The Officer and the Scientist *Discontinued*

A Sneezing Intern

     Today was not going well for Fenton. First, he woke up late, so he had to make his own breakfast. He left the bread in the toaster too long and nearly set the house on fire. Then, he had to take the bus to work, since his mom left early. On the bus, a lady spilled coffee on his shirt, and he was nearly squashed to death by an obese man. Fenton felt like a wreck after that. But it didn't stop there.

     Just before he reached the bridge to the Money Bin, a car crashed into a post that Fenton had been standing in front of not even 2 minutes ago. Then Launchpad almost hit him with the limo. At least the pilot had the common decency to apologize. On the bridge, a seagull pooped on Fenton's shirt. At this point, all Fenton could do was sigh and move on.

     Finally, he made it to the Money Bin. But it seems his bad luck hadn't run out yet. When Fenton reached the elevator, there was an Out-of-Order sign and an open elevator shaft. Now Fenton had to take the stairs. On the last flight, Fenton tripped and fell down to the door leading to the lab.

•~•~•~•

     Gyro was working on a new design for his Shadow Ray. He tapped his pencil against his beak as he thought about what else the ray needed when he realized that this design would fail the second the trigger was pulled. The pencil shot across the lab like a javelin. The inventor grabbed the blueprint and crumpled it up in frustration. He tossed it into the trash.

     The inventor felt a headache coming on. He took his glasses off and began to rub his temples when he heard a loud thump coming from the stairwell. Putting his glasses on, Gyro slowly crept towards the stairwell. He pressed his head to the door to see if he could hear anything. All he heard was a small sigh. Gyro opened the door and found his intern sprawled on the floor. The duck let out a small sneeze.

     Gyro raised an eyebrow at Fenton. "What are you doing on the floor, Intern?"

     "I, uh, fell I guess?"

     Gyro put his hand out for Fenton to grab and pulled his up from the floor. The two walked over to Fenton's desk. Fenton let out another sneeze. Gyro sat Fenton down, walked over to a cabinet nearby, pulled out a bottle of pills and a water bottle and walked back to Fenton's desk.

     "Drink 2 of these." The rooster commanded. "You're sick. They'll make you feel better."

     His intern frowned. "I'm not-"

     Fenton cut himself off with a series of sneezes.

     "-sick." He finished.

     A hand pressed against Fenton's forehead. The young duck looked up to his boss, who crossed his arms and frowned. Fenton was running a fever. "Yeah, not sick indeed."

     The rooster pointed to the bottle of pills and gave his intern a sharp look. Said duck rolled his eyes and let out a little huff. He drank the pills and stared at his desk.

     While Fenton did that, Gyro grabbed his phone and dialed Fenton's mother. His heartbeat picked up slightly as his phone dialed. Finally, the call went through.

     "Hi Officer Cabrera. No, I'm fine. It's Fenton. He's sick, can you come get him? Police case. Well, I'll watch him until you're available. Ok, bye."

•~•~•~•

     "Hey Gyro, do you like kittens?"

     Gyro rolled his eyes at the question. He loved kittens, but he never tell that to his intern. Instead, he chose to ignore the question and continue working.

     "Hey Gyro, do you like my mom?"

     Panic overtook the scientist for a moment. He immediately covered his shock with anger. A frown crossed his face. 

     "Because I saw you talking with my mom the other day, and-" 

     "Is there anything you can do that doesn't include asking stupid questions?" The inventor snapped.

     Fenton placed his head on his arm. "Yeah, but I wanna sleep." The young duck placed his head down on his desk and closed his eyes. 

     Gyro rolled his eyes. "Alright, just don't drool on the blueprints, kid."

•~•~•~•

     A buzzing broke the silence in the lab. Luckily, the buzzing wasn't loud enough to wake a sleeping intern. The phone's owner grabbed it and read the message that was sent. The message was the cue for Fenton's ride home. Once Fenton got to his mom's car, he threw himself into the backseat and fell asleep.

     Now that Fenton was asleep, this left an air of awkwardness between his boss and his mother. Luckily, one of the two knew how to approach the situation.

     "Thanks for taking care of Fenton for me." Officer Cabrera spoke. "He means everything to me, and I don't know what I'd do if he got hurt."

     Gyro smiled a little. "Probably hurt someone, knowing you."

     She let out a laugh. It sounded like music to the scientist's ears, especially on a quiet evening such as this. The inventor let out a small squeak when Fenton's mother hugged him. He eventually hugged back in an awkward, tense way. 

     Gloria let go of Gyro. "Guess I have someone who can take care of Fenton in an emergency, right?"

     The rooster simply nodded, slightly dumbfounded at the amount of trust Gloria placed in him. To ignore the weird way his stomach twisted when looking at her, Gyro changed the subject. The two leaned against the car and chatted for a while. By the time the two finished talking, night had fallen.

     "Guess you should probably be heading out now..." Gyro trailed off. Fenton was still snoozing in the back of the car. Gloria looked back to check on her son, but he was fine. She turned to the man next to her. "Again, thanks for taking care of Fenton."

     "No problem." Gyro thought it was odd that he was being nicer than usual, but decided to figure that puzzle out later. When he snapped out of his thoughts, Gloria was standing right in front of him, staring him in the eyes. This surprised him. "Did I do something wrong?"

     "No," she responded. "But a word of advice: when someone hugs you, just hug them back. Don't think about it. Just like you shouldn't think about this." She finished her sentence and began to get closer to Gyro's face. The inventor started panicking at first, but initially gave in to these weird feelings he was feeling. Just before their lips met, the car door opened. At the noise, Gloria jumped a few feet away from Gyro. Fenton was standing by the open door, trying not to fall asleep.

     "M'ma, can we go home? The backseat isn't very comfy. And I'm cold." The young duck let out a small sneeze, then some audible sniffing.

     "Alright Fenton, I'll just be a minute."

     Gyro turned to look at Gloria. The two stared into each other's eyes for a good while. Gyro wanted to embrace the woman in front of him in the moonlight. She just seems so huggable. Gloria, on the other hand, wanted to run her fingers through the hair poof in the investor's forehead while he held her. A knocking on the glass interrupted their thoughts. Fenton's face was at the window, but this time, a little more angry and a little less tired then before.

     Gloria turned to the rooster in front of her. "Well, thanks for everything Dr. Gearloose."

     A little upset that she had to go, Gyro spoke quickly. "Call me Gyro."

     "Well you can call me Gloria."

     A moment passed before they said their goodbyes. "See you later Gyro."

     "Bye!"

     After the police car left, Gyro was left in the parking garage of the Money Bin. A bit upset that a tender moment between him and Gloria was broken up, Gyro trudged back to the lab in silence. He knew he needed to see his cat. Mittens always made him feel better. Gathering his things, Gyro slowly made his way home to have some well-deserved cuddle time with his favorite cat in the whole world.