Cold Coffee
By ga ([email protected])
Rating PG
Disclaimer not mine
Category Skinner-Gibson dialogue
Spoilers post Truth
Summary thoughts of others

Dedication to Peggy and sallie, in honor of those they love
on a difficult day

The man and the boy looked at each other. The last half-inch of
Skinner's Starbucks Sumatra sat, nearly cold. Gibson's cheeks
hollowed as he sucked down the last of his Coke, the Whopper and
fries already dispatched. The car out in the lot, the rest stop
was about midway north on the New Jersey Turnpike.

A slurping sound declared the soda gone; the boy looked up, wide-
eyed at being caught out doing something rude, and blushed in
apology. His expression suddenly smoothed and he looked the man
in the eye.

"You're not too old for her."

"But you're too young for her," Skinner countered, and the boy
reddened again.

"She thought of you like her father because that was easier,
sometimes. Like I thought of her like my mother sometimes."

"It's a way of keeping them close to you."

"They're okay, Sir. She's worried about you."

It was the man's turn to redden just slightly.