Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds or X-Men in any way, shape or form.

GIFTED

OK. Here's another one.

I would like to thank Cap'n Phoenix for the review. I must confess that I didn't know the name of Kyrano's wife (just goes to show how much I was paying attention while watching the movie and I never sat through the credits). Sorry.

Anyway thanks for the tip and I'll be sure to call her Onaha from now on or wherever it is appropriate.

CHEERS!

Chapter 3 – Hello, Goodbye.

"I've just re…r….reci….re gotten word from the jet Mr Tracy they're coming into land now." Stuttered Brains as he came strolling into lounge already dressed for the party.

Jeff Tracy looked up from the magazine he was reading and smiled.

"Good. Are the boys ready yet?"

Brains frowned. "I haven't se…s…..see spotted them Mr Tracy. But I'm sure they'll be here any min….mi….mi time now."

Jeff sighed wearily but as if on cue the young men in question came walking into the room in seemingly deep conversation.

"You've gotta admit it WAS funny." Gordon boasted somewhat loudly.

"Yeah, but did you have to tease her about it afterwards?" Virgil asked seriously.

"Bahh, you've got no sense of humour that's your problem." Replied Gordon. He was annoyed that Virgil couldn't see the funny side of the whole Helium filled balloon incident with Penelope even though he himself was involved. But what Virgil was trying to get across to his younger sibling was that it wasn't the incident itself that he found

un-amusing but rather that Gordon kept teasing Penelope about it whenever he saw her. Further more Virgil seemed to recall Penelope holding her own level of power so perhaps pissing her off was not a good idea.

"It's about time you got down here." Jeff said standing to greet his sons.

They had the good grace to look embarrassed and offered their apologies as everyone else entered the room clean and dressed for the party. But there was still someone missing.

"Where's TinTin got to?" asked Penelope looking around the room but seeing no sign of the eastern teenager.

"I think she's still in her room. I'll get her." Replied Kyrano as he went to fetch his daughter.

It had only taken TinTin half an hour to pack what she needed into the battered black rucksack the rest of the time she had spent sat at her dressing table staring at her reflection in the oval vanity mirror and going through the number of photographs and memories she kept in the draws of the dressing table.

She had stopped at one photo in particular, a picture she kept very close to her heart. It was a photo of her, Alan and Fermat at the start of the New Year just before they went back to school after the Christmas holidays. It was the last time she had seen them and looking at the photo she couldn't help be realize how much she would miss them.

TinTin was startled out of the memory by a knock at the door.

"TinTin? Sweetheart, are you going to come down to the party?" came a voice through the door and TinTin realized it was her father and that the jet must have arrived with Alan and Fermat.

"Sure dad, I'll be down in a minute ok." She replied quickly and hoped that her father wasn't going to wait for her.

"Ok, but don't be long." Her father said and TinTin heard footsteps walking away down the hall and she let out the breath she'd been holding.

Looking back at the photo in her hands she thought hard about what she was about to do and with one last glance at her reflection she unclipped the International Rescue pin from her shirt and placed it on the dressing table.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to the empty room as she walked over to her bed and zipped up the bag tucking the photo into one of the many pockets before heading for the door.

The lights were off when Alan and Fermat entered the lounge and the whole house seemed eerily silent.

"Where is everyone?" Fermat wondered aloud as he and Alan dumped their suitcases on the floor before stepping further into the room.

"Maybe the power's out." Offered Alan although he knew the absurdity of the statement because Tracy Island had a number of back-up generators both for the house and the Thunderbird silos so the odds of a power failure were highly remote.

"Don't be silly Alan." Fermat said simply and stopped to listen for any sound coming from within the room.

"It could be Gordon playing a practical joke." Laughed Alan though it was a much better answer than his first one, just then, a sound caught their attention.

"Wh….w….who's there?" Fermat's stutter kicked in along with his nerves as he and Alan glanced around the darkened room trying to locate the source of the sound.

"SURPRISE!!!" shouted a chorus of familiar voices as someone flicked on the light switch. Alan and Fermat probably would have died from shock if they had all managed to shout at the same time.

As it was Gordon, unable to contain himself any longer finally put the youngsters out of their misery by being the first to jump out from his hiding place behind the orange sofa.

It still gave them a fright and everyone was laughing at their expressions, even TinTin.

"Was that a…abso…..ab really necessary?" breathed Fermat who had his hand on his chest in an attempt to slow his racing heartbeat.

Alan who was laughing as hard as the rest of the household clapped a hand on his friends shoulder

"Hey lighten up it wasn't that bad." Alan said good naturedly.

Fermat just glared at him, which only caused Alan to laugh harder but the glare melted away as soon as Fermat caught sight of a familiar and greatly missed individual.

"DAD!" prank forgotten Fermat ran straight into the waiting arms of his father.

"Welcome home guys." Pronounced Jeff as he grabbed Alan in a welcome hug, which was followed by the customary ruffling of hair from the three other Tracy's in the house.

"Great to have you back sprout." Welcomed Scott.

"Yeah welcome back squirt." Virgil seconded.

"Nice to see the pilot put up with ya and didn't throw you off the plane." Joked Gordon the comment earning him an unimpressed looked from his father and smack upside the head from Scott.

"Oww! What was that for?!" whined Gordon rubbing the back of his head.

Scott just rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath that sound suspiciously like 'Idiot!' to Virgil.

Once all the greetings were out of the way Kyrano went to take their suitcases up to their rooms.

"Oh Mr Tracy the pilot said to tell you that he'll be ta….tak….t lifting off as soon as he's finished refueling the jet." Stuttered Fermat as he helped himself to a plate of food from the table.

"Thanks Fermat. I don't want him staying any longer than he needs to." Jeff replied as he too aimed for the food table while Alan bounded over to the stereo to put on some music.

From a nearby doorway TinTin watched the whole scene while her mind raced with what to do.

'OK. It should take about 20 minutes for the pilot to service the jet and make it ready for take off.' She summarised from the island having had similar small jets land there so she knew how much time she had to play with.

'I can't leave the party too soon in case they think something's wrong.' She frowned in concentration trying to plan out her escape.

'If I stay for one song I can excuse myself, head back to my room, grab my bag and drop down from the balcony onto the patio and slip round the back of the house down to the landing strip.' Her frown deepened. This plan was dangerous, not did she plan to drop from the second story of the house but she had to do it quietly and reach the landing strip in time and unseen however it was the only way to avoid being seen by anyone.

'Mission Impossible eat your heart out.' She thought sardonically and after running over the plan one last time she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

'Showtime.' With that TinTin entered the lounge.

"There you are! We've been wondering where you'd gotten to." Announced Penelope turning immediately to greet her teenage friend.

TinTin smiled sheepishly as all eyes turned to her.

"Yeah sorry about that, guess I lost track of time." She answered truthfully as the music started to play in the background.

. . . . . . . . So much for my happy ending.

'How appropriate.' TinTin thought sadly but she didn't care she had always liked Alan's taste in music.

"Hey TinTin! What ya been up to?" Alan greeted her enthusiastically having abandoned the stereo in favour of the food table, which was rapidly emptying thanks to his brothers.

"Oh you know school stuff, island life. Nothing new." Sadness started to creep into her voice and she focused on the floor in a desperate to hide it and hope Alan wouldn't notice.

Alan noticed.

He put his plate back down on table and turned to face TinTin fully.

"What is it TinTin? Has something happened?" Alan asked gently with genuine concern.

TinTin was studying her feet intently trying hard not to look up into the concerned blue eyes of her friend while her mind struggled to come to terms with what she was planning to do and for the briefest moment she considered telling Alan the truth. The truth that she was no longer able to cope with her powers that had continued to grow uncontrollably over the past year, that she was plagued by constant headaches and sometimes even migraines or that she would stray into other peoples dreams while sleeping and hear their every thought when awake.

No. The truth was that she was afraid of hurting the people she loved and she loved all the people on Tracy Island very much not just her parents. These people were her family and friends and she was a danger to them.

There had been too many close calls and accidents over the last year to ensure her of that and all because she didn't want to risk them finding out that she had the same 'powers' as her monster of an uncle The Hood.

'I'm nothing like 'Him'!' TinTin thought bitterly.

Even though she had no idea how the rest of the island's inhabitants would react to her powers apart from Alan and Fermat she simply could bare thought of rejection by her family.

With the choice made TinTin straightened up and squared her shoulders forcing a smile.

"No, nothing's happened. I'm just glad you're back." Her voice was stronger this time all traces of sadness gone.

This seemed to convince Alan and he smiled in return picking up his plate again.

"Hey, I'm glad to be back boarding school's the pits." He answered around a mouthful of fried chicken.

TinTin just rolled her eyes at Alan's table manners or lack thereof and stole a curly fry from his plate when he wasn't looking.

"Hey TinTin. How was your schooling?" Asked Fermat having finished his and ready to join the conversation.

TinTin couldn't help but smile. Trust Fermat to ask about school.

"It was good though I'm struggling a little with physics." She answered honestly and stole another fry though not as covertly as the first one.

"Hey!….." Alan protested but TinTin just grinned smugly at him.

"You should pay more at…a….atten notice to what your eating Alan." Fermat stated smiling at his friend's indignant expression.

They all laughed at that even Alan and continued chatting with the music still playing in the background. They talked about school, about life on the island and any rescues that had happened lately but it wasn't long before the last few bars of the song were heard from the stereo.

And all this time you were pretending, so much for my happy ending . . . . . . . . . .

Laughing from one of Alan's newest lame jokes TinTin suddenly grew somber as she realized it was the end of the song.

'This is it.' She thought suddenly feeling like she about to cry so she turned to stare at the food table in an effort to calm herself.

Noticing the eastern girl's sudden change in mood Alan grew concerned.

"TinTin? Are you ok?" He asked her gently.

Frowning when he got no reply he glanced at Fermat who was also looking at TinTin in concern.

Turning back to the seemingly upset teenage girl Alan reached out and lightly touched her shoulder to get her attention.

TinTin had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't heard Alan's gentle question so she was startled when she felt the hand on her should and almost jumped in fright.

"TinTin? Are you ok?" Alan repeated the question.

Wiping her face on her sleeve she turned attention back to her friends and smiled sadly.

"You know what I think I can feel a headache coming on. Do you mind if I go lay down for a while?" There she did it. She lied.

"Of course not." Alan replied with a small smile but TinTin knew that in his mind he was still worried.

"I'll let you're pa…par….pare folks know where you're going." Fermat reassured her and went to inform TinTin's parents.

"Thanks Fermat!" She called before saying goodbye to Alan and promising to finish telling him about the behind the scenes action of all the rescues his brothers had been on in the past few months.

On the way to her room TinTin thought about Alan and Fermat. She hated this. Even though Fermat had offered it felt like she was using them to help conceal her escape from the island by them covering for her absence at the party.

Still there was nothing she could do about that now as she reached her room and entered locking the door behind her.

She didn't have much time.

Changing out of her party clothes she pulled on a pair of well worn stonewash jeans and a simple pale-gray t-shirt and trainers.

She walked over to the patio door that lead out onto the small balcony from her room and grabbing the tatty black rucksack en route carefully opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony.

Looking over the edge of the railing TinTin saw that it was about 10ft to the ground so being careful not to overbalance she swung the rucksack over the edge and let it drop to the ground. Luckily the ground below was covered in bushes and various flowers and TinTin hoped they would help cushion her fall as well as help cover any noise.

The rucksack hit the ground with a light thud and a slight rustle of leaves but other than that nothing else happened which meant that no one had heard it.

So taking a deep breath TinTin swung one leg over the railing then the other and carefully lowered herself until she was hanging from the railing by her hands in order to make the drop as short as possible. Then with one more controlling deep breath she let go of the railing and dropped to the ground.

She landed on her feet but fell back with the momentum of the fall and up on her back next to the rucksack.

Sitting up slowly she checked quickly for any injuries. Finding none she stumbled to her feet and brushed herself off before hoisting her rucksack and making her way behind the main house towards the landing strip.

TBC

What do you think?

Review and let me know.

The rest of TinTin's escape will be covered in the next chapter.

The lines of the song in this chapter were from 'My Happy Ending' by Avril Lavigne (which is a song that I don't own and don't claim to own) and is a favorite of mine.