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DISCLAIMER: I don't own the rights to Thunderbirds, and I don't intend to make any money from this story. It's a little piece of fluff, and nothing more. This project is keeping me sane through school, though, so unless someone wants to add another person to the nearest mental hospital, please don't sue. ;) Thank you.

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A Tracy Family Holiday

July 2015

The Tracy family jet sailed gracefully over the Pacific Ocean, its blue tail reflecting in the crystal waters of the Southern Hemisphere. The soft droning of the engines was the only noise to break the silence of the quiet and lapping waves. Inside the plane, however, the atmosphere was more unruly than not.

"Scott, watch the nose elevation. We don't want to send your brothers into the rear fuselage."

Turning his head just enough that he could make eye contact with his father, Scott Tracy grinned slightly and did nothing to tweak the controls in the cockpit. "Dad, I've got everything under control. After flying those Hornets, this little turbo jet is like kindergarten stuff to me."

His cocky smile disappeared when the plane suddenly lunged forward, sending the members of the Tracy family forward in their seats. "Honestly," Scott gasped, immediately bringing the plane out of the turbulent zone back into dead-air. "I know what I'm doing!"

"I know the feeling," Jeff laughed, slapping his son on the back. "But when I was in flight training I became a bit too accustomed to the self-adjusting and monitoring systems of the fighter jets. Then, when I went to fly a private jet again, I nearly crashed her because I was expecting her to compensate for too much."

From the passenger section, the voice of the second youngest Tracy drifted through the open door into the cockpit. "Dad's saying you're being lazy, Scott."

"Well, Gordon," Scott yelled to the back, "at least I'm making an effort to get us there. All you're doing is eating stuff and adding to the overall bulk in the main fuselage."

"Hey!" Gordon rolled his eyes, and threw himself irritably back in his seat. "Well, all we've been done back here is bounce up and down for the past hour."

From his seat beside the ginger-haired teenager, Virgil Tracy rolled his eyes as well and placed his left hand on his brother's shoulder. "Want me to chuck the excess baggage, Scott?"

Gordon's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't do that! I'd drown, we're over the Pacific."

"Oh, we'd give you a parachute," Scott assured him from up front. "Don't worry about that."

"Dad!"

Jeff Tracy wisely kept silent, knowing full well after nearly nineteen years of parental experience that choosing a side between all of his sons was always a mistake. Instead, he kept his eyes closely on the instruments, making sure that Scott didn't do anything stupid while he was bantering with his brothers.

"And there probably aren't sharks in this area anyway."

"Virgil! Whose side are you on?"

Poking his head around his seat, Alan looked back at his two brothers with a slightly worried expression on his face. "What if there are, Virg?"

"Don't worry, Alan." Everyone suddenly became quiet when John's soft voice perked up from beside Alan. "We all know that Gordon's a fish, so he shouldn't have any problems fitting right in if we take a detour and drop him off at the Great Barrier Reef. I think his hair would be enough to allow him to blend in with the denizens quite nicely." John's voice was cut off as the plane jumped again. The rocking motion sent the other boys back in their seats, and had John scrambling for a barf bag.

Amusement blossoming across his face, Virgil turned back to his brother and pretended to toss him out of the window. "John's right, Gord. How 'bout we drop you here, and meet you at the island?"

"It'll save fuel," Scott added from the cockpit, "that's for sure, considering how much chocolate he keeps mooching from the rear hold! I'm going to have to re-balance the plane soon."

Gordon stared indignantly forward, refusing to meet the gaze of any of his brothers who - including Alan - were now laughing hard at his expense.

"Geeze," he muttered under his breath, "you'd think there was something funny going on."

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By the time that Scott brought the plane down for a landing on the family island, Gordon had nearly had enough of anyone else in the craft. He was the first one out the hatch, and the first one into the vacation cottage, where he promptly slammed and locked the door.

Jeff carried a key of course, but all the same he sought out Gordon in the changing room so that he could have a few well-picked words with his son. Leaning his shoulder against the door-jam so that a shadow was cast over the room, the patriarch of the Tracy family did not give the presence of a happy individual.

"If you fool around, Gordon, someday someone's going to return that favour to you."

Making a face of his own, Gordon turned red and angrily threw a towel across the room. "Aw, come on dad! I was just making a little joke, and they all jumped on me. They were out of line."

"You were out of line, you mean," Jeff replied coolly, wondering for the thousandth time where on Earth Gordon's red hair had come from, and how he managed to turn the same colour as it when he was mad. "They're not picking on you, Gordon. The entire situation was initiated by you, and they all had a right to joke back."

"Yeah?" The younger Tracy threw himself on one of the beds in the room. "Well, every time that Scott gets home it's like I have another dad bugging me! Everyone pokes at me, including Virgil. Maybe it's funny sometimes, but it isn't right now. I don't like everyone ganging up on me."

Jeff really wasn't sure whether to be insulted by Gordon's words or not. "I don't know what you're implying about me, Gordon, but I do know that you shouldn't be talking about Scott that way. He's come home from the Forces for a bit just so we can all have a break, and now you're acting as though you don't want him around-"

"Yeah, well maybe Scott likes to be serious and everything and can't take a joke, but I'm different!" The bitterness in Gordon's tone sent Jeff back a step. "Go ahead, dad, ignore me. That'd be nothing new. But in the last few weeks I've suddenly been expected to become an adult, and I don't really want to be one. I just want to be a normal teenager that can hang out with his friends and not worry about getting a job or looking after a house!"

Taken aback slightly, Jeff stepped forward and laid a hand on his son's shoulder. "Gordon . . ."

"Don't tell me that I don't have to," Gordon snapped suddenly, throwing his father's hand away from him, "because I do. Because Scott's decided to be an adult, and he's decided that he can go off and leave this house, and expect all of us to do his - and your - job for him. Because John had a break-down last week because he's been trying to be our dad for us when you're not around."

"Gordon," Jeff whispered, astounded at what he was hearing.

"I love my brother," continued Gordon, his voice rising, "and I'll do whatever I have to make sure that he's okay, but that doesn't mean that I want to!" His voice cracked with the last few words, and he reached up a hand to cover his eyes. "Listen, dad, just leave me alone." With that, he rolled over, stared at the wall, and refused to say anything else.

All the while Jeff stood silently, wondering whether or not he could possibly do anything. The sound of feet outside the door led him to wonder how many ears had been listening in on the conversation. Shaking his head, and mentally berating himself for letting the situation escalate to the point that it had, Jeff turned around and left the room.

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Gordon's face was still downcast when he finally walked onto the pool deck, though he was wearing his swimming trunks and seemed ready for a dip. He walked by Scott without speaking, and simply stood by the edge of the water, his hair rustling slightly in the warm pacific wind.

It was Scott, dressed in a white tee and a blue pair of swimming trunks, who moved towards Gordon first. The oldest Tracy boy stood up from his beach chair, grabbed his brother, and pulled him into the tightest stranglehold that he could manage. When Gordon yelped and tried to kick free, Scott simply laughed and pushed his brother gently away.

"Thanks, Gord." Scott smiled at Gordon's expression, and he gave the teen's hair a thorough mussing with his hand, much to the redhead's dismay. "I mean it. You don't know how much it means to me to be able to go out and do what I'm doing. You guys are going about life without me to be there for you." He stopped, and looked at Gordon for a long moment. "I didn't mean to leave you guys hanging," he finally admitted, "and it was a bad move on my part to leave when I did. But I guess that we've never really had it easy in this family, have we?"

"I'm sorry," Gordon finally muttered, drawing a funny glance from Scott.

"Why?"

"For being angry, I guess. For being mad at you for wanting to do something with your life, for you wanting to grow up and do something important. I haven't looked that far - I was just concerned about what I'd be doing over the summer with my friends."

"We'll make sure that you have fun," Scott assured him. "Seriously, Gordon, I'll make sure that you guys aren't out on a limb all the time. We'll make this work somehow. And, if someone had told me at your age that I would have to suddenly drop everything in my life and do what you're doing, I would probably have punched the guy's lights out. At least you haven't got in a fight with anyone yet."

On his beach chair where he sat in his swim trunks, John snorted and pushed his sunglasses down his nose so that he could lock gazes with Gordon. "You still have a better record than I do, Scott." He raised an amused eyebrow. "How's the neck feeling?"

Slightly embarrassed, Gordon unconsciously reached up a hand to rub his throat. "Uh, better I guess."

Looking between John and Gordon, Scott also raised an eyebrow. "Did you two have a fight?"

"It was a bit one sided," Virgil commented from the pool. "I've never seen Gordon pinned so quickly by anyone before. I think John could go into pro-wrestling."

John turned a bright shade of red, and quickly pushed his shades back over his eyes. "Hardly."

A look of incredulity spreading over his face, Scott grinned broadly and turned to look at John. "Seriously? You kicked Gordon's can? This must be more serious than I first thought."

"He did not kick my can!" Gordon put in, insulted that Scott thought John had actually beaten him in anything other than a game of chess.

"I'm a man of science," John argued lightly, folding his hands behind his head. "A peaceful pursuer of the gentle arts. I don't kick anyone's 'can'."

Virgil snorted, and tossed a handful of water at John. "So, strangling Gordon is one of the gentler arts, is it?"

Ignoring both Virgil and the water dripping from his face, John simply relaxed on the chair and took in the warm rays of the South Pacific. "Whatever."

"Enough of this," declared Gordon, tiring of the conversation, "the water is warm and it is calling my name." Taking a step backwards for balance, he threw himself forward into the water. "Cannonball!"

A wave went up from the pool onto the deck, drenching both Scott and John so bad that water droplets were trickling down their faces. His expression neutral, John reached up a hand and flicked a dangling blond hair from off his sunglasses. "For a kid who can dive a perfect one-half pike from the high board, you sure can make a mess in that pool."

Gordon surfaced from the water, took one look at his brother, and happily threw his red locks behind his ears. "You just hate being wet."

"You're right, Gord, I do hate being wet. Now stop splashing me."

A sly look came across Gordon's face. He looked sideways to Virgil, then looked back to John. "Okay. I'll stop."

With that Virgil pulled out a water gun from behind his back, aimed at John, and sent another torrent of water directly at his brother. The spray hit the blond-haired teen smack in the face.

Watching the entire scene from a distance, Scott simply covered his mouth and tried not to laugh too hard. "John, you look like a drowned animal."

His glasses askew on his face, John gave Scott a dark look. "Technically," he muttered dryly, "that would be correct. I am an animal, and I'm pretty close to drowned." He looked directly at Virgil, thought for a moment, then pushed up from the chair. "That's it. You've asked for it."

Virgil's face paled for a moment, and he brought his hand to his mouth in mock horror. "Oh my, he's going to throw the half-nelson on us, Gordon!"

"Wrong," John declared, cracking his fingers in front of him. "I'm going to give you the full-nelson." He grinned, and threw himself as hard as he could into the water.

"Hypocrite!" Gordon groaned, swimming out of the way as his brother crashed into the pool. "You're gonna give us a can kicking, and in the water too!"

Amidst the screams of his brother's, Scott could distinctly hear Alan's voice drifting from the other side of the pool.

"You guys are dorks."

"Come on Alan," Gordon shouted from the water, "help me! John's trying to drown me!"

"Looks like things are back to normal," Scott sighed quietly, deciding that it was time for him to join in on the fun. "Time to relax." Pulling off his T-shirt, he jumped into the water and joined the madness.

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Jeff Tracy looked down on his boys from the clear window of the observation deck, and marvelled at how much they had grown since their last visit to the island. So much had changed from the last year - and not all of it, he noted sadly, was good.

While Scott had finally matured to be a trusted if not wise adult, Gordon was obviously launching into the moody teenage years that Jeff's three older children had missed. Scott, John, and Virgil had simply not had the time or the opportunity to grow rebellious. They had grown up instead, had been forced to by the early death of their mother. Gordon, for whatever reason, was not willing to taking life with a spoon of sugar, and seemed to be out to make everything hell for his father.

And there were the physical differences, the changes that were beginning to make Jeff wonder where his children were going.

Alan had begun to grow, and was beginning catching up in height and bulk to his brothers. Though still a child in his own right, he was beginning to show signs of maturity beyond his years.

John had finally stopped growing - Jeff thought thankfully - and he rivalled Scott for height. There was no similarity past that, however. Where Scott was solid and muscular, John was thin and gangly, and not built for the physical sports that Scott had craved at school.

And then there were Gordon and Virgil, who were also making the subtle transition from boys to men; their frames were becoming stockier and stronger as their bodies caught up with their teenage growing spurts, though Virgil seemed destined to be the shortest member of the family. Jeff had found himself grinning the previous week when he had caught Virgil with a tiny bit of stubble growing on his chin.

It was obvious physically that his children were not children anymore. Even Alan was showing signs of jumping into adolescence in a few years, and the thought of all of his children being older than ten was enough to make Jeff stop and think about everything that had happened. The transition was not just physical, though, as he had already noted.

Whether they wanted to or not, his boys were growing up - some of them were leaving, and others were left behind to pick up where the missing individuals left off. Scott was gone, off on his own career in the Air Force, and it was very likely that John would soon be off as well, to some well-paying job somewhere in the world.

In the remnants of what used to be the Tracy family remained Virgil, Gordon, and Alan, still children that ought to be allowed the one grace of childhood, but couldn't be allowed it because of the circumstances. Virgil had already suffered, in Jeff's eyes, but the other two boys were still young enough to want everything that a young boy should want.

And if Jeff Tracy had anything to say about, the problems that he had seen surfacing would not last any longer. He was going to do something about the rift that was forming in his family. He wasn't quite sure what, but it had to be something drastic, since drastic things were happening of their own will.

He sighed, and gazed forlornly at his children. "I'll fix this all, boys, don't you worry. Father will sort everything out."

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A/N - All right, I'm off to find some good crow to eat, since you guys have proven me wrong. :) Thank you, thank you, for your reviews for the last chapter! I guess that I was worried about nothing, since you all seemed to like what I did with the characters. I'm glad to hear that, because I can go on with the rest of the story and not be forced to re-write anything major.

I'm going to put my A/N at the end from now on, in case anyone's wondering, just to save clutter at the top, and to save people from having to read all of this if they don't want to. I think that I just write too much, period, but I can't seem to escape that because I want to respond to you guys, if you take the time out to review! ;)

andrewjameswilliams – I have to agree with your remark about Alan. I find it hard to write boys his age, because I haven't really had any experience with kids, so I'm glad that I managed to hit the nail, per se. My own little brother isn't nearly as mature as he should be for his age – for reasons beyond his control – so I often am left trying to figure out how the heck Alan (or any boy from the age eight to about twelve) would act in a certain situation. I do think that, although he is mature for a kid his age (and I've been fighting with that later in the story )he would still display childish tendencies, such as running away from his brother when John is yelling.

kazza – I just couldn't bring myself to write Brains as 'Brains'. He seemed like such an enigma figure in the show and in the movie, and I wanted to make him seem more like a human being. I agree, though, Hyram Hackenbacker seems like a British joke. So much of the tv show is, really, if you think about it. ;) They constantly poke at American foreign policy.

zeilfanaat – I like that part too. My own little bro was the source of the A-word joke. He'll go around the house saying 'So and So called Someone an a-hole!', and it's so funny!

miz greenleaf – Hey, a new reader! :) That makes my day to see that.

Leap of fate – Thanks so much for the compliment, and (once again) it's great to see another new person reading this! I definitely agree with your comment about the guys. I think by the end of the fic they'll be close to what they're like in the movie/television show, but for now they are just boys growing up during hard times. I've especially enjoyed developing Gordon's character – I don't want to say too much, but I have the story finished up to (I think) 2018 now, and I'm really pleased with how the boys (especially Gordy) have taken off on their own! I feel like I didn't really write a thing, but just passed around the pen. Gordon is the only character that I have the pleasure of taking from childhood to 'adulthood', and its proving to be very rewarding from a writer's perspective.

Assena – I've found myself saying FAB at work. It seems to be dangerously catching. ;)

Opal Girl – Wow, I'm pleasantly surprised to hear you say that! Since we already really know what happens, it's nice to hear that the story still maintains an aura of surprise and intrigue about it.

Thanks again! Just to warn, I have finals coming up the next couple of weeks, but I should be able to post the next chappie soon, since I've almost finished editing it up. I'm being really bad and not sending these for beta reading, so if there's anything glaringly wrong, feel free to mention it and I'll correct it. FAB, all!