Chapter Text
Out Of His Depth
Clay withheld the groan that wanted to leave his lips as he rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hands before he blinked again but the untouched stacks of paperwork in front of him did not change but the worse part was that he was confined to base until every single piece was filled and filed. There was a distinct difference in what he had managed to fill out compared with what he had yet to touch, and it only made things worse. With a heavy sigh he dropped his hands down on the table to the open file in front of him and picked up his pen again as he had already figured out he was going to be up all night and probably most of the next morning before he even got anywhere close to being done. It took a few more seconds before he began writing again while doing his upmost to make sure everything was accurate and correct as he really did not want to have to fill out any of these forms again.
Clay had lost track of time and he had gotten stuck more than once when the sound of the door being disarmed and pulled open made him jump. He calmed his racing heart and dropped his pen down on the single firm that he was filling out before he looked up. “Hey Jase, what are you doing here?” He asked trying and failing to stifle a yawn as he spared a second to glance at his watch that lay abandoned next to one of the stacks of paperwork that he had yet to get too.
Jason’s frown deepened as soon as he stepped into the briefing room as Lisa had been right about Clay being buried by paperwork by the Brass although neither Lisa or Eric knew why Clay had been targeted. “Hey kid, bought you some food.” He figured he would not have stopped to eat as he held up the white paper bag that contained a burger and an extra-large portion of fries and wiggled it. Clay blinked owlishly before he looked back at the paperwork almost as if he was warring with himself on choosing between it and eating. “You need to eat kid.” He reminded him as he moved around the table and took the seat next to him pushing the form and pen he had been filling out away and replaced it with the white paper bag and the bottle of water that he had in his other hand.
“Thanks Jase.” Clay made no attempt to reach out for the food as he leaned back into the chair feeling the exhaustion sneak up upon him as his eyelashes fluttered against his will.
Jason shook his head minutely as he reached forward and pulled the cardboard boxes out of the paper bag then opened both. “Eat up kid.” He would have liked to be able to get Clay to eat then into a bed or a hammock at least but from what Lisa had been able to tell him there was a (ridiculous) deadline on all of the paperwork that surrounded him. “Then we will see what we can do, see if we can divide and conquer this lot.”
Clay reached out and snagged one of the fries before he shoved it in his mouth relishing in the saltiness and warmth of it. “You don’t have to help Jase.” He yawned after swallowing the mouthful as it wasn’t fair that both of them lost their night’s off to do paperwork. “I’m sure you have better things to do.”
Jason moved his hand to the nape of Clay’s neck, letting his fingers squeeze gently for a few seconds, and let it rest there while his other hand reached out and snagged one of the files as he still was unsure exactly what paperwork Clay was being made to fill out. “Eat the damn food before it gets cold sunshine.” It came across a bit more gruffly than he meant it too but he still caught the smile that tugged at the corner of Clay’s lips.
“Ah-huh, yes Dad.” Clay mumbled under his breath even as he reached out, grabbed the cardboard container that had the burger in it and pulled it closer before he took his first bite.
Jason squeezed Clay’s neck in retaliation although it certainly wasn’t hard as he had to admit that the warm fuzzy feeling he got when Clay called him Dad even when it was sarcastic was something he liked. “What the hell is this? Why are you filling out these forms?” The forms that Clay had been ordered to fill out were not something someone of his rank would fill out as he flicked through more of the files that were stacked up.
Clay snorted after hastily swallowing the bite of his burger before he placed it back down in its cardboard packaging despite how ravenous he suddenly was as he had not realised how hungry he was until that first bite. “Yeah… I’m out of my depth on some of it.” He admitted softly as it was an embarrassing admission because he should have been able to figure and fill it out easily.
Jason could hear the embarrassment in Clay’s voice but he had nothing to be embarrassed about. “Clay, kid, sunshine, you will be out of your depth with some of this stuff because you have never been shown it. I don’t even fill out some of this stuff.” It didn’t mean that he couldn’t, and between the two of them he was sure they could muddle their way through, but he shouldn’t have been ordered to fill it out in the first place.
“I got confined to base and ordered to have it filled in and filed before 1300 hours tomorrow Jase whether I know how to or not.” Clay told him before he finished off his burger and swapped the empty package out for the full one of fries.
Jason made a mental note to see if Eric could find out what all of this was about but for now the sooner they could get the mountain of paperwork done the sooner he could get Clay home to bed because the kid looked exhausted which was a look he had been wearing for more than a couple of days. “Between us we will sort it.” He was prepared to spend however long it took to help get it done quicker.
Clay shook his head as if he was rejecting the offer but he couldn’t quite yet verbalise it as his mouth was full of fries which he chewed and swallowed as quickly as he could. “Nah Jase, you don’t have stay here and help me with this.” He reiterated again even though he knew Jason was about to dig his heels in.
“Don’t argue with me on this sunshine. The sooner we get it done then the sooner you can get some sleep.” Jason grabbed a stack of folders and set it in front of him. “Eat up.” He ordered as he picked up a pen and began scribbling away.
Clay smiled and shook his head knowing he was not going to win nor was he going to fight Jason any more on it as it was energy that he did not have. “Thanks.” He said as he set the container of fries to one side so that they were still reachable before he picked up his pen and began filling out the forms that Jason had pushed to the side again.
Jason tramped down on the smile that was tugging at his lips as he stole a glance at Clay every so often as he watched the kid concentrate as there were little things that he had never noticed before like when he was stuck his brow would furrow and his lips would purse, and he would have to work himself up to asking for help however Jason expected nothing less of him.