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A groan on his right woke him, forcing him to lift his head to see who it was. John lay next to him, his wrists bound, clearly having just woken up from the same uncomfortable sleep that Gordon had. “Hey, Johnny. How’s it going?”
“Really?” John rolled his eyes at his younger brother. “How’s it going? That’s the best thing you can think of to ask?”
“Just trying to keep it light. Humor helps in uncomfortable situations.”
“I wish whoever invented that saying would recant their statement immediately. You’ve taken it far too much to heart.” Despite John’s protests, Gordon knew that he was right. The joking had distracted him from the chafing on his wrists and give them both a much needed burst of hope.
“How are you feeling?”
Gordon pushed himself upright, taking a quick inventory of his body. “I’ll live. I feel a bit foggy from whatever drugs they gave us, but it’s getting better. I still have my watch on, too.”
John frowned. Everyone that they encountered on a regular basis knew that their watches had trackers in them, and would have taken it off at the first opportunity. Which meant that they were dealing with an unknown threat this time. Gordon nearly laughed at John’s thinking face, but then he suddenly doubled over gasping for breath, his face screwed up in pain.
“John?”
“I’m alright. I seem to be reacting to whatever they drugged us with, but I think I’ll live. It’s just making it hard to think. My head is killing me.”
Gordon wedged his shoulder under John’s to leverage him up, staying close to give his brother some much needed support. “We’ll get out of here soon, and then we’ll figure out what they gave you. It’s probably something only nerd’s are allergic to, so it’s not bothering me.”
John tried to roll his eyes, but the pain left him breathless again, and he settled back down on his brother’s shoulder. “Ok.” He whispered.
Gordon was worried now. It wasn’t like John to not have a sassy comeback. The drugs must be affecting him more than he let on.
The door creaked open, and a man stepped into the room. They had never seen him before, which was both reassuring and concerning. It always helped in this sort of situation to know what they were dealing with, but it being someone new meant they might be able to get away with things their normal antagonists would be expecting. “Mr. Tracy.”
Both of them looked up. “Yes?”
The man in front of them sighed, seemingly discouraged at their response.
“What do you want?” Gordon demanded.
“Money, obviously.”
“Why, don’t you have any of your own?”
John huffed a laugh at his brother’s joke. Unfortunately, their new acquaintance seemed to find it less funny, as he stepped forward and backhanded Gordon across the face. His lip split, blood dripping down his chin.
“I have plenty of money. How dare you imply that I don’t?”
“Well, if you have plenty of money, why do you want ours?”
“I-I don’t-“ He sputtered. “I kidnapped you for ransom.”
“So I assumed.” John muttered dryly, as Gordon choked on the blood filling his mouth, spitting it onto the ground in front of him.
Their kidnapper bent over him, fisting his hand in Gordon’s hair and pulling his head back painfully. “Do you need to catch your breath?” He asked sarcastically.
“Only from laughing at you.”
John tried to shush his brother before he made things worse. It was too late, however, and their kidnapper struck Gordon across the face again, opening up another cut over his eyebrow. John was knocked off Gordon’s shoulder, and attempted to right himself, but only managed to make himself fall over faster. His head hit the floor loudly, and he groaned, falling limp.
“John!” Gordon exclaimed, trying to lift his brother back up. “Untie me.” He demanded. “I need to help him. Please.” Gordon pulled frantically at his bonds, desperately trying to get to his brother.
Their captor untied the knots, looking genuinely concerned, and Gordon turned immediately to his brother, lifting his head off the ground and checking for blood, fingers feeling for a pulse. He sighed with relief when he found it, weak and irregular, but still there.
“He’s reacting to whatever you drugged us with. If we can’t get it out of his system soon, it might be too late. What did you give him?”
“It was the same thing I gave you. It shouldn’t have hurt him. I just knew I had to give him twice as much as I gave you, because of the hair.”
Gordon stared at him blankly. “What are you talking about?”
“You know.” The man gestured wildly. “Ginger’s require more anesthetic?”
Gordon was livid. “You gave him a double dose of a sedative just because he’s a ginger? That might be true for anesthetic, but even then they start at the normal dose and work up. He’s as skinny as a stick and he spends half his time in space, you could have given him a half dose and he would have been knocked out!”
The man looked honestly remorseful. “I didn’t know. I thought-“
He was cut off by Kayo bursting through the door, Scott hot on her heels. She knelt down on the other side of John, leaving Scott to deal with their kidnapper, who backed into the corner and surrendered as soon as they entered.
“What’s going on?” She asked quietly, stepping in to help.
“Double dose of sedative. He was doing okay up until a couple minutes ago, when he just passed out.”
“Breathing?”
“Steady, for now, but shallow. Pulse is weak, and inconsistent. We need to get him out of here. We don’t have the equipment to deal with an overdose like this in here.”
“Agreed. Thunderbird Two is outside. The medbay is prepped and ready for him. We weren’t sure what we were walking into, so we made sure to have everything on standby.”
Gordon slid his arms under his brother, lifting him up. Shifting his head onto his shoulder, he slowly stood and walked out of the room, Kayo following close behind. He could feel John’s weak breath on his neck, and hastened his steps as fast as he safely could.
They reached Two sooner than he had thought possible, Gordon moving to settle John gently into the bed. Kayo moved smoothly around him, ready with an oxygen mask by the time he put his brother down. She quickly attached the mask as Gordon secured the many monitors to his body.
When they finished, Gordon settled himself heavily onto the next bed. His hands were shaking, breath coming fast. He seemed to have forgotten in his worry over his brother that he was also injured. Kayo took a last look at the monitors around John before pulling out some gauze and rubbing alcohol and coming over to Gordon.
She cleaned the cut on his lip gently, setting aside the used supplies to stick a few butterfly bandages across the split. The cut over his eye received the same treatment. Finished, she took his hands in hers. He hadn’t moved throughout the whole process, aside from his shaking hands, which worried her. “Hey. It’s okay. You did good. He’s going to be alright. You’re out.”
She sat next to him on the bed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, just sitting with him in silence for a few minutes until the machines surrounding John started beeping. They both jumped to their feet, hurrying over to the other bed.
John’s breathing had shallowed, his body completely limp and unmoving. They secured the oxygen mask even tighter and upped the flow, pumping air into his lungs. “What do we do?” Gordon asked, reaching for his brother’s hand.
“You know as well as I do. Keep him breathing, keep him comfortable. It will wear off soon enough.”
“I hate this. I hate not being able to do anything. I hate it.”
“I know. We’ll be out of here in a few minutes, and Virgil said you were to fly Two home. He was very unhappy we left without him. He made Scott promise to keep well below the max speed of Two.”
“I’m impressed he even let him fly in the first place.”
Kayo winked at him. “I was given strict instructions to watch him the entire flight.”
Gordon laughed, just as Scott came marching into the medbay, settling himself at John’s bedside. “You’re flying us home?”
“Yep!” Gordon replied brightly. His smile was clearly forced, although Scott, already bending over John, didn’t notice. He headed briskly up to the cockpit, Kayo on his heels. Running quickly through the preflight checks, he had the plane up in the air as fast as possible. As soon as they were headed home, he opened the comms down to the medbay. “How’s he doing, Scott?”
“Still stable. He just needs to sleep it off now. We’ll get him to bed when we get home, and he’ll be fine.”
If Virgil knew the speeds Gordon was pushing his ‘bird to, he might have regretted letting him fly. Gordon didn’t have the same experience flying her as Virgil, but he knew how to get the best speeds from her, and Kayo was an able copilot. They didn’t talk much on the flight back. Kayo could tell Gordon needed some time to process, although he probably wouldn’t admit it if she asked. She turned on some quiet ocean sounds over the speakers, and watched as Gordon visibly relaxed into his seat.
Virgil was there when they landed, following John’s bed the best he could while on crutches. “What happened?” It was clear how hard it had been for him to be stuck at home when his brothers had needed help, so no one thought to scold him.
“He’s doing fine, Virgil.” Kayo reassured, Scott and Gordon already in the elevator halfway to the infirmary. “He just needs to sleep it off now.” She wrapped her arm around his waist. “Let’s get you sitting down again. You’re not really supposed to be up yet. We don’t need you to injure yourself again.”
They reached the infirmary at the same time as Scott and Gordon finished attaching the last of the monitors to John’s skin. She helped Virgil settle on a nearby bed, then turned to Gordon, who had not moved from his unconscious brother’s side. “We made it back. He’s going to be fine now.”
Gordon mustered up a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Thanks, Kayo. I think I’m just going to stay here for a bit anyways. I’ll feel better being able to see him.”
That they all understood. There had been too many times they had been forced to watch someone they loved collapse injured from the life they led, and the fear never really got easier to deal with. They just learned how to cope with it better. Gordon settled into a chair at John’s bedside as Kayo delivered pain pills to Virgil and ushered (pushed) Scott out of the room. She attached an oxygen monitor to Gordon’s finger on her way out. “Just in case.” She said. “You did get drugged too. Don’t make me deal with both of you.”
“I won’t.” Gordon promised. The room settled into silence. Virgil quickly fell asleep, his soft snores and the quiet beep of John’s equipment the only sounds in the room.
When Gordon awoke, the crick in his neck told him he had been out for a few hours. He rolled his neck back and forth to work out the kinks, and then realized John was staring at him, aquamarine eyes open, but slightly unfocused. “Hey, John. How you doing?”
“Like I got hit by a truck. Everything is hard to move. And my head is throbbing.”
“I’m sorry. I know it sucks.” Gordon said sincerely. “You just need to go back to sleep. That will give you time to burn the last of the drugs out of your system. I can’t give you anything for the headache yet. I wish I could, but we don’t know how your body would react right now.” Gordon reached out and began to run his hand through John’s hair.
John shut his eyes again, sighing in relief. “That helps. Don’t stop.” He cracked one eyelid back open to glare at his brother. “What were you thinking back there? Antagonizing the person holding you prisoner is not usually the recommended technique.”
“Well, I didn’t see you coming up with any better ideas.”
“I was drugged and basically unconscious! I could barely remember my own name, let alone come up with a plan to get us out of there.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I had to come up with the plan by myself. And you know what they say. ‘A good joke is the best weapon in the world.’”
“No one says that!”
“I say it, so it definitely counts.”
John didn’t answer, and when Gordon looked back down, he was already asleep. Gordon took a moment to enjoy having everyone home safe. People often accused him of being immature, or of never taking anything seriously. He knew that’s what it looked like from the outside, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. He was fully aware of the seriousness of what they did and the risks they took on a daily basis. But he also refused to allow it to bring him down. His family already bore enough weight. Allowing himself to wallow in fear would accomplish nothing but bring them all down. So he took it upon himself to keep the family’s spirits up with well-timed jokes and pranks. Even if it didn’t feel like much, it was something he could do to help.
And he did it well.