SCOTT was making his way along the top of the airlock door. Progress was slow and painful, but Scott knew he did not dare try and go any faster for risk of the laser slipping and cutting into something it shouldn't have.

It was at that moment that Alan's slightly frantic voice came over the radio in his helmet. "Scott?"

"Alan, not now!" Scott barked, annoyed at being distracted.

But Alan continued. "Scott, the rest of the debris is almost upon us. Impact in two minutes!"

Scott stopped cutting. "What?! I'm not even halfway through yet!"

"Well, you'd better hurry the hell up because we're gonna get hit soon and it ain't gonna be pretty!" said Alan.

Scott gritted his teeth. What else could he do? He couldn't cut any faster than he already was. He was now regretting agreeing with Alan about going back to Thunderbird 3. The two of them would have just about made it through by now.

Virgil and Hayley made their way quickly through the back streets of Paris to get as far away from the scene of the bank heist as possible. Both had very different feelings. Hayley was sort of angry with herself for having intervened. She was supposed to be on holiday, yet her training had made her remain as vigilant and alert as she had become accustomed to. She also hated herself for not having told Virgil about bringing her GDF issued weapon with her, for she knew he would have deeply protested against it, which was exactly what she was bracing herself for.

Virgil's emotions were a mixture of confusion, fear and also anger. All the time he'd known Hayley, not once had either of them had any kind of argument. But that was about to change.

"Keep your head down and keep moving," Hayley said to Virgil whilst not looking at anyone else that was on the street they were walking down.

Virgil stayed quiet. As much as he wanted to explode at Hayley, he had enough sense to know that this was not the place to be doing it.

It wasn't until they entered the room at the hotel that Hayley decided to let the steam valves open. "I know what you're gonna say, so let's get it over with."

As expected, Virgil was mad. "What…the HELL, HAYLEY?!" he yelled. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED BACK THERE?!"

"I'm sorry," said Hayley with a sigh. "It just happened, that's all."

"WHY HAVE YOU GOT YOUR WEAPON WITH YOU?!" Virgil bellowed. "WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ON VACATION, DAMN IT!"

"Oh, believe me, I've tried," said Hayley.

"TRIED WHAT?!"

"To be relaxed," said Hayley. "But it's just…It's just a part of me."

"What is a part of you?!" Virgil snapped in a lower but no less angry voice.

"Being a GDF Officer. It is impossible to not be constantly alert of your surroundings. Anyone or anything can happen. After we were kidnapped by The Cabal, I have always been on my guard. It's not always worked. Amanda and I learned that at Christmas. But I'm always on some form of alert. If I see something that is a danger to society, I sometimes will act without intending to. Just like you saw earlier."

Virgil paced around the room. He was gripping his hair so tightly that he looked as though he was trying to pull it out. "I can't believe it. I just can't believe it!" he fumed. "Have you any idea how long I've waited for this vacation?"

"I am aware," Hayley replied.

"I just…" Virgil was struggling to speak. "I just wanted…for ONCE. JUST ONCE IF THAT IS AT ALL POSSIBLE?!" Tears were now forming in his eyes. "Just once…can't we just not be who we are? I don't want to be a rescue worker! I don't want you to be an officer! Is that too difficult a task to ask?" He slumped down on the bed, buried his face in his hands and wept.

Hayley looked at him sadly. She felt guilty, but at the same time knew that what had happened was likely to have happened at some other point on the holiday she felt certain. She walked slowly over and sat beside him, placing her arm around him and then kissing him on the top of the head. "Oh, Virgil, darling," she said. "I understand. Believe me, I do. But believe me also when I say, you're exactly the same."

Virgil lifted his head and gave a confused look despite still having extremely wet eyes. "Wh…What do you mean?" he asked.

Hayley stroked his cheek. "If you saw someone who was about to get run over by a car or was going to fall from a tree, you wouldn't hesitate to put your own life in danger to save them. You may not believe it, but performing rescues is just what you do."

Both were silent for a moment. Then Hayley got to her feet and walked over to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Virgil was left alone, tears still trickling down his face, but with Hayley's words stuck firmly in his mind.

Inside the WSS, the atmosphere was getting tense. Vanko in particular was more impatient than ever. "What is taking them so long?!" he demanded.

Striker glanced out of a porthole. "There's more debris approaching," she said. "This is gonna be a close one."

"Why has he stopped?" Jones asked, peering in through the inner airlock door. "He's stopped using his laser!"

Alan was very tense as well. His eyes kept darting from looking out of the cockpit at the space-station to the scope showing the approaching contacts. "Come on, Scott. Speed it up, damn it!"

But Scott was already working on a solution. He'd hoped by cutting through part of the door that it was now weakened. He decided to try a demolition charge and see whether that would work. It was horrendously risky, but he couldn't see that there were any other options. He placed the charge on the door, set it to a three second countdown and then retreated a short distance, turning away to protect himself.

Three. Two. One. BOOM!

The charge detonated and the door was blasted into opening up. Now he could get into the airlock itself where he could see the faces of Jones and Striker looking through the window in the door towards him. He pointed at the door and Jones typed the code into the keypad which opened the inner door. "Okay. Through the tube and into Thunderbird 3. Hurry!"

"About bloody time!" grumbled Vanko.

"Oh, shut the hell up and get in there!" snapped Striker, almost shoving him into the tube after Jones. She then followed and Scott brought up the rear.

They were soon aboard Thunderbird 3 and Scott sent them towards the cockpit whilst he set about sealing their own airlock door and retracting the Travel-Tube. "Alan, how long have we got?"

"Ten seconds!" Alan replied.

Scott got a green light that told him they were disengaged. "Tube's clear. Get us out of here!"

"F-A-B!" said Alan as he threw Thunderbird 3's engines on and into reverse.

The giant red rocket began to move backwards. But it had barely gotten a few metres when the pieces of debris arrived. Several slammed into the WSS and it immediately started to break apart. Others bounced off Thunderbird 3's hull. This didn't cause too many problems other than some scratches to the paintwork. However, there was one piece which was slightly larger than the others which slammed into the Number One engine and caused it to instantly cut out.

Alarms began blaring in the control room as the whole rocket shuddered under the impact. Alan and the astronauts were kept safe in their seats but Scott was thrown around like an item of clothing inside a washing-machine. He was lucky that he had not yet taken his helmet off, otherwise he might have been knocked out by a sharp impact to the back of the head.

Alan's eyes widened as he saw the word 'Malfunction' appear on the screen. "No, no, NO!" he yelled in frustration as he began to diagnose the problem. The impact had also caused the other two main engines to also cut out, but they'd not suffered any damage. Alan gritted his teeth so hard that it began to hurt. He worked frantically to try and get at least the undamaged two back online and get them out of danger.

"Alan!" Scott barked as he managed to re-enter the cockpit and get back in the copilot seat.

"I'M TRYING, DAMN IT!" Alan shouted back. He fiddled and twiddled with what seemed to be every knob, switch and button on the control panel in front of him. "Come on. Come on. Come ON!" He then pushed a button.

With a rumble and a roar, engines two and three ignited. Alan grabbed the steering controls and pushed the rocket forwards, making violent course corrections to avoid not only the passing pieces of debris from the meteorite but also the debris from the WSS which was now completely breaking apart. There was a very minor impact between Thunderbird 3 and the space-station but it did not affect them as they soon broke free of the debris field and were in the clear.

The relief was felt by everyone.

"You did it!" said Striker. "You saved us."

"Woo!" said Alan. "I wasn't worried."

There was an awkward silence as Scott looked at Alan with a raised eyebrow.

Alan gave a nervous laugh and admitted defeat. "Okay, I'm kidding. I was a little worried back there."

Everyone laughed.

"How can we ever thank you?" asked Jones.

Scott and Alan were about to give the 'All part of the service' speech they'd done many times before but an urgent call came through on the radio.

"International Rescue calling Thunderbird 3! Thunderbird 3, please respond!"

Scott breathed out. "One second, guys. Gotta take this," he said. He then spoke into the radio. "We're here, Dad. Mission complete. All astronauts are safe and accounted for."

Jeff's hologram then appeared from the projector. He too looked relieved and was now smiling. "Great work, boys. I'll contact the Space Agency and arrange for you to drop them off at Global-2 where they can be taken back to Earth from there." He suddenly became serious again. "Then get back here on the double."

"On the double?" Alan repeated. He glanced over at Scott who was looking just as curious. Jeff didn't normally sound this urgent when they'd completed a mission. "Are we expecting trouble, Dad?"

"John's reported a storm is brewing in the South Pacific," said Jeff. "It doesn't appear to be coming our way, but I guess we should be prepared, just in case."

That sounded fairly reasonable, Alan and Scott thought.

"F-A-B," said Alan. "E-T-A, thirty minutes."

"F-A-B," said Jeff. "Base, out." His hologram then disappeared.

Scott looked over at his youngest brother. "Never a dull moment, huh?"

Alan rolled his eyes and set course for the Global Defence Force's new satellite which had been built to replace the destroyed Global-1.

It was early evening before Hayley and Virgil ventured out of the hotel once more. However they hadn't really said much to either one since the argument. Both were thinking the same thing. They wanted to talk, but wanted the other to be the one to say something. It was an awful feeling. What had begun as one of the most enjoyable days of their lives had turned sour and it was affecting both of them.

As they walked down one of the main streets, Virgil's eye was caught by one of the buildings. It was one that he'd seen in pictures. It had a large red windmill on the roof. "That's the Moulin Rouge, isn't it?"

Hayley looked up. "It is," she said. "I've seen the performance. It's quite spectacular."

Virgil pondered. He wasn't aware of them having any plans that night. "Should we-" he began.

But before he could finish his sentence, a city Bus came racing towards them at quite an alarming speed.

"Woah, slow down!" exclaimed Hayley as the Bus narrowly avoided them. Then came a loud BANG as one of its tires suddenly exploded. It veered sharply round to the right and smashed front first into a street lamp.

As the crash caused the majority of those around to run away, Virgil found himself running towards the scene, without even realising he'd done so. "VIRGIL!" Hayley cried, but she was unable to stop him from reaching the doors of the Bus and pushing the emergency release button that opened them. The street lamp had toppled over and landed on top of the Bus, crushing part of the roof and causing it to cave in. Virgil looked inside. The Bus was at least three-quarters full. A lot of scared and trapped people were inside.

"IS ANYONE HURT?!" Virgil called out.

For the most part, he got no response. But one person who did understand him called from near the back. "Oui! Many hurt. Get help, please!"

Virgil was about to respond, but it was then he began to smell something. It was the smell of fuel. Leaking fuel. There were sparks coming from the damaged lights. "You can't stay here!" he called out. "You all have to get out!" He looked around for something and then spotted a hammer inside a safety box by the doors. He broke the glass and took the hammer out, using it to smash some of the windows. He could hear the sounds of sirens outside. It was clear that the emergency services had already been alerted to the accident and were coming to assist. "Am I glad to hear them arrive," he said to himself.

Within minutes, the Police, Paramedics and the Fire Department were helping get the injured driver and passengers out of the Bus. Hayley and Virgil assisted too, along with a number of other brave citizens. Virgil had warned the Fire Department about the leaking fuel and they were already working to try and make the scene as safe as possible.

"Is that everyone?" Virgil asked the Chief of Police who'd arrived on the scene. He was pleased to see it was not the somewhat bumbling man he and Hayley had met outside of Notre Dame earlier that day.

"Oui, monsieur, I believe so," the Chief said. But then they heard a commotion. They turned to see three officers struggling to hold back a young woman who was screaming and shouting. Virgil couldn't understand what she was saying but he could tell she was incredibly distressed. So much so that she ended up slapping one of the officers.

"What's up with her?" Virgil asked.

"Oh, no worry, monsieur," said the Chief. "She probably left her shopping on board the Bus. She may retrieve it when it is safe."

Virgil frowned. He'd seen many people in distress before. This woman definitely wasn't stressing over some shopping. It had to be something far worse than that.

Suddenly, Hayley gasped and threw her hands over her mouth. "Oh, my God!"

"What's wrong?" Virgil asked.

Hayley turned to him, her eyes wide. "She's saying she's left her baby on the Bus!"

Virgil's blood ran cold. He looked at the Bus. Then he looked at the woman. Then he heard something else. The faint sound of a baby crying coming from inside the Bus. Then he remembered what Hayley had said earlier. He gritted his teeth, turned and with no regard to his own safety, bolted towards the Bus.

"NON! NON! NON!" came the cries of several officers who rushed forwards to try and stop him.

"VIRGIL!" Hayley cried. But it was no good. Virgil practically leapt into the Bus and vanished from everyone's view.

Then came a panicked shout from the other side of the back of the Bus. Hayley saw the Fire Department make a swift retreat backwards. This was followed by a large number of sparks being produced inside the vehicle. This was then followed by an almighty BANG as the whole Bus erupted into a fireball. Several people screamed and began running as the Bus was now burning from front to back.

Hayley was frantic. "VIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLL!" she screamed.

The officers had to grab her and it took at least six to hold her back whilst the Fire Department began spraying water and foam onto the burning vehicle.

The mother of the baby was also screaming and she fell to her knees, bawling her eyes out.

The officers also let go of Hayley as she shuffled her way out. She stared at the burning Bus, unable to comprehend what she'd just witnessed. He couldn't have survived that. Could he? Then came another shout, this time from round the front of the Bus. several onlookers were gasping in shock. Hayley turned and looked. Her mouth fell open. There he was! Virgil was emerging from the smoke. He was completely black from head to foot because of the smoke. And in his arms, wrapped up in a blanket, was the baby. Still alive. And still crying.

Hayley, trying her best to get over the shock, turned and spoke to the mother in French. The mother looked up, saw Virgil approaching her with the baby and completely froze.

"Pardon me, madame," Virgil said, holding the baby forwards. "I believe this is yours?"

But the mother didn't seem to be able to speak. Instead, she fainted.

The Paramedics were swiftly upon them. Three began to get the fainted mother up onto a stretcher whilst another took charge of the baby. "We will look after them, monsieur," she said to Virgil. "Merci. You are a true hero."

"I could not agree more, monsieur," said the Chief. "With heroics like that, anyone would think you were a Thunderbird!"

Virgil looked at him, then burst out laughing. "Well…thank you," he said once he'd managed to stop.

The Chief shook his hand. "I will make sure this is never forgotten," he said. "Merci, monsieur." He then bowed to Hayley. "Madame."

They both watched as the Chief walked away. Hayley and Virgil finally turned to face each other. Even though he was completely blackened, Hayley threw herself onto him. "Oh, God. Oh, God. Virgil…" she said, now the one with tears in her eyes. "Don't you dare do that to me again!"

Virgil hugged her tightly. "I guess you were right," he said with a chuckle.

"About what?" Hayley asked, pulling away.

"We really can't not be who we are," Virgil said.

It took a moment, but then they both started laughing. Hayley then took out a clean tissue and wiped the dirt off from around his mouth before kissing him. "You're a mess!" she said.

Virgil chuckled. "I'm your mess!"

They laughed again before Hayley finally said, "I love you," before letting Virgil get checked over by Paramedics.