Four
Back in the room, Fury went into the bathroom, feeling in desperate need of a shower or something to soothe his rattled nerves before trying to sleep- if he didn't he knew he'd spend hours tossing and turning. He found two sets of clothing waiting for him on top of a lidded laundry hamper. The day clothes consisted of a plain black tee-shirt and jeans, some still-in-the-packet socks and underwear and a pair of brand new sneakers tucked beside the door. Beside the day clothes was a folded set of sky blue cotton pyjamas. A thick towel hung on the rail and various toiletries were lined up on the bathroom sink.
He shucked off his (admittedly rather stale) clothes and boots, stepped into the shower and zoned out under the spray of hot water until it felt like he was going to start melting his skin off if he wasn't careful. It did the trick though; when he emerged, while his fingertips were starting to take on a prune-like look and despite the lingering headache, he felt moderately more human. Fury brushed his teeth, postponed shaving until the morning, was disappointed when his investigation of the under the sink cabinet didn't turn up any painkillers, then dressed for bed. He decided to leave the pyjama shirt off for now, but when he turned to move the clothes somewhere else, he caught sight of his back in the mirror and whistled softly- small wonder he was so stiff and Virgil had wanted to put that cream on him, his back was mottled with deep bruising.
He went out into the main room and picked up the jar of bruise cream from the chair where Virgil had left it. Some contorting let him get it over most of his back and shoulders, aside from that spot right in the middle of the back where only a few people have the flexibility to effectively reach.
Tap tap
Fury growled as he turned to face the door and the last of the siblings stepped in- Gordon, if he wasn't mistaken. He remembered those amber eyes- usually seen from behind swim goggles, the golden hair kept tucked under a swim cap. He shook his head as memories arose of pulling funny faces in the mirror with Gordon, especially the fish faces that his water-baby brother loved, then together making those faces for John as they tried to make him laugh.
"I'm on my way to bed. Do you need or want anything?" Gordon asked, hands in his pockets and doing a pretty good job of keeping his body language relaxed and calm.
But Fury didn't miss it when Gordon's eyes landed on the necklace resting on his bare chest, then flicked over the various scars that dotted his body- while the burns on his face from the crash had been pretty mild and the scars were long faded, the same couldn't be said of his arm, and being a mercenary wasn't exactly a healthy line of work.
"What I want is something to make this damn headache go away, what I need is my family back and for you people to stop pretending you care and let me go!" Fury reached for the anger to use as his shield as his big brother instincts started kicking in again and was pleased when it worked to stave off the automatic feeling of protect/love/care that reared its head.
"But we do care!" Gordon protested, hurt at the insinuations.
The blond was another open book and his reaction was genuine enough that it almost swayed him. Almost. "Yeah, right." Fury snorted and half turned away. "I'm a world famous criminal who works for your number one enemy. You don't care, not about people like me."
"We do care, Scott." Gordon repeated, very clearly using that name deliberately, and started ticking items off on his fingers. "Rio de Janeiro, June- Virgil caught that collapsing scaffold before it could crush Havoc. Warsaw, April- Kayo put out the fire that had you trapped. Indian Ocean, Feb- I got Fuse and Havoc out of the sinking cargo ship. All of this was before we found out who you were." Gordon crossed his arms and gave him a knowing look. "Dude, we saved the Hood when the Mechanic tried to fry him with a space laser! International Rescue's priority is people, we don't pick and choose who we help."
"Just get out!" Fury snapped, but as tired and wrung out as he was, the command didn't have the power behind it that he would have liked it to have had. Not even he could sustain his rage indefinitely, especially now he was reaching the ragged edge of his limits. An adrenaline crash was a very real and present danger, he suddenly realised.
"You want a hand with getting that cream on your back?" His hesitation and exhaustion must have left him appearing open as Gordon made another 'help' attempt, pointing to the open jar.
"Get! Out!" Fury snapped, pointing to the door. There was absolutely no way he was going to let one of these people touch him if he had any say in the matter!
"Okay, I'm gone. But if you change your mind…" Gordon quickly ducked out and shut the door behind him as Fury swore and threw the jar of cream in his direction, the container shattering against the door frame and contents splattering all over the wall.
Mentally and emotionally exhausted, physically sore and weary, Fury sank onto the bed, drawing the blankets around his shoulders. He hadn't felt this confused and alone since the first night in the first orphanage he'd landed in, his left leg in a cast and his right arm and face wrapped up in bandages slathered with burn cream, all his hair shaved off so the doctors could get at the gash on his scalp.
Fury wrestled with his pride for a moment, fighting more urges than just the physical desire to sleep. Finally, he dropped his head and sighed. "Oi, EOS or whatever your name is, you listening?" Fury asked quietly. Maybe she could help, maybe she wouldn't, but it was worth the risk.
"I am." Her voice echoed slightly off the hard walls.
"Can you find out if they're okay? Havoc and Fuse, are they all right?" He asked, tired enough that his worry, concern and fear bled through his shields, colouring his voice and twisting his features. "I need to know."
Watching and analysing everything from Five, EOS considered the request and found it quite reasonable. The problem would be convincing John that it was because finding the information would require hacking into the prison database. "One moment." She told Fury, reaching out to her programmer to query him.
She found him in the midst of a family meeting called so that different people could update the rest on their experiences with and observations of Fury. To her surprise, it wasn't John who approved of her looking for the information, but the Commander and the Field Commander with the support of the Security Chief, albeit with certain stipulations. Approval secured, she tapped into the secured computer networks of the prisons the GDF oversaw, found and collated what she needed, then turned her attention back to the lost Tracy alone in his room.
"While I am not permitted to name the locations, I can advise you that Havoc and Fuse are in good health and reasonable spirits, considering the circumstances." She told him, pleased by the drop in his signs of distress as he processed the information.
"Thanks." Was the only verbal response he made as he drew the covers over his head and laid down, curled up in a defensive, protective posture.
EOS thoughtfully dimmed the lights and returned her attention to dissecting the incredibly confounding conundrum that was how to restore this human back to his place in his family. His resistance to being reunited with them was upsetting John, the sooner this could be solved, the better, as far as EOS was concerned.
0o0o0
Any hopes of Fury continuing to warm to them were dashed the next morning as a fully rested Fury showed them exactly why he had his name.
Jeff had taken breakfast down to him with the intention of talking to him again- nothing deep and meaningful, just being social, maybe even tempting him with a flight in One- Alan had told everyone about Fury's absorption with the Thunderbird. But that idea quickly fell through as Fury laid into Jeff with a series of barbed and venomous remarks that dug their way through Jeff's armour. Under the circumstances the Tracy patriarch did pretty well at keeping his temper until one well aimed insult finally pushed him to his limits and Jeff roared back, showing Fury exactly where Scott had inherited his temper from.
Alerted by EOS, Kyrano and Kayo had all but flown down to the annex to separate the two. Unfortunately that was a huge mistake as a now enraged Fury launched himself at the person who'd taken him from his family.
EOS, watching everything through the various cameras and projectors, had taken matters into her own 'hands' as soon as Kayo had thrown Fury across the room and escaped- she sealed the door and primly informed all parties that Fury was now in 'time out' until such a time that she deemed him suitably calm. Not even a direct order from John could move her to open the door and Fury taught them all a few new swear words as he tried to pop the lock like yesterday and found that he couldn't.
Jeff's expression was grim as he weighed up the situation, ignoring the muffled crash as Fury threw something at the wall in his frustration. He tapped his earbud, his mouth set in a line. "Lucy?" He asked. "Get everyone together in the lounge. We need to talk about this."
0o0o0
The atmosphere was tense when the recording of the morning's events finished playing at the central projector. The boys and Kayo had taken the ring of centre seats, Jeff was at the desk while Lucille watched from the piano bench, Grandma seated beside her. Kyrano had stayed downstairs, just in case Fury managed to get through the door.
John was the first to break the silence. "While what he says was… unfiltered," John diplomatically began, "he doesn't mean everything that he says. I've had EOS analyse his microexpressions- they're involuntary ones we all make before we can hide how we actually feel about something. He's showing guilt or regret every time he says something and it hurts someone. We just need to be patient." John concluded, looking around at the group.
"What, and keep him locked up in the basement until he decides to play nice?" Gordon leaned back with crossed arms, unimpressed and sceptical. "There's a term for that, you know."
"How else is he going to get to know us if he's not around us?" Alan protested. "It's not like we can just catch up at the site of the latest Chaos Crew attack, or invite him to grab a coffee after we clean up Fuse's demolition work. My brother's in there, I know he is!" He looked around the group, incredulous. "All these years you've all been telling me stories about what he's like, how much you love him, all this work put into finding him, now we're talking about just letting him go without actually fighting to keep him?"
"He's a Tracy." Gordon rebutted bluntly. "We don't have a snowball's chance of changing his mind if he's made a decision on something. If he hasn't already decided he hates us, he will soon."
Virgil was watching the security feed from the annex on his tablet. "It doesn't feel right, keeping him locked up like a prisoner." He looked up and around at the group. "He lost one family, now we're keeping him from the new one that he made. And you heard him, he wants to go to them."
"I'm with John." Kayo announced. "He's softening, not by much, but he is softening. If we approach this right we can win his trust back. If nothing else, we've crippled the Hood by taking away his strike team." She added. "Letting him go without successfully turning him means he'll just break Havoc and Fuse out and they'll go straight back to the Hood."
"The poor boy is hurt, lost and confused, so it's no wonder he's lashing out." Was Grandma's observation. "But keeping him here… I don't know if that's the right idea."
"His body language is all over the place." Lucille frowned, arms crossed and drumming her fingers on her upper arm. "He starts to wind down, then he winds himself back up again. He's fighting us, maybe without realising it."
As the debate raged around them, Jeff sat at his desk and brooded, elbows on the blotter and hands laced before his face as he listened. Different arguments were thrown back and forth until they dissolved into the same words being repeated over and over in different orders. Finally sensing there was nothing new to be said, his wife's growing agitation and that an impasse had been reached, he stood and ended the fruitless debate. "This isn't getting us anywhere." He walked over to the piano bench. "Beautiful, walk with me? We need to talk in private." He requested, holding his hand out to Lucille. She nodded and took his hand to stand, looping her arm in his as they walked towards the stairs and outside, taking the path that led down to the main beach.
It was at least an hour before they returned, but while people had changed positions, occasionally moving to stand at the windows or sit in the library on the mezzanine to get a bit of space, no one had dared to leave the lounge as they waited for Jeff and Lucille to come back.
When they finally re-entered the lounge, though both Jeff and Lucille bore the marks of tears, their faces were resolute. Neither of them looked surprised to find the family almost exactly where they'd left them. "We've made a decision." Jeff announced, waiting as everyone gathered back in and around the conversation pit, then with a nod he turned the floor over to Lucille.
Lucille took her husband's hand and squeezed it gently, to reassure herself as much as him. "We're going to let him go." She raised her free hand to stop the instant outcry and protests of 'but we just got him back!' "If we try to force him to stay, he'll only resent us and hate us. We'll leave the door open, but if we do love him, right now the best thing is to let him go."
Tears welling in his eyes, Alan got up and fled the room, running upstairs. His bedroom door banged open, then slammed shut with a crash. Grandma stood and silently nodded her approval to them before following Alan at a slower pace, intending on comforting the youngest.
"Gordon- get the twin engine Cessna ready to fly. Secure the autopilot, program a route to Darwin and wipe the nav system so our location remains safe." Lucy instructed, very clearly fighting to keep her own emotions under rigid control. "John, I want a basic communicator, something he can call us on. Virgil, Kayo, pack a bag for him- food, essentials, changes of clothes, some cash and a civilian phone. Jeff," she paused as her voice cracked, "honey, I think you should give him the keys, I think it'll mean more coming from you."
There was a pause, then a round of 'F.A.B's as everyone reluctantly rose to carry out their instructions.
When they were alone in the lounge, Lucille leaned against Jeff's broad shoulder. "Please tell me we're making the right choice here." She murmured to him, reaching up to tangle her fingers in the collar of his pale blue shirt.
Jeff wrapped his arms around her in response and kissed the top of her head gently. "It's not the easy choice, beautiful, but we have to give him a choice too. It's the only right thing to do."
0o0o0
Fury was shadowboxing, antsy from being kept cooped up, when Jeff opened the door and threw something to him that glittered in the light. Fury caught it on reflex and looked at it in surprise. "What's this?" He asked, glancing from the item to Jeff.
"Keys. You've got what you wanted, we're letting you go." Jeff told him simply. "Plane's all gassed up and good to go on the landing strip. The autopilot is programmed for Darwin, but once you're in Australian airspace it'll unlock and you can pick your destination from there."
"What's the catch?" Fury asked, narrow eyed as he grabbed a towel, wiped his face and tossed it onto the bed.
"No catch. You want to go, we're letting you go." Jeff said, standing aside to let Fury into the hallway. "It's this way."
Wary and suspecting a trap, Fury followed him through the base and outside into the warm sunshine. He glimpsed the others as they went, hanging well back and giving them plenty of space. Alan waved timidly from an elevated walkway before burying his face in his grandmother's shoulder, Kayo and Kyrano standing protectively behind them. Gordon was slouched in the lee of a spur of basalt, hands in his pockets and scuffing the ground with the toe of his shoe. Beside him, Virgil was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes unreadable. John was standing near Lucy, both in the shade of one of the palm trees that lined the landing strip. Somehow the ginger looked put out by all this without actually looking put out, while Lucy was doing her best to put a brave face on things.
Fury pondered all this as he passed them, his learned experiences telling him to expect to be jumped and dragged kicking and screaming back into captivity, to have this tantalising taste of freedom yanked away at the last moment… but something older and deeper than those experiences told him that these people wouldn't do that to anyone, much less him.
When they finally got to the runway, as promised, the plane was waiting on the tarmac, cockpit door open and ready to go. Fury was doing his best to hide his surprise. He'd made it pretty clear that he wanted to go, but he hadn't expected that they'd just…let him. No hooks, no catches, no demands of him handing over the Hood (who had questions to answer, as far as he was concerned.) Just 'you want out, okay, here's a plane.' No appeals to emotion, no heartfelt pleas, no manipulation whatsoever.
"Before you go," Jeff turned and held out a small phone-like device, "if you change your mind, you can contact Thunderbird Five on this. Our offer of the Round House still stands and the door's always open- to all three of you."
There was a long pause as Fury considered it, then he hesitantly reached out and took the communicator, glancing at it before pocketing it. "...thanks." He muttered, then turned to climb into the Cessna.
Jeff sighed and walked to the side of the runway to where Lucy was waiting for him. He wanted to watch, but as the plane's engines roared to life he just couldn't look as the plane started to taxi down the runway. Instead, sensing the comfort and reassurance she needed, he held Lucille close to him, her head tucked into his shoulder so she wouldn't have to watch either, and together they listened as the small plane took off, fading into the endless blue sky.
Their long lost son was once again lost to them.
His tears were silent, but he cried with her all the same.