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Growing Pains
Author: Pixie Rating: PG (GS) Classification: Vignette H/M (Futurefic) Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. Two belong to DPB and his gang, and the other belongs to the 2005 Virtual Season. This is just for fun. I promise to put everybody back when I'm done playing. Spoilers: Nothing specific A/N: I thought I'd respond to my own challenge. This is short and unbeta'd. Read at your own risk.
She heard him come in the door and looked up from her place on the couch where she'd been going over a case file. "Hey." She smiled at him, and he grinned wearily in response as he bent to kiss her. "Hey yourself." He turned to put his briefcase down, shrugging out of his jacket and dropping it onto the back of a nearby chair. "How was your day?" "Kind of dull, actually. Spent most of it in the law library researching a brief." She watched him as he picked up the mail, flipped through it, and dropped it back on the table. "You?" "Don't ask." He stretched, either unaware or unconcerned that the tightening of fabric across his chest had a Pavlovian effect on her, sending her pulse into overdrive. "That bad, huh?" She noticed that he did look tired, and decided to make it a point to get to bed early tonight, determinedly squashing a devilish thought about how the extra time could be profitably put to use. He sat down beside her, and she reached to massage his shoulders, drawing a groan of pleasure from him as he leaned into her touch. He closed his eyes, and for a few minutes there was silence in the room as he concentrated on relaxing, and she concentrated on the feel of his shoulders beneath her palms. A telephone rang in the back of the house, and he turned his head to look at her. "Ben's home?" "Yep." "On a Friday night?" Surprise hitched an eyebrow up. Smiling, she reached across and smoothed it back down. "It does happen, you know." He snorted. "Once in a blue moon, maybe." Mac laughed. "Hey. He's got my looks. What did you expect?" He swatted her with a pillow. "Modest, aren't we." She shrugged a shoulder and grinned. "Just honest." He shook his head at her and glanced up at the ceiling. "Well," he said approvingly. "At least he has my brains." Mac followed his gaze. "Umm…Yeah. About that." He wasn't listening. He had, in fact, already stood up to move across the room. "I've been asking him for weeks to get those fixed. It's about time he got it done." "Umm….Harm?" Mac started to feel desperate as his hand moved to the switch, but he still wasn't listening. Typical. She considered her options, made a decision, and dove behind the couch just before he flipped the switch. Nothing happened at first, and Mac poked her head over the back of the couch in time to see Harm staring at her quizzically. "Is something wrong?" She looked up at the strip of track lights in time to see the first spark. It popped out of the fixture like a firefly coming out of hiding and drifted slowly down under their fascinated gaze. It blinked out long before it hit the floor, but by then more sparks had joined it, and Mac was treated to a momentary display of fireworks before Harm cursed and hit the switch again, plunging the room into semi-darkness. Silence reigned for several long seconds. Mac finally stood up and moved across to where Harm stood glaring up at the light fixture. "Tell me he didn't do it by himself." "Okay. I won't." Harm turned his glare on her. "He did." She nodded. "He said he was going to get Joe to help him." Joe was their neighbor. Joe was also a certified electrician. Mac shrugged. "He told me Joe had explained it all to him and he wanted to do it himself." "And you let him?" Mac smiled at the incredulity in her husband's voice. "He's seventeen, Harm. You think I could've stopped him?" Harm sighed in exasperation. "He can be a bit pigheaded at times." She raised an eyebrow. "I prefer to think of it as determined." "Stubborn." "Independent." "Mulish." Mac grinned at him. "You know," she said. "In a lot of ways, he really is just like you." He was about to answer that when a door opened at the back of the house, and their gangly son came down the hall, almost barreling into them before coming to an abrupt stop. He looked from one parent to the other, and then glanced up at the ceiling fixture before taking two quick steps backwards, out of his father's range. "Uhh…Hi Dad," he said, a little too brightly. "Can I have the car keys?" Mac cringed. Bad timing, Ben. She glanced over at Harm, saw the dangerous look in his eyes, and reached for her own set of keys. She tossed them to their son. "Bring back ice cream," she said. "Ben and Jerry's." Harm didn't say anything, merely continuing to glare at Ben, who was inching toward the door, intent on making a timely escape. She looked from one male to the other, and decided an addendum was in order. "Better bring back a lot of it."
**** The End ****
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