Disclaimer: I own nothing, except
Author's Note: This is a short one shot that came to my mind from out of nowhere.
Pulling into the busy airport, Wayne Rigsby made the turn for the pick up/drop off zone, ignoring the short term parking. His partner sat in the passenger seat, stress evident on her face and in how she squeezed her hands together.
'We're not that late,' he said, trying to reassure her.
He was summarily ignored as Grace van Pelt's eyes remained glued to the car clock. The instant that he pulled into an available car bay, she wrenched open the door. Grabbing her handbag, she slipped from the car and dashed across the walkway and into the terminal.
'I'll meet you inside,' Rigsby called after her uselessly, the traffic control attendant already waving him on, a car tooting impatiently behind him.
Twenty minutes later Wayne Rigsby stepped into the large foyer of the airport and looked around warily.
Grace was nowhere to be seen.
Approaching the numerous television screens above him, he stood with his four month old son dozing on his arm, his long form snug back against his chest. A baby bag hung from his left shoulder.
Looking at the list of flights, he recognised none of them. It took him a long minute to realise that he was looking at the Departures and not Arrivals.
Shuffling down, he looked up at the screens again. It took another long minute for him to remember which flight his mother-in-law was on. Shifting his eyes right, he noted that the flight had already landed – fifteen minutes early by the looks of it too.
Muttering that for all the days for a flight to be uncharacteristically early, it had to be today!, Rigsby noted the baggage carousel number for the flight.
He skirted the x-ray machines as he made his way over to the carousels. There was no way he was going through security, especially with a baby and the requisite baby bag that was treated as a bomb risk more times than he cared to remember.
The tall man is oblivious to the appraising looks and comments of the women around him as he struggled to see his red-headed woman and their guest in the teeming mass surrounding carousel four.
It's Grace and her mother who end up finding him – or more to the point, it's Harriet van Pelt that dashed over with an excited squeal and snatched her red-haired grandson from Rigsby's arms. 'Oh what a gorgeous boy you are!' she cried as Grace arrived pulling the large suitcase.
He didn't have time to warn the older woman as she threw his son up into the air and the baby promptly threw up all over her.
Feeding the baby was why they had been running late.
