Happy Holidays everyone! I actually started this last year but didn't get round to finishing it until it was too late to post for New Year 2020 but it's here now.

Instead of fireworks the New Year on Tracy Island started with John reporting a situation and Thunderbird 1 launching for what felt to Scott, like the hundredth time that night.

Once he had reached cruising velocity and switched to autopilot, Scott tapped into the comms of his brothers. Gordon was busy rescuing partiers from a sinking yacht while Alan was dealing with 'New Years Eve stars' that were actually asteroids getting a little too close to earth, with John of course coordinating everything. Virgil however seemed to be just finishing up with his rescue so Scott opened the comm to him. "A new year of people to save, Happy New Year Virgil. Do you have your bet on how many call-outs John will have to sort through tonight?"

It was a tradition started by their father when they were young, to bet on who could stay up longest on New Years Eve, much to Lucilles disapproval. However, since the founding of International Rescue they'd quickly found themselves up all night on rescues anyway, so to keep the tradition they had changed it and now they bet on how many call-outs they received.

Virgil replied after a moment "Goodness I've been so flat out, is it past midnight already? I actually completely forgot to make a bet. What is everyone else thinking?"

"I'm going 500, Alan went very specific and said 1372, and Gordon went 850."

"Well judging by what I've seen tonight, I'll go... Maybe 950. Why did you go so low?"

Scott shrugged "Kayo thinks it may be quieter this year and I'm guessing she has some insider knowledge. Where are you right now?"

"At a building collapse in South Africa. Everyone is safe, I just need to finish stabilizing the building but I should be heading home within the next 15 minutes"

"Well I might pass you on the way, I'm heading to a fire... Some firework display went horribly wrong." Scott sighed exasperated. "Why are there always more disasters on a holiday?!"

"I hope it's not in a town square Scott or you'll have your work cut out for you." Virgil quipped "And to answer your question, because it's a holiday and everyone who has the night off is partying. Partying leads to drunk people which leads to things going wrong."

"Yeah I get that but also, how do drunk people cause building collapses or all those rescues Alan has to do in space! It's ridiculous!"

Virgil smirked and the elders frustration. "That's a very good question, one that I don't have an answer for."

They fell silent for a moment before Virgil reported in. "Alright, situation under control. I'm leaving the rest up to local emergency responders and heading home. You said you were heading to a fire Scott, Are you going to need any help?"

"I'll be fine, I know ideally you'd be going on this one but tonight we have to work with what's available, and that's me." Scott replied.

"I just don't want you coming home burnt to a crisp cause you refused to ask for help."

Scott scoffed "I've done fire rescues before, I got this."

Virgil tisked "All right, Hotshot, but my bird is more geared for missions like that, if you need her I can drop by before I get home."

"FAB Virg, I'll keep the comms open." Scott relented.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Several days later, and the first quiet day after the holiday madness, Virgil found Scott relaxing by the pool, taking in the warm summer's day of The Pacific.

"Just talked to John." Virgil said, taking a seat on the lounger next to Scotts. "The results of our New Year bet are in. We had a grand total of 1566 callouts. Though most of them were drunk dials and out of the actual emergencies the majority of them were able to be handled by local services."

"Hmm…?" Scott said, pretending not to have heard.

"I think you called a bit low considering the global scale"

Scott huffed at Virgil's dig. "Maybe I started too low when considering the WORLD, but I didn't account for how many drunken prank calls we'd get, so you know" He shrugged nonchalantly, covering for the fact he was a tad put-off about his catastrophically wrong guess.

"Sounds like Alan and his very specific number paid off, did he win?"

"No Alan didn't win... Kayo did. She went 1500. I reckon she gave me false info and then bet the opposite so she'd win"

Virgil detected the barely concealed whine in Scotts voice and laughed. "Third year running! Why did you even trust her? She knows how to play you Bro!"

"Well maybe she did some of the calls herself to up the figures" Scott countered.

"I did not!" Kayo called, appearing from the steps that lead down to the beach, clearly having heard most of the conversation. "Besides it would've made much difference to you Scott, considering how low you called." She winked as Scott pulled a face. "By the way, time to pay up boys."

Kayo opened the bag she was carrying to give her brothers a good look at its contents. The temporary hair dye in a rainbow of shades made them both shudder.

"Now Virgil, how'd you like to be blond? And Scott…"

She grinned wickedly,

"Pink"

FIN