#virgiltracy

Chapter 9: Duets and babysitting

Summary:

On the 9th day of Christmas, the Thunderbirds gave to me...A life saved.

"It's gotta be from him," Virgil said, rubbing his eyes. "Happens every time he goes in for the start of the semester. He comes back home with every disgusting germ known to bash everyone's immune systems but his own,"

"He's been sick from being there too," Scott replied, massaging his neck.

"Once. Only once. The first time, he went in for the first week of Grade eight. Since then, he's been a carrier. Remember, he took out John last year. He went up to train on Five, and John was flat in bed for a week!"

"Oh, yeah..."Scott paused to massage his temples, " ... and he took out Kayo and Brains the yeart before. It's gotta be what this is,"

The eldest Tracy brothers were exhausted and drained and it was going to be another three hours before Thunderbird Two landed on the island.

"You look like hell, Virge,"

"You look worse,"

"I'm not the one who was just dual exhausting it from his body not ten minutes ago," Scott snapped back.

"At least I'm getting rid of it...albeit harshly," Virgil said as he lay back in the pilot's seat. "John, auto pilot us home will you? I know it'll take a little longer but we just don't have the strength,"

"Read you loud and clear, just relax and before you know it, Grandma will be all masked up and in her hazmat suit with some remedy for the Alan bug,"

Virgil barely made out what John had said, glancing over to see Scott settle himself in the co-pilot's seat before he shut his eyes and drifted off himself.

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"Virgil! Virgil, wake up!"

Opening his eyes, Virgil woke to an exhausted Scott, shaking him frantically, only he wasn't in the pilot's seat anylonger but on the floor of the cockpit, the back of his head achy and sticky.

He could smell the iron-like scent of blood and touch the aching spot with his fingers and brought them into view.

He gasped as he saw his own blood dripping fro his shaking fingers and looked to Scott.

"Wha? What happened?"

"Dunno. One minute, you were sleeping, and the next, you're on the floor with a crash and twitching now and again. Grandma wants you to drink this,"

Virgil groaned and swatted the bottle of electrolyte drink from Scott's grip and onto the floor.

Too tired to respond, Scott tried to haul Virgil back into the seat but had no strength.

"Sorry, I...I can't drink anything. Makes me think I'm gonna throw up all over again just looking at it."

"S'all over you and the floor now. Just...just brace yourself, John's bringing us in for landing,"

Scott managed to get himself back into the co-pilot's seat and strapped in for the landing. It was the last thing he remembered.

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The brothers were confined to Matteo Island, away from the family in the main house. Grandma Tracy said she only had enough time in a day to care for two, not five others. Geared up in a literal hazmat suit, she nursed her two oldest adult grandsons to health. There were long days of fevers, chiils, throwing up, sore throats and body aches, and pains, and John decided to take the Rescue Operation offline for what turned out to luckily be a quiet week. Alan busied himself with homework to avoid helping Gordon and Kayo with household chores. John helped his grandmother take food and medicine to the infirm on Matteo, carving out some downtime for himself while on the island.

He was mindful not to get too close to them and always used a mask and disposable gloves when checking in on them. He'd never seen them look worse. The weightloss was noticeable, especially on Scott, who was the lankier of the two, and they looked sallow and weak. Virgil could barely lay down to sleep, as breathing in a reclined position hurt way too much, while Scott tossed and turned all night during sweaty fever dreams. He remembered how he felt when Alan infected him the year before - he'd never been so sick with the flu in his life and now, whatever this strain was...he certainly wasn't interested in catching it.

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On Thursday morning, three days after he and Scott fell ill, Virgil dragged his feet from the kitchen in the small villa on Matteo Island, down the hallway and to the room where Scott lay carrying two glasses of water. He followed the coughing and hacking that sounded identical to his own. He pushed the ajar door further open and sat at the foot of the bed.

"Brought you some water," he said, holding it towards Scott with a shaking hand.

"Can't, throat's too sore,"

"Don't care, have to, you're dehydrated. I am too,"

With a groan his older brother slowly sat up and took the glass, deciding to drain the glass in thre gulps in spite of the indredible pain. The water felt like broken glass scraping along the insides of his throat.

They looked at each other and saw a mirror image of themselves, looking worse than they did in his ship - Eyes sunken and red, lips white, cheeks gaunt, stubbled faces with haunting dark circles around their eyes that appeared irreparable. At least Virgil's fever had finally broken the night before - the third day into their illness while Scott's temperature while lower was still a couple degrees higher than what was normal, beads of perspiration still present on his forehead.

"You feeling any better?" he asked Virgil

"A little. Throat's not as terrible as it had been. I was able to have some chicken noodle soup last night," Virgil replied.

"Wish I could eat without pain...then again, I'm not even hungry. Just so freaking tired," he rasped.

"Won't be long before you're up and around again boys,"

Their grandmother had come into the room and started placing her hands on their foreheads, fussing with Scott's blanket and looking down Virgil's throat.

"By Monday, you'll both be able to move back into the house and get some meat back on your bones," she said cheerfully.

"Monday?" Virgil whined.

"That's four days from now grandson," she said, "Now, let me listen to those lungs, get some medicine in you and hopefully a little soup - especially you Scott.

Both men stared at each other wide-eyed,

"Don't get your shorts in a knot, Gordon brought it in from Della's on the mainland," she assured them. Now get up and have a shower and wander out onto the deck and get some fresh air."

"You're always telling me to rest and now you're barking at us to get up, what gives?" Scott asked her.

"It'll be better if you take a break from breathing in each other's germ laden recycled air," she replied.

"Urgh," moaned Virgil, "Point taken. Come on Scott, up you get,"

He held out his hand, and Scott reluctantly took it, sat up and eventually got to his feet, fever, chills, aches, and all and shuffled to the bathroom and showered his weakened body. Getting changed was another story, but after a long, drawn-out process as he dragged his clothes onto his aching body. With muscles and joints screaming at him,he made his way outside and welcomed the sunshine on his skin and salty, tropical air as he lay his wary bones on the lounger.

Not long after, Virgil joined him and collapsed beside him with a groan.

"I do feel a bit better now that I'm all cleaned up," Scott said, "Grandma was right,"

"When is she not?"

"Hmm...true. You're a medic...Think we're immune now...to Alan and his nasty germs?"

"I'm not gonna find out. When the school year starts next year, I'm staying clear of him for a month,"

"Yeah...freaking lil' vermin,"Scott mumbled. "Maybe we should just banish him to boarding school,"

There was a long pause between them before they glanced at each other.

"Nah," said Virgil.

and then in unison,

Final chapter Epilogues: The Long Reach

Summary:

It was a cute finale, but I felt something was lacking. We didn't need a mission; we needed a welcome back.