Thunderbirds Rewritten

7: A Bit of Trust

Jeff was on his seventh cup of coffee in the space of three hours. Despite having told everyone to rest and get some sleep tonight, he was up and reflecting on the last forty-eight hours. Only two days ago, he had grounded Alan for starting up Thunderbird One. It felt so insignificant now. Clearly Alan knew how to pilot the ships, as demonstrated by his good show in Thunderbird Four earlier that day. Jeff knew that Alan had been secretly getting lessons behind his back by his brothers. Scott of all of them was the first to sneak Alan into Thunderbird One at the age of twelve to drill into him the basics. It grew from there until Alan became quite well versed with the controls of all but Thunderbird Five. John's bird. The one currently scattered in Earth's orbit in a shower of debris. Useless, useless, debris.

Jeff sighed and looked at the time.

01:46AM.

This was going to be a long night. He hoped that John would be much better in the morning, but Virgil warned that with the adrenaline starting to wear off, John could easily feel ten times worse in the morning. John certainly wasn't going to be very much help in this mission. Jeff would be lying if he said he wasn't happy about that. It would be good for John to stay on medical leave for Alan's sake when he finally woke up. If he woke up.

'Damn it, Jeff, stop thinking like that!'

John would be the first face that Alan sees waking up, thankfully, because he seemed to be the only one Alan currently trusted. How did he miss his youngest son struggling so much?

His thoughts were interrupted by someone entering his office.

"Virgil, sit," Jeff said as he saw his third born walk in. His middle child. The one who should famously have more issues than any other child, yet turned out to have less than everyone put together.

"I couldn't sleep, but you already knew that," Virgil said. Jeff nodded, knowing Virgil would have been checking in on Alan and John every so often.

"How are they?" Jeff asked.

"Oh John's feeling it now," Virgil smirked. "Had to hook up an IV with a constant flow of painkillers."

"Can't say we didn't see that one coming," Jeff chuckled.

"Yeah, could have been a lot worse," Virgil replied, sobering them both instantly.

"Alan still the same?" Jeff asked, already knowing the answer.

"No better, no worse. It's still early stages yet, we have no idea how bad the Hood's powers have affected him. Brains wants to do a scan in the morning if he hasn't changed, see what's going on in Alan's head," Virgil said. "Did you know you can identify depression in a person's brain scan?"

"No...I didn't actually. Really?" Jeff asked, genuinely intrigued.

"We'll find out by lunchtime how bad it is for him," Virgil said.

"How are you holding up?" Jeff asked.

"Heck, Alan and John are out for the count, Scott's just a mess right now, and Gordon's missing. I have to hold up the fort. I'm fine, dad, I'm tired, but I'm fine," Virgil replied, smiling, though it didn't reach his eyes.

They sat in silence for a little while longer before they heard a soft knock on the door. Without waiting for permission to enter, Scott appeared around the door, eyes red as if he had been crying. Jeff gestured towards the sofa, to sit next to Virgil, and Scott accepted.

"I couldn't sleep," Scott simply said.

"Same here bro," Virgil replied, sympathetically. He knew Scott was punishing himself quite severely in the last few hours. Virgil took pity on him and pulled him into a long hug, one which saw Scott break down all over again.