The Inventor

Disclaimer: I do not own Cabin Pressure or any of the characters, I also do not own anything that I reference throughout this story, they all belong to their respective owners.

A/N: So last night I had this horrific dream about how Cabin Pressure ended and I woke up in tears so for that reason I am sharing it with you. I hope you cry as much as I did. :)

Danny was nervous, he was very nervous. He could feel the notepad in his hand shaking before he quickly shoved it in his bag. He hadn't been a reporter for very long and today he was going to interview someone for the first time, the very first time. He hoped to God he wouldn't mess it up.

He again looked at the address he had scribbled down on the side. He was especially nervous because he wasn't just interviewing some random actor or novelist like he'd been taught, but he was interviewing some old, wacky inventor.

He felt like he had just fallen out of a Lemony Snicket novel.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the door, at the last minute hearing that his radio was still on in the other room.

He walked into his kitchen and crossed to the radio, it was tuned in to some news station.

"The country of Lichtenstein is in mourning today as..." He quickly turned off the radio and headed for the door again, shutting it quickly and heading towards his car.

He pulled up to a large house in Fitton and had to do a double take. It certainly was a large house, the garden had numerous trees of varying species and Danny decided that this inventor must have been a very successful one.

He knocked on the door a few times and waited, expecting a maid to answer or something. He was very surprised when the door was opened by an elderly looking woman with a kindly face.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Err..." Began Danny, tripping over his words. "I'm Danny Johnson, I'm here to interview Mr. Shappey?"

She nodded at him. "Of course, we've been expecting you. Come in." She stood aside and allowed Danny to enter. Danny thanked her but was immediately distracted by the large room he was stood in. He had been right, this guy certainly was very rich but his house looked homely. It looked lived-in.

"This way." The old woman said, pottering off to a set of doors. Danny followed her, feeling a little guilty that she was on her feet. She opened the doors and led him into a lounge area with stacks and stacks of books. In the middle of this room was an elderly man sat in an armchair with his feet up, reading the newspaper.

"Darling, the reporter is here to see you." The old woman called over.

The man put his paper down and stood immediately, he looked rather frail as he stood but that didn't seem to stop him. He too had a kind face.

"Thank you, Felicity." He said, kissing the woman softly.

Husband and Wife, Danny deduced. Definitely not a maid, then.

"I'll go and get you fellows some tea." She said, before leaving the room again. Danny had meant to refuse, feeling a little guilty for making her go and get tea but she whizzed out of the room before he could say anything. Apparently not as frail as he had thought.

"Please, have a seat, young man." Said the inventor, gesturing to a seat in front of his own before sinking back into his armchair, placing his newspaper on the table beside him.

Danny gratefully accepted the seat and quickly pulled out his notepad and a pen, a little flustered.

"Um, are you Arthur Shappey?" He asked a little dumbly.

Mr. Shappey smiled at him nonetheless. "I am indeed, but please call me Arthur. And you are?"

"Danny," he said quickly, "Johnson. I'm here to interview you."

"I take it this is your first time interviewing someone." Arthur observed, grinning at him.

"How do you know?" Danny asked.

Arthur gestured to Danny's hands. Danny looked down to see his notepad shaking in his hands again. "Oh, I'm sorry." He said, feeling his cheeks going red.

"I'll try and be as helpful as possible," Arthur assured him. "I've always loved helping people."

At that moment, Felicity came back into the room carrying a tea tray, she set it down on the table beside Arthur that was holding his newspaper.

"Thank you." Danny smiled.

"You're welcome." She said. "Arthur, dear. You need to find your passport."

Arthur waved a hand in the air. "I know where it is."

"I bet he doesn't." Felicity whispered to Danny as she left.

"Passport?" Danny asked. "Are you going somewhere?"

Arthur nodded. "I have a very pressing engagement tomorrow, you're lucky you scheduled this interview for today."

Danny nodded. "So, you said that you loved to help people," he said, bringing the conversation back to the interview. "Is that what made you decide to be an inventor? Some of your inventions have certainly helped a lot of people..." He fumbled around for the piece of paper with Arthur's inventions on it, he quickly read off the list. "Ah, larger capacity fridges for the average home, sturdier oven gloves, self-adjusting TV antennas...you've even branched out with food products recently...surprising rice and the kids' favourite, fizzy yogurt."

Danny saw Arthur laughing behind his hand but didn't question it, deciding it was best to leave an old eccentric to his ways.

"So," Danny pressed, "where did you get the ideas for some of these inventions?"

Arthur looked like he was thinking for a moment. "Well, I always hated having to go outside to adjust the antenna, and I always thought fridges needed to be bigger...especially if you're trying to fit an otter into one..." He looked like he was recalling some fond memory like a veteran would describe his war days.

Danny resisted the temptation to arch an eyebrow in confusion, wondering exactly when anyone would need to put an otter in the fridge.

"Your wife seems lovely." He said quickly.

"She is, she's too good for me."

"How did you meet?" He asked.

"At a horse dressing." Said Arthur.

"Um." Danny's hand paused over his notepad.

"Oh, dressage." He laughed at himself. "I've been making that mistake for the last 50 years."

Danny nodded and wrote 'dressage' down quickly before looking back up at the old man. Everything he said suggested he was going senile but he seemed of perfectly sound mind, looking back at Danny with eyes sparkling with youth.

"Do you and Felicity have any children?" He asked.

"Many," Arthur replied immediately, a proud twinkle in his eye. "Many. Many."

Danny nodded and paused. "Um, Mr...Arthur. I don't want to be rude, but would you mind if I asked you how old you are?"

"87 ½."

"87?" He repeated, shocked. "You look amazing for 87."

Arthur nodded in agreement. "I've always kept myself young. Too preoccupied with the little happinesses in life to pay any attention to ageing." He laughed again.

Danny quickly scribbled down on his notepad, momentarily wishing his handwriting was a little neater.

He quickly consulted his list of questions.

"Okay, is it alright if I ask you a few questions about your early life?"

"Of course." Arthur answered, taking a sip of tea.

"Okay...I..." Danny wondered for a moment what Arthur would be uncomfortable talking about, he seemed pretty normal about most things. He decided to just press on. "I understand your father wasn't really around when you grew up?"

Arthur shook his head. "No, he wasn't. He was far more interested in gold than he ever was with me. He moved back to Australia when I was young and got a new wife, that was just fine by me."

There was little malice in Arthur's voice. Danny wanted to delve deeper into the subject but decided against it.

"And you went to a public school?"

Arthur laughed. "Yes, but it's not as impressive as it sounds. It was awful. I learnt more from my mother than I ever learnt there."

"Is that why you became an inventor so late in life?" Danny asked. "I don't think you submitted your first invention until you were forty."

Arthur tilted his head to the side in thought. "I suppose that was part of it. To be honest though, I was so preoccupied with my first job for such a long time I had no interest in anything else."

Danny nodded. "Yes, I believe you were an airline steward for some time. Err...OJS Air?"

Arthur laughed nostalgically. "Yes, I was. Although it wasn't OJS back then, it was MJN Air. A company set up by my mother with the best jet in the world. G-ERTI." That gleam of youth was back in his eye.

When Danny had first read about a tinpot company with two pilots and one steward he had been interested by the insanity of it, and supposed it supported Arthur's eccentric nature.

"Tell me about MJN." He asked. "It must have been manic."

Arthur nodded. "It was. Oh, it was. It all started some 60 odd years ago, maybe longer. My mother divorced my father and won a little 16-seater jet from him, G-ERTI. Golf Echo Romeo Tango India, she also won a considerable amount of money and decided to set up a little airline with it." He chuckled to himself. "She used to call it the airdot, because apparently you couldn't put one jet in a line. Shortly after this, she employed a First Officer, Douglas Richardson." Arthur sighed a little wistfully. "Douglas," he smiled. "He was great, any problem we ever had and Douglas would sort it out. He was the coolest man I ever met."

"What about a Captain?" Danny asked. He nearly recoiled a little when he saw Arthur's eyes suddenly tear up. "I'm...sorry...I..."

"No, it's fine." Arthur waved him off. "Mum employed Skip. Martin Crieff, he was the Captain. He loved being the Captain, all he ever wanted to do was fly aeroplanes." He scrubbed away his tears and smiled to himself. "Skip was great, too. He always worried too much but he was a good pilot."

"That sounds like quite a crew." Danny pointed out, making notes.

"We worked though." Arthur told him, looking like was in a different time. "MJN went on for ages like that, we got up to some amazing stuff." He laughed. "Like the time we had to drive a piano to Ottery St. Mary but we locked ourselves out of the van and had to fly, then push the piano all the way to the pub." He cackled to himself. "But other times it was more dangerous, like the time an engine blew up in our descent into St. Petersburg and Skip had to land us on one engine. It was incredible."

"An engine blew up in the air?" Asked Danny incredulously.

Arthur nodded.

"It sounds like you had a right old time of it." Danny said.

"We did." Arthur confirmed. "But it wasn't perfect. I remember thinking it was, when I was younger and more naïve but when I look back on it now, I realise that a lot of things were wrong."

"Like what?"

"Well, Douglas was the First Officer when really he wanted to be the Captain, and he went through a messy divorce. And Skip, Martin, it came to light a few years down the line that mum wasn't actually paying him to be the Captain and he was holding down two jobs...and mum was constantly struggling with money, trying to keep MJN Air out of bankruptcy, how she did it I'll never know, she was an incredible woman. It all seemed perfect when I was in the middle of it but it wasn't, but I still wouldn't change any of it. It was the best time of my life."

"So what happened to MJN?" Asked Danny curiously.

"Skip got offered a job with Swiss Airways," Arthur explained, "and mum really wanted him to go because he would get paid and his girlfriend lived near there and everything but he didn't want to leave MJN because we would have gone bankrupt without him, there was no way mum could get another free Captain, he nearly didn't take the job."

"What happened?" Danny asked, notes all but discarded by now.

"Remember I told you how my father was obsessed with gold? Well, he had stashed a bunch of it on G-ERTI, specifically as the wire casing and tried to steal it back without us noticing. But because Douglas is brilliant, he figured it out. Mum had enough money to keep MJN going and to match the salary Martin was offered in Zurich."

Danny sighed, relieved. "So everything went back to normal?" He asked.

Arthur shook his head. "No, Martin still took the job in Zurich. He didn't want to leave us but he wanted the chance to fly with a proper airline and to be with his girlfriend and we all wanted that for him as well. We wanted him to be happy."

"So what happened to MJN?"

"Mum hired a pilot called Herc Shipwright, who happened to be her boyfriend." He grinned to himself. "But she gave Douglas the Captain's position, everything pretty much went back to normal and that's when we became OJS. Everything was pretty much perfect, the only way it would have been truly perfect would have been if Skip were there but he was happy, and we were happy. OJS went on for nearly ten years after that."

"That's a long time."

"A lot of things happened in those ten years." Arthur conceded. "Mum and Herc got married, Douglas met another woman, and so did I." He smiled to himself. "Mum did a lot more of the stewarding which gave me a lot of free time and I began to try my hand at inventing things." He laughed loudly. "Everyone thought my inventions were ridiculous, but they took off."

"Why did you stop after ten years?" Danny asked tentatively, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

Arthur sighed sadly to himself. "Herc had a heart attack," he said slowly, "and he passed away."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Danny said, feeling suddenly down.

Arthur smiled at him but Danny could see the pain behind it. "It's okay, it was a long time ago. It wasn't long after that that mum passed away as well."

Danny actually found himself fighting back a tear as he saw Arthur's face fall.

"Oh, God. What happened?"

Arthur shrugged slightly. "The doctors say it was natural causes but I've always suspected that it was a broken heart. She really loved Herc, more than she'd loved my dad or anyone else."

The pair remained silent for a few moments, Danny leaving Arthur to the memories of his mother.

"What did you do after that?" Danny finally asked.

"Well, it was around that time that I called Skip." Arthur explained. "Martin. I told him everything that happened and he came to the funeral and I asked him to stay, I figured that he should have been there with me and Douglas to figure out what we did with G-ERTI. And he accepted, and they all moved back to England from Lichtenstein."

"Zurich." Danny quickly corrected. "You said Martin moved to Zurich to work for Swiss Airways."

Arthur nodded. "Yes, he did. But his girlfriend, well, by then his wife, was the Princess of Lichtenstein and he moved there, he was semi-retired by then, anyway."

"Why did Martin retire so quickly if all he wanted to do was fly aeroplanes?" Danny asked, confused.

"That's what he thought he wanted," Arthur smiled, "and to some degree, it was. But then he and Theresa had children. Two girls and a little boy, they were bouncing. He was so proud, he found something he loved more than flying." Arthur was grinning from ear to ear now. "Although I think he did buy a little jet and used it recreationally."

"So...Martin, Theresa and their three children moved to England?" Danny asked.

Arthur nodded, smiling. "Yes, oh you should have seen their children when they were young. They would run and play, it was glorious. I wish mum could have met them, she would have loved them. But then I wish mum could have met my little ones too." He smiled wistfully.

"So what did you all decide to do with G-ERTI?" Danny pressed.

"By and large, Douglas and Skip still ran it as an airline, although not as rigorously as they did with MJN. Although they decided to scrap the Captain/First Officer thing, considering that they were both Captains now...I used to steward between

my work but when Felicity and I got married and our first little one came along I could help less and less." Arthur suddenly looked saddened. "It was around that time that Douglas began to get ill."

Danny swallowed softly, feeling a pit form in his stomach.

"He was forced to retire after that," Arthur continued sadly. "Skip and I sold G-ERTI for parts and I invested the money in my very own inventing business. Martin and Theresa stayed in England for a bit, mainly because their kids were in the middle of primary school and they didn't want to uproot them but also I think Martin didn't want to leave when Douglas was so sick. It was about four years after we sold her that Douglas passed away."

Danny sniffed back some tears as he watched Arthur staring dejectedly at the ground.

"What happened?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Arthur smiled slightly. "This one was definitely natural causes. Douglas had a very peaceful death, surrounded by his wife and his daughter and his friends. I've never seen so many people at a funeral.

"Soon after that, Martin and Theresa took their children back to Lichtenstein, I think it was too painful for Martin to stay, he used to always claim the only reason he'd gotten so far in Swiss Airways was because Douglas showed him how. Martin and Theresa spent their time looking after their children and attending social events as part of the Royal family...Skip set up a little aviation academy for people who weren't that confident about flying planes but still wanted to, he nearly had a stroke when his son joined up. We used to fly to each other often, our kids are great friends. My business took off here in England and it made me a wealthy man so I could always afford the trips."

Danny was smiling now, glad some happiness could still be found in this tale. "Do you still see Martin often?" He asked.

A tear suddenly fell from Arthur's eye and Danny's own eyes widened.

"I'm afraid," Arthur began, "it was only a few days ago that Skip had an actual stroke." He wiped the tears away. "He died in his sleep. My wife, my children and I are flying out to Lichtenstein tomorrow for the funeral, we're going to stay a week or so to look after Theresa and her children and help them through this difficult time."

Danny suddenly remembered the news story that had been circling these last few days that he hadn't really been paying attention to. There had been a death in the Lichtenstein Royal family, the King's brother-in-law...it must have been Martin Crieff. He suddenly felt overwhelmed with guilt, he hadn't even listened.

"I'm so sorry." Danny said quietly.

"Don't be." Arthur told him. "They all went as peacefully and naturally as possible and left behind nothing but children and love and it couldn't have been better. I'm not sad. I mean, obviously I'm sad but I am also certain that mum, Herc, Douglas and Skip are all flying G-ERTI in the sky."

Danny felt an actual tear slide down his cheek from the sentiment and smiled at this wonderful old man. "You're all an inspiration." He found himself saying.

Arthur shook his head. "We weren't an inspiration, we were just one odd crew on one odd jet, living our lives."

"Sometimes they can be the biggest inspirations of all." Danny said simply.

Arthur smiled. "I like you, Danny. I can tell you will do great things."

Danny smiled in return and jumped a little when an alarm on his watch went of. He quickly turned it off, internally cursing himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Arthur. I have to go."

Arthur nodded. "Certainly, I hope I was useful."

Danny nodded. "It's been a real pleasure speaking with you," he said sincerely, "and I hope you all have a safe flight to Lichtenstein."

"Thank you."

"Oh, just one last thing," said Danny suddenly, remembering a technique a colleague had told him to use when ending an interview. He sat with his pen poised above his notepad. "If you could describe your life in just one word, what would it be?"

Arthur smiled at him, the sides of his face crinkling together.

"Brilliant." He answered.

THE END