SERIES/UNIVERSE: ATF
DISCLAIMERS: M7 characters belong to Trilogy, et al. Adriana is mine ... don't mind if you borrow her, just ask first, give her back intact and give credit where credit is due. Mindy belongs to herself and my neighbors, though she still thinks my family and I belong to her.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry, y'all ... had another day like I Really Hate To Bother You, But ... " This is the result. At least, half of it.
"Cowboy, I think ya best be hidin' yer gun."
The soft warning brought Chris Larabee's head up to regard his best friend and second. Vin Tanner's bright blue eyes were deadly serious ... and a half second after that, Chris found out why Vin wanted him to hide his gun. An annoyingly familiar voice said, "Drina! What does this mean?" Chris just sighed and sat back in his chair. There was a pause, while a barely audible voice explained something, then the shrill voice continued, "That doesn't sound right! Nathan, what does this mean?"
"Adriana ain't gonna have the chance to use it, 'cause I'm gonna shoot her myself," Chris growled, pushing himself out of his seat to follow Vin from his office. And if he didn't shoot Petra Vickers, professional pest, he would probably shoot Judge Travis for not getting rid of her. Rationally, Chris knew his boss didn't have a choice in the matter ... not with the flu which was still circulating. But there was something about Petra Vickers which could make any rational person absolutely insane.
Nathan, it seemed, had been on the point of replying when Vin and Chris emerged from the team leader's office, and Chris asked, "Nathan, is there a problem here?" For some reason, he scared the hell out of Petra. He had glared at her earlier in the morning, when she was whining about Adriana being allowed to take off (obviously, she hadn't figured out that if Judge Travis hadn't sent Adriana home, the archaeologist would have killed her. Slowly).
Not even Josiah's gentle (compared to Chris) observation that Petra's incessant questions had made it more difficult for Adriana to get her work done made a dent. She just kept whining about how unfair it was. Chris, who had a low tolerance for bullshit ... and an even lower tolerance for whining ... glared her into submission. At least for a few minutes. A few, blessed moments of silence. Until the next storm hit.
At which point, Ms. Vickers spent the next thirty minutes crying in the break room ... and that wasn't one of Larabee's fiercer glares. Although, Chris had to admit ... while this wasn't one of his fiercer glares, the one which Mary Travis (who was visiting both her father in law and Chris) was fierce enough.
Chris returned his attention to the present as Nathan took a deep breath, obviously close to losing control of his temper himself, then released it. He answered, "Ms. Vickers asked Adriana about the attachment on Vin's office email, the one about the schematics of the warehouse. Drina tol' her, what they was for, and Ms. Vickers didn't believe her." Chris nodded his thanks to his medic, and swung his glare back to Petra Vickers, who looked on the edge of wetting her pants.
Before he could say anything, however, a new voice said softly, "Before that, when Adriana was on her way into the break room to get more coffee, Ms. Vickers also asked her what LA meant." Chris furrowed his brow, puzzled at the statement. What did LA mean? In what context? Josiah Sanchez continued, as Adriana looked up from what she was doing, "LA. As in New Orleans, LA."
Chris blinked, looked from Adriana to Petra, then back again. Found his surrogate sister nodding with a sigh ... then turned his attention back to Josiah. Who said, with an expression which wavered between annoyance and amusement, "Just thought you should know." All right then. Time to find a solution to this, before the DPD was here, arresting his sister for attempted murder. And judging from Vin's earlier warning, that was a distinct possibility.
And if Adriana didn't kill her, one of the others would. Petra Vickers had been driving his team, every team on the floor, crazy during her time here. This was just the tip of the iceberg. Team Seven had faced every kind of scum known to mankind. Gunrunners, drug dealers, murderers and thieves (though not of the ilk of Ezra Standish). But this ... this ... woman was on the verge of destroying all of the teams. It had to end. With only a wink to Adriana, Chris headed back into his office. He had a call to make ... and a pest to get rid of.
Finis