A Jeff in want of a Project is A Dangerous Thing.
The following day saw an assortment of Tracy’s all bundled into their equivalent of the family minivan heading off to collect their father. Originally the plan had just been for Virgil to complete the flight, but John had arrived in the cockpit with an excuse of needing to recalibrate the network connection points in their old home. Virgil wasn’t convinced, but wasn’t about to say no to an extra pair of hands if Jeff had more manual labour lined up. Then Gordon had tucked himself into the jump seat, simply stating that his squid senses were tingling. Scott arrived before preflight checks could be completed, simply stating he needed to stretch his legs, and wasn’t Virgil always saying he should get away from the deskwork. So when Alan finally arrived Virgil wasn’t exactly surprised, but he may have been a little short with him due to the further interruption of his preflight checks.
“What’s your excuse?” Virgil demanded.
Alan wasn’t phased, he was used to the varying moods of older brothers, he shrugged. “Dad messaged me to say I should come along, because he thought I might find it interesting. Alan slumped into the remaining jumpseat.
“He messaged you?!” John twisted around in his seat so fast, Virgil worried for his back.
Alan just shrugged, leaving John to mutter to himself, something about being left on read?
“Ok, whatever, everyone buckled up? Does anyone need to go to the restroom before we leave?” just like their mom had always asked, even when the older ones found it mortifyingly embarrassing.
“”Well I do now!” Gordon huffed, and stalked out of the cockpit.
“Virgil, there's literally a bathroom on board, can’t we just get going already?” Scott's foot was bouncing on the metal floor.
Virgil leveled a hard stare at his older brother, “and would you trust him to hit a moving target in your ship?”
Scott scrunched his face up as his brain supplied the calculations and probabilities of that scenario.
“Yeah, exactly, we can wait, it's not an emergency.”
“Feels odd that he's been gone two weeks,” Alan interjected. Everyone gladly leapt on the change of topic.
“If it takes Gordon two weeks to find the bathroom, we’ve got bigger problems.” John snorted, surprised at his own joke, and then doubly surprised when Alan leaned forward to smack him on the arm.
“No, Dad, Obviously! Two weeks feels like forever.”
“Not as much as 8 years did,” Scott said, under his breath.
“Stop that!” John threw a tiny box of raisins at Scotts head with alarming accuracy.
“Ouch! What was that for?” Scott rubbed at the invisible imprint of the box from his forehead.
“You were getting maudlin.” John replied, primly.
“Why raisins though? Where did they even come from?”
“They were digging into my back, it seemed like a good use for them.”
“Your back?” Scott was still confused.
“Gordons usual seat,” Virgil clarified, and suddenly it all made sense, or as much sense as it was ever going to.
“Likelyhood these are safe to eat?” Scott asked hopefully.
Virgil shrugged, “just check he hasn’t filled the box with interesting shells and shiny rocks, if not you’re probably safe…probably.”
Scott considered those reasonable odds, and prised open one end of the little box with a little extra care. His face broke into a grin when it became clear that the contents were still fruitbased.
“No fair,” Alan whined, “got any more over there, John?”
John wriggled around in his seat a little, with a considering look on his face. “Sorry sprout, doesn’t look like it.” Alan pouted.
Virgil sighed audibly, and at the sound of Gordon's returning footsteps, Virgil called to him from the pilot's seat. “Gordon, grab the emergency snack bag on your way, would ya?”
“And before you ask, no there aren’t any jello cups, they are still banned.” Virgil quickly glanced at Scott, “and no, don’t ask, I don’t have the capacity to deal with reliving that right now.” He squared his shoulders and took hold of the yoke. “Now, let's go collect our father!” The cheer that went up was the first unanimous utterance the cockpit had been witness to that day.
It was an uneventful journey by Tracy family standards. Which is to say the aircraft stayed in the air and the med kit wasn’t required. Which was a fairly low bar to be working with.
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