Color Blind

Chapter Thirty-Nine

AN: Soundgarden's 'Black Saturday'.

* * *

Now that the whole terrifying business of 'spitting it out' was over, Cole was able to concentrate wholly on his work. Nancy was at school today and he'd unplugged the phone. Okay, so maybe it wasn't the best idea to unplug the phone, but the telemarketers had been calling all day and driving him nuts. If he ever had a kid-even a nephew or a niece would do-he was handing over the phone and telling them it was Santa on the other end.

Enough of that. The odds of that happening were pretty tiny and he really did have to get back to work. The coffee shop had called right before he'd unplugged the phone and requested something for the Holliday season. He'd originally thought about a Skeleton Santa, but he didn't think that would go over too well. Most people didn't have his sense of humor.

He had settled on a warped Christmas tree. It wasn't his greatest work, but he had never been that into the whole 'Commercialized Holliday' thing. Besides, he wasn't too good at drawing cheerful scenes. It wasn't like he could draw some sort of childhood memory, after all.

He had drawn and re-drawn the star at the top more times than he would like when Nancy finally got home. She was humming a Christmas carol.

"Nancy?"

"Hello!"

Had she gotten free sugar? Should he worry?

"Are you okay?"

"Janet taught me the funniest song today, I swear! It's awful." There was the sound of her backpack being flung off somewhere. "I have to go to work in a few minutes, I just wanted to drop my books. I can't afford new ones if they get stolen, and the year's almost over anyway."

"Okay."

"What are you drawing?"

"Holliday cheer." he grumbled. She laughed.

"You sound so happy."

"Bah, humbug."

She finally came into the room and leaned over his shoulder. He chewed on his pencil again and accidentally bit the eraser off. Whoops. It didn't taste too bad, though. Kinda salty and dry.

"Are you gonna color it?"

"I don't use colors. They don't look right."

She shrugged and looked at the clock. A second later she dashed off and he heard the door open and close. That had been random.

Well, back to work on this damn tree.

* * *

It was nearly six-thirty by the time he finished it. He still wasn't too happy with it, but he was really wasn't that good with sentiments of cheer. Where was Nancy? Didn't she get off of work around five or so? Maybe she'd gotten busy talking or something.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Six-forty. He would have started dinner if he'd known when she would be back.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick-tick.

The clock was breaking. It needed new batteries. Did they have any? That would be something to do.

They didn't have any and he went back to the sofa to relax. Six-fifty. Where was she? Nobody had dentist appointments this late at night. Well, vampires, maybe, but nobody else.

Six-fifty five. Now he was starting to get a little worried.

Okay, he was panicking.

By seven, he was seriously considering catching the bus and going down there to see what was going on.

He didn't have to. The door finally opened at seven sharp and Nancy came in, looking very tired.

"Nance?"

"Paperwork." she grumbled. "I brought dinner though. Hamburgers okay?"

Really? That was all she was going to say? She'd scared him half to death staying late and she hadn't even called him?

"You scared me half to death!"

"I..."

"It's seven o' clock at night! Do you have any idea how worried I've been?"

"Cole..."

He sighed and fell back on the couch with his hand against his face.

"Forget it. I'm sorry."

"I didn't mean to be late."

He knew that, but a phone call would have been nice.

"Sure."

"I'm sorry."

"Uh-huh."

He wasn't expecting her to leave the room. The fridge opened and closed and after a minute the bathroom door opened and slammed. The shower went on. Cole sighed and started pulling the bed out. He wasn't really hungry right now.

He was nearly asleep when the lights clicked off and the other side of the bed sank down a bit. Okay, then.

"I really am sorry." she said quietly. "I just didn't think, that's all."

He shrugged and rolled over.

"Night, Nance." he said. "See you in the morning, okay?"

She didn't say anything.