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TY AND THE MISSING SOCK
Ty stared down at the lone black sock lying on the bed surrounded by piles of neatly folded clothes, a frown forming on his handsome face. This was the second week that the matching sock was missing. Last week, he threw the lone sock back in the hamper but this week he knew he would have to solve the mystery of the lost sock. He carefully looked through his sock drawer and then Zane’s. With no other lone socks in either drawer, he searched the other drawers, searched the bedroom and then the laundry room. He could feel his chest tightening and he tried to tell himself that there was no reason to get upset, it’s just a sock. After a few more minutes of looking in places that there would be no good reason for a sock to be, he decided that this had to be Zane’s fault. He had to have been careless when doing the laundry and lost Ty’s sock. Ty ignored the fact that he did not allow Zane to do the laundry because Ty felt Zane did not do it properly.
Zane was happy. He finally finished up his (and Ty’s) paperwork from their last case. He stopped at the grocery store to pick up something nice for their dinner. It had been a couple of days since they made love and he was looking forward to ravaging his lover for dessert. He ran up the stairs to their row house and barely got the door opened when he was grabbed and thrown against the wall. “Where is it, Zane?!!” his lover shouted at him. Zane looked at Ty with a puzzled look on his face. He could see that Ty was worked up about something. Zane racked his brain trying to think of what he could be so upset about. Zane asked Ty in a calm voice “where is what, doll? Ty hissed at him, “the sock, Zane, the sock”. Zane’s mouth fell open, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Ty, “what the fuck are you talking about?” Ty released Zane from his grasp and stormed off, muttering the entire way into the kitchen. Zane’s shoulders slumped as he followed Ty, thinking this is going to be a long night.
Zane had a headache, or maybe the headache was sitting across from him and it only felt like it was his own head pounding. By now, he honestly couldn’t tell. Ty was in a bad mood and when he was, the whole office suffered. Zane looked over at Ty. He was staring at his computer, slightly rocking in his chair. Could this all be about a missing sock, Zane wondered. Ty had a tantrum last night that would make any three year old proud and their house looked like a storm had passed through it. Zane closed his eyes and massaged his temple. Was Ty’s anger about him? Them? Was Ty finally losing it? For fuck’s sake, it’s just a sock. When Zane opened his eyes he saw that Ty had left his desk. He looked around the office and caught sight of Ty with Perrimore gesturing wildly with his hands and Perrimore trying to hold back a laugh. Okay, that looked normal. Zane took a deep breath and went back to work.
Hey Garrett, what’s this about Grady’s missing sock…
Zane, what’s going on with Ty’s sock…
Garrett, I heard that Ty lost a…
Agent Garrett, did you know someone stole Agent Grady’s socks…(omg, the mail clerk knew about the sock!)
Zane bit down hard on his lower lip. If one more of his co-workers mentioned that damn sock again, their next case would be solving Ty’s murder and then they would find that fucking missing sock stuffed down Ty’s throat.
Later that morning, Zane’s cell rang, it was Nick. Nick started right in. “Garrett, will you just give Ty back his sock. It’s not funny anymore”. Zane sucked in a deep breath. “I do not have the sock. I don’t know where it is. I didn’t take it, I don’t even do laundry!” Nick chuckled after listening to Zane vehemently deny his involvement with the lost sock. “Well, Zane, you’ve been with Ty long enough to know how his one track squirrel brain works.” “I know, that’s what makes him such a good agent, but damn, it’s going to kill me”. Laughing, Nick said “He hasn’t given the guys this much to laugh about in years. Be prepared to hear from them. Talk to you later, have fun” and hung up.
About an hour later, Zane saw that he had a missed call from Deuce. He started to call him back but paused, worrying that Deuce was calling him about the sock. He shook his head and thought to himself that no, Deuce was not calling about that, he was just being paranoid. He and Zane talked frequently, professionally and personally. “Hey Deuce, how’s it going?” “And how are things with you Zane”, Deuce asked, not bothering to answer Zane. “Ah, good, I think”. “How’s my brother, Zane?” “Fine, he’s not at his desk right…” “Oh, fuck that, what the hell is going on with him, he left me some crazy ass rambling message that you are stealing his socks.” Zane stared at his phone, not believing his ears. “What? It’s not socks, it is one fucking missing sock!” “I see, so you stole only one sock, interesting. Why would you do that Zane?” his voice going into shrink mode.
“Special Agent Garrett, my office now!” Zane sighed. What could possibly be wrong now. He stepped into McCoy’s office and sat down. He didn’t like the look in McCoy’s eyes. “Agent Garrett, where is your partner this afternoon?” Zane gulped, he had no idea where Ty had run off to. The last time he saw him he was in the copy room, shaking the copy machine and ranting to Clancy. He had started to go in there but when he heard the word “sock”, he scurried away in the other direction. “He’s, uhm, he’s, ah, I don’t know sir”. “Well, Garrett, I do know. He is downstairs creating havoc. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they are finding his antics very entertaining but I can’t have Grady disrupting this whole building. Get him under control.” “Why me?” Zane whined. McCoy cocked his head and raised his eyebrow at him. Without another word, Zane trudged slowly out of McCoy’s office and back to his desk.
Zane sat at his desk wondering why is this my problem? Between getting reprimanded by McCoy, a lecture from Deuce, harassment from Sidewinder and too many to count co-workers wanting to talk about Ty’s sock with him (don’t they have work to do?), Zane was drained. “Hey Zane, you okay?” Zane looked up at Scott Alston. “At this moment, no. Can you do me a favor, Grady is running amok in the building, can you get him back up here and make him stay put…” Scott laughed, “We are talking about B. Tyler Grady, right? Like I can really make him do anything he doesn’t want to. He’s your partner, why can’t you do it?” “I have something else I need to take care of. Please, I’ll owe you big”.
The door to the row house slammed open. Zane stood there, eyes wildly looking around. “I will find it, I will find it” raced through his head. Forty minutes later, with the house totally turned upside down, Zane triumphantly held a black sock in one hand and a pair of Ty’s shorts in the other.
Smiling as he walked down the hallway to their offices, he spotted Ty sitting at his desk, seemingly working quietly. Waving the sock in Ty’s face he said “Babe, look what I found!” Ty looked up at him “you brought me a sock Zane?” “It’s your missing sock! I searched all over for it. It was tucked inside a pair of your shorts you wore a couple of weeks ago.” Zane held it out proudly to Ty. “Thanks Zane” Ty said as he folded up the sock and stuck it in his desk drawer. Zane sputtered, “All you can say is ‘thanks’, after the hell I went through concerning that fucking sock!!!” Ty smirked at him and said “Relax Lonestar, it’s just a sock”.
Hey, did you hear that Garrett punched Grady, kicked his ass right in the office…
I guess Zane finally reached his breaking point working with Ty…
Did you know that security had to be called…
Burns to McCoy: Dan, what is this I’m hearing? Did Garrett really try to stuff a sock down Grady’s throat…
Two Weeks Later…
“Hi Dad” “Hey Z, we were wondering how that lost sock case turned out”. Ty looked up in surprise as he heard the sound of Zane’s head hitting his desk.