In Limbo

Chapter 13

By Monday morning, Lee, looking around his new office in the Tribune building from his desk chair sighed, and with a shrug, thought, It's a hell of a lot better than it was in this room yesterday!

A large part of that was due to Sandy and her organizational skills, reminding him of his former partner, Amanda King, who had systematically whipped his apartment into shape the first year they met, with him scowling, "It looks like you live here, and I don't!"

Chuckling at the memory, he sipped the last of his now cold coffee, and wincing, got up from his chair at his desk to head out to the break area to refill his cup, and opening the door, nearly ran into Mark, who, putting his hands up, stated quickly, "Morning, Castle...Look, I-I know how bad it looks in here, b-but believe me, you got plenty of helpers that'll straighten everything out, and we'll go from there, alright?"

Lee shrugged, and stepping aside, answered calmly, "Everything's fine, Boss...Come take a look..."

When Mark went in, he thought, He's nuts if he thought that tornado mess that Pete Simpson left in that office was manageable!

But he just stared at the sight before him, as he saw two file cabinets, and several file boxes against one wall, labeled, "Single/Married, Divorced/Kids, Widowed, and finally, Miscellaneous/Red Alert and shook his head, saying incredulously, "N-No! I know what was in here, and it looked like a demolition crew went through!"

Turning to Lee, he asked bewilderedly, "Wh-What happened?! Y-You couldn't have done this today! No way in hell-"

Lee, out of the corner of his eye, saw Sandy coming off the elevator, and heading towards them, and putting up a hand, replied, "I-I didn't...I thought why not get a jump on things Sunday, and see how much I could get done...But, I owe a big debt to Sandy here, who was instrumental in helping me set things up..."

Mark looked from Lee to Sandy, and commented, "Great...That's great, but did it occur to either of you that there's no overtime on weekends with this job?"

Sandy sighed, remarking to Mark, handing him a form and a pen, " Good morning to you too, Mark...Relax. All you have to do is sign the Special Project form, and I send it to Payroll-"

Mark narrowing his eyes at Sandy asked with a gesture, "What, you mean, as in this room? And what "Special Project"?

Sandy smiled, and with a wink to Lee, answered, "I like to call it, "Spring Cleaning."

Lee shook his head and suddenly began to guffaw, mystifying Mark and Sandy, who watched him go back to his office chair, sit, and wipe tears of laughter from his eyes, while trying to compose himself!

Mark, worriedly looked at Sandy, who shrugged, unsure of what was happening, and watched as Mark went over to Lee, and patting his shoulder, replied softly, "H-Hey, Pal...I-I can see this whole thing threw you for a real loop, and I'm real sorry I wasn't upfront with you about it, but it's gonna be okay, I swear, alright? Now, why don't you just take today off, and we'll start fresh tomorrow-"

But Lee, feeling better, gestured with a gulp remarking, "No, no...It's okay. I'm fine now...Go ahead and sign that sheet, while I go take a gander at one letter..."

While Mark signed the form, Sandy, taking it from him, quickly stated as Lee went to a file cabinet opening it, to take a letter, "Hey! You don't just grab any old letter and go! It's carefully considering the title, and then choosing."

Just then, Frank came down the hall, and peeking in at Lee's new office, gave a low whistle, and joked, "Gee, Castle...Love what you've done to the old hell hole! What happened?"

Mark gestured to Frank to leave as he himself left the room, and headed down the hall responding, "Long story...Alright, everybody! Back to work!"

-SMK-

Lee gasped asking as Sandy took the letter he pulled out of the file, put it back in, and closed the drawer, "Hey! Why did you do that? I was just looking to start at an early date-"

Sandy pointed to his office chair replying with a buzzer sound, "Wrong! Go sit down, while I explain this new system we're going to start here."

Lee grumbled slightly as he queried, "Gee, is this why I heard the nickname, Sandy "Nuisance" the other night from Mark?"

Sandy scoffed, stating, "He stuck me with that name the first year I started here, in '73, just because I have a system that works!"

Lee chuckled commenting, "Oh, do tell-"

Sandy, narrowing her eyes at Lee, sighed remarking, "I'm trying to, but someone here keeps interrupting..."

Going to Lee, she stuck out her hand to shake his, responding, "Hi, Chuck Castle, I'm Sandy Newcomb, Chicago Tribune's own organizer extraordinaire..."

Lee, with a stunned expression, shook her hand replied falteringly with a laugh, "N-Nice to meet you...Wh-Wherever did you come up with that name?"

Sandy bewildered, answered defensively, "Uh, my parents? Sorry it's not as grand as Castle, but-"

Lee put up both hands, and stated, "N-No! I'm sorry, it's just that I knew someone in D.C. with that moniker, and-"

Sandy shrugged answering, "I'll bet...Let me guess...A football player?"

Lee quickly covered, replying, "Uh, no! Soccer...Um, let's get back to what you're talking about with the letters...Now, why can't I look for an older letter date wise? We're behind as it is, and maybe we can work up to this month-"

Sandy gave him a sidelong look, and shaking her head responded carefully, "Because we'd both be collecting Social Security by the time that happened!"

Sharing a laugh with Lee, Sandy, leaning against the desk, she said to him, " Okay...My system is simple, really...A through Z...In other words, Angry In Alaska, Annoyed In Albuquerque-"

Lee joked, "Beaned In Boston, or Sacked in St. Louis?"

Sandy nodded, giggling, "Y-Yeah, something like that!"

Recovering slightly, she turned, and opening the top drawer of his desk, pulled out an envelope addressed to Ask Penny, and shutting the drawer, turned back to Lee, and handing him the envelope, commented slowly, "I think you should start with this one...It's from the T collection...Ordinarily, we don't let personal feelings get in the way of our job, but this one kind of reached out to me...It showed up last week sometime, and in all this clutter, I didn't see it until I moved your desk on Saturday-"

When Lee narrowed his eyes at her then, Sandy nodded answering, "Workaholic, guilty as charged, but I do actually take time off when needed...Moving on...Anyway, just take a look at it, and if you don't find it worthy of a decent response, I'll file it in the Miscellaneous, and we'll figure out something later, alright?"

Lee nodded, and getting up from the chair, gave a sigh as he looked at Sandy and then at the envelope, and asked, "Okay, so if I come up with a good response to this?"

Sandy answered, "Hand it in to me to proofread, and we'll put in the column, but for now, I'll let you get started. But don't feel you have to rush with it, huh?"

Grabbing his styrofoam cup, she smiled, commenting as she went to the door, "Just this once, I'll refill this, but then you're on your own.."

Lee smiled replying with a gesture, "Duly noted, and thank you for all of this, Sandy... And hey, if you need anything done, let me know, huh?"

Sandy rolled her eyes slightly, stating with a smirk as she opened the door, "Careful...I may just take you up on that..."

Sighing as the door closed behind her, Lee sat down at his desk, and opening the envelope, responding, "Okay, now..Let's see what I can do for this person..."

TBC