Alan's Biggest Case

Chapter 8

Alan is still sitting on the side of the bed, talking to Sam, when they both hear a knock at the door. They both look over simultaneously and see Shirley standing at the door with a bag full of Alan's things. Alan gets up and walks over to her and grabs the bag.

"Thank you, Shirley," Alan says. He has a look in his eyes that shows how grateful he is. He was going to ask Jerry, but he felt he wouldn't get here as quick, and he might have to explain what's going on, at least what he's legally allowed to share that is.

"It's no problem, Alan," Shirley says, "Oh! And here's this." She reaches into her purse and takes out his wallet and phone and hands them to Alan. He turns around and brings them to the futon and begins to unpack his clothes and immediately goes into the bathroom to change. When he takes off his clothes, he notices bloodstains on his pants. He mutters, "That must've been why everyone was staring at me."

He comes back out and sees Sam talking to Shirley, not anything important, just small talk. He's quite surprised to see him talking to anybody, he hasn't seen him do that. He walks over to his bag and throws his soiled pajamas in the bag and can hear the two conversing.

"So what's this show you're watching?"

"It's called House M.D., I've been obsessed with the show for a while... Dr. House is kind of cute..." Sam laughs as he says that because he's never told anyone that before.

"He is pretty cute, isn't he?" Shirley looks at Sam and begins to laugh until she notices the bandages on his arm. The whole mood in the room changes, everything went quiet again. All you could hear were sounds coming from the TV. Shirley doesn't say anything about it, she figures Sam doesn't want to talk about it after whatever happened.

"It was obviously pretty bad if he ended up in the hospital..." she thought. "Well, I should be getting back to work, I'm taking over the Chong case so that you can be here for him, I see this is important to you."

Alan walks Shirley to the door and right before she walks out, he grabs both of her arms and looks her in the eye. "Thank you, Shirley. Really, thank you. I owe you one."

"No you don't." She walks out down the hall and Alan watches until she gets in the elevator. He turns around and sees Sam staring at him, smiling.

"What?" Alan looks at him with a confused look.

"You like her..." Sam is smiling even more now.

Alan rolls his eyes and sits down. "It's a long story."

"I've got time." Sam rolls over to face Alan, staring at him trying not to laugh.

Alan sighs, giving up on trying to hold it back. "Yes, I like her. I have for quite a while actually," Alan laughs a little, "but my best friend called dibs... and he was married to her."

"Was?"

"Yes. He has commitment issues when it comes to women."

"Then why does he call dibs if he doesn't like her anymore."

"He realized he still does. Which means I can't get her."

"That sucks."

They talk for awhile, about the most random of things. Time seems to go by quickly, and before they know it, the sun is setting. The nurse comes in with dinner for the two of them, "I'm so sorry I couldn't get you anything. I tried my best but the kitchen was closed." Sam nods his head as she puts the food on a pullout table. He immediately starts eating, taking huge bites.

"Are you even chewing?" Alan says, laughing, as he begins to eat a salad.

"Yeah," Sam says, with food nearly falling out of his mouth. He is watching TV now, the show ended and something random was on, but it interested him. Not too long after he finished his food, he fell asleep leaving Alan by himself. He lies on the small futon, with his legs bent so they weren't hanging over the side. He looks over at Sam and sees that he is sound asleep, so he decides to get up and make a phone call.