Disclaimer: I still don't own them.

One or two folks have asked for the story behind John's second marriage – the two-week wonder. Well, here it is. As usual it's my own peculiar fusion of TV-verse/AU. It is set three to four months after "Now we are five".

There are sexual references, but nothing particularly explicit. My version of John is just the sort of guy who feels he should be M-rated as a matter of course and he will never forgive me if I put him in the T section. That said, it is not suitable for children. I would not like to be responsible for them growing up emulating Johnny's rather unique streak of altruism.

Neither is this for anyone who likes all the boys flawless. Women can make fools of even the mightiest of warriors; just read Homer. Fortunately, as Paris discovered, there's always a brother to hand when you could use one, whether or not you appreciate him…and so there's a rescue, of sorts.

…

Roughing up the mocking bird.

I'm looking forward to a month in space. It's been an interesting couple of weeks, and the games-playing has been first rate, but now it's over and I'd kinda like my life back, thank you very much. A few quiet weeks installing Five's long-range systems will do the job nicely.

If I get there. He may, of course, choose to push me out of the airlock before we even reach the space station.

I risk a quick glance sideways. He's concentrating intently on Three's display panel, even though it hasn't changed substantially in the past half an hour. He hasn't spoken a word to me since we lifted off. I can live with the silent treatment. I've done it before.

I have a thunder headache starting up. The rocket always does this to me. I make a mental note to check the ion filter. I settle back and close my eyes and let him fly her. Better that he has something to do.

One day he'll thank me.

…

I never figured him for the whirlwind romance type. Actually, I never figured him for the romantic type, period, although he does have a naïve streak, it's true.

She got her hooks into him at a vulnerable time, I guess. He's not getting any younger. The old man was a father at his age. And it must have occurred to him that he's about to spend months at a time without so much as the scent of a woman – I don't count Tin-Tin; she might be on my list of possibles, but she's certainly off his – and I suppose he's been distracted by everything that's been happening to Gordon.

Actually, I blame Gordon for a lot of this. He gave away the two cardinal secrets. I think the kid actually thought he was doing big brother a favor.

So it isn't really entirely Scott's own fault.

Usually he's unfailingly cautious, to an extent where it probably stops him enjoying at least some of what would undoubtedly throw itself at him. It isn't so much that he has good radar for bounty hunters. He simply treats anyone who comes on strong - and I say anyone advisedly; he seems to have a knack for attracting Gordon's friends - as a potential threat. He has developed some curious methods for keeping them at arm's length.

He really doesn't need to be so defensive - he rarely travels under the Tracy name. But he seems to think that women can sniff out money. I keep telling him he doesn't actually look like a billion dollars, but he doesn't often let his guard down, nonetheless.

She must have slipped in under it somehow.

They met when Gordon was transferred down to the orthopedic hospital in LA to make it easier for us to visit. When he wasn't home testing what have affectionately become known as Thunderbirds One and Three, Scott was staying over in California, visiting Gordon daily to help out with his physio.

She was visiting a brother who had come off his bike at a moto-rally and broken almost as many bones as Gordon. Alan didn't help when he dropped in at the spring break – he got all pally with the brother, talking racing, and suddenly everyone was best friends. Whether someone got careless and let slip who we were, I don't know. She was bright enough not to let on. I just know she found out. But I'm sure she managed to look as startled as a jack-rabbit when he eventually got around to telling her his real name. By then it was too late. He was hooked.

She had bided her time and let him think it was his idea to date. That's the bit that I haven't forgiven Gordon for yet.

When I phoned him last week he admitted that she'd asked him how to get his older brother to ask her out. The little fool had told her the two golden rules:

Let him make the first move, and don't sleep with Johnny.

Okay, so it's become a little game. It's always fun to see if I can steal their women. I've even snuck Dad's out from under his nose on occasion. He likes them young. I figure I'm doing him a favor. Can't be good for his back at his age.

Dad protested when Scott said he was bringing her back to the island. Scott simply retorted that it was a good chance to check the security was working well enough. I suppose we should at least be grateful he wasn't planning on telling her about IR any time soon.

I don't think any of us realized just how smitten he was.

I can see why he fell for her, at one level. Give the guy credit, he has taste. She was stunning. And she had a look of Mom about her – her hair was a little darker, true, and her eyes were green, not amber, but there was some facial similarity, something in the bone structure maybe. She had a terrific figure and legs right up to her waist, I swear. She spent – still spends so far as I know – a lot of her day doing magazine photo shoots. But I didn't figure her as his sort. I always reckoned he'd go for the all-action heroine, the reckless tomboy, not some glamor queen.

I'd heard a lot about her from Gordon, even before I met her. He was pretty sure it was Se-ri-ous and that it was a Good Thing. I've put that down to the painkillers impairing his judgment.

So, Scott and Virj swapped shifts at the hospital, crossing mid-Pacific, and he brought her back to meet the rest of the family. Well, those of us who were home - Dad, me and Kyrano. That's Se-ri-ous enough.

She'd figured him out – I'll give her that. When he was with her she focused right in on him, but didn't fuss too much. She'd picked up that he has a low embarrassment threshold. She was friendly and just the right amount interested in the rest of us. When she thought she'd got him on his own – she reckoned without our internal surveillance systems - she was as physical as she probably dared be before backing off and looking coquettish. Alternately temptress and Snow White.

She couldn't keep up the whole act quite so well when he wasn't there; off her guard she mostly looked bored. Island life probably wasn't quite what she'd anticipated.

How was I so certain she was a predator?

I guess it takes one to know one.

I did a little delving. Nothing I found out about her made me feel any better.

I did actually toy with the idea of just letting her do it. Scott has been a top-class pain in my butt for some time now.

He's struggled with the idea that I've grown up and I have my own ideas about the way life is supposed to work.

It's true that as a child I'd have done anything to please him. I'm not sure exactly when he started to slide off his pedestal.

We were super-smart kids, I suppose, and - while Virj steadfastly refused to develop at anything other than his own sweet pace - Mom reportedly hot-housed the both of us. Scott's giftedness isn't as all-round as mine. It comes in odd pockets, with bizarre gaps in between, but it was still broad enough to enrol for honors in high school. He kept ahead of me for a long time but only in mathematics. He strolled into Yale at seventeen, but he isn't that adventurous, and took courses he knew he could excel at without effort. He majored in math and took some courses in physics and electronic engineering, powering his way through the accelerated programme. Even his masters degree in England must have been a breeze.

But when I was seventeen or eighteen I noticed that he too began to struggle to comprehend what I was doing. At first I just thought it was because he had his head full of fighter planes and aerial combat strategies. But the painful truth dawned. I was leaving him behind. And that's a hard thing to take in someone you worship.

Still, I persevered with idolizing him a while longer. When I finally realized how much I like women, I tried to do the right thing – his idea of the right thing - and married the first one that I'd gotten serious about. I was nineteen, but, hey, college was boring. I'd already finished two degrees and needed something new to occupy my time while I threw together a masters thesis. The masters took a year. The marriage lasted eight months.

Unfortunately I'd realized quite quickly that it's women, plural, that mean a lot to me.

Well, okay, let's be ruthlessly honest. It's sex. What can I say? I was a late starter compared to most of my brothers and I needed to make up for it and fast.

I wasn't being fair either to Sam or myself. She wasn't especially vindictive, although Dad is still smarting about the settlement. They all gave me a hard time over the divorce; in a short time Sam somehow managed to worm her way into the affections of the entire Tracy household. But I got the full works from Scott. He's only recently got over it.

Looks like I might be headed for more of the same treatment. I hope it's worth it.

To get back to the point - the bottom line was that if this was going where I thought it was going then there was only one way it could end.

Scott's the guy on the white charger – you know? He's actually a decent person. Virj thinks he knows him better than I do, but the truth is –love him or hate him, and I do both in about equal measure - no-one knows as much about him as I do. I observe. I don't forget. It's just how I am. I know he's had more than his fair share of troubles. And I sleep next door to the guy when we're home. I know he still has nightmares. He really doesn't deserve what she'd have done to him. Besides, IR goes hot in under a year, and we could all do without this kind of complication.

I figured I could short-circuit things a bit.

He installed her in the guest room the first night. I mean, the guest room for pity's sakes. I checked the infra-red logs the next day. He'd stayed in his own room all night. His sense of chivalry really goes beyond the hopeless. And it's no wonder the guy has so much raw energy.

The second day, I put Plan A into operation.

It should have been like taking candy from a baby.

Sadly, like I said, she'd been pre-warned. I'm sorely tempted to add to Gordon's list of injuries.

At first I didn't think that it would be a problem. It would take a little more effort than usual, that's all.

But I have to admit, she's tenacious.

I managed to get her on her own a couple of times. I let her know I was interested. She let me know – politely – that she wasn't. I turned up the heat under the smile. "C'mon. You're not telling me that things have gone so far with Scott that you can't have a little fun. You slept with him yet?"

Her smile matched mine. We both knew how to play this game. "Honey, that's none of your business, you know that," she pouted and ran a finger across my lips. I felt some distal stirrings. Dang, the tricksy little minx could both turn me on and resist my animal magnetism at the same time. I had to hand it to her, she was really good.

I ratcheted up the John Glenn Tracy charm as high as it'll go, and it goes pretty high, believe me. I ran a finger down her back. She gasped and her breathing quickened. Just the intended effect. My hopes shot up. I moved in close to let her know how far.

"Beautiful woman like you - you're wasted on him, you know that? Besides, he need never know," I lied. That was the point. I'd make damn sure he knew. I know Scott - he won't settle for damaged goods. I bent my head down and my lips found hers. She put up very little resistance. When she came up she was fighting for breath.

"You're very sweet," she purred huskily. I tried not to grimace. Sweet? "And it sure is a tempting offer, honey. But I couldn't do that to him."

My finger worked its way to more sensitive areas but after a few moments she sighed reluctantly and moved it away.

"Hon', you really shouldn't be doing that."

She glanced about quickly to check he wasn't anywhere in the vicinity.

"You're not going to get any better offers while you're here," I pointed out. "He hasn't slept with you, has he?

"He says I'm special and he wants to wait until we're married. Don't you think that's cute?" She didn't sound over-enthusiastic.

"Real cute," I said, just as unenthusiastically.

I'm not used to being turned down. However attracted to me she was, it seemed she was even more dedicated to getting her hands on the full weight of the Tracy billions. Ultimately, that was her downfall. I'd have let her off easy if she'd been less greedy.

But Plan B was beginning to take shape, and aid arrived from an unexpected quarter.

…