Virgil sat at the desk, staring at the paperwork strewn over it. His brother always did prefer doing it the old-fashioned way.

Dad's way.

In theory, he had sat down to tidy it up and finish working through whatever needed finishing urgently.

In reality…he'd been sitting there, staring, for almost an hour. His hands itched to tidy the mess, but he couldn't…he couldn't bring himself to touch any of it

The last person sitting at that desk…

He buried his face in his hands and stifled a sigh that suspiciously sounded more like a sob. The desk remained impassive to his feelings, and Virgil snorted. He was getting too emotional.

Focus.

Scott had been sitting here completing reports. He'd been sitting there until…Virgil slammed his hands down on the desk. He needed to get out of this maudlin mood. He needed to get this sorted. It was his burden, his promise to his brother.

He pushed the guilt away. There would be time for that later had almost became a mantra over the last couple of days.

Scott was juggling so many worlds. Many more than Virgil had been aware of. He stacked the paperwork in accord to the world it belonged to.

International Rescue

GDF

Tracy Industries

Alan's Schooling.

The four worlds they all knew Scott carried.

iR, TI and the GDF produced and demanded so, so many reports. Reports that kept Scott up into the small hours of the morning. Every. Single. Day. They all tried to muck in and help, completing their own reports for iR, sometimes helping with the GDF ones, but Scott hated it when he needed help to get these done within a 'reasonable timeframe'.

As if the worlds Scott carried cared enough to give him time to complete these in a 'reasonable timeframe'.

How often had they heard their eldest brother protest that 'Dad had done it,' forgetting that their father hadn't done it alone at all – he had always had Scott and John for both iR and TI, and he had never had to file reports for the GDF. But Scott couldn't see that, always seemed surprised if he or John ever mentioned that fact.

Alan's schooling had surprised him. Virgil didn't realise how much paperwork home schooling Alan produced, and wasn't that a bitter pill for him to swallow. He wondered if even John knew how much there was.

But there were other worlds that Virgil had no idea about at all. Ones that Scott had never told anyone about, that he ran solely, separately from TI and iR.

The charity that Scott had set up to help veterans who had PTSD.

The scholarships that Scott had set up in their tiny hometown:

The Arts scholarship in Virgil's name.

The Physics one in John's.

The Sports one in Gordon's.

The Astrophysics one in Alan's

The marine organisation that was helping to clean the oceans.

The Jefferson Tracy Centre for Astronautical Studies.

The Lucille Tracy Fund for Women in STEM.

The Ruth Tracy Fund for Women in Medicine.

And these were on top of the charitable endeavours of Tracy Industries.

No wonder his brother had no time for anything.

It had taken the two eldest almost a complete day just to find all that out, and that was with John's skills and EOS!

Now, though, now they had everything laid bare and they had begun to divide everything between them.

All Virgil had to do was to sort out the paperwork on the desk into the relevant piles.

John would take over TI.

Virgil would take over iR

Gordon and Penny had agreed to run the various charitable endeavours between them, Penny remarking that it would be good practice for all of them. Virgil had shuddered a little at that.

Grandma would take over Alan's schooling.

John and Virgil would jointly manage the GDF reports.

Alan had pouted when they hadn't given him anything to do, but Grandma pointed out that just by completing his schoolwork on time would be the biggest help he could be. He needed to learn the rest of it before he could help. Alan had grudgingly agreed.

Virgil slumped back in the chair.

Scott had woken up but...his big brother was a shadow of his usual self. Virgil wondered how long it would take for him to begin to get antsy, having nothing to do so he could concentrate on getting better. He snorted. Scott was barely with them and he'd already attempted to get out of bed…

He picked up a GDF report and idly flicked through it. Virgil was appalled to see it was 30 pages long! He looked at some of the questions. They started off pretty basic and obvious – what was the rescue, what did you do – that kind of thing. But as he read more into the report there were more in-depth questions, all leading to Scott needing to prove he had made the right decisions. Some of them were very poorly worded…

No wonder it took his brother so long to fill these out on top of everything else, and then to have to second-guess himself to justify everything? Virgil made a note to get John to contact Colonel Casey and between him and EOS they could get these reports more streamlined and helpful. John was itching to be let loose on them anyway…

'Virgil?'

'Yes, John?'

'You have incoming.'

'Thanks for the heads up.'

He put the reports away and locked everything down just as Scott stumbled out of the elevator. He still looked awful, but ten times better than before. Virgil already up and moving to meet him halfway, intercepting him and leading him down into the sunken lounge and onto a seat. Scott made protesting noises but nothing more, telling him that the trip had been too much.

Virgil sat down beside his eldest brother and Scott sagged against him.

'Sorry.'

'Don't be.'

'I just…'

'We know. Look, we've divided the work between us so that all you need to concentrate on is getting better.'

'But…'

'No but's Scott. You cannot keep carrying the weight of the world, of us, and expect to not collapse from exhaustion.'

'Sorry.'

There was silence for a moment.

'You know that this isn't your fault either, right?'

Virgil swallowed. He should have known that Scott would address his guilt before he ever would.

'I should have made you come to bed.'

'We both know that wouldn't have worked.'

'I should have done more, done something.'

'I did the reports, I drank your coffee and ate your cookies, which were perfect, by the way, and decided I needed to stretch out. So I went for a run. It's not your fault that I twisted my ankle and fell.'

'I know, but…'

'No buts, Virgil. No 'what if's. None of this was – is – your fault.'

He ignored the prickling in the corners of his eyes as he listened to Scott's words. They had reenforced what both John and Grandma had said, but Virgil had needed to hear it from Scott to truly begin to believe it. It was a start.

'Now, what were you going to say?'

'The reports, the paperwork. The load that you carry. Let us help you carry it, it's what family are for.'

'Yeah. Yeah, you're right.'

Well…that was easier than he expected.

Virgil left Scott leaning precariously to the side while he went and made drinks for them both, and sure enough, by the time he'd got back Scott was on his side, asleep. He smiled fondly as he covered him with a blanket and returned to the desk.

It was the impetus he needed to get the desk sorted, and by the time Scott woke up a couple of hours later, the desk was clear.

Just maybe, by all pulling together, they could actually conquer this and Scott could stop being a child of Atlas, stop carrying the weight of the world alone.

They could carry it together. As a family.