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Virgil chewed his bottom lip as he stood on the balcony and looked out over the pool and down to the beach. A lone figure was sitting there, slightly slumped, arms wrapped around their knees and his heart ached.
“Hey, Virg my man, what you doing?” Gordon’s voice was cheerful, but Virgil still picked up the underlying current of uncertainty it contained, about what the next few days would bring.
Virgil didn’t reply, but continued to look down at the beach and Gordon finally followed his gaze.
“Oh,” Gordon said. “Is he all right?”
“I don’t know. I’m gonna go and find out shortly. I can’t imagine what he’s feeling right now. Since we found out dad was alive, he’s promised us he’ll get him back and we’re going to go get him tomorrow. He has to be worried about what we’ll find. Eight years is a long time to be marooned out in the Oort Cloud.” Virgil turned to look at Gordon. “We have to face the harsh reality, Gordon. Dad could be dead.”
“I know… but you just have to admit it, dad’s too stubborn for that.”
Virgil let a small, tight grin cross his face before it faded. “Yeah, that much is true.”
“So, you reckon Scott’s just worried about the mission?”
“I don’t know, but I will find out.” He smiled again. “In fact, I’ll find out now, because we all need to get a decent night’s sleep in preparation for tomorrow and I don’t want him sitting out there half the night.”
He drew himself upright, nodded at Gordon and made his way down to where his eldest brother was sitting.
It showed just how distracted Scott was, because he didn’t hear his middle brother approach, and flinched in surprise as Virgil plonked himself down by his side so their shoulders were touching.
Normally, Virgil would have brought a couple of beers with him, but they needed to be clear headed and sharp for tomorrow, so he arrived empty handed. “Hey,” he said softly. “Sorry if I startled you.”
Scott gave him a fleeting smile, then returned his gaze to the ocean before him, but said nothing.
Virgil knocked his shoulder gently against his. “Come on, spill. What’s wrong?”
Scott heaved a huge sigh and shook his head. “Nothing, it’s fine.”
“Come on, Scotty. It’s me you’re talking to, we’re inside one another’s heads. Something is bothering you. My Scotty sense is screaming at me.”
“Is there really such a thing?” Scott gave him a quizzical look, then turned his head away again.
“You’d better believe it! You know we have a special connection. Now come on, give. Tell me what’s bothering you, bro.”
Big brother shook his head. “It’s stupid.”
“Let me be the judge of that. Tell me.”
Scott shrugged his shoulders. “This is gonna sound like I’m a power hungry megalomaniac.”
“You? Never! Bossy maybe, but not a megalomaniac! Come on, try me.” He tried to keep it light, but Scott didn’t smile or even acknowledge the tease.
Silence reigned for a few moments as the eldest gathered his thoughts. “Even when dad was here… I kinda felt like I was partly in charge because dad was never around… then he made the effort and it took the pressure off me a lot but then… then we all thought he’d been killed and everything landed on my shoulders… iR, TI, custody of Gordon and Allie, handling the GDF…”
“And you’ve done an incredible job, Scotty. You’ve got to believe that.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you guys, though.”
“We could have helped more in the early days, but we didn’t, and for that I can only apologise, but we’re helping now aren’t we?”
“Yes, of course you are, but…” Scott paused, looked up and the rapidly darkening sky and chewed his lip.
“But?” Virgil prompted.
“Well, John’s got finance, you’ve got R&D, Gordon and Alan are running their own projects in TI, but what will I have?”
“You’re the CEO, Scotty. What are you driving at?”
“If dad’s alive and we bring him home, he’ll want control of everything back, won’t he? I’ve been in charge for eight years, Virgil… I can’t… I just can’t hand it back and take a back seat… you know… ‘here you are dad, have it all back and I’ll start taking orders like in the old days’… I can’t do that. But if it happens, what am I going to do?” He glanced at his brother with eyes that were brighter than they ought to be.
Virgil stared at him, mouth slightly open. He hadn’t even considered this aspect. They were all excited at the possibility of getting their dad back alive. He was about to blurt something out in response when Scott continued.
“What will he think of my leadership these past eight years? God, we’ve all been injured; almost killed. I let Allie pilot Three at the age of 15… Dad’s gonna be furious about that… am I gonna get hauled over the coals for putting you in so much danger, and allowing you to be injured? And the fact that we’re known as iR. Dad wanted it to be kept secret, and I let it out. It all rests with me, Virg…”
“Oh Scotty!” Virgil wrapped his arms around his brother and hugged him tightly. “We all had a say in what we were doing. Alan begged and begged you to be a part; he aced all the sims and the other ones we thought up, so we couldn’t refuse him. You have no reason to doubt any of the decisions you’ve made over the past eight years. None at all. You have to believe that. And as for our identities being public… The Hood was the one who caused that, not you!” He paused as he kissed Scott’s forehead and carded a hand through his hair, noticing how Scott leaned into it as if seeking comfort. “Dad’s not going to be fit to take on anything for a few months if we get him back, so we will put in a plan to sort out who’s going to do what. But tell me, what do you want to do? What would make you happy?”
“That’s part of the issue, I honestly don’t know. I feel locked into my position, but I’ve given so much up, especially a life outside of all this. I’d like to fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids… that sounds selfish, I know… but I can’t let any of you down; I can’t desert you. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m gonna be single… I mean, can you see any woman putting up with what I do? My love for my family?”
“Scotty, stop! Stop right there! It’s not selfish to wish for a ‘normal’ life, however you want to describe ‘normal’. No one deserves to be on their own. Sure, you’ve got us, but it’s not the same as having a soulmate; someone to share the intimate parts of your life with, to want to be loved by a woman. God knows I think about it enough!”
Scott attempted to shift the conversation to what Virgil wanted; needed in his life, but his brother stomped on that straight away.
“Oh no you don’t!” he said. “For once we’re going to talk about your wants and needs. You know, if you and dad split things between you, you would have more time for the normal things in life.”
“You know we can’t keep going with just the five of us manning everything, Virgil. I was doing some stats. When dad was around, we didn’t have that many calls, and it was manageable, but they've kept increasing, year on year and they've quadrupled over the past two years. We’re being run into the ground. We need to expand. We can do that now we’ve gone public, but dad’s gonna be against that.”
“The figures don’t lie, Scott. He’ll have to accept that we can’t operate the same anymore. You’re right, we’ve got to expand. Alan should have the chance at a normal life, to go to uni if he wants to. Everyone apart from you had a childhood. You’ve missed out on so much and we’ve felt incredibly guilty about that… No, let me finish,” Virgil said quickly as Scott attempted to butt in. “We will expand, it’ll be five onto one, and that will give us the time to pursue what could pass for normal lives. Hell, I don’t want to be alone without a partner all my life either. So, once dad’s back, let’s work on a plan together to improve things for all of us, and give us some semblance of our lives back. The other thing we’re going to do, is make sure dad doesn’t try and blame you for things that have happened to us. He hasn’t been here, so he can’t question the decisions you made. Things have changed the eight years he’s been absent, he hasn’t the knowledge now to shoot down what you’ve done, do you hear me?”
Scott nodded slowly, overcome by the love and care Virgil was giving him. It felt so good to be loved like that and he fisted his hands in Virgil’s shirt as he let the love and care wash over him.
“Virg,” he mumbled.
“Shush, it’s gonna be okay. You’ve protected and looked after us practically all your life, now we’re going to do the same for you. It’s the least we can do, and we won’t let dad ramrod you out, or sideline you. You’ve more than proved yourself. In fact, you’ve been a better leader than he ever was.”
“Virg!”
“I mean it! iR is revered, TI is about to become a trillion dollar company, all under your command, with us helping you along. Dad can’t ignore that. We WON’T let him ignore that. I promise you, Scotty, we’re going to be backing you all the way.” He kissed his forehead again. “We love you so much.”
“You… you should go into politics,” Scott mumbled as he buried his head in Virgil’s neck, overcome with the strength of the love from Virgil.
“God no! That’s more your line. You’re the charmer and the flirt of the family!”
Scott gave a muffled short cry, half laugh half sob.
“Now, big bro, we have a big day tomorrow. We need to get some sleep, so come on, up you get, before you take root.”
Virgil released him from the hug, but didn’t let go of him entirely as he stood up and pulled Scott to his feet.
Arms around one another’s shoulders, they walked back up to the villa.
Gordon smiled and nodded, then turned to go to his room to get some sleep. Whatever conversation had been had down there on the beach seemed to have worked, at least for now.
Virgil escorted his brother to his bedroom. He hugged him tightly once more. “Get some sleep, Scotty. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day… for all of us…”
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