Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or situations created for tGAH; I borrow them out of love, and purely for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit from their use.
Los Angeles, August 1983
"I can't stand this anymore, Bill. I need to get another job!" Ralph Hinkley, former school teacher, and now full time superhero, was at his wit's end. After losing his tenure case a few months earlier, he had spent months trying to find a new teaching position. He loved Whitney High, and was devoted to his students, but it was clear that he could not return there as long as his nemesis, Mr. Knight, remained in the position of school principal.
"Well, Ralph, you could join the F.B.I. We always need good field agents!" Special Agent Bill Maxwell, Bill's partner in the superhero business, had been trying to get Ralph to quit his teaching job for many years. Ralph couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
"Bill, I'd never pass the lie detector tests."
Bill laughed at his partner. "Just wear the magic jammies underneath! A little white paper, a little push! No problem!"
Ralph looked at his partner. He still couldn't tell if he was joking.
"The thing is, Bill, I don't want to lose Pam over this."
Bill looked out the windshield. Although he was driving, he seemed distracted by his partner's comment. Finally, he shook his head, adding that Pamela Hinkley, or the Counselor as Bill liked to call her, was "good troops." She'd get through this, Bill assured Ralph.
"But what if she can't, Bill?"
"She got through the magic jammies, Ralph. You think she couldn't get through your employment problems? Come one. She's a good dame, uh, woman. She'll stand by you. You're lucky, kid. Never forget that."
Ralph looked out the right hand passenger window. "Yeah... what would you know?" As soon as the words passed through his lips, he realized how cold that comment was. He had no idea that the words were more than cold. They hit his partner like a block of ice.
"Believe me. I know."
Ralph never knew what had happened to Bill's wife. For many years, he assumed Bill had always been a bachelor, and generally unlucky with the ladies. When he realized his partner had once been married, but never spoke about her, he assumed the worst. Bill Maxwell, he figured, was a lonely widower, desperately trying to forget his loss by immersing himself in his work.
"Bill, you never told me about your wife. What happened?"
Bill Maxwell held tightly onto the steering wheel. As much as he trusted his partner, there were some things, some memories, that were just too hard to talk about.
"Nothing, kid. Nothing."
Continued
