Side Effects May Include Sleep Problems (A Pape and Danforth Vignette for my HC_Bingo Card)

Hi, guys! Happy Friday! I post bearing more original fiction.

Specifically, another vignette in my Pape and Danforth series. Remember them? No? Why am I not surprised? ::g::

Here is the most recent master list of all the stories, listed in order with the first story in the narrative (more or less) at the bottom:

The Girl in the Kitten Toque
Boots or Hearts
The Old Man at the Window
The Nesquick and the Dead
The Old Lady and her Dog
Stealing Costs Everybody
Pape and Danforth

Title: Side Effects May Include Sleep Problems
Length: 1,912 Words
Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Warnings: Mention of recreational drug use
HC_Bingo Square: Exhaustion (Bingo card is here.)

Summary: Charles shook his head. "It's nothing," he croaked. "I just…" I need proof that you're alive, but he couldn't say that. He reached for him instead, because the one true difference between real people and dead people was that if someone was dead you couldn't touch them.

Kind of Long Author's Note: I have to say I'm a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to come up with anything less directly related to the prompt. I generally like being more subtle. But on the other hand this is a pretty unsubtle series anyway, so hopefully it fits. :)

I also didn't intend for the whole thing to be such a Public Service Announcement. As of this addition, I've written about the evils of stealing, smoking, neglectful parenting, and now drugs. Next I'll probably write something about the importance of wearing a seat belt. All I can say is that I'm sorry and I'm really not proselytizing; It just kind of happened.

( The door banged open a second later and Josh crashed into the apartment. )