The Gift
Off duty CHP officer, Frank Poncherello rushed into the apartment building where his best friend and partner officer Jon Baker lived. He skipped the elevator and took the stairs much too excited and in a hurry to wait for the elevator. He was so excited! He made it to Jon's door, nearly breathless, he knocked as hard as humanly possible without breaking the door. Then he waited.
Jon answered the door in his sweats and a tee shirt. "Hey, Ponch, what is going on?" he asked.
"Black Friday! Sales! My girlfriend... Wal-Mart has it!" Ponch kept spitting things out but never making a full clear sentence...Or indicating at all why Jon needed to be involved.
"What?" Jon asked. He was sure it was something he didn't want anything to do with.
Ponch took a deep breath to calm down then let it out. "Heather wants something specific... Walmart has it. I have a list. I need your help!"
Jon sighed and looked down. "Look Ponch, she is your girlfriend, you go get her whatever. I am not leaving my house until we go back to work on Monday," he said.
"Jon! I can't survive those stores alone on Black Friday!"
"Then don't go. Get what she wants later," Jon said.
"It might not be there later! And it won't be on sale any other day besides today!" Ponch stressed.
"What is it? How much does it cost?" Jon wanted to know.
"A jewelry set. Diamond necklaces and stuff...On sale for…" Ponch tried to think.
"Well, those don't go on sale often…" Jon admitted.
"I know."
Jon sighed already disgusted with himself. "Wal mart you said?" he asked.
"Yeah. There's a real nice jewelry store that got added into Walmart. Kinda by their old jewelry section."
"What time do they open?"
"Seven."
"What time should we be in line?"
"What?"
"What time should we be in line?"
"Why would we go get in line? We can just walk in," Ponch said seeming absolutely serious.
Jon gave him a look. "Ponch, do you realize how many other people will want what you are getting? And they will line up to get it! Have you ever done this before?"
"They better not! That jewelry set is going to be a gift for my sweet angel, Heather…" Ponch started then smiled at Jon. "I've done this a million times! I know exactly how to push through lines to get what I want. This is the only time of year I thank God for making me short. No one sees me till after I've caught them off guard and knocked them off balance into their shopping carts."
"Savage," Jon commented.
Ponch smiled slightly. "I guess you could say that."
"Well if you are so good at this then why drag me into it? You sound like you can handle all this like a pro," Jon said.
"The problem is I don't like going alone. I HATE the large crowds... And if something bad happens I need someone with me to keep me under control so Getraer won't get any calls this year."
Jon looked at him and ran a hand through his hair. "I hate myself. OK. When should we be in line?"
"As soon as possible."
"But, Ponch! It is two o' clock right now!"
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
"Sorry."
"But we should leave at like, five."
"Alright."
"You going to stay here?"
"Yup."
Jon let him in and went back to the living room.
Ponch plopped on the couch.
Jon was watching football, he had finally broken down and gotten a TV.
"Glad you came to your senses. This TV is real nice!" Ponch said as he grabbed a ding dong from his pocket that he'd been saving.
"Well, I got it on sale so, I thought it wouldn't ruin my life since I am in control of it," Jon said. He was eating pumpkin pie out of the pie plate.
"Ruin your life? No way! It's a TV it is life!" Ponch exclaimed with a huge dorky grin.
"Whatever you say, partner," Jon replied taking another bite of his pie.
"Well, why don't you go get ready?" Ponch suggested.
"Ponch, it hasn't even been an hour yet. Would you relax?" Jon said as he walked towards the kitchen to put the empty pie tin away.
Jon could sense Ponch rolling his eyes without even looking at his friend. "We'll be leaving around five," he reminded Ponch. "So, find something you want to watch on TV, enjoy it and I'll go back to bed for a few hours."
"Whoa, hold it! If I can't go back to bed you can't. We're in this together, Baker."
"This is my apartment! I never agreed to going out this morning, I need my sleep," Jon protested.
Ponch looked at him and glared slightly, then smiled. "All right, fine then."
Jon headed off to his room calmly, the only thing he could do was pray that he would wake up to a clean apartment. 'Please don't trash the place, Ponch. You'll only be here a few hours.'
oOoOo
Ponch ended up falling asleep on the couch. The hours passed and when it hit five o'clock both friends were still asleep. Well that was until Jon rolled over and fell out of bed.
Jon grumbled and muttered things under his breath as he got up and rubbed the tiredness from his eyes. Then he saw the clock 5:06 it said. "Dang it!" Jon slammed his head against the soft bed then stayed down a few minutes. He just wanted to go back to bed why did he agree to this!? He then got up and quickly pulled on some clean clothes. A pair of light blue jeans and a faded out long sleeved button up red shirt. After he did that and quickly combed his hair and brushed his teeth he looked at the clock again. 5:09. He went into the living room, where he found his sleeping best friend.
"Ponch, come on it's time to go," he said loudly.
Ponch nearly fell off the couch, in a fit of panic. "Are we late!?" He asked looking up with widened eyes.
"Only by about ten minutes, let's go."
Ponch hopped up and followed Jon out the door.
oOoOo
"All right, so you are shopping with me. We are going to keep out of trouble. That means, none of that stuff you talked about earlier is going to happen. Be patient with people, OK?" Jon told Ponch heading up to the door.
"Oh sure," Ponch replied.
They got to the door and stood in line. They were behind about twenty other people. Ponch was growing more impatient by the second. "There's a crowd people outside the door, wouldn't you open up early then?"
Jon bit back a small smile. "No,if I were the employees here I'd be savoring the peace and quiet in the store right now."
Ponch shot him a look.
*An hour later*
The doors opened and everyone rushed inside, pushing and shoving. Ponch and Jon made a little path through the people then made a mad dash for the jewelry section.
Ponch was surprised that no one was there when they arrived. The jewelry person was just sitting there bored. Ponch was excited. He rushed over and smiled.
"Hello, ma'am."
"Well, hello young man. What can I do for you?"
"That jewelry set you have right there, with all the rings and necklaces and earrings... I wanna buy it for my girlfriend." Ponch smiled.
Jon smiled slightly watching his partner buy the jewelry set for Heather that he'd been talking about all morning. When he bought it they started to leave.
There were way too many people to get passed. Jon began pushing and shoving his way through to the door. Ponch followed. One person wasn't moving. Jon was having a hard time getting past he 'accidentally' pushed her into her cart. Then he grabbed Ponch's hand and mouthed the word 'Run!' and took off running out the store with him bumping into people but not letting it stop him.
When they got outside they stopped to catch their breath. Ponch was laughing. "Jon! You told me not to do what you just did!"
Jon just shrugged. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
Happy fanfic anniversary! I have had such a good time being your friend and talking with you these years. Your stories are amazing and I hope you write many more!~AllTrekkedUp
Happy four year fanfic. Anniversary, LHDD! I've enjoyed the past two years that I've been on here, getting to know you and becoming such great friends. I thoroughly enjoy all of your stories and look forward to the ones to come. Congratulations on four years of being on this site. I hope you have a fantastic day! ~Ponchy