Disclaimer: Ishinomori's, not mine
Notes: Spoilers for 'The Hero'
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"Would you hang on a second!" Jet Link trudged out of his room and to the front door. He already knew who it was; there was only one person who'd be giving him grief this early in the morning. So he wasn't surprised in the least to see Cathy standing in his doorway, looking less than thrilled with him.
"Hey, you know what would be really nice?" She wasn't in her diner uniform; it must've been her day off. "If you'd get off your ass and tell the mailman you don't live at my place. I'm getting sick of forwarding your stuff. Speaking of..." She threw a plain white envelope at him. "You got a letter."
Ignoring Cathy for now, he gave it a quick look. He recognized the absurdly neat handwriting right away. "It's from Albert."
"Isn't that the really tall one who brought us all that fresh fruit?"
Jet tore the envelope open. "Nah, that's Geronimo. Albert is the one I was with when you walked in without knocking and--"
"Okay, okay, I remember him now! No need to go any further," she assured him quickly and then leaned against the doorjamb, allowing him to read in peace.
The letter was pretty much like every other Albert had sent him, going on about work and neighbors and the visit Joe, Francoise, and the Doctor paid him recently. Then he noticed it. Instead of signing his name, at the very bottom of the paper he'd written I miss you.
And those three little words bridged the distance between them more than anything else in any stupid letter did. Albert wasn't exactly an open person, but that after note was just as good as a kiss good-bye.
"Asshole would find a way to make me miss him, too," Jet muttered roughly as he crinkled the paper in his hands.
"You want me to go get you a tissue?" Cathy was looking much too amused than anyone should be allowed to.
"Don't you have to drop Jimmy off at school?"
She grinned wickedly. "It's a teacher work day. I can stay here and watch you get weepy over your long distance relationship all morning."
Jet growled and resisted the urge to crumble the letter up and toss it out the window. It was going to be a long, long morning.