A/N: John and Virgil (with some EOS on the side), written for the Thunderbird One Prompt Challenge on Tumblr to write a fic using the below prompt

"You don't need to worry about me," said A.

"Well, someone has to!" B paused - they didn't mean to raise their voice. They sighed and continued "A."

A rolled their eyes but B wasn't deterred.

"When was the last time you ate? Slept?"

A got up abruptly, hoping to avoid a lecture. Their head spun and they reached for something to steady themself, almost crashing into the bookshelf…

0o0o0o0o0

SHREEE! SHREEE! SHREEE!

Virgil yelped and bolted upright, shocked out of a deep sleep by the louder-than-normal alarm. "What the hell, John!?" He half snarled, his customary reaction to being startled awake as he scrubbed the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes. They'd talked about this! Regular exposure to sudden loud alarms causes heart problems later in life, but scaling up in volume lets someone wake without the risk of long term damage.

"Virgil!" To his surprise it was EOS' icon that flickered into life, not his brother's image. "John's collapsed! I can't help him, I don't have arms!" The AI wailed in her distress and panic.

"EOS, report, is John conscious?" Virgil rolled out of bed, yanked the space rated uniform out of his closet and struggled into it as he spoke, hoping to get the AI to stop panicking and focus.

"Negative, estimated GCS is eight- eyes one, voice two, motor five- as I cannot perform the pain response tests." The panic had subsided, but it was still very much there under the surface. "He is breathing sufficiently and has a pulse, no visible injuries."

Virgil shoved his feet into his boots and translated the numbers- John wasn't opening his eyes, made incomprehensible noises and wasn't obeying commands. Anything GCS nine or under was an automatic priority one. "Is he on his side?" Was the next question as he pulled on his gloves and bracer.

"Affirmative, safe position protocol has been enacted."

"Good."

'Safe position protocol' was something that had been worked out while Five was still on the drawing board. Should Five's computer detect a drop in John's vital signs and activity levels that indicated unconsciousness, an automatic alarm would sound. If that didn't wake John, the gravity ring would stop and the computer would signal Tracy Island while remotely activating the manoeuvring jets on John's baldric to move him into position on his side, then the ring would reactivate so that vomit could safely drain and he wouldn't choke on it or suffocate on his tongue. If he wasn't wearing his baldric, the entire station would shift around him to achieve this. EOS controlled it now, but while they were working out the bugs John had had a couple of rude awakenings when he was in a deeper sleep than normal and accidentally tripped the protocol.

"Send down the space elevator and put his suit telemetry on my HUD." Virgil ordered next as he clicked his helmet into place, ran out the door and made for the concealed elevator, stopping by the infirmary for the emergency bag on his way. He timed it perfectly, the elevator locking onto the docking mount as soon as he arrived at the platform. The vitals he could see - elevated heart rate and blood pressure- were typical for a body under stress for any number of reasons and he took the oxygen levels with a grain of salt- while they were sitting between 98 and 100%, Five had a similar protocol to their suits and would flood the occupied section with oxygen when certain vitals tripped pre-set levels. What stood out to him was the temperature- elevated at 39.8 Celsius.

Virgil tucked the bag into a safe spot, settled himself into the chair and tapped the control for the elevator to retract. "Okay EOS, show me what happened just before John collapsed." He ordered as the seat reclined and the rockets fired.

A hologram started playing in response, the footage recorded from EOS' perspective. John was in the bedroom section, sitting on his cot and carefully sipping what looked like juice.

"You don't need to worry about me." John told EOS, but the ginger was pale and moving carefully, one arm around his stomach in a guarding motion.

"Well someone has to!" Was EOS' heated retort.

John's eye roll was clear even through the fish-eye lens distortion.

"When was the last time you ate properly? Slept?" EOS continued. She was about to say more when John abruptly got up, staggered and collapsed, almost crashing into the opposite wall.

The video cut out. "He's been off his normal diet for three days." EOS supplied before Virgil could ask. "His sleeping patterns have been disrupted and he's been in increasing levels of discomfort the entire time. He didn't want me to tell anyone, he thought it was normal zero-g gastrointestinal issues and that he would recover on his own with more time under gravity. He has been taking paracetamol and ibuprofen for the pain, last dose 78 minutes ago."

Virgil nodded as he processed the information and narrowed down his list of suspicions. It wasn't unusual for astronauts to get GI issues because human bodies weren't made for zero or micro-g and John tended to suffer from them if he turned off the gravity too soon after eating. Normally a day or two spent entirely under gravity helped, but clearly something else was going on. "What was John's temperature before he took the last dose of paracetamol?" He asked.

"39.7"

Virgil frowned, his concern growing. For John's temperature to have gone even higher despite the antipyretic effect of the paracetamol was very bad.

The elevator docked solidly with Five. Virgil snagged the medical kit and made for the bedroom section where John was sprawled awkwardly on his side, a puddle of vomit and spilled juice soaking his hair.

"John, it's Virgil, you wanna open your eyes for me?" Virgil knelt beside John and shook his shoulder, getting a groan in response but nothing else. He unsealed John's spacesuit next so he could get at a shoulder and dig his thumb into the trapezius muscle. That earned him an ineffective bat at his hand. "Okay, localises pain, GCS is confirmed at eight." Virgil went through his kit and pulled out the medical scanner, playing it over John's lanky body. He scrutinised the results, noting signs of inflammation in the lower abdomen, and his suspicions hardened. "John, you're going to feel my hand on your belly, okay?" He reached out and gently rolled his hand across John's abdomen, watching his face for any twitches. As soon as he pressed on the lower right side, just above the hip, John flinched, but it was lifting his hand up that got the groan and another attempted grab at his hand.

"You're hurting him!" EOS protested, watching from over Virgil's shoulder.

"I know, I'm sorry about that, but I had to see. It looks like appendicitis, rebound tenderness- lifting up hurts more than pressing down- is one of the classic signs." Virgil explained. "Get us into position for a drop to Auckland Hospital, then resize John's exosuit to fit me, I'll ride down on the outside and escort him."

"Understood." EOS' camera nodded to him and Virgil could feel the station rumble and shift as EOS changed their trajectory to hover over Auckland.

In the meantime, he moved John to the access hatch for the elevator, took a moment to wipe off the worst of the vomit and resealed his suit, setting John's helmet into place and talking to him all the while. He was ready just before they were in geo-synchronous position. Once they were still, he loaded John into the elevator, strapped him down on his side, then went through the station to the stem so he could gear up in John's exosuit. Brains, in his usual brilliance, had designed all their exos to be adaptable should another sibling need them. It still felt weird though, while he'd trained in it, he preferred flying inside of a Thunderbird.

Once he'd swooped around the station and grabbed the tether, he signalled EOS again. "Okay, drop us down gently and give me an R-40 through to Auckland ED." He instructed, asking EOS for the encrypted radio call that would get him through to the radio unit at Auckland Emergency Department.

"Doing so now." Was her response.

There was the usual tones of the two systems talking to each other and establishing connection, then a female voice filled his ears. "Auckland ED."

"Auckland ED, this is International Rescue from Thunderbird Five, how do you copy?" Virgil responded, automatically switching to the rhythm of radio cadence as they started their descent. EOS helpfully put an ETA on his HUD.

"Reading you loud and clear, Thunderbird Five." She responded after a split second startled pause.

Virgil could imagine the looks around the room that would be happening right now- they didn't call often, but when they did it was bad. "Coming to you with a 29 year old male," he began, "chief complaint suspected appendicitis. GCS of eight, made up of one, two, five, pain in lower right quadrant with rebound tenderness. Heart rate of 102, resps 20, saturating 99% on oxygen, blood pressure 174/103, temp 39.8 after paracetamol, no known allergies, be on the roof in seven minutes."

There was another pause as boards were checked for bed space and a doctor waved over. "Copy, on the roof in seven. See you in rescus, ED out."

"Copy, rescus." Virgil replied, then tapped his bracer. "Virgil to Scott, come in." He felt bad about waking Scott, he had a board meeting today and needed his sleep, but if he didn't update Scott then their big brother would fume at him for at least a day.

"...Virgil? Wha's'it?" Came the sleep-slurred response.

"I'm taking John to Auckland Hospital on the space elevator, appendicitis." Virgil reported as they passed through the blanket of clouds and the lights of New Zealand rapidly filled his field of vision. "I'll call back with an update once he's checked into ED. Stay there and do the meeting, I've got this. I'll call if we need anything." He added, knowing Scott's first instinct would have been to throw himself into One half-dressed and burn out the engine to get here.

"...F.A.B." Medic's orders to the Commander were acknowledged, and while Scott would have preferred to have been there to see for himself, Scott trusted Virgil completely. "I'll get Gordon upstairs for dispatch."

"Tell him to break out the biohaz cleaners while he's there, bedroom section." Virgil told him. "I'll bring some lamingtons back for him." He could see the helicopter landing pad at Auckland Hospital now, a couple of people already waiting well off to the side with a stretcher. "We're about to land, I'll call back shortly."

"F.A.B"

Virgil stepped off the elevator and flew the rest of the way down so he could be in position to climb into the capsule and carry John out. He laid him on the stretcher as soon as it was wheeled into position, following the team into the hospital and briefing the nurse as they walked.

0o0o0

Feeling weak, sore and an overall, hard to quantify sensation he liked to sum up as 'broken meatsuit', John blearily concluded that he hated waking up in medical facilities that weren't theirs- the beeping of the different machines was always discordant, the hospital gowns itched and the beds were always uncomfortable. "...what…?" He squinted at the blurry blue blob at his bedside that slowly resolved into Virgil. "What happened? I was on Five…" John tried sitting up, but as soon as he tensed, his abdominal muscles immediately objected and he quickly abandoned the manoeuvre.

"Appendix decided it didn't like you anymore." Virgil told him from the seat he'd dragged over from somewhere, amusement and relief written across his face at the same time, then tapped a control on his bracer. "Someone wants to talk to you."

EOS' hologram popped up over Virgil's wrist. "John! I told you so! Listen to me next time!" She snapped at him, but he was cognisant enough to read the undercurrent of worry in her tone.

"You gave her a bad fright." Virgil first said to him, then turned to EOS' hologram. "You heard the doctor, he's fine, they got it out in time and there were no issues during surgery."

EOS muttered something that neither of them could catch and her hologram blinked out.

"You gave me a fright too." Virgil informed him, gentle rebuke in his tone. "Listen to her next time, okay?" He asked, his expression pulled into a mix between resignation and concern, knowing John's habits.

"...fine." John reluctantly conceded. "When can I leave?"

"Well, I'm leaving in thirty minutes to go across to the Cordis Hotel and get some sleep." Virgil crossed his arms, Medic mode engaged as he issued orders to Thunderbird Five. "You're going to stay here, be nice to the nurses and maybe if everything is okay you can leave some time tomorrow. I'll have Alan fly Tracy Two over to pick us up so you can be comfortable. Then it's five days on Earth to make sure everything's okay and maybe Grandma will let you go back upstairs."

John nodded absently, then a thought occurred to him. "Where's Scott?" He asked, wondering why the eldest wasn't here and pestering everyone. Their smother-hen of a brother was usually the one to post himself at the door or bedside and guard them until they woke up (despite the hand picked security team that Kayo had on standby to attend whatever hospital a Tracy was in.)

"Is wrapping up the board meeting in New York, Kayo has orders to sit on him if he tries to fly back here afterwards." Was the answer, amusement making Virgil's mouth twitch despite his clear fatigue.

"Then who's on Five?" John asked suspiciously.

"Gordon."

"...you left Gordon alone on my station with EOS? And he's going to be there for at least six days?" John groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "They're going to kill each other."

"They're both too worried about you to fight." Virgil chuckled. "Besides, she's too busy dodging the hospital's security systems to needle Gordon." He pulled an overnight bag into view and took out John's phone, handing it to him. "Kayo swung past with a care package. There's a change of clothes in here for you, toiletries, that sort of thing."

"Thanks." John took the phone gratefully, immediately flicking a message of 'I'm sorry' to EOS. She read it, but didn't deign to reply to him just yet. John frowned, he must have really scared her if she was giving him the cold shoulder. He'd need to get into the security logs and see what happened, his memory was fuzzier than he liked.

"John." Virgil caught his attention and squared his shoulders- a younger brother preparing to upbraid an older one. "You and me need to finish that conversation that you and EOS were having just before you collapsed. You can't push yourself like that- not eating properly, not sleeping properly. You're living in the most hazardous environment out of all of us, you can't afford to be not on the ball because you're not well. And don't you dare try use the example of the time Dad kept working through kidney stones because that was completely different- he was on the dark side of the Moon with a busted rocket, it was life or death. You're on Five- we're a radio call away and it's an eight minute drop on the space elevator." Virgil gave him the Look that he'd picked up from Grandma in full Doctor Tracy mode- arms crossed and right eyebrow raised, mouth set in a line and daring him to disagree. "You don't have to power through things on your own. If you're not well, just say something."

John had to ruefully admit to himself that Virgil was getting way too good at anticipating his arguments before he could make them. "Can we talk about it later?" He tried.

Virgil nodded, but he wasn't going to let the second eldest squirm out of it that easily. "We will be talking about it though. Understood?"

"Understood." John knew when to pick his battles and now wasn't the time.

The third born dropped Medic mode, leaned in and carefully hugged John as best as he could without being able to put his arms all the way around him. "You're an idiot. Love you John."

Heartened by the affection and the forgiveness that it implied, John returned the hug as best as he could. "Love you too."