"I was expecting Brains," John smiled, "but always good to see you, Scott."
"Yeah, well, he mentioned he wasn't feeling so good," Scott shrugged, "I thought I would do my good deed for the day."
John's mouth twitched.
Scott raised an eyebrow.
And they both cracked up.
"It's just some simple maintenance," John said as they made their way through Thunderbird Five, "but it takes two people."
"Right" Scott nodded.
The hour and a half was spent in mostly in companionable silence, with only phrases such as "hand me that purple screwdriver" and "it's color-coded mostly" breaking it.
When they were done, John turned to his big brother and asked:
"So why are you really up here?"
Scott just laughed, and sat down on the floor, or rather the ceiling as that was closer, and floor and ceiling were only concepts when you were in zero-gravity anyway.
John sat down beside him.
Scott took a breath, then another, letting them out in big gusty sighs.
"Just, just everything."
"Ah."
John let Scott slump over on his shoulder, as he put an arm around Scott's.
Ever since their Dad's, well, Scott had taken to calling it an accident - they all coped in their own ways John accepted – everything had come to land on Scott's plate. And Scott being Scott and determined to not let their Dad down, Scott had coped by 'standing firm' and 'letting the world know, both Tracy Industries and International Rescue were going to carry on' and 'His family could count on him.' Even if that didn't give Scott the time and breathing room that he needed process all the excrement they all have been trying to process.
And John knew that Scott didn't like that John had pretty much taken up full time residence on Thunderbird Five.
"I miss you," Scott said, voice muffled, "it's like you're gone too."
John just nodded.
"And I keep having these dreams about being on the beach and watching, and watching Thunderbird Five just disappear in a fire ball."
John closed his eyes, and fought the urge to say that if something happened to his 'Bird they probably wouldn't be able to see it from Earth. Because Scott had been the only one of them to actually see the explosion that had engulfed the Zero-X with his own eyes, even if only from a long distance.
"Virgil's trying; he points out that Brains has put all possible safety measures into Five."
And usually that was all it took, Virgil reassuring Scott. Virgil was good at that, and good with most Scott-wrangling details. Virgil and Scott were thick as thieves and always had been. It had never bothered John. Nonetheless there were times when neither could sort the other out.
That was when John stepped in.
"But nothing and no one ever going to be good enough to keep your brothers' safe, except for yourself," John quietly stated, "Scott, there's no guarantee that any of us is going to see the next sunrise. I'm safer up here than you are when you fly Thunderbird One, and yes I have had nightmares about Thunderbirds One, Two and Three blowing up or crashing, or Four being lost in the depths. And not being able to a damn thing about it."
Scott was staying silent. Good, he was actually listening.
"All we can do is trust that we have some of the best machines on the planet, and we have the best engineer creating and maintaining them," John continued, "and we have to trust in one another that we know how to stay safe as best we can. The vision and legacy Dad left us isn't going to be easy to live up to, but he also left us, well, us. We're in this together, Scott, and I'm never more than a call away."
"I did have the get the clever little brothers, didn't I?" Scott muttered fondly.
John softly laughed, and let Scott lean against him as long as he liked.