Hello, and welcome to my latest story for TAG.

At four chapters - plot bunnies permitting - this is the longest one I've written so far. It's also more serious (but still with lighter moments of brothery bits!) and a work-in-progress.

Based again around the events in Crosscut, it can be read as a sequel to Winging It, my earlier story for that episode, or as a stand-alone in its own right.

Of course, we all know that Virgil arrived just in time to save the day. You get the feeling that, with Scott especially, he has to do that quite a bit. But then my plot bunnies got me to thinking - what if he hadn't?

Don't panic, Scott fans, I'm not killing him off! He's much too cute to do that! But what if Virgil started to dream that he hadn't got there in time? How would that affect him?

My guess is - rather badly. So, with that in mind, here's the first chapter. Enjoy!

Balancing Act

Chapter One - Troubled Brother

That crack in the ceiling was starting to really bug him.

Virgil stared at it, trying to decide how serious it was. It wasn't that big, maybe four or five inches, so he doubted it would lead to a full scale cave-in, but - well, when you'd gone three nights without decent sleep, even the calmest of heads tended to let its imagination run a bit riot.

A bit? No, Virgil sourly corrected himself, make that a lot. Too much to allow him any peace. Besides, he'd only go back to what had woken him, again, in the first place, and... breathe, Virg. Breathe.

So...no. He should just get up. Do something, anything, to get those damn images out of his mind.

At this time of night - or was it morning? - the rest of the family were still happily lost to the world. Except for him, he thought, pulling a face at the chorus of snores that followed him along the hall. Given the choice between peaceful dreams, and over-brewed coffee... hell, it wasn't a difficult choice.

By the time he'd made a fresh pot, he was chilled enough for him to huddle a bit deeper into his sweats. Troubled thoughts occupied him so deeply that a quiet voice behind him almost... almost... made him choke.

"Virgil? It's four in the morning, what the hell are you doing down here?"

Coughing down his coffee, Virgil threw a glare at the cause of both messy spillage and this latest sleepless night. Against the concern on Scott's face, though, he couldn't release the anger that had threatened to erupt. Instead, he just shrugged. Let this gesture of tiredness and frustration speak for itself.

"Couldn't sleep."

For such a short statement, it still set the alarms in Scott's head into full blown 'uh-oh' mode. He'd been about to offer to tuck his brother into bed with his old teddy bear, but then seen the tiredness on Virgil's face. Shadows under his eyes that didn't belong there. More than that, he'd also heard... it. An undercurrent of tension in his voice, that made him wince in guilt at its cause.

The family peacemaker was rattled, verging on angry, and... yeah. Yeah, Scott already knew why.

Pouring himself a mug of coffee, then swapping its size for extra large, he glanced back at his brother. Hunched over his own drink, so much of his body language warned that he wanted to be left alone. But the brother who knew to look that little bit deeper recognized a need for company.

A need to talk.

Sliding onto the stool alongside, Scott studied him for a few more moments, measuring his mood - knowing from the briefest glance towards him that he could speak now, without risking bodily harm.

"You think I did the wrong thing... going alone into that mine."

Still frowning down at his coffee, Virgil stayed silent - long enough for Scott to start to feel nervous. Brash and impulsive against his brother's unflappable calm, their personalities were so utterly different. As their father had so fondly teased them, they were like chalk and cheese. Heads and tails. Fire and ice.

And yet, never more valuably than when they were out on rescues, they worked together perfectly. In split-second, life-or-death decisions, they cancelled out the negatives, and reinforced the positives.

But every so often, the former tried to outweigh the latter. Threw that perfect balance out of alignment. And, more often than not, it forced Virgil to risk his life too, and haul his brother's butt out of the fire.

It drove him nuts. And, as Scott now guiltily realized, that legendary patience was starting to run out.

"I think you could... damn it, Scott, you know what I'm going to say. You should have let me help you figure that rescue out. Or at least considered it."

Scott winced again. No one knew better than he did how deceptive that quietly calm tone could be. The last time he'd gone in a bit too gung-ho for Virgil's liking, his brother had come dangerously close to hitting him.

There was still enough of a glare on Virgil's face to tell him he was still considering it, and the voice -

"...damn it, Scott, I was just ten minutes behind you! Ten minutes! And how the hell am I meant to back you up, if you don't trust my judgement?"

- yes, that deadly soft tone told Scott he was still in serious danger of being tossed across the kitchen. Or into that, he thought, following his brother's eyes outside, to where the pool glinted under its lights.

'I'd end up soaking wet, but at least I'd have a soft landing... better than the one I had in the Mole...'

Virgil's thoughts were following a similar path. Unlike Scott's, though, his musings held no humour. Instead, in cruellest irony, the moment when he'd saved his brother's life was the stuff of nightmares. The scenario that terrified him, more than anything else that he'd ever face.

"I - I keep seeing you, Scott. I - I can't reach you in time, and you we-... you..."

It had been too horrific to face in his dreams. Fully awake, Virgil couldn't bring himself to face it now. His brother, just inches from safety, falling past the Mole's viewport. Falling to certain death, helpless to save himself. Screaming, as he had screamed.

'Scott, no...! No... oh, God, no... nooooooo...!'

Closing his eyes, he then slumped against the breakfast bar, burying his face into shaking hands.

Frozen by his own emotions, that same brother sat beside him. Stared at him in silent horror. After teasing him so wickedly over Ms Van Arkel... yes, now Scott knew why he'd become so quiet since. And as he realized how it might have ended so differently, guilt choked his voice into a horrified curse.

"Virgil, I'm - I just... oh, Christ..."