Hello! Thank you for all the reviews and follows so far, i'm sorry I put John through the mill a bit but i'm happy to say we are almost at the end now. I had planned to complete this to coincide with New Year's but as usual time has got away with me!

6

"Do you think he'll come round soon? I really want Christmas dinner."

"Gordon!" Scott chided.

"What? it's been on the hotplate for ages, you know it doesn't taste as good."

"Well go and get some then, no one's stopping you."

"But I feel bad not eating as a family, what with the others out too."

"No, you don't"

"Well maybe not…... but I am hungry."

There was a loud sigh of annoyance, somewhere to his right. He felt warm and comfortable but very lightheaded… did he drink too much at dinner? No wait, Gordon just said they hadn't had dinner, wow he must have really slept in. He stirred a little and hissed in pain as his eyes flicked open. He groaned. Why did his head feel like cotton wool? He tuned side on to see a blurry brunette figure, his eyes taking a minute to focus.

"Hey; welcome back to the land of the living buddy, you had us all worried there for a moment." Scott ditched his book on the bedside table, one ankle resting on his other knee. He wore a crisp pale blue jacket and a high-necked powder blue pullover with cream slacks.

John bolted upright, hand shooting to his head. "Thunderbird Five! She's she's…."

"A little messed up; yeah, we know and so are you, so lie back down and quit worrying." Scott gently plumped the pillow before resting a hand on John's chest to settle him. Gordon stood and passed him some water, encouraging John to drink.

"You don't understand - the arrays were smashed, communications are down so even the secondary control room failed. I have to get back up there." John gesticulated, wincing at the shooting pain from his bandaged wrist. He stared at it in surprise.

"You're not going anywhere today son so try not to worry, it's all in hand." Jeff stepped through the doorway. Scott had buzzed him moments before.

He scooted over to make room for his father who pulled up a chair. "The most important thing is that your alive, the rest can wait." Jeff tried to school his features; he hadn't long come off a call with the space federation. Jeff wanted to press charges but in doing so he would expose the secrecy of his organisation, something he couldn't do as international rescue. Instead, he had his agents comb through evidence he'd managed to obtain of other space stations that had also suffered near misses who were also now condemning the federation for their actions. It would be top news tomorrow and from experience Jeff knew the damnation of the world media was often far more effective than any lawsuit.

"Dad sent Virgil, Brains, Alan and Tin-tin immediately to try and get her functioning again. There are days' worth of work up there but they have already managed to restore power with Brains setting up Braman to field the calls to earth." Scott tried to reassure him.

John relaxed a little, that was good to know but he was still filled with sadness. His home had been very nearly destroyed; people relied on him to pick up their distress calls. To think there could have been people shouting for help, their calls unanswered was anxiety inducing. His heart rate ticked up at the memory of being alone as his line broke. He had felt he was doing to die for sure. He took a shaky breath as the reality of what had happened sunk in. "I guess I missed Christmas." He picked at the sheet, adverting his gaze. He couldn't bring himself to say he never thought he'd see another. His family didn't need to know how close it had been.

Gordon gave him a wan smile from the foot of the bed before producing a giant sack of presents. "You almost did." He dumped them on the bed. "Its eight pm so you better get cracking."

There was a knock at the door before a service trolley rattled through with Kyrano stooping to uncover the hot plates. "Ah! I thought I could hear Mister John. I'm glad you are awake; we are most relived." He smiled before bowing his head slightly. "I thought you may wish to eat in here as a family?"

"That's a swell idea, thanks Kyrano." Jeff took the cutlery and offered it around in turn as Gordon helped dispatch the plates brimmed with roast potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, gravy and more. Eventually, they all settled down, plates on laps. Just as Gordon's fork hovered over the delectable looking beef Scott interjected, "Maybe we ought to let John open his presents before we eat?" He shot a coy smirk at Gordon whose face had gone from an expression of delight to one of sheer indignancy.

John mustered up a grin. "Nah, its okay go on ahead. I know you've been waiting."

Gordon launched into the potatoes with relish whilst the others chuckled. As John picked at his carrots, he felt guilty as well as nauseous from the blow to the head. He knew it wasn't his fault but thanks to events out of his control his whole family had missed Christmas. He also knew that not all his family might be able to return home for days with the repairs to attend to. There was much work to be done. Gazing off into the distance he wondered how they were getting on up there.

"John?" His father eyed him critically.

"I'm fine dad honest. Just a little battered and bruised - nothing a good night's sleep can't solve." He gave another weak smile in an attempt to reassure his father.

Jeff nodded in understanding as they continued with their meals. Jeff had called the Doctor in to assess John's condition when he was still unconscious on return to the island. The Doctor would be coming later unless Jeff called to say John had awoken but to be honest Jeff would rather he was checked again anyway to be safe. Jeff would also be monitoring him at regular intervals tonight, just to make sure all was well. Trying to explain his injuries had been interesting, thankfully it was common knowledge that John was an astronaut so they explained it was a training incident ahead of his next venture. Once their meal was over, John fell promptly asleep, present still in hand. Jeff shooed out the boys before carefully extracting the small gold package and placing it on the table. Tucking the sheets up higher, Jeff then took his leave, dimming the lights as he did so.

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The relays spun round, the quiet but steady thrum of thousands of conversations in hundreds of languages as they relayed from all over the world with the occasional outburst of static. Brains consulted his to do list checking off the secondary control room. It had been one of the most straight forward repairs. Others were going to take more time. Still in his space suit he paced his way into the next room, the anti-gravity now being restored with full power. He passed Tin-Tin at the communications desk. "Virgil, Alan – How are you doing out there?" She inquired.

Virgil's soft cadence filtered through her comms. "Not bad at all. All the arrays have now been replaced. We're just working on a few damaged panels, quite a few have fist sized holes in them. Brain's; when can we expect to receive the new glass? It seems a shame to leave her incomplete."

"It's ah a custom piece Virgil. S-should be ready in ten days."

"That long?"

"I-I'm afraid so."

"Alright well, we've done all we can. We'll meet you at Three."

"F.A.B" Tin-tin signed off.

Virgil gently started to pull himself across the expanse of Five in direction of the docking platform. It was rare he got to come up here now, he'd not set foot out of the atmosphere since IR started. He gazed at Earth in front of them whilst waiting for Alan to catch up. It was nothing short of awe inspiring, he hoped he could savour the view long enough to be able to create a new painting. He knew just the type of acrylic's he wanted to try. He loved the idea of playing with the light and dark as well as trying to recreate Earth's ambiance.

"Earth to Virgil."

"I'm sorry, the artist in me got distracted." Alan gave a wry grin as they resumed their walk.

"You know it's a shame we have to go back with it incomplete. I was rather hoping we could tell John she was like new and ready for action." When he first saw the state of her, he wondered if she would ever function again. Five was like purgatory to him and even he was saddened by the carnage caused, John must have been devastated in comparison, he actually enjoyed living here for one thing.

"I know, Gordon said he was positively blue about the whole affair but she should be ready for his homecoming next month at least."

Alan Scoffed. "Like he's going to last a month being home."

"Doctors orders – he doesn't have a choice. Father's put his foot down too."

"Hmm we'll see. I tell you, he will be up here in three weeks."

They both chuckled as they reached the docking platform, waving to Tin and Brains from inside the docking port they were let in. Inside they began to load the old components into Thunderbird three for disposal. Virgil shifted past Brains with two sets of toolboxes just as Alan caught a tank that Tin-tin lost her grip on. She awkwardly thanked him as he hoisted both the canisters she had been carrying over his shoulder. Twenty minutes later they were all strapped in ready for the return Journey. "Prepare for launch in 5…4….3…..2…1 – Launch!" The retros burst into life as the four exhausted passengers settled into their seats satisfied with a job well done.

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Darkness had fallen on the island. As most of his family slept, John crept out onto the balcony wrapped in new thick dressing gown he had been gifted by Tin-Tin. He still felt woozy at times and his sprained wrist throbbed like crazy but he was just happy to be home and safe. Exhausted but unable to sleep since being woken up for his doctors exam, he wrapped himself up tightly in one of the patio chairs and gazed up at the heavens before firing up his laptop. His father had explained what had happened, including the Santa tracker. He was devastated that it had gone offline, he wondered how many kids' hearts had been broken across the world but he had an idea of how to rectify the situation. He tapped away furiously on the touchscreen, frustrated at the speed of just one hand. The white blue light warmed his eyes to a deep emerald hue. Finally, after 20 minutes he sat back tired but pleased with his work. He refreshed the website and there on the tracker instead of Santa in his sleigh with nine reindeer's, was a cosy little cottage in the north pole. Outside the cottage was a small forest of evergreens with reindeer's gorging hay nets in a near by paddock, and if you zoomed in on the window you could just see the back of a big wing back chair with a set of chunky legs in Christmas socks, resting by the fire that burned bright. Smiling to himself, John flipped the lid before tucking it into his chest and retiring for night.