WARMING UP by BOOMERCAT RATED FRPT

Scott struggles to overcome his injuries.

This story takes place immediately after the events in A Cold Day in Hell, A Cold Evening and The Cold Light of Day.

Ouch. Damn. I moved wrong again. Well, at least I hadn't cried out in 'soul rending agony'. Soul rending agony. Alan did have a way with words. One little groan, and suddenly I was in 'soul rending agony'. I swear, I don't know where that kid comes up with that stuff.

I didn't hear any sound in the room, but I knew better than to think I was alone. I knew if I opened my eyes, I would find at least one brother, and probably Grandma or Tin-Tin keeping watch over me. The brother would most likely be Virgil. He had been there everytime I opened my eyes over the last few days. It was comforting to know he cared, but totally unnecessary.

I had cracked my head while on a rescue in the Arctic, and all I had done for the last day? week? month? was sleep. Brains had assured me that it was only a minor concussion. I told him to try it from my side and see how 'minor' it felt. There was also a cut on my ribs. It didn't seem like a big deal except for the ache.

No, I had gotten off lucky. Now, if I could just sit up without wanting to puke, I'd be in business. And I was feeling the pressure to get back in business again. So far, there had been no call for International Rescue's services, but it was only a matter of time. I needed to be ready.

As that thought entered my mind, so did the corollary. Thunderbird One needed to be ready too. My eyes popped open. I looked around in the hope that one of my watchers was Brains, our resident genius. The light seared into my brain like a knife, and it was hard to focus, but soon saw that I was alone in the sick room with my brother Gordon.

A few moments of squinting, and I realized the lights were actually turned down quite low, which told me it was nighttime. Gordon was holding a book, but from the unfocused gaze I could tell he wasn't really reading. I had been wanting to have a talk with him anyway. He had glossed over his participation in saving my life, but I had seen the way Tin-Tin and Alan treated him when the three of them had visited earlier today. Or maybe it was yesterday. Whatever.

"Hey." My voice came out as a squeak, but Gordon still jumped. It was the slight wince that told me all I really needed to know.

"You startled me. Want some water or something?" Gordon kept his voice low, which I appreciated.

"Yeah, water would be good, thanks." I watched as he got up and went over to the small refrigerator in one corner of the room, but he was on his guard now, and showed no sign of whatever the injury was. His movement was good, which eliminated any problem with the legs or arms. He seemed a bit stiff, but that could be his back. He looked over his shoulder at me so it wasn't his neck.

He came back with a glass and a straw. I decided it was time to see where I stood on the healing issue. "Help me up."

"Up? Are you sure that's such a good idea? Virg said you were spewing all over the place this morning." Gordon's reluctance was plain.

I responded dryly, "That was this morning. This is now. I need to get back on my feet, Gordon. Besides, if I do spew, I have you here to clean it up for me."

"Actually, I'm just filling in for Virgil while he takes a shower. He's much better at cleaning up than I am. We'll just save any messes for him." As he spoke, Gordon set the glass down and reached for the bed controls. Dad had spared no expense, and our base infirmary was equipped with fully functional hospital beds.

I bit my lip and waited for the bed to rise. Given the strength of the headache, I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance of making it upright. Gordon spoke quietly, "Okay, here we go."

I shut my eyes and concentrated on controlling by roiling stomach. Gordon was good. He made sure the bed didn't rise quickly, but as my head exploded and my belly protested, I wished he would just hurry and get it over with. Finally, the movement stopped. I swallowed several times with my eyes still shut, breathing hard to keep control.

Eventually, my stomach settled down, and I opened my eyes. I found Gordon hovering apprehensively over me, a basin held close to my chin. I narrowed my eyes. "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

He looked at me wryly, "I have all the faith in the world in you. It's your stomach I don't trust."

His statement brought a sudden thought to my mind. "Do you? Do you really? I didn't see a lot of trust out there on that rescue."

The accusation came out harsher than I meant it to. In the course of our attempt to rescue some scientists stuck under the Arctic ice, Gordon and I had had a disagreement. Our father had come down on Gordon's side. The fact that Gordon was eventually proven right didn't change the fact that he had been prepared to disobey a direct order from me. It bothered me that my dad had overridden me, but not nearly as much as Gordon's insubordination.

I walked a delicate line between big brother and field commander. At home, I was just one of five brothers. The eldest to be sure, but nothing special in the eyes of my siblings. We fought, played, and worked side by side, treating each other as equals. But in the field, I was the commanding officer. I required instant obedience and respect. Sometimes our lives, and the lives of those we rescued depended on that obedience.

I relied on Gordon a lot to show our other brothers the way it was done. He had spent almost sixteen months in the World Navy and WASP. That military training gave him a leg up on understanding the importance of a clear command structure. He had taught Alan, John and even Virgil by outstanding example. I couldn't help but feel if he started openly flaunting my authority, my position as field commander could become very tenuous, very quickly.

He stood staring at me for a moment, and I thought he was going to go mulish on me, but the moment passed, and he looked away. "I'm sorry, Scott. It won't happen again."

I snorted, which my head told me was a mistake. "Yeah, right. It won't happen again until the next time."

That got a rise out of him. "You know, you could have a little bit of trust in me, too. I'm not three years old any more. I don't need you to clean my nose and wipe my butt. I know what I'm doing, Scott. Those people didn't have twenty minutes for me to use the laser. The thermal image showed the water had reached them. It turned out they didn't even have the ten minutes the oxyhydnite took. But you didn't trust me, and so you said no."

"Whoa, wait a minute! I never said I didn't trust you, Gordon. I didn't trust the situation. I didn't want you near that junction box because it could very well have been booby-trapped. You could have been hurt or killed and..."

"Right, and you just had to protect your little baby brother. Scott, how can we function if you won't let me take any chances?"

I closed my eyes again the throbbing of my temple and fought to keep my voice level. "As I was saying. You could have been hurt or killed and that would have destroyed any chance to save those people. Gordon, risk assessment is my damn job. And if I was going to play big brother, I would have taken Thunderbird Four down myself. And believe me, I considered it."

I opened my eyes to see a startled look on Gordon's face. "What? You think I shouldn't want to protect you? Of course I want to! But I knew then, as I know now, you were the best man for the job." I slowly shook my aching head. "I only have one last thing to say on this, and then we'll drop it. Like I said, my job is risk assessment. But I can't do my job if I don't have information. You never said anything about the water having reached those people. You're my eyes and ears, Gordon." I looked him in the eye, and after a moment, he sighed, and nodded his head.

Gordon was never one to dwell on things so I felt comfortable moving on. "Okay. Enough about that. What I want to know is how bad you were hurt, and how it happened."

That caught him off guard and I saw a play of astonishment quickly covered by his patented innocent look. "What are you talking about, Scott?"

I narrowed my eyes and said challengingly, "Strip."

He barked a laugh at that. "No, I don't think so. You'll just have to get your kinky little thrills elsewhere, Scotty."

"I can get Virgil in here to help you."

"Yeah, and I can get Brains in here to sedate your ass into next week."

"Okay, all kidding aside. Where do you hurt? And don't try to sell me that it's nothing, because I'm not buying."

Gordon rolled his eyes, but wouldn't look in my direction. "I took a shot to the ribs. They're bruised, that's all."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. Tin-Tin looked me over. Pretty bruises, no breaks."

"All right. So how did it happen?"

Gordon shrugged, looking away. "I returned to Thunderbird Four to get some body bags. I had just left the airlock to head back to the site when Thunderbird One just sort of appeared right above my head. I had to move fast. I got out of the way, but when she hit, she kicked up a piece of debris. Took me in the ribs, hard."

I nodded. "Okay. So why didn't you mention it before?"

I could tell by the look on his face he was debating whether or not to tell me. It probably meant I wasn't going to like the answer, but I took my position as commander very seriously, and I needed to know what went on out there. "Gordon?"

"It was a... It was a really tough rescue. Remember I told you it was really dark? Well, it was more than that. It was dead."

Gordon was speaking in a very quiet voice, and I could tell it wasn't simply out of courtesy for my poor aching head. Maybe it was the pain, but I had this feeling he had said something profound, but I just wasn't catching it. "Uh, what do you mean?"

"It was dead, Scott, the ocean was dead. It was blighted, no life, no fish, nothing."

"Well, it was the Arctic, after all."

No, you don't... Scott, in the ocean, life persists. It doesn't matter how cold it is. There's always life. Seals, fish, crabs, all sorts of things. The opposite is true too. Remember I shot that film of the vent worms by that underwater fissure? The water there would have scalded the skin right off of you or me, but there was life there anyway."

Gordon had always been passionate about the ocean, and it was coming out in the intensity of what he was saying. I wasn't quite sure what it had to do with hiding an injury, but I was willing to hear him out. His look was bleak as he continued. "The only places in the ocean where there is no life are those places man has spoiled. From the point I hit the water, the entire area was dead. I don't know if it was those scientists or the military people before them, but they killed an entire section of the ocean."

"You should have said something."

He shrugged. "It wasn't pertinent. Anyway, I got to the base, and it was this ugly little dome. You know, like an oil refinery or something. Purely utilitarian, no thought of grace. It was like it was as blighted as the area. When I got through to the room where the scientists were, it was too late, they were all dead."

"Yeah, but you knew they were dead before you got to them."

Gordon started to reply, but shook his head and groped for the words. "I know, but you still hope, you know?"

I did know. We were so successful that the failures were all that much harder. I just nodded my head. "Yeah, I know."

"So anyway, here I was with death all around. I wasn't my usually sunny self, you know? And then, here comes Thunderbird One, crashing down on me. I swear to God, Scott, that thing zeroed in on Thunderbird Four like it meant it. It didn't come straight down. It came at an angle. With the whole ocean to choose from your stupid rocket picks on my poor little helpless sweet submarine."

I knew Gordon was exaggerating to shake off the dark feelings that had risen in him, but there was no way I was going to let a challenge like that go unanswered. "Stupid? You're calling Thunderbird One stupid?"

"The whole ocean, Scott."

"That just sounds like good aim to me." I put on a smirk just for my brother's benefit. I wanted to know what had happened next, but I knew Gordon needed to break from the intensity for a moment or two. My comment startled him, then his eyes narrowed, and I knew I would be on the receiving end of some dumb ass joke.

Finally he looked away and continued. "Well, anyway, like I said, Thunderbird One came crashing down and nailed Thunderbird Four. It might as well have been the world crashing down on me for the effect it had. My first thought was how the hell was I going to get out of there without Thunderbird Four? And then I realized you had to be in One. I got to the port, but there was no sign of you. The hatches didn't work, there weren't any signs of power... it was like whatever had killed the ocean had gotten Thunderbird One. And then I realized you had to be onboard somewhere, and it was like... like you had to be dead too."

Gordon's voice had risen as he told me this, but now it dropped down to a whisper. "I panicked, Scott."

He said it like it was the crime of the century, and I knew I had to say something, but before my tired mind could formulate the words, he continued. "Then, all of the sudden, Virgil was there. God, you don't know. It was like... like... I dunno... like the voice of an angel in the dark. I've never been so glad to hear a voice in all my life. He was like this anchor. He got me back on track, kept me from going crazy down there."

I could understand the anchor part. Virgil was one of the steadiest men I had ever known. It didn't matter how crazy things were, he was always calm and sure. "Yeah, he's done that for me a few times too."

Gordon suddenly looked at me, and I saw the shadows leave his eyes. He nodded slowly, a wry smile on his face. "Yeah, well, with everything that was going on, when he asked me if I was all right, I just said yes. He was the only thing standing between you and me and the bogeyman and I just didn't want to add anything more to his plate."

I closed my eyes for a minute. I opened them when I felt Gordon take my wrist to check my pulse. "Don't fuss."

I tried to take my wrist out of his hand, but he firmed up his grip. "I'm not fussing, Scott. I was told to check your vitals every hour on the hour. Just relax and I'll even warm up the stethoscope before I use it."

"You touch me with a cold stethoscope, and it'll be the last thing you ever do." I warned him. "Look, Gordon, I'm glad you told me what it was like down there, but you know, we're a team. You don't have to face things like that alone. Even if all we can do is talk, that's what we'll do, okay? You should have been chewing my ear off from the time you realized something wasn't right."

He shrugged as he wrapped my arm with the sphygmomanometer. "Sorry. You're right. I see that now. At the time, I just wanted to get it over with."

"Okay, I guess I can see how that could happen. As long as you learn from it." He rolled his eyes heavenward. I continued. "And as far as telling Virgil about the ribs, well, I understand. You ever do that with me, and it'll be more than your ribs, mind you, but under the circumstances, we'll just let it slide."

Gordon finished notating the chart he was using. I held out my hand to see it, and he wisely just turned it over. I tried to read the notes, but I was dismayed to find my vision was too blurry to make anything out. I could see the smirk on my brother's face, though, as he said, "Want me to read it to you?"

I handed back the chart with a glare. He took it far too cheerfully and looking at it, quoted "Patient has returned to normal pain in the ass self. Not an improvement, but the best we can hope for."

"You know, Virgil is going to love it when I tell him he has the voice of an angel."

"Hey! I told you that in confidence!"

"Oh, and Dad is going to really like the part about the ribs."

Instead of looking horrified, Gordon started to grin. He always had a great appreciation of a nifty piece of blackmail even when he was the victim. "Okay, Scott, you win."

"Win what?" We both looked up to find Virgil coming into the room, his hair still wet from his shower.

Gordon was quick to take advantage of the question. "He says he's gonna puke, and he wants you to clean it up, not me. He trusts you more."

Virgil ignored our brother as if he wasn't even there. "How are you feeling, Scott? You look pretty pale."

Two could play Gordon's little game. "I was feeling fine, but then Gordon forced me to sit up."

"Uh, okay, I think that's my cue to get the hell out of Dodge. Scott, thanks. Virg, he's been up for maybe thirty minutes." Gordon handed the chart to Virgil and disappeared out the door.

Virgil glanced at the chart and then turned to me. "You want to lie back down?"

"And lose the progress I've made? Not a chance. But I think I will close my eyes for a while."

"Okay." I closed my eyes knowing Virgil would settle in and guard my sleep for me. I knew I needed to talk Virgil through the rescue. Knowing and being able to do something about it were two different things, though. At the moment, sleep was overcoming me and as I drifted off, I wondered what he would say, but it would have to wait.