Cold Coffee
By ga 
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine
Category: Skinner-Gibson dialogue
Spoilers: post Truth
Summary: thoughts of others

Dedication to Peggy and sallie, in honor of those they love 
on a difficult day

The man and the boy looked at each other. The last half-inch of 
Skinner's Starbucks Sumatra sat, nearly cold. Gibson's cheeks 
hollowed as he sucked down the last of his Coke, the Whopper and 
fries already dispatched. The car out in the lot, the rest stop 
was about midway north on the New Jersey Turnpike. 
A slurping sound declared the soda gone; the boy looked up, wide-
eyed at being caught out doing something rude, and blushed in 
apology. His expression suddenly smoothed and he looked the man 
in the eye.
"You're not too old for her."
"But you're too young for her," Skinner countered, and the boy 
reddened again. 
"She thought of you like her father because that was easier, 
sometimes. Like I thought of her like my mother sometimes."
"It's a way of keeping them close to you."
"They're okay, Sir. She's worried about you."
It was the man's turn to redden just slightly.