Chapter Two

"Looks great guys." Joann said, opening the back doors, cautiously stepping out onto a half finished deck, ignoring the red stained lawn chairs they had abandoned in the grass.

"No more concrete stairs for me to fall down." Roy said, proudly, looking around at the three's progress. The deck was raised to the height of the back door, it stretched twelve feet out and fifteen feet across. Mike, Johnny, and Roy had finished the supports underneath the decking, as well as most of the decking itself.

"You guys ready for a break?" Joann said, "There's sandwich stuff inside on the table.

"Count me in. Johnny said, clipping the measuring tape to his belt. Joann studied him, Johnny wore the measuring tape, pencil behind his ear, and sawdust speckled clothes with the ease of Mike, who practically grew up in a carpentry workshop. John looked practiced in this. Roy, whom she thought was a fairly decent handyman, was learning from Mike and Johnny alike.

Mike stood from his kneeling position on the ground and jumped up the stepless porch. "Sounds good, thank you." he said politely, matching his nature.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

As Mike squirted mustard on a slice of bread he asked, "Hey Johnny." Johnny looked up, expectant. "I didn't see any stringers." he observed.

Roy and Joann looked confused, Johnny frowned, "I knew I was forgetting something." he said, slapping his knee in frustration. He was quiet for a moment, then said, "There should be some leftover wood we can use to build a couple."

"It's only three steps, it won't take much." Mike said without a care in the world, casually taking a bite out of his constructed sandwich.

Roy and Joann leaned next to each other, "Any idea what they're talking about?" Joann whispered.

Roy shook his head, attempting to find the word 'Stringer' in his vocabulary. "Don't mean to sound uneducated here," Roy said, looking at the two apparent carpenters, "What's a stringer?" Waiting for their answer, he munched on a chip.

"It's the frame for a set of stairs." Mike answered.

"Why people can't just call them 'stair frames' I will never know." Johnny said with his usual flourish, causing Mike to smirk.

"I see..." Roy said in understanding. For the first time he really began to wonder how John knew all this information. Until then, he had thought himself a fairly capable handyman. He owned a drill, a circular saw, and all the necessary household tools, including a few plumbing tools. He even recently learned how to repair drywall, when Chris 'accidentally' launched a baseball bat into his wall. But, he did not know how to build stringers.

"What were you thinking for the instep?" John asked Mike, pulling Roy out of his mulling's. When Mike answered, Johnny grabbed an unused napkin and pulled the pencil from behind his ear. Roy watched in fascination as his two friends started doing math, writing down calculations on the napkin with ease.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Mike pulled the trigger on the nail gun into the last step. "Done!" he hollered to the two medics who were diligently working on the railing. They were in a friendly competition to see who would finish first.

"How?" Gage said aghast, standing and resting his drill on a clip attached to his belt. "There's two of us." he said pointing at him and Roy.

"You had thirty-five feet of railing to put up. I had three stairs." Mike said fairly.

"But you had to build the stringers." Johnny complained good naturedly.

Mike raised his hands modestly, but quickly added, "What can you say? I'm good." he concluded with a friendly expression. He put down the nail gun and asked, "When does Jenny come back?"

Unsuspecting of Mike, Roy answered. "Her playdate ends at 1500, but who knows when they'll be actually back, Joann can gab for hours." Johnny had caught onto Mike's train of thought and smirked knowingly.

"When she does get back, she can help us finger paint."

Roy paused mid drill and looked up at Mike, the expression on his face saying enough. Johnny and Mike looked at each other and laughed. Sure, it was unfortunate, and rather disconcerting the white furniture had smears of blood red stain, but it was humorous. "It looks like a murderer came through." Roy said, looking in disdain at the lawnchairs abandoned in the shade under a tree. Johnny laughed then snorted, spiraling into a coughing fit. Roy, completely ignoring Johnny, continued. "I don't need Vince showing up here with the crime unit."

Johnny finally finished his coughing and laughing fit, adding, "I'll make sure to bring Detective Crockett up to speed." he barely got out before bursting into laughter again.

"Shut up." Roy said without a bite.

Mike decided Roy had enough ribbing, "Where does Joann keep her nail polish remover?" he asked with a straight face.

"Uhh," Roy eloquently responded. He couldn't decide whether Mike was pulling his leg or not, he couldn't look at Johnny for help as he was still on the floor laughing. When Mike waited patiently with a neutral look on his face, Roy decided he wasn't, "Hold on, I'll go look." He put the drill down and disappeared inside.

"Nail polish remover?" Johnny asked when he finally recovered himself, a light cough coming from him.

"You okay?" Mike asked, deciding not to answer his question, it was much more amusing.

"Just inhaled poorly." Johnny said.

"Right," Mike said, expertly hiding his smoke. "Does Roy have a bucket?"

"Hanging in the garage somewhere." There was a pause, "Seriously Mike, nail polish remover?" Mike spied Johnny looking at his fingers and smirked.

Answering Johnny's question silently, he shrugged, this was the most fun he'd had working with Johnny on a project yet. Disappearing around the corner of the house, he left the curious medic standing on the deck.

"Found some." Roy said triumphantly, holding up a bottle of blue liquid. "Where'd he go?"

"Looking for a bucket. Hey," Johnny said, looking at his partner completely dumbfounded, "Any idea what he's gonna do with Nail Polish Remover?" he enunciated.

"No clue." Roy said, putting the bottle down and picking up his drill.

"Huh." Johnny replied as he picked up another screw.