In the Rolls, the occupants watched the scene play out with horror. Parker brought the car to a shuddering halt close to the car and van and, before it was fully stopped, Gordon had the door open and was leaping out.
"I'll get him!" were his parting words as he hared out. His brothers tumbled out after him.
"Go help Gordon!" ordered Virgil of Alan as he pulled his pistol from his belt, aware of Lady Penelope at his shoulder.
Gordon, meanwhile, had quickly assessed the situation. He certainly wasn't going to follow Scott's stupidly dangerous leap over the side of the bridge. Instead, he rushed down the steps to the pier at the side of the bridge that led to the commuter boats that plied the Thames in the daytime. Scott had not looked fully fit in Gordon's short glimpse of him so he needed to get in the water and find him quickly but it was far safer to enter the water from a lower height. He slid over the wall, climbed down a short ladder intended for boat crew and threw himself into the murky water. He swam as if his brother's life depended on it, which it almost certainly did. He went in the direction of where Scott would have entered the water but a thousand thoughts rushed around his head. What if Scott had been killed by the fall? What if he was under water but disorientated and couldn't work out which way was up?
Gordon started to tread water at the spot where Scott should be and began calling out.
"Scott! Scott!"
He circled around and then, with relief, he saw an arm waving above the slight swell of the Thames. He swam over, seeing Scott's head go under the water a couple of times before he got there. He had only seconds. He threw himself through the water and grabbed Scott around the waist, lifting his head clear of the water. Scott was spluttering and choking but very much alive.
"Gotcha, Scotty!" said Gordon, triumphantly, frantically paddling his legs to keep them both above the water."
"Can't swim", was the desperate reply.
"It's okay, I've got you. Lay back. I'll pull you to shore."
Scott was obviously confused and injured so Gordon repeated himself. "I've got you. Lie on your back and leave it to me."
Scott finally did as he was told and stopped struggling. Gordon guided him to lie on his back, grabbed him from behind under the chin and started to pull both of them towards the edge of the river. He was just starting to get really tired when there was a plop and and splash near him and he saw the welcoming sight of a life ring. He grabbed onto it with his spare arm and felt himself and Scott being pulled towards the shore.
Virgil and Penny were having a slightly easier and less wet time of it. As they exited the car, the Hood, who had swiftly realised he wasn't going to get his hands on a member of International Rescue that day, had got back into the van and driven off, the back doors swinging noisily shut as he went. Virgil fired a couple of bullets from his pistol at the tyres of the van, pointlessly as it turned out as the bullets were of the anaesthetic rather than explosive kind. Instead, he fired at the retreating figure of Charlie who was now running across the bridge. Charlie felt a sharp pain in his thigh, staggered and then fell to the floor, unconscious.
Lady Penelope, who mysteriously now had her own small pistol in her hand, of a more dangerous variety than Virgil's, was pointing it directly at Ted who had his hands in the air, looking terrified and not fully understanding how things had gone so wrong so quickly. Parker stood quietly to attention beside his boss.
"Duct tape, m'lady?"
"That would be most helpful, Parker."
Below them, Alan had pulled Gordon and Scott to the river's edge and helped Gordon manhandle their big brother to safety before also pulling Gordon out of the water.
"You guys okay?" asked Alan, worriedly.
"Everything hurts," replied Scott.
"Of course it does, you idiot," replied Gordon, deciding to leave telling Scott off fully until later.
"What, for Pete's sake, has been going on?" asked Scott, obviously in a state of confusion.
Alan sank back against a bollard, relief curing through him as he realised that Scott's petulance was a good sign. "You've missed a helluva lot. It's hard to know where to start. At least everyone's alive and that wasn't a given a couple of hours ago."
Scott looked startled. "Who almost died?"
Gordon had started shivering. "Dad, Alan, you, possibly Kyrano. Did I forget anyone?"
"I just can't leave you guys alone for a second, can I?" said Scott, trying, and failing, to stand up.
Alan was now very personally aware of the first signs of hypothermia. "We need to get you two warmed up and make sure Virgil is in one piece too. Stay here, I'll get some help."
Ten days later, Gordon surveyed his family again, this time around the pool at Tracy Island. He felt content and relaxed. His father was reclining on a sun lounger, looking paler and more worn down than usual but having passed all of his hospital discharge tests with flying colours. He was already keen to get started with his rehabilitation exercises. On the sun lounger next to him, was an effortlessly glamorous Lady Penelope in a bikini and large floppy sun-hat. She might look relaxed with a book in one hand and a cocktail in the other but she was being very assertive with Jeff concerning his well-being and was already arranging for him to spend time at Creighton Ward Mansion, as soon as he was fit to travel again.
In the pool, John was floating on his back, staring at the sky. Thunderbird 5 had been put on auto- relay back to base so that he could join his family on the island and spend a few days with his father. Which also meant he was able spend time with Alan in person. Alan was also in the pool, standing in the shallow end with his arms wrapped around Tin Tin. He had spent a lot of time cuddling Tin Tin over the last few days and she hadn't made any complaints.
Virgil was also on a sun lounger "re-charging" as he put it, or "sleeping" as it seemed to Gordon. Virgil had spent the last week expressing his stress at recent events by grumbling. Apparently, rescuing members of the public was fine but he felt that having to rescue so many of his family in one day was taking the liberty.
Scott was the one who had come off worse out of the five brothers. Courtesy of his ill-advised leap off the bridge into the Thames, he had a broken ankle, painful shoulder and multiple bruises. Gordon had given him his second dressing down within a fortnight but accepted that, at the time, Scott had not been fully compos mentis, had seen an escape route and taken it, not realising that he had actually been seconds away from rescue.
Gordon, himself, was relaxed and his easy-going demeanour had returned. Everything was almost back to how it should be. He would need to do some work with Scott to help him with his ankle once it had healed but a few sessions in the gym, not to mention the jacuzzi hydrotherapy pool and his brother would soon to back to full Scotty-ness.
Suddenly a loud alarm sounded in the pool area. The auto-relay software must have detected a potential mission for International Rescue. John was out of the pool in a matter of seconds and rushing off in the direction of Brains' lab to where he had Five's communication channels rerouted. Alan was close behind him, eager to find out what had triggered the alarm. Virgil rubbed his eyes open and looked around in surprise. Then he hauled himself off the sun lounger and groggily stumbled his way indoors. Scott stood up unsteadily, reaching for his crutches.
"Sit down, Scott," said Jeff from behind his newspaper.
"But I just thought I could –"
"If I'm not allowed to be part of a rescue then neither are you," interrupted Jeff, firmly.
Scott sat back down with a thump and disgruntled frown and Gordon got to his feet with a chuckle. Tin Tin, now wrapped in a towel, was just coming past him on the way to the lab. Gordon threw a friendly arm around her shoulders and gave her the benefit of a wink.
"Here we go again!"
The End
