Somethings
by Icecat62

Did I do something? I mean, he's been grouchy all morning. I can't remember doing anything to piss him off. I came in, said hi and started changing. I asked him how his weekend went and he just huffed at me. Huffed! What in heck was that for?

Okay, so I didn't do anything wrong then. Heck, I can't remember doing anything wrong when we got off shift a few days ago. If anything, he looked like he was happy. At least I think he was. Sometimes with Roy it's kinda' hard to tell what kinda' mood he's in. Man, for only being a few years older than me, he sure acts like he's twenty years older.

Scratching absently at his arm, Gage took a sideways glance at the Roy from across the cab of the squad. It was a perfect spring day. There wasn't smog or anything. If the weather was so nice, then what was it that was making his partner crabby?

Gage opened his mouth to ask Roy just that question, but he quickly changed his mind and turned to stare out the passenger side window. The last time he'd said anything other than work related to him, Roy had nearly bitten his head off.

His confusion grew once they reached the station. Without a word or a second glance, Roy hopped out of the cab and slammed the door shut, leaving Gage sitting in the squad by himself, even more confused than ever.

"Man…what a grouch."

Running a hand through his hair, Gage slid out of the squad and quietly shut the door. He stood in the bay debating what to do next. Did he really want a cup of coffee bad enough to follow Roy into the kitchen or would he be better off going and cleaning his locker? At least that would give him an excuse to not be in the kitchen.

Making his way into the locker room, he straddled the bench and opened the door. A gush of water flew out in front of his face causing him to pull back. Looking at the puddle of water on the floor he frowned. Chet couldn't even let up, even when he knew there was some sort of tension in the station.

Gage resisted the urge to clean the puddle up. He didn't spill it, so let Chet be the one to take care of it.

Since he had come in the room with the intention of cleaning his locker out, he might as well do it and make it look good. Starting at the bottom, he worked his way through the small cubicle, taking out soiled t-shirts and socks, he stuffed them in a bag.

Grabbing an envelope, he smiled. He'd forgotten about them last shift. There had been so many rescues, that he never remembered to show them to Roy. His smile faded as he opened the envelope. Right now it didn't seem like such a good idea to show them to him.

The smile returned to his face as he thumbed through them. There were several photos of the DeSoto children. Some of them were with Gage, a few had Roy or Joanne in them. His smile widened as he looked through them. They may not have been his kids, but he had just as much pride in them as Roy and Joanne.

There was one photo in particular that he cherished. He stood next to Chris, they had their arms slung casually around one another, grinning like fools at a small wooden model car. Last week had been the Pinewood Derby and Chris's car had won. He and Chris had worked on it together from start to finish. It had been fun spending time with his 'nephew' doing the project.

The next photo had one of Chris, Gage and some of the other scouts in Chris's troop. Each boy stood proudly holding their cars, with an equally proud father behind him. Gage stared at the photo, his brain latching onto a small niggling thought. No. It couldn't be. Could it?
Was Roy jealous of this?

Tapping the photo against the others, he looked up at the doorway leading to the kitchen. Maybe if he showed the photos to Roy and he didn't act pissy, then it wouldn't be what he thought it was. Heck, when Chris had suggested that he help him and not his father, Roy
hadn't seemed disappointed or angry in the least. If anything, he had smiled and said it was fine.

Gage's eyes narrowed in concentration as he replayed the scene over in his head. There was nothing that would indicate otherwise that Roy would have been angry about it.

Standing, he decided to take the photos to Roy and let him look at them. They might bring his partner out of the dark funk he had been in all morning. Besides…he really did need a cup of coffee and a snack.

Shoving everything back into his locker, Gage strolled out to the kitchen with the photos in hand. He walked directly to Roy who stood by the stove drinking a cup of coffee. He held the photos out to Roy.

"Thought you might like to see these."

Roy looked at the photos, then at him. His reply was spoken in a bland voice.

"You thought wrong."

Without saying another word, he brushed past Gage, taking his mug of coffee with him. The screen door to the back lot closed gently behind him.

Gage stood by the stove, his stomach feeling like someone had punched him. Looking at the photos in his hand, he still couldn't figure out if they were the reason for Roy's cold actions, but the way he had looked in contempt at them spoke volumes.

His confusion grew with each passing second. Roy hadn't been angry with him helping Chris. He didn't say a word when he had taken him to the scout meeting. He never said a thing when they had brought the trophy home. Not one word, one utterance of annoyance had come out of his mouth and now…now he was acting like he had been against it the entire time.

Feeling a bit of annoyance creep in behind the shock, Gage decided he was going to get to the bottom of it before it became something more than his partner being crabby. Striding to the door, he pushed it open and headed directly to where Roy stood in the back lot.

As he neared him, Gage could see a look of irritation flit over Roy's features. So what if he was mad at him. It was going to stop one way or another.

He waved the photos at Roy.

"What in the heck is wrong with you? You've been in a funk all morning and now you're …you're…well to be honest Roy, you're being crabby as hell."

Roy snorted, a sarcastic smile on his face.

"I'm crabby am I? Don't you think I have a right to be?"

"Heck no!"

"I don't huh? Then you tell me, Johnny, what exactly am I crabby about and why shouldn't I be."

Gage frowned, then waved the photos at Roy.

"This. You're mad about these photos."

Roy huffed out a mirthless laugh.

"You know you really have some nerve. First you horn in on 'my' time with 'my' boy and now you want me to sit and look at the pictures of it?"

Gage's mouth dropped open, then he found his voice, which rose in pitch and volume as he angrily tapped the photos on his chest.

"I 'horned in'? What in the heck does that mean? Chris asked me to help him and you said it was okay. Chris asked me to go with him and you said no problem! How in the heck was I 'horning in' on 'your' time with Chris?!"

Roy shook his head no, his expression miffed. Throwing the remainder of the coffee from his mug to the ground, he spat the words out.

"You should have said no!"

"Why? You could have said you wanted to help him, but you didn't. To me it looked like you really didn't care."

"Well what was I supposed to do? Tell Chris you couldn't help him?"

"Yeah! You could've said you wanted to do it."

Roy stared directly at Gage, his face void of expression.

"After you left I asked Chris why he asked you. Do you want to know what he said?"

Gage's voice was tinged with sarcasm.

"No Roy, what did he say?"

"He said he asked you to help him because you were cool. You knew about cars and stuff."

Gage took a deep breath, reining in his own building anger.

"So Chris thinks I'm cool. You want to know why? I'll tell you why. Because I'm not the one who has to punish him, I'm not the one who makes him eat his vegetables. I come over and do fun stuff with him."

"You should have told Chris that the derby was for fathers and sons, not sons and guys that hang around with their father."

Gage felt like he had been slapped in the face. He was just some guy that hung around with him? The hurt overwhelmed him. He managed to keep it from showing on his face, but he knew his voice betrayed him as soon as he opened his mouth.

"How in the heck was I supposed to know it was a father, son thing? Besides, you're the one that told me I was a part of your family. You're the one that told Chris and Jennifer that I was their 'uncle'. To them I'm not just some 'guy that hangs around with their father', I'm family. I'm sorry Chris asked me and not you, but I'm not sorry I went."

Roy stood staring silently back at Gage as a feeling of shame starting to overtake any anger he had. He didn't know what to say that wouldn't make him look as stupid as he felt at this moment.

"Johnny…I…"

Gage cut him off.

"I'm sorry you think I 'horned in' on your time with Chris. Don't worry, I won't make that mistake again."

Turning away from Roy, Gage made his way back to the station building.

"Johnny… wait…"

Roy walked behind Gage, placing a hand on arm to stop him from going into the station. So far no one else had heard or seen their exchange and he wanted to keep it that way. He wasn't surprised when Gage pulled away from him. He breathed a sigh of relief as when he didn't continue toward the building.

"What?"

Taking a deep breath, Roy exhaled in frustration. He was angry and he thought he had every right to be, but now that it was in the open as to how he felt about the situation, he felt like an ass. It wasn't something he was use to and it confused the hell out of him. Usually Gage was the one to take things out of context and go on a rant, not him.

"I didn't mean it that way."

Gage narrowed his eyes.

"The part where I horned in or the part where I'm supposed to be family."

Roy sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.

"The part where you horned in."

Gage's postured relaxed slightly, but the tight expression on his face remained.

"I don't know why it bothered me so much. Maybe because I saw how relaxed Chris was around you…maybe because I really did want to do the derby with him. When I was in the scouts, my dad and I did the derby together every year. I guess I just didn't want to share that with anyone. Not even you."

Gage's expression softened.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I was never a scout so I didn't know."

"I just assumed you were. I mean you seemed to know a lot about making the car…I thought you'd done it before."

Gage smiled slightly.

"A friend of mine had his brother's old scout stuff and we made the cars before."

"Why'd you do that?"

Gage rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Roy, I was a kid. I liked model cars, so anything that had to do with buildin' 'em, I was interested in. All that scout stuff was just junk."

Roy frowned.

"It's not junk."

Gage waved a hand at him.

"I don't mean it's junk…worthless…but when you're raised to do all the stuff to begin with, it's kind of stupid to go to a group that gives you little patches to prove that you could do the stuff. Why would I want to do that? Heck, the stuff that my dad and grandfather taught me everyday was way better than being a scout."

"Oh."

"Look, I'm not trying to put down the scouts or anything. I think it's great that they teach kids like Chris the things that our people do."

Roy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Your people?"

Gage smiled again.

"Uh huh. I didn't need a book or a class to know how to start a fire or track an animal. It was just a part of my life."

Gage knew that the conversation could go on forever, but what he wanted was for Roy to not be angry with him over something as stupid as making a model car. He held the photos out to Roy.

"So do you want to the see the pictures or not?"

Roy stared at he photos in Gage's hand for a second before reaching out to take them. He really didn't want to look at them, but he also knew that it was silly to keep feeling the way he did. Gage hadn't meant anything by what he had done and he should have said something to begin with to avoid what they were presently discussing.

Gage took the coffee mug from Roy's other hand and moved to stand beside him so he could point out what was what in each photo.

"Chris was really proud of the car. I didn't build it though, he did. I just told him what to do to make it."

Roy looked at the photo, trying to push the feelings of envy and jealousy down. This was something he should have shared with his son, not Gage, but because he had remained silent, he had missed out on the chance to do this with him.

"Yeah, he was really proud when you brought him home the other night. He put the trophy on the shelf in the living room so everyone could look at it and he's carried the car everywhere with him. Jo had quite the argument with him to leave it at home instead of carting it to school where it'd get broken."

Roy felt a stab of regret. He had almost let Chris take the model car to school with the hope that just such a thing would happen.

"I know Roy, you should have seen how excited he got when he won first place. He was jumping all over the place. There was one thing he wished for though."

Roy looked up from the photo.

"What was that?"

"He wished you would have come to watch the races and see him win."

Now Roy really felt like a heel. He hadn't gone, saying that it was their night because Gage and Chris had spent all that time making the model together.

"He really said that?"

"Yes he did. Ya' see Roy…" Gage placed a hand on his chest, his voice smug. "…I may be cool..." He pointed at Roy. "...but I can't replace his dad."

Gage grinned as a smile finally made it's way to Roy's face. Roy's smile faded as he flipped though the photos.

"I'm really sorry for the way I've been acting. It was stupid."

Gage nodded his head in agreement.

"Yeah it was, but ya' know what? It doesn't matter."

Roy's smile returned.

"No, it doesn't."

They looked at the photos together. Gage pointed out everything, describing the entire night in detail. He wanted to make Roy see the night the way he had. An experience of fond memories that he could cherish the rest of his life. It was the small moments like these that made a life complete and thanks to Roy's error and Chris' love for him, he had benefited from it. And knowing Roy and his family, he knew that there would be plenty more memories in the making. Only from now on, he hoped that Roy would speak up if there was going to be a problem.

End



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