"I can't believe no one's come looking for us yet," JD said as he strained to look out the windshield. "How much longer do you think it'll be?"
Ezra pulled in a careful breath and let out a sigh as he too looked out the windshield. Falling snow now covered it at least a quarter of the way up. It almost hid the fact that they were in a ditch on the side of the road.
An unexpected snow squall had blown up while they were driving back from interviewing a witness. The poor visibility combined with a patch of black ice had them skidding off the road into the ditch.
"Hey, do you have a signal on your phone? I still don't have one on mine," JD asked as he held his phone up and waved it around hoping to get a signal.
"No," Ezra answered as he rubbed tiredly at his forehead. Although neither had been badly injured, he had hit his head on the window and had a goose egg over his left eye. That, combined with JD's incessant talking and questioning had resulted in a headache. If he were honest, he'd already had a bit of one when left the witness's home. At this point, it had reached migraine proportions.
"I can't believe no one's come down this road. You'd think someone might have. We've been stuck here, what? Two hours?" He tried to push his door open to no avail. Shortly after the car had come to rest in the ditch, they'd found it impossible to get any of the doors open more than a few inches – not enough for either to climb out. "I can't believe none of the others have come looking for us. We should have been back over an hour ago. Don't you think they'd notice we were late?"
"JD," Ezra tried to break in softly. Unfortunately, his companion kept talking and asking the same questions. "JD," he tried a little louder with no results. "Oh, lord love a duck," he finally said loudly in exasperation. "Give it a rest. Your mouth has not stopped since we found ourselves in the unfortunate predicament. Just shut up for five minutes."
A sudden quiet descended on the car as JD turned to look at Ezra in shock. The surprised look quickly morphed into something that resembled a puppy that had been kick and Ezra sighed again. "I apologize for raising my voice," he said contritely. "I just…" Another sigh escaped and he realized he was doing a lot of that. "You've asked the same questions and I don't have an answer for them." He rubbed his hand over his forehead again, careful not to touch the bump. "Again, I apologize for losing my temper."
"I'm sorry," JD muttered. "I didn't mean to upset you." He looked toward the passenger side window and rubbed the condensation so he could see out of it. Unfortunately, it was still the same view of the side of the ditch that it had been since they'd come to an abrupt stop. He looked back over to Ezra who was still rubbing his forehead. "Headache?"
"Throbbing," Ezra admitted. "It's contributed to my short temper." He abruptly pounded his hand on the steering wheel. "I should have known better than to try to drive in this weather. I should have pulled over until it passed."
"How could you know it was going to get so bad so fast?" As he spoke, JD reached over to turn Ezra's face to him then leaned toward him to peer closely at his eyes.
"What are you doing?" Irritation crept back into Ezra's voice as he pulled out of JD's grip and leaned back a little creating more space between the two men.
"You said you had a headache and you have that bump on your head. I was just trying to make sure your eyes looked ok like Nathan usually does."
One more sigh in a long line of them escaped from Ezra as guilt again flashed through him. JD was trying to help, and he'd gotten short with him once more. "And…" he prompted.
"I don't know." JD shrugged. "They look like eyes…green eyes. Heck if I know what Nathan looks for."
This time Ezra huffed out a laugh. "I believe when Mr. Jackson peers so closely at the eyes of one who's suffered a head injury, he's checking to see if the pupils are the same size and if they react properly to light."
"Oh." JD leaned over to get closer to Ezra although not as close as last time. "I don't know about the light part, but they look the same size to me. Hey, how come you've got green eyes when your mother's are blue?" he asked as if the thought had just occurred to him.
Ezra looked at his friend strangely at the non-sequitur. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?"
"Huh?" Realizing how strange the question sounded, JD quickly explained. "I guess I've never looked that close at your eyes before and…well…I guess it just popped in my head."
"And out of your mouth," Ezra added in a mumble. "My father had green eyes," he answered louder. "It seems to be a Standish trait." He glanced over to JD who looked like he was about to launch into another array of questions. He felt his head and left eye throb at the thought. Again, he rubbed his hand across his forehead.
"Headache must be real bad."
"Abominable," Ezra confessed as he rubbed at the back of his neck now. "I'd give anything for the bottle of Imitrex in my desk."
"That's the stuff you take when you get those migraines, isn't it?"
"Mmmhmm."
"And I haven't been helping," JD said more to himself than his friend. "Can you get your seat to go back? Maybe you should close your eyes for a while and rest. I promise, I'll be quiet as a mouse."
A quick, small smile quirked Ezra's lips as his friend became so solicitous now that he knew he was hurting. "I think I might, if you don't mind." He reclined the seat as much as possible and got as comfortable as he could. "Don't worry, JD. I'm sure our compatriots will realize we're missing, and someone will be along soon."