TM prompt 223

[sylph_fics]

223: Write a ficlet that begins with the sentence: "I swear I didn't put those..."

Mid-summer, 1977, Kitale, Kenya

"Addie, I swear, I didn--"

He didn't have the chance to finish it, and Slade held the phone well away from his ear, waiting for his wife (ex-wife, and the thought still burned like acid) to stop showing off her soldier's vocabulary, unable to keep the smile she would have backhanded him for off his lips--safe enough with her a good thousand miles away. He could hardly care that she was cursing him when it meant she was speaking to him, and he just waited for her to wind down. When she finally stopped (just enough to draw breath, it sounded like), he cut in again.

"Adeline, whatever you're so furious about--"

"'Whatever I'm so furious about'?! As though anyone else would leave a raw-silk scarf in Army green and a pair of throwing knives on my bed today?!"

//So you do remember what today is...// his smile widened further as she as much as told him that. He shook his head, wiping every bit of smugness out of his voice to speak. "I swear, Addie, I didn't put those on your bed. The knives, or the scarf." He hadn't. At least, not directly, and he was impressed again with his son's cleverness. "I'm in Kenya, obviously, how on earth am I supposed to have managed that?"

He wasn't about to mention that he was more in contact with their younger son than his wife (ex-wife) thought, or admit that Joe had been very willing to agree to help him with something for the day. Keeping that fact from her //oh, yes, that worked so well the last time--// actually did rate fairly high on his list of priorities.

"You're you, Slade. Or are you saying that something that simple actually is beyond your capabilities? I'm amazed at the modesty, if so..."

Purely for how much it would annoy her, he let himself laugh. "Adeline, of course I could have. The point is, I didn't. I just came back out of the savannah, I've been out leading a safari for the last week, which means I've hardly had time to arrange it even if I had." //No, I did that three months back...//

"...you infuriating man. You have an answer for everything these days, don't you? Oh, wait. You always thought you did. Don't do it again, Slade."

"I didn't this time, Addie."

"So you say, Slade. Good night."

The click of the phone settling back into the cradle sounded almost hollow, and he sighed as he shook his head at the phone. He should have known she wouldn't stay long--but that she'd called at all... That said something. He hung the phone up still smiling slightly, and made himself a note to write his son and thank him.

Fifteen years to the day since a soaking-wet, utterly gorgeous woman came up out of the water and told him, "Bang, Major. You're dead."

His son couldn't have chosen better presents if he'd asked in advance.

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[masked-merc.livejournal.com]

"Lets, old friend." taking the distraction willingly.