Hey guys! Long time no see! Finals are evil things (evil, nasty, insert any word you like that fits with the ones before things) and i was unable to do anything but study and write papers. Then the removal from the dorm commenced...you see the problem. But i'm finally back and maybe with this summer we will see then end of this. Pray hard.

Hope you enjoy, think ofthis as a Christmas present in July...ok May sort of thing.Please let me know what you think and hope this chapter finds you all well

Miss Elizabeth

P.S. I already got one review disliking Lona being a better pilot then Scott. I shall reiterate my stance on this.

Lona is a great pilot. So is Scott. Scott is probably ( i would think definetely) better thenLona.Lona likes to fly and fly fast.Therefore, she likes THUNDERBIRD 1. TB 1 is Scott's baby and no one will ever take that away from him. So, Lona good, Scott better.

There. Hope my stance is clear.

Chapter 33: Changes

Scott sat back from the computer screen, clicked his mouse once, and sighed with relief. It had taken two days, but he had finally finished his report on the Moscow incident. A bomb had been planted in a bank, while hostages had been tied up inside. The terrorists were going to set off the bomb if their demands were not met. They also threatened to set it off prematurely if anyone tried to get too close. The Thunderbirds had used their equipment and machines to set down on the roof of the building undetected and infiltrate the building. A few hours later, it was all over; the bomb defused, the hostages rescued and freed, and the bad guys turned over to the police.

We couldn't have done it without Lona, though. He ran his hand through his sandy hair and smiled, thinking back on the hard mission. Knowing that he and his sons would be needed inside, Jeff had agreed for Lona to run the equipment set up on the roof and monitor the operatives and the heat signatures of the people, both hostile and friendly, inside. She had been superb, and had saved at least three of the brother's lives with her quick contacts concerning the movement of the hostiles. Things could have gone a lot differently if she had not been there.

Stretching, he logged off, and meandered down the hallway, no particular destination in mind. When he heard racing footsteps, he waited till the last possible moment, then spun around and caught the unsuspecting brother off guard. Looking down at Gordon's surprised face, he laughed.

"Where's the fire, Gordo?"

"No fire, bro. Just something you might want to see." Scott allowed his younger brother to lead him down to the training room. When he saw the simulation booth was in use, he turned on his leader.

"What's going on, Gordon?" Grinning, the young man gestured to the screen showing the progress of the participant.

"See for yourself." Moving closer to the plasma screen, Scott watched as THUNDERBIRD 1 executed a difficult maneuver, trying to outrun and out fly the missile directly behind it. Tapping one part of the screen, he changed the picture to the interior of the sim capsule. He watched as the pilot flipped the control almost 180 degrees sending the ship into a controlled dive straight down to the ground below. Right before the point of no return, they banked right and barely cleared the tree tops. After several minutes of death-defying stunts, the missile detonated in the ocean, and THUNDERBIRD 1 soared off home.

Stepping out of the way as the door slowly lifted up, Scott grinned at the pilot.

"Hope you never have to actually do any of those stunts you pulled. Dad'd have a fit." Lona smiled.

"More like you would. I know how protective you are of her. You'd kick me from here to tomorrow if I did anything to harm your 'bird." They both smiled as Gordon enjoyed a large laugh at Scott's expense.

"That was pretty fancy flying, though. You didn't tell me you were practicing." Lona looked slightly embarrassed.

"I…I just thought that I should be ready in case you ever needed an extra pilot." Scott watched as his usually sure friend sheepishly looked away as her dream was given voice. He knew how much she loved flying, but had obviously not been able to indulge that love for several years. Clapping a friendly hand on her shoulder, he laughed.

"Just don't show dad that tape or I'll be out of a job."

"Yeah, right." The sim chamber reverberated with laughter.

The next day, Scott gave his dad the look at breakfast. Jeff nodded and then turned back to his conversation with Brains. In the Tracy family, everyone knew the look when it was given to them. It was a way to communicate the need to talk to that person without everyone knowing. Scott used this non-verbal communication technique often with his father and Virgil, because he had never wanted his younger brothers to worry about what he might be wanting to talk about or trying to listen in, in case it might pay to hear some juicy tidbit. He knew his brothers well.

After breakfast, Jeff retired to his office to work on Tracy Enterprises and THUNDERBIRDS paper work. Roughly an hour of decent work time later, the door slide open to reveal his eldest son. Spinning slowly around to face him, Jeff favored Scott with one long, measured look. Nodding to the couch, he shifted his chair till it faced that corner of the room.

"You have something you need to tell me, Scott."

"Yes. Dad, we've both been discussing how IR has been growing. With more and more people trusting us and believing in us, we've had a record number of calls. And, as much as I hate to admit it, often on those rescues we've needed at least one other pair of hands." Jeff sighed.

"I know, Scott and I agree with you. But we started this operation as a family organization and I just can't agree to loosing that."

"I don't think we should. I think if the THUNDERBIRDS cease to be our family, we will loose our edge, our ability to work so well together and carry out these successful rescues."

"Then what do you suggest, Scott" The younger man leaned forward slowly and steepled his fingers together.

"Let Lona become one of us." Scott had prepared himself for a storm, for an explosion, for anything but what he got. Jeff stared at him for several minutes, then swiveled back to face his desk. Glancing at the video link between the base and THUNDERBIRD 5, he nervously grabbed a pile of papers and began shuffling them into a neat stack. Suddenly, he looked down and realized that he was mixing a labor report and the financial report for two separated Tracy Enterprises factories. Hastily setting them aside, he turned back to his expectant son.

"Believe it or not, Scott, I have thought hard over that very thought. I know she would be a great addition to the organization. She has many qualifications, some which would be of great use to us in dangerous situation that would require both of yours' military backgrounds. But I just can't ask it of her. Scott, as much as I, you, and everyone else on this island wants her to stay, she is free to leave and regain a life of her own. Can any of us ask her to give up the life she definitely has due to her? Can we do that to her after all she gone through?" The young man could not look at his father after those reasons. He knew his father was right, but could he or any of them, for that matter, bare to loose Lona after they had finally found her? Finally, he steadily and firmly raised his gaze and met his fathers.

"I think we should keep it in the family."

The weeks flew by and before any of the inhabitants of the island base knew it, Alan and Fermat were back at home for Christmas break. Jeff flew the whole organization to the States to buy a large, full evergreen tree for their Christmas tree. That night found them all enjoying hot cocoa while trimming the tree. Lona laughingly admitted that it would take a bit of getting use to with an evergreen on a tropical island; why there would not even be any snow. The passing of days found the mountain of presents multiplying faster then a family of rabbits. The door to the lounge was soon kept under lock and key, as Gordon had discovered how amusing it was to hide the various presents around the house and wait to see how soon it took for anyone to notice. His plan had been to keep them hid till Christmas morning, but the elder Tracy brothers and Lona had not grown up with him for nothing. Oh yes, John was finally home for some R&R. To make sure that none of the Tracy boys had to miss Christmas, the various machines of THUNDERBIRD 5 had been set on automated for a few days.

The day John came down from the space station, he took a walk along the beach to a rocky point. The afternoon sun was shining brightly as he picked his way across the mismatch of rock and sand. There he found Lona, where he knew she would be. When he came up to the side of the rock she was seated on, she made no sound, but made room for him. Sitting beside her, he let his gaze move to horizon, far away in the distance. He loved being up among his stars, but nothing could compare to an ocean's horizon. The distance seemed everlasting, and the beauty of the waters unparalleled. He turned back to Lona, only to find her gaze cemented on him. Smiling slightly, he raised an eyebrow.

"Can I help you?"

"I was just thinking how beautiful your hair looked. Not now, Captain Peroxide! But before, when it was light brown with that touch of red in it." John looked down, sheepishly. Lona, realizing how the words had come out, quickly apologized. "I'm sorry, John. It's just that so much has changed. Alan was…so very, very young when I last saw all of you. You, Scott, and Virgil have grown into fine young men, graduated, and…oh I don't know! I sometime feels like I stood still while the rest of the world fast forwarded around me! I feel…lost."

John was silent as his friend vented her feelings. He had often been in this role after the cornfield episode. While Scott was her best friend, John was her listener, and occasionally, her comforter. He had held her as she cried at her best friends funeral in high school. He had gone with her to the gym and held the bag as she punched her frustrations with her father out on the defenseless bag. The elder Tracys and Lona had long been each others confidants and comforters. John vented to Scott, Scott vented to Lona, Lona to John, Virgil to all three and all three to Virgil. It was ironic to the point of humor at times the movement of feelings and news within their small group. John smiled softly to himself at that thought, but focused his attention on his friend.

"…You were lost, Lona. You were lost to us, lost to the world. But you held on, brought not only Scott back to us, but finally yourself." Both knew he was referring to her recent ordeal and newly discovered ability to speak. "You should of told us before that you felt this way. We have been acting as if nothing has happened, but…everything has." John's words tapered off with Lona's hand rested on his arm.

"No, it's ok, John. I want to be treated the same. No matter what he did to me, he did not take away sis Danvers." A small smile. "I just…I guess it's the holiday. Do you remember how we used to celebrate it?" John nodded as his smile grew wider. Yes, he certainly did remember. The Danvers and Tracys would nearly always eat together. The men would laugh and joke together, while the women, in Lucille's words, "stood each other." The Tracy kids and Lona had no problem waging total destruction on a normal day, so in the midst of holiday spirits and too much sugar and unusual food, they would wreak devastation on the same par as world war. After the massive desolation, the kids would be rounded up and open presents. By then, the Danvers had generally had enough, and would depart, leaving their crushed daughter with her all but adoptive family for the rest of the Christmas holiday. She had always bounced back and enjoyed the time, but John and the others could tell it was bittersweet for her.

"I…miss them." John's head snapped around to stare at his friend. The setting sun had stretched a shadowy hand across her face, shielding her scars, face, and pain-filled eyes from his view. Her gaze was riveted on the fiery horizon. He could think of no words to say, so he waited for her to continue. He did not have to wait long. "I never thought I would. Michael, well sure, he was my baby brother and I loved him. I…I would always bring him something whenever I got leave. He…he always carried the small model of my jet." John followed the track of a single tear as it fell to her cheek, slowly and steadily it marked a path down her skin before it pooled and sank to the ground. "I miss my mom, even after all the biting comments and ignoring me. And…Danvers." She gathered her knees close to her chest and rested her forehead gently on them. Her next words were muffled, but they were meant to be heard. "He died…because of me. He died because I was in the Air Force. He died because I was too stupid to check my back. He died…" Here she could not go on, her words had risen to a shriek, and her breaths stolen by sobs.

John at first was at a lost. His brothers very rarely broke down; besides, he was usually too far away to do any good anyway. But here was one of his best friends, a sister in all but name for many years, who had opened up to him in a way she never had before, not even to Scott. John hesitated only a moment longer, then moved quickly to enfold his friend in his embrace. As he held the shaking body in his arms, he wondered what he could say; how he could take away some of this guilt and pain that was eating away at her heart. Lona laced her long fingers into his shirt and held on, as if it would destroy her to let go. Her sobs grew harder and harder until she could hardly draw breath. Concerned, John murmured kind, inconsequential phrases, trying desperately to calm her down. Suddenly, in the middle of this scene of drama, John's watch communicator beeped, signaling one of the Tracys was trying to reach him. Glancing down at the figure, now slightly calmer, he then glanced back desperately at his still beeping watch. He did not want to move Lona or in anyway break the mood and scene. However, he knew his father or brother would expect him to answer soon; he did not want to cause them undue worry.

"You should answer that." The statement was muffled by the speaker's face being pressed into his shirt, but he still heard it. "They'll give you hell if you don't."

Smiling slightly, he answered the call. "John here. Go ahead, International Rescue."

"Scott here. Why weren't you answering?" John traded a sheepish grimace with Lona, then allowed his expression to smooth out. Turning back to the watch face, he answered his elder brother.

"Sorry, Scott. I was in the middle of something, and was unable to answer right away. Anyway, what did you need?"

"I needed to talk to you about a you-know-what for you-know-who." John felt a smirk form on his face.

"No, Scott. I don't know the you-know-what for you-know-who. You mind explaining it to me in a little for rational and intelligible manner?" Scott's bright blue eyes clouded over slightly before a bark of laughter signaled his amusement at John's words. "Meet you at the airstrip in fifteen. Scott, over and out."

Lona smiled up at John before moving back to her side of the rock.

"You'd best start out now, John. The airstrip is practically across the island and he didn't give you much time to get there. As is, you'll probably have to make it on a run. To get the you-know-what for the you-know-who." She favored him with a very mischievous smile. Standing up, he gave her a very saucy bow, and came up grinning.

"As you say, Ma'am. This humble footservant is always here to please."

"Be gone with you and your wit!" Lona watched as John hurried away through the underbrush. She smiled after him, until he rounded a bend and was gone. Letting her expression fall, she sighed as she pulled her knees back up to her chest. Laying her chin firmly between them, she silently berated herself for letting all her feelings spill out to John. Normally, it would not have been a problem, but he had caught her at the wrong time. She had not celebrated a Christmas in many years, and the season was bringing to her thoughts memories that she would have sooner left buried. It was best to leave the images that haunted her night buried deep, never spoken or thought of.

She shot straight up, and began walking furiously through the jungle. Finally, she came to the vehicle she had left half a mile away from her seaside spot. As the engine came on, she gazed, unseeing, at the dashboard. She had finally gotten the last of her presents for everyone, and wrapped it and set it under the tree before coming to her hideaway. Alan's present had been the hardest to obtain, with careful thought going into the gift itself. Lona knew Alan was still dealing with emotions and memories from the Hood's first attack on International Rescue. To give him something to show himself what he could accomplish and was capable of, she gained permission from Jeff to use some of the THUNDERBIRDS' imaging systems to gather pictures of Alan fulfilling his duty as an International Rescue operative. They had also had some on record, him grinning with Virgil and Gordon after his first official rescue and, Lona's personal favorite, Alan next his father with one arm around the other. The youngest Tracy wore his new THUNDERBIRDS uniform and a huge grin decorated his face. These pictures were loaded in a tiny projector which came with a large screen masquerading as a photo frame. The projector could be program to flash the pictures at different intervals and even use transitions and change colors in the images as this happened. There were two set of pictures stored in the projector. Lona had included a set of family and island pictures that contained nothing concerning International Rescue; Alan could use her gift at school as well, without the fear of blowing their cover.

Smiling, she slide the all terrain vehicle into gear, and headed off to the house. She would have to make herself scarce when Scott and John returned, but till then she could continue her search online for a job. She could no longer be a burden to the Tracys. After Christmas she was going to set off on her own, and leave all of her terrible memories behind her. Secrectly, Lona longed to stay with this group of people who were her family in all but name. She felt, however, that she was not pulling her weight and wanted to do something with her life.

Maybe through that, she could atone for her family's deaths.

The last few days flew by and before anyone knew it, it was Christmas Eve. The Tracy family, Lona, Brains and his son, the Belahgat family, and Lady Penelope and Parker were all gathered in the lounge. The only light in the room was the tree's lights. This had been a Christmas tradition in the Tracy family since the boys had been very small. They would go around in a circle and each person would tell one thing that had changed for them since last Christmas. Usually the person would bring up a happy event, such as graduating, or going on a first date. This year, it was a little differently and yet similar tothe previous years.

Jeff started them off. "I've gained a daughter." Everyone smiled over at Lona, who ducked her head, bringing it up just in time to catch a look in Jeff's eyes she could not figure out. Puzzled, she returned her attention to the rest of the group. The boys went by their ages.

"New appreciation for Virgil's job." Virgil had taken the post at Mobile Control on the last rescue because of a sprain, and Scott had been the one to operate the Mole and Firefly. It had been a tough rescue for both of them, because they were both doing a job they were not the best at during an extremely trying rescue.

Virgil grinned at that one. "Three new paintings and two compositions."

"Second Astronomy book half way completed."

"Thirty new pranks pulled off without a hitch." Nearly everyone groaned at this. Gordon had been particularly mischievous the past year.

Alan thought for a moment. He did not know what to say. This had not been a great year for him in many ways. Yet through it all, he had grown. "I feel a year older." Everyone nodded; they knew what he meant. Jeff wrapped his son in a one armed hug. He flashed back to that one horrible moment when he had thought his youngest son was dead, then he had felt that hope filling pulse. His gaze switched to his eldest; his heart reliving each painful moment of Scott's capture. So much had changed for all of them…much that they were unwilling to admit or allow themselves to feel.

Kyrano and his family went next. Both he and his wife gave their standard reply of their daughter changed every year. Blushing slightly, Tin-Tin spoke of her lessons in scuba diving by Gordon. She loved the water, and had wanted to learn for so long.

Brains nervously cleared his throat. He had spent much time considering what he should say, but finally had decided be spontaneous. "Some of my i-i-ideas for the THUNDERBIRDS." He made no further elaborations; after a moment Jeff nodded at him with a look that said they would discuss this latter.

Fermat thought for a moment, then said, "L-l-literature." Like his father, he had always excelled in math and science while doing less well in English and History. He had worked extra hard this year and had raised his marks greatly. He smiled as he was wrapped in a quick hug by his father.

Parker was next, much to his embarrassment. "H'i didn' 'af to use my…talents for M'lady this year." Smiling, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward said, "And I have a new Yankee friend." The two young women exchanged smiles. Finally, it was Lona's turn.

For several minutes she could just sit there, silent. What had changed for her? What had not changed for her? How could she sum up the last few months and the difference between them and the years before? Looking up, she found she held the attention of the entire room. Shifting slightly in her chair, she glanced up at the wall length picture of the Tracy men, which hide the elevators to the THUNDERBIRDS hangers. So much had changed, and yet, so very little.

Smiling, she favored each person in the room with a glance. "Speech. Freedom. And being with the only family I've ever known." Eyes glistening dangerously, she looked at Scott, who had seen her at her worse and at Jeff, who was the father her biological father had never been. "I'm thankful. That's what's changed since last Christmas."

More to follow.