling anger and betrayal.

"What the hell have you done to her!...loathing that Christine was being manipulated to hurt them.

Looking at Thunderbird 6 in amazement.

"I love you, Christine"…seeing Christine's eyes change back to normal.

Rescuing people on the London Eye…turning around to see Christine fighting the Hood and losing... a dart in the shoulder, then nothing.

End Flashback

Scott woke up shaken from the events beginning to flood back into his mind. Shielding his eyes from the sun rising outside, he looked around in alarm to find Christine, but she was no where to be found.

Brains entered the room to see Scott looking around frantically. "Scott calm down. What's wrong?"

"Where's Christine?" he almost begged.

"She's right here." Brains pulled back the privacy curtain that was beside Scott to show a very injured and deathly pale Christine in the bed. Christine was still getting oxygen, her arm was in a sling and her left leg was slightly elevated.

"What's her condition?"

"She has a co…cou…few cracked ribs, a gun shot wound to the arm, a piece of shr…sh…metal in her leg from the explosion and…" Brains hesitated.

"And what Brains?" asked Scott.

"She's in a c…coma" he stammered out.

Scott sat there in disbelief "How?" he stuttered trying to be strong.

"The Hood manipulated her mind so much that it n…n…needs time to heal. The thing is we d…d…don't know how m…mm…much time she needs to heal" then proceeded to close the curtain.

Scott said "Can you please keep it open?"

"Sure Scott" smiled Brains who proceeded to check Christine's vitals and scribbled something on her chart. "The others should be here soon and will want to see how you're doing."

Ten minutes later Alan, Tin-Tin, Virgil, Gordon, and John came in the room. Scott tore his gaze away from Christine to greet them with a weak smile. Tin-Tin greeted Scott first and let his brothers visit while she went to talk to Brains.

"Hey Scott, Brains said that you should be out of this joint tomorrow" said Alan trying to lighten Scott's mood.

"Yeah" said Gordon "you don't even have to eat any Jell-O this time" making everyone chuckle.

"Well get some rest and we might smuggle in some ice cream later" said Virgil patting Scott's arm to silently reassure him that everything will be fine. Everyone left except John who waited behind to talk to Scott in private.

"So how long have I been out?" asked Scott.

"About three days" John answered smiling at the shocked look on Scott's face. "It's okay there haven't been any calls for International Rescue, so you didn't miss much…except Virgil and I pulling a prank on Alan and Gordon which was awesome." He noticed that Scott really wasn't paying attention so he continued "Oh…and the news got out about our identity so the press will be here tomorrow"

"Huh?...WHAT?" said Scott just processing what John said.

John laughed "Ahhh…..so you were paying some attention"

"You're funny John, real funny" Scott looked at Christine.

"I tend to have my moments" he smiled then looked at Scott with worry etched on his face "She's going to be fine Scott. Christine's a fighter, she'll pull through this"

"I should have pushed dad more to bring her with us to the rescue…or…I should have been there to protect her…or…"

"Scott, look at me" John interrupted. He made Scott stare right in his eyes before he continued "Don't go beating yourself up. It wasn't your fault, you did all you could do and Christine is probably grateful for what you did"

Scott nodded and locked his tear filled eyes with John's silently thanking him. John hugged his older brother who started crying from guilt and exhaustion. John rocked Scott back and forth reassuring him quietly that everything is fine.

After awhile Scott's sobs died down and John looked to see that he fell asleep. He leaned Scott back in the bed and tucked him in. He knew that Scott's episode was caused by the painkillers, but he was happy that Scott was getting this off his chest instead of bottling it up inside.

John walked to Christine's bed and held her hand. "You're a lucky girl Christine and when you wake up tell him how much you care about him, he needs you…we all do" he bent down and kissed her on the forehand, then he left the infirmary wiping tears from his face.

(TBC)