Foreward

Disclaimer: I do not in any way own or profit from the characters or settings of Thunderbirds. They were created by Gerry Anderson, and the copyright is held by Granada. This story is for my own entertainment and that of others.

The characters of Rebekkah T. Barnes, Terrence S. Barnes, Michelle (Chell) A. Barnes. Terrence (Terry) P. Barnes, Joseph (Joey) Stuart Barnes, and Juan the flying mailman are my own creations and I lay claim to them.

Thank you to Virgil4ever, now known as LMCof TIC, for beta-reading, chatting, and filling in my knowledge gaps.

The photo of the parking garage was taken from the FEMA for Kids website.

Author's Notes: This story was first published at Fanfiction.net on April 1, 2003, and is a sequel to my first story, A Personnel Dilemma. It was, on the whole, a set up for what came afterwards. Again, I wrote about Bekkah Barnes, my admitted self-insert, trying in some ways to clean up her act as a Mary Sue, and not doing a very good job of it. I just couldn't stop writing her as a damsel-in-distress. As in the first story, Bekkah's children mirror my own three quite thoroughly, another sign of self-insertion. I would hate to see what the Barnes children would look like if I wrote them now! Quite a few more warts, and a lot less "uncle" and "auntie"! You'll also notice, if you read any others of my stories, that the "flying mailman" is usually Juan, with Gary later coming in as the cargo plane pilot. These are the names of my own mail carriers at the time the stories were published.

If the story has anything particularly special about it, it is that I focused on the scientific portion of International Rescue, spotlighting Brains and putting Tin-Tin in her proper place as his assistant and an engineer in her own right.

The story had, on the whole, longer chapters than its predecessor, just fewer of them. I have combined the prologue and epilogue with the first and last chapters for brevity's sake.

Despite its many flaws, I hope you will enjoy it.

Tikatu