This is it, guys. Final chapter. It is open for further chapters following later episodes, so who knows, maybe I'll come back at some point and add to it... who knows?

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New Beginnings, First Missions, Old Friends

By Phoenix Sparrow

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Chapter 14: CONTEMPLATIONS

Some time later, I guess about two or three weeks, Alan was in his room.

I knocked the door and waited for him to answer.

"Who is it?"

"Tin-Tin. It's time, Alan." The door opened and I saw Alan looking disappointed. "Alan, you know you had to go today," I said, trying to cheer him up, as I walked in.

"Yeah, I know. John probably does this when he has to leave, doesn't he?" he said, sitting down on his bed.

"What? Sulk in his room?" I asked, laughing, taking a seat.

"Hey," he laughed.

'Mission accomplished.' I'd cheered him up; but what I didn't anticipate was the pillow being thrown at my head.

We played about, pillow fighting, for a while, letting time get away.

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Alan was due to leave at 3 o' clock that afternoon.

At quarter to, Mr Tracy came knocking on the door to see if he was nearly ready.

I'd been in there with him for over an hour and I was supposed to have been helping him pack. We hadn't even got the suitcase out, let alone any clothes!

His father knocked again. "Alan, are you in there?"

Alan and I glanced at each other, grinning. He ran to his wardrobe and pulled out the things he usually took with him, while I rummaged about under the bed for his case.

Mr Tracy tried to open the door, but Alan had locked it just after we started playing. "Alan? What are you doing?" he called, pushing at the door and knocking again.

Alan was running about his room, grabbing clothes and dumping them on his bed, while I tried my best to neatly arrange them in his case.

"Alan, I know you're in there, let me in," Mr Tracy called, banging on the door, "Alan, come on, you've only got ten minutes! Stop messing around!"

Alan walked over to the door and unlocked it as I finished putting things into the case.

"We've finished packing," I said, cheerily.

"Why did you lock the door?" he asked.

"We, er, didn't want any distractions," Alan said, glancing at me and smiling.

I had to turn around to hide my grin. I covered up my action by pretending to make sure his socks were all neatly arranged and that the case was properly secure. I expect I'm probably more of a distraction to him than all the other members of International Rescue put together, including all the agents!

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It was late evening. Scott had left with Alan and come back with John long ago.

I was sat in the lounge watching Scott and Gordon play chess, when John appeared in the room.

He walked over to a chair, slumped down in it wearily and closed his eyes. Virgil, who had been sat on the piano stool, walked over and started talking to him about something, but I could see John was only pretending to listen.

I suddenly had a strong feeling of déjà vu; John was sat in the exact same position and seat, as Scott had been the night I first arrived on the island.

It was weird, because my life was a lot better that night than it had been that first night.

Gordon wasn't in any way ill or injured.

I had settled in on the island after returning from university.

And, possibly the most important thing, we had shown the world the amazing capabilities of International Rescue and our Thunderbird craft. There were hundreds of people who had placed their lives into our hands; most of whom were with me on the Fireflash all those months ago.

My train of thought was interrupted when John came and sat beside me. "You back up in space?" he asked.

"No," I said, laughing, "I was just thinking."

"Oooh, risky stuff. Shouldn't do that too often!" I glared at him, but was unable to keep myself from smiling. "So, what were you thinking about?" he asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking about how much has changed since I first moved on to the island and some of the rescue missions."

"Rescue missions, huh? Any in particular?"

"No. What's with the twenty questions?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I'm just nosey. When I'm on that space station, I give out information. What I hear is all I get. I don't always hear as much as you do down here." He paused to take a breath. "I only wanted to know which ones you were thinking about." I looked at him and he pouted. "Please?"

"Oh, alright. If you must know, I was thinking about the Sahara mission."

"The one when Scott was shot down?"

"Yes," I said, looking away. "The one when Scott was shot down." I repeated quietly before looking back. "I was wondering who the Zombites were, because they only seemed..."

"Zombites?" he asked, puzzled.

"Oh, according to Scott, that was what the people who fired on him were called. Anyway, they only seemed to target our Thunderbirds."

"I guess it doesn't really matter. From what I heard, the pyramid was destroyed."

"Yeah, I know. I guess I'm just worried. It's surprising just how many enemies we've got. There's that creep who sabotaged Fireflash just so he could photograph Thunderbird 1..."

"Tin-Tin," he interrupted, taking my hand to help calm me down. "Don't worry about it. We're perfectly safe here."

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I was stood in my room thinking about what John had said.

"We're perfectly safe here."

I was so worried I started thinking that no matter what they said it wouldn't help. I sat down on my bed, pulled my legs close in to my chest and tried to read a book, but I was distracted by my thoughts.

I looked at the clock: twenty past nine. Quite early for me.

I heard a knock at the door, which made me jump. I crossed over to open it, only to find Scott stood there. "I heard your conversation with John earlier. Sounds like you need cheering up."

I was a little uneasy, but I invited him in. I sat back down on the bed in the same position I was in before and tried to avoid making eye contact with him. It was Scott that kept reminding me of my fears, due to his recent accident.

"You're worried, aren't you?" he suddenly said. I could hear that he was trying to help, though I'm not sure how making me jump could help. The nervy mood I was in, anything sudden would make me jump.

"I was trying to figure why you were attacked," I said, still looking out the window.

"Tin-Tin, look at me." I turned back and he pointed at his head. "See this?"

I looked hard, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. No bruises, marks or scratches, nothing. "See what?"

"Precisely. When I was forced down, I hit my head. You know that because you came out to help me with Virge and Brains and I'm grateful for the help you gave me." He paused and looked at the floor, grinning. "And the apple pie!"

I smiled as I remembered camping in the desert that night in a tent pitched in the shade of Thunderbird 2's nose. "What's the point to this story?"

"The impact of my head hitting the Horizontal Flight Control levers..."

"Why don't you just say HFCs?"

"Sorry. The impact of my head hitting the HFCs knocked me out and cut my head. The trouble is all over now and the mark on my head has gone. Everything is alright. It's all in the past, just like the mark." I looked at him and he smiled. Not the cheeky smile from earlier, but a smile that said he cared. "Everything is fine here. We're too well concealed and we're all too careful for them to find our base. Remember when you first moved in? You didn't realise until we told you."

"But I noticed changes on the island and in the way you lot acted," I said.

"That's because you'd been here before we started and we all knew you would eventually be told. We have a hard time keeping a secret until it's allowed to be told. If we're not allowed to tell it, we're alright. So, there's no need to worry, unless dad says we're gonna tell the world, but I can't see that happening anytime soon! It's just like John said. 'We're perfectly safe here'."

I leaned forward and hugged him. I was wrong; they could help; they could always make me feel better. I was just worrying myself.

"You alright now, Tin-Tin?" I nodded and he stood up. "Good. I've got stuff to do, so I'm gonna go now. If you ever need to talk to someone, you know where I am. Heck, you know where all are if you want us. Especially Alan. Poor kid'd listen to you no matter what you said. You could talk about ceiling tiles and he'd be interested! Anyway, you can talk anytime." He paused to consider. "Though, you can't talk to us if we're busy, or out on call, and I'd prefer it if you didn't wake me late at night and..."

"OK, OK, I get it," I said, laughing, as I threw a pillow at him.

"Ah, finally," he said, ducking out of the way. "I've been trying to hear that sound all night. I guess my work here is done. See you later, Tin-Tin."

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The next day, I was helping Mrs Tracy in the kitchen. It was about half eleven and we were preparing the next meal.

I heard a noise in the hallway outside and looking round I saw Virgil and Gordon stood at the door. I was about to say good morning, but Gordon held a finger to his lips.

Mrs Tracy had her back to the door and was stirring up a cake mixture for after lunch.

I grinned as they crept into the kitchen. They had their slippers on so they made barely a sound as they went.

"Good morning, boys," Mrs Tracy said, not turning away from the mixing bowl.

"Morning, grandma," Virgil said, his shoulders dropping in defeat as he stopped creeping about. "We've never been able to creep anywhere past you."

"You're just like your father. He used to try to creep past me to look under the lids of the pots, hoping to get a sneak-preview of lunch; similarly to how Gordon is." She still hadn't turned round.

Gordon jumped at the mention of his name and dropped the lid. I grimaced as it hit the floor with a metallic crash.

"I can definitely say you are my grandchildren. Just like your father," she said, laughing. She looked at me, then at their faces. They looked just like two kids who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"We're sorry. We've, uh, got to go, Virge," Gordon said, looking at his brother with a look in his eyes that said 'I suggest you take my advice'.

"Oh, yeah. Father wanted us to do..."Virgil glanced about uneasily. "Uhm, that thing."

Mrs Tracy and I laughed as they ran out.

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A/B: That's it. All over. Hope you guys enjoyed! Don't forget to drop a line and let me know!