You can blame Gumnut-Logic for this one…

It was inevitable.

He blamed the dimples and the blue eyes. It almost always came down to that. Some men might think that they were a gift from the Gods, but on occasions such as now they were merely instruments sent to torture him.

He stared at the woman. Her big brown eyes were slightly reminiscent of Virgil's, her long hair was almost the same shade, well, except for the twist of red and purple running down one side. As he watched her she lurched towards him again and he had to jump out of the way.

Trying to fend the woman off while yelling at John asking when Virgil was going to arrive was not easy, and the reply of 'another 20 minutes yet, Scott', was not what he wanted to hear. Dodging her arms again, he backed away, hand on his grapple gun in desperation.

'Ma'am, please. I'm just doing my job.' He skipped to the right as she made to grab his arm again.

One hug had been enough. The fact that she kept trying to hug him was frankly frightening right now. The woman had obviously been injured, she was limping quite badly, and it felt awful to think that he may not have been able to avoid her clutches for so long if she had not. As she lunged at him again his patience snapped.

'Madam, if you do not stop this behaviour at once I will be forced to tie you to that tree so that I can examine your injuries! Do you understand me?' He frowned as he spoke, hoping that it would be an empty threat. He really didn't want to do that.

She frowned in return and lowered her arms, and Scott heaved a sigh of relief. Trust him to rescue a woman whose language John didn't know. He was surprised that there were any unknown languages to John. Scott took the lowering of the arms as a sign that she had some understanding of what he had said.

Taking a tentative step forward while fishing around his baldrick for the portable Medscanner, he almost didn't see it. The flash of triumph across her face as he came within reach, and he was once again folded inside muscular arms that were not letting go. She was babbling something at him as he struggled, and John gave a shout in his ear.

'I got it, Scott! She's speaking Karaim, a Lithuanian dialect.' Scott sighed in relief, maybe now he could get somewhere with her. Wriggling to get his arms free, he gasped as she squeezed him tighter.

'Can you tell her to get off me and that I need to examine her wounds?' he gritted out. Taking a breath, he twisted out of her embrace and stepped back, hand once again falling to his grapple.

'Sorry Scott, there are only an estimated 200 speakers of Karaim, and I can't find anything that will help me. I have redirected Virgil so that he can pick up a translator, but there doesn't appear to be a way I can reach someone yet who can help you. Hold on.'

Scott backed up, one hand held up as if to stop the woman, other one still on the gun. He was just getting his breath back.

'I repeat, I don't want to hurt you, but I need to examine your injuries, and you really must stop hugging me so that I can do that.' The woman nodded encouragingly, but she still moved forwards to him.

'John, I can't wait any longer, the more she walks on that leg the worse it is going to be. She's not leaving me much option.'

'You can't be seriously thinking of tying her to the tree, Scott!'

'Can you think of another way I can get her to stop, Thunderbird Five, because I am all ears!'

Silence. Yeah, that's what I thought, Scott said to himself. He had three options actually. Tie her to the tree, tranq the woman or hope that during one of her hugs he managed to find the source of her injury, but that last one was very iffy. What if she misunderstood his intentions?

So he was back to tying her to a tree. She stepped towards him and he sidestepped, his mind made up. Backing towards the tree with the woman advancing, he counted out the steps. He would only have one go at this.

The woman lunged and Scott smartly stepped aside, whipping up the gun and firing smoothly. Seconds later she was lashed about the waist to the tree, loosely enough so that it wouldn't hurt but tight enough that she couldn't move too much.

Immediately the woman stopped talking and lowered her arms. Instead, she began a kind of keening sound, and Scott hurried to find the injury. Sure enough, down the length of her right thigh was a nasty gash, and he took the opportunity to tightly bandage it, thankful that the woman didn't seem inclined to kick him while she could.

As he finished he could hear the familiar sounds of Two arriving, and as he straightened up he heard her hatch open and watched Virgil stride towards him, a skinny elderly man beside him.

Virgil, who had heard everything from John (and had secretly laughed and laughed and laughed) introduced the man as Benas, and as Virgil released the grapple, Scott asked Benas to explain his actions to the woman, who turned out to be called Leva.

Benas relayed Leva's responses, that she was sorry for causing Scott trouble but that she was smitten with him and would like him to come live with her. Scott in turn thanked her very much, but he was afraid that another woman had his heart. It took all his not inconsiderable self-control to not turn around and run for One.

Virgil, still struggling not to laugh, was looking over the bandage and checking there was no other injuries. It would hold fine until he could fly her to the hospital. Leva didn't even spare him a glance. As Benas and Leva talked in their own tongue, he elbowed his brother. 'Another lady has your heart, has she?' Scott broke out into a full grin.

'One is the only lady I need, thank you very much,' and so saying, Scott turned to leave for his girl. Suddenly, there was the most unmanly squawk from his brother. Having a feeling he knew what he was going to see, Scott turned.

There stood Virgil, Leva's arms around him tight and babbling away, while Benas was trying valiantly to talk to her.

'Er…a little help here, Scott, please!'