Virgil looked over his shoulder as Brains walked over to the co-pilot seat, Max squeaked sadly as he sank onto his tracks.

"Cheer up Max, you might see her again," Brains smiled.

"Have I missed something?" Virgil asked before he stretched.

"Ever heard of a robot falling in love?" Brains remarked, blushing.

Virgil frowned, "no, I haven't. What happened down there?"

"Max made a new friend."

Max began to play an old piece of classical music to himself and Virgil looked back at him, "Debussy?"

Brains sighed, "Max, stop feeling sorry for yourself and enough music."

Virgil smiled at the piece, "it's not unpleasant." He yawned and shook himself to stay awake, "I can't wait to get home, what a day. One side of the world to the other."

Back at base, Scott and Kayo were asleep on the sofa together with their heads touching and Grandma smiled at them fondly as she closed down the interactive map which had been beeping all day. The youngest two brothers had parked their crafts and gone straight to bed, but Scott had insisted he would stay up to wait for Virgil's return, Grandma looked away from the eldest and to the approach of her second eldest grandson arriving. Thunderbird 2 landed and the island fell silent again.

"Scott? Your brother is home," Grandma shook Scott's shoulder gently. "Dear?"

Scott opened his eyes wearily, "huh?"

"Virgil is home."

"Finally," Scott smiled and got to his feet being careful not to disturb Kayo who curled up against a cushion in his absence. "Could you tell him to meet me down in the kitchen Grandma?" Scott kissed Kayo's forehead as Grandma smiled.

"Of course," Grandma stroked his cheek, then watched her grandson jog downstairs to the kitchen.

Scott grabbed two large mugs out of the cupboard and began to heat up some milk, he heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs and stirred the white froth.

"Hey, Virg."

Virgil sighed as he collapsed into one of the white chairs facing the kitchen, "hey."

"I'm making chocolate, I thought you could use one."

"Thanks. What a day. I thought I was done after that train recovery earlier, I was inches from touching down and I got called away again."

Scott finished the chocolates off, dropped a marshmallow in and took the mugs over, he sat down in a chair next to his brother and passed him the drink, "here. Yeah, after Tokyo I was called away to K2 with Brains. I had to drop him off in Iceland."

Virgil nodded, "yeah, right before I went there."

Scott frowned, "are you alright Virg?"

"No, I'm not, Scott. I'm troubled."

"About what?"

"The mission today, the one in Iceland."

Scott put his mug down, "talk."

"I feel like dad's memory is haunting me. Someone brought him up today."

"What did they say?"

Virgil frowned and Scott watched his brother's hands shake around the mug, "he called himself Jeff Tracy."

Scott took the mug from him and held his hands in his, "hey, relax. Why did he call himself our dad?"

"He didn't believe who I was when I told him what organisation I was a part of. He just mocked me, and I quote, "and I'm Jeff Tracy". It hurts so much now."

Scott sighed, "some people are just ignorant, Virgil."

Virgil sniffed and rubbed at his eyes as he brought his hands up to his face, "there are things I want to go back and tell that man now, tell him he's wrong and nothing like our father."

Scott nodded, it was one thing for a stranger to accuse his brother of lying but another to compare himself to their dad, "what did you say to him?"

Virgil shook his head, "nothing. I just pointed to Thunderbird 2 outside and he believed me." He brushed away a tear rolling down his cheek before looking up to the ceiling with a sigh.

Scott stood up and wrapped his arms around his brother as he perched himself on the chair arm, "we can't really do anything about pretentiousness brother, but I'm proud of you for the way you handled that."

"Thanks," Virgil muttered from Scott's shirt.

"He's out there somewhere Virgil, we aren't going to give up the search for dad."

Virgil looked up, his eyes brimming with fresh tears that spilt over as soon as he blinked, "but where? We don't have a thing to go on."

"I don't know, but we will," Scott smiled sorrowfully at his tearful brother. "Cheer up, it's been a stressful day for all of us, we're all exhausted."

Virgil nodded, "you're right." He picked up his mug as Scott sat back in his own chair and downed the remaining chocolate then sighed. "How's Kayo?"

"Recovering from her trip to Venus, she had to have some medical tests when she got back, so she's sleeping the drugs off."

Virgil smiled as he dried his eyes on his sleeve, "thanks for the chocolate Scott, and the talk."

"Well done for keeping your cool with that man. You know I wouldn't have handled it the same way. It would've been Professor Harold all over again."

Virgil laughed and the sound warmed them both, "I know you would've done. How was your mission?"

"Tedious, but getting the climbers to safety wasn't too hard in the end. Come on big guy, the bags under your eyes have their own bags. Someone as handsome as you can't have shadows like that," Scott chuckled as he helped Virgil to his feet. "Let's hope we don't get any calls during the night, John must be as tired as we are."

"Don't trigger it, Scott, everyone has been through enough today."

Scott wrapped his arm around Virgil's shoulders and the pair walked up to their rooms through the quiet lounge, they said goodnight to each other and the corridor fell silent with exhaustion.