Vice Principal's Office Hours - Tuesday, December 19, 2006

[drywitmartini]

Hawkeye was back in Fandom. One minute he was drinking quietly at Harry's Happy Hideaway in Crabapple Cove circa 1955 and ignoring the bar fight going on behind him. The next, he was being rescued by a group of his students, learning the true meaning of Fandom, being hauled out of there physically, saying goodbye to Dad and walking back across the

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[mparkerceo]

Parker stopped by, and knocked on the door, an empty sheet of paper in her hand. "Hey, Vice Principal Hawkeye. How are you?"

[drywitmartini]

"Surprisingly sober," he replied.

[mparkerceo]

"I should have brought coffee, hunh?" Parker wandered in, but didn't light anywhere, as she often did in Wilson's office. "I'm glad you're back." She folded the paper like an accordion, and then unfolded it. "This used to have a newspaper article on it."

[drywitmartini]

Hawkeye took it from her and looked at the front and the back. "It's blank. Invisible ink or have you figured out how to remove ink from paper?"

[mparkerceo]

"Figured out how to change time," Parker said, stopping next to his desk. "'Local War Hero Killed in Bar Brawl,'" she quoted. "'Last night, Dr. Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce, veteran of the Korean War and well-liked long-time resident, was accidentally killed in a bar brawl at Harry's Happy Hideaway.'" She stopped speaking, and folded her arms. "I'd quote you the rest, but it got soppy toward the middle."

[drywitmartini]

Hawkeye's eyebrows skyrocketed. He looked at the paper again, then handed it back to Parker. "Wouldn't be my first obituary."

[mparkerceo]

"No?" Parker took the paper, and started re-folding it into an airplane. "You just took off," she muttered. "You took off, we were worried, we checked, then the internet said you were dead." She sailed the airplane toward the trash can. "And it disappeared off the page when we got back. It wasn't just a mistake. It happened. Would have happened. Whatever, I don't know the tense for it."

[drywitmartini]

"See? Mortality isn't all it's cracked up to be. One day someone's not going to come home."

[mparkerceo]

Parker considered that, and asked, "What do you suggest? That we all go home?" She smirked a little, her arms still crossed, hugging herself. "You honestly think we're all safer there?"

[drywitmartini]

"I don't know," he replied, leaning back in his chair. His voice lacked its normal conviction. "There wouldn't be trolls."

[mparkerceo]

"No," Parker admitted cautiously. "There'd be-- well. Pick a student, pick a world. Mad scientists. Vampires. Shadowy government agency types." Which didn't mean Hawkeye didn't have a point. She looked away. "But we'd be alone. Or, almost alone. This is the first place I've ever had more than two friends. Where I could be myself."

[drywitmartini]

Hawkeye nodded. "I appreciate you coming for me." He wasn't entirely sure he still belonged here, but he knew that they way he left wasn't the way to go. "It was stupid and dangerous, but nice."

[mparkerceo]

"Yeah, well." Parker smiled a little. "I didn't want you to think we were trying to tell you what to do. We would've just called or visited, if it hadn't been urgent." She looked down at her hands. "You'll say good-bye? If you leave again?" She didn't want to say when. Maybe he'd change his mind, and stay.

[drywitmartini]

Hawkeye nodded. "No running off."

[mparkerceo]

"Thanks. That's all we can ask." Parker smiled again, and headed for the door. "I hope you stay. You'll be missed."

[drywitmartini]

"Everyone has to go home eventually."