Title: Mass Gen Hospital

Summary: Avalon is free of the Island and the complications of living in her father's shadow. Known at her job as Ava Evans, she is the head nurse in the Burns Unit at Mass Gen – so it's up to her to look after her brother who arrives covered in burns. Avalon Tracy Series 9/24

Disclaimer: I do not own Thunderbirds in any way or capacity, anything recognizable belongs to the rightful owners.

AGES: Scott – 28; John – 26; Virgil and Ava – 24; Gordon – 21; Alan – 19

Avalon Tracy let out a deep breath, she'd been at Mass Gen now for a year and she loved it. She missed her brothers but then wouldn't she if she was anywhere else? At least Mass Gen was down the road from the Boston branch of Tracy Enterprises.

She had been sent all their files by Virgil – how he got hold of them she didn't know but she could look up all the medical records from her father to their Grandmother and to Tanusha Kyrano – or Kayo as Virgil had called her, she hadn't met her yet as Tanusha had been with the family for only a few months.

Ava was flicking through a file of a patient now as she walked down the corridor towards his room. She found what she was looking for and paused by his door. Sighing, she pushed open the door and was greeted by a grumpy looking man in his late 50's judging by the date-of-birth in his file. Ava gave him a warm smile, her 'nurse's smile'.

"Ok, Mr Anderson. It's time for your x-rays." She said, an orderly had walked with her. He looked up at her with watery blue eyes. He narrowed his eyes at her but Ava didn't falter she just kept right on smiling her nurse's smile at him.

"So you're my nurse? Nurse number, what is it now? 16? Maybe you'll be better than the last one." He said sourly. Some patients were like this.

"Sir, I grew up with 5 brothers. If I can't handle you – we didn't wrestle enough." Ava said. The patient seemed surprised, "Steven, over to you." The orderly nodded and prepped Mr Anderson to wheel him down for his X-rays. Ava left the room and made her way to the nurse's station, shaking her head.

"Nurse?" Ava looked up, a young woman stood in front of her. The lady had a heavy accent, and Ava knew by the sound of it she was German, so Ava thought back to the extra course she'd done on languages. She'd learnt a lot of phrases and this called for some. Thankfully she remembered the correct ones needed. Mass Gen, it seemed, got all sorts of people. But then Ava had always been a people person and she really enjoyed seeing the overjoyed expressions when she delivered good news.

"Kann ich Ihnen helfen?" Ava asked, politely.

The lady seemed surprised but relieved that she could speak in her own language to communicate with this nurse, "Mein Sohn, kam er früh herein. Ich muß wissen, wenn er gut ist." She said, Ava asked his name.

"Kristoff." She replied, Ava nodded and typed it into the tablet she held. She brought up his record and scanned through it. It seemed he'd be brought in and already worked on.

"Ja ist er fein. Ich kann Sie zu seinem Raum nehmen, wenn Sie bitte." Ava said.

"Bitte. Können Sie? Oh, danken Ihnen soviel!" Ava was always glad to help someone out. This lady was so very grateful and she thanked Ava over and over again. But Ava waved it away. She was just doing her job.

It was a Thursday afternoon, about 3:57, Ava had been seated at the nurse's station in her ward reading over a patient's records when her pager went off. Emergency coming in. She got up from her seat ready to assist with the patients. Burn patients were her speciality.

She watched as they were brought down in the elevator, it struck her as odd but she didn't question it. She helped rush the victim to the burns unit and set to work with the doctor to get them out of their clothes and to look at their wounds. Once they had ascertained that they weren't too serious but they would need to check the patient's lungs for soot and debris the doctor left her to finish the checks and to start cleaning their face and body so they could be looked at better.

Avalon had always liked working in the burns unit, she loved giving people good news. She slowly began to clean the victim of the soot that covered them. She started at their feet and worked up. Being a nurse she'd seen plenty of naked men and women so nothing surprised her anymore. Nothing shocked her. She was no pervert but she made sure that everything was covered for the patient's modesty and ego. She didn't want to have to tell him that she'd cleaned him and have him think she saw everything. She gently cleaned his chest and was extra gentle of the burns there. Then their arms. Their neck and then she began to clean their ears. She paused. That brown hair was familiar. No, it couldn't be, lots of men had chestnut hair with soft blonde streaks from sea water right? Right?

Ava had never scared easily. But when she'd cleaned the face of her burns victim she'd let out shocked yelp. There lying on the bed in front of her was her twin brother. Virgil was her burn victim. She ran to the bathroom and emptied her stomach into the toilet. She felt sick. Not because she'd just cleaned him, but because he was there in her burns unit covered nearly head-to-toe in burns. She clutched her hand to her chest. She felt tears burn her eyes and she let the tears come. Her brother was lying there, in her burns unit.

She was assigned to him. She was his nurse. This was going to be interesting. She asked another nurse to call the Tracy Family and inform them that their son Virgil, had been brought in covered in burns. It had surprised Ava that he hadn't been in his uniform. But she ignored that fact and just went back to continue working on him. She had to get a grip. It was like when Alan had burnt his hand on the oven at home. She'd done what she knew she had to do. Run it under cold water, put cream on it, wrap it up (and scold him). So she worked on Virgil's burns, looking at them closely determining the ones that weren't too bad got a burn cream on them and she wrapped them up. She shook her head at him.

"If you wanted to visit me at work all you had to do was ask." She said, she didn't get a response and really she didn't expect one.

Ava has never liked hospitals. She didn't like the way they smelled, the way the nurses would smile in that neutral way that didn't tell you anything, the doctors telling families all the bad news and the family left to break down and often fall apart at the news that a loved one wasn't going to be coming home ever again. She also didn't like the not knowing. When her mother had died their father had told them that evening when they were waiting on news of Alan. So it was a mystery to her as to why she worked at one.

And right now, she was standing at the entrance to the waiting room, looking in at her family sitting clustered together. They were all in civilian clothes. Alan was wearing a t-shirt with the IR symbol on it. He was almost obvious about it, but even Ava knew you could get one of those at Walmart. Gordon in one of his hideous Hawaiian shirts. John was dressed as casually as he dared, his hair mussed as if he'd been running his hands through it. Scott next dressed in shorts and t-shirt, still looking like a model. Their father at the centre, dressed as if he had just finished a meeting, shirt and slacks. Scott was trying to comfort Alan, John had his arm around Gordon; she sighed heavily and pushed open the door.

"Family for Virgil Tracy?" She called, their heads shot up and they got to their feet, "Follow me." She said not looking at them – but she knew they were a little confused. When they were outside Virgil's room she looked up at them.

"AVA?!" Alan spluttered, before jumping into her arms.

"What are you doing here?" Gordon snapped.

"Hi Al. And I work here, Gordy. I've been 'given' to Virgil as his nurse. I didn't risk asking not to because if I did they might get suspicious. I'm not Avalon Tracy here. I'm Ava Evans. That's not because I don't want to be a Tracy, it's because I didn't want the stigma attached to it. I say I'm Avalon Tracy, they start to wonder why I'm not in a boardroom, in a dull grey knitted skirt-suit or pushing paper work through a fax machine to my father. So I was just another nursing student and now I'm head nurse of the burns unit. My speciality." She said, before pushing open the door to Virgil's room. The gasps from the family were expected. Head-to-toe burns.

"How bad?" Scott asked. Ava looked at Virgil's chart before replying.

"Bad enough to make me sick. He had several first degree burns and they should heal on their own easily enough with cream and rest. The second degree burns too will heal on their own – though they will take more time. As for the third degree burns – he may need skin graphs and we are going to see how bad they are at a later date. However his lungs are bothering us. His breathing is very laboured and there seems to be a lot of smoke in the his lungs that needs to clear." Ava was about to ask what the hell he'd been doing when he woke up and began to cough and gag around the breathing tube.

"It's all right, Virgil! Virgil! It's ok! You're ok!" She said firmly as her brother's wide eyes locked on her, recognition flashed in them as he stopped fighting, "You're ok Virgil. It's all right. I need you to stay calm for me, can you do that?" He nodded, "Good. Now when I say so I want you to give your best cough ok? That will help me get the tube out. Ready?" Another nod, "Ok…let's do it, your best cough Virgil, come on." Virgil gave his best effort in a forced cough and Ava removed the tube without chocking her brother, not a minute later there was oxygen mask on his face.

"I'm slightly scared right now…she's gonna be worse than Doctor Control Freak." Gordon stage whispered to Alan, at which Virgil – who had heard him – shot him a look.

"All right, Mister you know the drill that does not come off until I say so." She said firmly, he gave her his best 'yes, ma'am' glare and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"So he's ok now right?" Alan asked.

"I'll send the Doctor in to have a look, but your vitals are good and you shouldn't need help breathing but your burns will need to be looked at." Ava smiled at them with her 'nurse's smile', before leaving them.

"What's the damage?" Virgil wheezed behind his oxygen mask.

"First to third degree burns." Scott told him. Virgil made a face.

"Ava's my nurse huh? Fantastic. This is going to be fun." He wheezed and started to cough.

"And you shouldn't be talking, Mr Tracy. This is Doctor Reeves. She'll be looking after you when I cannot." Ava had returned with a fairly pretty doctor by her side. Her name tag said 'B. Reeves'

"Hello Mr Tracy, the junior. My name is Bethany." She said.

"Virgil." He replied hoarsely.

"Good. These are your brothers I presume?" She said.

"I'm Scott, this is John, Gordon and Alan. And our father, Jeff." Scott jumped in before Virgil could speak.

"Of course." Bethany shook hands with Jeff before checking the chart that Ava handed her and she smiled as she read over the report.

"It seems that nothing too bad. The second degrees burns we'll keep an eye on, and watch third degrees in case of infection. His lungs will need to be watched also. Think you can handle it Ace?"

"I grew up with five brothers if I can't handle him…like I told Mr Anderson last month – we didn't wrestle enough." Bethany laughed and then after giving Virgil a once over of his machines she left them alone.

"Didn't wrestle enough?" Alan asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"That's what I tell the difficult ones. Now I know Virgil is a brilliant medic but I also know – like Scott – he's an awful patient. So annoy, vex or irritate me and your morphine gets turned OFF." Virgil again gave her a 'yes ma'am' glare and slumped back against his pillows.

"So how long do you think he'll be in here for?" Scott asked.

"As long as it take's I'm afraid. And since I now have 'Sulking Virgil' it might be longer. But I'll try to take care of him best I can. By the way, Bethany is engaged, if you didn't notice." Ava winked at Scott before returning to her work of scribbling down all of Virgil's details while muttering to herself.

Ava sighed heavily as she spotted Virgil trying to get a nurse to help him out of bed. She pushed open the door.

"Where do we think we're going Mr. Tracy?" She asked. Virgil froze.

"He wanted to walk around for a bit, Ava. I don't see the harm in that." The red-head nurse said with an innocent and sugary sweet smile.

"That's you're problem, Courtney. You don't see the problem in anything. Thank-you – but I'll take it from here. I was assigned Mr Tracy after all." The red-head nurse scowled but left the room anyway.

"Thanks for that. She was nice about it." Virgil said, a little annoyed.

"She's a serial flirt and she has a tendency to try and take more than we are meant to give to patients. If you know what I mean." Ava said.

"She gives them everything?" Virgil asked, making an ugly face.

"More than what she is meant to. I've caught her more than once. So much so that we have assigned patients now. And Courtney has been assigned to paediatric ward more than once. I want her permanently moved to the children's hospital. But our Doctor's don't want to put that on the kids. Courtney's little more than a child herself. I haven't caught her screwing the patients – but I'm keeping an eye out to make sure she doesn't take it too far." Avalon told him making a face, "As for you, brother mine, I think she just wanted to see if you had underwear on under that gown. Of which you do I had one of the orderlies help with that."

"So I'm healed?" Virgil asked as he pulled up his jeans and bent to retrieve his shoes.

"More or less." Avalon replied, with a shrug of her shoulders. His first degree burns had healed and his bruises had faded. His second degree burns were still healing but with Grandma and Scott promising to make sure he looked after them and smothering was assured, Ava had prescribed the cream with Bethany's signature and had told him to keep an eye on one burn on his shoulder. It was particularly bad one – despite the fact that his third degree burns had been downgraded to second degree ones.

"I can go home?" He said shrugging on his shirt.

"Yes." She said, her tone probably a little sharper than she meant to be.

"You being sharp with me?" He asked, turning to her.

"No, I'm not being sharp with you, Virgil. I'm going to miss you. And I can't deal with you putting your life on the line every time you fly off in your ship to save to the world." She told him truthfully. Virgil pulled her into a hug and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"I'm very careful and Brains wouldn't let me take my ship out if it wasn't safe for me." He reminded her and smiled warmly when she gave him a small watery one, "and do you think Scott would let me out of his sight if I was the reckless one? You're more likely to hear of Alan and Gordon Tracy being admitted for recklessness. You don't work much in the general admission do you?"

"Sometimes but no, not always. Occasionally I'm called in to cover to ER." Ava told him, she led him out into the corridor, and held out a piece of paper, "this is your prescription Mr Tracy. For the scream for you burns. Next time you want to run into a burning building, best to leave it to the fireman or International Rescue, perhaps."

"I'll keep that in mind, Ava. Thank-you for looking after me, I'm know I'm not the easiest patient in the world. So thank-you, very much." He said, he leant over and placed a kiss on her cheek to the coos and aww noises from the nurses at the station.

"It was my pleasure." She replied. Virgil gave her a warm smile – his 'flirting' smile – and gave her a wave before walking out to greet his father who had signed his discharge papers. Ava shook her head, she and Virgil had the relationship that twins often shared – but there was nothing romantic about it. And let the nurses think what they liked.

'Kann ich Ihnen helfen?' – Can I help you?

'Mein Sohn, kam er früh herein. Ich muß wissen, wenn er gut ist.' – My son, he came in earlier. I need to know if he is alright.

'Ja ist er fein. Ich kann Sie zu seinem Raum nehmen, wenn Sie bitte' – Yes. He is fine. I can take you to his room if you like.

'Bitte. Können Sie? Oh, danken Ihnen soviel!' – Please. Can we? Oh, thank you so much!