Title: Supermarket Sweep

Author: mimic117

Email: mimic1172@gmail.com

Category: V, H, maybe a touch of A

Spoilers: Nope.

Rating: Squeaky clean PG, 'cept for a cuss word or two.

Dedication: To my Big Guy, who has been the most loving, 
supportive male I've even known except in this one area 
because "What if I get it wrong?" He's a manly man, if a 
bit timid.

Author's Notes: Written for the Haven 500 Word PMSing 
challenge. Let's hope this kick-starts the muse into getting on 
with things.

Special Thanks: To Jake, for the lightning fast beta and the 
LOL's in all the right places.


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Supermarket Sweep
by mimic117


They never tell you about this kind of thing at the Academy.

Oh sure, there's lots of training. How to handle a gun and 
actually hit things when you shoot it. How to take down a perp 
who's bigger than you and really pissed off. How to run after a 
suspect until your lungs feel like they're gonna burst and then 
run some more. How to get along with your partner....

We got along okay right from the beginning, but it was a wary 
getting-along. I knew she'd do her job and she knew I'd do 
mine, but beyond that, we didn't know each other well enough 
to be sure how the other would act under fire. She quickly 
proved to me that I didn't have to worry about that. She's 
saved my ass more times than I care to think about, and I'm 
always looking for chances to return the favor. Not that I'm 
keeping score or anything. But it's polite to reciprocate when 
another person hauls your keister out of the line of fire.

This wasn't quite what I had in mind, though.

Why don't they include this in the training? Especially for 
guys. It's gonna come up at some point. It's inevitable. You 
get comfortable with each other. You trust each other. You'd 
even die for each other. So why shouldn't you do this one little 
thing, too? Easy, right?

Wrong.

There's too many choices. How am I supposed to know which 
is the right one? She didn't give me a specific kind, just a 
brand name and "Go get some." I've got no fucking clue what 
I'm looking at here. What if I get the wrong one?

Okay, deep breath. You can do this. It's not like you're gonna 
have to testify about it in court or anything. I want to help her 
out. I really do. I've just never done this before and I don't 
want to screw it up.

All right, let's see what the options are. You've got your pink 
box. You've got your blue box. You've got your light grayish 
box with ribbons on it. You've got -- I have no idea what the 
hell those are supposed to be. Better just skip it and pick 
something else.

There's a female store employee watching me. I can see her 
out of the corner of my eye, but no way am I making eye 
contact. 

Is this how a woman feels when she tries to buy condoms?   

Oh shit. The store employee is coming this way. Don't look at 
her! Don't look at her! 

"Can I help you find something, sir?"

~sigh~ "Yeah. I need to buy some tampons."

Get that smirk off your face, lady. One word. That's all it 
would take. Just one word from you and Kotex packages are 
gonna fly! I'm loaded and cocked and my finger is on the 
trigger. Don't push my button right now. Things could get 
ugly --

Gee. I wonder if PMS is contagious?

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THE END

Feedback: mimic1172@gmail.com