Thunderbirds and the Tracy boys belong to Sylvia and Gerry Anderson

Chapter 18

Perhaps if he hadn't felt so tired or still felt dizzy, then who knows, as it was her gentle rocking action lulled him into peaceful sleep. As Jenna rocked him she contemplated what she had heard again in his troubled dream. "Well, I guess you really are, aren't you?" she said to herself and the fact that he had mentioned his father also proved beyond doubt that Jeff was the head of International Rescue. "I won't let you fall, I promise," she whispered as she held him tight, vowing she wouldn't see him fall into that black hole of depression like she had seen her father do when he was unable to cope with the loss of his son.

It felt so good to hold him, to feel his warmth, that Jenna could have rocked him all night. As it was, she knew it would be another busy, if not, stressful day so she gently laid him back on the pillows and lowered the bed, grabbing a few hours sleep herself.

The voice continued to taunt him on waking, telling him not to delude himself, not to hope. "The only way to protect yourself, Scott, is to shut yourself down, shut everybody out.""No, that's not true," he told himself."Sure it's true. Besides, you don't need anybody anyway, you've always gone it alone, you've had to, remember?" He couldn't argue there, ever since his mom died he was the one they all looked up to, the one who did everything for them, the one they always came to with their problems; while they all seemed to enjoy a carefree childhood, he frequently felt the burden of responsibility pressing down on him and that can be a very lonely place to be. "She, at least, should be able to understand that," he thought.

He watched her as she went about her duties but as with the previous day made no response or acknowledgement, instead he became lost in his own thoughts wondering what the future held for him.

"Aren't you going to talk to me today, Scott?" Jenna asked as she started on exercises to his left arm. She had wondered if he remembered being awake briefly last night and that she had heard his dream but he had made no mention of it so she didn't volunteer. Jenna had watched him throughout the morning to see whether there was any indication of his knowing but he gave nothing away and as before fixed his gaze on some far point. As he couldn't feel her working on his arm it was as though she weren't working on him at all and he could remain quite detached.

"Your brothers will be down sometime soon, I expect," she said lightly, wondering what kind of reaction she would get from him today.

He turned to look at her with an almost cold stare and blinked twice.

Jenna sighed softly, "You and I both know you need your brothers, Scott. You can't keep shutting them out."

He continued to watch her, then slowly closed his eyes and turned away.

She stopped what she was doing. "And you needn't pull that one with me, Scott Tracy. I know you're not sleeping and I saw what you did with your father last night," she said a little more firmly.

He turned to glare at her.

"Wouldn't you like to see your brothers today, Scott?" Jenna asked kindly.

The only answer she got was two blinks of his eyes.

Sighing deeply, she responded, "I know you can talk, Scott. I gave you pain relief for your throat so you don't need those eye signals anymore."

Scott narrowed his eyes, drawing his brows into a deep scowl. His nostrils flared and muscles in his face twitched; he was giving her 'the look'. 'The Look' that told his brothers to back off, that they were treading on dangerous ground. He had perfected that 'look'; after all, he had four younger brothers to contend with.

Jenna stood up and what did she do? She stared him down, giving him a look of her own; after all, she had difficult patients to contend with. "If that is meant to intimidate me, Mr Tracy, you'll have to do better than that. I've been glared at by harder cases than you," she continued, feeling her impatience and a little anger rise. "And what's more," she added, now on a roll "if you don't want to see your brothers you can tell them yourself. I've done enough of my own brother's dirty work, I'll be damned if I'm going to do yours too." This referred to the many times Jenna made excuses for her brother to his ex-girlfriends when he moved on to his next conquest.

Scott knew he wasn't going to win this battle. As well as being more than a little stunned and surprised at her outburst he also found himself being somewhat excited by her; seeing her eyes flash with fire. Perhaps it was the fact that she hadn't backed down to his 'look' but stood her ground with one of her own and wasn't intimidated by him in the least or maybe it was seeing her eyes light with fire. Whatever the reason, a slow grin spread across his face followed by a laugh and his own eyes danced with fire.

"Are you smiling at me, Mr Tracy? Don't you dare laugh at me, it's not funny," Jenna responded, feeling more than a little annoyed.

"You're incredible when you're angry, do you know that?" Scott remarked, the first words he had spoken to her in almost two days. There was nothing he loved more than a challenge, someone to pit his wits against.

His laugh and grin were infectious and Jenna found she couldn't stay annoyed at him but rather broke into a smile of her own, thinking he was pretty incredible himself when he laughed like that. Laughing and shaking her head she sighed. "Are you trying to flatter me, Mr Tracy?" Jenna replied as she sat down on the bed and resumed exercising his arm.

"Maybe," he responded, his face returning to an altogether more serious look.

Suddenly aware of their closeness, Jenna found her heart beating that little bit faster and it was as if they were being drawn by some powerful magnetic force towards each other, those invisible threads pulling them together. "Well…you'll still..have to do…you're.. own…dirty..work," she said slowly as if in some sort of trance, held by the intense gaze of his cobalt blue eyes. Again, they were a hair's breadth apart, the air, heavy and tense as though electricity arced between two live wires. The moment seemed to hang forever as his eyes flitted from hers to her mouth and back again.

The com-link on the infirmary door sounded causing them both to jump slightly. Jenna straightened up, feeling flushed. "That'll be them," she said hoarsely, coughing to clear her throat.

"Great timing guys," Scott thought to himself sarcastically. He sighed deeply, muttering something under his breath as he lay back fully into his pillows. "Well, I guess duty and responsibility calls," he responded with more than a little note of sarcasm.

She felt for him, for always feeling he was at everyone else's beck and call, always having to take everybody else's feelings into consideration before his own. "Come on in," Jenna said, inviting them in and hoping they wouldn't notice that she seemed slightly flushed and flustered. She wasn't sure whether they had arrived at the right time or not for if she was being honest with herself she wouldn't have refused him.

"Hi Scott," Virgil ventured, slightly unsure of the reception he would get.

"Yeah hi Scott," his other brothers joined in.

"Hi guys," he answered, fixing a smile yet suddenly feeling quite weary at the obvious exuberance of his brothers. He hadn't realised just how tired he was.

Jenna could sense they felt awkward with her being there so she offered a solution. "If you guys could finish a job for me I'll go up to the kitchen and see if Grandma's been doing any baking," she grinned.

"Sure Jen, just name it," Gordon replied.

"Well, I only got around to doing exercises on Scott's arm but his legs need doing," she smiled much to Scott's dismay.

Gordon and Alan grinned at each other and then at Scott who by now was beginning to look alarmed. They then promptly started to argue over which leg they would take. "I'll do his left," Gordon got in first.

"No, I'll take his left you do his right," Alan argued.

"Well, why can't I do his left and you do his right," Gordon replied sternly.

"Cus Gordy, I'm already on this side, you take his right," Alan said with a note of superiority as if he had just worked out the solution to some great problem.

"Oh for Pete's sake," Scott called out "they're my legs, don't I get a say in this?"

Gordon and Alan grinned at each other again and then at Scott. "No," they answered together. "Jenna says you need your legs exercised and that's just what we're gonna do," Gordon added with Alan nodding in agreement.

Jenna couldn't help but bite her lip to suppress a laugh at the little boy argument they were having. Scott shot her a look but she chose to ignore it and sitting down on the bed she showed the two boys what she wanted done. "I'm sure you've done all this before, Gordon," she smiled.

"Sure, no sweat," Gordon assured her but then with a cheeky grin he pretended to ponder "now, just how far can I rotate his leg?"

Scott groaned. Virgil and John rolled their eyes. Jenna tried not to giggle and Alan was grinning from ear to ear with an idea of his own.

"Hey, how about this Gordy, you take that leg, I'll take this one and we'll pull him like a wishbone," Alan laughed.

"Jen, can we get rid of this sheet," Gordon suggested with amusement, threatening to whisk it off, "it's kinda in the way."

By now Jenna could see that Scott was looking horrified, believing that Gordon would actually do it and she wouldn't put it past him either.

"Absolutely not," she scolded, trying not to smile.

"Yeah, come on you two, settle down and take this seriously," Virgil added exasperatedly "can't you see Scott's getting tired?"

"Sorry Scott. We just wanted to cheer you up, make you laugh," Gordon apologised.

"Yeah, me too Scott, sorry," Alan joined in.

Scott nodded wearily.

"OK, be good now, boys," Jenna smiled sweetly as she got up from his bed.

Scott shot her one of his looks. "Yes ma'am," he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm, though his eyes danced with mischief.

"There's no need to be rude, Scott," Virgil commented, clearly embarrassed by his older brother's behaviour and offering Jenna an apologetic look.

"That's all right, Virgil," she responded, smiling at him. Then turning her attention to Scott she added while staring him down, "Scott and I understand each other, don't we Scott?"

He watched her walk across the room and when she had finally left he realised how much he missed her already; her presence having been a constant in his life for what seemed like a long time.

His reaction hadn't gone unnoticed by his brothers.

As Gordon and Alan seriously resumed their duties of exercising his legs, Gordon casually remarked, "She ain't half gorgeous, huh."

"I'll say," Alan agreed enthusiastically.

"I wouldn't let Tin-Tin hear you say that Al. She's liable to scratch your eyes out," John reminded him.

"A guy can look, can't he? No harm in that," Alan replied grinning.

"Not if he hasn't got his eyes," Virgil retorted quickly with amusement causing his brothers to laugh, all except Scott who was finding this subject rather uncomfortable.

"What do you say John?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah, she is attractive and quite intelligent. She was very interested in my astronomy books and…….," John replied shyly, stopping when he realised his brothers were watching him intently. "Well, what about you, Virgil?" he added wanting to draw the attention away from himself.

"Yeah, no doubt about it and I imagine she would be good company but then you'd know all about that, Scott. Whadaya say?" Virgil asked, grinning at his elder brother.

"Huh," Scott responded, obviously not having heard a word his brother had said, having become distracted by thinking he heard her coming back.

"We said," Gordon replied, rolling his eyes "What do you think about Jen?"

"I guess she's nice," Scott answered in a very non-committal way.

"Nice!" Alan snorted, his voice rising disbelievingly in intensity. "Nice! Since when does Scott Tracy call an attractive girl like that nice? I think you need glasses," he added with much amusement.

Scott pulled his face into a frown and not wishing to discuss the subject any further, sharply remarked, "Drop it Al, just drop it." But something now stirred in his memory. That phrase Alan had used, about needing glasses; he'd heard that somewhere before, but where?

Virgil gave Alan and the rest a nod that they had teased him long enough and then turned the conversation to more serious matters. "Scott, do you remember anything about what happened?" Virgil asked carefully.

He searched his memory, wincing from a slight throb in his head as well as from trying to put the pieces back together. "Everything's still a bit hazy, Virg but I just get this feeling it wasn't a climbing accident," Scott replied, then after a moments pause he added, "Do I need glasses?"

Gordon shot Virgil a guilty look, which hadn't gone unnoticed by Scott.

"Ok guys, tell me what you know. You know what happened, don't you?" Scott demanded.