"Mobile Control to Virgil. Come in Virgil."

Casting his eye one last time over the last casualty to be pulled from the rubble, and happy that his skills were not required, Virgil gave a nod and stepped away from the medical team and into the rapidly cooling evening, coming to a halt by a section of wall that had not collapsed, gladly taking off his helmet and rubbing his hand over his grimy face, as well as finally answering the voice in his ear.

"Virgil here. This sector is now clear. Thirty five people all together, fourteen of whom needed immediate medical attention, but no fatalities, thank god. Those aftershocks not long ago had me worried for a bit, but they didn't cause any further damage."

"Right, good, excellent." Gordon replied back, a nervous edge in his voice. "By the way, your scheduled rest break is coming up. Fancy coming to keep me company for a bit?"

"Something the matter Gords?" Virgil asked, sneakily glancing at his watch, a smirk creeping onto his face as his suspicions as to Gordon's tone of voice was confirmed.

"No, no, nothing at all." The quick reply came, too quickly. "Just thought I'd ask. Anyhow, is Scott with you?"

Virgil leaned backwards on the wall, gingerly at first, making sure that it would hold him before putting all his weight on it. "All right, enough of this charade. What have you broken now?"

"Me? Broken?" Gordon exclaimed incredulously. "What on earth would make you think that I'd broken anything?"

"Hmm, lets see. One, you've told me that I can take my break, which by the way, is not for another hour or so, plus you want me to join you instead of going back to one of the Birds which is where the coffee is. Two, you sound jumpier than a kangaroo. And three, you asked where Scott was, which can only mean..."

"That I want to make sure he's as far away as possible because I've gone and done something to Mobile Control..." Gordon finished reluctantly.

"Bingo." Virgil chuckled. "Man, Gords, do you have a death wish or something? I mean, this is the second time that thing's stopped working today, and I doubt Scott's gonna be as forgiving this time."

"Well, I am hoping he doesn't have to find out about this one..."

Virgil grinned, glad of only having an audio link. At least he didn't have to keep a straight face. "Really? I don't know... Mobile Control is a vital piece of equipment. Without it, who knows what might happen. Surely it is our duty to inform our Field Commander of any problems that may compromise the mission. I mean, especially seeing as our Commander-in-Chief himself is out here with us today."

"Aw, Virge, no." Gordon pleaded. "Couldn't you just come up here and take a look first? Please? Out of the two of us, you're the better option to take a look. You're an excellent engineer, it should be a piece of cake for you."

"Piece of cake huh? Well, I could use a break. I suppose I could pop up..."

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" The Aquanaut gushed, and Virgil grimaced dramatically. Ugh, disgusting, he could practically hear Gordon kissing the airwaves!

"...but it's gonna cost you!" He teased in a sing-song voice. After all, he couldn't be expected to do this for free after all.

"Anything. Name your price."

"Hmm," He paused, mulling over the many possibilities before arriving at the perfect one. "How about tonight's dessert?"

"Tonight's?" Gordon spluttered. "But, but, it's sticky toffee pudding tonight!"

"I know. Do you want me to fix this or not? Or shall go find Scott?"

"Ok, ok." Gordon relented. He knew when he had been beaten. "We have a deal. You can have my pudding..."

"Pleasure doing business with you." Virgil replied, pushing himself off the wall. "I'll be with you in a few minutes then. And I expect to shake on this once I get up there, ok?"

"Ok... Mobile Control out."

Punching the air as the line went dead, Virgil looked around him and orientated himself so he was facing a certain hill which looked over most of the rescue scene, on top of which two large aircraft could be clearly seen, one blue and one green, and not far from those he knew he would find a certain red-head, after all, that was where they had left him, and it wasn't as if he could go very far.

Replacing his helmet, he made his way back down the road which lead straight to his destination, mindful to not trip on the rubble strewn around. It had certainly been a major earthquake, and the infrastructure around him had not managed to stand up to the onslaught. Most of the buildings were in some sort of state of collapse, and the main road on which he walking had been ripped open, making the needed rescue equipment in difficult, plus the barrage of aftershocks that had plagued them during the mission had made the whole operation ten times more difficult.

But thankfully they were now on the homeward stretch, they had managed to get all those who needed rescuing out and all they had left to do was stabilise a couple of half-collapsed buildings in one last sector. Then they could leave the local crews to finish up and they could have a much-needed hot shower and head home to a comfortable bed.

Coming up to the foot of the hill, he grabbed the top of the first of many head-height ledges in the road, formed when one part of the land was forced upwards from the other, and hauled himself up on tired arms. Continuing upwards, within a few minutes he finally scrambled up the final ledge, sending a shower of small rocks down from under his boot. Heaving himself up onto his feet, he shielded his eyes against the low sun, looking towards the shadows cast by the two Thunderbirds. As predicted, Gordon was right where they had left him, although he looked a lot more stressed than he had been earlier, but then they probably all looked equally as bad.

Seeing his brother working his way towards him, Gordon waved, unnecessary really, but it made him feel happier knowing that Virgil was coming to him, and that whatever stupid thing he had done to the systems this time would soon be fixed.

"Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"Two." Virgil said simply, leaning against the top of Mobile Control, a lopsided grin on his face.

"You what?"

"Two of them."

"Two of what?" Gordon asked, confused.

"Days, brothers, take your pick. I don't know, first you give Alan a black eye and now you break Scott's equipment not once in one rescue, but twice. I think that must be a new record."

"Oh, right..."

"Exactly." Virgil laughed, slapping his brother heartily on the shoulder. "Now, tell me, what have you done that you needed to call me all the way up here?"

Gordon cleared his throat noisily. "Er, well, I-I don't know really. It was working fine, and then it wasn't. Everything but the comms just stopped working."

"Hmm, I see..." Virgil muttered, glancing at the mostly blank screens. He thought for a moment, before unlatching the main panel on the side of Mobile Control and popped his head inside, fiddling around with the circuits inside.

After a few moments of prodding and poking Virgil popped his head out again. "By the way, have you apologised to Al yet?"

"Huh?" Gordon stopped fiddling with a loose button on the control panel.

"You probably should. I mean, yes, he said some stupid things, but still..." The medic said, pulling on something, grinning as he was rewarded with a loud clunk. "Trust me, I would, before Scott remembers and grabs you by the ear for a little chat."

The Aquanaut let out a long drawn out sigh. "You're right. I should. I suppose I did overreact, but I just couldn't help it. I saw the damage and I just..." He mimed punching out. "Hang on! Where are you going?" He asked, noticing that Virgil had closed up the panel and was walking towards Thunderbird 2.

"To get some coffee." Virgil replied, pausing and leaning against the nearest of the metal legs. "You fancy some?"

"But, aren't you going to fix this first?"

"I already have. See." Virgil grinned, pointed towards the screens, and Gordon spun in his chair to look at them, his jaw dropping when he saw that all the systems were functioning normally, as if nothing had happened at all.

"Ah. So, er, what was wrong with it?"

"Oh, it was the aftershocks. There's a safety mechanism which kicked in. If the ground shifts enough, vital circuits are disconnected so they aren't damaged if the unit falls over. I just pulled the switch that reconnects it all again."

"You knew!" Gordon exclaimed disbelievingly. "You knew all along what was wrong with it, didn't you?"

"Of course I knew! You said it yourself, I'm an excellent engineer."

"So you could have just told me." The Aquanaut pouted. "You could have just said 'Oh Gordon, it's pretty simple. Just open that hatch and flip that switch. Easy peasy.' You could have, couldn't you?"

"Could have done," Virgil shrugged. "But then I wouldn't have scored myself double helping of sticky toffee pudding tonight would I?"

"Hmph!" Gordon grunted, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"You know another thing I know?"

"What?"

"That if I run, you can't chase me! Toodle-oo!" Chuckling heartily, Virgil ducked into his bird, leaving Gordon to fume on the hillside with the newly fixed Mobile Control.

"Yeah, that's right. Run, you cocky, smug son-of-a..."

The sun was warm and soothing, comforting. Stirring slightly, John sniffed, the edge of his sun hat tickling his nostrils. He moved his head, grunting as the material caught on his scab of his healing split lip, making it sting slightly. He settled down again, simply revelling in the feeling of warm on his bare torso, it was such a nice, simple feeling.

He was starting to doze off again, just going back to the half dream-like state he had been in before, when a few cold drops of water hit him on his stomach. Slowly lifting an arm, he brushed them off without another though, but as soon as he did, more sprinkled down on him, and he cracked open an eyelid, only for everything to go black as a cold, wet towel was flopped over his face.

"Bleh!" He yelled, pulling it and his hat off him and dropping them on the ground, inhaling sharply as his sides twinged due to the sudden movement. He glared at the laughing figure standing over him. "Alan! I've been near drowned enough to last me a lifetime, I don't need anymore!"

"Oh come on, you're such a grump sometimes!"

"I'm allowed to be, I'm injured." John huffed. "Now bugger off, you're blocking the sun."

"'Fraid not." Alan replied, picking up his towel and wringing it out. "Come on, time to go back in, you're starting to go pink."

"No, leave me, I'm fine."

"I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think even your SPF 5 million or whatever it is you're slathered in will protect you from the burns you'll get if you stay here much longer. Plus I doubt Dad will be thrilled to find you've been flame grilled by One's engines..."

"They're coming back already? I thought they'd be out for the rest of the day."

"Oh, they were." Alan said, wheeling the chair over. "You've been asleep for hours. It's almost 5."

"Huh." John grunted, looking down at his torso. "No wonder I'm going pink." And indeed he was. He hadn't quite started to burn, but he certainly had evidence of being out in the sun. "All right, help me up." He held out an arm and Alan grabbed it. With the extra help, John struggled into a sitting position, and then, with his brother supporting him around the waist, managed to shift himself across into the wheelchair, where he leaned his head back, catching his breath.

"You ok?" Alan asked as he picked up the hat and placed it under an arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine." John waved away the concern. "Just remind me to get Virge to top up my painkillers when he gets back, that is of course if he's not busy with any potential casualties from this rescue, it does seem we're all having a string of bad luck with the most recent few..."

"No kidding." The younger blond agreed, letting off the brake and wheeling him into the villa. "But I think everyone's fine this time, Brains didn't seem too stressed out. In fact, he even came down to tell me that everyone was coming while he was on his way to the lab."

"He didn't use the watches? Oh, everyone is definitely ok then."

"Yep. Now, do you fancy going up to the lounge and meeting them up there?"

John looked around him as he was wheeled through the corridors of the villa. "Judging by the direction we're currently going, I'm guessing I don't have a choice in the matter?"

"No, you don't." Alan grinned, wheeling John into the already open lift. "But, think of it this way, it's almost dinner time anyway, so you'd have to come up at some time or another. Unless, of course, you, for some god-forsaken reason, you'd prefer to eat it in the infirmary?"

"Hell no! I've had enough of that place! Actually, I wonder if I can persuade Virge to set me free, I want nothing more right now than to sleep in my own bed without any tubes sticking out of me or any machines incandescently beeping by my head."

"Well, if you're going to try that, I'd say do it once he's had a shower and something to eat. When he's tired but warm and has a full stomach, it's easy to get him to go along with anything, at least in my experience."

"Hmmm, that could come in useful." John mused, filing the useful titbit of information away in his memory.

"Trust me, it will." Alan said. "It certainly has for me, quite a few times in fact."

"Oh, so when you dislocated your shoulder in that avalanche in the Alps last year, that's how you managed to be cleared to fly not two weeks later when you came and picked me up, even though you were only flying with one hand?"

"Bingo!"

"Hmm, any other useful things I should know about my dearest family? I don't pick up on these things when I'm up in orbit."

"Well, now you mention it, you know when Dad's just woken up and hasn't had any coffee yet?"

"Yeah?"

"Now that is the perfect opportunity. You have to time it just right before Scott spots you, but if you just..."