Chapter 4 for my precious bunch! This chapter is still dedicated to my real life lil'Hackenbacker 'Maya!

DISCLAIMER:
ME: John, would you like to do the honours? John? Scott? What are you guys doing on the com-link?
JOHN: Discussing Scott's inability to beat anyone up
SCOTT: Hey!
ME: ?
JOHN: Well you can't blame him; he is getting on a bit
SCOTT: JOHN TRACY, I CAN STILL BEAT YOU UP ANY DAY!
JOHN: Sure Scott, in three months you can come over to the space station and give it a try.
ME: Well as that isn't going to happen, I do not own the Thunderbirds, or the wonderful boys above ;(

He had been on a flight all the way from his NASA base, having been called up by his father saying he wanted to speak with him and the boys. He had said to meet at his grandmother's and not knowing which of his brothers were there, he had called up Scott knowing he was definitely would be.

"Scott, you there?" after a few more seconds of silence, the flyboy spoke up.

"Yeah, why are you? Huh? I mean..."

"Scott?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Hey! Is that anyway you should speak to your brother? Especially if he's about to pick you up?"

"Yeah, and thanks." He grinned. Always able to rely upon him.

"I'll be 30 minutes that okay?"

"Sure, see you then."

"See ya." He just hoped it would feel like it.

The last thing Scott expected in a million years, was his brother to call him out of the blue and say he needed picking up. Yeah he was excited, extremely so, but he wished John could have given a bit more notice. This isn't like John. The platinum was always organised, clean and if there was as much as a speck of dust he'd go on a cleaning frenzy. He'd also hoped that John had packed lightly- his only source of transport was his Grandpa's old bike which he had been restoring.

"I hope it works."

Walking back into his room, Scott quickly changed and crept down stairs and wrote a note to his grandma. It may be 5 o'clock in the morning, but John liked to take his time and sunrise would be in half an hour, which meant grandma would be up. He quickly signed the note with a few kisses.

Grandma,
Gone to pick John up from the airport. Could you make some coffee for when we're back please? Love, Scott xx

He had figured that Scott wasn't a person for cars years ago, so when a rusty looking motor bike came past, he hadn't been surprised it was Scott who got off. Even with the limited amount of light they had, he could still see the faded royal blue on the chaises- his late Grandpa's and coincidently Scott's favourite colour.

He looked up and stared directly at Scott.

Moving forward, the two hugged for what felt like ages, glad of each other's strength. After a while, they separated and walked over to the old bike both glad that John only had a backpack. Before they went, a woman with dashing red hair came over to them. They instantly knew who she was.

"You two boys are as handsome as your mother was beautiful." The woman, Mrs Wilson, smiled.

"Thanks." John muttered as he got on the back of the bike, a little confused as to why their old art teacher was at the airport at 5:45am, "Might I ask why you're here?"

"Of course, my son is in the air force. He's coming home today." John felt Scott suddenly tense up and knew that they should probably get going.

"Ahh, well then Mrs Wilson, say hello for we must go." John smiled at her then snorted as he realised he had just sounded so... poetic.

"Bye Mrs." Scott said simply as he started the bike up, praying that it works. Luckily for the two boys, it did and they were now on their way back to the old house. Each others presence was enough for the two boys to realise how much they had missed their brother, all of the brothers in fact. Absently leaning in to Scott, John watched as the sun slowly came up and the stars gradually disappeared. What on earth did Jeff Tracy want?

It wasn't long after that, that they found themselves back at the old 'barn' with grandma waiting outside for them, cups of coffee in her hands. After the fuss had settled down and with a few coffees and a hearty breakfast down them, the brothers set out to do some chores that their Memaw had given them before heading over to fix up Scott's bike.

"So, I take it the bike hates you?"

"Yep, it's quite stubborn." Scott replied, grunting as he did.

"Well, it is a Tracy's bike." John chuckled.

"An old one, like grandpa." The boys laughed then went quiet for some time as Scott attempted to work and John just stared waiting for the questions to come.

"So, what have you been doing these past few years?" Scott asked carefully.

"Ah, nothing much. Just NASA, then more NASA and so on."

"I saw you on TV." There it was.

"Yeah, NASA found out I was Gordo's brother so they decided to film me watching him." John had never told anyone that he had become an astronaut, or that he was based up in the ISS. People had thought he was an only child- rather stupid considering he had four brothers- and that he had spent his life being brought up in private school. The guy was a genius after all. It had hurt though, the looks and remarks made against him, the constant bullying- even in NASA, the people still picked on him. Sadly, they had expected him to be just like the one and only Jefferson Grant Tracy, the most amazing astronaut, one who went up to the moon more times that they couldn't count them on their fingers. But he wasn't, he was John Glenn Tracy, a quiet but sweet boy, a boy with a dream to be upon the stars. However, for those who knew John, for example his brothers and a very special girl, they knew that John was really outgoing, just not a sociable at first.

"And the mission?" Well. That took long enough. There was once a 'mission' where some of the astronauts, including John, had to do an emergency spacewalk because of an ammonia leak that wasn't fatal but then the systems could have failed due to the solar panels having to be switched off- fatal of course.

"Yeah, the leak was only little at first, not really a problem, but then it got worse meaning we had to try and fix it, which we did with no injuries or anything." He didn't have to explain to Scott what could have happened; Scott would know anyway.

"Hmm... anything else?" Scott said, looking up at his younger brother.

"Well..."

"John..?"

"Fine. During university, I did meet a girl..."

"What? Really!?" this was the reaction off Scott he was expecting, and he being not wanting to fuss over it, wasn't really happy.

"Yeah, a girl called Cara and believe me she is the most beautiful girl I have ever met." Well, that came out unexpectedly. Scott started grinning.

"Baby brothers gotta girlfriend!" He started singing, laughing as he did.

"So! I don't see you with one, however you've probably bedded quite a few!"

"What girl can't resist Scott Carpenter Tracy?"

"Maybe one that finds out you actually admitted it." They both started chuckling. After a while, they quietened.

"Scott?"

"S'up kiddo?" he didn't take his eyes off his bike.

"When I called you this morning, you sounded as if you had been crying, everything alright?" Scott still didn't take his eyes off the bike.

"Nightmares." He mumbled, obviously not wanting to tell his younger brother, "Anyway, we should be getting on with this, can you pass me the wrench please?" and so he did, not wanting to bother his brother any more.

Scott had offered for John to stay in his room that night as the spare room hadn't been done up and there was no way he was sleeping on the couch- the floor would be a better option! So here he was trying to waking his mumbling older brother from he obviously pain filled nightmare.

"Scotty?" he nudged the brunette only failing in waking him, "Come on Scott, you can't be that bad at waking." He continued to shake him but didn't want to do anything else as he knew what would happen; he would end up on the floor with his brother sitting on top of him trying to kill him- air force instincts.

"Scott, come on, wake up." After a few minutes of further nudging and more moaning, Scott finally shot up, tears filling his eyes.

"Johnny?" enveloping Scott in a hug, John started to rock him to try and calm him down.

"Shh Scott, it was just a dream. Just a dream..." he ran his fingers through his hair, patiently waiting for the oldest Tracy to calm down. Eventually, he did.

"Scott? Wanna talk?" he held Scott to his chest, giving him the little physical comfort he could give.

"I was in Dreamer... Malcolm was there, but so were you and Virgie, Gordon and Allie- I don't know if it was the Dreamer. The... jet went down and nobody came out but me- all of you- Malcolm-"he started crying again, giving John the chance to sooth him again. A little while later, he felt Scott's breathing deepen as he fell asleep, soon the same sleep claimed him as well.

Over the next few days, it felt as if childhood had returned. The boys found themselves doing chores, more John than Scott, like fixing the fences that had blown over in the storm, mending the old barn and things alike, fixing Scott's bike- it now only needed a bit of painting- meeting up with old friends in town, talking 'til 3 in the morning and not getting up 'til 3 in the afternoon. Yep, life had been good these past few days. John and Memaw where currently resting in the living room when Scott came in holding a book.

"Walk to the stars by John Tracy?" John looked up at the book in his brothers hands and jumped up to grab it off him, "Why didn't you say you had written a book?"

"A few actually." Scott just looked stunned, Memaw however, looked thrilled.

"Honey, why so protective? They are something to be proud of."

"Thanks Memaw but I prefer if people didn't know about them."

"Well, why?" Scott asked, taking a seat next to him.

"'Cause... I don't know? I just don't like people knowing..."

"Well... can I read it? I haven't read an interesting book in ages!"

"What makes you think it's interesting?"

"'Cause it's written by you." John found himself smiling at his brother's compliment and handed the book to Scott.

"You can read it, in fact, that one is dedicated to you."

Turns out Scott liked the book, even the dedication, and he liked it that much he was currently trying to find a way of getting back at John for his little flyboy remark. However, as much as he would like to get out of the bed and get revenge, the flu had decided to attack him and render him defenceless. He tried to convince his grandmother and John that he was fine but both had agreed to force him to bed of he tried to get back up.

An annoying ringing tone started going through his ears as he realised John's phone had just went off. He picked it up and noticed the message:

From: Chicken

The Fish is flying.

Completely confused to who would be called chicken and who would be called Fish, he called his immediate brother.

"John! Message!" the Space case had come up almost immediately and look at Scott confused when he stared at him.

"Who is fish?"

"Who do you think?" Gordon- most definitely Gordon.

"Then who is chicken?"

"Virgil."