Grandma hated it when the boys argued, they had been back from the mission for a good couple of hours now but were still angry at each other for letting their ships fail. Gordon had been casting glares across the room at Virgil since arriving home, Alan wasn't pleased with the second eldest for yelling at Gordon, Scott was annoyed at all of them for getting into a squabble and it was becoming too much for Kayo.

Gordon broke the tension in the air despite it being filled with music from the piano, "needles would have worked."

"Please drop it," Scott groaned.

"If you had let me have a go, Virgil!"

"The balloon would have burst or worse, I was right to tell you not to," Virgil rolled his eyes.

"You don't have any confidence in me, you're so stubborn."

Virgil left the notes hanging in the air angrily, "maybe it's because I'm trying to protect you. Did you think about that?

"Virgil, stop it," Kayo sighed. "Fischler is the one to blame here. If there's a limit on our ships there's nothing we can do."

"That doesn't explain why he's being a jerk," Alan muttered standing up for Gordon.

Virgil went livid, "I'm the jerk? How dare you. I wasn't the one who dropped the balloon and broke an engine throwing them further into space, I knew when to give up!" The young pilot had left the piano by this point and Scott was holding him back as his fists clenched against his side.

"You accused me of implying you were! That's what began all this in the first place," Gordon snapped.

Grandma walked into the lounge only to see Virgil shove Scott backwards and Gordon being punched, "Virgil Grissom!"

Gordon winced as he held his cheek, "you're an actual bastard!"

"Scott, get Virgil out of here."

Scott nodded and pushed his brother roughly out of the lounge, "idiot."

"I'm not the idiot."

"Shut up and listen to me," Scott pulled him into the kitchen snug and pushed him down into a chair. "Nothing up there went the way we wanted it to. All of us failed and it had nothing to do with whose idea was better or worse. Gordon was just doing what he thought was right."

Virgil breathed in, "is he okay?"

"You're the one who punched him, and as acting dad, you're grounded."

"Scott!"

"No. You've never hit one of us before in your life, Gordon didn't deserve that. You've really upset Grandma and shocked Alan, I saw his expression."

Virgil looked down at his shaking hands, "I'm sorry."

"It's not Scott you should be apologising to," Grandma retorted coldly as she rubbed Gordon's shoulder, a dark bruise was forming on his cheek and his eyes were full of tears.

"Oh Gordo, I'm sorry," Virgil ran over and pulled his brother gently into his arms hiding his face in his shoulder, he felt his shirt begin to get wet and held the aquanaut tighter.

Scott squeezed Grandma's hand, "I need to talk to Alan."

Gordon sniffed as he lifted his head from Virgil's plaid shirt, "I'm sorry I yelled at you in Thunderbird 2. None of us calls the shots."

Virgil led him out to the sunbed by the pool, "no I know, we were all annoyed and worried about failure, we didn't see the bigger picture." He winced at the bruise, "if I ever hit you again, drown me."

"It's not hurting as much now."

"Don't lie to me."

Gordon sighed as he twisted his hands together in his lap, "you're annoyed that your ship got electrocuted aren't you?"

"No, I'm not. You pulled her out of danger. I'm annoyed we had to do that rescue at all, it used up every bit of energy we had and the guy treated us like dirt. That's what I can't forgive, and the reason why I snapped at you the way I did earlier," he ruffled Gordon's hair. "Scott wasn't exactly helping the situation by not saying a word either."

Gordon nodded as he brushed tears away, "is Thunderbird 2 okay after I took over?"

Virgil smiled and Gordon saw light again replacing the flame he had seen before in his brother's eyes, "she's fine. You flew really well."

"Thanks, Virg."

"I need to apologise to Alan, come on," he slung his arm around Gordon's shoulders.

Scott sat at the piano with Alan and looked up when Virgil walked in, "good?"

"We're good. Alan?"

"What?"

Kayo smiled at the youngest's pout, "you okay, Gordon?"

"Yeah, I found out that Virgil punches better than you do."

Alan slipped off the piano stool and hugged Virgil tightly, "sorry."

"I'm the one who is sorry."

Scott smiled as Kayo joined him on the piano stool, "you think they're over it?"

Kayo nodded sharing a grin with Grandma as Scott began to play the piano again, "they'll be fine."