14

After she was dismissed Penelope gave Rose a quick tour of the house and introduced her to Tin-Tin and Kyrano. Penelope had now explained everything and Rose had no idea how they had kept it all so secret. The Tracy's were like celebrities - everyone knew about them. Jeff Tracy was a famous astronaut and owner of Tracy industries which was the largest tech company in the west, perhaps even globally. Then there was Gordon the Olympian, Alan the touring car champion and Virgil who was a well-known pianist within the classical community. Scott Tracy was relatively unknown but had been a serving Air Force One captain and was known to be his father's second in command when it came to business. So public yet so secretive; it was fascinating to her that this multi-billionaire juggernaut was behind International Rescue and that it was a family organisation! The sheer scale of it always led her to believe that it was a secret division of America's government.

They wandered back into the lounge, Rose's eyes rested on a tall figure overlooking the balcony outside. His arms were outstretched across the rail and he was wearing a light blue shirt with rolled up sleeves and light cream chinos. Penelope saw all of this and smiled. 'Why don't you go and see Scott? I have a few more things to discuss with Jeff'. Rose nodded and Penelope left. This was it. She was about to meet the man she had tried to save and ultimately, he had saved her life. The doctors had warned her that if she had not got to hospital so quickly she would have been dead. She wanted to thank him but was scared she wouldn't be able to speak. Then she remembered that she couldn't speak and tried to stifle a laugh which was no more than a squeak. She tentatively walked out onto the balcony.

Scott heard footsteps. He had come out here to try and clear his mind of the day's terrors. He wasn't sure he was ready for family just yet but he turned anyway. His mouth dropped open in shock. 'Rose?' She stepped forwards and smiled, her face was half hidden by her long brunette locks. Scott's surprise turned to concern as he noticed the sling and marks on her neck. 'What happened to you? Are you ok?' He gestured for her to sit in one of the deck chairs and helped her down. She nodded.

'I'm fine, nothing that pain relief can't solve.' Scott was appalled that her voice was no more than a ragged whisper. He saw the bruises on her neck, they were shaped like handprints. 'Who did this to you?' Rose brought out her notepad and turned to a familiar page she handed it to Scott. She watched the wave of emotions flicker across his face from concern to rage and then awe as he read. It was a statement she had written for anyone who asked her what had happened as she simply could not waste repeating it right now for the sake of her health.

He popped the notepad down. 'I'm so sorry this happened to you. Do you usually go looking for this much trouble?' She smiled and shook her head. 'The terrorist who did this was the same guy that tried to kill you. I couldn't rest until I'd seen he was arrested. Bad habit on my part, no one gets away once I'm investigating.'

Scott was visibly shocked. This girl was unreal; he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was also relieved; he hadn't been sleeping well ever since he was attacked. He's been having nightmares about the man coming back to kill him or his brothers on a rescue. Guess I won't have to worry anymore he thought.

'I wanted to say thank you'. She strained her voice to make herself heard.

'For what?'

'For getting me to the hospital in time, I would have died.'

'You know you British have a way of thanking and apologising when you don't need to? You're the one that chucked yourself in front of a bullet meant for me. I should be thanking you!' She wheezed instead of laughing and he felt bad. He quickly offered her a glass of water off the coffee table which she gratefully accepted. Just then they were interrupted by Penelope.

'Rose. You're meant to be conserving your voice'. Rose shrugged apologetically and held up a do you know how frustrating that is? Sign. Penelope smiled.

'Hi Penelope' Scott stood up to give her a hug. 'What brings you here?'

'Your father and I had business to discuss; we've just recruited a new operative'. She looked at Rose. 'A new…operative…' Scott looked at Rose questionably, she nodded.

'He recruited Rose!' Penny laughed. Don't sound so surprised Scott, she is perfect for the role and your father has been looking for a new operative for a while.' Scott had been so surprised and pleased to see Rose he had completely forgotten she was not supposed to know who he really was and yet she had known. She was smiling at him as he worked it all through. She could see the thoughts in his facial expressions clearly. 'Well I'll be dammed he hasn't recruited anyone new in five years! Have you accepted?' She shook her head as Penelope explained she had a few things to tie up at home and wanted to recover first. 'In that case has Penelope given you the tour?' Rose went to nod but Penelope held up her hand. 'Not; the tour no'

'Allow me to show you behind the scenes of IR then' he smiled as he held out a hand to pull Rose up.

Virgil had made his way up to the main house. He had gone via the labs and medic bay in the hopes of avoiding everyone but he ran straight into Gordon. Gordon yelped as Virgil bent down to hurriedly collect his notebook and pencils. 'I'm sorry' stammered Virgil. 'That's ok the pain killers took the brunt…Hey? What's wrong?'

'Nothing'

'Virgil don't lie to me, what are you doing here?'

He looked directly at Gordon's worried expression. He wasn't getting out of this one. He really just wanted to go to his room and think things through. 'I went down to thunderbird 2, I wanted to see her for myself. When I got down there I went into the cockpit and was just looking around when I remembered, I remembered the crash.' Virgil looked pained just thinking about it. 'My whole life flashed before my eyes Gordon. In that moment that I thought I was going to die. I prayed that you wouldn't die with me as I looked at you, I wanted to say goodbye to Dad one last time and I wished that Scott wasn't above us to witness it all. It would break him, he would blame himself. I worried about John who would regret that he had been in space for the last two months and poor Alan to lose us when he was so young and had already lost our mother.' Tears rolled freely down his face as he recalled his memories, Gordon grabbed him in a one-armed embrace. 'It's ok we're safe now, come one lets go back in here for a minute.'

Gordon sat Virgil down on one of the beds in the med room and handed him some tissue which he accepted. Then he sat down opposite. 'Can I tell you a secret?' Virgil nodded. 'Ever since we almost died that day I keep having flashbacks. They come unbidden at all hours and assault my senses forcing me to re-live those last moments over and over again. The panic and the fear well up in me like when I was physically there. Then the panic attack begins. Early on they used to tighten around my chest and I thought I was having a heart attack, I was so scared. Then it would ease. As time has gone on it's just a tightening of the chest and an occasional tremor but it passes quickly enough. I was in some ways thankful that you couldn't remember it as it would save you the trauma.'

Virgil looked at Gordon he felt so sorry for him that he had suffered on his own like this. How had they not noticed? His family had been so wrapped up with his memory loss that they hadn't even contemplated the impact it had had on the other pilot, he felt terrible. 'I'm sorry that you feel that way, why didn't you tell anyone?'

'I didn't want them to see me as weak; I know that's stupid but it's true. I didn't want to recognise it as a problem either. I thought if I just continued ploughing on then it would disappear but now I know better. I've been seeing a counsellor for the last two weeks and its helping.' Virgil's eyes started to close a little. 'Are you ok?' Gordon stood up. 'Just, just tired it was a lot to remember you know?' Gordon helped Virgil to lie down and he pretty much went to sleep instantly. He then went to find Brains to keep an eye on Virgil whilst he went and found his dad.

His dad was kicking back in the lounge with a newspaper, the front page was hailing international rescue as heroes once again after their actions of the last 48 hours. John and Tin-Tin were working on proof reading John's latest journal piece.

'Dad'

'Ah Gordon, I heard you got whiplashed again on that last rescue. How are you feeling?' Jeff chucked the paper down next to him. 'Achy but the painkillers are good, Brains says it should heal in a couple of days. Dad I need to talk you about Virgil. He remembered the crash'. That got all their attention, John and Tin-Tin dropped what they were doing. 'Where is he son? How's he taking it?'

'Understandably he was upset but he's exhausted himself remembering so I've left him asleep, being monitored by Brains in the medic bay. He remembers everything to do with the crash and has gained more memories of his past from it, for example he knows that mom died.' Jeff felt sick his poor boy having to relive all of this again at the same time he had a bittersweet excitement brewing in him that his son had remembered and that he might have more of his memory restored. 'I think I need to go and see Brains, thanks for letting me know son'. He got up and headed out.

'Gords did Virgil say how he remembered?'

'He said he'd been down to thunderbird 2 - which I still need to clean'. Gordon groaned as the thought crossed his mind. 'Clean?' John asked. 'Yeah, there's soot and muck everywhere, reeks like a bonfire.' Gordon flopped down on the sofa. 'I wonder if that added stimulus…' John muttered to himself but Gordon had supersonic hearing. 'Stimulus for what?'

'The smell is likely to have contributed to stimulating Virgil's memory along with being on two as it must have helped replicate the conditions experienced during the crash.' He theorised.

Just then Scott walked back in the room with a petite young woman. Scott was talking and she was politely nodding and smiling. They were both absorbed with each other as Gordon leant over the arm of the sofa and gave a soft cough. 'Care to introduce us to your new friend Scott?' Gordon asked innocently as John tried not to snigger in the background. 'Oh! Didn't see you all there! sure. Erm. This is Rose, Rose meet my younger brothers Gordon and John. Tin-Tin you met earlier I believe?' Rose nodded and waved at them. This was the closest to flapping that Gordon had ever seen his brother, it was fascinating and entertaining all at the same time. This must be the new agent that dad had been talking about earlier when he briefed them that they had a visitor for the next few days, Penny was around somewhere too. John hadn't seen Scott since he dragged him back to earth; he wasn't sure if he could be civil just yet but seeing as they had visitors he would have to pretend. To cover the awkward silence that had developed and the obvious glaring coming from John, Gordon said 'So Virgil remembered the crash, he's sleeping now but it's got to be progress, right?'

'No way! That's fantastic news! I hope he's ok; I better go and check on him. Gordon would you please keep Rose company till Penny comes back?'

'Sure, the pleasures all mine.' He winked at Scott as Rose sat next to him. Scott looked annoyed and gave him a look of warning. 'So, Rose has Scott told you how much he loves dressing up and playing toy soldiers?' 'GORDON.' Scott used his shut up now or else tone. 'What I mean to say is he did some military re-enactment when he was younger…' Scott walked out, it was bound to happen sooner or later and he would just have to smack him upside the head for it later when the visitors were otherwise engaged. He wouldn't want to cause a scene this early on.