Disclaimer: I don't own any Thunderbirds, not even Gordon *tear*. The fantastic Gerry Anderson owns them all. Greedy.
Wait For Me
Virgil watched from above the danger zone, artistic hands resting delicately on the steering wheel of his craft Thunderbird 2. Below him, his younger brother Gordon was busily laser-cutting his way through the roof of an underground bunker left over from the nuclear war fears of 2010. Man, that had been one crazy time.
"Stupid kids," he muttered to himself. "Why can't they be more careful?" They'd thought it was funny, he guessed, to hide in an old bunker. Too bad the air ventilation system was long-gone. Too bad the door slammed shut, leaving four kids stuck in a bunker, running out of air. And the area was precarious too, the danger of rock slides was very high. At least there'd been a radio in the bunker. That was probably all that saved them.
"Virgil, I'm almost through," Gordon's voice came chirping over the radio. "Yep, here we go! Come on, kids." Virgil observed with fascination Gordon's ability to comfort children and commune with them.
"All seems to be in order." Scott's voice was lower and a little harder than Gordon's, which was why Gordon was the one down there. "Thunderbird One, heading back to base. See you later, Virge."
"FAB," Virgil replied, gritting his teeth slightly at the hated nickname. He was too polite to say anything though. To his left, Thunderbird One took off, jet thrusters blazing.
"Virgil, there's one with a broken leg. He fell off the ladder. I'm going in to get him," Gordon called. Down below, Gordon disappeared into the bunker, two of the kids already out. Virgil presumed the last was still down there with the injured kid.
"FAB, Gordon. Just be careful, okay?"
"Will do! Don't worry so much!" Gordon's voice barely concealed the amusement he felt at his brother's over-protectiveness. Virgil shook his head.
"One of these days," he muttered. "That's the attitude that can get you killed."
"Aw, lighten up! We're nearly done here. I'll have the kid out in a jiffy." As Gordon spoke, the third kid emerged, helping the forth out after her. Gordon's head emerged in the hole in the roof of the bunker. Suddenly he looked back and disappeared again.
"Gordon? What's up?"
"I dropped my gun helping the kid. I'll just be moment." Virgil nodded. Suddenly he became aware of a rumbling sound, and his gaze swung to where the kids were being airlifted clear of the area. His eyes searched the mountain side, and quickly found the source of the noise. From up on the ridge, a rock slide was slipping down the mountain.
"Gordon, be careful, there's a slide. It doesn't look too bad, but just come, okay?"
"FAB. Just a second, I found something. Cool! This is really old!"
"Forget it Gordon, just get outta there!"
"Okay okay, I'm coming." Virgil anxiously watched the slide. It seemed to be building in size, gathering rocks as it came. A minute later, Gordon climbed out of the bunker, fascinated by what he'd found.
"GORDON! Hurry up!"
"I'm coming! Hold your hair on!" He began to jog towards the hovercraft, but it was at least a hundred metres away, and the slide was coming fast-
"Gordon..."
"WHAT? I said I'm coming!" ~He doesn't see it!~ Virgil realised. ~He can't see it! Surely he can hear-~
"Holy crap," suddenly came Gordon's voice as he began to run. ~He's seen it.~ Virgil rose in his seat, watching in growing horror as the slide came faster than Gordon could run.
"Are the kids out?"
"Yes! Now get yourself out! Thunderbird Two to Thunderbird One! Scott, there's a rock slide!"
"Are you in its line?" Scott's voice was businesslike as usual.
"No, but Gordon is! Scott, he'll never make it!"
"I'm coming back now." Virgil was now standing, gripping the steering-wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"Run Gordon, run faster, run!" he said to himself, mentally willing Gordon to go faster.
"I'm never going to make it, Virgil," Gordon gasped through the radio. "Tell everyone I love them for me, okay?" His voice sounded resigned to his fate. "Tell Dad it's been a blast."
"No Gordon! Don't say that! You'll be alright!" Virgil yelled back, desperation colouring his voice. He watched in horror as Gordon glanced over his shoulder, and suddenly doubled back.
"Scott, he's heading for the bunker! He's closer to there than the car." Virgil's panic seized him. "RUN GORDON! Scott! Help! Oh no, Gordon! Oh, Scott! He's- GORDON!!!!!"
*
Scott and Virgil picked their way carefully but speedily over the rubble, heading towards the place they'd last seen Gordon.
"How could that slip have started?" Scott wondered aloud, concern lining his brow. Virgil shook his head.
"I can't understand it! How?"
"Have you found him yet?" Jeff's voice came through Scott's wrist-comm unit, the worry evident in his voice.
"Not yet, dad, but we're still looking," Scott said, kicking a large rock over. Virgil hurried ahead to the bunker. The hole in the top gaped in the rocky landscape, the blackness inside erasing anything visible. He shone a torch down inside.
"I can't see much," he called to Scott. "I don't know-" Something glinted down below. Virgil looked closer. It was the badge on an IR hat, the orange band around the top betraying its wearer. "SCOTT! He's here!! Quick!" Even as he said it, he dropped down the rocks into the bunker, running to where Gordon lay. He could hear Scott above telling their father he was found. He dropped down onto his knees next to Gordon's inert body, gently touching his shoulder.
"Gordon? Gordie? Can you hear me little brother?" he asked, controlling the panic rising inside him. He could see the blood glistening from the light of day and the dropped torch. "Gordon! Listen to me! Squeeze my hand if you can hear me." He quickly found Gordon's hand. It was warm and soft, but the sticky wetness of blood was there too. A slight pressure gripped his hand and a gasp of breath replied him.
"Virgil? That you?" Gordon breathed. "Man I hurt."
"Don't worry, Gordie. We'll get you out." Virgil's quiet reassuring voice seemed to calm him, and he sighed. The pressure on Virgil's hand lessened as he went unconscious.
"Scott, we'll need the stretcher. I don't want to cause any unnecessary pain. He might have a back injury too."
"Right." Virgil could hear Scott departing, and turned back to Gordon.
"Hold on, bro. Hold on."
*
The fuss when Virgil ever-so-gently touched down was great. Jeff and Alan were out waiting, and Scott came as soon as he could after landing. Virgil carefully wheeled Gordon on his stretcher out of the cargo bay. Seeing his injuries in daylight was worse than not knowing. Alan winced when he saw Gordon emerge.
"Woah, I didn't think he'd be so cut up," he said. Jeff put a hand on his youngest son's shoulder.
"We must all be strong until we're through this. He'll be okay."
"I hope so, dad," he replied, as he moved to help Virgil. Getting Gordon up to the sick bay was almost as difficult as getting him out of the bunker, but they managed it. Tin-tin and Grandma were waiting there, and both shooed the guys out of the room while they cleaned him up and put him to bed. The day wore on. No one could rest easily, and hardly anyone had an appetite at dinner. Everyone went to bed early.
Virgil tossed and turned. He couldn't sleep. Finally, at around two in the morning, he rose from his bed and tiptoed down the hall into the sick bay. The moon shone in the window, which was slightly open to let in a cooling breeze. Gordon's face was completely relaxed, the stitches above his eye and along his jaw line as well as the bruises marred his usual boyish face. There was no hint at all of the humour lurking beneath those closed eyelids. Virgil walked to the chair by his bed.
"Hey Gordon." No response. He hadn't really expected one. He picked up his brother's limp hand, gently running a finger along a scratch down the back of it.
"What have you gone and done now?" he asked aloud. "You never did care for danger. Why did you have to believe you were invincible?" He glanced at Gordon's face. No change. "Gordon. This reminds me of that hydrofoil accident you were in just before IR was formed. And what did you tell me happened? You liked the exhilaration of going fast. Too fast. Of course, you were a lot more careful after that, weren't you." Virgil sighed. "Note the sarcasm. But you were slower in boats after that.
"Hey, remember that time in primary school? You were only five and you climbed to the top to the monkey bars, took one look down and realised you'd got stuck. You sat up there for an hour before someone told your teacher and she came to get you down. But of course you saw the funny side of it. When you came home, you cried, 'Guess what I did at school today!' and promptly collapsed into giggles. Dad wasn't impressed, I remember that, and you got the lecture of being more careful." He laughed quietly.
"And that other time, during Alan's first two weeks at school. You came running up into the senior school to find me and John, all by yourself, even though it was out of bounds for you. And you asked almost every person you met where we were. I was on lunch duty in the canteen that day, and you came pounding in, and told the canteen lady that I had to come and it was urgent. Everyone else was scared of her because she was grumpy, but not you. Then you lead us both down into the junior school and pointed out a group of boys who'd been throwing bark at the first years. You'd seen, and saw Alan start to cry, then run to find us, but only because when you tried to take them on yourself you'd got hit. The canteen lady always liked you after that. She let you have 50 cent popsicles for whatever money you had. And those boys never picked on anyone again. Not after you'd found Scott after school when he came to walk us home and told on them. Scott made them sorry! And it was you and me backing him up while John controlled Alan who wanted to join in now he had backup." Virgil looked up at Gordon's face, feeling like the bottom of his heart was falling out.
"It's always been you and me, hasn't it, little brother? When you cried yourself to sleep after you were feeling sorry for yourself because all the other kids at kindy had mums and you didn't, I was the one who crept in and cuddled you. It was me who came to high school presentations at because dad was busy with work. It was you who helped me pull myself together after I almost crashed when Thunderbird 2 was attacked." He stood and dropped a kiss on Gordon's forehead.
"Now you get better soon, or else, you hear me Gordie? Good night. Sweet dreams." He silently crept from the room and sidled back to bed, suddenly feeling very tired.
*
"Is he still not awake yet?" asked John, looking around the doorway into the sick bay. Tin-tin looked up from where she sat with Virgil, making her daily checkup on Gordon.
"I'm afraid not, John. He's been comatose since the accident two weeks ago. I think he must have had brain damage, concussion, something." She stood and left the room, shaking her head and looking sorrowful. John came in and leaned over Gordon.
"Was he bad when you got him in?" he asked. Virgil nodded.
"He's healing physically, but mentally-" he sighed. John ran a finger down one of the healing scars left from the stitches on his face.
"This seems too weird. I feel like he's either dead or going to start laughing at us for being so worried," he murmured.
"Yeah," agreed Virgil. He sighed and turned his head to look out of the window. "I miss his laughing." John shook his head.
"This is too unreal. I can hardly bear to look at him, it scares me." He walked to the window and joined Virgil in his contemplation of the ocean. "How's Scott?"
"He's seen better days," said Virgil with a sigh. "He blames himself for triggering the slide by taking off. He keeps kicking himself for not waiting." John turned to face his older brother.
"He wasn't to know."
"I know that, but Scott, in typical style, keeps saying he should have taken precautions anyway."
"Typical Scott. What does Dad say?"
"He says, in typical style, that it's a lesson we can all learn from to not get too careless and comfortable in our procedures."
"Typical Dad." At that point the door opened and Tin-tin appeared.
"Alright boys, out! The patient needs some peace," she fussed, shoeing the two brothers out.
"Hey, that's my brother you're taking care of, you just better be careful with him," scolded Virgil with a small smile, to show her he was teasing her.
"You can count on me," she said with a smile. "Now scoot!" The two boys obliged. Virgil paused for a second and glanced back, opening the door a crack. Tin-tin was seated by Gordon's side and had clasped his hand in hers, a tear running down her face. Virgil backed out and closed the door again. Well. Strange development.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Virgil looked around. A grassy field stretched around him. To his left he could see a lake, and to his right a house, colonial style with a verandah and everything. It looked familiar. The sun shone down on him. It was a perfect summer's day.
"I must be dreaming," he commented aloud.
A shout drew his attention. The back door of the house banged open and three boys emerged, two with sun-tinted dark hair and one tall and white-blonde. The tallest and oldest already had his shoes on and didn't want to wait. A small white-blonde appeared after them, followed by a freckled-faced, ginger-haired kid. The last to emerge stopped to sit down and pull on shoes.
"Last one to the lake gets dunked in the muddy end," called the oldest, taking off across the grass towards where Virgil stood. He looked about fourteen. The smallest, not to be outdone, jumped off the verandah and ran after him on five-year-old legs. The two other tallest grinned at each other and dashed after, the blonde easily taking the lead and over taking the smallest. He looked like he was used to sprinting, and at nine years old was the youngest on the school athletics team. The other was eleven, and he didn't take a direct route; he preferred to take a roundabout course, zig-zagging down to the lake. The last finally finished doing up his laces and ran down the steps, only to see his brothers already half way there.
"I'll never catch up now," he muttered aloud, starting to run. "Wait! Wait for me!" His voice, aged six, didn't carry very far. Virgil found himself wanting to help the little guy, but no one seemed to be able to see him. So he just watched.
"That's not fair guys! You all got head starts! Wait for me! You always leave me behind!" His laces, not tied very well, came undone and he tripped, tumbling over on the grass. He pulled himself onto his knees as the first splash resounded around, closely followed by a second. A tear threatened to fall and his lip wobbled as he inspected his grazed knee and crushed hopes of not getting dunked.
"Hey," he tried one more time. A third splash rang out.
"Come on Virgil!" yelled one of them, waving. Virgil whipped around.
"Coming!" The second oldest called, then hesitated and looked back. He spotted the pitiful little figure on his knees in the grass. "Aww, Gordie, what happened?" he called, jogging back. The little kid sniffed.
"I didn't have my shoes on and Daddy says we should put our shoes on incase we step on something and you guys didn't wait," he said accusingly. His brother looked apologetic.
"I'm sorry. Did you fall?" A nod affirmed that. "It's okay. I'll give you a piggy-back and we'll both dunk Scott and John AND Alan for not waiting, okay? We'll never surrender!" This brought a wide smile and a forgotten graze as the elder scooped up the younger and galloped to the lake, both laughing. Virgil gazed after them.
"Wow," he breathed, watching first the eldest, then the youngest get dunked by the gruesome twosome. "That's us. I don't remember that."
"You probably wouldn't. But I did. And so did he." Virgil turned quickly.
"Mother?" She stood there, smiling. She had a glowing aura of heavenly white, and was dressed in what Virgil vaguely remembered as her favourite dress.
"Yes, Virgil. I can't stay for long. I miss you all dearly, but I'm watching you, and I don't miss you so much I want you to come to me before your time. Any of you." She stepped forward and hugged her second oldest son. "I need you to catch up to him. This time, it's him going on ahead." She pointed across the grass. Virgil had to squint, but he could make out a figure lying down. He glanced back. His mother nodded.
"Go. I'm always watching you. I love you." She smiled and vanished from sight. Virgil turned back and walked across towards the figure. Eventually he could make out sun glinting off sandy-blonde hair.
"Gordon?" The figure turned his head.
"Hey Virgil! Long time no see! Isn't it beautiful here? Just like when we were kids," he sighed. Virgil sat down next to him.
"How long have you been here?" he asked.
"Oh, a while. I don't know, I haven't been counting."
"Huh. You've been out to lunch three weeks in the real world you know. People are clamouring for the shop to open up again."
"Nice metaphor, brother. I know why you passed English at school."
"Don't change the subject." Gordon looked up, surprised by the sharpness in his voice.
"Virgil? What's the matter?" He asked, sitting up. Virgil sighed, frowning.
"This time it's you not waiting, Gordon. I always went back to pick you up. Now I've gotta drag you back. You can't stay here."
"Why not?"
"Because you aren't dead! You need to come back and join International Rescue again! You need to become a part of the family again! We need you, Gordon!" He stood up again. "I can't stay. And neither can you. Now are you going to come back the easy way or the hard way?" Gordon stared at the serious man before him, then stood too.
"Okay okay! You've made your point!" They started walking back across the grass. "So. I was nearly dead, huh? Doesn't sound like me. The night life at home must have been dead too."
"Yep."
"Ya miss me?" Gordon asked with an elfish smile.
"What do you think, Gordon?" Virgil stopped to say, but Gordon had already taken off across the grass.
"Last one back gets dunked in the muddy end!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Virgil sat up with a start. Was that a dream? It was so real... A buzz next to his bed woke him properly.
"Yeah?"
"Get up Virgil, you've over slept. We've got a call out and we need Thunderbird Two pronto."
"Yes sir!" Virgil dashed out of bed and into the lounge, passed the sick bay. He stopped and looked in. Gordon looked as comatose as usual. He headed off to the rescue.
*
The door swung around as Virgil entered, fresh from the rescue. He glanced around. Jeff sat at the desk, watching the screen where Scott was filling him in on a last detail. Tin-tin sat in a chair in front of Jeff's desk. Then something caught his eye. Or rather, someone. He blinked. Gordon smiled and put his finger to his lips, giving him a "they-don't-know-I'm-here" look. Virgil gaped, then pulled himself together.
"Well Tin-tin. Do you think it was successful?" Jeff asked her.
"Oh absolutely Mr Tracey! They all did a marvellous job," Tin-tin replied.
"And?"
"And were very careful."
"That's what I wanted to hear."
John bumped into Virgil from behind as he too came through the door- and gaped. Gordon smiled, then put on a serious face.
"Oh, I don't know, Scott could have been a little more careful with that laser cutter," he said. His voice was softer and croakier than usual, but still his. Everyone stared as Scott and Brains also entered. Finally Virgil grinned.
"I agree. He was being far too dangerous," he said as he walked over to Gordon. Tin-tin jumped to her feet, torn between laughing and crying.
"You should be in bed!" she fussed. Gordon smiled up at Virgil.
"Thanks for waiting for me," he murmured, as he unsteadily got to his feet and was assisted by Tin-tin and Jeff back to bed. Virgil smiled back.
"No. Thank you."
*
A/N: So? Whaddya think? Good? Bad? Tell me so I can plan my next one!! Flames are accepted, cos they're funny! ^_^ But I'm sure none of you would do that. Review..... NOW! If you don't, I'll set my giant alligators on you.
P.S. What do you all think about a Gordon/Tin-tin romance? I could build it off this one, possibly, if you guys approve. Tell me in the reviews! Bye now! ~^_^~