Just for Spite

Hunter laughs and steers the motorcycle in the opposite direction from where they'd come earlier. "You might not get lost, but I might, and I'm driving. So technically we can get lost." 

Driving amidst traffic for a few minutes, Hunter eventually gets onto a road that takes them out of town. It seemed to be a nice quiet road with some leisurely curves and hills. Perfect. Not knowing or caring if they were heading back towards the ranch or not, he shifts gears, pushing the bike to a higher speed. And within seconds, freedom was again felt. 

Bent forward, Hunter couldn't imagine anything that could feel better. Top speed on a motorcycle... with Katie hanging on to him. And he smiles. 

Eventually he's forced to slow as they approach a new intersection and he brings the bike to a stop, balancing it with one foot on the ground as the engine idles. "Okay, navigator... left or right now?" 

"I'm beginning to think food in general is your weakness," Dani teases. Grinning, she finally rolls off of Dalton, sliding from the couch. What she had in mind was gracefully rolling over to set her feet on the floor and stand up. But what happens in reality is one foot slamming into the coffee table and not only sending pain through her toes, but throwing her off balance as well. 

Just halfway to standing up, she gives a little wail before her arms and legs go flying. In the end, she's on her back on the floor between the couch and coffee table, wide-eyed and almost dazed. Until she starts to giggle. Then laugh. 

Covering up her red face, she can't regain enough control to even sit up, let alone face Dalton after that royally embarrassing move. Though her foot throbs, all she can do is lay there and laugh. 

As Jason's foot is bumped, he looks up quickly then grins at her apology. "It's okay. I'm used to it. Not because it's other people's fault though. It's me and my idiotically long legs." 

He slides his foot forward until he feels Misty's again, giving it a teasing nudge. "It does come in handy though when there's more people at a table and I can reach just about anybody but they don't know who just bumped them and nobody's brave enough to ask." 

It wasn't often that Jason was self-conscious about his height. Or... maybe it was just that he hid it well when it did bother him. Having someone like Misty never draw attention to it though did help, whether she knew it or not. 

Hearing his cell phone start to buzz, he rolls his eyes and retrieves his phone from his pocket. "It's the office..." Thinking for a moment, he shakes his head. "I'm off duty." Ignoring the call, he puts the phone back away again and picks up his fork once more. "Besides, if Reese found out I was at dinner with his niece, he might give me extra paperwork tomorrow just for spite." 

The shed was far from clean, though Alec had made a nice dent in the work at least. He'd taken Misty's note seriously and even though he'd slept later than planned, he'd started work as soon as he'd been awake enough. There was a bunch of old stuff out there... old tools... and mostly junk. It looked like maybe Carson had started cleaning it out at one time or maybe started to use it for his own tool shed, but for some reason, the project had been abandoned. A couple windows were broken... there was running water but work needed to be done on the pluming. At least the lights still worked, which had helped. After most of the day had been spent out there, Alec guessed maybe a third of the work cleaning was done. Maybe. It was a larger task than the backyard had been, for sure.

Now though, after he'd quit from sheer exhaustion, it was getting late in the evening and he was bent over the bathroom sink. The water swirling down the sink is crimson, stained from Alec's bleeding palm. He'd cut it on something out in the shed earlier - some rusty old tool or something - might have been that saw blade he'd found. No matter what it was, at the time, he'd just wrapped an old rag around his hand and kept going. But now that it had been a few hours, it was throbbing quite nicely. And once he'd started to clean it, it had started bleeding again - and much more than anticipated.

Grimacing as he tries to make sure he has all the dirt cleaned out, it really did hurt like the dickens. Even worse was that it had cut right through the old scar from Carson's knife. Reminded of the infection thereafter and how sick he'd been, Alec digs a little deeper with the washcloth, gritting his teeth against the pain.

Eventually shutting off the water, he grabs several tissues to hold against the wound to at least contain the blood while he hunted for some antiseptic or anything similar, and something to bandage with.

Half an hour later, sweat was running down Alec's neck - more from frustration than anything. He'd found the antiseptic - which had burned like no tomorrow - and he'd found a box of bandaids. But the bandaids apparently weren't enough, and after soaking several of them through, he'd finally given that up and folded several paper towels from the kitchen and taped them to his hand with some scotch tape he'd found in the drawer. It was a mess, for sure, but it was the best he could do without scouring the whole house and he really didn't feel comfortable looking through Misty's things for bandages.

Even more exhausted now, Alec finds himself on the couch, rather than at the refrigerator like his stomach wanted. He'd skipped lunch already but he was too tired from this stupid fiasco to try and find supper. He could survive until breakfast. For now... he just wanted a nap.