Chapter 8:

A/N: OK, so, I just want to say that I am not good with time zones etc. Therefore, I just took the liberty of saying that, while it's end of the afternoon where John is currently occupied, it is around lunchtime at Tracy Island.

A Big Thank-You to white rose01 who, despite not being able to write on her own stories, still made some time to look at mine. Thank You!

Thank you all for the reviews. They are always appreciated.

White rose01 – I'm glad you liked the sarcasm. Hope you like this chapter too! And thanks for beta-reading! It is still much appreciated! Thanks for the review!

Math Girl – No, it's not just you… There are quite some reactions here saying that John should be a dad. Maybe he will be… which would then mean I would have to write it ignoring "Unwanted Sacrifice". But that shouldn't be a problem. BUT, I'm not making any promises! I do however hope that you like this chapter as well. And I'm glad you like the interaction between John and Ben. I enjoy it myself. Thanks for the review!

Gismo – Glad you liked the sarcasm! (I like sarcasm myself.) And well done with the guessing. And have you noticed? I updated already! Don't get your expectations up now! Thanks for the review!

Darkhelmetj – As you can see, it hasn't stopped me yet. ;) And I suppose you could or maybe should see it the other way around. "Blowing Up" isn't set in the same universe as "Unwanted Sacrifice", but rather the other way around. That way I can still use "Blowing Up" in other stories, while ignoring "Unwanted Sacrifice"… Of course that will depend on whether I will be writing any other stories after this one, and whether I'm feeling mean or nice. :) If I'm feeling nice (probability of about 20) I'll ignore "US". Anyway, I'm glad you liked the last chapter. Hope you'll like the next. (I promise, no sad stuff in this chapter.) :Hands tissue just in case:) Thanks for the review!

Moonlightbear – Hey, this soon enough? Don't get used to it though! I'm glad you like the characters! No new ones in this chapter though… oh wait, actually, I will mention someone new, but I don't think you'll get to meet that person in this story… No, fairly sure you won't. Lol. Anyway, enjoy! Thanks for the review!

The watch vibrated as the oldest of the Tracy brothers took a bite from his chocolate bar which he had secretly hidden in his room. He knew that if Grandma would catch him with chocolate just before lunch she would scold him and then search every inch of his room to find out if he had more stuff hidden. And he didn't want her to find the ... never mind that. He didn't want her to go through his stuff. Period.

The dark-haired man raised his arm and opened the link, having just swallowed the piece of chocolate.

"Hey Johnny! How are you doing? What have you been up to?" Scott asked, keeping the chocolate bar out of sight, but still looked at it longingly before turning his attention back to his blond brother.

"Hey Scott. I'm fine. I've spent the day with Nicole and Ben."

Scott raised an eyebrow. "Eh, hold on. Let me get this straight. Nicole is your former partner from NASA right?" John nodded. "And Ben is…?"

"Her brother."

"Ah, right. OK. So, what did you do?"

"Oh, we've been driving around, had a picnic, basically just hanging out together." John answered. 'And rediscovered the meaning of the word sarcasm.' He thought amused.

Scott looked at him. "Uh-huh… and you wouldn't have happened to come across some bookstores where they sell books on astronomy, astrology and other stargazing-books, would you?"

John answered with a straight face and laughing eyes: "Actually, no. However I have found a book about the history of certain languages."

Scott smacked his head with his free hand. "Should have known."

John grinned. "So, how are you?"

"Couldn't be better." Scott answered cheerfully.

John cocked his eyebrow questioningly.

Scott just smiled. No one in his family knew about his girlfriend yet. His girlfriend of about seven months. He didn't know why he kept it a secret. Probably because he had had quite some girlfriends before and they never lasted… as girlfriends that is. But something felt different about this woman. She wasn't overly beautiful, but she was worth looking at. Or in Scott's opinion at least.

And the fact that even John, the know-all of the family, wasn't aware of his love, reinforced Scott's confidence that no one knew.

"Have you talked to Megan recently by any chance?" John asked as if this was a common question for him to ask his now stupefied older brother.

"How do you- How did you- What makes you think I know a Megan?" Scott asked, back in control, trying to cover up his slip.

John grinned. "Well, I would say you shouldn't borrow books and use a note from Megan as a bookmark and then forget to take it out after you've finished the book. Especially not if the note contains some… expressions of affection, so to speak."

Scott groaned and hit his head with his right hand.

"And, being on Thunderbird 5 has its advantages. Besides being able to study the stars, you are actually able to see when someone is using some electronic equipment. For example, com-links, internet for chatting, phones." John stressed the last bit.

This made Scott slightly uncomfortable.

"Does Alan know?"

John shook his head. "No, he knows Thunderbird 5's equipment can monitor quite some stuff, but he doesn't know you can see who is working on what stuff at what time. I usually don't look at it, but about five months ago I had to check out the phone bill for Dad, and I stumbled across quite some calls directed to someone in the UK. Now, since you know Dad's sense for security," this elected a snort from Scott, "he asked me to check it out. Don't worry," John added quickly as he saw the desperate expression on Scott's face, "I haven't told him who made the calls and who they were to. I told him that there was no security breach and that he could hold me responsible if it turned out it would be one after all."

Scott was visibly relieved. "Thanks! I'm not sure how Dad would have reacted to the fact I've been having a girlfriend."

John shrugged. "Probably the same as he did with your other girlfriends. Only this time he would probably freak out a little bit more since you've been having the same girlfriend for longer than two weeks."

Scott looked at him. "Thank you for the vote of confidence there."

John smiled. "Hey, I'm stating facts."

"Yeah, yeah." Scott grinned as well. "At least my track record is still better than that of Gordon. Gordon hasn't been able to have one girlfriend for longer than three days."

John raised both eyebrows. "You mean you don't know about Caroline?"

"Caroline!" Scott gasped. "Am I the only one who doesn't know when girls are involved with my family?" He exclaimed frustrated.

Only then did he catch the twinkle in John's eyes. Immediately he became suspicious. "There is no Caroline, is there? Never has been either."

John laughed. "Nope. Not as far as I know… and believe me, I know quite a lot."

"Well, you do have a reputation to keep up, so you'd better know a lot." Scott grumbled good-naturedly. "But what's the reason you called?"

"Oh, I was just wondering whether you've been beating up Gordon any further."

"Don't worry. Nothing he can't handle." Scott replied vaguely, with a grin decorating his face, trying to imitate the Grinch.

John laughed at the failed attempt, knowing Scott would never give anyone more than a couple of bruises. Scott joined in.

"OK, well, I'm really sorry, but lunch will be ready in a few minutes, so I'd better go. See you John."

"See you. Oh, and Scott?"

"Yeah?"

"You'd probably want to wipe those chocolate crumbs from your face." John said smugly. Hastily Scott brought his hand up to his mouth.

"And there I was thinking you hadn't noticed. You're way too observant. Thanks anyway."

"You're welcome. Talk to you later. John out."

"Bye John. Scott out."

Looking at the now black screen with red digits Scott shook his head. John really noticed just about everything. Then the digits' meanings hit him. He was late for lunch! He, Scott, was never late for lunch!

And with a last look in the mirror to make sure there weren't any other telltale signs of his pre-lunch snack he made a run for it.

A/N: Sorry people, even though it doesn't have much to do with the real story, I just had to put this in. It's quite enjoyable, writing these little 'chats-through-com-links'. Consider it a B-storyline. Hope you enjoyed reading this. And don't expect me to update this soon again! I don't think that will ever happen twice!