The Tracy Family and Thunderbirds are the creation of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson

Fran Lavery: I take your point on the style tip, although I do feel I needed to clarify exactly what a Marlin is and does, as I can't take for granted that everyone does know, not everyone may watch wildlife nature programmes. Also I wanted to create a mental image of what a big game fish does on breaking the surface, the fighting and thrashing against it's capture, so the reader can see the same mental picture that Scott sees and compares himself with but point taken on the other style issue. I will try to remember in future, guess I just got carried away with the descriptive process. Hope it didn't spoil your enjoyment too much.

Author's Note: Warning - Sexual content at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 48

"Like I said, it wasn't his fault, Scott," Jenna said soothingly in explanation, going on to tell him about how Virgil had come to his father's office with the report. She went on to say how Virgil just thought he wanted to be of help when he heard her sadness while she was on the vid-phone to Mike and of how she had ripped into him with all guns blazing when she had come out and found him outside the door. Scott winced, actually feeling sorry for his brother having been caught by a tongue lashing from her.

"…. I felt bad afterwards….and I should have made sure the door was closed before I started," she added, reinforcing the idea that Virgil was really not to blame. "He's really very sweet, your brother," she continued, smiling as she thought of how patient and gracious Virgil had been when she was ranting on.

"Sweet!….Virgil!" Scott exclaimed, trying hard not to laugh and feeling much more relaxed about her explanation. Sweet was not exactly a word the brothers would use to describe each other.

"Yes..sweet….and perceptive," she went on, smiling as she thought of his little speech. "Well, for a start I told him I wasn't prepared to discuss how I felt about you until we had had a chance to talk," she assured him, not wanting him to think she was discussing their relationship, even with Virgil, before they had had a chance to, causing Scott to smile gratefully for her thoughtfulness, as he continued to play with her fingers and watch her intently. She could imagine he must be feeling isolated from the normal routine of the household and being kept out of the information loop that he would normally have a large input into. "He said he didn't expect me to and all I had to do was listen. He wanted to apologise for not leaving right away and then he said he didn't hear anything he didn't know already. Said it was 'as plain as the nose on your face' that I was in love with you….anyone could see it," she said, giving him a warm smile.

"He said that?" Scott replied, surprised, indeed, at his brother's perceptiveness.

"Yeah…and that's not all," Jenna grinned, causing Scott to narrow his eyes in suspicion at what was coming next. "Like I said…he's very perceptive, your brother. He said you were in love with me," she added with a wry grin.

"Oh he did, did he!" Scott responded, a slow grin breaking over his face, all too aware of his brother's sometimes annoyingly uncanny knack of reading him like a book.

"Yeah…he did," she laughed. "Let me see….what were his precise words," she pretended to ponder, screwing her face into a frown and looking upwards as though for inspiration. "Oh yes…plumb crazy I think it was….'He's plumb crazy in love with you'," she continued, smiling broadly and making Scott smile broadly at the accuracy of his brother's insight.

"He saw that, huh? Well, he's right about that, Jen," he admitted gladly, as he looked deep into her eyes and making her heart skip a beat.

"And do you know how he said he knew?" she asked, to which he just shook his head, interested himself to hear what had given him away. "That whenever he looked at me or flirted with me he felt like you just wanted to rip his head off," she grinned and feeling somewhat thrilled that he should feel so jealous.

Scott had to laugh outright at how well his brother knew him and at the realisation that that was exactly what he wanted to do. Looking back on it now, though, he guessed that, if Virgil had seen it was as plain that Jenna was in love with him, then Virgil's 'flirting' with her was nothing more than him trying to gauge his feelings for her.

"You knew then…that I was in love with you?" he asked out of wondering curiosity.

"No…I didn't. It could have just been Virgil's wishful thinking for all I knew. I hoped you were, though, but I needed to hear it from you," she replied gently. "And I did," she added, still taking in the fact that he had told her so soon after she thought her future was so uncertain. "And you're not…mad at him?" she asked cautiously, giving him a quizzical look.

"No Jen…I'm not mad at him," Scott laughed as he kept his focus on her. "I'm too in love to be mad...but give me time," he quipped, grinning with mischief.

"You will do no such thing, Scott Tracy. I told you…it was my fault and….I told him not to tell you….on PAIN OF DEATH!" Jenna insisted with mock indignance, then emphazing her last phrase laughingly. She poked him playfully in the ribs so that he would get her message, making him flinch and laugh. "Or you'll have me to deal with….understood?" she ordered, pretending to be serious, her eyes alight with the grin she tried to keep from her face.

"You can deal with me anytime….Nurse Rollins," he said, turning on a deadly, seductive charm, causing her to crumple with laughter and shake her head in exasperation.

She seriously, though, wanted him to understand why she had told Virgil not to tell him, giving him the same reasons as before. He nodded in acceptance of her explanation.

"So….did this fount of all wisdom have anything else to say for himself," he joked, knowing once his brother got started on a subject it usually came with some advice. Judging by the grin she tried to disguise by biting her lower lip he knew he had. "Ok…out with it," he said with an air of nonchalance, though curiosity was getting the better of him.

"Well…it's only because he really cares about you…about you being happy," she said, feeling he should know that first, making Scott give her a quizzical look as his curiosity increased. "He said, what we have between us is special and he wasn't gonna let us throw it away if we weren't prepared to talk to each other. He all but inferred he would knock our two heads together if we didn't talk," she said, smiling as she remembered the passion of his speech. "Said he wouldn't let me leave the island until we had at least talked and knew how we felt about each other….that he would say something himself if he had to," she finished off, wondering what his reaction would be.

"He really said all that?" he replied, knowing in his heart, though, it's something Virgil would say, before Jenna smiled and nodded. "He's a good guy, one of the best," Scott acknowledged quietly, reflecting that his closest brother would have his best interests at heart.

In that instant, he longed that his brother could know the same deep down joy and contentment that true love brought, the peace and fulfilment that he was now experiencing. He found it hard to put into words; he only knew that a great void in his life had been filled, like he had found the other half of himself, two halves becoming a whole. He wondered now, with the two of them having been so close, if Virgil would feel he was going to distance himself from him in favour of this new partnership, yet this calling on his heart and on his body was too strong to ignore. He knew Virgil would understand; given his artistic nature he was more sensitively attuned to romantic inclinations and presented with the same opportunity would feel and do exactly the same thing. He hoped that someday his brother would find that someone special who would make him as happy as Jenna was making him, in fact, he found himself wishing that for all his brothers.

Giving her hand another squeeze and looking intensely serious, he added, "You know, I wouldn't have let you leave without at least telling you how I felt"

"I'm glad you didn't wait that long," she responded with the warmth of a smile, the same heart-warming smile that had dispelled all his loneliness.

"Yeah…so am I," he agreed, thankful that at last he had got rid of all those torturous and agonising thoughts as he basked in his new-found, reciprocated love.

They found themselves laughing and talking about all sorts of things and Jenna couldn't help but think how much more at ease and relaxed he looked as he reclined, casually dressed in v-necked t-shirt and shorts, atop the bed. Gone was any sign of the tense anxiety he sometimes exuded, which she now knew came from his increasing need to know how she felt about him and finding it hard to put his own feelings into words. Gone, too, was the low self-esteem he had about himself that he was unworthy and undeserving of her love because of how he looked and his disability. Instead she saw, despite his circumstances, a happy and confident young man, who, as bare-footed and stretching his long legs out in front of him, sometimes crossing his ankles or drawing his foot up and bending his knee, conveyed the feeling of contentment and being at peace with himself.

They eventually got around to talking about their past bad relationships, the ones that had went sour, causing them both to become cautious about ever getting involved again, such was their intimacy now that they wished to hold nothing back from each other. Scott went first, finding it a lot easier than he thought.

"She's a very foolish girl to have let a treasure like you go, Scott Tracy," Jenna remarked in a bewildered tone, although, being honest, she wasn't exactly sorry that she had. Without hesitation Scott shook his head.

"No Jen….if it hadn't been this time, it would have been some other time over something else, she was just that kind of girl. I didn't see it at the time but I do now," he replied with all the confidence of one who knows he had a lucky escape and now that he knew what true love was he found it no longer hurt or even angered him to talk of it. In fact, he felt quite impassive, as if he were relaying the facts about an incident in someone else's life. He had to admit he found it a rather freeing experience.

Then it was her turn. She told him his name was Steve Adams, they'd met two years ago and had been together about four months. He was an up-and-coming young lawyer and they had met at a party given by one of her nursing friends, Jenna having told Scott she hadn't really wanted to go in the first place but her friend had begged and begged her until she had relented. Her friend's boyfriend was a lawyer with the same firm and had invited his friend Steve along, though Jenna said she had had her suspicions that her friend was trying to pair her off. He was nice enough, they had got on all right and a few days later he had asked her out. Everything had been fine for the first month or so until he started talking about wanting to join one of the big law firms in New York, becoming almost obsessed with the idea, telling Scott he would talk about nothing else.

"There's nothing wrong with being ambitious, of course, and I would do anything to help my man achieve his potential and aid him in his career," she said, starting to sound as though she was getting a bit irritated to which Scott had to bite back any show of amusement. "But he never discussed it with me, not once…..just assumed I would follow him to the ends of the earth.

"And you wouldn't!" Scott ventured, drawing a questioning look from her. "Follow him to the ends of the earth, I mean," he added, guessing already that she obviously hadn't.

She smiled gently and held his face in her hand. "For the right man I would," she assured him. "My mom once told me, when she was ill, 'Sweetie'," Jenna said fondly, smiling at the memory of her mom. "When you find the man you want to be with for the rest of your days, love him with all your heart and follow him anywhere, even if it's to a desert island," she continued, unable to help the little laugh that escaped her lips as she motioned to the view beyond the window. "Well, it's not exactly a DESERT island….but it's close enough, don't you think?" she laughed at the close accuracy of her mom's advice.

"Your mom was a very wise lady," Scott agreed, giving her a supportive smile and guessing she must miss her mom very much, especially at times like these. "And…..what happened to….eh…Steve?" he asked, wondering if he should bring 'him' up again, but his curiosity made him want to know the outcome as she hadn't seemed too impressed with Steve's apparent obsession.

Her facial expression changed to that of one who doesn't suffer fools gladly. "Well…more and more we were going out to these corporate functions, dinner parties and such….what's the term they use?" she queried, screwing up her face in thought.

"Networking!" Scott offered, a term with which he was not a stranger and being necessary in the high-pressure world of big business.

"That's it," she said sarcastically, lighting on the word as if it were something disdainful. Recognising quickly, though, that Scott and his family also operated in such a world she wanted to make it clear that her experience did not mean she would 'tar everyone with the same brush'. "Like I said, I would gladly help my man with his career but I was beginning to think I was nothing more than something beautiful to hang off his arm…..like some……," she said, searching almost frustratingly for the right word. There was no way Scott was going to offer a word on this one, though he couldn't help smile to himself at her increasing animation. "Bimbo!" she finally exclaimed, "like a piece of jewellery or an asset he had acquired. Well, there's no way I want to be anyone's 'trophy girlfriend'."

"No, of course not, Jen," Scott hastily agreed, lest she think he would treat her in such a way and at the same time trying real hard not to break into a grin. "But I would be proud to have you on my arm….and show you to the whole world," he added with much sincerity, bringing a warm and soft smile from her. He was still curious, however, about this guy, who was beginning to sound like a bit of a jerk in Scott's eyes, and as to his final demise. Scott had met his kind before in the cut-and-thrust world of business deals and contracts; guys who would think nothing of using anything or anyone to obtain what they want, only to be discarded when they were no longer of any use. It wouldn't have surprised him in the least if Jenna had told him she had punched him out, judging by the rollicking his brother had got for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"So…what happened?" Scott ventured to ask.

"I went to his apartment one day…..and do you know what I found?" she asked, although not really asking a question of him, as it was more a way of her telling a story but Scott found himself automatically shaking his head anyway. He watched her in fascination as she became more and more riled. "A letter on the table…..no actually…not even a letter….more of a note," she mused, the more she thought of it, the more of a 'note' it became. "Yeah, it was definitely a note….a note I ask you! And do you know what THAT note said?" she added indignantly, to which Scott could only lamely shake his head again and try hard not to break into that grin and also not to pull her into a hot and heavy kiss.

"Let me see," she thought, putting her fingers to her mouth and rolling her eyes heavenwards as she tried to bring the words to memory. "'Jennums', that's how it started…..I always hated it when he called me that….he was trying to placate me, you know," she continued in obvious irritation.

"Jennums!" Scott remarked, as the first signs of that grin began to appear.

"Don't you even dare think about it, Mister," Jenna responded, her eyes narrowing in a warning glare.

There was no way on this earth was he ever going to consider calling her that…well…not unless he wanted to get her riled…on purpose, he thought playfully to himself. He held up his hand in mock defence. "No..I swear, Jen….I promise."

"Anyway….where was I…oh yes. 'Guess what? I've been headhunted by'….oh..some big law firm in New York, I don't even remember the name……'You know this is what I've always wanted so I know you'll be happy for me. PS: They want me over there right away'….can you believe the nerve of the guy!" she ranted on in continued distain.

Scott's eyes widened somewhat in disbelief. The guy really was a jerk. "And that's all there was? He was gone?" he asked, still incredulous that he could just up and leave a beautiful, lively and feisty woman like Jenna behind, though, he had to confess, he was more than thankful that Steve Adams turned out to be such a jerk.

"Oh no…there's more," she replied, this time laughing at the sheer audacity of how the 'Note' finished. "'PPS: Say, why don't you come over here. I'm sure you could pick up a nursing job somewhere and we could pick up where we left off. Just give me a month or so to settle in first.' Well…no need to guess where that little note ended up," she ended with smug satisfaction, motioning her fingers as though scrunching paper into a little ball and tossing it in a waste paper bin.

Scott continued to shake his head in disbelief and not daring to ask if she was even tempted. "Gee…that's terrible, Jen….the guy just left you a note!" he stated seriously, to which she nodded. "Well..I would, at least, have left you a bunch of flowers," he added, his eyes alight with mischievous amusement while trying his hardest not to smile. "A really big bunch," he added further, knowing very well he was playing with fire.

As her eyes lit with the knowledge he was teasing her, she leaned over to poke him in the ribs, causing him to flinch with laughter. Pretending to scold him, she continued to poke and prod him, making him draw his arm into his right side in an effort to defend himself against her onslaught but it was no good, she somehow managed to find his sensitive spot, his laughter coming with each jab of her finger "Oh…you...would…would….you! A….really….big…..bunch!" she laughed, both now caught up in the seductive and playful teasing of lovers.

"Aw..no..Jen….pleeease," he pleaded, his begging laughter falling on deaf ears as she continued to tickle him. "Jen….noooo," he laughed, his side beginning to ache from the good-natured banter. It had been a long time since Scott Tracy had laughed so much and so heartily and it pleased Jenna no end to hear him enjoy himself. He was only glad his brothers never got to know he was quite so ticklish or his life would have been made unbearable, though this kind of playfulness was strictly for lovers.

"Why..Mr Tracy…I didn't know you were so ticklish," she said, feigning surprise and laughing along with him, as she continued to find his sensitive spots, making his legs draw up in an automatic reflex action.

"Now…cut…that..out," he pleaded, his laughing eyes meeting with hers. After another few jabs and pokes, he gazed deep into her eyes. "I said…cut…that…out…Nurse…Rollins," he repeated, grabbing hold of her wrist and holding her in a firm lock.

The air between them now became highly charged with a sensuous tension and energy as both studied the other, reading the little signs of want and hunger that emanated from them as the intermittent laughter died away; the powerful magnetic attraction that called to them already beginning. Scott's gaze drifted from her eyes to his hand holding her wrist, then back again. This time, as his eyes turned again to where he was holding her, his fingers released their grip but without losing contact he slid his fingers around her wrist and up towards her palm. In response she uncurled her fingers from her clenched up hand to accommodate him. As his palm slid easily into hers he interlocked his fingers with hers and curled them over. His eyes now heavy with hunger and need turned to hers and with one movement pulled her open palm tightly into his, making his desire very clear. He waited in anticipation of her response.

Feeling the sensuous touch of his palm pressed tightly up against hers made her whole body ache for him and gazing deep into those intoxicating blue eyes she gave him his answer by curling her fingers over his knuckles and pressing her palm tightly to his. The simple action inflamed his arousal. Pulling her to him she offered no resistance, both so in tune with the other they knew when a little teasing was called for, this being definitely not one of those times.

That first brush of the lips was more like the first time, tender and soft but made all the more wondrous and beautiful because of the knowledge of their love for each other. As their lips met again he took her in the slow circle of his mouth, wanting to savour every deep, burning ache she was creating in him. She in turn moaned softly at the sensuality of his kiss causing his passion to intensify and deepen, taking them rapidly towards that place outside of time and awareness. Having unlocked his fingers and letting go of her hand he slid his hand up her back until his fingers entwined themselves in her hair and gripping the back of her head he pulled her against his chest as they settled back on the pillows. On releasing her hand she cradled the back of his head tenderly with one hand while the other slid around the back of his neck.

He groaned now with each circle of his kiss, the fire burning in his body driving him deeper, which in turn, caused her to moan with intense pleasure. In order to get more comfortable and inevitably more intimate he automatically rolled her to his left side, the intensity of his passion increasing, somewhat considerably, as he pulled her body in close to his. Having slipped her hand under his t-shirt, he groaned with pleasure as her hand gently and lovingly caressed his back, while at the same time his hand moved down her back to lovingly caress her in time with his kisses, both becoming more and more in tune with what the other found pleasurable. With her left hand now stroking down his spine and her other softly stroking the back of his neck, he experienced the most powerful arousal, driving him crazy, driving him to the deepest level of his kiss and leaving her in no doubt where he wanted to be. He hadn't intended that their fulfilment should be here but the call on their bodies now was so strong it was almost impossible to ignore.

Her response was to press herself to him, to move against him, telling him by her action that her body ached for him to be part of her. Her reaction told him all he needed to know. Tracing his way down her throat with sensuous kisses the anticipation of where this was going was tantalizing and becoming almost unbearable, as he groaned her name with the deep desire to give her pleasure and find his own fulfilment with her. With his fingers following the line of her neck she felt the top few buttons of her dress uniform give way and his fingers continue on to caress her with the most sensitive of touches, as though he were fingering a fine sculpture or piece of art. She moaned his name softly, her fingers digging into his back in a reflex action, and as his mouth now enveloped and caressed her, causing his own arousal to soar, she knew she was powerless to stop him.