Sally knew she had dodged a huge bullet when Maria didn't reveal her diagnosis on that terrible interrogation recording. It certainly wouldn't have been Maria's fault if she'd said anything while drugged, but it would have been extremely awkward for Sally to have to admit to her family it was true and she'd failed to tell everyone herself. Virgil had been especially vulnerable, and had he been forced to deal with his grandmother's secret and his girlfriend's possible death at the same time, it could have been devastating. Sally knew she needed to tell them all, and soon. There were just a few little details she wanted to work out first.
The main one was how Maria would fit into the family beyond her likelihood of eventually marrying Virgil. Her grandson might not realise she was the one yet, but Sally had no doubt he'd catch up eventually. It would complicate matters if Maria didn't have a good solid place in the family apart from her relationship though. It wouldn't do at all for Maria to feel any sort of pressure to marry Virgil just to have a place to live. She needed to have purpose and acceptance for herself first, so marrying Virgil would be solely for love.
Several positive developments had moved them all in that direction. Scott coming full on board and deciding she was family had been major. The fact Brains had recognised value in that weird anatomy song was another big step. It wasn't surprising Stephen Q. Watson Medical College wanted the song, but they probably wouldn't have forgiven all her debt if not for Kayo ever-so-slyly dropping hints that Maria had a very solid case for a sexual harassment lawsuit and how tons of negative publicity for the school might occur if Maria suddenly decided to take her story public. Forgiving her student loan debt was actually a very small price to pay for preserving Maria's goodwill after they'd failed to protect her from that sleezebag clinical rotations director. The fact they also got a valuable educational song in the deal was simply bonus for them. Maria had no idea Kayo had said anything, nor did she even want to dredge all that history up again. But the turn of events did give her the advantage of now being debt-free.
Brains was giddy as a schoolboy to have the opportunity to get Maria all decked out to do underwater perimeter patrol. She'd undoubtedly end up equipped just as well as Lady Penelope, although Sally really hoped Brains realised Maria wasn't as into pink as their London agent was. Sally had not even thought of something like that, but putting her on island surveillance and making her part of Kayo's security team was a stroke of genius and Maria had come up with it all by herself.
It was obvious Maria loved the cooking and gardening part of her job. Sally felt pretty sure she would be willing to stay simply as cook-housekeeper-underwater patroller. However, it was ridiculous to waste her nursing talents. The boys just needed to see how she could be useful to them.
Although Maria was getting stronger and stronger every day, Sally continued encouraging her to sit and watch rescues more, hoping she might catch on to how overworked the boys were and how the GDF was taking them for granted. Whether Maria was seeing it or not was anyone's guess, but she wasn't very good at sitting still. Sally figured Maria most likely had a hyperactivity disorder, not to mention a very strong work ethic, and probably a little guilt thrown in, all conspiring against her to make it difficult for her to simply watch other people doing rescues while she did 'nothing'. Of course, Sally didn't consider it 'nothing'. Sally considered it education. But she couldn't really explain that to Maria, nor why it was important.
However, Maria was quite willing to help fold clean laundry or work on her shark teaching materials while in the lounge. At first, Sally didn't think she was paying any attention to the rescues when her eyes were on something else, but Maria was fairly good at multi-tasking and could catch nearly every word that came over comms while never looking up from a mountain of towels or a life-size hammerhead silhouette she was cutting out from black paper.
There were dozens of different shark silhouette cutouts plastered on walls all over the house now, sometimes with a side view and an overhead view both, so the various fin shapes and body configurations could be discerned. The cutouts had simple descriptions of characteristic features and the species names in bold white letters. It was supposed to be for Gordon and Alan, but Sally found she was inadvertently learning about sharks as well. Maria made it interesting and fun. Learning happened by osmosis rather than being a chore.
Maria had flash cards of the silhouettes (with the names on the back only) which she would randomly pull out of her apron pocket and quiz Alan or Gordon when they least expected it. At meal times, she'd say something like, "Where on a shark's body would I find a caudal fin?" or "Tell me one thing you know about leopard sharks," and then she held back their food until they each came up with an answer. Every once in a while, Brains would say, "I didn't know that," during their exchanges, which always made Maria smile extra wide.
Sally sent Maria on her first supply run without going herself. The elder Tracy no longer needed to waste the energy tagging along to a warehouse store. It gave Virgil and Maria a little extra time alone together and hopefully helped Maria realise how much Sally trusted her. The quality of food improved at least tenfold after they had the right supplies and Maria was well enough to cook full time again.
Because they were restocked on baking ingredients, Maria was down in the kitchen making cookies while Sally was in the lounge. John's image popped in, but he wore one of his uncertain or confused looks. Brains, Scott, and Gordon were already in the room with Sally.
"Guys, I'm not sure what to do with this call..." John said.
"What's the situation, Thunderbird 5?" Scott asked.
"I'm not sure it is a situation. A fourteen year old boy called in saying he heard weird noises coming from an abandoned construction site." John ran some satellite footage of an unpopulated area where it appeared someone had started developing, but quit. The land had been graded and some concrete was poured, but no framing was done. "It's on the outskirts of a suburb. Our caller was riding a mountain bike out there when he heard this." John's holo-image pressed a button and the weird noises played. It sounded something like moaning or an animal in distress. When the boy called "Hello? Anyone down there?" the sounds didn't stop or change in any way.
"It's coming from that pit where it appears they dug out a basement or elevator shaft or something before they abandoned the site. He doesn't know if it's an animal, a person, or just some jokesters who left a creepy recording. Local authorities are ruling it a prank. The kid gave me this much information, but he wouldn't stay on the line because he's afraid he'll get blamed if it is a prank. So what do you think?"
"What do your scans show?" Scott asked.
"There's a life sign about twenty metres down, but it's either a small animal like a cat or too many steel reinforcement rods to get a good reading on human."
"John, be a dear and play the sounds again," Sally said.
John played the recording. Scott looked at her. "What do you think, Grandma?"
"I think you should launch Thunderbird 1 right away and take Maria with you."
"Maria? Why, do you think it's someone injured?"
"I think Maria is uniquely qualified to help you on this. Be nice and don't toss her out in that RAD ball, all right? She's there to help."
Scott looked dubious, but he didn't argue. "If you say so. I'll meet her on Thunderbird 1's pad." He backed up to the wall and pulled on the sconces. "Thunderbirds are go!"
Sally yelled down the staircase towards the kitchen, "Maria, drop whatever you're doing and run down to the hangar. You need to help Scott on a mission."
"Should I grab my stethoscope or anything?" she yelled back.
"No. Everything you need should be on Thunderbird 1. Hurry now. Don't keep Scott waiting." Sally then turned to Gordon. "Would you run down there and make sure Maria gets to the lift okay? I'm not sure she knows where to go."
"You got it, Grandma," Gordon said. He dashed off.