“Good morning, Captain.”
The captain looked across his desk at me. “Nice to have you back finally. How's the wife?” I figured that would be the only mention of my last assignment and its aftermath.
“Mary's fine,” I said, “Although she's still mad about being scared--If you know what I mean.”
The captain gave me a serious look. “She's a good woman,” I kept myself from rolling my eyes at the cliché, “It's understandable she was upset over what happened. Best see that it not happen again.”
“Yes sir.” I said. “I was planning on that anyway.”
“Good. Since you're here, I have some work that backed up while you were out.” He gestured over to two boxes sitting on a nearby chair. I'm pretty sure I kept myself from groaning aloud. “Since the doctor said you were to be on light duty for a week or so, I figured you could get some of that caught up.”
I wasn't sure, but I thought there might have been a smirk there somewhere, but I wasn't going to look too closely. “Glad you're back.”
“I'm sure,” I thought to myself as I picked up the boxes and left the office.

Since the paperwork didn't actually require my presence in the office, I took advantage of that fact and went home, where I could, in theory anyway, work on the paperwork at my leisure. I dumped the boxes on the floor and looked around. Things were mostly cleaned up and back to normal. Mary was back at work, and wasn't expected to be home until late. Her backed up work would require her presence at the office. I decided that, all things considered, it would be safer not to mention that I was going to be working at home for the next week.

About 30 minutes later there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Larry and John. “We just thought we'd stop by and see how you were doing,” Larry said, “We expected you back at work today.”
“I went in only to have the Captain gave me a bunch of busy work to ease me back in,” I said. “I think he was just glad for the chance to clear his desk.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Larry pick up a pack of cigarettes off the counter and pull one out. It took a second to register.
“What are you doing?” I grabbed the pack from his hand and threw it down, the cigarettes spilling out onto the counter.
Larry looked a little startled. “Just bumming a smoke, I thought it'd be okay.”
“Where'd you get that pack?” It wasn't Larry's usual brand.
“Right here.” He gestured towards the counter. “Aren't they yours?”
I shook my head. “Nope. After everything that happened, Mary demanded that I quit smoking. She cleared the house of all cigarettes and ashtrays and lighters and everything.”
But that was my usual brand. I mean, had been my usual brand. This non-smoking was hard to get used to.
“Then where'd those come from?” John asked. He bent closer to look at the cigarettes.
“Beats me, but if Mary finds them here, I'm a dead man.”
John stood up abruptly. “There's a timer device in there. Small charge. Gimme some stuff to absorb the blast.” He started to reach for a large box on the counter.
“Not that! Those are Mary's papers, she'll kill me if they're destroyed.”
Grinning despite myself, I reached down and pulled up the first box of papers from the Captain. “Better use these instead.”