Oh... nearly forgot this one... I do not own Tunderbirds 'cause if I did, I would be digging Moether Earth from a different perspective :) From TB 5 that is :D
A/N Please feel free to give me pointers but don't fry my backside; deepfried Swedes don't, repeat do not, smell very good :D And if anyone (makes cute puppy face) likes my story enough to be my beta please send me a message :D
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She looked out on the road and sighed deeply, she glanced into the rear mirror at her two children; Shannon and Neil. Shannon was busying herself with a bunch of pencils and a color book, Neil was staring out the window, probably dreaming of being somewhere else than there in the cramped car.
"If the other road had been open…"
"Then we could have seen the sea," Neil said with his little old voice, she looked at him again, he had turned from the window, claimed the blue pencil and was outlining a turn of the centaury Ferrari, his personal favorite car, although, most of them had been red.
Shannon pulled her dark blond hair back over her shoulder, a motion that she had mimicked from her mother, even before she had hair that was long enough. Her son on the other hand had nearly white hair, but they had the same eyes, blue speckled eyes.
Julie picked her phone up from her bag, dialing the number to the desk.
"Mercy Hospital, Doctor Steven Harris speaking," the answer came after two signals.
"Morning Steve, Jules on this end, how's things in the ER?"
"Easier than predicted, Mother Earths little shake about this morning hasn't given us any trouble," Steve said, Julie could hear that he was handling some kind of cup in the background noise.
"They closed the road so I'll be late…"
"You took the old road again?" he asked.
"As I said; they closed the road, just another lovely day in L.A. Could you do me a favor and check up on my ICU patients, I only have two," she added with a pleading voice.
"I've already checked on the kid, her blood counts are better, the sepsis is receding."
"That's excellent! Do you know if social service has spoken with her parents yet?" Julie continued as she gave her car a little thrust.
"They had a neat little argument, but Ahmara didn't give in to them. He explained that they should listen to their daughter a little more often."
"I wouldn't disagree with that man any day," Julie said whit a small laughter, she remembered the time he had given her a bad time for not taking care of her self, she had ended up on two weeks paid vacation, with a nanny for the twins. "I'm nearly in the tunnel, and my phone will black out."
"I'll check on that ulcer. And Jules; drive carefully," Steve said before he hung up.
Steven was one of her favorite surgeons, he was steady and he loved a good challenge, and he rarely gave up on a patient.
"Mom, we wont be in school on time," Shannon said as she looked at the her Eeor watch. "But I don't mind. We'll miss the math for Mr. Jones, and he is so boring."
"You have been to school for eight days, Shannon, give the man a fighting chance," Julie said as she change lanes.
"No mommy she is right, Jones is boring…" Neil said with emphasis. Never to doubt that the twins were agreeing, it was nearly, no, it was unnerving to see how they always agreed. She remembered how their fathers' brothers had been, always a row over something. Julie smiled as she switched the radio station, she stopped on a station with weather reports, this day would apparently be the warmest September day for a decade, and she sighed as she also realized that it would be Cameron that took the kids to the beach that afternoon… She suddenly felt how a tremor rocked the car and the tunnels supports started to collapse.
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"Mom!" the frantic calls came as Julie pressed the brake as hard as she humanly could, while she to no avail attempted to veer the car away from the impending accident.
Julie looked at the cut across her arm, a little thoughtful before she remembered the earthquake.
"Mom? Mom! Please…" Shannon's voice was half hearted and it made Julie start, and as she looked up she could see that the tunnel had collapsed behind them and in front of them a huge tank truck had ended up on its side. The protecting crash window to the backseat hadn't withdrawn; she wouldn't get to her children that way.
"Neil?" She heard his silent humming answer. "Are you hurt?" she continued as she pushed the release of her safety belt and she got out of the crashed car, she excited it through the shattered window screen.
"I'm on my way baby, just stay calm," she said as she tried to pry the passengers door up.
"Mom, the belt wont let go, I can't get her loose!" Neil said with an annoyed tone. Julie pulled at the door one more time and as it opened the crash curtains emptied. She was relieved to see that the twins seemed to be unharmed, and as she leaned into to seat Shannon pulled her arms tightly around her neck.
"I'll get you loose," she said calmingly as she pulled out a knife from her pocket, swiftly cutting the restraining straps. She pulled Shannon out of the car and kneeled down and hugged her both children close. "Does it hurt anywhere?" Julie asked as she looked over her children.
"No… I was scared…" Shannon said as she leaned onto her brother, who pulled her close, he simply shook his head.
"Stay right here, I'm just getting my bags from the back," Julie said as she rose. She had taken the habit of having a ER kit in the back of her car since the year she had been on a rotation were she had been sent out to accident sites, she attempted to do some sort of danger assessment and decided that the safest place for the twins was where they were. She tried to get her phone to work to no avail.
Julie looked through the two cases and threw one onto her back and the other over her shoulder; she took two walkie-talkies from the Shannon's bag. "Shannon, Neil, I want you to stay at the car, I have to check on the people in the surrounding cars," she said as she handed Shannon one of the walkie-talkies. "Just call on me if you get scared."
"Okay mom," Shannon said with a little voice. Julie gave them each a kiss before she rose and left for the closest vehicle.
Julie did a quick check of the vans passengers, the only thing she could do was to place a black tag on the rear mirror.
It felt like ages as Julie worked among the dead and living, giving the wounded what little ease she could. She sent those that could walk back to the place where Shannon and Neil were, she gave them different tags, stated on their mobility and survival, those unharmed she enlisted to help her. Julie suddenly heard a racket behind her and terrified she turned around, fearing what she would see her children in danger.
"It's the Thunderbirds!" the call came from one of the men who were helping her, a gust of relief left her lips. Indeed it was them; she looked at the rescue team, a white uniform; their features hidden by a helmet with visor. Julie wondered slightly if it was John under the helmet, but she hoped that he wasn't there, if he was that he didn't recognize her. She worked onwards; the man next to her left her to speak with the Thunderbirds and the rescue personnel that followed suite.
"Ma'am!" a man cried out behind her as she was heaving a man over her shoulder. "Let me help," the thunderbird said, the man was nearly a head taller then her, and he was too broad over his shoulders to be John.
"Be careful with his right arm, it's broken just below the elbow," Julie said as she let him take her place.
"You are the doc, right?" he asked as he started towards the rescue vehicle, as Julie hobbled after.
"Yes," she said, her voice felt distant.
"Then how come no one seen to that cut?" he asked and nodded towards her arm.
"It's minor, it doesn't even bleed," she answered as she looked at it; inside she was certain that the person next to her was either Gordon or Virgil. It couldn't be Alan he would be to young, but with a twinge she realized that Alan was 17 and older than John when he joined the IR, and with grief she remembered the argument between her and John.
"I don't want you to do this because it is dangerous! For heavens sakes Johnny!" Julie shouted at her fiancée as he was packing his bag.
"I want to help, Jules, and I know it is dangerous, I…" John said as he looked up at her, striding across the room, cupped her chin and turned her face upwards towards his own. "I'll be fine, I promise. And besides I'll have both Dad and my brothers with me."
He had returned with a broken femur. She had asked Scott for a ride off Tracy Island the day after.
The man stretched out an arm to steady her as a quiver rippled the floor.
"Something tells me that we should leave," he said with a hint of tightness in his voice, he pulled Julie close and proceeded faster. "Hurry it up!" he screamed to one of his brothers, Scott, who picked the twins up, one on each arm, they miraculously where the last next to her crashed car, he looked up, he was started as he recognized her. Then he just nodded and left to the vehicle. "If we only get into the Mole we'll be safe!"
Even as Julie heard his words, she felt how the ground shook; she saw how Scott came out from the Mole, his mouth open in a silent scream, then she become conscious that the Thunderbird arm was yanked away from her and how she fell. Julie wasn't sure that she had been screaming at all- she must have been, the dust ached in her throat, she laid there, tears flowing freely down her face.
"Scott?" she whispered, a halfhearted plea for one of her best friends. "Scott!" Julie couldn't see anything now, the last quake had cut the power and as she rummaged her bag for a torch or something that gave better light than her small examination light. She found the pack of chemical lights and ignited one. Julie felt her breath clutch in her chest when she saw the white uniform locked under a large piece of rubble; she got to her knees and edged closer, her left leg protested against the movement. She saw the man with the broken arm lying next to him, his neck in a faulty way, the eyes open and unseeing, she felt for a pulse but as she already suspected there was none. She proceeded to the Thunderbird, his helmet had fallen off, she recognized his nose first, and she remembered the day it had been a little flattened by a fall.
"Virgil?" she asked to check if he could hear her, she looked at the rubble and looked after something she could use as a lever, a long metal bar from a overhanging light could do for her. She noticed that she had scraped her hands rather badly, but she ignored the pain as she got the rod into position. "Come on!" she cried out as she mustered every reserve of strength she had to get him loose. Julie fell backwards with a surprised yelp as the rubble rolled from Virgil's prone body. "Virge!" she scrambled down to him and felt for a pulse, she sobbed with relief as she felt it. She pulled her stethoscope from her pocket as she started to examine his condition; she used her penlight to check the pupil. "A cut across the left side of the scull, pupils even and responding…" Julie never noticed that she was speaking. She saw that blood had discolored the right side of his flight suite and as she cut the uniform open she could see a darkening bruise and a small bleeding, puncture wound. His breathing was labored and as she listened to his lung she could hear liquid. His lung was filling with blood. She couldn't do anything against that in this dark cold place. As the trained ER surgeon she tried to regain her calm as she continued her examination and found that his pelvic bone felt unstable, he groaned in pain.
"Virgil? I have to check so you don't have any injuries to your back," she said with a soothing voice as she felt his neck and upper part of his back, she didn't want to move him without a backboard. What she could interpret with her hands he hadn't sustained any injury to his spine, but she was no CT or MRI, only human. She wondered whether Scott was alright and with a sob she wondered over the twins, and even though she tried to keep the tears and panic away they came and Julies grip on Virgil's hand tightened. She felt how her hand was pressed back.
"I thought I recognized you…" his voice was a taut whisper and his eye fluttered open. "But I wasn't sure until right now," he continued as he stroked her hand with his thumb. "It will be alright Buzzbee."
"Virgil," she said as she wiped the tears away with her free hand. "No one has called me that since… ages…"
"It suits you." he said as he took her appearance in, the reason why he hadn't recognized her must have been the nearly non-existent light in the collapsed tunnel since he hadn't changed that much, her hair was a lot redder than he remembered. Her bottle green eyes seemed to by reddened by the storm of tears that had woken him, the last time he had seen her she had looked like this; wounded.
They had just returned from a mining accident in Malaya, John had gotten trapped under a beam and broken his leg. They had stopped by in a hospital in Sydney for a day. John was asleep in his room, even though there had been an argument heard from the hall outside, a quarrel between Jeff and Julie. Virgil knew that Scott had excited John's room with a loud whisper to them both to be quiet. His father and Julie had stormed in opposite directions, he knew that his father needed to talk but still he went to the woman his brother loved, and the once girl they had been playing hide-and-seek with.
Julie was sitting by the pool, her feet in the tepid water, she was pulling her hazel hair; a motion that usually meant that she was troubled.
"Buzzbee? What's up?" he said as he flopped down next to her, placed his feet in the pool.
"I can't do this any more Virge. I can't sit here and wait to hear that he won't be back or that you or Scott or Jeff won't be back. I just can't. I was on my room throwing up for nearly an hour this morning. I was so frightened," she said as tears started to fall freely again. She had been moody for a while, he realized as he placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. She had even been yelling at Fermat the other day, the little kid had been terrified, even Gordon kept calm around her now. That was respect… Gordon kept doing his practical jokes on everyone in the household but Julie he left alone.
"John will be alright in a few weeks, that leg wont stop him for long,"
"It could have been his neck down in that mine," she sobbed. "I don't want to be alone with this…"
"Alone with what?" he had asked but she had been quiet.
Virgil felt a stabbing pain in his left side as he tried to inhale and his grip on Julies hand tightened.
"Virge? Where does it hurt?" she said as she pulled her hand loose from his grip. "I won't go anywhere I promise," she said as his eyes darted to her. She listened to his lungs again. "Your left lung is collapsing; air has sipped into the lung sack." She rummaged through her bag again. "I have to remove it," she continued as she pulled the seal of a syringe, a big syringe. "I know how you hate needles. This will hurt a bit…"
Virgil avoided looking at the needle, she was so right; even though he had his training in emergency medicine he hated the needle. He felt a cold wet swab across a point near the collarbone before a short agonizing sting as Julie pressed the needle into his pulmonary cavity. "There, that should make it easier to breath," she said as a hissing sound was heard, and indeed Virgil felt less lightheaded. "The air will build up again but I will let it out. Does it hurt?"
He started to shake his head, but saw how her eyebrow darted upwards, making him snicker.
"I won't lie to you, my legs ache like hell but I can't move them," he whispered.
"I think you have a fracture or something similar to your pelvis," she said calmingly, as she took his hand again. She took a towel and started to clean his face free from the dust and blood. "There, much better, isn't it?" He smiled weakly, he noticed that he felt even colder and inside he was begging for his brothers to come.
"He never gave you up, he still has your picture in his wallet," Virgil said after a while, Julie glanced at him.
"You think I did him wrong?"
"You were frightened and he should have understood that."
"I always forget that you are far too serious," she said as she stroked his cheek. Virgil looked at her through his hazel eyes that started to loose their focus. "Virgil?" He heard her voice and the sharpness of it but he couldn't answer her, he couldn't even make his eyes open. "Come on Virgil," she said, he felt how she pinched his collarbone. "Wake up!"
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Scott felt how his body rocked back and forth on the seat, he couldn't stop the motion and he attempted to fight back the nausea. One of the paramedics had sat down next to him, examining the wound across his brow, before sealing pulling the edges together with surgistrips.
"The impact might have caused a fracture and definitely a concussion," she said to Jeff who was standing behind her, Gordon and Allan was guiding the Mole back to free air. "He needs a few staples when he gets to the hospital."
"Alright," Jeff answered grimly, his jaw set as he placed a comforting hand on his oldest sons' shoulder. "We have a signal on him, he's alive. We get the civvies of and return," he said as he felt a yank on his uniform. He kneeled down and looked into the blue of eyes of a boy maybe five or six. "What can I do for you?"
"Our mother will take care of your friend," he sincerely said as he took Jeff's hand. "He will be just fine."
"Your mother is the doc?" Scott asked as the paramedic taped a compress over the cut, the boy nodded, he looked up at his father. "Sir, can we speak up front for a while?" Jeff looked at his sons creased brow and simply rose and helped his oldest son into the small cockpit. Gordon turned around in his seat and looked at them.
"What's going on?" he asked as Jeff Tracy eased Scoot down, he motioned down on Scott. Alan was listening to a topside report from Fermat and Tin-Tin who had stayed in Thunderbird 2. Jeff Tracy turned around and closed the hatch.
"Scott what was on your mind?" Jeff said turning to the pale Scott.
"The doctor that's trapped with Virgil- I recognized her: it's Jules, dad." Scott kept his eyes at his father who at first looked a little annoyed, an irritation that soon turned into realization.
"Dad, Fermat has made more scans, he says that there's risks for additional aftershocks," Alan broke of, his voice tight. "He also said that the life signals from the collapsed tunnel is weakening. We have to turn back ASAP."