Just One More Candle and a Trip Around the Sun
The N.I.H team was off handling a crisis in a small Midwestern town. The local hospital was dealing with a series of baffling infections that were randomly attacking the patients. So far they'd been not making much headway as to identifying the strain which was proving to be stubbornly drug resistant.
Miles had been working almost non stop for over the past twenty-four hours so now he was trying to grab some precious and much needed sleep. The days seemed to blur and run together and the fact that today was his birthday, he pushed to the back of his mind. There'd be time for celebrating later once he got back home.
He was sprawled out on a bed in an empty room when his pager went off. He sat up, looked at it to see he was being summoned to the conference room that was serving as their temporary base of operations. Quickly slipping into his shoes, he headed off down to hall to see what was going on.
The door was shut and as he opened it, a chorus of "Surprise!" caused him to jump back startled. Opening the door wider he saw on the table a small cake with a few candles and an envelope. "What's going on?"
Stephan spoke up, Come on in, Miles and join the party."
"We couldn't let your birthday pass unnoticed so Eva pulled this together," Natalie added.
"On very short notice. Fortunately there's a Wal-Mart in this town," Eva told him.
:"I-I really don't now what to say," Miles told them, surprised and pleased that they'd take the time out of their busy schedule for him.
"Just make a wish and blow out the candles," Frank suggested. "We didn't know exactly how old you are now."
"Miles looked at the four candles and said, "Well, I'm certainly older than that."
"Each candle is for each one of us. We figured it was a good enough compromise," Natalie told him.
Miles made his wish and blew out the candles and began cutting the cake. "Okay. Now who wants the first piece?" he asked
"Open your present first,"" Eva said, handing over the envelope.
Miles pulled out a humorous birthday card and a gift card. "Thank you."
"Like I said, its good thing there's a Wal-Mart. I'm sure you'll find something you like," Eva explained.
Stephan picked up a piece of cake and a fork. "I hate to cut this little party short, but after the cake, we all need to get back to work."
"And I'll grab some more shut eye unless you need me," Miles said.
"Go on right ahead. We've got everything in hand right now," Stephan replied.
"Do we get to know how old you are?" Eva asked.
"Let's just say I'm older than four but younger than Conner and leave it at that," Miles told her. He sat back to enjoy his piece of cake, deciding this was one of the birthdays he was likely to remember in the years to come.
A/N Title comes from a line of the song "Trip Around the Sun" by Martina McBride and Jimmy Buffet.