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There are no other activities that make Scott feel so alive as the feeling he gets while flying in the air, a passion shared with most of his family. Heck, even his grandmother had been flying commercial airliners in her prime years.
So it came as no surprise to him that when his father introduced operation ‘International Rescue’ to the rest of the family, everyone wholeheartedly agreed to participate.
Sure, some exceptional careers had to be dropped and a lot of social sacrifices had to be made by the boys for this to become a reality, but they were confident that it would all be worth it in the end.
They overestimated themselves too much.
Turns out the world needs a lot more rescuing than they originally thought. Not a day goes by without the need for International Rescue, and it usually doesn’t end at just one rescue a day.
Scott could clearly see the exhaustion on the face of his brothers each passing day and has no doubt he sported the same look.
There were numerous times that Scott found Alan collapsed on the ground in the morning after he brought in his bird in from a particularly straining mission in space.
He would scoop up his baby brother and carry him towards his room, being careful not to jolt him too much. This gave Scott an opportunity to observe Alan better and his worry deepened. The bags under his eyes were a clear contrast on the tan skin. Scott knew that this kind of lifestyle could not be healthy for a 20 year old.
He had tried to keep the damage to his brothers’ health to a minimum by going at it alone at night when they were are all sleeping, but John quickly found out as he noticed a lack of radio contact after he relayed the message and only one Thunderbird leaving Tracy Island.
John reluctantly agreed to Scott’s solo missions after he practically begged him to let him do this. These solo missions however proved to be a much more staining task than Scott would’ve liked to admit and after one particularly close call due to fatigue, John told the rest of the family what was going on.
His brothers and father forbid him from doing that ever again.
‘Hey Scott, what’s up?’
Scott was looking at one of the numerous frames that hang on the wall of his father’s study in which his brother John was projected.
‘Hey John.’
A moment of silence passed before John spoke again.
‘Shouldn’t you be sleeping at this hour? You look a bit tired.’
Scott almost laughed at that statement. The video was not exactly 4K quality, but even then Scott could clearly see the fatigue and loneliness in his brother’s eyes.
John is practically stuck in space with no living organism to keep him company and has taken it upon himself to monitor the different radio frequencies, which obliges him to be alert twenty four-seven as an emergency call could come at any time.
‘Scott?’
Now that Scott thought about it, when was the last time he had given his brother one of his famous big-brother-bear hugs? When was the last time he sneaked into John’s bedroom to observe him sleeping peacefully?
‘Space to Scott, do you read me?’
When was the last time the two of them sat on the rooftop marveling at the Milky Way until their father found out and yelled at them to come inside? When was-
‘Scott!’
‘Huh what? Oh yes everyone’s doing fine.’ Scott replied quickly.
‘That wasn’t the question big bro.’
Scott sighed. ‘Sorry, I was just… thinking…’ How much should he tell him?
Knowing John’s keen and observing eyes, he probably already had an idea about what Scott was thinking about. This issue has been playing around in Scott’s head for a long time and John knows that.
‘Why don’t you come down from there anymore John?’
John let out a small sight and Scott geared up for the counter-arguments he would hear from the oldest of his little brothers. ‘Scott you know why.’
‘No, I don’t. There are other people on this Island who can take care of the emergency calls while you-‘
‘Do what Scott? You know as well as I do that I can’t fly your birds nearly as well as you do and would only get in the way on a mission. And standing on the side lines is something I can’t do.’
There was a slight pause before Scott said in a smaller voice: ‘We could teach you…’
‘Seeing as you are all dead tired thanks to the amount of rescues you guys have to do – heck you almost collapsed on us not that long ago – I don’t think it’s a good idea to put lengthy flying lessons into the already tight schedule.’
‘But we can do this! If we all just work with you one hour a day-‘.
‘Be realistic Scott. You will have to manage the operation with a capable rescuer missing and you all have to take time out of your schedule to teach me to fly and rescue, which will take a few weeks minimum. You guys won’t last three days.’ John’s voices softened a bit. ‘Besides, we already decided on these jobs before we started this operation and I already knew full well the consequences when I took on space duty. I’m not complaining.’
Scott looked downwards in anger balding his fists. This is not fair. John has too big of a sense of self-sacrifice and his family is too dense to notice it.
Scott misses the times he could hang out with his closest brother. He misses him.
‘I miss you Johnny.’ Scott realised too late he had said his last thought out loud and could only hope this wasn’t too much of a blow on John’s already fragile heart.
‘I miss you too Scooter, but this really is for the best.’ Looking into the melancholy eyes of his brother, Scott suddenly wondered who the oldest really was.
John’s gaze felt heavy as Scott sighed and his head hang in defeat. He never could win arguing against John.
This was such a problem back in the day. Gordon and Alan were constantly using John as a secret weapon; every time Scott tried to scold them for their pranks on their father or Brains when they were working, they would run to John begging for help and John all but enjoyed to come to their defence.
Scott smiled a bit at this fond memory, but sombered up a bit again as he remembers the two quickly learning to argue back for themselves ever since they started International Rescue.
The old memories where Scott would roam the house until he ended up in John’s room while he was studying, or where he would enter the living room to find John sucked up in a book did not evoke the same feelings as it did before.
Instead of feeling a surge of simple happiness, he just felt sad and angry at himself and his family for letting this go on. The purpose of the calls gradually changed as well; he used to call up on John to keep him inside the loop and to just talk to him like they used to when they were kids. But now it was more to remind himself how he looked like and how his voice sounded.
Tears started to roll down from Scott eyes as the sadness and frustration of this reality became too much. He vehemently rubbed the tears away hoping that John wouldn’t notice, but of course this was wishful thinking as he knows John always notices everything.
‘Hey hey Scott. what’s wrong?’ John asked softly.
‘You know what’s wrong!’ Scott yelled out as he looked back up towards the screen. His body became rigid as he tried forced the emotions back in after this outburst, but it would just not help.
‘Come on big bro talk to me.’ John coaxed some more.
That was all he needed to do.
‘This is just so messed up! You’re so stubbornly holding on to this idea that what your doing is right and that no one will miss you down here! When is the last time you even walked these halls anyway?! When was the last time you sat on this couch and just relaxed while Virgil played the piano in the corner?! Have you even heard Virgil play recently?! Have you seen Alan’s hopeless first attempts to flirt with TIntin?! Do you know what Gordon’s current breath-holding record is?! You’re missing out on so much by staying up there and I’m scared of what will happen if this goes on.’
Scott started calming down a bit, but the tears came out without refrain now. ‘I see dad looking sadly at your portrait when he thinks no one is there to see it. I hear Virgil and Gordon talk about you in the past tense and I’m not even sure Alan remembers what you look like when you are not talking through a screen. And you know many nights, I wake up terrified that you appear more in my dreams digitally than physically.’
Scott paused. ‘John, I know you think that staying up there is best for everyone and that you won’t be missed, but think again. The world can go for one day without you in Thunderbird 5, but I don’t think I can anymore…’
‘He’s right son.’
Scott turned around feverishly and was startled to find his father and his brothers all walking towards him and the monitor with determined faces.
Jeff slowly but strongly embraced his eldest son when Scott anxiously asked: ‘What did you hear?’
Virgil was the one to answer. ‘We heard enough to know that a visit from space is long overdue.’ All the heads turned back towards the monitor where John looked torn.
‘Son.’ Jeff started and John flinched. Scott couldn’t help but smile a bit –John could hold an argument against Scott, but dad always came out on top. ‘Although we never let it notice when we talk to you, we do miss you dearly and we all wish you would come back down here more often.’ Scott was quiet as he held his breath.
‘Yeah John!’ Gordon spoke up. ‘We never speak to you anymore outside of mission calls and we are sick of it!’
‘And I can take over the space duties in the meantime.’ This time it was Alan who spoke. ‘That was also what we agreed on when we handed out the jobs remember.’
‘I know guys but International Rescue-‘
‘Will be fine when you hand the job over to one of us from time to time.’ Alan and Gordon both retorted.
Damn they’ve gotten good at counter arguing John thought.
‘So John what do you think?’ Virgil asked carefully grinning. ‘Will you be coming home for grandma’s apple pies tomorrow?’
John looked over everyone’s faces: Virgil’s was smiling brightly, Gordon and Alan were gleaming mischievously, Scott was staring at him pleadingly with puffy but strong eyes and finally his father was looking at him smiling tenderly like he did so many years ago.
John sighted but a smile started to creep up on his face nonetheless.
‘Yes I’d love to.’