Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Five months.

It had been five consecutive months since he’d last set foot on earth. Alan having gotten out of monitoring duty for two turns in a row now. Not that John minded all that much. He’d been built for monitoring duty after all, with a complete knowledge bank of languages in his head, more acute and sensitive hearing for those quiet calls laced in static – a feature he sometimes found wholly unnecessary and more trouble than it was worth, so he occasionally thought about asking Brains to dial it back – and built to withstand the vacuum of space.

Though one of the reasons he was even getting to go back now was because Brains hadn’t been able to do a full system check on him like he had his brothers due to the aforementioned extended stay in space. And it seemed that Jeff, father, had listened to the man’s concerns and so had finally put his foot down on baby brother getting to spend another month on earth. John thought he could be fully responsible for his own system checks, but he understood that it gave Brains peace of mind to do it himself, and by extension, their father. Even Virgil, the engineer among them and, for all intents and purposes, their field medic, also agreed to the need for these system checks.

But John hated having to be completely shut down for these checks and hated the way rebooting felt afterwards. Scott, Gordon, and Alan hated them too. Especially Scott, as big brother hated being immobile for any length of time. Virgil was the only one who didn’t mind being shut down for a while and tended to be slow to reboot. The middle Tracy had come to love sleep and had learned to mimic it too well.

But even though he wasn’t looking forward to it, John was sure he could get Brains to do the check immediately, and then he’d have an entire month on Earth to look forward to. Maybe he’d even get to go on a rescue this time.

Speaking of rescues, John glanced over at the radio where the constant background noise of voices emanated, but so far, none had broken through with cries for help. He hoped that no one would, especially when he looked back at the clock and noted that there wasn’t much longer to go. With any luck, all he’d have to do was sit and wait for Thunderbird Three to arrive, especially since he’d already checked everything and made sure the station was ready for Alan to take over.

Yes, not long at all.

He passed the time by looking out the window at the stars beyond, as he usually did, but John was immediately across the room and at the main console as soon as “Thunderbird Three to Thunderbird Five, come in” crackled over the radio.

“Thunderbird Five here, go ahead,” he replied to his older brother, a smile clear in his voice. He was good at expressing himself like that, had to be.  

“We’re ready to dock if you’re ready to head home, spaceman.”

“You’re all good to dock Thunderbird Three, and make sure Alan gets over here immediately, would ya?” He smirked when he heard the laugh Scott tried to hide with an unnecessary cough (they didn’t even have lungs) and grumbling from their youngest.

“F.A.B. John. See you in a minute.” With that, the transmission ended.

John made his way back to his bedroom to grab the bag he’d packed hours ago, and by the time the docking tube opened for Alan, John was waiting nearby.

“Well, someone’s eager to leave,” the younger commented a bit sullenly, and John barely restrained an eye roll.  

“Like you don’t count down the time and tell me every second I owe you.”

“I don’t do that!”

“Uh, huh, sure, kid,” he said in disbelief but couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Well, see you in a month!” He then turned towards the access hatch and the boarding tube beyond.  

He heard a displeased huff behind him before Alan eventually called out, “Bye, John!”

He glanced over his shoulder and gave one last wave before stepping through the hatch and finally entered the waiting spacecraft. He set his bag down quickly before making his way to the cockpit, where he found Scott waiting in the copilot’s seat.

Scott beamed upon seeing him and stood up to pull him into a hug, which John returned tightly. Because wow, he hadn’t seen his brothers in person in five months.

When they pulled away, Scott returned to his previous seat, leaving the pilot’s chair empty for John, who quickly began prepping the rocket for the return journey to Earth.

“You ready to get home?” Scott asked when there was a pause in the system checks.

“You bet!” John responded, accompanied by the rumble of engines and firing of boosters. The docking ring disengaged with a clunk.

“Hmmm. You almost seem excited for a systems check.”

“Well, if it gets me down to earth, then maybe I could be,” he retorted as he took Three out in an arc. Swinging her back around towards Earth, before finally engaging her rockets fully.

Even without looking at Scott, John could tell his brother had started to frown. “Five months is a long time to be up in space alone.”

The space monitor shrugged. “I was built for it, Scott.”

“Yeah, well, when Brains and Dad decided you and Alan would each take Five for half the year, I don’t think they meant for you to do it all in one go.” 

“Likely not,” he responded diplomatically. “But like I said, I’m built for it.”

“Yeah…” Scott agreed but didn’t necessarily sound happy about it.

“So, what’s been going on back at home?” John asked, changing the subject. “Anything new you guys haven’t told me about yet?” which luckily worked to draw Scott into a new topic of conversation.

Hours later, Thunderbird Three touched down in her silo, and post-flight checks were completed. The two eldest then changed out of their uniforms before taking the couch up to the lounge, where everyone already seemed to be waiting.

They’d barely even made it past the edge of the floor before Gordon was there with a shouted greeting of “Hi John!” He then pulled the second eldest into a hug before the couch had even locked into place.

“Let him breathe, Gordon, geez,” Virgil admonished with fond amusement, and Gordon rolled his eyes at him.

“We all know he doesn’t have to,” he retorted, but let go of the astronaut and stepped back enough to let Virgil pull John to his feet. Virgil then also gave their older brother a hug, though it wasn’t as crushing as the aquanaut’s, which was good for John, considering how much stronger the middle brother was built to be.

“Good to have you home, son,” Jeff added his two cents from where he was sitting behind the desk, watching them.

John glanced at the older man with a smile. “Glad to be back.”

“Brains is waiting for you in the lab. Said he expects you to be sensible enough to get your check done right away, unlike the rest of this lot.”

This earned protests from the other three androids in the room, and John nodded with a slight smile. “Good, I was hoping to do so.”

“Man, he has been in space too long if he’s giving up so willingly,” Gordon muttered, though in a volume clearly meant to be overheard.

John just rolled his eyes. “Alright, I’ll be going down now, cya.”

It didn’t take long to get down to Brains’ lab, though he did take a detour to his room on the way, depositing his bag on the bed to unpack later. When he eventually walked through the door, he found Brains at one of the various computers, muttering to himself. But he glanced over as soon as the android walked in.

“Oh, J-john. Good, you’re home.” 

“Yeah, I just got back with Scott, and Dad said you were waiting down here for me.”

“I was. Thought you would want to get this done r-right away.”

“You know me well,” he said with a shrug. The retort of ‘well, I created you’ went unsaid, but John imagined it was there anyway.

Without prompting, he went to the hospital-like bed in the middle of the room and situated himself on it.

There was a moment of just staring up at the ceiling before Brains came to stand beside it. “Alright, th-this shouldn’t take too long.”

With that, Brains pressed a spot hidden behind the android’s left ear, shutting him down.

An indeterminate amount of time later, John became aware of coming back online. Everything felt slow to reboot as usual, though he still caught the slight shift of fabric against plastic as someone adjusted in their chair.  

Tracking the sound to his right, he found Gordon there. The redhead appearing bored until he noticed John looking at him.

“Oh, good! You’re up.”

“What’re you doing here?” John asked, and the younger shrugged.

“Just waiting to drag you out to the pool with everyone else,” Gordon explained and stood up, waiting for John to sit up as well. “Brains says your systems are all good, by the way.”

“Great. Where is he, though?” John asked, noticing the lack of engineer in the room as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood in order to follow Gordon out of the room.

“Messing with something on the Firefly, I think. He was waiting with you, but I offered to do it instead when I came to check how much longer you’d be.”

“Right. Well, let’s go then.”

Yet as they passed by the windowed hallways outside of the lab, John caught sight of his reflection and paused. He then tried to sort out his bangs and hair on the right side of his head, where a panel opened that gave access to the cable ports used during their system checks.

Gordon gave an amused snort. “Alright, I get it, you’re the pretty one of the family, now would you quit messing around so we can get outside already?”

Blue eyes narrowed suspiciously at the younger. “You’re not going to shove me into the pool, are you?”

“Who me?” The redhead gasped, feigning innocence, “I would never do that. Not to you, Johnny.”

“Right. I’ll try to remember that when I’m at the bottom of the deep end.”

“You wound me,” Gordon sighed, placing a hand over where a human’s heart would be.

John rolled his eyes but smiled fondly at the younger. “Come on, fish. I’ll accept my inevitable dip in the pool if you promise to get Virgil and Scott too.”

Hazel eyes lit up at that, and a grin spread across the aquanaut’s face. “Deal.”

Barely five minutes later, two brunettes were shouting angrily due to an unplanned dip in the pool, and John smiled from where he was treading water. Watching as their brothers tried to swim after Gordon to exact some kind of revenge.

Yes, it was good to be home.

Chapter Text

A few quiet days had passed on Tracy Island without need for the Thunderbirds. Though, of course, the peace never lasted for too long.

The family of five were all lounging around the room and winding down for the day as the sun began to slip past the horizon. Jeff sat behind his desk working on Tracy Industry paperwork, while Scott and Gordon played chess, and John sat nearby reading a book. The piano provided soothing background music as Virgil tapped away at the keys, quickly advancing through the music book he’d been given only days before.   

Yet blinking lights and a beeping sound from Alan’s portrait stilled everyone in their activities as they all turned to look at it.  

Jeff pressed a button, and the empty ashtray on his desk tilted back, revealing the speaker hidden underneath. “Go ahead, Alan,” he prompted the youngest as Alan’s portrait turned into live footage of him from Thunderbird Five.

“There’s been a bad earthquake in Lancaster, California, father. Search and rescue crews are requesting International Rescue’s help getting everyone out of the rubble.”

“I see. Tell them we’re on our way, Alan, and get some more information on the situation.”

“F.A.B,” he acknowledged and disappeared from view.  

“It’s going to be all hands-on deck for this one, boys,” Jeff continued, glancing at the assembled crowd, “Scott, go ahead and take Thunderbird One, Alan will fill you in on the way.”

“F.A.B, father,” Scott also acknowledged as he abandoned the chess game to walk towards the lamps on the far wall.

“Virgil, follow behind in Thunderbird Two and take Gordon and John with you.”

A slight smile lifted the corners of John’s mouth as he set his book down and stood up, echoing Virgil’s and Gordon’s “F.A.B.” with his own. He then followed Gordon over to the lift that would take them down to Thunderbird Two to join Virgil in the cockpit.

On the way down, Gordon nudged him in the side with a lopsided grin. “Do you ever feel a bit left out that we don’t have a crazy way to get to our own vehicles? No swinging lamps or pictures.” 

John grinned back. “I don’t know, I think taking the couch through the floor of the lounge for Thunderbird Three might be enough for me. Besides, is dropping the pod with Four still inside not enough?”

“Depends on how high up we are,” Gordon responded right as they reached the cockpit. Virgil glanced back at them, wondering the context of the last statement, but ultimately decided it was best not to know. Instead, he turned his attention back to the controls.

“Once you two sit down, we’ll be ready to launch.”

They took it as the pointed admonishment it was meant to be and quickly took their seats. Gordon beside Virgil, and John behind them. Once Virgil heard the click of their safety restraints, he started to maneuver Thunderbird Two out of the hangar and towards the runway. 

It wasn’t long before they were stationed on the ramp, and with one last confirmation from Jeff, they took off with a roar of the engines.

It took a little more than three hours for them to arrive in Lancaster, where Virgil set his behemoth down on the ground next to the sleek figure of Thunderbird One. Scott, of course, had beaten them there by hours and already had Mobile Control up and running by the time they stepped foot on the ground.

“Alright,” he said as soon as they’d joined him, “as I’m sure Alan told you, there’s been a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that’s heavily damaged the city center and buried an unknown number of people under the rubble. Crews have already carried out rapid search and rescue efforts and have moved onto full search and rescue, which is why they called us. So, each of us is going to take a quadrant of the city and coordinate with search and rescue as we go.”

He paused then, allowing them to offer disagreements, if necessary, but when none were voiced, he continued. “Alright, I’ve already divided up the city between us. Virgil, you’re getting the section that was hit the hardest because with your strength, you’ll have an easier time with the rubble.”

“Sounds good, Scott,” Virgil said.

“Good. Now I want regular check-ins, and for everyone to meet back here when they’re done.” With that final order, they all walked off in different directions to begin working in their assigned areas.

John turned southwest to head for the part of the city Scott had assigned to him. He took in the surrounding buildings as he went, which now stood cracked and torn, their windows either shattered in their frames or completely missing. Some buildings had outright collapsed, burying who knows how many people beneath them.

The road had also fractured and split in some places; the surface ruptured from the shaking, and he knew it’d only make it more difficult for search and rescue to get in and out to help people.

He also knew from experience on Thunderbird Five that earthquake rescues required a lot of communication with the satellite. Its ability to pick up life signs helping them determine where to look or know if they need to bother with a building at all. Though for now, he was sure that he could pick any building without coordinating with Five and still come across someone. While it’d been some time since the quake, and emergency services had been working the whole time, it’ll have been an uphill battle.

So, he paused for a moment and tried to use his oversensitive hearing to pick up on the sound of people trapped or search and rescue efforts. It took a moment, but he caught what he assumed to be the sound of emergency crews, so he started heading for the building they seemed to be working in. Scott had said to coordinate with them after all.

The crew he found was led by a Fire Chief Alejandro Torres, who’d taken one look at him and gone “It’s about time you International Rescue boys got here,” in a gruff voice. And John hadn’t taken it personally; it’d been a rough night after all.

“Yes, sir, just tell me where you need me,” he said, and it’d earned him a sort of half smile.

 He was soon directed toward a hotel across the street. One that the chief informed him that his crew were working through, and when he called Alan, the satellite confirmed the massive number of signatures coming from within. So, John got to work.

The job was a lot of shifting rubble around so that people were no longer pinned or had an easier escape route, and if John was lifting rubble just a little too heavy for the average person, then everyone was a little too shaken up and distracted to notice. He could also blame it on adrenaline later if he had to.

Though at one point he noticed one of the firemen watching him, and hoped it wasn’t too obvious that he was faking how heavy a particular chunk of concrete was. It technically was heavy, even for him, but he knew a normal human wouldn’t be able to lift it at all.

“How do you guys do it?” the man finally asked once John had managed to move the concrete out of their way.

“Do what?” he ventured, somewhat hesitantly.

“Do this without equipment and helmets?”

“Oh. I’m tougher than I look,” he said dismissively with a shrug, surveying the building around him. It wasn’t like he could outright tell the guy they were androids after all.

“Guess so,” the man agreed after a moment, and they continued on their way.

Luckily, no one mentioned anything again. Probably too tired to notice as the hours dragged on, and the sun eventually rose. The weak winter sunlight revealing the true extent of the damage and just how much work they still had to do.

John remained with the fire crew as they made their way through the southwest zone. Some were understandably beginning to flag after working through the night, but none were willing to call it quits.

At one point, they passed by a shattered elementary school and the twisted metal of what used to be a playground, and John mused to himself that they were lucky the earthquake struck in the early evening after school had already been let out for the day.  

What wasn’t so lucky was the aftershock that ripped its way through the city soon after. They were at least out on the street, so no buildings could collapse on them, but people were sent sprawling across the fractured pavement. John himself managed to stay on his feet, if just barely.

Afterwards, there was a split second of eerie silence before shouting, screaming, and the roaring of collapsed buildings started with a vengeance. It was loud, causing John to wince as he once again wished his hearing wasn’t so sensitive, but the beeping of his watch cut through the noise and grabbed his attention. When he lifted it to face level, he wasn’t surprised to find big brother looking back at him.

“John, are you alright?” was asked in a terse tone, one that John knew Scott used to hide his concern while on a rescue.

“All good here, Scott. Are you?” 

“Fine,” Scott answered, “how is your part of the city coming along?”

“Better before that aftershock.”

“Right… just do what you can.”

“F.A.B.” he acknowledged as the call cut out.

John glanced around at the surrounding city and sighed. Progress had seemingly regressed to zero.

They quickly outlasted the sun. Long shadows stretched their way across the ground before falling away to night, and even the appearance of his beloved stars wasn’t as comforting as it usually was. Instead, it left John feeling like he was back where they’d started, as it went on fourteen hours since they’d arrived on the scene.

John continued picking his way down the street behind the fire crew, but paused when there was a shout of “sir!”

Wherever it’d come from, it’d been far away. Too far away for him to have reasonably heard it, so he didn’t turn in that direction quite yet, but he came to a stop at least.   

“Sir!” was shouted again. Louder and closer and he looked in the direction it’d originated from, especially when it was followed by a shout of “International Rescue!”

There. A man was pelting down the street towards him, covered in grime and dust like so many victims of the quake were. The man came to a crashing halt and barely managed through panting breaths, “Oh thank God, I need your help!”

“What’s the problem?” John prompted as the man continued to gasp for air.

“My friend, he’s still buried under the rubble. I just barely managed to get out to look for help. I- I think he’s hurt bad. Said he couldn’t feel his legs.”

“Alright, I’ll take care of it. Where is he?”

“I’ll show you!” the man answered quickly and started backtracking the way he came. Without hesitation, John quickly followed, leaving the fire crew behind.  

“What’s your name?” He asked on the way, hoping to ease the man’s panic a little.

“Dan,” the man answered, “my friend is Bill. We work together. Got caught up in the office. I don’t know how long we’ve been out for, let alone how long it took for me to get myself out of the rubble.”

John nodded at the information, his mind already going through potential scenarios. “Did you happen to see what was wrong with Bill? Any information would be helpful.”

“I think there was a beam across his back? I don’t know, I didn’t really look,” Dan answered, doubt and panic slipping into his voice.

“That’s alright,” John reassured him.  

It wasn’t long before an office building loomed before them. One that Dan was obviously leading him toward, and John’s brows furrowed. He hadn’t been in that building today, but he was fairly certain that Chief Torres had indicated his men had already gone through this block before he and his brothers had even arrived on the scene. Though he supposed it was entirely possible the two men could have been missed, especially if they were both unconscious and buried under rubble.

He was tempted to call Alan up in Five to check for life signs, but the closer they got, the more insistent Dan became. He led them into the lobby of the damaged building, where piles of rubble from the damaged ceiling and walls littered the floor, and John supposed he could see how the stretched-thin emergency services could have possibly missed someone.

Though something wasn’t sitting quite right as he picked his way over the debris, following Dan further into the building. But up ahead, he could hear someone yelling for help, so he pushed the feeling of trepidation aside. He had a job to do. Someone needed rescuing.

Sure enough, when he climbed over a particularly large pile of rubble, he found Dan crouching beside another man, who by all appearances had been pinned down by large chunks of what must have been the ceiling. A beam sticking out of the pile.

There was a nasty gash down the side of the man’s face, and rivulets of blood cut their way through the dust and grime before dripping to the floor. Adding to the sticky puddle left where his head had previously been resting.

“It’s going to be okay, Bill,” he heard Dan say from where he crouched near the trapped man, “I found International Rescue.”

“Hi there, Bill,” John greeted softly as he came to join them. He crouched in front of Bill as well, and hardly paid Dan any attention as the man stood up and backed away a few steps. Instead, he offered a reassuring smile to the trapped man. “Don’t you worry, I’ll get you out of there in no time.”

“Thank you,” the man breathed, “I knew International Rescue would pull through. We just had to pick the right disaster.”

“What?” John questioned with a frown, not sure what that particular statement meant, but Bill didn’t offer an explanation.

Instead, there was a brief high-pitched whine before something was jammed into the back of his neck at the base of his skull. John tensed, and his mouth fell open in a silent cry as electricity caused his systems to jolt. Warnings popped into his vision.

When what must have been a taser was removed, he collapsed to the ground, vision darkening as immediate system shut down was threatened. He was barely even aware of something slamming down into the side of his head hard.

John fully shut down.

Chapter Text

After an extremely long day of digging people out of the rubble, Scott was finally back at Mobile Control. Their part of the rescue seemingly winding down as enough ground had been covered that they could leave it to the local search and rescue teams from there.

Gordon was the first of his little brothers to reappear. The aquanaut coming over to lean against the side of Mobile Control with his arms crossed as he reported, “Finished with my section.”

Scott nodded. “So did I. Let me check in with Virgil and John to see how it’s coming along for them.” Gordon gave him a thumbs up, and Scott pressed a few buttons before leaning in toward the microphone. “Mobile Control to Virgil.”

There was a brief moment of dead air before a click could be heard, indicating that the call had connected. “Virgil here, Mobile Control. What’s up, Scott?”

“I was just wondering how things are going for you.”

“Almost done,” Virgil informed him, “I have one more family to hand off to the paramedics, and I’ll have finished this section.”

“Great. Gordon and I are done, and with things winding down, I think it may be about time for us to head back to base.”

“F.A.B. I’ll head for Mobile Control shortly. Virgil out.”

With the call disconnected, Scott pressed a few more buttons to switch frequencies before speaking into the microphone again. “Mobile Control to John.” He waited a couple of seconds, but unlike with Virgil, no click ever came. Instead, only silence answered him. “Scott to John, come in,” he tried again, his worry growing the longer the comms remained silent.

 He shared a look with Gordon when they didn’t receive an answer for the second time.

“Scott to John, come in please,” he repeated. It hadn’t quite been a shout but had certainly been more stern. Practically, demanding his wayward brother respond. “Why doesn’t he answer?” he muttered when they were once again met with silence. Not that he expected Gordon to have an answer.  

“You don’t think he’s damaged, do you?” Gordon ventured somewhat hesitantly, coming around to stand beside Scott’s seat in front of Mobile Control.

Scott shook his head. “I hope not. With any luck, he’ll just have broken his watch somehow.

Gordon nodded in agreement and leaned around Scott to tap away at some of the controls. “Well, his locator is still working, so it can’t have been too badly damaged.”

Scott’s mouth flattened into a thin line, but he didn’t argue the point. Instead, he configured his own watch to track the signal Mobile Control was picking up.

With that done, he stood up. “I’m going to go find John, and he’s going to get a lecture if he’s just ignoring us.” The last part was muttered under his breath, but Gordon caught it anyway and snickered at the idea of the second eldest being in trouble with Scott. But the smile quickly dropped when Scott continued, “Stay here with Mobile Control.”

“No way! What if he’s damaged or in trouble? You’re going to need help!”

Scott sighed, knowing that Gordon wasn’t going to back down, and that he didn’t have time to argue with the aquanaut. It’d been worth a shot, though. “Fine. Let me call Virgil.”

So, he quickly called Virgil back, informing him of the situation and where they were going before locking down the controls of Mobile Control. Then he set off in the direction John’s location was pinging. Gordon quickly fell into step beside him.

As they walked, the redhead’s frown grew deeper as he kept glancing over at Scott’s watch. “His location hasn’t moved from that spot since we looked it up,” he pointed out after a while, and Scott grimaced. The longer John seemed to stay in one place, the more likely it was that Gordon was right to assume the astronaut had been damaged.

The idea had Scott quickening his pace, and Gordon easily matched his stride, having the same worry for their second eldest. It still took them a while to reach the building where John was supposedly located, though, as they had to walk pretty far into the damaged city to get there. But they were glad to find the building relatively intact, if not for the shattered windows and chunks of concrete missing from the siding.

They entered cautiously, noting that the ceiling had partly collapsed in on itself, and the two IR operatives gave each other a grim look. Both fearing that John was trapped under one of the many piles of rubble that used to be the ceiling.

“John!” Scott yelled, and the two of them waited, but there was no answer. “John, answer me!” He shouted again, desperation manifesting in his voice as frustration.

There was still no reply.

Scott and Gordon began making their way through the building, investigating the piles of rubble that covered the ground floor. If they didn’t find John here, they were going to have to look on the higher floors. They were worried about the structural integrity of the building, though, so they needed to find John quickly and get out.

Yet every shout for him was met with silence, and the longer this went on, the more worried Scott became, so the more snappish he came across.

“Anything?” he demanded from Gordon after a while of searching.

The younger sighed. “No, Scott, I haven’t found any trace of him.”

There was a grunt of frustration, and then, “We might need to check the upper floors.”

Gordon was about to agree when a glint of gold caught his eye. He scrambled over a couple of pieces of busted concrete to reach it and found a watch. But not just any watch, it was a modified Rolex, identical to his own.

“Scott, I found something!” He shouted, and the words were barely out of his mouth before Scott was shouting, “Hold on! I’m on my way.” Followed by the sound of the eldest hurriedly making his way over the debris field.

Ignoring that, Gordon focused on the surrounding area, looking for any further hint of John’s whereabouts.

Scott came stumbling over one last piece of concrete and rebar before coming to a stop near Gordon.

“What is it? Did you find John?” He asked, looking around wildly like the blond would suddenly materialize. Gordon didn’t understand how he sounded out of breath despite them not needing to breathe.

“No, not John. But I did find his watch.” He handed it to the eldest, who frowned at it hard, and turned it over in his hands.

The watch looked fully intact. There was no shattered surface or cracks through it to indicate John had been wearing it when buried under rubble. It didn’t even look like it’d been torn off his wrist. No. It was in perfect condition and appeared to have merely been unclasped at some point and left behind.

“If his watch is here, then where’s John?” Scott asked out loud as he scanned the immediate area, just as Gordon had been doing when he’d arrived. “Where exactly did you find it?”

“Just right there,” Gordon answered, pointing at a spot on the ground slightly overshadowed by a thick chunk of concrete. “It was just lying there.”

It was silent for a moment before Scott tucked the watch into his pocket and stepped toward the pile of rubble it’d been found with. “Well, it may be a long shot, but help me dig through here. John might’ve managed to get his watch off to signal his location.”

He didn’t see the skeptical look Gordon aimed at his back, but the aquanaut didn’t say anything as he helped Scott carefully move rubble aside. Yet the more rubble they moved, the more abundantly clear it became that John wasn’t under there. Much to Scott’s disappointment. Not that he wanted his brother damaged and buried by rubble, but at least it would’ve meant they’d found him.

When moving the rubble didn’t magically reveal John, Scott turned away to the next nearest pile. “Keep searching,” was all he said, and Gordon nodded mutely. Following his lead.

Eventually, Virgil joined them. The first words out of his mouth being, “Did you find John?”

He looked hopeful, and it killed Scott to have to shake his head and reply, “No, just his watch.”

“Oh, have you told dad?” he asked, and Scott sighed. Because no, he hadn’t, nor had the thought even crossed his mind. But he knew he had to. Jeff was their commander after all, and it was probably well past their check-in time.

“Hold on, I’ll do it.” He lifted his watch toward his face, adjusting the controls to contact Tracy Island. “Thunderbird One to base, come in.”

It didn’t take long for Jeff to answer, though he was frowning as he did so. “Base receiving you Thunderbird One. I was starting to wonder when you’d call, Scott. It’s been a while.”

“John’s gone missing,” he answered bluntly, and Jeff paled.

“What? What happened?”

“We don’t know. We tried to contact him, and when he never answered, we followed his location to this building. We’ve discovered his watch, but so far, there’s no sign of him.”

Jeff remained silent for a moment before shaking his head. “You’ve got to find him, boys. You’ve got to!”

“We’re trying, father. We’ve been looking for him.”

“Right. I know you are,” the older man let out a weary sigh before continuing, “Good luck, and keep in contact. Base out.”

The transmission cut, and Scott looked at his present brothers grimly. “Well, you heard him, we have to find John.”

But it was easier said than done. They spent hours combing through that building, risking that no aftershocks would destabilize it further and send it collapsing onto their heads. They even checked the upper floors, hoping that they’d find John up there, having been separated from his watch somehow. But with every rubble pile they checked and floor they climbed, the chances of finding him seemed to get lower and lower.

It was starting to near midnight when Jeff called again. Either the third or fourth time since they’d first informed him, but Scott hadn’t been counting.

“Come home, boys,” he said wearily, and Scott immediately protested.

“No! We can’t, not without John! You said we had to find him!”

“I know, but if you haven’t found him yet in that building, then you’re not going to. It’s been five hours, Scott.”

Scott clenched his teeth. He wasn’t willing to give up, and he couldn’t go home. Not without John. He couldn’t have failed his younger brother like that.

“I’m sure you guys are exhausted,” Jeff continued.

“We can’t get exhausted. We’re androids, remember?” he snapped. He hated pulling that card though, and only did so in dire circumstances.  

It was Virgil, the engineer among them, who answered, “We can still run through charge, Scott, and we expend more on rescues. Besides, I bet your fuel reserves are bordering on low.” He took the following silence as answer enough and placed a hand on the eldest’s shoulder. “We’re not going to be able to help John if we run ourselves into the ground.”

“Let’s go home,” Gordon added softly. And looking at him, Scott could see that the younger looked miserable, and Scott knew he couldn’t keep pushing them like this.

“Fine, we’ll go.” Though he felt like he was choking as he said it.

“F.A.B. boys, see you back at base,” Jeff added, reminding them that he was still on call, but Scott’s watch returned to its normal face, indicating that the older man had once again disconnected. Without another word, Scott turned on his heel and began leading his brothers out of the building and back toward their ‘birds.

It was a long, defeated walk.

As the large green and silver crafts came into view, Scott began to wonder if they’d actually find John there. Maybe their brother had merely lost his watch and returned to the Thunderbirds no worse for wear, then waited for them to return. Logically though, he knew that didn’t make any sense because even without his watch, John would have known to use Mobile Control or the radios on board their vehicles to get in touch with them. So, no, he couldn’t have been there, but Scott couldn’t help but be disappointed when they didn’t find him anyway.

Scott then watched Gordon and Virgil board Thunderbird Two, and it didn’t escape his notice that it was taking an unusually long time for them to take off. As if they too were giving John extra time to reappear and come home with them. Eventually, though, the behemoth was airborne, and her pilot swung her around towards the direction of home.

Scott then mechanically went about packing up Mobile Control before heading to the cockpit of his own ‘bird. It was then, with a crushing feeling of failure, that he took off from Lancaster and headed home for Tracy Island. Feeling as if he was abandoning John and leaving him behind.