A/N: Taking a step back into pre IR days with a prompt suggested by Colonel Britesis
The old wooden swing seat on the front porch of the house had seen better days. Its paint was peeling, the ropes had been replaced twice now and the awning and seat pad were a distant memory, but there was nothing as relaxing as sitting in it on a warm summer evening, gently rocking as the air cooled and the buzz of cicadas was replaced by the glow of fireflies.
Jeff stared at a distant tree by the driveway and the ramshackle treehouse it contained, absently reflecting that he really should take that thing down or repair it before Alan had a chance to become Tracy #6 to fall out of it and damage something. Dubious first place honours had gone to himself when he fell out of the tree building the thing in the first place and broke his foot on landing and different boys had taken turns pulling stupid stunts and hurting themselves on that tree house ever since. The youngest had the same lack of fear and self preservation as the rest (the Tracy-brand crazy as Lee dubbed it) and he'd been eyeballing the tree lately, forbidden to go near it until he could reach the third rung of the ladder from the ground (not that that restriction had stopped Gordon or Virgil from making their tree house debuts, now that he thought about it).
His train of thought derailed as the front door creaked open and Lucille made her way out, a dewy glass of homemade lemonade in each hand and her favourite sunflower-decorated dress swishing about her ankles in the breeze. "Thought I'd find you here." She smiled at him.
Jeff smiled back, shuffled over to make room for her and accepted the lemonade with a smile. "Thanks beautiful." He took a sip. "Boys all okay?"
"They're watching TV, we've got about half an hour before someone gets bored and comes looking for us." She answered as she sat. "Your turn when they do."
"Roger that." Jeff nodded. They'd worked out the system of taking turns years ago to let them both catch a break.
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes before Lucille canted a knowing look at her husband. "Jeff, I could hear the wheels turning from the kitchen, what's eating at you? Is it Tracy Industries? I know the expansion is hanging on getting the Creighton-Ward family on board."
"No, that's in the bag, it's just getting ink on paper now." Jeff shook his head. He paused and leaned back in the swing seat again, gently rocking it. Lucille recognised the fidgeting for what it was and tucked her feet up so as to not interfere with the rhythm he was setting for himself.
"Luc, TI is guaranteed to succeed, the development contract for the GDF flier project has cinched it. With what we've got cooking up with my designs and you and your team of engineers, we'll have the aerospace industry cornered inside of five years. With the expansion plans already laid out we can reinvest the profits as soon as they roll in and grow like wildfire." Jeff started. Lucille nodded, she'd drawn up the expansion plans herself.
"We're going to make a hell of a lot of money Lucy, enough to buy a private island." He quirked a half smile at their old joke. "But what's the point of hoarding all that money just to become yet another family of trust fund babies who are famous for being famous? I know, I know, our boys have too much drive to rest on our laurels and we've got TI's charity arm- the scholarship program, get into work and housing schemes, disaster relief- we've got all that planned out and ready to go but anyone with the money can do that. Hell, the not for profits and charities probably have a better handle on some of those than we would."
"You want to do something more?" Lucille completed the thought she could sense her husband working his way up to. "Why do I sense another crazy astronaut guy idea coming along?" She teased, but Jeff looked at her with complete seriousness.
"Because I've got an idea that only a crazy astronaut could have and could do." He answered. "I floated it to Lee and he loves it. He's too attached to Alfie to leave her for long, but he's keen to assist once we've got the hardware."
Lucille put down her drink and gave Jeff her full attention. "What are you thinking?" She asked, folding her arms as the evening turned chill.
"Last month there was an explosion in the oxygen plant on an experimental asteroid mine. The GDF sent a shuttle knowing all they were going to do was collect the bodies and goodbye messages. It took them three weeks to get out there, those folks had five days of air then they suffocated." Jeff began. "Two months ago there was a volcanic eruption in Indonesia that killed dozens of people because the main road was cut off and the talking heads in their government spent too much time talking about if they should accept help or not so the GDF couldn't get in until it was too late. Yesterday an airship fell out of the sky over the Nevada desert, their escape pods failed to launch and on impact it blew a half mile crater out of the desert. There wasn't anything left of the crew." He swallowed hard, fists clenched. "If the equipment was better, if the bureaucracy didn't get in the way, lives could have been saved! And things like this happen all over the world!"
Jeff suddenly stood up and began pacing up and down the porch. "With the ion engines you theorised, someone could have gotten to those miners in a matter of hours. I've got designs sketched up for earthmoving equipment that could have saved those folks in Indonesia as long as we had a transporter to get them there, and I think the power plant R&D are cooking up would power a ship that could have gotten there and to Nevada in time."
"What are you talking about Jeff? Are you wanting to start some sort of world wide rescue organisation?" Lucille asked quietly.
"Got it in one." Jeff sat back down next to her and reclaimed his drink, taking a sip. "It's going to take a while, we've got to have the machines, the crew and the funding to keep it going and keep it independent. I don't want to be tied to any government who might think they can make off with our machines or dictate who we can go and help if they help pay for it, it's got to be all in house, but it means we can do something more than just sitting on a pile of money like Smaug."
"Where are you going to get the crew?" Lucille asked quietly, guessing what the answer would be and half afraid she would be right.
Jeff simply looked meaningfully towards the lounge where the boys were all sprawled half on top of each other, watching a brightly coloured cartoon with flying cars and explosions.
"Jeff, you can't be serious! It's too dangerous!" It was Lucille's turn to stand up and start pacing. "Scott's only thirteen and the Air Force recruiters are already scouting him with his sim results, John's had his heart set on NASA since he was six and the littlies are too young to understand what you'd be asking of them." She looked at him, amber eyes fierce. "They have their own dreams Jeff, you can't force them into this!"
Jeff stood as well and gently enfolded her in his arms. "Nobody's going to force them, least of all me." He soothed as he stroked her golden hair. "Those are your boys in there, they might have inherited my crazy, but they get their stubbornness and smarts from you. The rescue organisation is going to take years to set up. We'll tell them about it when they're old enough to understand that it's the long term goal, but if they don't want it, I'll find a crew elsewhere. Lee thinks he knows a couple of young bucks in training at NASA who might be interested and I'm sure Kyrano and Casey could find people if I asked them, but I want to offer it to the boys first. But none of this is going to happen without your go ahead. " He kissed her brow gently. "Just like I promised on our wedding day, partners in everything."
He held her for a long moment as she rested her head against his chest and twisted the fabric of his shirt collar in her long fingers in her own fidgeting habit as she turned it over in her mind. "Okay Jeff." Lucille said at last. "We're going to build your rescue ship." She looked up at him and smiled, a teasing glint in her eye. "But only if you paint it yellow."
Jeff laughed, knowing his wife's favourite colour. "Roger that, beautiful."