This fic was inspired by a post on Tumblr by Womble1 as follows:

We all know Jeff was an astronaut then made his money with Tracy industries. But how did he get his initial capital?

Picture this: sponsorship deals. Jeff's face on a box of tracy-o's the astronauts cereal of choice. The Jeff Tracy lunch box, with a cartoon Jeff poorly printed on the outside. Kis pyjama sets, children's picture books where Jeff teaches them morals in poorly translated English. Key rings, tshirts, bumper stickers...

Now imagine Alan finding these rare examples many years later, having had zero idea that his father sold himself out to the consumer machine all those years ago. It was a means to an end.

Scott still gets the piss taken out of him of the aftershave adverts and Gordon for the dive watch deal. A means to an end, brining in important funding... And a little ego boost to boot.

The door opened with a bang. There was muttering. Loud muttering. Lucy paused, hands in the sink and smiled to herself. Obviously Jeff's meeting hadn't gone well. There was a thump as what she assumed was her husband's case was thrown down.

Thank goodness the boys were all in bed.

Arms encircled her waist and lips kissed her ear, and she leaned back into the embrace. Jeff squeezed tighter.

'Dry your hands, love, and I'll get the wine and tell you all about the worst meeting of my life.' He released her and she mourned the loss for a second before drying her hands and getting their dinners ready.

They sat on the large couch in the living room rather than at the kitchen table while they ate and drank, and once they had finished Lucy sat back and leaned into Jeff's side while he put his arm around her shoulders.

'So?'

'So.'

'The worst meeting of your life?'

'By far.'

'Even worse than…'

'Even worse.'

Lucy laughed, and Jeff chuckled along with her. It had been a really trying meeting. Tracy Industries was six months old. He had big plans. They had big plans. Lucy was just as much a part of Tracy Industries as he was, they were partners in everything.

This meeting was about raising TI's profile. They had arranged a meeting with a marketing agency. Jeff's contacts with NASA and USAF were well known, and they had already began accepting orders for the new fuel that Lucy had engineered. The plans for a new faster engine that would run on that fuel was almost complete and there were orders for that too.

But if he was to build their business into the empire he was dreaming of, he needed an injection of funds.

'They had lots of suggestions.'

'Were they all that bad?'

'Oh yes.'

'Tell me.'

'They suggested first of all that I use either the NASA or the USAF logo to advertise, but I explained that NASA wouldn't permit that, and nor would USAF. Plus, I want – we want – this to be more open than that.'

He leaned over and pulled a file out of his case. Jeff wordlessly passed a piece of A4 paper over. Lucy took one look and burst out laughing. He passed her another. And another.

'Stop! Jeff, I can't breathe!' Lucy was hugging her stomach, tears rolling down her face.

The sketches were a variety of advertising ideas.

A lunch box with a cartoon Jeff Tracy in a space suit that was so obviously not a NASA uniform.

A box of what looked like cheerios but with Jeff's face on it and proclaiming it 'Tracy-O's'.

A pair of kid pyjamas with rockets and tiny floating Jeff's.

Children's picture books in a variety of languages where it looked like Jeff was going to teach…morals?

Key rings. T-shirts. Bumper stickers. Aftershave. Dive watches.

By the time that Lucy managed to get herself under control Jeff had shown her so many ideas…and quite frankly Jeff was most amused at her reaction. He'd been furious.

'Jeff. These are…these are ridiculous!'

'I'm glad you think so.'

'Are you going to go with any of them?'

'What do you think? This is just as much your call as mine.'

'Initial reaction is absolutely no way.'

'That's exactly what I thought.'

He paused to take a sip.

'Do you really think that we need to be promoting TI to the wider world?'

'Well, we've got NASA and USAF. But if some day we're going to change the world we will need more funds.'

'I know, but maybe we should start a bit smaller. We have time. The boys are still young.'

Both sighed at the same time.

'We have NASA and USAF, as you say, Jeff. Let's just concentrate on them until the boys are a little bigger.'

'Ok, Luce. Deal. And the marketing?'

'I think you should keep them. When we're old and grey we can look back on them and laugh again. And the boys will love these!'

'You're joking, right? I don't ever want the boys to know! I'll never hear the end of it!'

He kissed her forehead and she snuggled closer. The idea of Scott eating the cereal, of Gordon and Virgil dressed in the pyjamas, of John correcting the picture books….

Lucy started giggling again, and Jeff wasn't too far behind her.