Disclaimer: I don't own them, I'm not lucky enough.
A/N: Set quite a while after the movie. John's back in the rebuilt/repaired Thunderbird Five.
---
"I'm okay," Gordon announced right away. "I wasn't inside."
"Alan? Virgil?" Scott said, repeating himself more than a few times.
"I'm here, Scott," Alan finally answered.
"You okay?" Scott asked.
"I got caught when it came down. I'm a little worn around the edges, but nothing's broken and nothing's serious. I heard Gordon earlier, tell me that I just missed Virgil and that he's called in."
"Sorry, haven't heard a word from him," Scott replied. "Alan, get back out here and we'll get you looked at."
"Negative, I'm staying put. I'm being checked out by an EMT in here. Me and Gordon aren't leaving until we find Virgil."
"FAB," Scott said. "I'll be joining you in a minute."
Scott reported back to the island, then headed inside himself. He found Alan easily enough. After giving his brother his own once over, they went and found Gordon standing by the pile.
Gordon eyed Alan, then looked to Scott. "Now what do we do?"
"We'll have to start stripping this pile apart," Scott answered.
"Do we have that much time?" Alan asked.
"We don't have another option. That pile's unsteady as it is, I won't risk anyone else going in there now. Let's get coordinated, and let's get going!"
While the three brothers began peeling back the layers of the pile, John watched with worry. But he wasn't being idle either, he was scanning for Virgil's signal or his GPS. But he wasn't reading either. He was in the process of trying everything he could think of when he heard a small voice come through.
"Can anyone hear me?" a hoarse whisper came through.
"International Rescue…" John began.
"It's me, big brother," the voice said, and John almost laughed when he realized it was Virgil.
"I didn't recognize your signal," John replied. "Or your voice. What's wrong?"
"It fell on me," Virgil said, his voice weaker.
"I'm triangulating your signal. The others will be there shortly."
"No time."
"What do you mean 'no time'?" John asked, finally getting the feed through to his father.
Jeff listened with a horrible worry. He knew what Virgil meant.
"Virgil, it's Dad. You hang on, you hear me. They'll be there soon."
"Maybe you'll find me in the stars someday, Johnny."
After an unsteady deep breath, John replied, "I won't because you'll get out of there alive."
"I love you, I love them."
"And we love you," Jeff replied.
"You know that song I was working on?"
"Yes," Jeff said, knowing John didn't.
"Existentialism on Prom Night, liked the title. Listen to it sometime."
"You'll play it for us, silly," John said.
"I don't think I'll have the chance to."
John, who finally got Virgil's position, radioed it in to Scott.
"Scott, you better hurry. I don't know exactly what's going on, but he doesn't sound good. And he's talking like he's going to die," John said quickly.
"That's an area we've been working on. Keep him talking John. Keep him talking so he'll stay awake."
Scott signed off and called to Alan and Gordon. They went to the location and began to work again.
"We don't have much time," Scott said.
Both nodded, they knew it was that bad just from Scott's voice.
John signed back on with his father and Virgil.
"They're coming, Virgil. Hang in there," John said. "Scott will kick your ass if you quit trying."
"Gordon's present's sketch is in the studio. I want him to see it. And the sketchpad. Let him see that too," Virgil said.
"Stop talking like you're not going to make it," John said forcefully.
"It doesn't hurt so much anymore," Virgil replied. "But I don't feel so much either."
"Tell me a story," Jeff ordered.
"What?"
"Tell me story. You've got the imagination, use it. Tell me something."
"How 'bout something real?"
"Anything."
"Ice cream. We were kids. I wanted chocolate chip ice cream so bad. It was after Scotty's baseball game. The one where I got hit by a home run because I wasn't looking. You said I could have ice cream. You took us all there. Alan had bubblegum, he always got that. Gordon got chocolate, I think. Johnny, I think you got black raspberry. And Scotty got cookie dough. But they didn't have chocolate chip, they ran out. I didn't want anything else either."
"You were the only one who didn't get ice cream that day," John remembered. "And I had strawberry. Scott had been making fun of me for always getting black raspberry."
"Dad, you felt so bad. But I didn't care because they got ice cream," Virgil continued, trailing off at the end.
"Virgil?" John said loudly after a few moments of silence. "Virgil!"
"Cookies," they finally heard from Virgil.
"What about them?" Jeff asked.
"They were in my room."
Jeff smiled a bit, he remembered that Virgil wanted to be in his room alone after dinner. At the time, Jeff thought that he was sore about not getting ice cream.
"You wanted to get into your cookie stash," Jeff said.
"Got 'em from Grandma," Virgil added before coughing.
It was a harsh coughing fit, and both Jeff and John knew that meant trouble.
"Keep him talking, Dad," John said. "I'll let Scott know."
"Scott, how far are you?" John asked once he'd switched over.
"Not too far," Scott answered breathlessly. "We've got paramedics standing by."
"He's fading, fast. Sounds like he's got some sort of chest trauma," John noted.
"FAB. Keep him talking."
John switched back to hear Virgil coughing again. And then they heard him groan.
"Virgil? Virgil!" came from Jeff and John.
But an eerie silence followed. It was interrupted by Virgil saying, "I love you," and then there was nothing. Neither man understood, they just kept calling Virgil's name. But there was just too much silence, too many consecutive seconds of absolute nothing.
John managed to snap himself back and call Scott.
"Hurry, damn it!" John yelled. "He's not answering us!"
Scott, who normally would've taken offense at that kind of language and tone, only said he was doing so and switched off.
It was another minute before they got most of the pile removed. The first thing they saw was one of Virgil's legs sticking out from underneath a piece of the roofing. That piece was the next removed and Scott jumped down. He knelt by Virgil's side, a hand on his brother's carotid.
"Nothing!" Scott cried.
Gordon and Alan could only stare in shock for a moment. Then Gordon saw Scott beginning CPR. The shock cleared at that sight, and Gordon called for the paramedics. They'd cleared enough debris that it was safe for the paramedics to enter and they managed to get a stretcher down as well.
Scott continued CPR with one of the paramedic's help. The other was setting up an IV and putting that into Virgil's arm.
"We can't defib him down here," one of the paramedics said. "There's too much metal."
The other paramedic and Scott both nodded. Virgil was put on the stretcher and quickly brought up. Scott hung back and let the paramedics work. They stripped Virgil to the waist and attached the electrodes.
"Charging to 200," the paramedic said. "Clear!"
Nothing.
"200…clear!"
Nothing.
"Charging to 360. Clear!"
Nothing.
Scott saw one of the paramedics tear into a package. A large needle was taken out, and that scared Scott. The needle was plunged into Virgil's heart and emptied.
