International Rescue and the Tracy Boys are the creation of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Claudette: Your points are well taken so I hope I can address them for you. About Jenna's simpering, coyish attitude. Of course she's not like that, the girl is just having some fun. Have you any idea what it takes to intensively nurse someone? I have tried to make this story realistic but obviously to protect the readers I have left out, shall we say, the more 'messy' aspects of nursing but take it as read that Jenna is doing everything that needs doing. When working in intense situations you need to have a release. The boys know that; they work hard, they play hard and no one would question their professionalism. That's all Jenna's doing. She has been working hard and just needs to let her hair down for a little while and the boys do make it so easy with their egos. Once she started on them and their machines it became a matter of pride for them. Guys are so predictable. Virgil was wary of her change in character but thinks she's just going stir crazy; after all, she has barely left that infirmary. You only have to read my friend Fellowriverrat's reviews to appreciate a nurse's sense of humour.
Actually Jenna didn't assume that they called in the navy, she used a scenario for bait and it worked. Like I said it was a matter of pride and the guys are so predictable. She just used psychology. Remember the episode 'Security Hazard'? They willing shared their secrets with a small boy because he suggested the other machines were better. What better way to get the owner to jump to the defence of his craft than to suggest it wasn't capable of the job; of course Gordon was going to speak up.
Like you said, people talk. You don't have to know anything about the craft to know what they look like and realistically it's not feasible that people wouldn't know what they looked like. Even coming to and from a rescue you just have to look up and you could see. Jenna did only describe the outward appearance after all. Jenna works in a hospital, rescue victims are brought in, she, of course, has to keep their conversations private. There could have been a rescue where hers was the nearest hospital, TB2 lands in the car park to deliver victims, nurse's talk. This wasn't mentioned because it's not what the story is about and you just can't mention everything, can you? But if it serves the purpose. She, too, has this 'brain-box' friend who likes machines. Virgil assumed all her friends were 'convenient' but I didn't say they were. Hope this has been helpful.
Chapter 25
A cold! A lousy cold, that's what she'd said. He could have laughed if he didn't feel so uncomfortable and miserable. As well as his head throbbing and throat sore it felt like he was one minute hot and flushed, the next, cold and shivery; his body aching with every sneeze and cough. If this was just a cold then it was the worst cold he'd ever had but then he was under par to begin with.
He had heard most of what went on that afternoon and had enjoyed it immensely. It wasn't often anyone ever got one over on Gordon and Alan and he had to admit he was proud of her verbal wrangling and dry wit and he had wondered if she meant everything she said. Gradually, though, he began to feel, well, he wasn't quite sure how he felt; it was that feeling you get when you know something's working on you and you don't know what. By the time evening came he just knew he felt lousy, it was like being back at square one when he had first woken up.
After Jenna had given him the necessary painkiller and anti-inflammatory for his throat she sat on his bed bathing his head with a cold compress, giving him ice chips to suck for his thirst. She now felt that same slow, simmering anger she had felt when she hadn't been given the right information that had led to his being violently ill. "It just wasn't fair," Jenna thought as she watched him move uncomfortably, tossing his head from side to side, trying to find ease, "He's been through so much already." She was glad now that she hadn't removed his feed tube earlier for he was not going to feel like eating for a while, at least she wouldn't have to worry about him not getting enough nourishment. "And he was looking forward to getting that out," she continued to think. "Someone's going to get a piece of my mind," Jenna stated firmly, raising her eyes again upwards.
"Jen?" Scott asked, wanting to know what she intended to do.
Jenna stroked his face tenderly. "Don't you worry," she assured him, "I'm just going to find out how you came by this cold." Rising, she spoke into the com-link to ask Tin-Tin to come down and sit with Scott a while as she had some business to take of.
"Jen?" he pleaded, coughing and weak, too tired to argue.
She knew what he meant. He wanted her to forget about any confrontation. "No Scott, don't even go there with me right now," Jenna said adamantly. "I'm tired and I'm annoyed and you really don't want to see me when I'm tired and annoyed," she added with more than a hint of frustration.
"And….angry?" Scott replied, managing a smile before another bout of coughing and sneezing.
Her face softened into a smile, she was certainly not angry with him. "Yes, and angry," Jenna replied.
Now it was his turn to be making her smile. "Did I ever….did I ever….tell you," he said in between short, shallow and painful breaths, "how…incredible……you…you are when…you're angry."
She felt her face flush as she remembered the last time he had told her that. They're eyes had met, locked in an intensive stare and he had been so close she could taste him. "Yeah, I think you might have done," she smiled gently.
His body changed now from being hot to cold and shivery. "Jen,…I'm cold," Scott said, his voice quivering with the cold that was now causing him to shake.
Jenna pulled the sheet up around him. "I'll get you some blankets," she soothed as she gently stroked his face. She quickly retrieved them from the linen cupboard in the hallway just outside the infirmary door. Pulling them up around him in a tender fashion their eyes once again held in a suspension of time. His body may have been shaking but his eyes were fixed firmly on her. She had to close her eyes momentarily against the thought of wanting to warm him by laying next to him and pulling his body in close to hers. On opening her eyes and finding he was still gazing at her she wondered if he could read her mind. She had thought, too, of tenderly placing a kiss on his forehead but before she could act the door opened and she laughed inwardly, they always seemed to be getting interrupted.
Tin-Tin looked puzzled. "Is anything wrong, Jenna?" she asked concerned.
"No, I just need you to stay with Scott while I take care of some business," Jenna answered, smiling and looking at him in a protective manner. Right at that moment he felt cared for, protected and, dare he even hope, loved. He certainly didn't want to be in whosever shoes she was about to unleash her anger on.
With that, she swept out of the infirmary intent on getting answers to her question and dear help anyone who got in her way.
It was Alan's turn to stand 'Jenna Watch' in the hallway that lead from the elevator to the lounge. It had been this way from when she came, whenever their father was engaged in some International Rescue business, like going over design modifications etc, just in case Jenna should happen to leave the infirmary and come up to the lounge. Alan had almost missed seeing her sweep past, having ducked into his room momentarily. "Oh heck," he thought, "this isn't good." He caught up with her and standing in her way tried a bright and breezy chat. "Hey, Jen, what's cookin'? Where ya going?"
Jenna wasn't in the mood, all thoughts of the afternoon's fun having gone from her mind. "Get outta my way, Alan," she warned, her serious face telling him she wasn't joking. "I need to speak to your father."
She went to push past him but he breezily jumped in front of her again. "Dad's…..kinda busy," he informed her. "Can't I help?" Alan inquired with a cheeky grin, hoping he was going to be able to stall her.
"Alan,…just get out of my way," Jenna spat testily, "I'm in no mood for games." He continued to block her way.
Jenna pulled her face into a frown, tightened her lips, narrowed her eyes and glared into his face. In a scary sort of way she reminded him very much of his eldest brother when he wanted them to back off, in fact, he would swear her cheek muscles twitched just like Scott's.
"Alan,…if you don't get out of my way you're gonna be one sorry little puppy," Jenna sneered and indicated her knee. Alan let out a whimper and automatically drew his legs together. "We nurses know how to defend ourselves, you know," she continued with a cynical smile, almost as if she were beginning to enjoy this. "We get all sorts of unsavoury characters hanging around the hospital at night, some even like to think they're International Rescue, just so's they can 'rescue' the nurses," she went on with that same cynical smile, instilling cold fear into him.
He put his hand on her shoulder in the hopeless gesture of being able to stop her. She looked at the hand on her shoulder, totally unimpressed; then swung an icy cold glare in his direction. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Jenna said intimidatingly.
Alan by now was dumbfounded and very unsure of what to do, though he immediately took his hand of her shoulder. His 'stop Jenna from going into the lounge ' routine wasn't working and he didn't think his father would mean him to take such drastic action as to knock her out, though, right now, he wasn't sure it wouldn't be him getting knocked out.
Jenna took the opportunity of his momentary indecision to continue on her way unabated towards the lounge leaving poor Alan flabbergasted and frantically scrabbling for his wrist-com. Of course, it's always at these moments you're all fingers and thumbs and Alan just couldn't get the thing to come on.
She swept into the lounge like a mini whirlwind. "Jeff, I want a word," Jenna demanded, the former incompetence still in her mind.
Poor Jeff was like 'a man caught with his pants down' as it were. He had been sitting at his desk studying the portraits of his sons in their IR uniforms, wondering just what the future held and would his eldest son ever wear that uniform again. He thought how proud and handsome Scott looked and knew that this uncertainty was hurting his eldest son a lot when Jenna swept into the lounge interrupting his thoughts.
For an instant Jeff was struck dumb, not an easy feat by any means. His eyes shot from Jenna, who was standing in front of the desk with her back to them, to the portraits and back to her again. It was too late to reach for that button and initiate Operation Cover-up now. Jenna followed his glance until her eyes came to rest on the portraits. All Jeff could do was bury his head in his hands and wait for the storm that was about to come.
Jenna narrowed her eyes, looking at the portraits and then back at Jeff. She went over to take a closer look; walking down the line and stopping at Scott, she smiled. "You really are handsome, aren't you," she thought to herself, then feeling anger rise in her at how he was now suffering and the reason that she was up here in the first place.
Turning to walk back to Jeff she let rip. "So, Jeff, you have a 'confidence' you want to keep," she started off, slowly simmering ready to come to the boil, "and you expected me to give up mine and betray my patient, son or no son. You men in power are all the same, one rule for you and another for everybody else." She had already known, of course, of Jeff's 'confidence' but for Scott's sake she had kept it to herself but now that it was Jeff himself who had revealed who they were there was no longer any reason to keep quiet and Scott could be kept out of it.
Jenna hadn't finished yet. Turning her attention to the subject of the 'confidence' she implored, "I can understand your need for secrecy, Jeff. I really can." "And that's all very well against the bad guys but, damn it Jeff, I'm not the bad guy, am I?" Jenna argued; then continuing on before giving Jeff a chance to answer. "Mike brought me because I can be discreet apart from being a darn good nurse. No-one knows I'm here and no-one knows where I am. Why couldn't you have trusted me and then perhaps we could have saved Scott from a lot of discomfort." The last remark had been intended to make Jeff feel guilty about not divulging his full medical file and it hit the spot.
Jeff was both speechless and admiring of this young woman's tenacity and spirit. Three times now they had had a confrontation and each time Jenna had come out on top, each time she had been proved right. In truth, this brought her no pleasure for she had genuinely developed a fondness and respect for Jeff Tracy but her protective loyalty was to her patient, though more and more the lines between professionalism and personal were becoming blurred.
"You're right, Jenna," Jeff finally managed to reply, "and no, of course you're not the bad guy. I guess I should have trusted you and Mike too, for that matter, he's a good man. It's just I felt I was protecting you in a way, the less you know, the less you'll be a target but you're right, Scott suffered because we were trying to be too overprotective and vital information was missed. Anyway, I'm glad this is all now out in the open." "I hope you will forgive an old over cautious Commander-In-Chief," Jeff asked, his face now breaking into a smile of hopeful expectation, "and we can get on with the business of getting Scott well again."
Jenna's face softened slightly and accepting the explanation Jeff gave she nodded her agreement. Virgil had been quietly sitting reading a paper in the corner when she had first blew in. He lowered it and sat back to watch the sparks fly. Gordon and John were in the kitchen totally oblivious and Alan, on hearing the raised voices and remembering the cold fear he had felt from Jenna's vehemence, decided to stay well clear for the moment.
Now that all that was out of the way she returned to the reason she had first come up to the lounge. If Jeff thought 'the whirlwind' had blew itself out he was sadly mistaken. Looking at Jeff and then round at Virgil Jenna demanded, "Now, I want to know how on earth Scott caught a cold?"
