[COLOR=dARKRED][B][H3]"AAAAAA-CHOOO!"[/H3][/B][/COLOR]

"Damn man, I'm trying to watch this.  Can't you die in peace?"  

[COLOR=dARKRED]"Sorry [url=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yqfw_1by0wY/TJLGzS3SN-I/AAAAAAAAABY/YUFlxikgLNA/s320/chow1.jpg]Nicky[/url].  Forgetting my health plays second fiddle to that weird-ass video."[/color]   

[b]"GODDAMN RED![/B]  I missed the end there cause'a your yammering!  Whadda he say?  Sounded like mental Mary.  Couldn't have been mental Mary. . . . Could it?  D' you know any mental Mary's, Red?"    

[COLOR=dARKRED]"Toronto has a population of over two and a half million people.  No, I'm fairly confident that I don't know the mental Mary [i]you[/i] think he was talking about, almost as confident as I am that he didn't say mental Mary in the first place."[/color]

"Well then what did he say?"  

 [COLOR=dARKRED]"Hell if I know.  I was too busy dying all unpeaceful like at the time to be paying much attention."[/color]

"Man, I don't know why I put up with you.  Everything I've done for you, Get you a good job, and this is the thanks I get.  Shoulda left your ass to die back in Iraq."   

 [COLOR=dARKRED]"Life woulda got boring for you.  Better I'm here.  Keep you on your toes."[/color] 

"Uh-huh."

The two men lapsed into an easy silence then, Nicky perusing the menus laid out in front of them while Red gazed out the windows, looking at everything and nothing, just watching the world roll by.  Funny how he did that more and more the older he got, like the less years he had left the more inclined he was to waste them.  They were sitting in a diner booth, part of the morning crowd in the [i]Stackhouse[/i], and despite Nicky's earlier complaints thoughts of mysterious warnings and foggy premonitions was really the furthest thing from the two men's minds.  Breakfast first, then they could worry about the world ending.  That was their rule.  Had been ever since they'd served in the 1st recon together.  

Red was really more concerned about his failing health than anything else.  His cold had been getting worse, and earlier this morning he had woken up with one special-hell of a headache.  It had receded since, but the memory of it still made him wince.  He'd never been sick before, always reckoned his hype-power kept him hale and healthy.  Couldn't say he was all that fond of the feeling now.  He just hoped it wasn't this new virus he kept seeing reports about.  Nasty bit of business that, not something he wanted any part of.  Especially not since his daughter Lisa was supposed to come up visiting at the end of the month.  Not exactly father of the year material that, is it, giving your only child the flu.    

Nah, he kept telling himself, its nothing.  Nothing but age.  The years are weighing down on you Red, even you couldn't have fought them off forever.  

"What you planning Red?" Said Nicky, rousing Red from his worries.  He'd almost forgotten where he was.   

[color=Darkred]"Huh?"[/color]

"To eat!  Planning to eat, fat head.  Damn son, where are you this morning?"  

[color=Darkred]"Not sure.  Maybe just wishing I was anywhere with better company than you.  Berlin 1945 maybe.[/color]  Red has an entire arsenal of such cutting remarks for situations like this.  Unfortunately the company he usually keeps requires it.  

"Oh ha-ha.  So what's it gonna be, huh?  On me, since you got the round last night."

[color=Darkred]"Guess I'll just have the wheat toast and oats.  Do they do oats?  If not I'll have a fruit salad"[/color]  Nicky's face fell in outrage.  Red prepared himself for the fallout.  

"Wheat toast!  Oats!  A Goddamn fruit salad!?  What the hell's wrong with you, you finally gone off the deep end?  That's no breakfast! That's the pigging side order to a menopause!  You used to be a warrior, man!  I'm getting you bacon!"  

[color=darkred]"No Nicky, just get me the toast."[/color] Red was trying for firm and resolute here, but Nicky wasn't taking him on.  Once Nicky set his heart on something it was a damn near herculean task to dissuade him.  Red just didn't feel up to the task this morning.  He blamed his health and his age for that.  

Old and sick, he couldn't say he was a big fan of either.  

"You're obviously delirious from malnutrition.  Good thing I found out as early as I did.  Imagine the damage you could have done yourself if I hadn't found out at this early stage!  Especially at your age!  But if you must insist then I'll get a second opinion."  Nicky turned from the conversation then and caught the eye of the serving girl.  She was tall for a women, probably in her mid twenties, and gave off a very strong [i]'Don't fuck with me, or it wont end well for you vibe'[/i].  She really didn't seem like she should have been working in a place like this.  Nicky waved her over.

"Miss, miss.  Would you mind giving us a second opinion?"