A Final Word To Say

Six months later

The fire on the beach crackled merrily, and the music was loud and raucous. Brains and Christa were dancing, and the engineer splayed a long fingered hand across his wife's burgeoning belly. Christa Hackenbacker Tracy looked up at her husband as she leaned back into him, their hips gyrating to the music in unison. Brains, or Hiram, as he was now known around the household, hadn't minded adding the Tracy name to his rather unwieldy one. It gave him some measure of prestige in the scientific world, where his aeronautic designs were making a big splash.

JC offered a s'more to Lee, her fiancé. He accepted the treat with a grin, and leaned over to kiss her. Once Christa's unplanned pregnancy became known, JC had taken charge of Thunderbird Two, and Lee, after his heart-to-heart, potential father-in-law to potential son-in-law talk with Jeff, was brought into the loop and offered the job of piloting Thunderbird Four. Lee was surprised, to say the least, but honored to think that International Rescue thoughtso much of his skills that they would bring him in without the benefit of being part of the family. "I suspect that little detail will take care of itself in time," Jeff was heard to mutter. He accepted, and resigned his commission with WASP, moving out to live with his bride-to-be's family.

Sally sat with Mae, watching their sisters. Sally's relationship with Eddie had fizzled out when she learned that he had no qualms about cutting down rainforest and not replanting outside the bounds of the roads he built. Not only that, but he sold his company to a larger firm, a direct competitor to Tracy Industries, something he swore he'd never do. Sally saw this as a slap in the face of her family, and broke things off with him.

Mae's dalliance with Tin-Tin was long over. Once he had recovered from his ordeal, Tin-Tin declared his love for Valentina and they were engaged. Right now, Val was doing her first month-long stint in the newly-repaired Thunderbird Five. Jeff had decided that the human touch was too vitally important to those who were calling for help, and that Thunderbird Five should be continue to be a manned space station. He had Brains improve the scanning systems and develop a strong cloaking and deflector device to protect the station from incoming threats, be they meteors or missiles. It has also been decided that once the engaged pair were married, Tin-Tin would be joining his wife during the monthly rotation. This evening, the young man was getting instruction from his father in the use of his family's gift while the house was basically deserted and everyone was at the beach.

Mae was also returning to space as she had before, but now she had something else to occupy herself during the long, lonely stretches. She was writing a gossip column, full of data provided by her many contacts around the world. She used the pseudonym of Lucy Starr, and was picking up quite a following at her subscription web magazine. Brains had worked it out that any submissions were picked up by a secure, earthbound server, and then transmitted to Thunderbird Five from there, so no one really knew who or where Lucy Starr happened to be.

Sally looked up from the fire, seeing someone approach. She turned the volume of the music down to a dull roar, and greeted the newcomers. "Hi, Dad! Hi, Doc!"

"Hello, Sal," Jeff said, smiling. He took the blanket from his arm and spread it on the sand, then sat down next to the forty-something lady he was escorting. She was a physician who Jeff had met four months earlier when he took Ruby to Sydney for some tests. The careful attention she had paid to his mother-in-law impressed him, and when Ruby was admitted to the hospital for emergency cancer surgery, he found the doctor's quiet confidence to be both soothing and encouraging.

Ruby recovered without complications; the doctor removed all of the cancerous tumor in her neck. And Jeff found himself spending more and more time at the offices in Sydney, forging a friendship that had since progressed into courtship. The girls were thrilled with their father's new ladyfriend, and Ruby, though at first upset that Jeff was serious about wanting a new lady in his life, admitted that he couldn't do much better than the woman who had saved her. Jeff took in stride the good-natured, behind-the-scenes teasing from his daughters that he was only pursuing the doctor because they needed one for International Rescue. To this point, he had not told her about the covert side of the "family business". He wanted to wait until they were firmly a couple, perhaps even engaged, before revealing that particular fact.

Bella Ghant was taken into custody, and though the evidence against her was overwhelming, it was determined that she was unable to stand trial. She now resided in a Malaysian hospice center, a shell of a woman, unable to function on the most basic of levels. Kyrano went faithfully twice a month to see her, but she showed no recognition or signs of stirring from her condition.

Kyrano himself returned from his battle with his sister a changed man. He was much more serious, and there was an underlying sadness about him that not even Jeff could penetrate. He began to teach Tin-Tin how to use the powers that ran in his family, taking care always to stress the inviolate nature of another's mind. The garden became his sanctuary, and if he were not in the kitchen, he could be found there, meditating, seeking solace and self-forgiveness for what he had to do to stop his sister.

Sally looked over at Jeff as a strong vibration shook her watch. He looked back at her knowingly, then whispered in his lady's ear, "How about we take a moonlight cruise, just the two of us?" She smiled, and nodded, and Jeff levered himself to his feet and offered her his hand. They walked off into the darkness, heading for the boat pen.

The younger folk looked at each other, then JC got up and took Lee's hand. "C'mon! That was the emergency signal!"

"I know, girl, I know," Lee responded as she broke into a run and he ran to keep up with her.

"Brains, Christa, please take care of the fire?" Sally asked as she got to her feet.

"Sure, Sal. When we're done with it," Christa replied with a sly smile.

Sally shook her head, and reached down to pull Mae to her feet. Then the two of them ran off toward the Villa.

Hiram wrapped his arms around Christa from behind and watched his sisters-in-law go. He kissed her on the neck and said softly, "Looks like Thunderbirds are go."