Calling In
Jack tapped his fingers idly against the phone as he waited for the line to connect, attention split between the ring tone and the rain beating against the window as the wind blew it this way and that. If it had been the emergency line he'd be a lot more annoyed about how long it was taking to get through, but as it was the regular line he figured he'd have to wait a while. He glanced over at the bed, the reason for his call, and felt his forehead crease with concern. Sky was usually annoyingly awake first thing in the morning, so for him to be still asleep when Jack woke up wasn't a good sign and should have been his first clue that something was wrong. But no, he'd just assumed Sky was tired and sleeping off the previous day, which, from what little he'd heard, had been a long, hard day. Just because Sky had never done that before didn't mean it would never happen, right?
Whatever. It was only when Jack had had breakfast and come out of the shower to find Sky still in bed that he began to feel uneasy. Sky was a light sleeper and even though he'd tried to keep his moving around as quiet as possible, the other man should have heard him. Going over to the bed hadn't helped any. Or rather, it had, just not the way he'd expected. And a temperature that high could in no way be a good thing.
"This is SPD headquarters, how may I help you?" came the neutral voice probably associated with receptionists the galaxy over and he blinked, drawn back to the job at hand.
"Jack Landors calling for Z Delgado." There was a gratifying sound of surprise on the other end of the line, obviously he hadn't been away from SPD so long they'd forgotten who he was.
"Just a minute, sir, I'll put a call out."
"Thank you." Despite himself he grinned. Sir. He hadn't been called that for a while. He waited until Z picked up the line, her familiar voice relaxing some of his tension.
"Jack, what's up?"
"Sky won't be in today," he said not bothering with small talk. "He's got the flu or something. He hasn't even got out of bed this morning."
"Sky has the flu?" she repeated, sounding sceptical. "Sky's never sick."
"Well, he is today," Jack snapped, not appreciating the flippant tone.
"Okay, okay," Z replied, and he could almost see her hands going up in appeasement. "It's just not like him."
"Tell me about it," Jack muttered, mollified somewhat by the apology. "He doesn't even have the energy to glare at me and that's a little unnerving."
"I'll bet. Anyway, I'll let the Commander know. You should probably have told him this, you know. Not me."
"Yeah right," Jack snorted. "Like I'm telling DC I've called a doctor because Sky's not glaring at me."
"So you're letting me do it instead?"
"Bingo. Anyway, I've still got to call Ally, let her know I won't be in today."
"You're not going in to the shelter?" Z sounded surprised.
"Z, my boyfriend, you remember him? The guy I live with? He's sick. I'm not going into work and leaving him on his own when he can't even get out of bed."
"This has really got you worried, huh?" Z said, and he twisted the phone line around his fingers, staring at the cord in the absence of anything else to focus on.
"Yeah well," he muttered. "Like you said, Sky's never sick. I just want to be here, you know? And anyway," he continued, looking around the small apartment he and Sky shared, "I've got stuff to do here as well." Like trying to fix the pipes that wouldn't stop dripping. Or change the light bulb that had died the previous evening.
"Okay. Well anyway, I should go tell the Commander Sky won't be in for a few days. I'll check back this evening, see how he is."
"Sure. Later, Z."
"See ya."
The line clicked off and Jack put the phone down before picking it up to call the shelter. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he twined his fingers through Sky's as he chatted briefly with Ally, letting her know he wouldn't be in and making sure he wouldn't be missing anything too important. Besides, even if he was he wasn't planning on going anywhere. Sky needed him here and here he was going to stay.
