Sorry I haven't had a chance to read/review people's work this week, it's been quite busy. I will catch up though before next weekend. Just something small, but hopefully enjoyable.

He hated having a birthday in August.

Most people thought he was lucky. School holidays, plenty of free time, summer weather... and so on.

But he hated it in terms of his family.

Alan, Gordon and Scott all had early birthdays. John's was in October, but that was essentially the start of a new school year and in retrospective terms, John was never the one bothered about parties. Gordon didn't see why he should complain, Alan puzzled over it as well, Scott was more sympathetic and John had always been aware, but sat on the fence.

When Virgil was ten though, he told them he wanted something different. Something different from the norm.

Yes, International Rescue made life different, but birthday's almost remained the same.

Until...

August 15th 2060.

Virgil didn't mind having Max for company.

Lie - he did.

He didn't mind opening presents by himself either.

Lie - of course he did.

Oh, and he couldn't care less about the lack of cake.

Lie.

He could care (quite a lot actually) about the effort.

Truth.

For years he thought he must have spoken to an empty room when he asked for something different. It was a shame that the year they chose to try something, he chose to try something as well.

Part of him - the extremely cynical, annoyed side - thought it was all a horrible trick to have 'forgotten' his birthday and then not even waited up, yet the other half could see the meaning, the thought and the care behind it. Which side he sat on though, he was still slightly unsure of.

"Virgil." John appeared in front of him, breaking the idea that every Tracy but him had chosen sleep. He looked almost mournful. Virgil guessed that was what happened when you messed up a birthday. The first since...

No. He wasn't even going there.

"Happy Birthday."

"Thanks." He smiled. It wasn't John's fault. He supposed it wasn't quite anyone's fault things had gone as wrong as they had. He could have come home sooner, when things would only have been slightly out of whack, fixable still. He chose to stay out though, and he chose to save more than one man.

That. Made. His day.

John looked around bemused. "Where is everyone?" Obviously, he'd expected a party of some sorts still. Whilst they weren't exactly John's scene, he never minded his brothers. They were the only exceptions to John's rules.

"Sleeping?"

"Aren't you tired?" He shrugged. Honestly he was still running on adrenaline, fueled by that birthday feeling. It wasn't quite midnight yet, but it was counting down. Seven minutes.

He decided to wait it out for once.

Just since he was up and so close anyway.

"I'm sorry about... well this."

"It's alright." John raised a brow. He'd been expecting honesty.

Honesty was what he'd been given.

John - being John of course, the one who demanded a resolution, a conclusion - couldn't take that apology as enough and continued. Virgil pondered over the idea that he'd sounded harsh.

He decided it was just the way John was. And besides, he was allowed to sound rough.

"Well you always said for years now that you wanted a slightly different birthday." So someone listened. "We thought a surprise might be different, but... We got it wrong."

"Maybe." Maybe they did, maybe they could have done it better, maybe they should have practiced. Then again, maybe Virgil just didn't care that much anymore. Presents, cake, parties: materialistic. They could be forgotten. Goodness knows just how many birthday parties he can barely remember."But how many people can say they saved lives on their birthday? Or found a scientific cure?" This one, he would certainly remember. "You can't get more different than that."

Doctor Peck, his daughter even, had given him the answer to his question, a present without any physical strings and a memory that he couldn't begin to fully process or allow to start dissipating.

So his name would never be on publicly. He knew, and that was enough.

John smiled slightly, half-halfheartedly, beating himself up, berating the idea to the point that Virgil mused the thought of John having suggested it, probably meant as a joke, taken seriously by the youngest pair and agreed with by Scott. Hmm, that sounded plausible. "I suppose not."

He wanted to cheer the elder up slightly. As well as just slipping in the thought, just to be fair.

"By the way, I'd love to know how you're going to top that next year."

John's eyes shot wide. Virgil tried not to laugh. It was made harder by the thought of three other reactions whence John did what he does best and relayed the message. Oh yes, this was payback, this would allow him to forgive them - just the thought that a year of ideas was necessary to defeat a day they never could.

Virgil knew that, however no way was he letting them know that.

"How are we going to top that?" It was odd for John to think allowed, and to sound so worried over something so small. He supposed it stopped being small when they made such a hash up. "We had better start thinking now." He could hear EOS' childish chuckles in the background as John closed the link, some parental sounding order about to roll from his lips.

Virgil shook his head and laughed. Mentally he started counting down the last seconds.

Maybe next year would be different again.

'Yes,' he thought as twelve rung around, next year was going to be a fun surprise indeed.