A Smattering of Stories
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or the show.
Granger
Prompt: 'Granger and his mysterious hobby'
"Mithtah Gee, I need help."
Granger dug into his shirt pocket for a pin. "Is it falling down again?"
"Yeth." She tugged her pants up.
"Hold still." He clenched a second safety pin between his teeth as he gathered up a chunk of the waistband. The pin was stabbed through the fabric and he placed the second one further down just in case. "There, Lucy, it should stay up now."
"Thankth!" Lucy skipped away, testing the ability of his fix.
A crack sounded and he spun toward the sound, and sighed. He moved towards it, but first he had to wade through a group of kids sword-fighting. He winced as two of the swords collided with a hard smack. "Save it for later, guys." Some grumbling met his statement, but they stopped. He reached his destination and jumped in to steady a ladder. "Helen, why are you up there?"
She peered down from her perch. "One of the vines came loose. I'm trying to tack it back into place."
"I don't think you're going to reach it." He eyed the distance between her hand and the offending piece of twine with leaves taped to it.
Helen huffed. "It's the only place to stick the ladder against."
"Come down, I'll reach it." Granger waved her down. She scurried to the floor and he took her place at the top. The staples had let go so he used the string Helen passed up to secure it back on. He climbed back down at watched the final bit of chaos in front of them.
"Lucy's pants kept falling down." Helen went to move towards the little girl, but Granger stopped her.
"I put two pins in the waistband, they should stay."
She sighed. "We have a girl playing Michael, who would've guessed that an orphanage would have no boys under the age of 6?"
"One of the Lost Boys is a girl." Granger nodded towards the spunky blond climbing on the clothes rack.
Helen pressed a hand to her forehead. "I was going to give her Tinkerbell, but I can't have a Tink who can out-belch the boys." She started to move towards the mob of children again, but this time a mocha hand on her arm stopped her.
"Senora Helen, we have it under control." A smile softened her statement. The lithe girl waded through the kids and with a few quiet words the noise lessened.
"I don't know what I would do without her." Helen rolled her eyes. "Ana-Maria seems to have endless patience."
Granger decided it was a good time to ask. "How many kids are you up to?"
"Twenty-eight, and we have room for two more." She frowned and pointed out two kids, one dressed as a pirate and the other in pajamas. "However their mother almost has her work permit straightened out. You'll remember she was the one whose employer got her deported when she couldn't get his wine stain out of his shirt."
Of course Granger remembered him; he also knew the man wouldn't fight the reinstatement of her permit because he was in the middle of an investigation by the IRS who may have been tipped off.
He looked around the orderly group Ana-Maria had created. They were all legal citizens of the US having been born here to parents legally in the country, but they had no guardians as their parents had all been deported. Some had family but were unable to take care of the extra people. Helen ran the orphanage in conjunction with a legal service that helped the parents through the system. Most of her cases had simple fixes, but thanks to the overloading of the courts, sometimes even the simplest of fixes took months. Granger had stumbled across her when she was arguing with a bailiff about letting a mother hug her daughter after a postponement meant they wouldn't see each other again for another two months. He tried to stop in and help when he was in the area.
Helen threw up her hands. "The doors are opening in minutes! Owen, can you collect tickets?" She shoved a clean coffee can in his hands. "And smile, we're trying to get people in the door, not scare them off."
He grimaced, but took the can and wove his way out of backstage and up the aisle to the back of the community theatre. He checked his watch and waited for the right time. Normally when he dropped in, helping meant fixing a leaky faucet or moving a piece of donated furniture into the right room. This time, however, it meant collecting tickets for their fundraising production of 'Peter Pan'.
He checked the time again and opened the door. He stood to the side and collected the tickets. There were people who were family carrying video cameras, prepared to record the play for when the parents returned. Other people were supporters of the cause, either with money or by volunteering. He saw some lawyerly types that Helen had recruited and then guilt-tripped into showing up.
As he was pulling the door shut for the play to begin one more man ran up the stairs. "Owen Granger, Helen got you in her clutches too?"
Granger gave him a lopsided grin. "DA Clarke, I'm surprised to see you here."
Clarke shook his head. "I can't fight cases for her, but she does come to me for advice now and again." He peered into the crowd. "Ah, there's my wife. I'll see you after the show." He hurried down the aisle and squeezed into his seat.
Granger followed his example, moving down the side aisle and slipped back behind the stage. The next hour was spent moving scenery, fixing costumes, whispering forgotten lines, and keeping the kids that were offstage quiet, which was difficult considering how much sugar they'd been eating all day. When it was all over the roar from the crowd put massive smiles on everyone's faces. Helen shouted a thank you to all the guests and waved them towards refreshments in the lobby.
"Mithtah Gee, Mithtah Gee!" Lucy barreled into one of his legs. "What did you think?"
He swung her up in the air. "I think you did great!"
She laughed as he put her back on the ground. "Could you tell I'm mithing two teeth?" Her tongue poked out of the hole formed by the lost teeth.
"Not at all." He shook his head.
"Good, becauthe I practithed." She proclaimed. She then ran off to join the rest of the kids heading for the sweets table.
Ana-Marie sighed as she watched them tear up the aisle. "They are not going to sleep any time soon tonight" she said with her soft accent.
Granger smiled, "They'll crash in a pile tonight and sleep in tomorrow morning.
"You have not dealt with children very often, if you think that is true."
The smile changed into a smirk, "No, maybe not children, but definitely childish behaviour."
She waved forward, "Come, we must say hello to the guests," a pause during which she grinned, "and get some sweets of our own."
Granger followed her to the lobby where the party was in full swing. The energy was high and both kids and adults were enjoying themselves. He worked the room, saying hello and talking to people he knew while introducing himself to new people. Helen wrangled a promise out of him to come down to their building and fix some loose door handles and sticking windows. She promised she would get him help and he watched as her next stop was Clarke. Granger guessed that this time Clarke wasn't being sought for his legal expertise, instead Helen would fill his hand with a screwdriver.
The night was long but he headed home after numerous hugs and a kiss from Lucy. With all the ugliness he saw in his job, he cherished the innocence of the kids and looked forward to trying to fix door knobs with three heads pushed in front of him so they could see what he was doing.