A BROTHER'S CRY

By: GrumpyMagrat & Magratconvert

Disclaimer: We don't own the Thunderbirds. Not now not ever.

Chapter Twenty-Four – A Brother Falls

Scott knocked on Gordon's door a little after ten in the morning.

"Come in, Scott." Gordon said.

"How did you know that it was me?" Scott asked.

"Because for the last week and a half, you have been at my door at exactly this same time." Gordon said with a small smirk. "Give me some credit, Scott. I've come to expect you at my door."

Scott laughed as he asked, "Are you ready to go?"

Gordon wheeled his chair from the far side of the bed to in front of Scott. "I don't see what good it will do." He told his brother. "It has been two and a half weeks since my accident. Brains said that the swelling has been down for over a week. Yet I still have not had any feeling at all in my legs. Face it, Brains was wrong. This is permanent."

"It's only been a week." Scott said. "It's too soon to be making judgments like that. Your body has suffered a shock. It may just need a little time to recover. That's why you need to keep up with your physical therapy. You never know when you may have a break through."

"All right, let's go." Gordon said deciding that it was worthless to argue. "I just hope you realize that I may never have the breakthrough that you are looking for."

Gordon endured the therapy session, just like he had endured all the sessions in the twice a day therapy regiment that Brains had him on. It wasn't the exercises that bothered him. It was not being able to feel the exercises that upset him so much. Watching one of his brothers, usually Scott, moving his legs and not being able to feel it was disconcerting to him. He hoped that his family would learn soon that it was hopeless so he could give up these useless therapy sessions.

Finally, it was noon and his morning session was over.

"Do you want to go back to your room or directly to the dining room for lunch?" Scott asked. "Kyrano is making BBQ beef for lunch. Man I don't know what he puts in his sauce, but he could make a fortune if he bottled it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Gordon replied. "We'd better go right to the dining room. If we are not there when Kyrano starts serving it, we may not get any."

Scott laughed and said. "You are definitely right there. Our brothers' loyalties stop short when it comes to food. Come on, let's hit the road."

The three other Tracy brothers were already in the dining room when Gordon and Scott arrived. Gordon pretended not to notice the questioning look of his brothers or the barely perceptible shake of Scott's head that he gave them in response.

"Hey Kyrano, lunch smells great." Gordon said. "How come you haven't left us to start your own five-star restaurant? You'd put all the others out of business."

"I could never do that, Mister Gordon." Kyrano replied. "It would be like leaving family."

"We love you too, Kyrano." Gordon said. "And not just for the food. I hope you know that."

"I never doubted that, Mister Gordon." Kyrano said with a slight bow as he went back to preparing the food.

"So John, had dad said how much longer that you will be down on Earth?" Gordon asked his brother.

"Well, I'm going to be here for a while." John answered. "Dad and I talked about that. We decided that since it has been pretty slow that we would leave Thunderbird 5 on auto for a while."

"It has been pretty slow." Gordon agreed. "How many rescues have you had in the last three weeks? Four?"

"Five." Virgil answered. "But none of them were major. We were out and back in a matter of hours."

"Where are Dad and Brains?" Gordon asked around a mouthful of food.

"Dad said that he had a meeting." Alan explained. "Brains is probably down in his lab working on something."

The boys continued their lunch, savoring the food and enjoying each others company. Meanwhile, Jeff was in his meeting. But unbeknownst to his sons, his meeting was with Brains.

"So let me get this straight, Brains." Jeff was saying. "The swelling around Gordon's spinal column has gone down completely, and you find nothing else wrong with his back."

"That is c-c-correct, Mr. Tracy." Brains said.

"Then what is causing his paralysis?" Jeff asked.

"Well, this is only m-m-my opinion," Brains began nervously. "It may b-be psychological."

"Psychological? How can that be? He's kept up his vid-appointments with Dr. Shipman. Why isn't that helping?" Jeff asked.

"G-Gordon doesn't realize that it is psychological." Brains explained. "Think about what w-was happening right before his accident. H-H-He was planning to leave b-because he felt responsible for hurting Alan and l-l-letting down International Rescue. He didn't really want to leave. He loves his f-family too much but he was also afraid to l-let you down again. Now that h-h-he's paralyzed, he can stay on T-Tracy Island and he won't have to worry about that. It's his s-s-subconscious' solution to his p-p-problem.

"So how do we handle this?" Jeff asked. "Should we tell him? Should we tell Dr. Shipman? What?"

"I th-think that at this point that we should do n-n-nothing. It is possible that g-given enough t-t-time, Gordon's subconscious w-will no longer need the defense m-m-mechanism that it has put into place, and he will b-begin to recover."

"Ok Brains." Jeff said. "We'll play it your way, although I want him to continue with his therapy so that if his mind lets him recover, his muscles will be in good tone."

Later that afternoon, Alan and Gordon were out by the pool playing chess. They were both laying on chaise lounges with the game board set up on a table between them. They were soaking up the sun, and enjoying their time together when Scott came out of the house.

"Hey Scott," Alan called to him. "Where have you been hiding?"

"I had an appointment with Dr. Shipman." Scott said.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to pry." Alan said. "Although I am glad that you finally talked to him. I was getting worried about you. You seemed to be having trouble dealing with all this."

"Well it was just my pride that held me back." Scott said. "But I finally got to the point where I admitted to myself that I needed help, and Dr. Shipman has been providing that help."

"Do you want to play me?" Alan asked. "I'll have him mated in four more moves."

"That is what you think." Gordon Said. "What's the old proverb? 'Don't count your chickens before they hatch'."

Scott gave Gordon a wink and then turned to Alan. "Hey Alan, what has Brains said about your arm?"

Alan glanced at the arm that was still in the cast. "Well, he scanned it earlier today. It's healing properly. Brains said that he will probably remove the cast in a couple of weeks. Then he is going to give me some exercises to do to bring it back to full strength. Then I'll be good to go." Alan continued to make moves as he talked to Scott.

"Check mate." Gordon said.

"What?" Alan exclaimed. He glared at Scott. "You distracted me."

"Don't count your chickens." Scott said with a grin.

"Ok, ok, so you guys showed me up." Alan said grumpily. "Do you want a go at Gordon?"

"Sure, I'll take a shot at him." Scott replied. "But first I'm going to get some lemonade. Does anybody else want some?"

"Sure." Came the reply from both his brothers.

As Scott rounded the corner of the pool, Alan yelled to him. "How about bringing some snacks too?"

Scott spun on his heel to make a smart-alec comment, but he lost his balance. Time seemed to slow as Scott fell across the corner of the pool. He struck his head on the pool's edge and sank beneath the water.

"SCOTT!" Alan screamed.

TBC

Author's note – Oh no. Another cliff-hanger. This time we are picking of Scott. Can't these Tracy boys catch a break? Also there was a rework of chapter 21. Nothing big, no change in the plotline. If you want to go back, great. If not, no big deal either.

numbah 14 – Welcome back. Here's your next update. Glad that you love it.

Rachie Loves Donald Duck – Now that Scott came to his senses, look what we did to him.

destiny-angel – Thank you. Thank you for your kind review. We are humbled that you think so highly of our writing.