Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
Winston rolled his eyes. What a damn small place the world was – all he had wanted was to do his weekend shopping in peace and who was in the line at the counter? Apparently it wasn't enough that he plagued his workdays, no, now Guerrero also had to ruin his free Friday evening.
Granted, he most likely hadn't planned running into him here. The way he stood there, calm, focused, alert but not edgy, indicated that he wasn't expecting to see a familiar face.
Hiding behind a shelf as unobtrusively as possible (well, yeah, like an elephant trying to hide behind a tree), Winston took a closer look at Guerrero's purchases. Butter, sugar, almond extract, almond halves, flour, salt, cocoa and vanilla. What the hell was he up to? Even with all his cop-experience, Winston couldn't think of a torture method that included the use of sugar and almonds – maybe he covered his victim with it and set rats on him? Ants? Was he targeting a diabetic?
And besides that, wasn't he supposed to be with Chance tonight?
He decided he didn't want to know.
… … …
"I was waiting for you upstairs", Chance said, rather puzzled to find Guerrero in the office's kitchen area.
"No drinking tonight, bro", Guerrero replied and started rummaging around in the cupboards. Luckily when Ilsa had the office remodeled she had also invested in some proper kitchen equipment.
Chance gave the groceries on the kitchen table a quizzical look.
"Cream the butter, dude."
On the one hand Chance wasn't in the mood for one of Guerrero's games. If he didn't want to drink with him, fine, could he then please just leave and let him get dead drunk alone? On the other hand he didn't want to be alone. Not tonight.
"I have no idea how to do that."
"Set the mixer to its lowest speed. Add sugar, extract, flour and salt and mix until no clumps remain. Turn the speed up and keep mixing for another ten minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl for unblended sugar with that spatula thing."
By the time Guerrero had distributed level tablespoons of the mixture on two cookie sheets, Chance had figured out what they were doing.
"She used to shape them into petals."
Together they scraped and cut at the bits of mixture till they vaguely looked like sunflowers.
Very vaguely, but it would do.
… … …
Winston was restless. Of course, today's anniversary played a part in that, but at the moment he was more worried about Chance. He had told him he wanted to spend the evening with Guerrero and it had made sense to Winston: Unlike him, Guerrero hadn't been there that dreadful day. He was more neutral company tonight.
But what the hell had Guerrero been doing at the supermarket then, at a time when he had already been supposed to be at the office?
Winston decided to head back to the Tenderloin and check on Chance.
… … …
The cocoa frosting on the cookies was just dry enough for eating when the elevator's signal announced Winston's arrival. Wordlessly the two made room for him at the table. The kitchen looked like a bomb had exploded in it.
Well, two guys usually relying on take-outs for nutrition had prepared food more complicated than a sandwich in it, need I say more?
"Brown-eyed Susans", Guerrero said and Winston understood. He reached for a sample, bit off a piece and fought not to make a face.
"They're a bit, erm…."
Chance nodded. "That's exactly the way they're supposed to be."
They sat in silence for a long while, munching on really bad cookies.
Slowly, very slowly, a faint smile appeared on Chance's face. For the first time, after all these years, the memory of the time they had spent together outweighed the memory of Katherine's death.