"Whump"tober 2021

#27) Just Left of Center - TAG

Prompt #27- I'm fine I prom-. Thunderbirds are Go. Set during the Season 3 finale, sometime before the final scene. 

Scott led the family for a loooooong time. Recently I had to go through a slightly similar experience that didn't even last a whole year. Everything resolving, even though it was the way I'd hoped, left me feeling off balance to my place in my family. Scott was the head of the family for at least 8 years. That's a lot to work through when that doesn't *have* to be his position anymore. ToS backstories in effect w/ Jeff's less than great initial response to Lucy's death implied.

The holoscreen in front of Scott blurred. Grumbling under his breath, Scott rubbed his eyes. His vision cleared enough to see again, but now his eyelids were losing their battle with gravity.

Scott reached for his coffee mug. He grimaced around the sip. It had long since grown cold, but it still had the necessary caffeine to keep him (semi)coherent. The neon green 3:00 AM glared at him from its corner of the screen. Scott ignored it.

He still had too many things he needed to do before tomorrow. The last month had been a whirlwind of emotions- finding Jeff, making it home after the Hood attempted to kill them again. Doctor's appointments. Inpatient rehab after living in space without much gravity and on recycled air for nearly a decade. Paperwork for both Tracy Industries and International Rescue as both scrambled to find some semblance of hemostasis as the patriarch to both had reappeared. All of it culminated in Jeff being cleared for discharged from rehab to come home. Tomorrow. (Well today now, but semantics).

And Scott was terrified.

Not of Jeff, par se- at least not since he disavowed the liquor bottle. No, it was everything Jeff represented. The legacy he created, peaking at the Zero-X. So, so many times in taking care of his brothers, and while on rescues, Scott asked himself, "What would dad do?"

Now Jeff would be in the home that Scott had tried so hard to cultivate. The businesses Scott spent days (and nights) agonizing over. The brothers that- especially in Alan's case since he'd been ten when Jeff disappeared- had blurred lines between a parental and fraternal relationship to Scott. The life that Scott hadn't necessarily chosen, but had embraced with every fiber of his being for most of his adult life.

Without it. . . who was Scott Tracy?

Not that he wasn't relieved and overjoyed to have Jeff home. It felt like a weight had come off his chest and he could breathe for the first time in almost a decade. . . but little things hurt in a way he didn't expect. When Alan called Jeff first, telling him about a good grade he got on one of his finals, before telling Scott. Paging John to hear in the background him bouncing off his newest space theory to Jeff when Scott had grown used to being John's soundboard. Virgil composing and playing a new concerto first at the rehab center. Jeff walking Gordon through pre procedural check offs from his rehab suite.

Scott grit his teeth.

He was being stupid. Those were all things that should be shared with Jeff. Things that he'd been missing out on for years. . . things that Scott didn't realize he'd grown used to doing with/for his brothers. Scott knew his brothers weren't meaning anything by their choices. Having Jeff back could only be described as a miracle.

So Scott buried his feelings beneath getting Tracy Island ready for Jeff's return. Preparing International Rescue and Tracy Industries to be ready for the true CEO to return.

John had produced giant records and updates of both for Jeff to read while he recuperated. The black and white facts left Scott cringing when he remembered some of his early decisions. Taking over two major companies in his early twenties led to a sharp learning curve especially at first. He didn't think Jeff would hold them against him, especially with how both were doing now, but for his father to read the ups and downs of Scott taking care of the family businesses terrified him.