Ch 4
Sam let the Colonel into his own house and helped him get situated on the couch so that he was sitting sideways with his leg propped up. She watched him picking at the throw pillow he was clutching. He actually looked quite miserable.
Softening a little, she said, "Would you like me to go check on your grocery situation, sir?"
"Sure," he said, accidentally pulling a thread loose from the stitching of the pillow. He kept tugging on it, trying to break it off. Sighing, Sam took it away from him and handed him the television remote instead before going into the kitchen and peering into the refrigerator.
Not one but three different kinds of beer, a giant box of AA batteries (for his Gameboy, she thought with a smile,) an almost empty bottle of ketchup, and a piece of very questionable fruit.
"Sir, is this an apple or a peach?" she called.
"I have no idea!" he called back in a cheerful tone that made her laugh.
"Maybe I should send it to the lab for analysis," she muttered as she grabbed a paper towel to protect her hand before removing the offensive piece of fruit and throwing it away.
"Okay, so you basically need everything," she said as she returned to the living room.
"Sir!" she said sharply as she saw what he was doing. He looked up at her, caught red-handed. "Give me the pen," she said firmly. He relinquished the pen he'd had down his cast to scratch his leg, but he didn't look sorry at all. "You've only had it on for an hour," she pointed out.
He grumbled something unintelligible.
"Well, Janet said those pain pills should knock you out, so I think now would be a good time for me to go to the grocery store and go home to get some stuff."
"Whatever floats your boat," he said with a shrug, already eyeing the pen again.
She looked around the room for anything else he might find to stick down his cast and said, "Please try to behave, sir."
"No problem."
"Right," she muttered as she grabbed her keys again.