A/N: Thanks to Georgi for the hint, via L.M.
HOMEWARD BOUND
by
Owlcroft
"I hate saying goodbyes," remarked McCormick. "'Specially to somebody like Aggie. She's a special lady, y'know, Hardcase."
Hardcastle grunted at him without taking his eyes from the pitted dirt road leading to the airfield. "Thought you couldn't wait to get outta San Rio, sport. Looking forward to all the mowing and hedge-trimming back home."
Mark snorted, smiling wryly. "Yeah, and skimming the pool, painting the garage, raking the driveway, and," he added with emphasis, "chasing down bad guys, getting shot at, jumping off tall buildings, taking my life in my hands. Oh, yeah, Judge, I'm ready to get back to the routine after this great vacation get-away." He waved at hand at the passing Caribbean landscape.
"Hey, it's not my fault if you didn't have a good time here." The judge took the left-hand turnoff that led to the hangars in the distance.
"Yes, it is! Yes, it most certainly is! This whole trip was nothing more than an excuse to hunt down Peter Avery and there wasn't one minute of real vacation during the entire time." McCormick shaded his eyes with his hand as he looked for any sign of Aggie near the hangars. "How I Spent My Summer Vacation. I broke into some buildings, argued with two judges, waved at several bullets passing by, and staged a jailbreak. And then I get yelled at for twenty minutes by the guy I broke outta jail . . ." He paused for just an instant. "Yeah, how come you're not still yelling at Aggie about that? I'm sure still hearing about it."
"She's cuter than you are." Hardcastle pulled up in a cloud of dust and beeped the horn twice.
Aggie failed to materialize immediately, so the two men climbed out, the judge cautiously checking that the envelope was still in his shirt pocket.
McCormick caught him patting at it, and smiled to himself, having seen the old coot coming out of the hotel travel agent's office with it.
"Hey, what's in there, Judge?" he called impishly. "You upgraded our tickets to first class or something?"
"None of your beeswax," was the snappish reply.
Mark smiled even more, having a pretty shrewd idea what was in the envelope.
Aggie appeared from around the corner of the endmost hangar, grinned at them both, then waved broadly as she approached.
"Sometimes goodbyes aren't so bad," muttered Hardcastle. "When they're just temporary." He stepped toward Aggie with a smile.
finis
