Flash Fic Friday

**I know it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve had a flash fic.  Forgive me for the indiscretion.  This one features Adam and Jamie, who we first met back in November.  You can read it here.**

He should have been home an hour and a half ago.  And that was taking into account the havoc the current weather would have played with his normally ten minute commute.  I’d worked from home–my boss had had the foresight to tell us not to venture out–but Jamie didn’t have that capability. I told myself that I shouldn’t be anxious and worried, but where he was concerned, I couldn’t help it.  It had snowed all day, but in the past few hours the temperature had dropped below zero.  I was worried something had happened.

Seven o’clock came and went and I started pacing.  Calls and texts to his phone went unanswered.  Every other minute, I was at the front door peering down the street in hopes of catching a glimpse of his beat up ten-year-old sedan.  The Weather Channel was playing quietly in the background and the meteorologist was droning on about how this was the biggest storm to hit in more than a decade.

The sudden pounding on the front door scared the crap out of me.  As I was sprinting to pull it open, my mind was wildly conjuring a police officer on the other side, having arrived to tell me something horrible had happened to my boyfriend.  I yanked open the door in a panic only to come face to face with said boyfriend.

Relief swept through my veins only to be quickly replaced by anger.  He had some nerve, scaring the crap out of me like that.  His hat and coat were caked with snow, his cheeks raw and red from the wind.  He stumbled over the threshold and I slammed the door behind him, ready to give him a piece of my mind.  But what I hadn’t seen in the driveway filtered into my brain before I could say a word.

“Jamie, where’s your car?

He blinked at me for a long moment like the question didn’t make sense.  Then he shook his head and mumbled, “W-wouldn’t start.”

It took a second for me to realize the implication of that.  I started peeling him out of his wet and snow covered winter wear.  “Did you walk?”

He could barely nod.  Good Christ!  No wonder he was so late.  In this weather, he could have gotten hypothermia, for all that it was only five miles.  Worry pounded through me as I dropped all his outerwear in a heap by the front door and knelt down to unlace and remove his boots.  I realized Jamie was barely shivering and, for a split second, I was glad.  Then I realized just how cold he must be if his internal temperature had dropped so low that his body wasn’t trying to warm itself.

I touched his skin and he winced at the contact.  It was like holding an ice cube.  The lecture on how he’d worried me half to death would have to wait.  I had to get him warmed up, had to get his body temperature back to normal before there was permanent damage.

He was only a little bit shorter than I was, but a lot leaner, so I had no trouble scooping him up in my arms.  He didn’t protest and I knew things were bad.  He hated it when I carted him around.  He wrapped himself around me like he was trying to crawl inside.

I debated the merits of getting him into a warm shower but I knew that skin to skin contact would warm him faster.  I headed straight for our bedroom and started stripping of his clothes.  I got him under the covers before I removed my own, then slid between the sheets as well, covering his body with as much of mine as I could.  For long moments, there was only the sound of our breathing.  I wasn’t sure how long had passed.  And then, Jamie started to shiver, his whole body jerking almost violently.  I never thought I’d be so relieved so feel him shake like that.  He burrowed his body in tighter to mine and I rubbed my hands up and down any exposed skin I could reach.  After a few more minutes, the shivers subsided to a much more tolerable level.  He was still cool to the touch, but no longer cold.

“Why didn’t you call me to come get you when you couldn’t get your car started?” I asked softly, almost conversationally.  Jamie sighed and buried his face against my chest.

“Didn’t want you out in that,” he murmured, sounding more like himself.

“No, of course not, you’d rather freeze to death on the way home and scare me out of my mind in the process,” I retorted.  Now that he was warm again, or at least on his way, I could afford to let a bit of the anger leak through.

“Sorry, Adam,” he whispered.  “Thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

I pulled back abruptly so I could see his face.  His eyes were a clear blue that, normally, I loved staring into.  I squinted at him.  “No big deal?” I asked incredulously.

“I just mean,” He had to stop as a particularly hard shudder wracked his body.  When it passed, he took a deep breath, “I meant that I thought I could walk home in no time.  That moving would keep me warm enough.  And I thought it would be faster than if I waited for you to brush off your car, come get me, and for us to make it home.”

The logic made sense and I was at least grateful he’d thought it through before he decided to walk in this weather.  I sighed heavily, inordinately glad that he was all right.  He seemed to be recovering just fine.  “Okay,” I said finally.  “But I was going out of my mind with worry.  You could have at least let me know.”

“I’m sorry about that,” he said softly and I could tell he meant it.  We laid there entwined for a long silent minute before he lift his head and looked me in the eye.  “Adam?”

I quirked an eyebrow and he smiled.

“Remember when you told me that if I wanted your attention, I had to ask for it?”

I nodded slowly, not quite sure where this was going.  Then he pushed his body in tight to mine and the evidence of what he wanted was pressed against my hip and hardening fast.

“May I have your attention please?”