Chapter Text
It had started, as most things did, with Gordon.
It’d been a beautiful day on the island, with barely a cloud in the sky, and the ocean was a calm, clear turquoise that glittered in the afternoon sun. In this ocean, there also happened to be four thoroughly soaked androids, who stood perched on an outcropping of rocks. The waves swirled around their calves as they stared in various degrees of disbelief, concern, and frustration at the small boat that’d been run aground on the boulders situated just a bit further out. A hole had punctured the hull, allowing water to seep into the boat and slowly lower it beneath the surface of the waves.
“I thought you were monitoring the depth,” Scott finally said, glancing over at John, who met his brother’s annoyed expression with an unimpressed look of his own.
“I was, but the sensors obviously didn’t pick up on the rocks, and I’ve never been out here, so I didn’t know about them either.”
“Come on, guys, it was an accident, there’s no need to throw blame around,” Virgil stepped in, which had Scott huffing as he turned his attention back to the boat, while John merely rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. Despite his brothers’ less-than-positive reactions, the impending argument had been successfully prevented, so Virgil counted that as a win.
From off to the side, Gordon finally looked away from the boat to add, “Well, dad’s not going to be very happy about this.”
This statement confused the elder three, and they shared a look before Scott was brave enough to ask, “Gordon, whose dad?”
“Oh, come on, guys, it's Jeff. Duh!” the redhead said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Jeff? But why not Brains?” Scott then questioned. “He’s the one who actually built us.”
“Well, we look like we’re around the same age as Brains, so that’d be weird, first of all,” Gordon began to explain, clearly having put a lot of thought into the subject, “but Jeff looks old enough to be our dad, and we’re modeled after his children.”
“I’m not,” both John and Scott cut in. To which Gordon rolled his eyes.
“Okay, well, Virgil and I are, and apparently, the next guy is going to be based on his youngest son. Besides, Scott, you look like a younger Jeff, so you may as well be his son…” he paused then to look at the second eldest. “But uh, I guess, sorry John.”
“It’s whatever,” their future space monitor muttered. Except now, Gordon felt bad and didn’t want to let the subject drop, so he tried to elaborate.
“You do still look like the rest of us, though! I mean, their kids would’ve had to have some of Lucille’s features, so we must, too. And you’re like if they had a son, but all of Jeff’s genetics just lost.”
“Alright, Gordon. Thank you,” the blond said tersely, and this time, it was Scott who stepped in to stop an argument before it could begin, as well as getting the conversation back on track.
“Is that the only reason you call Jeff ‘dad’ though? Just because we look like him and he’s old enough?”
Gordon squinted at him. “Well, he is going to be our commander once International Rescue gets started, so you know, he’s going to be the one in charge of us. And don’t you think he acts like a dad sometimes?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know. It’s not like I’ve ever had a dad before, obviously.”
“You need to watch more TV then. He acts like the dads in those family shows sometimes.”
“I do to watch TV!”
“Mostly sports,” Virgil pointed out, inserting himself back into the conversation, “but I think Gordon has a point, and while Brains is our primary creator, Jeff helped build us as well.”
“Yeah, and he pays for stuff. I think dads are supposed to do that too,” John added.
“Exactly! You guys get it.” Gordon grinned. “So, we’re in agreement? Jeff is dad.”
He received various agreements of “Yeah, I guess so” from his older brothers before Scott added.
“I'm not sure we should say that to him directly, though. We don’t know how he’ll react or if he’ll even like us calling him that.”
“I know. I wasn’t going to,” Gordon huffed. “It’s just a joke between us.”
“Okay, squid,” Scott relented with a smile, placing a hand on Gordon’s shoulder.
However, the moment was soon dampened by Virgil saying, “Alright, but do we think he’s going to be mad about the boat?”
“Oh shi-” Scott cut himself off as he glanced back at the sinking vessel, honestly having forgotten it over the course of their conversation. It was now almost fully submerged.
“Well, someone’s going to have to tow it out,” John added, “Virgil cause he’s strongest, or Gordon because he can swim?”
“Not me, I’ll sink,” Virgil protested, and Gordon gave him an incredulous look.
“No, you won’t, you baby. All of us were built to swim!”
“Not as good as you!”
Scott sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose like he’d seen Jeff do when frustrated. “I’ll do it,” he grumbled. He then started carefully picking his way across the rocks, only to end up slipping off and tumbling into the water with a tremendous splash, earning the laughter of his younger siblings.
In the end, it took all of them to retrieve the boat and drag it back to shore. They then left it on the beach near the villa before making their way inside, trailing water behind them as they went to explain what had happened to Jeff.
The man had certainly been unimpressed with their explanation of how they’d run it aground on the rocks, but he hadn’t been angry either. Instead, he’d merely said he’d see about getting a new boat and just asked that they be more careful next time. He even agreed to let Virgil try fixing the boat up himself, for the engineering practice.
As they trailed out of the villa to return to the beach, Gordon had grinned and whispered conspiratorially, “See, just like a dad.”
His brothers nodded in agreement.