Again, apologies for this taking a while.
Happy New Year!
You were always my impossible child. Walking earlier than the others, running even sooner. As soon as you found your feet, that was it. We couldn't hold you down. We didn't want to.
But finding your feet was nothing compared to when you found water. I should have seen it coming. Your brothers hated getting into the bath. You hated getting out. Although how there was any water left by the time you were done splashing, I never knew. The smile on your face was infectious and it only grew when you saw the size of the first pool. You scared me half to death that day, but you had the time of your life.
Death was something you brushed against far too often for any parent to be happy with. I knew the risks when I set up International Rescue that I was sending you closer to the waiting reaper. But never will I forget how close you came to not even making it that far. The doctors said that you wouldn't live. It was the longest day of my life and I have never felt so helpless. I'm supposed to protect you, it's my role as your father. Yet all I could do was sit there and stare. I couldn't even hold your hand in case that hurt you.
You fought though. You fought and you won, coming back to your family. It was as if you knew we would just fall apart without you. The haunted look in their eyes took a long time to go though, especially when we were then told you wouldn't walk again. You were the one who had discovered the joy of dancing just out of their reach as you taunted them with something. For you not to walk…
But we should have known. You had never stayed down before and you weren't going to do as you were told. Just because the doctors said you wouldn't walk didn't mean anything to you. You wanted to, and so you did it. Stubbornness seems to be a trait that runs through our family, but never have I been as grateful for it as I was then. That glint in your eye made everything right in the world and I just knew that you wouldn't be backing down again.
Watching you now, it's hard to believe you are the same person as you were back then. You've done so much, been through so much and yet you are still so young. Who else would be able to win an Olympic medal, battle and subsequently win against death and still have time to prank each of your brothers before breakfast?
They moan at the tricks. I used to yell at you for them when you were a child. But now… Now I wonder if you realise just how much they save you all. You might be out there daily battling to save strangers, but it is you who saves your brothers. They need that release, a way of letting out laughter even if they don't feel like it. You change the mood and in doing so, you make it so we can actually live here without going insane.
Even to this day, you are still the one holding us together. It might be Scott I rely on and in turn he relies on John and Virgil. You might think it is only Alan who looks to you for comfort, but you are wrong. You are the centre point of this family, the one who will never give up no matter what happens. We need that optimism; the world needs that cheer.
I confess I had second thoughts about whether I wanted you in the organisation. Not just you, but you and Alan. It wasn't that I didn't trust you, or even think that you couldn't handle it. I knew without having to think about it that you would be able to tackle the challenges that it would offer, both mental and physical. You had done it before, after all, and that was the problem.
I couldn't shield you from the horrors you went through back then. You had to face that battle alone and there was nothing I could do. I didn't want you to have to go through it again. I might have failed you then, but I wouldn't let myself do it now. I thought I could protect you from having to come that close to death again.
But then I realised I was wrong. You could deal with being involved. Being left on the side lines, however, I'm not sure you could have coped with. How can you make light of a situation when you don't know what is happening? I've heard about how you are out on the rescues, and how your jokes often have even the most seriously injured victim smiling. You battle to save their bodies and save their minds at the same time, protecting them from the shadows threatening to overtake their thoughts.
How could I deny you a part in that? I know your brothers wouldn't have let me. They would have seen through my reasoning and called me out on it. They might tease you, they might moan about your jokes, but it's only because they know you can take it. You're possibly the strongest of us all and you don't even realise it.
So now I sit and watch, my heart in my mouth as you brush alongside death once more. But just as you did back then, you will not let him take you. In fact, you deny him completely, laughing at the prospect of it while nimbly getting yourself out of trouble. You don't realise quite how talented you are, precisely what it is you are capable of.
You have taken the world by storm on more than one occasion, and now you do it daily. You might not be in the spotlight in the same way, but your achievements are far greater than any medal.