Author's notes/Chapter Summary: The Zero-XL is launched and gone. And Grandma Tracy needs to carry on but everyone has a breaking point.
Funny how little acts of kindness can return when you need them most.

I'm pretty certain they're not going to have IR gone for a very long time, but this kinda popped into my head and I wanted to get it in before Saturday.

It had been over a year, and nothing. Only the terrible knowledge that the Hood had somehow made his way onto the Zero XL. Sally Tracy feared that that vile monster had taken all of her family from her.

She did her best to keep a bright outlook for Lady Penelope and Parker. Allowing Penelope to swoop her up during all the holidays and birthdays and anniversaries that would have been impossible to face otherwise.

She'd have a rousing night out with Kayo now and again. Kayo was busy with the GDF, rooting the insidious network of spies and other bad eggs that the Hood had manage to sink to the very force that was suppose to be working against them. She couldn't blame her, at Kayo's age she had been just as much of a hellraiser, even with a husband and child.

Colonel Casey kept her abreast of any and all possible information, but there was so very very little.

She fussed at EOS when she thought the A.I. was taking on too much – although EOS assured her that was not likely, and privately yearned to be able to wrap her arms around the only great grandchild she may possible ever have. The A.I. was reminding her more and more of John each day; she couldn't bear to examine that too closely for fear it being revealed to be wishful thinking.

She was gentle with Kyrano when they had their weekly call. The man seemed to have aged even more than her eighty-plus years for all that he was no older than her son.

Her façade only ever cracked a little with the Mechanic, but then the man had appointed himself her support and guardian. And she had needed his looming presence at her shoulder when dealing with Tracy Industries board of directors. It also helped he did have also as good a mind for business as he did engineering.

Still the Island felt too empty to stay on. Lady Penelope's kind offer to stay with her seemed too much of an imposition. The various family business apartments too clean and impersonal. The farmhouse in Kansas was too haunted.

So Gran Roca Ranch it was. There were so many happy memories there; warm spirits that danced in the corner of her eyes. The Mechanic moved into Brain's lab under main house and was busy creating rescue gear and mechanisms for the World's First Responders, as well as working on his own interests. She knew he was holding some things back, for when her boys came back and resumed their work.

Or, if they never returned, he would resurrect the Thunderbirds and International Rescue would fly again. With her blessing.

That was always in the back of her mind. Sally knew she couldn't let her son and grandson's legacy die, any more than the Mechanic would allow Brains' legacy to die. Without consciously realizing it, she was making lists of people to invite as a new International Rescue. On sleepless nights she would wandering through the Ranch's main house whispering, considering, and discarding names of candidates.

One such night found her sitting on the front steps of the Ranch looking up at the stars. She shivered. The desert could get cold at night, even in the Summer.

Something light, yet warm was draped around her shoulders, startling her slightly. A soft blanket.

"You could catch your death of cold," a deep voice said as the Mechanic sat down next to her; the man could move quietly when he wanted, or perhaps she had been too deep in her reverie to notice, "and I don't want to have to explain that to Kayo when she visits, or to your son and grandsons when they return."

"If they return," she said quietly, bleakly, voicing for the first time her fear, "A parent shouldn't have to lose their child, and now I've lost my son and my grandsons."

"They will return," the Mechanic assured her, "they will be back."

"They should have been back before now!" she surprised herself with a shout, "They should have….They should have…"

Sally Tracy finally fell apart into sobs. She let herself be gently pulled over to the Mechanic's side and embraced and comforted. She didn't really hear any of the words he said, but the man rumbled like a large cat purring. She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew she found herself tucked into her bed and sunlight streaming the curtains, and feeling her age in aches and pains. With a sigh she slowly sat up and work herself up to getting out of bed, when two things happened: the door to her room opened suddenly emitting the Mechanic and Kayo, and EOS' avatar burst up from the her communicator, her lights circling from blue to green and shades in between.

"Grandma!" three voices nearly harmonized.

"They're coming home!" EOS managed to edge the other two out.

It was still three weeks before the Zero -XL made it from the inner edge of the Solar System to Earth. Three agonizing three weeks with limited communications. The Hood had caused nigh-catastrophic trouble and in the end paid with his life. They had had to repair the Zero-XL out there in the Oort Cloud. They would need to rebuilt Thunderbirds one, three, and five, and Thunderbird two was patched and welded and almost unrecognizable. Only Thunderbird four was still intact and recognizable.

Their damaged communication array could only send small microburst radio signals, although Brains had figured out how to compress a lot of data into those microbursts.

The first of those microbursts would always be the dearest to Sally's heart.

IR Coming Home. 6 Tracys. 1 Brains. Alive. Well. ETA 3Wks.

And now, at the GDF base at Glennfield, the Zero-XL finally touched down.

There was quite a crowd, but they were contained but temporary fencing and the stern presence of Colonel Casey held them back.

A smaller group was eagerly awaiting the improvised ramp to lower from what remained to the Zero-XL.

And when it did...when it did...Sally Tracy felt her heart give a painful thump and she froze as her son, her boy, her baby walked down that ramp supported by Gordon and Alan. A large warm hand gave her a gentle push forward.

"Go on, Grandma," the Mechanic murmured.

She never was certain how fast she moved after that, but she did remember that both Gordon and Alan (good grief that boy had hit a growth spurt in space!) yelped when she collided into them and wrapped her arms around Jeff, and that she was crying into his chest.

"Awww, Mom," Jeff engulfed her in his arms, "I'm all right."

And so finally was she.

Additional Author's Notes:

For the curious and this has no real bearing on the story but these is my headcanon for ages/years of birth the Tracys are as follows:
Sally was born in 1975, which may make her ninety in this story, but she's never going to admit to older than 85. I figure by the 2060's medical care for the elderly is very good and Sally can afford the best. Plus she strikes me as the type that will keep going until one day she simply doesn't.
Jeff was born in 2000.
Lucy was born in 2005.
Scott was born in 2028
Virgil & John were born in 2033 of one of those rare, weird pregnancy here one eggs is fertilized and then a few weeks later a second egg is fertilized; which is why they're almost twins. It was a very complicated and dangerous, which is why the five years between their births and Gordon's was deliberate. (The fives years between Scott and Virgil & John was just a fluke.)
Gordon was born in 2038
Alan was born in 2045 – a surprise late in life baby.