This story is dedicated to Louise Hargadon for giving me pretty much the entire plot bunny, knowing how close I am to shipping ScottxKayo outright, 100%, just like I shipped Scott with Tin-Tin in the original series. They have a very different relationship in TAG015, of course. But I like it just the same. (I still ship Jayo, just not quite so much at the moment.) Thank you, Mon Ammy!

This fic is based on S1E14, 'Falling Skies'. Contains spoilers. The Hood's two lines are taken from the episode. Everything else is fanfic. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy x

"I do wish you would call me 'Uncle'."

The memory of those words sliding from those ugly, twisted lips made Kayo feel sick. At the time she had put it down to the 'Ride From Hell' movements of the Estrella Grand Hotel; after all, who wouldn't feel even a little nauseous in a situation like that? But she was no longer on the crazily spinning hotel. She was sitting on a wall in the garden of Tracy Island watching fireflies dancing in the bushes, and yet sour bile scorched her throat and made her stomach feel fluttery and delicate, as if recovering from being kicked by a particularly 'ornery mule.

Then there was his contemptuous little addendum-

"Don't worry, your secret's still safe with me. For now."

Kayo grunted in frustration and slapped her open palm against the wall. She hated her secret and despised him for presenting it to her as a veiled threat. She felt as if she were constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop; for Scott and the others to find out that their Head of Covert Ops was related to the criminal mastermind who had been sabotaging their machines, trying to murder innocent civilians and ruining the reputation of International Rescue for longer than she cared to remember. She couldn't understand how she could possibly be the niece of a sneering psychopath who might even be responsible for the disappearance of Jeff Tracy himself. It didn't make her feel any better that Grandma Tracy knew - and faithfully kept, her secret. As long as it was a secret from the boys, Kayo knew the day would come when she would 'have some 'splainin' to do'. She dreaded, feared the look on Scott's face when he discovered there was a traitor in their midst. The thought of those friendly blue eyes turning to ice made the breath catch in her chest- and not in a good way.

Lulled by the gentle swishing of the sea, Kayo began to pray that the Hood's escape capsule would spin out into deep space, far beyond the reach of anyone who might save and allow him to continue his dangerous ways. She hoped it would tumble end over end in jet black darkness until it either collapsed in on itself or blew apart into a million fragments. That would solve everything. International Rescue would never have to worry about the Hood again, and Brains could carry on paving the way for a brighter future with his wonderful, clean technology that would never be sabotaged. The Hood's death would be the answer to everything.

Wouldn't it?

A firefly twinkled past, enchanting Kayo with its simple beauty and distracting her, albeit briefly, from her sombre thoughts. After it had gone, she bent her head in self-recrimination. Already feeling gutless and sick, she now thought she was going to cry. She hated the Hood so much- and right now she hated herself for wanting another human being dead. Even one as cold and poisonous as her un... No! Not her uncle! As the Hood. He was a bitter, evil man, but her duty was to save life, not to end it. Her duty was to be the bigger person. She might be his niece, but she did not have his particular blood in her veins, and she was not going to stoop to his level.

A jasmine scented breeze tickled her cheek while the moon beat a silvery path to the shore. Such tranquil night-time beauty usually calmed her frayed nerves, but this time it didn't. This unsettled feeling continued to grow, threatening to isolate her from the very people she held dear. Her true family- the Tracys and Brains, people bonded by love and a common cause. She hated to admit it, but the Hood was a wedge that was driving itself deeper and deeper, and if she wasn't careful, the Hood could become an obsession.

"Thought you might need this."

The unexpected male voice was familiar and gentle enough, but it made Kayo jump out of her skin. "What the f- ?" she managed to stop herself in time, before the whole profanity came out. The owner of the voice laughed at her reaction and tapped her shoulder with a cold bottle of beer.

"I know you're not a big drinker, but one won't do you any harm."

"Scott bloody Tracy," she said gruffly, accepting the bottle from the hand that was now almost under her nose. "I wish you wouldn't make a habit of sneaking up on unsuspecting women."

"You been talking to Gordon again?" The eldest Tracy parked his butt on the wall and swung his long legs over so that he was sitting next to Kayo and facing the same way, looking out at the ocean past the bushes full of fireflies.

"I don't need to. You're always doing it."

"Does it make me seem like the strong, silent type?"

"No. It makes you seem like a creeper." Kayo tipped the bottle to hide her smile. The cold, bitter taste of beer seemed to suit her mood.

"Oh, well. I take what I can get." Scott did the same, only his smile was harder to hide and he spluttered on a misjudged mouthful. His hand flew to his mouth but not quickly enough to stop the beer from splattering down the front of his blue denim shirt.

Kayo turned to help him wipe the spilled beer from his chest. "Spilling your beer when you're not even drunk? Is this a new thing?"

"It's actually a Virgil thing, but sadly it's rubbed off on the rest of us."

"Well, it's not rubbing off now. This shirt will have to go in the wash."

Scott ended his chuckle with a sigh, stopped scrubbing at his shirt, and sat in peaceful silence next to her for a while.

"It's nice that you came out here," Kayo said at last. "And even nicer that you brought me this beer. Thanks."

"You're welcome, Ace," he said, tipping his bottle towards her.

"Ace?" she cocked one eyebrow.

"Ace," he affirmed, then his voice turned serious. "I'm in awe of what you did today, Kayo. I don't think it's even sunk in yet. You singlehandedly stopped an entire orbiting hotel from crashing into central Florida. I think you deserve some sort of recognition, even if it's just a lousy beer."

Kayo held her bottle up to the light and studied the label with interest. "Hardly lousy. This looks like one from the Scott Tracy personal collection."

"Well, duh. I wasn't gonna bring you the stuff that John drinks. Carbonated ant's pi... ahem." Like Kayo, Scott managed to truncate the cuss word just in time, but not before she laughed with genuine good humour.

"You boys and your beers. I'll never understand it."

"Good. I don't want to educate you to the point where you begin stealing bottles like Alan does."

She peered at him curiously while he swigged another mouthful of beer. "I never know whether you're joking or not," she mused, her amber/green eyes scanning his face.

"Then I guess that means I'm one up on you."

"Hmm." Kayo left it at that.

Scott wiped his mouth with the knuckle of his forefinger and cradled his by now half empty bottle in both hands. "Seriously, though Kay. Don't try to change the subject, I know how modest you are. Here I am trying to tell you how freaking amazing you were today. Just agree with me, for once."

Kayo blinked slowly, feeling a lump rise up in her chest. "I can't," she admitted. "I wasn't amazing at all. I just did what needed to be done. If anything- " she scraped at the label of her bottle with her thumbnail, "I didn't do enough. I didn't rid the world of the biggest danger it faces. The wrath of that madman."

"You weren't there to do that. You were there to save lives, and save lives you did."

"I wasn't the only one," Kayo countered. "You all saved lives too. Not that it's a competition," she ended in a mutter.

"Kayo, what is wrong with you?" Scott's tone rose a notch in exasperation. "You saved the whole of central Florida! Can't you just accept a compliment?"

"Why are you even giving me a compliment for doing my job?" Kayo snapped back.

Scott visibly recoiled from her. "Okay, okay. You don't have to bite my head off."

Kayo let out a whoosh of air and felt suddenly light headed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just- I don't know. I don't have any sort of a feeling of satisfaction from what happened today. Don't ask me why. I just- feel empty. Empty, sick, and ridiculously lonely."

Silence descended again, this time falling heavy, like a stone. It stretched out between them like the silvery path from shoreline to horizon while the word 'lonely' hung in the air like one discordant note reverberating from Virgil's piano.

Scott put down his bottle. He reached for the one in Kayo's hand and pried it out of her surprisingly strong fingers. The label was almost completely shredded. He put both bottles at arm's length away from him on the wall, and then he took both of Kayo's hands in his and made her turn and face him. Her head and body complied, but her eyes remained evasive. Scott shook her hands determinedly until her eyes finally joined the rest of her in paying him the attention he commanded.

"Just because you're not related to us, doesn't mean you're not family," he said, quietly.

Kayo's eyes widened and her lips parted soundlessly. "H-how did you know I was- ?"

Was he psychic? What else did he know? Surely not.. no, he couldn't know that. He didn't know that. None of them did, except Grandma.

"You said you were lonely. And I don't want you to be."

Kayo attempted some damage limitation. The warmth of his hands around hers was at once soothing and a little unnerving. "I didn't say I was lonely, I just feel lonely. I'm sure it'll pass- you don't have to worry."

Scott shook his head. "Nope. Not buying it."

His eyes were half in shadow but there was no mistaking their intensity. Kayo bit the inside of her lip, unable to think of a way to verbally worm her way out.

"Kayo," he continued, "if you don't think you did enough today then I have news for you. You not only did enough, you went way over and above the call of duty. You went in there and you kicked butt like the consummate professional that you are. You risked your life to save our lives and the lives of all those innocent people who might have died if you hadn't been there. So, maybe the feeling of loneliness comes from knowing that those people will never know what you did for them- " he squeezed Kayo's hands, shushing her before she had a chance to protest, "that they're all out there getting on with their lives and will never even know you by name. Or, it could come from being the only girl in a family of guys and having no one to kick back with besides some sweaty jocks, a genius who can't hold a simple conversation and a grumpy old lady. Yeah, that sure sucks. But that can be fixed. We can get you a friend."

Kayo gave an unexpected snort. "You make it sound so ominous."

Scott grinned. "I'm doing my best."

"Hmm." Kayo boldly flashed her previously-evasive eyes at him. "Don't give up the day job."

"What day job? Oh yeah, running around after Alan and making sure Brains isn't blowing up the place."

Kayo smiled. "Oh, Scott. You're such a mother hen. I know you hate that phrase, but you are. Always with one eye on everyone else. When do you ever make time for yourself?"

He looked her straight in the eyes and she suddenly realised how much she cared about him. He was a tall, reckless drink of water, and she liked him. She genuinely liked him.

"Do you ever get lonely?" she asked. "Do you ever lose sight of who you are? What grounds you, and whom you feel connected to?"

"I miss Dad," he confessed, without even skipping a beat. "I miss him a hell of a lot, even though there were times when- "

Now it was Kayo's turn to squeeze Scott's hands, prompting him to continue.

"When- ?"

"When I- oh gee, this is gonna sound bad. When I wished I was more in charge. Before Dad went missing, that is. I wanted to make more of the important decisions. I wanted more input. And now I have all the input I want, and I can make all the decisions I want, and now I know what a damn tough job he did, and yes, it makes me feel lonely, if I let it."

"We have a ton of responsibilities, you and I," said Kayo, slowly. "I'm head of Ops and you're head of the whole shebang. Maybe that's what makes us lonely. Perhaps we're like the gods of Mount Olympus- full of tremendous powers, but never quite able to join the real world."

"That's more like X-Men," said Scott.

Kayo rolled her eyes pointedly.

"You'd make a cute mutant," he added.

"Quit while you're ahead," she drawled. "That's if you ever were."

Undeterred by Kayo's gentle teasing, Scott released her hands at last and hopped nimbly off the wall. He stood in front of her with the drying beer stain on his shirt and mischievous shadows lurking in his dimples.

"Let's go back to the beginning and then I'm outta here. I was telling you how amazing you were today and how glad I was that you didn't get killed. You were going to say, 'thank you, Scott', and then I was going to say, 'no worries, kid,' and then we were going to drink our beers and have a bro hug and then I was gonna skedaddle."

"A bro hug."

He nodded. "The best kind."

Kayo twisted her face into a look of mock disgust at the thought of a 'bro hug'. Slowly she eased herself off the wall and shook a couple of kinks out of her back, forgetting just how long she'd been sitting out here, lost in a cycle of destructive thoughts, until he showed up. She walked hesitantly forward into Scott's arms and allowed him to fold them around her like a very warm, very protective, and very masculine smelling envelope. She didn't return the hug immediately. Her senses were too busy being overwhelmed. Fireflies glittered in her peripheral vision like tiny fireworks far, far away. Everything suddenly seemed far away. The ocean, the night sky, the fireflies. Tracy villa. The charred debris of the once luxurious Estrella Grand Hotel scattered all over Florida. Her worry. Her fears. Her loneliness. And him. The one who took the concept of family and mutilated it beyond all recognition, turning it into a humourless parody. The one who Kayo feared would never stop until time itself put an end to his corrupt and evil ways. The one who called himself her uncle, but would never be family to her, never in a million, billion years.

Her arms seemed to move by themselves, winding around Scott until she was holding him almost as tightly as he was holding her. Her cheek nestled against the still damp splotch of beer, but somehow that just added to the heady essence that was Scott. And now that evil coward, the Hood, seemed as far away as the most distant star on the darkest, coldest edges of the universe- a shrivelled dwarf ready to wink out and disappear, burned into non-existence by stars so much brighter than itself.

"I have a confession to make," said Scott, winding his way into her thoughts. "This isn't a bro hug."

"I didn't think it was," she replied, her face buried comfortably in the crook of his neck.

"It's the next best thing though, don't you think?" His voice, a deadpan drawl, reverberated nicely through her body.

Kayo closed her eyes, finally allowing herself to smile with warmth and openness. She knew instinctively that Scott was gaining as much comfort from the hug as she was. The best thing about it was the lack of pressure from either one of them to turn it into something more. It was a hug. It was calm, it was warm, it was strong, steady and reassuring, and most importantly of all, it made her loneliness go away. For the first time since the Estrella Grand Hotel exploded in the skies above central Florida, Kayo felt her feet touch the ground and her sense of belonging return to her like a child's well worn comforter.

"I take what I can get," she replied, happily.