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Fun at the Loft
By Judith Freudenthal
2001

Natalie and Nick were at the loft on their night off, needing to blow of some
steam after a really brutal week. They had watched one comedy over dinner and
had stuck in a second one. The time off together had put them both in a
really good mood, bordering on silly. They had just finished watching a movie
when Nick started teasing her about it, causing her to smack him with a
pillow. He in turn smacked her with a pillow. It escalated into a full
fledged pillow fight. The fight continued until the phone rang. It was a
wrong number. Someone telling Nick he'd won a trip to Bora Bora. They both
laughed.

Natalie dropped her pillow and sank to the couch to catch her breath. Nick
allowed her a few minutes rest before he had another surprise for her. He
caught her off guard and started spraying her with Silly String. She yelped
when it first hit her chin, startled by it then spotted the extra can on the
counter and ran for it, being showered with it the whole time. She started
spraying him with the stuff as soon as she got her hand on her can of it.
Nick jumped a little when it first hit him right on the nose. She tried to
run out of his reach yet get him with the stuff. They were acting like a
couple of little kids and enjoying every second of it.

Before long Nick's can ran out, greatly pleasing Natalie as she was able to
squirt him while he was defenseless. She squirted him with one hand while
pulling the massive tangle of it from her face and hair. Nick worked on
getting the majority of it off his face and out of his hair as well.

Or so she thought. About the time her Silly String can ran out she felt a
stream of water hit her right between the eyes. She let out an even bigger
yelp as it was quite cold, and very startling. She knew he meant business
when it was one of those super capacity SuperSoaker's. She didn't see a
second weapon anywhere and gave him a dirty look.

"Nick!" She complained.

"There's another one around here somewhere, the trick is to find it."

"That's not fair."

"I'll give you a hint, it's somewhere on this level."

She stuck her tongue out at him before sarcastically saying "thanks."

She looked around for hers, trying to duck shots from his. She cursed his
vampire aim as he failed to miss a single time.  She finally found it hidden
behind the motorcycle, where it wasn't easy to get to. She felt a cold shot
hit her butt as she leaned over to grab it. She was thrilled to see it was
already loaded. She took aim, her first shot hitting him right between the
eyes greatly startling him. She kept firing hitting him most of the time.
They were running around the loft trying to stay out of the line of sight,
staying on the main level of the loft.

It started to thunder and lightning outside giving their game a spooky new
feel. The first thunderclap was really loud with one of those really bright
lightning flashes at the same time. Natalie jumped and let out a little
squeal. Nick chuckled. Natalie didn't like that and got him right between the
eyes startling him. She fired again but he moved so she missed.

The battle was fast and furious, both of them seeing who would get soaked to
the bone first, not to mention who would run out of water first. Both of them
were pretty wet, clothing and hair. Natalie had to push her wet hair out of
her face, pleased to see it stayed pushed back.

"Surrender?" He asked her teasingly.

"Never. You?" She teased right back.

The continued to both hunt and evade the other, blasting away as they went.
They tried to duck out of the way of as many shots as possible.

A while later the SuperSoakers ran out of water at about the same time.
Natalie dropped onto the stairs to catch her breath.

"You could at least pretend to be winded," she teased.

"Sorry." He grinned, not at all sorry.

She knew he wasn't the least bit sorry and looked for the next weapon. She
didn't see anything obvious. Her socks were soaked so she took them off.

Nick waited until she stood and headed for the kitchen before sneaking up
behind her. He wrapped one arm around her waist and used the other to see how
ticklish she was, pleased to discover she was quite ticklish.

"Nick! Stop that!" She squeaked as she tried to stop the playful torture.

He loved the sound of her laughter and kept right on tickling her. Ignoring
her pleas.

She turned in his arm and tried the same spot on him, pleased to see that he
actually was ticklish. Now it was his turn to squirm.  She loved the sound of
his laughter, as well as his requests for her to stop it.

"Give up?" She asked playfully.

"No. You?" He responded just as playfully.

She increased the tickling and before long he held up his hands in surrender.
She had a huge triumphant smile on her face.

"You may have won this battle, but the war isn't over yet," he said with that
very mischievous grin and his eyes twinkled with the same mischievousness.

"Oh yeah?" She said just as mischievously.

She continued on to the kitchen where she searched for the weapon for the
next round, figuring it was her turn to pick the weapon, if she could before
he did. She knew the fridge was a great place to start. She opened the door
and tried to see what was there, other than the wine bottles. She found one
can of whipped cream and smiled wickedly.

She waited until Nick was almost right behind her, and knew she had to strike
before he realized what she was doing. She spun around and pressed down on
the button releasing a large stream of it right into his face, hitting his
nose first. She took off across the loft, knowing he'd catch her first, but
she hoped to use up most of the whipped cream first.

"You want war, you've got it," he playfully said as he chased after her. He
knew he could've been instantly by her side, but that would be unfair to her,
so he kept his speed at mortal levels.

Natalie was a bit daring and got just close enough to squirt him but not
close enough for him to grab it, and headed in the opposite direction as soon
as she'd hit him. She did this two more times before he surprised her by
grabbing the can from her. She knew she was in trouble and ran. He cornered
her and squirted her. He got out one good shot, hitting her right on the
nose, before she ducked and ran across the room. He tried to squirt her again
but the can sputtered. He set it on the table.

"That makes two I won," she teased.

"It's not over yet," he teased back.

She started backing across the room not about to take her eyes off him,
wondering what trick he had up his sleeve.  Her foot hit a small puddle on
the floor and went out from under her. Nick rushed to her, trying to catch
her before she could hit the floor and hit the same wet spot and lost his
footing as well. They went down in a tangled heap.

They laid there for a moment and then just started laughing their heads off.
Neither of them could remember the last time they'd had so much fun. Not to
mention what a wreck the other one looked like.

It was a while before they calmed down, and a while longer before they were
able to disentangle themselves. Both felt a stab of pain in their wrist, and
quickly realized they were both hurt.

"You know we're never going to hear the end of this from both Schanke and
Grace."

"I know."

"Do you want to clean up before you get checked out?" Nick asked.

"You're hurt too. You are going to go through what I have to go through."

Nick groaned, but knew it was only fair.  "Truce?"

"Truce. But I won," She grinned wickedly. "Admit it," she playfully taunted.

"Okay, okay, you won," he reluctantly admitted.

He helped her up. "Did you want to get cleaned up?"

"I think we'd better just go." She sighed. "Yes, I know it gives them more to
tease us about."

Her face felt all sticky. "I think we should at least wipe the whipped cream
off."

They wiped off their faces with a paper towel at the sink. Natalie ran a damp
one over her face to try and ease the stickiness some, and then dried it with
another dry one. It felt much less sticky.

They slipped on their shoes. Nick grabbed his wallet and Natalie grabbed her
purse.


Nick and Natalie headed down to the car, and got in. Nick drove them both to
the ER. He found a nearby parking spot and parked the Caddy. They headed for
the entrance.

Once inside, they walked straight up to the nurse's desk. Nick let Natalie go
first. They noticed the strange, yet amused look the nurse gave them. They
still had Silly String on them, and were soaking wet. There was also a trace
or two of the whipped cream.

"My wrist hurts. I hurt it when I fell."

"Same here."

The nurse grinned as she asked them, "Do I even want to know what happened?"

"We had a very stressful, brutal week at work and were blowing off some
steam. And got a little carried away," Natalie said.

"I think it was the water on the floor from the SuperSoaker that caused us to
slip. I tried to catch her but we got tangled and fell."

Since they seemed like they were telling the truth she didn't ask for more
details. "I'll put down, slipped on a wet floor."

"Thank you," Natalie said.

They were shown to adjoining beds in the large examination room. Since
neither would need to remove their clothes, the curtain wasn't shut around
their beds. Both were given a pillow to rest their injured arm on, and an ice
pack to wrap around it. Before long the doctor came in and asked which one
wanted to go first.

"Do her first," Nick said.

Natalie jumped when her wrist and forearm was probed.

"I think you may have a fractured wrist. We'll know for sure after the x-rays
come back."

He moved on to examine Nick. Nick reacted just like Natalie had.

"Sounds like you might've broken your wrist as well. We don't see many dual
injuries like this," the doctor said with a grin.

"We were goofing off, blowing off stress and slipped on a wet spot on the
floor. It had been a brutal week at work. I tried to catch her, but slipped
as well."

"What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a medical examiner." Natalie loved the surprised look on his face.

"I'm a homicide detective."

"No need to ask how you met," he said with the same grin.

Natalie and Nick were sent down for x-rays. A few minutes after they returned
to the examination room, the x-rays came in. The nurse clipped them up on the
light box. It was too far from Natalie for her to take a peek. That and her
wrist was really hurting. The doctor entered and examined both sets of x-rays
before heading over to the twosome.

"Congratulations, you both broke your wrists. Luckily neither of them will
require surgery. You both should be as good as new in 6 - 8 weeks. Next time
be a little more careful," he teased.

"We will," Natalie said a little embarrassed. She knew they thought there was
something more than what they'd told them. "Can I get a painkiller?"

"Sure."

He gave Natalie and then Nick each a painkiller, now that he's sure they
don't need surgery.

Nick and Natalie were sent down to the orthopedic department where they both
had forearm casts applied. Natalie picked the royal blue fiberglass and had
her cast applied while Nick was deciding between the medium red and the black
fiberglass. He picked the red when it was his turn.  Nick was surprised at
how lightweight and comfortable the cast was. Not to mention how quickly it
dried. He'd seen them on other people, but had never worn one, at least not
one made out of fiberglass. About half an hour later the technician helped
them both into a sling and then released them.

Nick and Natalie headed back to the Caddy and got in.

"Are you going to be able to drive?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

Nick found it a little harder to drive one handed, but not too bad. He knew
it was dangerously close to sunrise.

"Mind if I spend the day at your place?"

"No. We'll clean up your place tonight."


They enter her apartment's parking garage just as the first rays of the sun
were about to peek over the top of the buildings.

Inside her apartment, she went into her bedroom, slipped off her damp, chilly
clothes and changed into her pajamas. She brought Nick out a t-shirt and pair
of sweat pants.

"These should fit you," she said as she handed him the clothes.

"Thanks. Sorry about getting you hurt."

"It's okay. It's almost worth it for the fun we had tonight."

"I agree." Nick said as he walked over to the closet and grabbed the blanket
and pillow. "See you tonight," he said, seeing how tired she was.

He gave her a quick kiss. She smiled.

"See you tonight," Natalie said as she went into her bedroom and climbed into
bed, stripping off the sling right before she slid under the covers, dropping
it on the far side of the nightstand.

Nick dropped his on the coffee table before changing into the dry clothes and
stretching out on the couch.


The next night Nick headed back to his loft to shower and change. Natalie had
warned him about not getting the cast wet. She had also explained what he
should buy to keep it dry. He stopped off at the drug store on the way home
and picked up a cast cover.


Natalie heard her doorbell ring, slipped into her robe and headed for the
front door. She peeked out the peephole as she asked who it was.

"A Nick Knight asked me to deliver this to you."

Natalie unlocked her door and took the package from the delivery boy.

"Thanks. If you want to wait a minute..."

"He took care of the tip," he said cutting her off. "Have a nice night."

"You too." Natalie shut the door, and looked inside the bag. She smiled upon
seeing it was a cast cover. She knew she'd have to properly thank him later.

Natalie proceeded to shower and dress. It took her a little longer and was a
little harder as her wrist hurt.

Nick's wrist had healed but he found the inability to move it a bit hampering
in his efforts to shower and dress. He knew it would be even harder if it
hurt as badly as Natalie's must.


Nick entered the precinct and noticed all the surprised looks on his
co-worker's faces as they saw the navy blue sling with the white strap, and
the red cast peeking out from the end of it. Schanke approached.

"I see the wonder cop isn't invulnerable after all. What happened?"

"I slipped on some water on my floor."

"What did you break?"

"My wrist."

A couple minutes later, Natalie entered, wearing the same sling, but had a
royal blue cast. Several eyebrows around the room raised. Schanke waited
until she approached.

"This is no coincidence. What happened? Natalie, don't try to tell me
nothing."

"I slipped on some water on Nick's floor."

"Roof leak," Nick said.

"Yeah, right." He scoffed. "What really happened? You might as well spill it."

They knew Schanke'd keep bugging them until he told them what happened.

"We were watching movies, trying to unwind from the last week, and then
things got a little silly," Nick said.

"And the water?"

"SuperSoakers," Natalie said. She loved the stunned look on Schanke's face
trying to picture them squirting each other with the oversized squirt guns.

"I would've loved to see that."

"Natalie, broken wrist?"

"Yeah. I slipped, and Nick tried to catch me. Instead we went down in a
tangled heap."

"OUCH."


Nick and Natalie went over to the morgue to get it over with. She entered and
Grace freaked out.

"Oh my God! Natalie, what happened?"

"I slipped on some water and broke my wrist."

Nick entered. Grace's eyebrows went up as high as they possibly could. She
looked from one to another.

"Out with it. I'll know if you're lying. Don't tell me nothing happened.
That's no coincidence."

They knew she was right. They told her the same story they'd told Schanke.
She found it as amusing as Schanke did.

"I would've loved to see that."

The end.... or is it?