Title: A Little Chaos
Part 5
Author: Gumnut
May 2019
Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS
Rating: Teen
Summary: A little conversation in less than optimal conditions.
Word count: 2068
Spoilers & warnings: Virgil/Kayo, Scott/Em.
Timeline: Sometime after 'Gentle Rain'
Author's note: Yeah, I should be writing 'The Bellini Incident', but this was supposed to be a quick fic, but then so was Bellini. This one will not be anywhere near as long and I will be back to Bellini asap. I am now laughing at this last statement as the word count for this has now passed the 10K mark ::headdesk:: Also, the prompts below? Pretty much forgotten…though I guess they may rear their heads in the next chapter or so.
The prompt: From a series of OC prompts. Kylorr asked for 5. Have they ever cheated on anyone before? And 7. How many partners have they had? I don't know if I'm going to answer either of them, but this is the fic that happened. I hope you enjoy it :D
Disclaimer: Mine? You've got to be kidding. Money? Don't have any, don't bother.
-o-o-o-
"Virgil?"
The engineer didn't answer. He sat staring at his hands, thoughts obviously miles away.
She was on familiar turf. They were back at Wellington Hospital, the site of so much last Christmas. This time, however, it was not Virgil, but Kayo who was being attended. That left Virgil and Scott sitting in the waiting room.
It was obvious neither did waiting very well. Scott was busy on comms with John, the Wellington police and the GDF. She had heard shouting over the line several times from his direction. Scott answered everything calm and business-like. Em had no doubt she would have to help unwind her man later. She could see the tension in his shoulders from here.
Thunderbird Two was once again parked on the hospital's front lawn. The rest of the Tracy family was inbound, Grandma marshalling them. Even John would be dropping in as soon as they could contain the fallout from the incident.
Kayo was in no danger. She just needed the bullet removed and the wound tidied up. She would be out of surgery soon.
At the moment, Virgil was her concern.
"Virgil?" She reached out to touch his shoulder and he jumped.
"Huh?"
Scott eyed him from across the room, his brow furrowing.
"I need to check you over."
It was Virgil's turn to frown. "Why?"
"Kayo hit you rather hard."
He shifted in his seat. "I'm fine."
"Forgive me if I never believe that statement ever again."
His eyes shot up, narrowed slightly and his lips thinned.
She shrugged. "Can you really blame me?"
He sighed, dropping his gaze once again to his hands. "Okay."
Squeezing his shoulder, she smiled just a little. "C'mon, it will only take a moment."
Without a word, he rose to his feet and picked up the green dress that lay on the seat beside him. Em cursed the lack of her 'scoot, reduced to the basic hoverchair the hospital provided. Virgil was tall next to her. Scott was a bloody skyscraper.
Speaking of Scott, her boyfriend was beside them in a matter of steps. "News?"
Em reached out and caught his hand. "No, I'm just going to check out Virgil."
"Why?" Immediate frown, immediate concern.
She arched an eyebrow up at him. "I know you know how hard a hitter Kayo can be and Virgil took a good one to his midsection today. I just need to check on him...considering his medical history."
"Oh." Scott swallowed and grabbed his brother's shoulder. "Keep me informed."
Virgil pursed his lips. "I'm fine."
"Sure."
The glare Virgil shot his brother was enough to light his hair on fire.
Em dragged the younger man away from her boyfriend before the argument could start. She wrestled him into an examination cubicle. "Top half of your uniform off. I'm going to grab some equipment." A smile to soften her tone. "Be back in a moment." She pulled the curtain and left him to disrobe.
She was caught in thought between Scott and Virgil when she approached the nursing station, but was thrown out of her thoughts at the mention of the word 'Tracy'. Being so low in the damn hoverchair, apparently her presence hadn't been noticed.
"...Tracy, look at those eyes. Wouldn't you love to have them looking at you?" The voice belonged to a young nurse holding a phone talking to an equally young workmate.
Em frowned.
"Blue or brown?"
"Oh, I don't know. They are both bloody gorgeous."
"And both spoken for." An older voice broke in. "Have you been taking photos? Jenny, do you want to lose your job?"
"These are worth more than my job, 'Melda."
"You're an idiot."
"So gorgeous though."
Slipping back into the shadows, Em fingered the comms in her collar. "John?"
"Em? What's wrong?"
John's voice never failed to alter her heartbeat. A combination of long memory and the music it was. "Can you find a mobile phone about five metres...south-east of me, belonging to a Jenny?"
A moment. "Located. Why?"
"She has pictures of Scott and Virgil on it. She's intending on selling them."
The line went quiet. Ten seconds later there was a squawk from the nurses' station. "What the hell?"
"Situation resolved." John's voice betrayed no smugness, but a female voice was laughing in the background. "Eos, subtlety next time."
"She didn't deserve subtlety." Em's phone pinged quietly and she pulled it out of the hoverchair's inside pocket. The photos appeared on the screen.
The woman was right. They were worth more than her job. A photo of them entering ER. Virgil at Kayo's side that naked love and concern on his face that had so circled the world the last time the press had hounded them, but behind them Scott was carrying her. The expression on his face spoke of his concern for Kayo, as well, but a flick over to the next photo and his head had turned to look down at Em in his arms.
Oh god.
He was different to Virgil. The two brothers were vastly different in so many ways. But the way he was looking at her...
Her heart missed a beat.
A text flicked up on her phone. These are the only copies. Keep them safe. John.
While the nurse, metres away from her, was swearing at her phone, Em had to blink to keep the tears at bay while looking at hers.
But Virgil was waiting.
She shook herself, straightened and without a word, barged into the nurses' station and appropriated the equipment she needed.
She took no pleasure as the nurse exclaimed to her friend that her phone was possessed, that it was posting horrible things to her social media all by itself, that it wasn't responding, that it swore at her. She did smile, however, when she distinctly heard Eos declare through the phone's speakers that Jenny would be assimilated and resistance was futile. The AI had obviously been in John's Trek collection again.
The phone was dropped to the hard floor. There was a sharp crack as its screen shattered.
Oops.
The woman was still swearing as Em headed back to Virgil. She had to swallow a laugh and straighten her expression before slipping through the curtains.
Any thought of humour vanished at the sight of the emergency responder sitting on the side of the bed. His posture was slumped and worn. In the middle of his bare chest a lovely bruise about the size off his fiancée's fist was blooming.
He straightened the moment he saw her, facade falling into place.
Em pressed her lips together just a little.
"Virgil, she is going to be okay."
"I know."
"You and Scott saved the both of us."
"I know."
She sighed. He'd put a wall up that she didn't have the trust yet to batter down. Only Kayo or Scott could do that.
As she reached for the scanner and fiddled with the primitive hoverchair in an attempt to get it to gain at least a little height so she could examine him, he slid off the bed and crouched down to her level. "How are you?"
She blinked. "I'm fine."
She didn't miss the curve of his lips at her parroted response. His eyes dropped to the touchscreen she was fighting. "Let me have a look at that." And the next minute she found herself on the bed and her bare-chested patient pulling apart the control panel of her hoverchair. A muttered expletive, a whack with a screwdriver from his kit and the 'chair hovered smoothly to a standing height.
He straightened. "There you go. Should behave itself long enough until Gordon arrives with your backup 'scoot."
His offered arms were gratefully accepted and he lifted her off the bed and placed her gently in the 'chair, assisting her with the harness.
"Virgil, I have to say that you are the first patient of mine who has ever had me as a patient in return."
A snort and he smiled up at her. "We each have our specialties."
She returned the smile, happy to see it. "Now let's check under your hood."
A pair of rolled eyes and he climbed back onto the bed. A gesture for him to lie down and he complied. She activated the bed's holographic system and an outline of his system appeared above him. Focussed on his rib cage, her eyes tracked the healed remains of his injury on his right side, searching for any aggravation. The bruise showed up, minor sub-dermal damage obvious, but his ribcage had managed to flex without issue. His lungs were clear and healthy, heart unaffected.
A sigh of relief she hadn't known she'd needed.
She ran some basic obs, his brown eyes tracking her actions.
"So, was I right?"
A blink. "In what way?"
"I'm fine."
Unable to let it completely slide, Em curled her lips. "Oh, I think Kayo thinks you are pretty fine."
He snorted and the hologram rippled. A second later his expression froze and his heartbeat increased.
She frowned. "Virgil, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Lying under examination is futile. You know that." Not to mention that she had learnt pretty fast that the man was rather crap at it in any case.
"It is nothing."
"It most certainly is not. What is wrong, Virgil?"
His readouts changed yet again as he...well, she could only describe it as 'squirmed' under her gaze.
"Virgil."
"Em."
She couldn't force him to tell her anything and she didn't want to. She shut off the scanner. "You are fine. Just take it easy."
He sat up, but he wouldn't look at her. Something was definitely wrong. She frowned and dropped her hand onto his knee. "You don't have to tell me anything. Just know I'm here if you need to talk. Patient confidentiality." She fixed him with her gaze and he smiled at her just slightly.
"Thanks, Em."
She held his gaze just a moment longer, frowning. His eyes darted away and she knew he wouldn't tell her in this case and she had no doubt Scott had something to do with it. An involuntary sigh.
He looked up at her. "Are you sure you're okay?" Gentle fingers wrapped around her arm. "You've been through quite an experience."
Okay, so she had her own facades. She was as bad as him. "I'm fine."
"That talking thing is mutual, you know."
"Thank you for saving me. Again." It came out in all a rush.
A ghost of a smirk. "Anytime, Em, anytime. Besides, if I hadn't, Scott would have likely killed the guy." Virgil shuffled off the bed and started shouldering on the top half of his uniform.
She blinked, suddenly caught up in the moments before Virgil had broken through the wall and ripped the guy out of her personal space.
"Em?"
Caring brown eyes looking down at her in concern.
She put together something resembling confidence on her face.
He wasn't fooled for a second. "You don't have to worry. Our lawyers will put him away for a very long time." He reached for his harness, buckling it on with practised fingers.
She shivered, remembering the slimy touch on her belly.
"Em?" And suddenly Virgil was too close. She flung herself backwards, the unfamiliar hoverchair colliding with her tray of instruments, sending several of them clattering to the floor.
His eyes widened in realisation...and horror. "Oh god, I'm so sorry, Em. Hell." He stumbled backwards, catching the curtain of the cubicle and almost tangling himself in it.
Her hand shot up. "No! No, Virgil, no. It's fine. I'm sorry. I know. I KNOW. You would never hurt me." She flung the chair forward, grabbing his arm in desperation. "I'm sorry. Please come here."
Both fear and anger flickered through those chocolate eyes and god she wished Kayo was with them. The man was massive, his sheer muscular bulk could be considered intimidating, but he had never intimidated her. And he wasn't intimidating her now. It was just... raw memories.
Virgil's hands flexed into fists and he refused to move closer. "I'm so sorry, Em. I should have known better. What that asshole said to you..." His knuckles went white.
She forced a grim smile. "Well, as you said, he is going away for a very long while." A blink and a frown. "How do you know what he said to me?"
He froze, his eyes widening.
"Virgil?"
-o-o-o-