Misconstrued

Scott can sense the apprehension in Katie relating to the overheard conversation, and tries not to focus on it. He smiles instead. "Well, I'd like to ask you out on a date, and I'm a tech guy, so if I qualify..." His smile widens. "You pick the time and place and I'll drive."


As Carson heads down the hall, he picks up on the loud conversation between Reese and Jason. Stopping, his eyes widen slightly. He hadn't thought much about Jason's absence before, but this sounded like he'd been doing a little bit more than assumed.

He sees Jason stalk by to his office, then emerge with Trooper, heading outside. Thinking for a moment, Carson meanders to his cubicle and waits for his younger friend to return. Within minutes, Jason is back, aiming for his office again. This time, Carson follows.

"Hey, Jason..."

Jason gets Trooper settled in his corner with a bowl of dog food before sitting down in his chair, not trying to hide his irritation. "What."

Carson leans on the doorway, not shutting the door. "Why?"

"Why what?" Jason keeps his eyes to his desk and work.

"You know what," Carson retorts. "What's gotten into you?"

"What do you mean?" Jason finally looks up. "I just had Reese breathing down my neck. Don't you start."

"Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, or just plain the wrong bed?"

Jason's eyes widen at Carson's blunt statement. "Excuse me?"

"Look, you and I aren't best friends," Carson replies flatly. "But the least you can do is not head down the same road I did. Stop while you can before you pile on too many regrets."

Jason starts to frown. "Carson...have you been drinking again?"

Now it's Carson's turn to frown. "No, of course not. I'm not the one who was having a good time all night."

Again, Jason is taken aback by the bluntness. "Why don't you go back to work and leave me alone?"

"Why don't you just give people some straight answers for once?"

"I don't know why you're so fascinated by my conversation with Reese, but he had no right to question me like he did. What I do on my own time is none of his business."

"It is if it affects you and your work."

"It hasn't!"

"But will it?" Carson cocks his head. "You keep going down that path, I guarantee you that it will. I've been there, Jase...don't tell me I don't know."

"Carson, what are you talking about?!" Jason throws up his arms.

"Well don't make me paint a picture," Carson retorts. "I'm sure you have a fine memory of your own."

"What?"

The air becomes thick with confusion as Carson shakes his head. "Do you like playing dumb?"

"About what?!" Jason stands up, tired of this stupid argument. "I get here a few minutes late, I got Reese on top of me, and now you! Did I walk into the wrong office this morning or what?!"

"If I'd been out sleeping around, I'd expect to be questioned too!"

"Sleeping around?!"

"You admitted you were with Camryn all night."

"I did not!" Jason's eyes are wide, his voice raised. "Camryn convinced me to go out and get some ice cream. We sat, we talked, I took her back to her apartment!"

"Yeah..." Carson nods. "Exactly. I'm sure you know her apartment real well by now."

"Carson!" Jason slams his hand down on his desk. "I didn't even go in! I dropped her off. I was only a few miles from Mike's place and I didn't want to go home, and I wanted to let the guys know what had happened in court. So I drove out to his place. We had an impromptu jam session, I was too tired to ride home, so I slept on Mike's couch. I didn't get in 'til late this morning because I had to go home to shower and change. I must have just missed you!"

Carson blinks and is silent for a moment. "Uh-oh."

Jason crosses his arms, his eyes narrowing. "Yeah...ok, I get it...You and Reese both assumed I spent the night with Camryn, didn't you?"

"You didn't exactly elude to anything else."

"I can't believe you guys!"

"Well what would you have thought?!"

"I don't know!" Jason groans.

Carson shakes his head. "If that's all it was, why didn't you just say so?"

"I told you, it was none of Reese's business! I don't like being interrogated."

"If you would have talked, we could have avoided all of this!"

"But it wasn't my fault, now was it?"

Carson sighs, relenting. "No..." His tone lowers. "Probably not. So what's with the guilty conscience?"

"Well would you feel innocent for forgetting to call anyone last night and then getting in late from work?"

"So that's it then?" Carson is skeptical. "Nothing more? That really was it with Camryn?"

Jason's eyes float to the floor. "Yeah...that's it."

"Jason..."

He looks up again and shrugs. "I like her, alright. Forgive me for feeling strangely since I broke up with Katie. I'm human."

Carson gives a little sigh, a smile tweaking the corner of his mouth. "You're a piece of work, you know that?"

"Now what did I do?"

"Nothing...just keep your head on straight and get past the past before it eats you alive. And for crying out loud, next time something can be misconstrued, try to head it off before it gets that far."

"How about you just don't misconstrue what I say at all?"

Carson throws him a smirk. "We both know how to play this game too well, Jason. Chill out." Turning around he heads from Jason's office, a slight roll to his eyes. That had certainly gone well.

Jason sinks back down into his chair, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. This was not his morning... If this was a sign of how things were to go the rest of the day, he was in trouble. He'd felt good about his time with Camryn last night until he'd started getting interrogated about everything...what was wrong with going out for ice cream? Camryn was different...she'd gotten on his nerves at first, but getting to know her, her forwardness wasn't something Jason disliked, but rather ran with it, getting ample opportunities for some bantering. It was different, and got his mind off of other unpleasant things. And he really had just dropped her off at her apartment - he wouldn't have gone in anyway, but she hadn't even invited him - she wasn't that kind of girl.

As far as all night went, Jason had actually had somewhat of a good time with the band...for the first time since he'd been back, he'd been relaxed enough just to play. He really had been too tired to ride home, and he had quickly taken Mike up on his offer to spend the night. Waking up this morning, Jason had realized he hadn't called anyone, so the guilt had started...he'd known good and well that he'd be questioned, but still Reese's interrogation had just rubbed him the wrong way, making him upset and unwilling to tell about what had happened, no matter the assumptions that flew around. Maybe he'd been wrong for that...

Sighing, Jason opens his eyes back up and reaches down to switch on his computer. Getting past the past as Carson had said really would be a nice thing...but it was coming awfully slowly. "Fun" wasn't hardly a part of his vocabulary anymore and neither was a good night's sleep. Everything seemed a fight...a struggle...would it ever be over?


"Hey, Tank!"

Con looks up from the blueprints as his nickname is called. "Yeah?"

Dean comes up to him and takes off his hardhat to wipe his brow. "Got a call from Pat. He said to go ahead with the western zone this week if we can get started."

"Right."

"Hey, so you have fun on your day off yesterday?"

Con chuckles. "You might say that." He focuses back on the blueprints. "By the way, Jamie's swinging by here around noon, so I'll be gone over my lunch break. If you want to start measuring off for that site, we can do that now."

"Alright. Yeah. Come on."