I did loosely base this off that one episode of Criminal Minds
Day 7
Theme: My Spidey-Sense is Tingling
Prompts: helplessness | numbness
Gordon untangled himself from yet another branch that got caught on his suit as he walked through the thick bush.
"Are we nearly there?" Gordon groaned as he felt more thorns prick at his suit.
"Should just be a little further," Virgil replied from where he was walking ahead of him. He sounded just as fed up with traipsing through the thick forest as Gordon was.
The rescue hadn't even started, and Gordon was already waiting for it to end. They had to evacuate a facility after a pretty big chemical spill that was too dangerous to fix right now. Someone would need to go back and fix it before it caused damage to the surrounding environment, and so the people could go back to work, but for now it was about getting these people out before the chemicals caused damage to them.
But the facility was in the middle of a thick forest, so they couldn't land Thunderbird 2 nearby. So they had to travel the rest of the way on foot. No one had decided to mention that the forest was filled with thorny bushes.
The two of them tried to keep to the beaten track to avoid walking through the thick bushes, but a lot of it was overgrown after not being used for a while. Apparently, the people in the facility had been there for a while, so hadn't thought to keep the maintenance up on the surrounding area.
A particularly sharp thorn caught Gordon's hand as he tried to push through the bush. Gordon winced as he pulled his hand from the thorn and felt it cut his finger.
"You alright?" Virgil turned to him when he heard the involuntary noise leave Gordon's lips.
Gordon lifted his hand to inspect it, but found that it was just a small cut on his finger. Somehow, the thorn had gotten through the thick gloves and sliced the fabric slightly.
"Just cut my finger on a thorn." He waved his hand at Virgil to show him, but continued to walk on. It wasn't anything to worry about, the initial stinging was already fading. He'd probably stick a band-aid on it when they got back to Thunderbird 2.
It was a welcomed sight when the facility finally came into view through the trees. The two of them picked up their pace slightly, eager to get this rescue over with.
There was no one around, but when they reached the front of the building, the door slid open and someone was standing on the other side.
"Are we glad to see you," the man smiled at them. He was wearing a helmet, like the two of them. They had been advised to wear their helmets so as to not breathe in the spilled chemicals.
"We could say the same about you."
The look on the man's face said he understood what Virgil meant by those words. Working in a lab in the remote forest probably wasn't easy.
Even with his helmet on, the strong smells of chemicals were getting through Gordon's rebreather as they stepped into the building. The rest of the crew were waiting for them just inside the facility, and they all stood up when they saw them enter. It was a fairly small group of about ten employees.
After checking that no one was injured and that everyone was ready to go, they set off back through the forest. There was a bit more spring in their step on the way back as they knew they were closer to heading home. The path was also a bit trampled from their trek there, so they didn't get caught in so many thorny bushes.
They reached Thunderbird 2 quicker than it had taken them to get to the facility. They got the crew secured and Gordon had grabbed a band-aid for his finger, which had started to sting again. They took the group to a different facility that was owned by the same company. It wasn't too far away, and from there, they had plans with what to do with the employees until they could get the chemical spill sorted.
That wasn't Virgil or Gordon's problem though, and once they had dropped the group off, they turned and headed home.
On the way to the second facility, Gordon had felt a building pressure in his head. The beginnings of a headache, he recognised. He elected to ignore it, even though it wouldn't go away. He would just have to take something for it when they got home and hope it would get better then.
But then it was accompanied by a numbness in the tips of his fingers. He flexed his hand to get the blood circulating, thinking he had probably just been leaning on it weirdly. He noticed Virgil eyeing him from where he sat across from Gordon, and Gordon let his hand fall back onto his lap, not wanting his brother to worry about nothing.
However, along with the building headache, the numbness didn't go away. It wasn't something he could do anything about, as they soon reached the facility and he became busy with getting the group out of the ship.
When he stood up from his seat, the world spun for a moment. He gripped onto the back of his seat, and the dizziness passed just as Virgil turned to look to see what was keeping him. Gordon stood up straight before his brother could notice anything was up, and smiled as he passed him into the module.
They got the group out swiftly, and with thanks from all of them, they waved the brothers off as they set off into the sky again.
Now that Gordon was back in his seat, he started to feel even weirder. His head was pounding even harder and now it wasn't just his fingers that were numb, but his whole arm. He tried to move his hand, but then a shooting pain travelled all the way up the limb.
He couldn't help but cry out at the sudden pain, and Virgil looked over to him in concern now that Gordon was unable to keep his pain to himself.
"What is it?" Gordon was aware of Virgil putting the ship on autopilot as he turned to him.
Before Gordon could reply, a sharp pain hit his abdomen, which had him curling into himself. The pain was quickly followed by the feeling of what he had eaten that day about to come up.
He pushed himself out of his seat and darted towards the ship's small bathroom. However, he only made it two steps before legs that didn't want to work gave out from under him and he collapsed to the floor.
He heard Virgil shouting in his ear as he held himself up on shaky arms and his lunch ended up on the floor in front of him.
When there was nothing left in him, he fell onto his side. He saw Virgil swimming above him and he was saying something, but his words were muffled to Gordon. Gordon didn't understand what was happening, and he felt moisture spill from the corner of his eyes as the pain in his body didn't relent.
He wrapped his arms around his torso and curled up on the floor, hoping that the position would help with the pain. He felt a hand on his side and he looked up through half-lidded eyes to see that Virgil was still above him. He was still talking, but now it seemed to be to someone else and not Gordon.
Panic then clawed at him as Gordon felt himself unable to suck in a deep breath. It was like his lungs didn't want to cooperate, and he was barely able to get any air in or out. One hand moved to his throat whilst the other blindly sought out his brother to get him to help.
Swiftly, he felt himself being lifted. The whole world spun and if his stomach wasn't empty, he was sure he would be sick again. There were protective arms around him, and he could only hope that they would fix this.
"That doesn't make any sense," Virgil said after he had gotten Gordon hooked up to an oxygen tank and secured a mask over his face. His little brother curled up on his side on the bed. "We had our helmets on the whole time, there was no way he would have come into contact with the chemicals."
"Are you sure he didn't take it off at any time?" John asked, his hologram appearing on the wall across from Virgil now that they were in the medbay.
Virgil had contacted him immediately once Gordon had collapsed, with the hope that his brother would have answers to whatever was happening. His brother was instantly in contact with the facility they had just come from, and it was them who suggested the possibility of Gordon's symptoms being the result of the spilled chemicals.
"Or did he take his gloves off? Maybe he didn't breathe in the chemicals, but they came in contact with his skin somehow? Or…"
John's words faded as Virgil tried to think back to the short time they were in the facility. They weren't there long, so Virgil would remember if Gordon took off part of his suit. They were told not to though, because of the dangers of the mixed chemicals. He was sure that he would have noticed if Gordon did.
But then he was reminded of something that happened before the rescue, whilst they were traipsing through the forest.
He ripped off Gordon's glove and searched for the cut that Gordon had told him about. He found the band-aid, and pulled it off to reveal the small cut in the middle of his index finger.
It was only about a centimeter long and barely a millimeter wide, but the area around it was an angry red.
"What about if the chemicals came in contact with his blood?" He turned back to John, who raised an eyebrow in questioning, which prompted Virgil to explain further. "Gordon cut his finger."
"Seems plausible. With that big of a chemical spill, the concentration of gas from them in the air would be bound to get into his bloodstream."
"How do I stop this?" Virgil placed Gordon's hand back on the bed, and Gordon pulled it back to wrap around his waist again. He started to tremor slightly, like he was cold.
Virgil felt so helpless looking at the condition his brother was in. He was meant to help him if he was hurt, but he had no idea what to do here. He didn't know what chemicals the facility was working with, so he didn't know what was supposed to help. He just knew he didn't want Gordon to be going through this any longer.
Virgil brushed the hair away from Gordon's face, his forehead feeling sweaty but cold as Virgil's fingers brushed against his skin. Gordon's breaths were laboured, even with the oxygen feeding into his lungs to help.
Virgil grasped onto Gordon's hand again. The only thing he could think of to do was to provide physical contact and let his brother know he was there. Gordon let him hold his hand and didn't pull away, but Virgil suspected that had to do with his sapping strength. His hand felt limp in Virgil's, and Virgil looked down to see his brother's eyes were barely open.
"The facility says they have the medication to fight off the effects of the chemicals." John's voice pulled Virgil's attention away from Gordon. He was eager to hear of any way to help his brother. "But they advise you to get there fast."
The unspoken meaning behind that statement was enough to kick Virgil into action, but he stilled as he turned to head to the cockpit.
He didn't want to leave Gordon's side in case his condition worsened, but he also needed to pilot the ship to get to where help was waiting for Gordon. He was torn.
"I can remote pilot Thunderbird 2," John piped up, knowing just what was going through Virgil's head.
"Thanks," Virgil breathed out in relief. John gave him a grateful smile in return, and Virgil realised his brother was probably feeling just the same as him. He was helpless up in space, so he wanted to assist where he could.
As John's hologram blinked away and Virgil felt the ship move beneath his feet, he turned back to the little brother curled up in front of him. Gordon's tremors had stopped, but his body seemed slack against the bed. The only indication that he was still conscious was that his eyes were open, just barely as he blinked slowly.
"Just hold on a little longer," Virgil leant down to whisper to his brother. Gordon gave no indication that he'd heard him.
Virgil planted a kiss to the top of his brother's head and rubbed circles into the back of the hand still in his.
They hadn't flown too far from the facility before everything had kicked off, so it was a quick journey back there. Virgil got Gordon ready on the stretcher as soon as he felt Thunderbird 2 start to land.
Thankfully, this facility had a place to land right outside, unlike the last one. Virgil was on the lift as soon as the struts of the ship hit the floor, and as it lowered, he saw a few people already waiting for them outside the building.
He pushed the hover stretcher over to them as they ran to meet him halfway. One of them started to shine a light in Gordon's eyes to try and see if there was any response as they hurried along, whilst another asked Virgil about what symptoms Gordon had shown so far.
Virgil gave the information over automatically, his eyes never leaving his brother. The others had taken over pushing along the stretcher and they were moving faster than Virgil could keep up as the person kept trying to ask him questions. Virgil answered what he could, but he couldn't stop thinking about how Gordon was getting further from his line of sight.
Then, as they made their way through the corridors of the building, Gordon started to convulse on the bed.
"Gordon!" Virgil went to dart forward towards his brother, but a hand on his chest prevented him.
"Let them take care of him." It was the woman who had been talking to him before. The reasonable part of Virgil knew that he would just get in the way, but he didn't care about that. He just wanted to get to his brother.
Someone else stepped in to hold Virgil back as Gordon was taken completely out of his sight. He called for his brother again, but then the fight left him. He slumped against the closest wall and fell to the floor, his head in his hands.
It was hours later. John had told the rest of their family what was happening, but they had wanted to speak to Virgil and get all the details. He knew that it must be hard for them being so far away, but Virgil wasn't going to leave the facility until Gordon had woken up and they knew the medication was doing its job.
When he knew Gordon would be alright, they would head home and Gordon could recover in the familiar infirmary on the island.
The infirmary of the facility was barely more than a bed and a desk. It resembled more of a doctor's office, but Virgil supposed that was because most people who were injured or sick would head to an actual hospital.
A medic had come in to check on Gordon several times, and they seemed to be pleased with the progress his brother was making. Virgil wouldn't be convinced until Gordon opened his eyes.
As if his brother was aware of the turmoil he was going through, Virgil heard a groan come from the bed. He pulled his chair closer to the bed and leant forward as two eyes fluttered open.
"Gordon?" Virgil uttered hesitantly, still not letting himself hope that everything was alright.
Gordon blinked a few times, before his gaze moved to Virgil.
"Virg?" His voice was quiet and croaky, but hearing his voice was enough for Virgil to slump in relief.
"Yep, it's me," Virgil smiled warmly. "How you feeling?"
"Awful." Gordon closed his eyes as he adjusted his position on the bed slightly, but then opened them again a couple seconds later. "But better than before."
"That's good." Virgil reached over the bed to grasp onto his brother's hand and he gave it a squeeze. The small squeeze he received in return made his smile grow, as it was such a stark contrast to the limp hand he had held earlier. "I'll let the medics know you're awake and after they check you over, we can go home."
Gordon nodded in response and Virgil squeezed his hand again before he let go and headed out the small room, finally able to breathe now that he knew his brother was alright.