The blood results came back around 0700, Atlanta time, and Harrison released them, but Ridley's shuttle wasn't ready yet. John called Tracy Island and Virgil took the call. It was probably getting close to midnight back home, but he looked wide awake. "I'm on my way," he said.
Nothing had ever looked quite as welcome as Thunderbird 2 alighting into the CDC parking lot and setting down next to Ridley's shuttle. Maria tore out of the building to meet Virgil, who descended in the fore elevator. He opened his arms and she launched herself into them. The embrace and accompanying kiss was epic. Any bystanders might have thought he was returning from a six month tour of duty in a war zone or something.
John and Ridley caught up, having taken a leisurely stroll from the CDC building rather than sprinting to keep up with Maria. Although not wanting the reunion to end, Maria didn't want to be rude either. She let go of Virgil so he could greet the others.
"Captain Ridley O'Bannon, this is my brother, Virgil Tracy," John said.
Ridley extended her hand and Virgil shook it.
"Looks like you rescued my brother and my girlfriend," Virgil said. "Thank you."
"Oh, I didn't do anything but drive the ambulance," she replied modestly.
Virgil's eyes flashed from Ridley's shuttle back to her. "That's one fine ambulance you got there."
She chuckled, looking up at Thunderbird 2. "Yours isn't half bad either."
The flight home went quickly. It was late on Tracy Island, so everyone went straight to bed. After getting Ridley settled in a guest room next to Maria's, John met his grandmother in the hallway and said he was taking the space elevator back up to Thunderbird 5. Sally crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "Absolutely not. Alan and Scott pushed the ion engines to 98% just to get home faster because they were worried about you. They're due back in the morning and they deserve to see you before you go running off again. Once they're here, I'm calling a family meeting that you need to be present for. Personally, not as a hologram." She lowered her voice because they were in the hall and presumably, Sally didn't want Captain O'Bannon to overhear the next part. "Besides, Ridley is your guest on Tracy Island and you're not leaving while she's here."
He sighed. "I guess you're right, Grandma."
Sally resumed her normal voice. "Go down to the lounge and check in with EOS. Show her you're okay. Tell her you wanted to come back but other people wouldn't let you. Tell her it was doctors or tell her it was me, but don't you dare blame it on Ridley. I'm willing to bet EOS will fall all over her circuits to show you how completely she's got everything under control in your absence."
"F.A.B." John sounded a little less wounded realising Sally had a point about EOS. He started down the hall toward the stairs.
Maria felt a little badly for eavesdropping, but they had chosen to chat in the hall right next to her door, the door she always left open. She hadn't seen sleeping quarters in the gravity ring, but she'd only seen a fraction of it. Did John normally sleep in zero-g? If so, the thought of sleeping in gravity might have sounded less comfortable and restful than it did to normal Earth-bound people. Maybe he just wanted a good night's sleep. Or maybe all the rumours about John and Ridley were just that: rumours. Maybe they were content with just playing handball.
The next morning, Sally was not her usual chipper self. She said good morning but her heart wasn't in it. "You know why I called the family meeting, right?"
"You're going to tell them about the Truflun's, aren't you?"
"I have to. I've waited too long already."
"Do you want me to be there?"
"Of course. You're just as much part of the family as Brains and Kayo."
Maria wasn't sure that was true, but even if it was, this news would shake everything up and afterwards, nothing would be certain. She nodded in silence as she helped Sally stand. "Is the meeting before or after breakfast?"
"It's whenever Scott and Alan get here."
"Then I'm thinking cinnamon rolls, fruit, and some mini-quiches. Finger food so everyone can eat while you talk."
"Or we could talk in the dining room and eat whatever we want," Sally said with a smile.
"Okay, what do you want to eat then?"
"Oh, your menu sounded great. I just thought it might be easier to move people to the food than food to the people."
"It's no trouble to carry platters upstairs if we get everyone to help. Softer seats and good food won't change the bad news, but at least they won't make it worse."
"You've got a point."
Maria had some homemade sweet dough already made, rolled with cinnamon, and refrigerated. It only needed to be cut into rolls and given a final rise before baking. She did that first so the rolls would rise as she made the mini-quiches. Pie crust was mixed in less than a minute, rolled thin, and cut with a cookie cutter. She placed the dough circles in a muffin pan to make little cup shapes. Then scrambled eggs and cheese went in, followed by small bits of meat and more cheese. She made half of them sausage and half ham, mainly because she didn't know any of John's preferences. It wasn't often he could share a meal with his family and she wanted to make sure he would find something he liked. Virgil would no doubt polish off any of the quiche leftovers.
"What should we do about Ridley?" Maria asked Sally. It was doubtful Sally wanted someone she had just met to sit in on such a sensitive family meeting.
"How about we set her up with food and some entertainment in her room?" Sally had a rather devious smile when she said this.
"Why do I worry about what you mean by 'entertainment'?"
"Oh, you don't have to worry, but John will be thoroughly embarrassed. Just childhood photo albums. Gordon claims at least 75% of the pictures of him are really Alan, and Scott always blamed Virgil for anything that made him look bad, but John could never get away with anything because of that flaming red hair of his."
"I can fix her a tray, no problem."
Maria put the mini-quiches in the oven and started cutting oranges, honeydew, and cantaloupe. Sally washed some home-grown strawberries and set them on towels to dry. When the mini-quiches were done, the cinnamon rolls were ready to take their place in the oven. While the rolls baked, filling the house with that wonderful yeasty cinnamon aroma, Maria made icing to drizzle over the top.
By the time Maria got all the food ready, Virgil and Kayo had shown up in the kitchen. Virgil went to fetch Ridley's entertainment at Sally's behest while Maria assembled a food tray. As she was taking it up the second staircase to the bedroom level, she caught John coming down. His eyes widened at the spread of food on the tray. Maria smiled. "Oh good, you can take this to Ridley. Breakfast in bed. Virgil is getting her some entertainment to keep her busy so she won't feel neglected while you attend the family meeting."
"Wow, this looks great, Maria. Thanks for making this for our guest."
"Least I could do after she picked us up and contaminated her ship to get us to Atlanta."
John took the tray from her and turned around to go back up the stairs. When Maria got back to the kitchen, Kayo and Alan were busy in a "welcome home" hug and Scott was munching on a cinnamon roll. Brains had found the honeydew.
"John is delivering the tray to Ridley. He should be right back," Maria said.
"I told Virgil to wake up Gordon after he took care of Ridley's reading material. So everyone is awake and back from missions. Brains has EOS forwarding all calls until further notice. We're having a family meeting and no interruptions!" She raised her voice to address everyone in the kitchen. "Everyone grab a platter and head up to the lounge. May as well be comfortable."
Virgil, Gordon, and John arrived from the third floor at the same time as everyone else arrived from below. Sally waited until everyone had served themselves and was settled in. She had Maria help her to the little half-couch between the globe lamp and the stairs Scott always took to get to his gear-up. This was not Sally's normal seat in the lounge, but evidently she wanted to face everyone and this was easier than standing. Maria sat next to Virgil, facing Sally like everyone else.
The Tracy matriarch waited for attention and then drew a deep breath. "I should have told you all a long time ago. I have Truflun's Disease. It's stage 4." There were some gasps of horror, but Sally didn't give them any time to question her. She ploughed on quickly, probably having rehearsed what she needed to say for weeks. "The doctors say I only have a few months to live. I hired Maria to help me so I could be with you all a little longer, but it has never been her job to cure me. There's nothing she can do, nothing anyone can do. If you want to blame anyone, blame me. I refused treatment when I first found out, back around the time you'd just lost your dad. There was a chance then, but the side effects of treatment could have been severe. I got many more years than they told me I'd get and I was able to be here with you all, especially for Alan, who was still so young back then. I have no regrets for the choice I made. I hope you all can forgive me for keeping this a secret so long."
Everyone sat in stunned silence for at least a minute. Virgil stood first and approached, then crouched down and hugged her. "Of course we forgive you, Grandma."
One by one, her grandsons came and gave her hugs and kisses on the cheek. Kayo also embraced her, whispering, "Nothing to forgive."
Sally wiped a tear away and sniffed. "That went better than I thought it would. Now, we need to discuss what's going to happen to Maria when I... you know. We all know how Virgil feels, so he's going to be quiet while I hear from the rest of you."
"I need her on underwater perimeter patrol," Kayo said. "I hope she stays." Maria smiled at her and nodded.
"Thanks, Kayo," Sally said.
"You have to stay! Who would make tacos?" Alan said, sounding utterly distressed about the prospect of a tacoless future. Maria chuckled inwardly at this.
"What about all she's teaching us about sharks?" Gordon added. "Just a few days ago in the North Sea I had this guy who freaked out because he thought a Greenland shark was a Great White. I would have been scared myself six months ago, but I just told him that Greenlands were the slowest swimming shark and never attacked humans and he calmed right down. Please stay so you can keep teaching us about sharks." Maria nodded her appreciation for his compliment even as she made a mental note to ask about the Greenland shark later. She'd always wanted to see one.
"I got you both beat," John said. "She just saved my life. She's got my vote forever for that, but these cinnamon rolls aren't bad either." He took a huge bite out of the roll in his hand and chewed with a smile behind his full mouth.
Brains spoke next. "Not to one-up you, J-John, but she saved the entire city of C-Cape Town. She covers areas of expertise and knowledge that I l-lack, so I vote yes t-too."
"You lack knowledge, Brains?" Alan asked, genuine bewilderment written on his features.
"Of course I d-do. I never c-claimed to be a know-it-all."
It was silent for a few seconds. "Scott?" Sally prompted.
"She's family now. I think it's clear she's perfect for us, despite my early misgivings and rude behavior toward her." He faced Maria. "The question is, do you want to stay here with us when Grandma is gone?"
Maria felt a lump in her throat. "It was never a question of me wanting to stay, Scott. I love this island, I love all of you, and I love my job even without the nursing. The question was whether you all felt I was worth keeping around once the home health aide duties evaporated. Thanks to Brains, my debts are paid, so I don't need money anymore; I can work just for room and board. I'd stay to cook and clean and do the underwater patrol, if that was enough."
Scott smiled. "Oh that's enough, for sure. I'm not trying to make more work for you, but if you're interested, what would you say to becoming our home health aide... kind of like a flight surgeon, to watch over all of International Rescue personnel?"
Maria considered a moment and then drew a deep breath. "Scott, you'd better think hard and consult the others before offering that, because if I took on such a role in an official capacity, the very first thing I would do is call Colonel Casey and tell her exactly how much the GDF has been taking you all for granted. The International Aviation Board has rules, and you've somehow been exempted, no doubt so they could continue to exploit you. I would demand that you be afforded the same protections against fatigue and overwork that all the other pilots in the world get." Maria saw Sally grin big at this point. Maybe she had made this argument before, but no one listened because she was old or something.
"I doubt Colonel Casey knows how little sleep we actually get," John said.
"Why is that?" Maria pressed. "Technology to detect sleep and log the time automatically has been incorporated into fitness trackers available on the retail market for at least fifty years. Sensors and datalinks could easily be incorporated into your uniforms and made into wristbands or clothing clips for your off-duty time. I know you all keep Thunderbird hours meticulously logged so you don't neglect equipment maintenance. Why isn't your health given the same priority?"
"But then we'd have to start saying no," John said, sounding aghast at the very notion.
Maria nodded. "Exactly. I'd tattle on you if you didn't, which is why I'm warning you before I accept this as an official job. I would force the GDF to get their act together and handle all the rescues they should be handling and to delegate to municipalities all the smaller jobs. Your father never intended for International Rescue to be responsible for every emergency in the entire world. It's one thing to go where no one else is able to. It's quite another to send Thunderbird 1 halfway across the globe to pull a deaf girl out of a construction site because some local dispatcher couldn't be bothered to send someone to the scene to check it out and make sure they couldn't handle it before you got called in."
"She has a point," Scott admitted. "Even a volunteer fire department with some rope could have got her out of that hole."
"If I was just cook and housekeeper, I'd still be willing to go with you on rescues as needed and keep all your secrets, including how overworked you are and how much it disturbs me. I'm just saying that if you put me in charge of your health, don't expect me to ignore the fatigue and overwork issue. If I took that job, I would do something about it."
Virgil cleared his throat. "How about we put that idea on hold, since she already said she was willing to stay without it. Can I have my turn now?"
Everyone nodded. Some muttered, "sure" or "go ahead", but they all sounded like whatever he was going to say was so predictable and superfluous they really didn't need to hear it.
Virgil stood and stepped toward the centre table, then looked back at everyone. "I'm glad to hear that you all want Maria to stay, because I'm not willing to live without her anymore. If she goes, I go." There were murmurs of protest but he raised his hand to halt them. It was already a moot point. "She's got a lot to offer us, but there's one thing I want to offer her." He stepped closer to her and looked straight into her soul with those fathomless brown eyes. "I propose you stay on Tracy Island as a Tracy," he knelt on one knee, pulled a ring box from his shirt pocket, and opened it to display at her eye level, "specifically, Mrs. Virgil Tracy. Maria, will you marry me?"
She wanted to look at Virgil, but the ring was right in her face, and she was too curious not to at least get a look. It was white gold or silver with a smooth inlaid design: a jade hammerhead shark whose head lay on a mother-of-pearl nurse shark's tail while the nurse shark's head lay on the hammerhead's tail. The background around the sharks was a clear, veinless turquoise. The shank of the ring was decorated in tiny starfish, seahorses, and scallop shells.
The room was deathly silent as if everyone were holding their breaths. Maria knew all eyes were on her. Her heart thumped so loudly she thought surely everyone could hear it. Of course, the answer was yes a thousand times over, but it seemed so inadequate to convey all the emotions bursting forth. Then the perfect answer hit her. She smiled widely and looked over the ring box to gaze back at Virgil. "F.A.B."
He smiled and she lunged for an embrace that knocked Virgil off balance, sending both of them rolling on the floor. Maria didn't see what happened to the ring, nor could she discern who cheered loudly and who jumped up and applauded, even as a small corner of her brain was aware that a lot of celebratory noise was happening all around her. Virgil's lips met hers and that was all she knew and all she cared to know. I'm going to be Mrs. Virgil Tracy.