Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable Thunderbirds characters.

Author's note: Thank you to my wonderful beta, quiller, without whom this story would never have been written. Yes, in a way, it is all her fault – she dared me to write this, and prodded me a bit until I finally wrote it. Enjoy!

Virgil looked up from where he sat at the piano and frowned. Scott was out on the balcony, tense as could be, staring out over the ocean. Something was bothering his brother, and Virgil was determined to find out what it was. All the Tracy men tended to keep their feelings to themselves, well, except for Alan. He'd loosened up a bit more than the rest of them lately, but then, Tin-Tin could be quite persuasive. Perhaps it was a learned trait rather than an inherited one, he mused. Whichever one it was, Scott was the toughest nut to crack – he was always so focused on being the perfect big brother/ field commander that often the real Scott Tracy was buried very deep inside.

Virgil closed his music, covered the keyboard and proceeded out to the balcony, hoping that this would not turn out to be an interrogation and that Scott would open up. He made just enough noise closing the door so that he wouldn't startle his brother. Scott acknowledged his presence with a nod, and then looked back out over the ocean.

"So, how's the brooding going?" Virgil asked, deciding to take the direct approach.

"I'm not brooding," Scott replied.

"No? Sure looks like it to me," Virgil responded, facing the ocean, but carefully watching his brother's reaction.

Scott let out a sigh. "You're right Virg, guess I have been brooding a bit. I'm just worried, that's all."

"Worried about what? Things have been pretty quiet around here lately."

"That's just it. It's been too quiet."

"Okay, you usually aren't this much of a worry wart, Scott. What gives?"

Scott looked down at his hands for a moment, and then looked at Virgil. "The Tracy Island Writers Forum is having another one of its challenges."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Scott, they do that all the time! Why so worried about this one?

Heck, the last one wasn't so bad, well except for a few ghosts that is."

Scott glared at his brother, "Of course you didn't think it was that bad! I got traumatized by that spirit woman, and you got laid!"

"I had the crap scared out of me by ghosts," Virgil retorted, shuddering at the memory.

"You. Got. Laid."

Scott looked so put out that Virgil couldn't help but snicker.

"Go ahead; laugh if you want, but trust me, this one is going to be bad," Scott grumbled.

"What makes you say that, Scott?"

"This one is a Face the Fear challenge – they are going to write about us facing our worst fears!"

"Hmm, this could be bad," Virgil said quietly as he looked down at Gordon cutting through the water at a feverish pace.

Scott, noting the direction of his brother's gaze, asked, "What do you think his worst fear is?"

"Umm, developing an allergy to water?" he quipped, fully expecting Scott's exasperated outburst.

"Virg, this is serious! I'm telling you, this is going to be bad! There's no telling what they are going to do to us."

"OK Scott, I'll be serious, but they've already put us through the wringer so many times – I don't know how this could be any worse than usual," Virgil replied, hoping Scott would calm down. "I already know what your worst fear is, would you like to know mine?"

"Your worst fear is that your Grandmother would find out that you were the one who filched a slice of my chocolate cake before dinner," was the response from said Grandmother standing at the balcony door with her hands on her hips.

Virgil started, looked at his brother wide-eyed and said, "Crap."

Scott mouthed the word, "Busted", and prudently stayed out of the way as their Grandmother gave Virgil his just desserts.

TBTBTBTB

Scott woke feeling a bit dazed. Being a morning person, he was rather shocked to find that he had slept in and it was now mid-morning. He got up, went to the windows to pull the curtains and for the first time, he noticed how very soft the carpet felt against his bare feet. Drawing the curtains, he gazed out, taking in the view, marveling at the vibrancy of the colors. He shook his head, trying to shake off the fuzzy headed feeling, and decided he really needed a cool shower.

After he was showered and dressed, he headed down to the kitchen to get something to eat in order to appease his stomach, which was complaining quite loudly by now. As he approached his destination, he heard what sounded like someone crying. Peering into the room, he was shocked to see Virgil sitting at the table, bawling. Walking over to his distressed brother, Scott gently laid a hand on his shoulder and asked him what was wrong.

Virgil looked up at him, tears streaming down his face, and said, "I'm doomed, Scotty. I'll never be able to have a baby girl."

Scott stared at him for a moment in utter shock, and then asked, "Virg, what is going on? Did you get some test results or something that indicate that you can't have children?"

"Oh no tests, Scott… I can have children, just no girls… I can only make… boys," he got out between sobs.

Scott felt a headache coming on.

He pulled out a chair and sat next to Virgil, gently trying to coax him into coherency so he could get an answer out of him. "How do you know you can only have boys then?"

"Because She told me. She knows everything, Scott! She told me that only blond Tracys can make baby girls. The rest of us are doomed to only have boys," Virgil sobbed.

"She?" Scott asked in confusion, "Who are you talking about?"

Virgil looked up at his brother in amazement, "Who else would I be talking about, Scott? I'm talking about * a choir is heard humming in the background * Mary Sue, of course!" *Said choir briefly breaks out into song*

Scott started at the sound, and looked around the room for the source. When he didn't find it, he asked, "Did you hear that, Virg?"

"Hear what?"

"Never mind," he said rubbing his temples, trying to ease the pain of the now full blown headache. "So she said you can't have girls then, hmm?" Virgil nodded, so Scott continued, "Haven't you forgotten that you had a little girl in a recent story?" Virgil just blinked at him.

"But she said…"

"I don't care what she said Virg, she doesn't know everything!" Scott exclaimed, exasperated.

Their conversation was rudely interrupted when John and Gordon stormed into the kitchen, arguing.

"Whoa, calm down! What's going on here?" Scott put up his hands, separating them and glaring at both of them until they stopped. "John first."

John smirked while Gordon glared. "It's my turn to spend time with her. Gordon was with her yesterday."

"Spend time with whom?" Scott asked, dreading the answer.

"With *choir starts humming* Mary Sue, of course!" John answered, looking at Scott as if he had grown an extra head. *Choir briefly breaks out in song*

Scott looked around again, searching for the source of the noise, as he felt his headache getting worse. He let out an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes as Virgil started sobbing again.

"Look, guys, can we take this out into the lounge?" he asked as he firmly shepherded them out of the kitchen, indicating that it wasn't a question, but a directive.

"Now, please explain to me just what is going on here. Virg is distraught, and I have a headache, so no nonsense. Gordon, please tell me, who is this Mary Sue, and where did she come from?" *Choir abruptly breaks into song* Scott looks around, frustrated.

Gordon holds his hands over his heart, and has a dreamy look on his face as he tells the story. "We were on a rescue near Hawaii – a sub collided with a cruise ship. Virgil and Alan were rescuing the people on the ship; I took '4 down to get the people in the sub.

Little did I know, it was a trap laid by our newest arch nemesis, Sin-Thia.

The sub was being remotely operated and came at me. Shot some sort of net at me that shorted out all of '4's systems, sinking us like a rock. I wound up with a head injury from the impact and was unconscious by the time we reached the bottom, and the last thing I remember was hearing Sin-Thia cackling about 'one brother down, four more to go."

Scott stared at Gordon for a moment, and then muttered to himself, "Who the hell is Sin-Thia?"

From there, John took up the narrative: "After hearing an explosion over the com, and then losing contact with Gordon, I radioed Virgil. He was on the deck of the cruise ship, getting the last of the passengers off. *Choir starts humming* Mary Sue heard what had happened and dove off the ship and swam down to help Gordon." *Choir breaks out into song*

Scott glared, looking around the room, even more frustrated that he couldn't find the source of the noise. Then he turned back to his brothers, not sure he had heard John quite right, "Wait. She dove off the cruise ship?" John and Gordon nodded, "And she swam down to the bottom of the ocean?" They both nodded like a pair of bobble-heads.

Scott started pacing. "Are you serious?" Scott asked, incredulously. They both nodded.

"There's more," John said.

Scott stopped pacing and raised an eyebrow, "Continue."

"After she free dove to the bottom of the ocean, she managed to disentangle '4 from the net. She then went in via the airlock, took care of Gordon's injuries, then piloted '4 back to the surface," John finished.

A choked sob was heard from the other side of the room, "I can't hide this any longer sob, I'm so sorry boys sob, oh the shame of it all!"

Turning, they saw their father sitting in a chair, tears streaming down his face and an almost empty bottle of scotch in his hand. He took one final swig from the bottle, put it down on the floor and continued,

"Cynthia is your twin sister, Scott," Jeff confessed quietly.

Scott opened his mouth to say something and found that nothing would come out. He closed it, and then opened it again trying to get something out. But in the end, he gave up trying and just stared at his father in wide-eyed shock.

"She was kidnapped from the hospital shortly after you were both born. The police were never able to find the kidnappers, and it was only recently that Lady Penelope found out that she had been taken by the Hood, and by then sob it was too late. sob She'd been sob corrupted by him," he said finally losing control and breaking down again.

Scott was stunned. This was all impossible! He just didn't know what to think, and his head felt like it was ready to explode.

Just then, Tin-Tin came storming into the room, looking like she was ready to kill something.

Scott intercepted her, and gently pulled her off to the side, away from Gordon and John who were staring out the windows as if looking for something…or someone; a quick glance in Jeff's direction confirmed that he had passed out from too much scotch.

"What's the matter, Honey?" he asked.

"What's the matter?" she asked, fuming.

"That was what I asked," Scott affirmed, crossing his arms and leaning against the table behind him.

Tin-Tin just stared at him for a minute, and then asked, "You really don't know, do you?"

"No, so please tell me,"

"It's Her. That…hussy," she fumed.

"You mean, *choir starts humming* Mary Sue?" *Choir breaks into song* Scott again looks around for the source of the sound, "Did you hear that?"

"Yes, and it's annoying as hell," she growled.

"I was beginning to think I was going crazy," Scott confided in her. "They don't seem to hear it," looking pointedly at John and Gordon.

"I know. I guess we are the only ones not under her spell," she replied, looking utterly dejected.

"Either that, or we're both going crazy," Scott teased. Unfortunately, it didn't have the desired effect on Tin-Tin.

She stomped her foot and said, "He's MY boyfriend! The father of my…" She gasped, putting her hand to her mouth as she saw Scott's eyebrows climb almost to his hairline in shock.

"Tin-Tin…are you…are you pregnant?" he managed to stammer out.

She looked at him, tears in her eyes "Yes, Scott. No one knows but you. I haven't even had a chance to tell Alan yet, but now…"

Scott pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair as she sobbed into his chest. "Wow, this is incredible, Tin-Tin. But…how…uh…when…uh…"

Tin-Tin looked up at him as if he were stupid, "Scott, by this time in your life, if you don't know how, I really can't help you."

Scott blushed furiously.

"As for when, what do you think we were doing when we went off together? Playing Tiddlywinks?"

"Ah, no, guess not," he admitted, feeling like a complete idiot. "Look Honey, this will all work out, don't worry," he said, pulling her close.

"Ha, easy for you to say!" she said as she rested her head against his chest and held on to him as if for dear life.

They stood there, quietly for a short time until the realization hit him. "Wait a minute! If John is here, and Alan is with *choir starts humming* Mary Sue," *choir sings briefly* , Scott rolls his eyes before he continued, "Who the heck is up on '5?"

"No one," John informs him.

"What?" exclaims Scott in horror.

"Relax Scott, we're covered," John says with a smile.

"We are? How?"

*Choir starts humming*

"Oh, please don't tell me…" Scott pleads.

"Yup, Mary Sue." *Choir sings briefly* "She designed a new system that automated the communications system and my telescopes. I can do everything from here, monitoring and research," John said with a dreamy look on his face. "Now I no longer have to be stuck up there on '5 all alone for months on end with barely enough food and water, because Alan keeps whining and getting out of doing his rotation."

Scott just stared at John for a moment in stunned silence.

Seeing movement out over the garden, Scott looked out and saw several blue birds happily singing and flying in circles over by the garden. Moving to get a better look, he sees the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on emerge from the garden, birds fluttering above her.

From somewhere in the lounge, the choir starts singing again, this time with a lead singer who had the most hypnotic baritone voice:

Why do birds suddenly appear?

Every time,

You are near?

A sharp pain lanced up his leg. "Ouch!"

"Snap out of it!" Tin-Tin hissed.

"You kicked me!" He said petulantly.

"Of course I did," she observed. "Who else is close enough?"

He glared at her for a moment, and then looked up to see Her again; now he could see that she was accompanied by Alan. He stared, slack-jawed, as they wandered towards the pool area. Her hair, the color of golden honey, her skin tanned just the right amount. Her figure was perfect. He vaguely heard the choir singing:

On the day that you were born,

The angels got together,

Pain in his shin abruptly shocked him out of his reverie, and he looked down to see Tin-Tin glaring at him again. Shaking his head, he looked up again, only to be mesmerized once more by her amazing beauty.

And decided to create a dream come true.

This time Tin-Tin didn't just kick him in the shin.

This time she stomped on his foot with her heel.

Hard.

Intense pain broke whatever hold the spell had on him and he grimaced at Tin-Tin muttering, "Thanks, I think."

So they sprinkled…

Turning in the direction the sound was coming from, Scott roared in his most intimidating command voice, "QUIET!"

To his utter amazement, eight tiny humanoid beings jumped up from behind the vase of flowers, looking as if they had been scared half to death.

"What the…?" Scott stared in shock, as one of the beings separated himself from the rest and came towards him. He was obviously male, only about three inches high with golden skin and green hair. He wore his hair in dreadlocks, and….he had wings!

"Wot's you problem, mon?" asked the owner of the baritone voice as he came nearer. "We's just doin' our job, mon. No need to holler."

"What are you?"

"So rude. Wot do you think we are?" he countered.

"I don't know…fairies?" Scott asked dubiously.

"Yup, dat's us. Fairies. The real deal," he said pushing out his chest with pride.

Tin-Tin just stared at them in wonder. Scott let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Just stop with the singing, alright?"

"No mon, that's our job to do the singin'," he said crossing his arms in front of him, "That's wot we get paid to do, mon."

"Well, how about this – I'll pay you to stop singing, okay?" Scott parried.

"Pay with wot, mon?" the fairy asked, his voice tinged with suspicion.

Scott pulled out his wallet, and the fairies started laughing, "What?" he asked, irritated.

"Dat paper stuff's no use to us, mon. We want some tin' we can use," the spokesman (or should it be spokes-fairy?) said once he had stopped laughing.

"Like what?" Scott asked, raking his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Pizza," the spokesman said while the other fairies stood behind him nodding in unison.

"Pizza?" Scott asked incredulously. He looked at Tin-Tin, who just shrugged her shoulders.

"Yup, pizza. Non o' dat milk, honey and bread stuff for us, mon. We like it, but we like pizza much better," said the fairy, knowing he had the upper hand. "Preferably from John's in New York City."

"We're in the middle of the South Pacific! How the heck can I get New York pizza for you?" Scott asked, getting more exasperated by the minute and starting to pace.

"I think ah…I've got that ah…covered, Scott," Brains said as he entered the room, looking a bit disheveled.

Scott looked up at him, "You do? How?" he asked, wondering how Brains could possibly pull this off.

"Matter/energy transporter ah…Scott, that's ah…how," Brains explained quietly.

Scott looked at him in amazement, "You invented a transporter? Like on Star Trek?"

"Well, ah…the principle is ah…the same, ah…but I ah…didn't invent it, Scott," he replied, looking downcast.

Scott looked at Brains for a moment, and then glanced at Tin-Tin. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, confirming his thoughts. "Please don't tell me…"

Brains looked up at Scott and nodded. "I'm afraid so ah…Scott, she invented it, not me."

Scott groaned, feeling his headache getting even worse.

"Getting the ah…pizza is the ah…least I can do, if it will rid us of that infernal singing," he answered. Then Brains murmured, "Then at least I will feel somewhat useful again."

"You give us pizza mon, we stop singing," the fairy spokesman promised.

So Brains went to get the pizzas, accompanied by a reluctant Gordon, who only went because Scott gave him no choice in the matter. The fairies collected napkins for themselves and settled down on the dinning room table to wait for their pizza.

While all this was going on, Alan and Mary Sue wandered from the pool area up to the house. Scott looked up to see Alan holding the door for Mary Sue as she glided into the room, little blue birds still circling around her until she stepped into the house. The poor birds slammed into the glass in a valiant attempt to keep up with her, sliding down along the glass with stars now circling their little heads.

Scott observed all this with a sense of detachment, as Tin-Tin's fingernails were digging deeply into his arm.

Mary Sue, he observed, was the vision of loveliness. Her hair, her skin, her generous curves…

The pain in his arm intensified to the point that he thought he was going to end up with ten puncture wounds. His sense of detachment returned, and he noticed that Mary Sue was wearing a too tight scoop neck tank top that revealed more than it concealed, and short shorts. Just the right sort of outfit to wear on an island inhabited by a group of virile young men, he mused.

Alan and John were both vying for her attention, but this time Mary Sue had eyes only for Scott. She walked toward him and offered her hand, pouting (very prettily) when he didn't immediately take and kiss it.

"You must be Scott," she said, her voice having the most pleasing musical quality. "I've heard so much about you."

"And I've heard a great deal about you as well," he replied, trying to pry Tin-Tin's fingers off his arm. "Tin-Tin, why don't you grab Alan and get the table set?"

Tin-Tin eyed him warily, and then complied; looking back at him to make sure he wasn't going all slack-jawed again.

Scott figured that he needed some fresh air to turn his thoughts away from the pain in his head, arm, foot and leg, and the fact that his stomach was now wrapped firmly around his spine and he was starving. The pizza couldn't get here fast enough for him.

He suggested to Mary Sue that they take a walk, and she readily agreed.

As they headed outside, the birds, now recovered, returned to their circling. Mary Sue laid her hand on his arm, sending an odd sensation through him, which was offset by the throbbing pain leftover from Tin-Tin's earlier ministrations.

They headed down the steps toward the pool area, chatting about this and that, when his attention was again drawn to the tightness of her tank top. His eyes roamed the generous curves of her breasts, the material hugging every curve. He smiled as he noticed how they seemed to be straining against the thin fabric of her shirt…

Scott tripped over the lounge chair that he didn't notice as his eyes had been firmly fixed on Mary Sue's chest. He tumbled over the chair and down the steps into the garden, breaking his leg in three places.

Mary Sue was at his side instantly, fussing over him. Grimacing in pain, he looked up and got a face full of her heaving bosom. A minute ago, he would have happily torn away the fabric that separated him from her, but now he was in far too much pain.

She checked him over and informed him that his leg was quite broken (as if he didn't know that already). She carefully slipped an inflatable splint on his leg to immobilize it.

Through his haze of pain, Scott watched in wonder.

"Where did you get the splint?" he asked her, amazed.

"Oh, I just happened to have one in my back pocket," she replied with a smile." You never know when you're going to need a splint."

Unbeknownst to our dashing hero and lovely heroine, an even worse fate was about to befall them.

Out from behind the tree that Scott was resting against, crawled the tiny iridescent green and very Deadly Whatchamacallit Tree Spider. It made its way up the trunk of the tree until it was level with Scott's neck then, with deadly intent, it injected our hero with its lethal paralyzing venom. Scott was in so much pain from his injuries that he didn't even notice.

Once his leg was immobilized, Mary Sue helped him up, and he manfully hobbled back to the house with her help. He had a little bit of difficulty with the stairs, but managed to get back into the house.

Once there, they were greeted by a rather curious sight. There were empty pizza boxes strewn everywhere, and the eight fairies were sound asleep on them, bellies so full they were distended. Their snores sounded like the buzzing of some sort of odd insect. It was at that point that Scott passed out from pain and shock.

TBTBTB

Scott slowly became aware of voices discussing something. One familiar, the other not so familiar, but so lovely…he faded back into oblivion for a bit until he was rudely brought back to consciousness by a cool cloth being applied to his forehead.

Brains and Mary Sue were discussing the fact that not only did he have a broken leg, but he had a fever of 105 degrees F. Brains wanted to use cool packs and medication to bring down his fever, Mary Sue was dead set against it. She insisted that an ice bath would bring down his temperature the fastest. In the end, she won the argument, and Scott was divested of his clothing and put in a tub of ice water.

The ice bath did the trick. His temperature was reduced quite rapidly, so much so, that after a short while, he began shivering and his lips started to turn blue. A quick check by Mary Sue confirmed that he was now suffering from hypothermia.

He was taken out of the ice bath and laid on the bed. Both Mary Sue and Brains were quite worried about his lack of movement. They both dried him off, then Mary Sue began taking off her clothes.

"Ah…what are you doing ah…that for?" an embarrassed Brains asked, averting his gaze.

"I'm going to warm him up with my body heat, my dear Brains," she said with a smile. "Why don't you get some heated blankets?"

Brains quickly left the room in search of heated blankets, carefully avoiding looking at her perfect body.

Meanwhile, a completely naked Mary Sue climbed up on the bed next to Scott and wrapped herself around him to start warming him up.

"You know, Scott," she said stroking him. "Brains is out of the room for now." When she got no response, she said, "Now is when we're supposed to have wild sex and then you'll be completely cured."

Scott looked at her askance. "How do you expect me to get it up? I'm in terrible pain from my leg being broken in three places, then you practically froze my balls off with that ice bath, and on top of that, I've been injected with the paralyzing venom of the Deadly Whatchamacallit Tree Spider!"

Mary Sue jumped up in horror! "Oh, no! Scott, please! Not the Deadly Whatchamacallit Tree Spider! There's no known cure!" she cried, tears streaming down her face.

Scott nodded sluggishly as he felt the venom taking away what little control he had left, and drifted into unconsciousness.

One week later…

Scott is lying on the bed attached to various monitors and a ventilator. The entire family is there in the room. Virgil, Tin-Tin and Grandma are sitting in the corner crying, the other brothers and Kyrano are off to the other side. Brains and Mary Sue are standing by the monitors talking quietly with Jeff.

"Ah…I'm sorry…ah, Mr. Tracy, but Scott's showing no sign of brain activity," Brains said solemnly

Scott stared at them and yelled, "I'm here! I'm awake!"

No one seemed to notice.

"Yes, Mr. Tracy, and it has been over a week," Mary Sue added.

Scott sat up waving his hands in front of his father's face, "Dad! Dad! I'm here!"

Jeff didn't even blink.

"I can't do it, Brains. I just can't pull the plug on Scott!" Jeff said sounding tortured, a tear running down his cheek. "What are we going to do?" he said as he started pacing.

"It's alright Mr. Tracy, I can fly Thunderbird one," Mary Sue told him.

"You can?" Jeff stopped pacing and stared at her, "That's wonderful Mary Sue! International Rescue is saved!"

"There is no way in hell that woman is flying my 'bird!" Scott growled.

"Well everyone, isn't this wonderful? Mary Sue will fly Thunderbird one and she will take over as field commander on our next rescue!" Jeff exclaimed as he walked toward Scott's bed.

"Over my dead body!" Scott grumbled as he started to get out of bed and shake some sense into his father.

Just as he started to pass the bed, Jeff tripped on the power cord to the life support machines, yanking the plug out of the wall!

!

Scott woke with a start, hearing someone calling his name.

"Scott! Scott! Wake up already, will ya!" Virgil called while shaking him by the shoulders. "That must have been one hell of a nightmare, you were yelling so loud I heard you from my room!"

Scott peered at Virgil, "You're not crying?"

"No. Should I be?" he asked, somewhat confused.

"No, it's just…never mind."

Virgil crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Scott.

"What?"

"Explain" Virgil demanded.

"Trust me, Virg. You really don't want to know."

"Hmm, sounds to me like you've been a victim of the Tracy Island Writers Forum."

Scott's eyes widened at the realization, "I told you this was going to be bad."

Author's note: '(They Long to be) Close to You' ©Burt Bacharach and Hal David, 1963

Author's note (2): Thank you for reading! This being my very first attempt at humor, I am shamelessly asking for feedback. Please let me know if you got a chuckle out of this. Thanks so much,

Chrysexanthe