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"Where is he? What happened?" Rodney yells as he powers into the Mayor's Office. Following a call reporting that John had fallen in another tree trimming incident, he'd raced while over loudly cursing whichever city worker called in sick that morning.
Laura Cadman stands up behind her immaculately ordered desk. "He's fine, he's fine. He was pretty groggy when the ambulance took him away, though. They think he broke his arm."
"Again?"
Laura grimaces sympathetically, "Yeah. They'll probably keep him overnight for observation."
Rodney scrubs his hands along his face, hoping to wipe away the fear and frustration. He takes them away to see Laura approaching him with arms outstretched. "What the... What are you doing?"
"Just go with it, McKay," she replies before enveloping him in a hug that goes on for far too long. It ends only after he stiffly pats her as high on her back as he can while she has his upper arms trapped. When she finally pulls away, Rodney asks, "What was that for?"
"You looked like you needed a hug," she shrugs.
Rodney folds his arms over his chest and raises a skeptical eyebrow.
"Okay, okay," she relents, throwing her hands up. "John said to give you a hug and tell you he was okay - or he'd dock my pay."
"Damn. How hard did you say he hit his head?" Rodney asks with a chuckle, Laura joining in. As she turns toward her desk, he says, "Okay, I'm off to the hospital."
He stops with one hand on the door handle and says, "Laura?" When she looks up, he quietly says, "Thanks," before heading out retrieve his car from the sidewalk in front of City Hall.