X-Files Fanfic Challenge 10: Grocery Store

Location: Grocery Store
Must include:
a) Apples
b) Cookies
c) A grocery cart with a squeaky wheel
Word Count: 500-1500 Words.

Title: Cookies

Monica woke up feeling concerned, and looked over at John. They’d been hiding out for months since Mulder and Scully had disappeared, and the X-files had been shut down permanently.

After seeing how their coworkers had been joined and harassed, they decided not to have the same thing happen to them. It was easy enough to go on the road as a couple with a recent windfall and enjoy tourist destinations neither of them had made the time to see before. They both knew they could be tracked down if the right people wanted them to, but by laying low and not making any trouble, they hoped to avoid such unpleasantness.

So far it had worked. But there was one thing Monica hadn’t counted on. John was sick. It could have been the diet of fast food and cheap diners, it could have been the life of living on the road, it could have been something he’d been exposed to during their investigations. All she knew with any certainty was that he was sick, and he needed real food.

She got out of bed and got dressed quietly in the bathroom. Before leaving she touched her hand to his forehead. He wasn’t too warm and she decided not to wake him for an aspirin. After writing a quick note, which she left on the nightstand, she left, shutting the door quietly behind her.

At the store she found herself battling housewives for a parking space. “Is it Monday already?” she murmured under her breath as she walked up to the sliding doors.

She took a cart and started towards the door. She only made it eight feet before turning around to exchange the cart for one with a wheel that wasn’t covered in gum.

There was only one other cart left. She pulled it from its place and cringed at the squeak of the wheel. It wasn’t worth bothering with, she decided. She needed to get back to the hotel room to look after John.

She wandered down the aisles looking for anything that would tempt John to eat. The squeaking of the wheel at the front right of the cart was driving her slowly mad, but the incessant chattering of women around her was worse. Their problems were so petty. She wondered if any of them had ever faced the barrel of a gun, or the work of a voodoo practitioner.

She picked up some apples from the produce section. John loved apples. And oranges. A five pound bag of them. They were good for him.

Up and down the aisles she went, looking for anything she thought she could convince him to eat. Chicken soup would be good. He loved chicken soup. And split pea soup. And Chicken and Stars soup. Like Luke used to eat.

Next, the snack aisle. She pushed her way past women complaining about the color of Cheetos and stood in front of the cookies. She liked Oreos, so she picked up a bag of those. But what did John like? Had she ever seen him eat a cookie?

She frowned. Maybe she hadn’t, but it seemed unlikely. The women came down the aisle, closer, complaining about the new 100 calorie snack packs. It was a great idea, they said, but to convenient. It was to easy to eat more than one pack.

Monica left the snack aisle, and browsed the rest of the store. She bought bread, and Polish sausages, and onions, and peppers. Something he would definitely eat.

And back down the snack aisle. She stood in front of the cookies, trying to remember John eating a cookie.

He’d never bought them from the vending machine. He never ate them in the cafeteria. Had he ever eaten cookies? Surely he had.

She scanned the shelves before settling on Walkers butter cookies. She picked up a tin of those.

And now she had eleven items, and she decided she might as well pick up one more - a package of E. L. Fudge. She waited in line impatiently and tried to ignore the women around her, who apparently had not a care in the world.

Back in the hotel room, she found John watching the news. She tuned off the television, and tossed the bag onto the bed, “How are you feeling?”

“Better, now that you’re home. What’d you bring me?”

She smiled to see him rifling through the bag, “Lots of stuff. John?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s your favorite kind of cookie?”

“Haystacks.”

Step 1. Serve
Step 2. Resist from Within