Disclaimer: I do not own Thunderbirds Are Go.
AN: So much I could untangle in this chapter, but I kept it short and simple. Enjoy!
"Penelope, where are you at the moment?" John asks the second she answers the call. "I need your help in shutting down a rogue machine."
"Oh dear," Penelope says. "John, I'm in Milan at the moment. I'm due to go up on stage."
John pauses. "What? Why?"
"I'm the keynote speaker."
John blinks. "Since when were you a keynote speaker?"
Penelope shrugs. "The Bureau decided to call in a favour and get me to tell some fresh faces about the 'dangerous' world of espionage."
John stares. "You don't owethe Bureau anything."
Here, Penelope flushes a delicate pink and coughs into her hand. "Parker's available," she offers.
John's eyes narrow. "I'll call him. And we're getting back to this later; I thought I taught you better than to owe anything to a governmental apparatus or independent organisation."
Penelope gives a quick nod, a bright smile, then ends the call.
"You need me to get what?" Parker frowns. "A buzzing bee?"
"A digi-key," John corrects. "We need it ASAP, and the guard there is…a real piece of work. We might need some of your more specialised skills."
Parker nods. "Consider it done, master John."
Of course, the moment FAB 1 falls down before being saved by Thunderbird Two, John's heart leaps into his throat and he is unable to move for a moment. Parker has been a dear addition to the family ever since his father had offered the position to the former thief, and John doesn't know what he'd do if Parker died on a mission that hehad instructed the man to do.
Let alone Penelope.
Penelope's wrath would have been quick but painful, and not altogether merciful. The girl had adored Parker ever since they had been introduced, and had dragged him around everywhere.
While John had received Parker 'officially', especially with his title as heir to the Creighton-Ward estate, and therefore its dealings, John had gifted Parker to Penelope as an attempted means to leave Penelope with family she could still rely on daily.
If she found out Parker had nearly died from an oversight that Parker – the driver and near-mechanic of FAB 1 – and John – the very one who had overseen the technical developments of FAB 1 – had allowed, for something as simple as altitude, she would never let either of them hear the end of it, dead or not.
Therefore, the second that John is safely up in Thunderbird Five, he opens a secure line and calls Parker.
"Penelope never finds out."
Parker agrees readily.
Penelope puts the whole rescue out of her mind until afterthe conference, when she is back in her hotel room. She checks once more for any listening devices and then places her own. Once done, she calls her brother and Parker.
They pick up immediately. "How went the mission?" She asks in lieu of a greeting.
They exchange a glance. "It went well," John says by silent agreement. He was the better liar out of the two of them, after all.
Penelope is an exceptionally good liar. She is also exceptionally good at detectinglies, and no matter how skilled her brother to strangers, she is his sister, and she has known him since he started learning how to lie.
There are tells that she will never reveal to anyone, but will abuse shamelessly to her advantage.
She narrows her eyes at her manservant. "Parker."
Parker swallows nervously. "Everything went according to plan, m'lady."
"Really?" She inquires, soft and delicate, but deadly underneath.
John gives a strained smile. "Parker obtained the digi-key, got it to me, and I helped shut down the recycler."
"Without problems?" She asked with an eyebrow arched.
Even Parker knows better than to say yes. No rescue went without many hiccups and bumps in the process. It was almost a requirement for IR at this point.
"Small hitches," John replies.
"Sherbert," Penelope's sickly-sweet voice turns to her dog, sat in Parker's lap. "Are they lying to me?"
Sherbert, the traitor, gives an affirmative bark and nods his head.
John glares at the dog.
"What happened?"
"It was nothing," John dismisses, realising that telling Penelope had now become inevitable and opting to take the rip-off-band-aid approach. "FAB 1 pushed through its altitude limits."
"Altitude limits?!" Penelope demands, eyes narrowed.
"Don't worry about it," John says. "Parker is fine. We had everything under control."
"Altitude limits," Penelope repeats.
"Well, will you look at that?" John glances behind him in near relief. "An emergency. EOS, call Alan. I'll leave you two to talk."
Smiling at Parker's betrayed face as Penelope whirls on him, John hangs up.