Generated word of the day: Disappoint

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First week of summer. Beacontown is in an excited frenzy, children overjoyed to be off school, citizens happy to welcome in the warm weather that the season will bring.

Jesse herself had been looking forward to summer for weeks. It's been a year since Axel and Olivia moved away, and she accepted the title as Hero In Residence. She still lived with Petra and Lukas, but she was at the office for most of the time while the two of them were out doing who-knows-what.

Now, finally, Axel and Olivia were both returning to Beacontown for the first three weeks of summer. Petra had come up with the idea that the five of them should go camping to celebrate the little reunion. Jesse and Lukas both agreed, loving the idea.

Or at least, at the time they did.

That was over a month ago that they made those plans. Jesse had been looking forward to it, but not any more. She never knew jut how much work came up right before summer, absolutely burying her and Radar at the office.

Now here Jesse was on the late afternoon Axel and Olivia were meant to arrive. She promised Petra and Lukas she'd be home in time for when their friends come back, but by now she was probably already too late.

"Come on, come on." Jesse muttered as she struggled shoving all the papers into the folder at once – she was in too much of a hurry to put them in one by one.

Her fingers fumbled with the paper, nearly allowing some sheets to slip out.

"Finally." Jesse gasped, tossing the file onto the heap and grabbing the next one.

This would be the first time ever she'd leave the office work to Radar for more than a day. Jesse wasn't sure how well he would cope without her there, especially on one of the busiest times of the year.

She was trying to make everything easier for him; the past week she's been staying at the office till past midnight every day to finish off as much work as possible. She was now hastily trying to sort everything that was left into name-tagged alphabetical files so it was easier for Radar to find. He was very neat in comparison to her messy self after all.

Jesse cursed loudly, dropping her stack of paper and shaking her hand. A thin trickle of blood ran down her thumb from the small cut the one sheet had given her.

"Now is not the time." Jesse muttered, sticking her bleeding thumb in her mouth and carrying the heap of files in the other hand.

As Jesse put them all the respective drawers – something she's always been too lazy to do, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Jesse called, practically jogging back to her desk to put the rest of documents in files.

The door opened to reveal Radar. He seemed as nervous as always, tugging on his jacket and readjusting his glasses every few seconds.

"Afternoon Boss." Radar said, hesitantly stepping into the room.

"Hey Radar." Jesse said, bending over her desk as she hastily worked with all the loose papers. "What do you need, buddy?"

Radar gulped, tugging at the hem of his jacket again. "Boss, I thought you were heading home... an hour ago. Do you need help with anything?"

"No, Radar, I'm just rushing to get everything ready for you to take over tomorrow." Jesse said, looking up from her desk and giving Radar a quick smile.

"Could I help by any chance?" Radar asked. "I'd hate for you to miss meeting the rest of the Order because of me..."

"It's not because of you, Radar." Jesse said gently, for a second slowing down in her haste. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even be able to take some time off to go camping with them. I'm very grateful to have you here."

Radar's face grew as red as a tomato, his eyes lighting up. He smiled shyly, seemingly holding back a shriek of excitement. Jesse had learned that the lightest bit of praise could put Radar on cloud 9.

"I'm very honoured that you trust me to take care of the work while you're away." Radar said as he walked over to Jesse, helping her put the last sheets of paper in their respective files.

"I've trusted you since I hired you." Jesse replied, smiling at Radar. "You-"

Her eyes fell on Radar's watch, and immediately Jesse's voice trailed off. Seeing the time made her eyes widen. She knew she was late, but she didn't know she was that late.

"No! The time!" Jesse gasped. "Axel and Olivia must already be here!"

Radar didn't have time to even process what Jesse had said as she grabbed all the remaining files, breaking into a run to put them away.

Now, you know the whole thing; The more of a hurry you're in the less speed you have?

Jesse yelped in surprise when something yanked her back by her shirt. She glanced over her shoulder, realising it was the sharp edge of her desk that her shirt's fabric have gotten a hold of.

In her rush for time, Jesse just switched all the files to her other arm, tugging at her shirt with her other hand. It came loose very suddenly, causing Jesse to stumble forward. The files slipped from hand, falling the ground and scattered across the floor. Jesse was still shambling forwards from the momentum of getting her shirt loose from the desk, that she didn't have to time to stop before stepping on the files, them immediately slipping out from under her feet.

And Radar could do nothing but watch wide eyed as Jesse practically somersaulted backwards, crashing onto the floor and ending up against the wall in a heap of tangled arms and legs.

"Well." Jesse said matter-of-factly, looking up at her intern who was upside-down from her point of view. "That happened."

"Boss, are you OK?" Radar gasped, fining his voice again as he ran over to Jesse.

"Fine, I'm fine." She brushed him off, stiffly manoeuvring herself into a proper sitting position. "Take this as a life lesson-" She said, trying to make it sound like a joke. "-This is what happens when you try to do something too quickly."

Radar didn't reply, just staring at Jesse with eyes so wide, she was afraid they might pop out at any moment. His face visibly paled, like he had just watched the wither storm come back to life in front of his very eyes. He lifted a shaking hand, pointing right at Jesse.

"Y-You... you.. you.." He stammered, fumbling over his words. "You're bleeding!"

Jesse frowned, looking down at herself. Bleeding? Where? Then she suddenly felt the warm sensation of something running down her temple. Jesse reached up her hand, flinching as she touched what felt like a small cut.

"What do I do??" Radar gasped, raising his hands up and grabbing his black hair. "I need to do something, uh, stop the bleeding, I, uh... use this!"

Before Jesse even had a chance to calm him down he had stuck his entire jacket into her hands.

"I mean, a piece of tissue paper would do.." Jesse started.

"Can you see properly? Do you know who I am? Do I need to call an ambulance??" Radar asked anxiously, looking between Jesse and the phone on her desk.

"Radar." Jesse said in a stern voice, seemingly jolting him back to reality. "I am fine."

"But- but..." Radar started, anxiously chewing his nails.

"Did you know-" Jesse started as she used the wall to heave herself upwards. "I have broken bones in the past, and I survived? A small cut on the side of my head is not going to kill me, you can calm down."

"A-are you sure you're OK?" Radar asked as Jesse tossed his jacket back into his hands, walking over to her desk and picking up a paper napkin from the take-out she had for breakfast that morning.

"You're really sweet, you know that?" Jesse said to him as she pressed the napkin to the small cut. "You really don't have to worry this much."

"Are you sure?" Radar asked again, slowly beginning to pick up Jesse's files from the floor.

"100%" Jesse replied, looking at her reflection on the window pane to see if the cut was still bleeding. When she was satisfied, she sighed heavily, walking back to her desk and sitting down heavily in the chair.

"Jesse?" Radar asked nervously as he finished stuffing the documents into the cabinet. "Aren't you... in a hurry?"

"I'm already late." Jesse pointed out, starting to calmly gather the last papers on her desk. "I can either keep rushing and probably trip on something again – just wasting more time. Or I could collect myself like a sane person, and do this at a rational pace."

She looked over at the clock, sighing heavily as she saw just how late it was. Petra and Lukas were probably all caught up with Axel and Olivia already, when she hasn't even shown her face.

Radar looked nervously between Jesse and the remaining papers.

"Boss, I could always finish up here for you?" He offered shyly. "I'm going to be here alone for quite some time – it won't hurt to start now."

"No, Radar, I'm not taking advantage of your kindness." Jesse said gently, giving him a gentle smile.

"I insist." Radar said, giving her a determined smile. Then his face grew slightly more serious. "I'd feel a lot more comfortable if you went home, boss, especially with that injury."

"Radar, you really can't call this an injury." Jesse chuckled, shaking her head. But then she stood up. "You're a hundred percent sure you'll be OK for the rest of the afternoon?"

"Yes!" Radar said excitedly, nodding his head in determination.

Jesse smiled, walking over and giving Radar a quick, gentle hug. He stiffened, his eyes widening slightly as he didn't expect this gesture from Jesse.

"Take care of the place for me." She said as she pulled away from him, winking.

"I won't let you down!" Radar replied, breaking into a large grin.

"Thank you Radar. And good luck!" Jesse said to him as she grabbed her jacket that was draped over her chair, leaving the room and running down the stairs two at a time.

There was a large grin on her face. She couldn't wait to get home! Sure her friends were probably a little upset with her being late, and Petra will never let her hear the end of it.

But she didn't really care at the moment, all she cared about was seeing Axel and Olivia again. They had a fun camping trip ahead of them after all! This was about to be the best three weeks of the entire year.

Jesse burst through the doors, out into the late afternoon sunlight. And before she knew it, she was sprinting down the street towards the order hall.

The large building came into sight soon, and Jesse practically leapt up the porch. She grabbed the doorknobs, flinging open the large doors.

"Sorry I'm late!" She called out, running into the living room.

To her surprise, the only people in there was Petra and Lukas. And almost immediately, Jesse could see hat something was wrong.

Lukas was sitting on the couch, fiddling with his fingers. He looked up at Jesse with a sullen expression. Petra was standing up, her arms crossed and her eyes glaring.

Jesse could see that the coffee table was kicked over, the tulips that had been in the vase now scattered across the carpet. The vase itself wasn't broken, but then again they probably didn't have any breakable vases left in the house with Petra living there.

"Guys?" Jesse asked, looking between them, her own expression falling. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"You bet something happened." Petra muttered, walking out of the living room and practically shoving past Jesse harshly.

Jesse watched as the redhead stomped up the staircase, soon followed by the loud slam of a door, most likely her bedroom's.

"Lukas?" Jesse asked, turning back to him uncertainly.

"Axel and Olivia aren't coming." Lukas said softly. "They called us about ten minutes ago, while we were waiting. Too much work in Redstonia and Boomtown apparently... they said maybe next year."

At that moment it felt like Jesse's heart sunk all the way down into her boots.

"We can still go on that camping trip." Lukas said with a shrug, getting up from the couch and absent-mindedly starting to pick up the items that used to be on the coffee table Petra had kicked over. "But it will only be the three of us."

"It won't be the same." Jesse agreed, looking down at the ground, rubbing her arm.

"I'm sorry." Lukas said softly. "We were all looking forward to this..."

"I think I'm just going to follow Petra's example." Jesse said softly. "I'll be in my room if you need me."

With those words she turned around, just in time before Lukas could see the tears welling up in her eyes. She slowly started walking out of the room, her feet dragging slightly. Her heart breaking in disappointment.

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When you can't decide whether you want to write a happy, goofy one shot - or a sad depressing one. You go ahead and do both.

Lol, I was originally going to do Radar stressing out about Jesse leaving him in charge, deathly afraid he'll disappoint her. Light-hearted and funny, complete with Jesse scaring the life out of Radar by tripping over her own feet.

Then I got this idea. As much fun as I had writing the funny bits with Radar and Jesse, I had way more fun writing the sad, disappointing ending. Just can't get enough of the gloomy stuff, eh?

Also I'm surprising satisfied with this one, being a much longer and more well-written one than the last few we had. Actually crossed the 2000 word limit for once. 
Great time to start wearing off, writer's block. Couldn't you have done it about five days ago? 

Ah well. Going to put a lot of effort into tomorrow's one shot as well, at least end this challenge off decently! I'm kind of sad to see it go, haha.

I'll see you all tomorrow with the final one shot of the month, with whatever the word generator spits out last!