Walk on the Wild Side

By Sapphire

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Chapter 15: Heading Home

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"Sir, you wanted to see me?" Scott stood in the entranceway to his father's office, waiting for permission to step inside.

It was two days after the rescue at the wind farm. Virgil was recovering, only the slowly fading bruise and a light stiffness a reminder of the events in California. They had spent the two days learning as much as they could about the organization and what went with it. How they had converted the natural caves of the island into the hangers for the Thunderbirds. How they had managed to build those incredible machines without the rest of the world knowing about it. How they had set up a wide spread network of agents all over the world. How they trained for their missions.

They were both allowed a couple of sessions in the simulator for Thunderbirds 1 and 2. Scott had to grin when Virgil told him enthusiastically about the simulated rescue and how Two had handled in it. One thing was sure, his little brother had caught the bug, and Scott wasn't so sure if he should be glad about it or not.

The time when Virgil had been in danger and there had been nothing he could do about had been among the worst moments of his life. When he had thought that Virgil had been shot, he had felt sick and desperate. He couldn't help it, he had to worry. He guessed it was in the job description of being an older brother. If there was one thing that would stop him from trying to duplicate International Rescue at home, it was the fear that any of the others could be injured or killed on a mission.

He didn't know if the Scott from this world felt the same, but somehow he thought that it was the case. Alan and Gordon had hinted that way.

Still, that didn't stop the other Scott from doing his job.

When talking to the others, he hadn't been just interested in the whole technological side of IR. Scott had wanted to know how it came that John didn't seem to mind spending weeks without end on Thunderbirds 5. How the others felt about living isolated on an island, cut off from their friends, always needing to be careful that they wouldn't betray the big secret. What they thought about being seen as spoilt playboys who supposedly considered themselves to be above the other mere mortals. How they kept their web of secrets and lies. And also, how they coped with failures - for Scott learned that there had been a couple of missions where they hadn't been able to save the lives they had come for, where they had come too late. He could see that those had left invisible scars, but also that those cases had solidified their determination to do it better the next time, train harder, find other ways how they could prevent it from ever happening again.

On one hand, Scott had halfway hoped that there would be another rescue mission, but nothing had happened and in a way he was glad about it. The more he had learned about International Rescue, the more he realized that for all he knew about flying, there was much more to the rescue business than controlling a couple of fancy machines. They would have a lot to learn.

Over the last two days, they had made contact with the world they had come from. Brains had rigged something that allowed radio waves to travel through the gate that connected the two worlds. From there, they had learned that the other Virgil had been released from the hospital and that he and the other Scott were more than ready to go back home into their own world.

Brains had conducted some measurements on the gate and had announced that it was beginning to destabilize. Save travel would be possible for only a few more days, but then it would begin to slowly disintegrate and in a few weeks it would disappear on its own.

As nobody had any intention to wait for so long, it had been decided that Scott and Virgil would head back home this afternoon, an hour from now. The other Scott and Virgil would then come back an hour later, just so Brains could make sure that the gate had had time to stabilize again for their travel.

"Come in, Scott," his father waved him inside. "Sit down."

He offered Scott a glass of whiskey and a chair. Scott sat down and waited for his father to finish whatever he was doing on the computer.

With a swift keystroke, Jeff Tracy shut the computer off and pulled a data crystal from its slot.

"Here," he held it out to Scott.

Slightly puzzled, Scott got up and took the crystal. "Sir? What is this?"

"This," Jeff said with a warm smile, "are the plans for all the Thunderbirds and machines we are using in International Rescue. Also a list of which companies are the best suppliers and what people could help you."

For a moment Scott was stunned. Though he had made no secret of his hopes to start a copy of IR back in his world, he never had a chance to talk about it to Jeff directly. Scott hadn't been too sure how his father would react to it.

Well, this answered that question at least.

"Sir, this is…" he stammered, his face split in a wide smile. "Thank you. This will help us tremendously."

"Just make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, son. Those machines can be used for more than saving lives and, as you have already learned, there are people out there - here in my world, and I'm sure also back in yours - who will stop at nothing to gain access to this data."

Scott shook his head. "No, sir. We will make sure of that."

"Good," Jeff nodded. "You know, in a way I do envy you. You will be able to prevent many of our early mistakes. And also, you won't need to pay the price we had to pay here. I'm glad to know there's a world were Joyce didn't die and you boys didn't need to grow up without a mother."

Scott almost blushed. He knew that his father wasn't normally one for opening up so much.

"Thank you, sir," he said again. "I know that without your example we would never attempt it. This here, the days we've spent here, they've been amazing. We'll never forget them."

Jeff inclined his head in acknowledgement of the compliment and lifted the glass of whiskey on his desk. "To your world and mine."

Scott repeated the toast and took a good swig of his glass.

For a few minutes they sat, contemplating the past and the future, then Jeff got up.

"It's time to find your brother and for you two to get back to were you belong."

And time that you get your Scott and your Virgil back, so International Rescue is back to full strength, added Scott in his mind. Not that he didn't want to go home. There was so much to do and with that crystal that now rested in his pocket they would have a very good shot at making it true.

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He found Virgil in Brains' lab, the two engineers so deep in conversation that they didn't even look up when the door opened and Scott stepped inside.

So Scott took a moment to watch the two. He already had decided that the very first thing they would have to do when they were back home, was to find the Brains from his own world and bring him on board. He only could hope that they would be able to do so. He was looking forward to meet that other Brains and wondered how he would differ from this Brains. Another person they had to find for was Lady Penelope, whom he had spoken to shortly on the vid phone the other day, and whom he also had taken an instant liking to.

"Virg," he called out.

Two heads shot up and Virgil looked a little sheepish that he hadn't noticed Scott coming in.

"It's time," Scott reminded them.

Virgil's face fell, and Scott had to suppress the grin on how easily he could read his brother again. The younger Tracy had shaken off all the gloom from back when they had arrived in this world and Scott was glad for it. Virgil had formed a close bond with Brains, and Scott could only hope that they would click as well when they met their Brains.

Virgil sighed, then he got up.

Well, Scott had something to cheer him up. He pulled the crystal out of his pocket and showed it to his brother.

"What's this?" Virgil asked, intrigued.

"A data crystal," Scott teased with a grin.

Virgil rolled his eyes. "I can see that it's a data crystal, dummy. What's on it?"

"If you feel the need to insult me, then maybe I shouldn't tell you," Scott kept on teasing.

Virgil groaned. "Tell me, all right."

"The plans for all the Thunderbirds and all the nifty machines we have to leave behind here."

Virgil's mouth fell open. "You're kidding," he exclaimed.

"Nope, father just gave them to me."

"Wow! This is fantastic. This will help us immensely."

"Yep."

"Okay, come on then, we have to get to the gate," Virgil said, pulling his brother out of the room. Scott knew that Virgil was burning to get the crystal into a reader and begin to study the plans, so he didn't mind.

At the appointed time, they all found themselves again at the entrance to the cave where the whole story had started only a few days ago. Scott could only marvel on how his view of the world had changed in such a short time. It was as if his whole life he had been searching for something worthwhile to do, and finally, in a world that wasn't even his own, he had found it.

Making International Rescue real was a dream he hadn't even known he had been dreaming. The only regret he had was that they had already had wasted so much time. But there was nothing he could do about it, so he didn't dwell on it too deeply.

The rest of the family had come to the cave as well and now a lot of backslapping ensued between the brothers in ways of good byes.

Finally, only Jeff was left standing next to the entrance, an indulging smile on his face.

Scott stepped up to him, taking Jeff's hand in a firm grip.

"Sir, I'd just like to thank you again for everything you've done for us," Scott said.

Jeff returned the handshake. "I know you will make us proud, Scott. Just you look out for your brothers. And for your mother,"

"I will, sir," Scott promised.

"Then I think it's time you two get back home. Brains, is everything ready?"

The engineer nodded, and Scott and Virgil entered the cave.

They were ready to go home.

The end

AN: So, that's it. The story is done. Not much mayham and barely a scratch on anybody. Currently, I don't plan on writting anything else in this universe, however, I do have two other stories in the work (one John centric, one more focused on Scott), so maybe there will be something else soon(ish)

If you liked this story - or if you didn't - please let me know.