Gordon padded down the hall in his swim shorts, bright yellow towel wrapped around his shoulders. He was humming really quietly. A scratching sound made him pause, and Gordon sighed. He tiptoed to the end of the hall. And sighed again.

It was 4:30am and Scott was still at the desk, scribbling notes from the three holo-screens before him. Gordon knew Scott wasn't on anything like top form since he didn't even acknowledge him or the time of day it was.

Leaving the towel in the kitchen Gordon took two coffees and a pile of hot buttered toast back into the living room, not surprised at all that Scott was still there beavering away. Gordon filed away the jump Scott gave when the coffee was slid in front of him.

He opened his mouth to comment but the klaxon sounded, driving all thoughts from Gordon's mind as John appeared and outlined the rescue.

Five days later they trouped home after one of the worst flooding and landslides in living history. They had all hands on deck for this one, including John, Kayo, Brains, Penny and Parker, and Virgil and Grandma had worked out shift patterns to allow them plenty of rest while keeping the rescue going.

They went off-line for 48 hours afterwards. Almost everyone was asleep before the Thunderbirds even reached home, and even Virgil's eyes were dropping as Two turned in her hangar.

Three hours later Gordon was up again, heading to the infirmary for pain relief. To get there he needed to cross the living room and he sighed as the blue glow of holo-screens lit up his eldest brother once again working away at the desk.

Once more he made it to the kitchen and back without Scott noticing, once more his brother jumped when the coffee was placed in his eyesight. But it didn't stop Scott working.

'Thanks, Gordon.'

Gordon's nose twitched as he watched Scott finish writing whatever report he was writing. Scott swiped it away and opened another.

'Err…Scott? Don't you think you should get some sleep.'

'I will. I gotta get on top of these rescue reports and then there's the GDF reports and in three days I have the quarterly meeting and I need to get the figures sorted and those proposals looked through.'

'Scott – you can't do all of that before you go to sleep! That's too much!'

'Well, I hate to break it to you, Gords, but these things don't write themselves.'

Sighing, Gordon gave his brother's shoulder a squeeze. He needed to call out the big guns for this one.

On Five EOS hummed and watched as John sat on his bed reading. It wasn't an unpleasant sound; she was definitely improving and he couldn't help but smile as he recognised one of Virgil's compilations. So when she stopped John looked at her.

'EOS? Everything alright?'

'John…I have just received a rescue report from Scott.'

'Crap. He should be asleep!'

John called up the image and sure enough Scott was seated at the desk. He watched as Gordon brought him a coffee, watched Scott flinch, watched as words were exchanged and watched as Gordon left after giving Scott's shoulder a squeeze.

'Show me the report.'

He read through what was an almost coherent account of the long rescue and sighed.

'EOS, run this report through the SSD filter and send it off. Initiate lockdown authorisation Juliett Golf Tango Echo Two Niner Niner.'

'FAB, John. Lockdown initiated and report filtered.'

'Thank you, EOS.'

He turned back to watch as Scott realised that the screens had frozen. He watched his brother slump back in defeat as he left his bedroom, noticing Gordon's door close as he passed.

John wasn't surprised to see Virgil's door open and his very dishevelled and still mostly asleep brother appear. Gordon must have looked in and used the magic words to get the Bear out of bed. They bumped shoulders and made their way to the living room together.

The level of Scott's sleep deprivation became clear because he was back leaning forward, poking at the screens and cursing quietly. John detoured to the kitchen to make tea and coffee and left Virgil to start corralling their eldest brother.

'Scott?'

Virgil pretended not to see his flinch. No one could usually get remotely close to Scott, but when he was this sleep deprived…Virgil sighed. It looked like Scott had missed the hallucination part and had gone to poor decision-making, slowed thinking and…as Scott threw the pen across the room, mood changes.

'Scott!'

'Virgil? What are you doing up? You should be asleep.'

'That's rich, Scott. Why are you up?'

'I gotta get the reports done.'

He flinched again as John slid a cup of chamomile tea within his eyeline but picked it up automatically and drank it. They didn't say anything, but the tremble in his hand was clear to both. John walked around and perched on the other side of the desk.

Drinks finished, Scott put his cup out of the way and began to poke at the screens again. John looked to Virgil and his brother nodded, sliding off the desk and disappearing. John shuffled over until his thigh was touching Scott's arm. It didn't stop his brother attempting to get the screens up and running. John sighed and leant over and grabbed Scott's wrists.

'Scott, enough. You can't get the screens on because EOS has locked them down.'

'What? Why would she do that?'

'She did it because I asked her to.'

'John! I got too much to do to mess around.'

There was a real anger in his brother's voice and John knew he'd have to say the next bit carefully.

'Scott, you need to sleep. Your report, it didn't make sense in places. Please, big brother, you need some rest.'

He was relieved when Scott paused, but then his brother snatched his hands away and started to poke the holographic screens again. John cursed and looked up to see Virgil watching from the doorway. Seeing Scott's reaction, Virgil strode forward.

It was his turn.

'Scotty, it's time to rest.'

'Virgil? Why aren't you in bed?'

Oh boy, this was bad. One of the worst episodes Scott had had since their Dad had gone. He didn't really want to do this, but if his brother wasn't going to back down there was only one way forward. It was an option that Virgil hated, but when Scott's self-destructive tendencies went too far they had learnt after the war that sedation was the only option. He'd had to tranq his brother three times in the last five years, and each time it gave Virgil nightmares.

However, he did have an ace up his sleeve to use before it came to that.

'I'm not in bed because you're not in bed, Scott.'

'Me too.'

'John?'

'We can't go to sleep, big brother, because you're not.'

The resultant frown told them that the ploy would work, and Virgil slid the tranq into his pocket as he and John played the best card they had.

Scott never could deny helping a younger brother, and when there were two…

They watched carefully as Scott pushed himself away from the desk and stood up unsteadily. He then moved surprisingly fast to draw both pf them into a tight but brief hug before turning and walking away. John smirked at Virgil. Scott turned back to see them both still sitting on the desk.

'Well? Aren't you coming to bed?'

He stood there, hands on his hips and frowning at them, and they had to scramble to catch up before Scott changed his mind.

Scott went to turn at Virgil's room but with a brother on each side he had no choice when they grabbed his arms and continued on to his room. Fortunately Scott was passed the angry stage already and seemed very amused by their actions and he let them lead him to the bed where he promptly collapsed on his bed, pulling them both down.

He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, but Scott's grip on his brothers didn't loosen. John snorted and rolled his eyes. A deeper snore told him that Virgil, despite the coffee, had already drifted off and John resigned himself.

Looked like they were there for the long haul.

Note: SSD stands for Scott's Sleep Deprivation Filter, an algorithm that translates 'Sleep Deprived Scott Speak' into American English. John designed this early on, but EOS has refined it into an artform that sounds so much like Scott no one but John knows about it.