Pants

Author's Note: I wish I owned Riley! The Mouse does.

Riley Poole burst into his friend's office saying, "Ben! Where are my pajamas?" Ben wondered if Riley had finally gone crazy. "Why are you asking me?" The older man inquired this confusedly. "My pajamas are gone!" Riley said.

"Well, don't you have other pajamas?" Ben asked. "Yes, but..." Riley trailed off, leaving Ben wondering what he was going to say. Riley usually never stopped talking, and for once was quiet. "But what?" Ben was dying to know what Riley didn't say.

"Promise you won't laugh?" The young man had a look of total seriousness on his face. "I swear," Ben said as he started to chuckle because of the look on Riley's face. "If you must know, the pajamas I'm looking for are my lucky pajamas." Riley said quickly.

"You have lucky pajamas? You're just a little superstitious." Ben started laughing.

"You're calling ME superstitious? You park in the exact same spot every single day. If you ask me, you're not only superstitious. You're a tad paranoid." Riley fired back.

"Ok. Riley, if I may ask, why on Earth do you even NEED your lucky pajamas?" Ben questioned.

"My computer crashed and my iPod isn't working. I need luck to fix these things." Riley answered.

"No, what you need is a computer guy," Ben told his friend.

A look of horror crossed over the techie's face. "Ben, I AM the computer guy. You do not tell THE computer guy to go to some lame-o dude who probably has no clue what to do. The guy would end up breaking everything and making the problem worse! I'm going to ask Abi if she's seen my pants." After finishing his rant, Riley turned and left.

As he walked toward the kitchen, he called ,"Abi! Have you seen my pajama pants?"

"I'm in the dining room! Come in here and stop yelling!" Abigail called back just as loudly.

"Hypocrite." Riley muttered as he made his way toward the dining room. He stepped delicately through the threshold and into the massive room.

"Ok. Abigail, have you seen my pajama pants?" Riley asked again.

"Which ones?" Abigail asked.

"The red ones." Riley told her.

"Any particular reason why you want the red ones?" Abi inquired.

"Nope." Riley said nonchalantly.

" Did the dust bunnies eat all your other ones?" she replied with a smile.

"My room is perfectly clean, thank you very much. Anyway, that's off-topic. "Where are my pants?" The young techie sounded desparate.

"I don't know what pants you're talking about." Abi said suspiciously.

"Just a minute ago, you knew exactly which ones I was talking about." As he said this, Riley noted the glint in Abigail's eyes.

"Well, I have no clue. Check your room."she suggested.

"I already did. And don't tell me to check the laundry room, because I checked there, too." Riley informed her.

"I don't know, Riley. Good luck finding them." Abigail turned back to whatever she was doing before Riley appeared.

" Hey, Abi... Whatcha doin'?" Riley asked curiously.

"I'm dusting. Why?" She answered him with a fishy tone.

"Can I see that rag?" He asked.

Abigail gave him the piece of fabric, albeit it was reluctantly. After examining it closely for a few seconds, the silence was broken.

"AHA!" Riley shouted triumphantly. "It's my pants. Abi, you killed them." The techie pointed an accusing finger at the blonde. "My pants!" he moaned.

"Riley, they're just pants." Abi told him.

"Why?" He asked sadly as he looked at the forlorn piece of fabric.

"The pants were falling apart. I decided to put them out of their misery." Abigail tried not to laugh as she looked at the miserable look on her friend's face. Riley gave her a look and left, taking Abi's dust rag with him.

' So much for that idea.' Abigail thought as she put away the dusting spray.

Later

"Do you have any lucky rituals, Abigail?" Riley asked at dinner.

"Well, I always listen to the same CD on the way to work in the morning. Why?"she replied.

"Oh, no reason." Riley said. A devious plan was forming in his head.

Next Morning

"Ben, have you seen my Mozart CD?" Abigail asked her husband.

"Nope. Have you seen Riley?" Ben said.

" No. I guess we'd better go if we don't want to be late," Abi said. She kissed her husband on the cheek before getting in her car for a silent ride to work.

Ben pulled into the parking lot near the Smithsonian and drove toward his normal spot. Lo and behold, it was taken by a cherry red Ferrari Spyder. In the red car, there was a dark-haired young man. It was a very familiar-looking dark-haired man. Ben rolled down his window and said, " Riley, can you please move your car? I need my spot."

Then, Ben noticed the music that was playing. It wasn't the usual 80's band. It was classical, almost like Mozart. Ben sighed.

Riley got out of the Ferrari, Starbucks in hand. "Have a nice day at work, Ben." Riley called over his shoulder. Ben sighed again. It was going to be a long day.

Riley smiled as he walked toward the Library of Congress. It was going to be a great day.