Whumpay Day 17: Recklessness

'What did you think you were doing?'

'Er…I thought I was saving them? You know, my job?'

'Your job isn't to save people at the risk of your own life!'

'It was a calculated risk. I was pretty sure I could pull it off!'

'Pretty sure is not good enough! You're grounded!'

'You can't do that to me!'

'I just have. Lieutenant Tracy, you are on suspension for reckless endangerment.'

'Reckless En…who did I recklessly endanger?'

'Yourself. And by extension every man on the rig.'

There was a thump as Tracy threw his badge across the desk, turned on his heel and stormed out, slamming the Chief's door behind him. No-one in the rec room said a word as he headed straight to the lockers, grabbing his gear and leaving the station without a backwards glance.

He couldn't remember the drive home, and he sat in the driveway, knuckles white on fingers clenching the wheel so hard he'd be surprised if there weren't finger marks. As suddenly as he had blown up he deflated. He needed to get himself under control. There would be concern at him being home so early anyway without his anger too, and it wasn't fair on his wife and child.

The thought of his family softened him far faster than anything else could, even though the words still stung. He couldn't explain that he could see the probabilities, the angles, work out the Math in his head with a speed that often frightened himself. He was never wrong, not that he was ever going to boast about that. To be thrown out, suspended, because of this gift, to be thought reckless…he sighed.

Letting himself into the house, he could hear the patter of his son's feet on the linoleum floor. The boy had just progressed enough to be running about, and he revelled in it. His son chose that moment to charge around the corner, right into his father's legs, and sat down rather sharply on his bottom. He chuckled as he picked his son up and set him on his feet again, only for the boy to be off in a flash.

His wife popped her head around the corner, a slight frown on her face. 'Everything alright, love? You're home early.' He folded her into a hug. 'Everything's fine, sweetheart.' He kissed her hair. 'Just the old Tracy recklessness being called out again.' She sighed and playfully slapped his arm.

'Let me guess. You got suspended again.' He chuckled. 'One of these days your recklessness is going to get you into more trouble than you can handle. Then what are you going to do?' She arched an eyebrow. 'When that happens I'll retire to the family farm in Kansas and grow wheat and raise fat babies with you!' And so saying he proceeded to chase her around the rooms in their tiny city apartment.

Eventually they collapsed on the couch, baby between them. Their son had thought it was hilarious and was laughing. She took her husband's hand and placed it on her belly. 'That day may come sooner than you think.' The look of astonishment on his face – she would cherish that! 'I gotta finish the dinner,' she said, getting up and leaving the two men in her life on the couch.

Crawling into his father's lap, the boy put the end of the tie in his mouth as his dad chuckled. 'What do you think, Grant? Ready to become a big brother?' Grant smiled up at his dad and gurgled.

12 months later…

The Tracy family farm was one of the biggest in Central Kansas, and if her father-in-Law had his way, with the buying up of the neighbouring farm they would be the biggest. Thomas Jefferson Tracy was a man with a vision, who had taken his family's small wheat farm and in a period of forty years turned it into a profit-making monster farm.

His only regret had been that his only son, Ulysses Grant Tracy had refused to work on the farm for the life of a firefighter in the big city. Ly (pronounced Lee) had been adamant. He wanted to save lives, not feed them. Even the birth of his first grandson hadn't changed Ly's mind. Thomas smiled at the thought. His boy was reckless, sure, but it was a calculated recklessness, much like his own business sense.

But now, Thomas was waiting for his family to arrive, a glimmer of hope in the tragedy that had befallen them. For while the family were returning home, they were not returning home whole. And there was the dust from the car! He wiped his hands and strode outside.

The red car pulled in front of the house, Josie driving in the careful manner of a new learner. Thomas came down the porch steps as the doors opened, and he watched as Josie unbuckled his grandkids. But his eyes were on his son. Ly got out of the car with the minimum of struggle, and Josie handed Grant over to him, then she went around and lifted out the baby, Lester.

Grant was clinging to his father, arms encircling his neck, while Ly's arm supported him as best he could. His son looked good, Thomas thought, despite the work injury. He'd learned quickly not to call it an accident, Ly's temper was a fearful thing when raised, and he'd been adamant that one time Thomas forgot – it was not an accident. If that idiot had done as he was told Ly would have saved more than that child's life, he would had not lost an arm than invalided him out of the service.

No matter. What did matter was that his boy was home for good, and he now had grandchildren to spoil. Josie looked good, motherhood suited her, and it would be good to have a woman's touch around the farmstead again. His own dear wife had died giving birth to Ly, and Thomas was looking forward to the sounds of children again.

Life moved on. True to his word, Ly and Josie had five fat babies – Grant, Lester, Alice, Betty and Mason. Alice and Betty, twin golden-haired girls, were adopted, as Josie's sister and her husband died while they were under one. Thomas was delighted and spoiled them all thoroughly. But they all grew up knowing the meaning of hard work and of money earnt. They weren't rich, every spare coin was invested back into the farm – wheat harvests were not the most lucrative of businesses – but they never went without.

As the children grew they more or less showed the same qualities that made a Tracy. Honest, hardworking, friendly and helpful. Grant was the serious one. He was made for farming, never wanted anything else. Lester was the reckless one, always pulling stunts and pranks on his siblings. Alice and Betty, now they were both set on becoming school teachers since they were about the age of eight, a goal they looked set on reaching.

And then there was Mason. Mason was as reckless as his brother Lester without any of the natural safeguards that his kin had. By the time the kid was eleven, and looking to move up schools, he'd broken all four limbs – at different times at least – and his nose twice. Ly used to grumble so much about the bad influence that girl had on his youngest son.

Ruth Sally Hooper, daughter of Clifton and Phyllis Hooper. Town Mayor and his overbearing wife, Ly was convinced that Ruthie Hooper was the absolute worst influence on Mason. Being a year older than his son didn't help. But if Mason was in trouble then Ruthie was there. In fact, she was almost always there, on the farm helping out either Mason or Grant. His eldest was so easy going whereas Lester or the twins wouldn't give her the time of day.

God forbid that Ruth and Mason got married when they were older!

So Ly was inordinately pleased when Ruthie left their small town for university at the incredibly young age of 14. Turned out little Miss Mayor was not only very, very clever, she also couldn't wait to leave. However, that left him with a 13-year-old son that didn't know what to do with himself.

Mason buried himself with working on the farm and trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life. Grant had already said he wanted nothing more than to run the farm, Lester was talking about joining the local fire service, Alice and Betty knew what they were doing, and they were all set for scholarships to college soon. Mason didn't have a clue. So Ly and Grant taught him how to run the farm and Lester taught him what he could about service and they grew up just that little bit more.

No-one was more surprised than Ly was when Ruthie turned up five years later, Air Force girl medic and all that, and swept Grant – dependable, never reckless, level-headed Grant – off his feet. And when she explained she still had one year left of her duty proper, with another four years on the Reserve list. Grant didn't hesitate. Ruthie was home for three weeks and by the end of that time they were married and Grant was leaving.

It was the most reckless thing that Grant had ever done, but while Ruth was away being a soldier-medic, Grant worked on the fire team on the base. Ly worried, but he knew his son was dependable.

Once Ruth's term was over they moved back to the farm. During that last year both of Grant's parents passed away, the twins had moved to the city to become the teachers they had always wanted to be, and Lester had moved with them. Mason was the only one still around, and he helped out where he could, but he was beginning to get, at 20 years of age, a desire to wander the country, and Grant knew he wouldn't stay long once they were settled.

Life wasn't easy on Grant and Ruth. The farm still produced well enough for them to live comfortably, but the hoard of children they had always talked about failed to materialise. Ruth couldn't carry to term, even in this technologically advanced time, and it was taking a toll on them both. So they decided to just get on with living, having a child was not for them, but they had each other.

Nearly eight years they had been married when Ruth was rushed to hospital after what she suspected was a grumbling appendix. She'd been having pains on and off for a couple of months, had kept saying she would go see the doc but hadn't quite got around to it. No, just like the reckless red-headed child she had been all those years ago, she'd been out on one of the smaller tractors when the pain hit with a vengeance. Thank goodness for the farmhands they employed!

Nobody was more surprised than she was when instead of cutting out her appendix they cut out a baby. A cryptic pregnancy. Rare, but not unheard of.

The couple were overjoyed. Jefferson Thomas Tracy was a scrapper, a born fighter from the second he breathed air. And their boy had Ruth's smarts and his grandfather Ly's reckless but calculating ways with his great-grandfather Thomas's savvy.

With that seeming miracle, Grant and Ruth were able to welcome two more boys into their family. George Lester Tracy was born three years after Jefferson, and then came Quincy Mason Tracy. And their family was complete. Both boys followed in their family's footsteps, becoming firemen in the big city.

By the time Jeff was leaving for his scholarship he was only a year older than his Ma. It was such a wrench when their son left, but Grant and Ruth were proud of the life their son was determined to live. Where his grandfather had wanted to help people, Jeff did too – but on a scale none in the family had reached for before.

Jefferson Tracy was reaching for the moon and beyond. And his genetic brand of Tracy recklessness was just the thing to get him and his crew to Mars. Along with an equally reckless best friend and engineer, Lee Taylor, he fulfilled his life-long ambition in style. His goal was to make sure that others could follow in his footsteps as mankind reached out to live among the stars.

Back home, his new wife was cheering him on. Married just before Jeff went into quarantine, Lucille 'Lucy' Tracy was everything her husband was and then some – fiery yet patient, artistic and accomplished, she was super bright in her own right, an engineer, designer and maker of the best damn cakes Jeff had ever tasted.

He was going to be away, all being well, about a year and a half – eight months there, eight months back and two months exploring the surface for a suitable place for the first habitations to be set up in the years to come, so he was surprised when three months into his outward trip he got a vid-message from Lucy. One that changed his world. He was going to be a father by the time he got home.

(And didn't he just feel like that was a little reckless in itself?)

So Jeff toned down the recklessness a little. It was still there, still needed in things like the fixing of issues that were literally life and death so far from home. By the time their family had grown to five Jeff decided that his recklessness needed to be Earth-bound. His wife and boys needed him more than space did.

Scott was Jeff's mini-me in so many ways. His eldest had begun jumping off things as soon as he could climb, with scant regard for his own safety. Of course, his parents thought it was all hilarious, and at various points they both delighted to point out that he had been no different as a child. Both reached out for the sky. But where Jeff's vision was set on space, Scott's seemed set on the skies of Earth.

John, their second-born, was the one with his eyes set to the night sky. Jeff originally thought that John had not inherited the Tracy Reckless gene, but then his son would stay up all night star watching without any concern for his own health, or he'd go walking about with his nose in a book. Where Scott had been to the ER with several broken bones due to his attempts to fly, John had been there almost as frequently after walking, or falling, into things.

Virgil, now Virgil was so much like Jeff's Pa. Even at such a young age Jeff could see his dad's qualities shining out, and they coupled with Lucy's best ones too. Virgil was laid-back, patient and just such a happy child. He and Scott had formed a special bond, right from the start, and Jeff could see already how they were tempering each other. Most of Virgil's recklessness seemed focused on taking things apart to see how they worked and then attempting to put them back together. The small kitchen radio hadn't survived that attempt at the age of four, and neither had his right hand, leaving his father with the sinking feeling that getting him a child's toolset as a birthday gift had been a bad idea…

Gordon was a very different child. After three very good babies he was a real eye-opener, and he often tested the limits of his parents. But he was such a sunny child too, a real sense of mischief. Sometimes Jeff wondered if Scott would have turned out the same if they had not had John and Virgil so closely after him, they shared such similar qualities that they often rubbed each other up the wrong way. Gordon's recklessness came with water. By the time he was three they had all four children trained in pool safety as the child could not be dragged away. The few times they needed a hospital for the boy had resulted from Gordon seeing if he could jump into the pool from the tree…or his bedroom window. In fact, of all their children Gordon seemed to have inherited the Reckless Tracy Gene the most after Scott.

If Scott was Jeff's mini-me, then Alan was Scott's. The baby couldn't be dragged away from his big brother, and neither could Scott be apart from Alan when they were home. Lucy used to say they were joined at the hip. And if Scott taught Alan how to jump off things, well at least the house had been Scott-proofed many years ago and it was an easy thing to go back to. Of course, Scott made sure that Alan jumped off things with more regard to Alan's safety than he had with his own, but Alan didn't have his big brother around all the time, and Gordon was not always so aware of danger…

Loosing Lucy devastated them, and for a time all such natural exuberance was non-existent. Life moved on and the boys grew up.

Recklessness didn't appear in hospital visits and cuts and bruises anymore. But it didn't mean that it wasn't still there.

Scott, responsible for his four brothers from the tender age of eleven, still had that streak, only now it was called 'adrenaline junkie'. If he thought that John was the only one who had any idea of the stupid stunts he got up to, he was sorely mistaken, but Jeff saw it for what it really was – a release of stress and the pressure of losing his childhood so that he could ensure his brothers had theirs. There may have been words over the worst of Scott's activities, but the father only forbade him from repeating – and talking about – one of his adventures. Uni life gave Scott the chance to act his real age for once, and the man proved once again that recklessness was a Tracy trait, never backing down from a dare or from helping someone else out. Jeff made him promise that some stories would never see the light of day. It served him well in his military career, giving him an amazing out-of-the-box thinking and problem solving that catapulted him up the ladder.

John developed into a quiet and self-contained young man, heart and head still set on the stars. His tightly controlled self would seem to put the reckless gene to bed, but the fact was he still had it. It manifest in a drive to work hard to achieve his goals that had such focus that sometimes he neglected his health. Several times he had collapsed due to lack of sleep or malnutrition and dehydration. Unfortunately, John looked set to follow Scott's example at Harvard, never backing down from a challenge. Bearing in mind that his choice of learning path meant he had access to chemicals and lab equipment…Jeff also had John promise he would never tell his brothers.

Virgil could have followed any pathway. The man was a natural at engineering, art and music, and for a while he had contemplated his more creative side as a career, but with whispers of what Jeff was starting to pull things together for what would eventually change all their lives forever, he chose engineering. He was as quiet and as studious as John, and as bad at looking after himself if he was involved in a project. Mostly, though, Virgil turned out just like Scott had at his university. Virgil wouldn't back down from a dare. And since Virgil mostly worked with machinery and electrics…most of his recklessness resulted in injured hands, and once he had almost lost an eye, resulting in a little scar across one eyebrow.

Gordon surprised them all. From the young man that had no concept of danger, he had turned into one of the most focused people that Jeff had ever met. Only, his focus was on water and gold, and boy did he prove himself! Jeff often wondered how Gordon had learnt to focus all that recklessness into achieving the pinnacle of his sport, but he guessed Gordon was no less driven than he had been about going to the moon, Scott was about flying, and John was about space – it was just a different medium. It was the aftermath of the gold that his let himself go wild, and there were some actions that would have turned heads had Jeff not been aware of the possibility of this occurring and already having steps in place.

That Gordon then channelled himself into WASP came as a surprise to no-one, and he found the ideal way to be reckless while learning to control and use it. Only Scott really knew about Gordon's military career with any details, but Gordon's latent pranking ability, put aside in his quest for gold, came to the fore in planning and executing missions.

Alan's recklessness never dimmed. He had the smarts of all his brothers rolled into one, and his creative streak rarely let sensibleness establish itself. It was what caused him to blow up his school by building a rocket. In many ways the baby of the family felt left behind as his brothers grew up and left home to pursue their own careers while he was still at school, but the creation of International Rescue changed all that. Now he had a goal to work towards.

International Rescue was probably the most reckless thing Jeff had ever done. Sally recalled with much fondness tales of Grant's father as a fireman, and they had kept in contact with both Lester and Mason as they went into similar services and the stories they could have told the boys.

Rescuing people was as much a part of being a Tracy as was their recklessness. And both traits were vital now, as each brother put his life on the line time and time again for complete strangers.

Rescuers and reckless; it was in their genes.