Title: Vacation (All I Ever Wanted)
Author: cinaed
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: 050. Vacation
Warnings: Profanity
Pairings: David Hodges/Greg Sanders
Summary: Vacations never go as planned.
Spoiler: None

***

Cindy's only been working for the airlines for three weeks, but she's already figured out the troublemakers. They've got this whole...vibe going on. And this guy, who is currently approaching her? Definitely has the vibe. Well, okay, so she knows he's going to be trouble because he's scowling. But still, she would have so known he was trouble without the scowl.

She plasters on the plastic smile that airlines teach them, and says in her brightest voice, "May I help you, sir?"

"You can explain why the hell my flight is delayed," the man snaps, shoving his ticket at her with one hand, the other one in a splint. "Some of us have lives we need to return to."

Cindy looks at his ticket -- one ticket for a David Hodges departing from San Onofre, California to Las Vegas, Nevada -- for a moment before she says, "All flights have been delayed because of dangerous weather conditions, sir," and hands it back to him.

David Hodges just stares at her for a moment, and then he looks pointedly at the clear blue sky and then back at her, raising an eyebrow. "Dangerous weather conditions?" he repeats.

She looks outside too, and shrugs. She doesn't get it either, but she isn't the airline goddess or anything. Not much she can do. "I'm sorry, sir, but all flights have been delayed."

The man scowls and mutters a few choice words under his breath that makes the woman behind him in line shoot him a dirty look and cover her toddler's ears. (Of course, his dark scowl might've seemed more threatening if his face wasn't horribly sunburned and in the middle of peeling.) "This is a joke. The weather is perfectly fine, and--"

"David!"

Cindy blinks as a younger man jogs up, dragging a suitcase behind him and looking vaguely exasperated. "David," the man says again, and rolls his eyes. "Leave the poor lady alone. She's just trying to do her job."

David turns a dark look upon the younger man. "I want to go home, Sanders," the man growls through gritted teeth. "I am tired, my skin is peeling, my wrist is sprained, and I want to go sleep in my own bed rather than a pathetic hotel cot."

"And we're going to go home. Just an hour or two later than we expected." 'Sanders' shoots Cindy a quick smile. "Right, ma'am? Just an hour or two?"

"Right," she agrees immediately, because the other people behind David Hodges are beginning to look irritable -- it's obviously contagious -- and she wants him out of the line. "The storm is going to pass over within two hours."

Even as David shoots another incredulous look towards the perfectly blue sky, Sanders smiles at Cindy, gratitude in his brown eyes, and says, "See? Now let's let this lady help the next person while we go sit down and wait."

When the other man scowls, the younger man sighs and shakes his head. "I know, I know, misery loves company. C'mon, I'll be the sacrificial lamb. You can make me miserable during the entire wait and the plane ride and I'll throw the car ride from the airport in too!" His voice turns high and sarcastic towards the end of the sentence, but rather than irritate David, it seems to calm the man down.

Cindy watches with something akin to relief as David appears to consider Sanders' words. "It was all your fault this vacation turned out abysmal," he says after a moment, and the other man pouts.

"Was not!"

David rolls his eyes, but begins to walk away with the other man, who is still pouting. "Point A, my horrible sunburn, due to the fact that you gave me sunscreen that expired in 1998," he begins in a matter-of-fact voice. "Point B, my sprained wrist, due to the fact that you insisted I try to surf, even though I told you repeatedly that I'd rather eat hotdogs...."

Despite the fact that the woman with the toddler is now practically molesting the counter in her eagerness to ask Cindy a question, Cindy cannot help but ignore her for a moment to try and catch the younger man's response.

When Sanders does speak, he sounds almost embarrassed. "So, yeah, about our next vacation. I'm guessing you'll be in charge."

"And you'll be in a full-body cast by the time it's over," David promises, and then the two men disappear into the crowd and Cindy sighs and obediently peers at the newest ticket waved in her face.

***