Hi. Me again, Flashpoint fever still in my blood.

This particular fic is just a test, to see if I can still manage to make the readers laugh. I wrote this within a few hours, so forgive me if something sounds a bit off.

Okay. Here goes.

SUMMARY : Sam gets the biggest surprise while taking a shower.

"Sam? Hey, wake up, man. You're just gonna lie there and grow mold?"

Sam was jerked awake from his doze when someone gave his shoulder a good shake. Blearily, he opened his eyes and found Spike peering down at him.

"Come on, buddy. Time to hit the shower," again said his teammate, "We need to get moving. Donna's birthday party starts less than an hour."

"What time is it?"

"Almost 10.30."

"Who the hell have birthday parties at such an ungodly hour?"

"People whose job is to keep the peace, you know that."

With a low groan, Sam pushed himself up from the hard bench he had been lying on. "God, I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I'd rather go home and hug my pillow," Spike agreed, buttoning up his shirt. "But we've planned this for days, so no excuses."

Sam shook his head in an attempt to clear the cobweb off his brain. Rising to his feet, he couldn't stop whimpering from the stiffness he felt in his muscles.

"I feel sore all over," he complained, peeling off his black SRU t-shirt. "Another night like this and I won't even be able to walk for a week!"

Spike chuckled and shut close his locker. "Yeah, I saw how you tackled down the subject at that bar standoff. He's so humongous! There you were, rolling crazily about on the floor with the gargantuan. It's like watching Jack fighting the Giant. David vs Goliath. You should pick fights with people your own size, Sam."

"Ha ha. Real funny coming from you. The said gargantuan sat on you, remember? I still can't get the image out of my head. Hilarious."

"Oh, please don't remind me. I think I'm gonna have nightmares." Spike rubbed his bruised chest with a grimace. The phantom imprint of the subject's ass was still there.

Laughing, albeit weakly, Sam grabbed a towel and staggered to the shower stalls. He was completely alone as the rest of his team had had their turns. Most probably they were already waiting at front desk, arranging transport to The Goose where the party would kick off.

Stripping off the rest of his clothing, he hung them over the wall and stepped into the shower, turning the tap as cold as it could get. For a long while, he stood under the jet of water, forcing himself to get fully awake. A challenging task to do, considering his mind was still foggy and his body so sluggish. And sore.

Ow. Stupid oversize scumbag…

It suddenly turned dark without warning. In the act of lathering his hair with shampoo, Sam went still in the pitch darkness.

Great. Blackouts. Just what I need.

And then he noticed the sliver of light coming from the locker room beyond.

Okay, not blackouts then. Somebody's playing a joke on me.

He quickly rinsed the suds off his head before yelling, "Hey! Turn the lights back on. I'm still not done here."

Quiet. No response at all.

That caused him to cry out again, annoyed this time, "Guys, this is so not funny! I can't see a damn thing! Quit screwing around and just—"

All the lights abruptly flared back on, causing him to blink from the sudden brightness.

"I'm gonna get you all for that," he vowed, turning back to finish his shower. "Wait till I—arghhhh!"

Shrieking, he slipped and slid on the floor as he scrambled in panic out of the shower. Without knowing it, he was already running. He ran like he had never run before, through the empty locker room and out into the hallway, where he stood trembling with fright as he cursed over and over.

"H…holy sh…shit. Holy frickin' shit!"

"Sam, what—?"

"Oh my…"

Rushing from their locker room, Jules and Donna came to a standstill when they saw Sam, naked as a jaybird. In no time at all, the rest of Team One and other remaining SRU officers arrived at the scene to stare agog at the ex-JTF2 going bananas.

Donna cleared her throat before she spoke, barely able containing her smiles. "Um…Sam, I know it's my birthday and all, but you don't need to give yourself as present in your own…uh…birthday suit."

Sam frowned. "Wh…what?"

Looking down, he finally realized what made them all staring so. He was dripping wet and had not a stitch on.

"Aw, f—!"

Amid the round of laughter, he rushed back into the locker room, cupping his privates. Grabbing another towel, he wrapped it around his waist and sat down hard on the bench, his head in his hands.

Soon, he heard footsteps approaching him. He groaned. "Go away. Let me die in shame in peace."

With a soft chuckle, Sergeant Parker clapped Sam on the shoulder before taking a seat next to him. "It's just us."

"Yeah." Ed nodded, grinning wide. "Don't worry. They're all dying to know what's going on, but I've barred them from coming in. Club's privilege only."

Puzzled, Sam raised his head. "Club?"

"We know nothing scares you much," the Sarge said. "Only one thing around here that could make you scream like that."

"You just saw the grey lady, didn't you?" Ed asked with a knowing look.

Surprised, Sam could almost hear his jaw dropped as he gaped at them. "How do you know?"

"We've seen her too."

Sam blinked repeatedly like an idiot. "You have?"

"It happened during my second year here," said Ed, "I was alone in the shower when the lights suddenly went out, came back on again and there she was, standing in all her grey drabness, reaching her arms toward me with this sick smile on her white face. Is that how she appeared to you just now?"

Shell-shocked, Sam could only nod without a sound.

"She came to me just weeks after I joined SRU," Parker said next. "At first, I couldn't understand why some of the boys refused to enter the shower stalls alone. I mean, who believe in ghost these days? When I finally saw her…well, let's just say my perspective got drastically changed that night."

"How did you react?"

This caused Parker to slightly blush. "I was so petrified I peed on myself."

"Seriously? You?" A slow smile began to grow on Sam's face. He turned to the other man. "How about you, Ed?"

Before Ed could respond to that, the Sergeant quickly answered for him, "He fainted dead away."

"I did not," Ed protested.

"Oh, yes, you did. I found you unconscious in the shower, remember? When you woke up, you started rambling about a freaky lady trying to strangle you and—"

"Fine, fine, so I passed out. Big deal. She's that scary, okay?" Ed threw his arms up in the air. He then quirked an eyebrow at Sam. "But at least I didn't run around naked, screaming my head off."

Exchanging amused looks, Parker and Ed broke into laughter.

Groaning, Sam buried his head in his hands once more. "Great. I'm not gonna hear the end of this, am I?"

"That's right, buddy." Parker draped an arm across Sam's shoulders. "You'll be listed in the HQ's history as one of the lucky people to get to meet the grey lady."

"Lucky? That's a twisted way to put it." Sam scoffed. "Look, who the hell is this grey lady? Why does she haunt this place?"

"Nobody knows. Maybe you can ask her if you see her again, Sam."

"Have you seen her again?"

"That's the strange part. No one sees her more than once."

"Why haven't I heard of her before? The other guys know about this?"

"We prefer not to talk about the lady to those who haven't had the opportunity to meet her. Don't want to spoil the surprise."

"Yeah. That's a big help. Thanks for nothing." Sam rolled his eyes at Ed's words. "Who else have seen her?"

"I knew a few guys who have already retired," said Parker. "Oh, yeah, Wordy has seen her too. But he reacted a lot different from us normal people."

"What do you mean?"

"He got ecstatic. In fact, the day after he saw her, Wordy came with this strange gizmo called the 'spirit box' and made a sweep of the shower stalls. I have no idea what the thing was for, but he emerged afterwards looking like he had won a lottery. That man might have become a paranormal investigator if he had not joined the police force."

"Spike and Raf haven't seen her yet, huh?"

"Of course, they haven't. Why do you think I don't let them come in here to share our discussions? Like I said, club's privilege only. So, welcome to the club, Sam. Now get dressed and let's go celebrate."

Shaking his head, Sam stood and started reaching for his clothes. "This is the freakiest night of my life ever."

Minutes later, Jules met him outside. She looked a bit concerned but still managed a reassuring smile at him. "Okay, I'm not gonna ask what just happened. I'm sure you will tell me all about it someday. But I really need to say this."

Sam gave her a wary look. "What?"

She leaned up to whisper softly in his ear, "You look so hot and sexy I just can't wait to get you alone for myself."

With that, she turned and walked away to join Donna at the elevator, leaving him blushing there until his face turned as red as a ripe tomato.

"So, Samtastic." Spike sidled close with Raf. Both were grinning like a pair of loons. "You okay, buddy?"

"Don't ask, okay? Pretend that never happens," Sam replied with a groan.

"Oh, I don't think so," said Spike. He gestured at the CCTV atop their heads. "You see that?"

Sam looked up. "Yeah. What's your point?"

"Now see this?" The computer wizard held aloft a DVD in his hand. "I've burned the whole wonderful scene into this disk. Need I say more?"

At first, Sam was confused. But when understanding dawn, his face rapidly turned white and then purple. He chased after Spike who quickly ran off, roaring with laughter.

"Spike! Give me the damn disk!"

"Run, Spike. Run!" Raf egged them on, following not far behind.

Just yards away, Ed and the Sergeant watched the whole thing in great amusement.

"I got a feeling that she's going after Spike next," Ed calmly remarked.

Parker emitted a soft chuckle. "Should we tell him?"

"And spoil the surprises? What's the fun in there?"

Laughing outright, they patted each in the back and went to join their fellow teammates.

THE END