Flashbacks and Memories (Part 3)
By Jenny Taylor
Several minutes have passed since Kayo gave the brothers her account on the information she gained from her uncle, The Hood. Several doctors and nurses had come and gone from the theatre, where the gentle giant of the brothers is receiving his life-saving treatments and none of those who left stopped to update the group.
Alan had fallen asleep on Scott's left side, while the eldest leaned back onto the couch. Gordon, who is sitting to the left of the youngest, was playing some game on his mobile phone. John is sitting on the other couch pretending to read a magazine while Kayo curled herself next to him, trying to sleep.
Scott looked around the room, feeling thirsty. Noticing the magazines on the table in front of him, he moved carefully, as he tries not to disturb the young blonde's sleep, to reach a magazine. He grabs one and flings it at John.
"Oww." John spoke quietly as he rubs his head looking towards the culprit.
"Sorry Space Case," Whispered Scott. "Could you get us some coffee?" John looked at him with a 'really' look, but looks at the young astronaut sleeping against the aeronaut, his hand holding Scott's uniform in a death grip. John then looks back up at his eldest, seeing the tired and pleading look John nods slowly in understanding and stands up.
"Do you want one too Squid, Kayo?" He asked quietly, the said pairs nodded, Gordon stayed where he is, while Kayo announced that she needed the bathroom and got up to follow John to the cafeteria.
John arrived at the cafeteria and headed towards the coffee counter, while Kayo splits to answer the call of nature. After ordering the drinks, he arrived at the till to pay when a hand was placed on his shoulder, followed by a familiar voice.
"I'll pay for them Ginger Wolf." John spun around to see the long-lost and forgotten friend standing next to him, giving him a small smile.
"Jaycee!" He almost shouted in excitement.
"Long time no see John." She said quietly, her voice tinted with sadness. "How long's the operation for?" He stood for a bit, knowing to whom she's asking for.
"The doctor said between 4 to 12 hours." He replied sadly, Jaycee winced before her face fell upon hearing the info.
"How's long he's been in theatre?" Looking straight into the green eyes of the red-haired astronaut.
"About 2 hours now." She nodded and sighed, before looking around and turning back to John.
"John, there's something that I need to tell you guys," She looked around again before whispering, nervously. "In private, without Kayo." John was shocked to hear Kayo's name coming from her mouth and looking into her blue eyes, tells him that she's serious and strangely scared. And then remembering on what happened when 3 out of 4 earthbound brothers first met her yesterday during the rescue at the Sydney Tower complex.
"Alright then, I'll meet you in 10. It won't be easy to get rid of Kayo but we'll try." He sighed as he picked up the take-away cups and placed them into the holders as Jaycee paid the casher, looking at them with curiosity and confusion.
Jaycee nodded and waited for a bit as John reunited with Kayo, who was waiting by the cafeteria double doors for him, and then followed them from a distance towards the waiting room.
As John and Kayo arrived at their destination, they can see that there hasn't been any movement since they left (apart from Gordon's fingers as he plays a game on his mobile). Kayo takes her cup from John and sits back down on the couch that she and John occupied earlier.
John walks over to the trio of brothers on the adjacent couch and taps Gordon on the shoulder. The fish of the family looks up at his intermediate older brother, nods at the unspoken gesture and takes his cup from him.
John then heads over to the eldest, taking care not to wake up the baby of the family. Scott carefully stretches his free arm out to collect his cup from John. He was about to nod in thanks when he notices that John was leaning forward towards him in a gesture that he wants to talk to him in private and in Scott's earhole.
"Jaycee's here." John whispered, which made Scott wide-eyed in surprise for a second before looking sideways back at the red-head. "And she wants to speak to us now and without Kayo, plus she's looking nervous."
Scott nodded in response, "Okay John, I'll send Kayo to make her report to Colonel Casey. That way it will keep the girls busy while we sort out Jaycee. Wait for a couple minutes after Kayo's left and then go and fetch her." He whispers, which the red-head nodded in agreement and then walked towards the couch where their adopted sister sat and sits next to her.
After a couple of minutes, Scott looks around the room, clears his throat and addressed his family. "Guys," Everyone, including Alan who had just woken up from Scott's cough, looks at him, waiting for him to spill what he needed them to do.
Scott sighed heavily before looking back at them. "During the flight towards the hospital, we had a call from Colonel Casey," He paused and looks down at Alan, who nods slowly in agreement, and then returns to face the group.
"I told her what happened to Virgil at the time," He pauses again to breathe in and out slowly before continuing. "And she wants us to write an official written report from each one of us and send them to her as soon as possible."
Silence fell as the others take in what had been said.
The daunting task of writing official reports are, thankfully, extremely rare, but still… it had to be done in order to bring the family's nemesis, the world's most wanted criminal mastermind, The Hood, to justice, after what he had done to Virgil and what he's about to do to him if the villain had kept his hands on the kindest brother.
Anger and tension fills the room as the events of the past couple of days returns with a vengeance. Scott senses the unhealthy atmosphere after a few seconds after he spoke and then decides to put the plan into action in disposing Kayo for a few hours.
"Kayo," The said person looks up at the Commander/Field Commander of International Rescue, "I would like you to find Colonel Casey and inform her of your findings asap and in person. The sooner that she's informed on what you told us earlier, the better for us and Virgil…"
Scott's voice trailed off at mentioning of his intermediate younger brother, trying to keep his emotions in check after seeing the horrific injuries the said brother had suffered. Kayo raised an eyebrow in curiosity at Scott's request, but after a look in Scott's blue eyes, she nodded in agreement, stood up, gave herself a stretch before relaxing her muscles and then walked out of the room, taking her half empty take-away drink with her.
A couple of minutes later and a nod of conformation from Scott, John stood up and walked out of the room to look for their long-lost friend. Alan and Gordon both looked up in confusion at John's dismissal and turn to look at the eldest with questioning looks. Scott saw the looks and gave them a small smile.
"John's gone to get an old girlfriend of Vee's." At first there was confusion as the Terrible Two looked at each other and then realisation hits them on whom Scott is referring to, which is being confirmed by John, shortly followed by Doctor Jaycee Anderson, whom had a small smile on her face.
"Speedy Gonzalez, Clown Fish, Monkey Boy."
"MOM!" The two blondes cried as they both jumped off the couch, which nearly made the brunette fall off from their actions, ran towards her and enveloped her into a hug, with Alan on her left and Gordon on her right.
For Jaycee, it felt good to be crushed in a hug produced by the Terrible Twosome, only this time they are now 14 or 15 years older since the last time she was hugged this tight. She can hardly breathe as the two blondes held her in a death grip, refusing to let her go after now knowing that she's being alive after all these years. There were tears forming in her eyes and then felt the tight hug becoming tighter as she felt John and Scott who had joined in with the group hugging fest.
She can see that all four boys had tears in their eyes and hearing the old nickname, that's been commonly used by the youngest duo and occasionally by the elder trio in the past, had reminded them of the difficult times the Tracy brothers had as soon after they had lost their real mom as kids, the then young Jaycee Anderson, who had been transferred from another school to theirs, ended up in Virgil's class and then entered their lives and became an unofficial surrogate mother at first to the youngest duo and later included John (and on occasions Scott and Virgil on a bad day), as well as becoming best friends to John and Scott and became Virgil's girlfriend.
The hugging lasted for a few minutes with neither brother wanting to be the first to break the contact, until Jaycee spoke squeakily and sounding like she couldn't breathe.
"As much as I like this to continue boys, but… I can't breathe and I've got something important to tell you." The youngest pair nearly giggled at her voice, but then they all let go of her and she took some deep breaths to regain her composure and colour.
Scott took her arm and led her to a couch and sat down next to her, while the younger trio went to occupy the other couch.
They waited for a few minutes to allow her to speak in her own time. They knew that whatever she wanted to say to them has something to do with Colonel Casey, but Scott and John had a feeling that she wanted to say more and it might have something to do with her sudden and abrupt disappearance 14 years ago.
Jaycee looked at the boys, she can see that they are waiting for her to speak. She sighed, cleared her throat and starts to speak.
"I guess that you boys want to know what happened to me." She looked around to see that all the boys nodded and waiting anxiously, she sighed again and begins her tale.
"It all started 14 years ago…"