All Roads...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
knob rattled a couple of times before the key was finally placed in correctly
and the lock turned. Jim stumbled inside and dropped the keys in the general
direction of the basket. His bloodshot
eyes were watering severely, his nose a streaming mess. After a couple of tries, he was able to
remove his gun holster, but his hands were too shaky to enable him to
successfully place it on the table. It
fell to the floor with a loud thump. The
sound was almost the final straw for the overloaded Sentinel.
The
noise made Blair look up from the papers he was grading. Papers, marking pens and an empty coffee cup
went tumbling down to the floor in his haste to get to his partner's side.
"Jim,"
Blair exclaimed worriedly,
"what happened? What
were you exposed too?" He quickly
checked his roommate for obvious injuries as he led him toward the bathroom.
"Rd
cnstrctn," the Sentinel slurred rebounding off
the door jam when he misjudged the distance.
"Huh? Never mind. Into the shower
with you. I'll go get you some
clean clothes." Blair started the
water running and then with a careful look at his partner to make sure he was
steady enough to be left alone, Blair ran upstairs for a clean pair of sweats.
~~~~
A
couple of hours and several of Blair's home remedies later, Jim was finally
feeling a bit more human.
"Thanks," he said simply.
"No
problem man. So what happened?"
"Road construction."
"Road construction?" Blair asked.
Jim
shrugged sheepishly. "They're repaving every street between here and the
precinct. I tried several different ways
to get home, but I couldn't find one they weren't resurfacing. The fumes... especially in this
heat...." he trailed off. "I'm
feeling better now. Thanks, Chief."
Blair
gave him a distracted grunt as he concentrated on reorganizing the papers that
had fallen to the floor earlier. His
head shot up at the sound of crunching.
"Hey Jim, you're supposed to leave the cucumber on your eyes not
eat it."
The end.
The
full title is "All Roads are Under Construction" but that kinda gives the story away. :)
This
little ficlet came to me as we drove home this
weekend. The entire state of
Feedback is appreciated. Cheryl