Captain Taylor Earhardt was just sitting down in her office with her morning coffee after her morning flight with the yellow eagle to do some paperwork when her office phone rang.
"Earhardt," was her typical answer.
"You have two visitors ma'am. Would you like me to send them back?" the voice of the receptionist spoke in her ear.
"Who are they?" she asked curious since she rarely had visitors unless it was her other former Wildforce teammates and all they had to do was sign in and walk back to her office.
"Two gentlemen from the Silver Guardians ma'am," was the reply from the young lady at the front desk. At this Taylor nearly dropped her blue Air Force coffee mug. When the receptionist didn't get a reply after a moment she grew concerned. "Ma'am are you still there? Are you ok?"
"Yes I'm fine. Please send them back Libby," Taylor said after racking her brain as to why two Silver Guardians would be here for her. But she knew they weren't just 2 ordinary Guardians, they were the 2 Co-Commanders of the elite crime fighting force based out of Silver Hills.
Sooner than she would have liked it there was a knock at her office door. "It's open," was her only answer not really wanting to stand up to answer the door when she knew the 2 men on the other side were perfectly able to open it themselves. She heard the door open as she continued to work on the paperwork in front of her. She could sense the two men walk to the front of her desk and felt the desk shift as one of them sat on top of it and she knew who it was without even looking up. She sighed as she signed her name and put the paper in her outbox for her First Sergeant to pick up later.
"Haven't you ever heard the saying 'tables are for glasses not asses' Wes?" she asked finally looking at the man resting his butt on her oak desk. He just smiled even wider at her and hopped down.
"Well hello to you too Taylor. Long time no see," Wes Collins said laughing at her face as she wiped down the spot his butt was with a disinfectant wipe.
"Not long enough in my book," came a grumble from the other man in the room standing with his arms crossed on his chest and a thoroughly pissed off look planted on his face.
"Trust me Myers I'm not too thrilled about seeing you either," Taylor said smirking at the brooding Eric Myers. Wes just looked between them with amusement but before either of the males could speak again there was another knock on her office door. "It's open," Taylor said without looking at it expecting it to be one of her Airman coming in to report.
"Ma'am...I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt," the young blonde haired boy said as soon as he saw the other company in the room. And then when he realised who the two other men in the room where you could see his face light up like a little kid given a sucker. Taylor saw the look on his face and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"It's ok Martin I wouldn't have told you to enter if it wasn't. What is it?" she said turning to face him. The young man not even 20 yrs old yet walked towards her desk with the papers in his hand stretched towards her. As he handed her the papers he spoke.
"Everyone had a routine flight this morning nothing wrong, except the Yellow Eagle," at this remark she heard Eric scoff and Wes stifle a laugh, " You were right ma'am her routers were slightly off balance. I personally watched the mechanics fix her ma'am. She is refueled and ready to go at a moment's notice."
After he was finished speaking he stood there as she read through the reports in her hands. Every once in awhile he would sneak a peek at the Silver Guardians on the other side of her desk from him. Taylor could see him looking at them and decided since he had done such a good job on the reports to praise him a little.
"Very nice work Martin. I'd like to introduce you to the Co-Commanders of the Silver Guardians," Taylor said motioning to the men in question. " Wesley Collins and Eric Myers. This is Airman George Martin."
"Pleased to meet you Mr. Martin. You must've done something wrong in boot camp to end up under Captain Earhardt's command," Wes said laughing as he shook the young man's hand. Taylor just glared at him while George shook his head vigorously.
"Quite the opposite sir. I had the highest marks in my class sir. I choose to be on Captain Earhardt's crew. I'm just grateful she accepted me," he said as he shook Eric's hand.
"Well I'm sure you'll do her proud," Eric said smirking at the women in the room. Taylor's glare just deepened at Eric.
"You're free to go Martin. Remind the others we have the demonstration in one week and I'll be checking everything is up to code until then and if one thing is out of place they'll be sorry," Taylor said turning her hard gaze from Eric to George. It wasn't very noticeable but Wes saw her eyes soften a bit when they looked from one man to the other. George straightened up and saluted her before turning to exit the room, but before he could Wes stopped him.
"George when your air force career is over and you're looking for something to do give me a call," Wes said handing him a business card, "If you can deal with her on a daily basis you won't have a problem fitting in at the Guardians. Have a good day."
Once the door was shut and it was just the 3 former rangers again Taylor got up from her desk and walked around the front of it crossing her arms in the process all the while staring the two Time Force rangers down.
"What do you two want? I have a busy day and don't need you two around trying to steal some of my best Airmen. Now speak," she said leaning against her desk.
"We need your help," was all Wes said. Taylor raised her eyebrow at him as she got a major sense of deja vu but before she could get the words out Eric spoke.
"Don't even say it Earhardt," he dared her with a pointed look. She just smirked and looked him straight in the eye as she spoke those words she'd never forget.
"What? The big boys can't handle themselves?" she asked not once letting her eyes leave his.
"Well this one calls for a more….womanly touch," Wes said thinking over his words before speaking. He was going to say a more gentle approach but gentle was not in Taylor Earhardt's vocabulary. At this her eyes shot to Wes and she looked back and forth between the two and when she could tell they weren't joking she let her smirk fall.
"With what exactly?" she asked curious now.
"We need you to go undercover for us. Apparently there is a hidden cave somewhere that holds the remains of some more mut-orgs and we would like to find them before someone else does and gets themselves hurt or releases the mut-orgs," Wes said explaining the situation.
"Somewhere? Like you don't know where?" she asked confused.
"Well we know the general area but not the exact," Wes said looking sheepish.
"Why not ask Ransik where it is? He's the one that put them there," she asked shrugging her shoulders like it was the obvious answer. Eric rolled his eyes before speaking.
"Well damn Wes I wish we would have thought of that!...Oh wait we did! Turns out he's not the one that created them. They were the offspring of the Mut-Orgs we fought 3 years ago. When the others were destroyed the eggs were fossilized. And their readings are getting dimmer and dimmer. Alex in the future says they have no way of finding them because they can't get a clear reading on them. We're the only chance," Eric said finishing the story. Taylor was intrigued but confused.
"Ok I'm all about helping finding and destroying them but why do you need me to go undercover?" she asked emphasizing the me and undercover. At this the two guys looked at each other before Wes spoke again.
"Well like i said we know the general area they are located even down to the state and town," he said before pausing. When he didn't continue Taylor finally gave him a look saying 'spit it out'. "They're in a small town in Oklahoma," that's when they could see the recgonition on Taylor's face set in.
"No," was all she said before he could even finish speaking.
"You didn't let me finish," Wes said.
"You don't need to. There is only one reason you would come to me to help you track these down instead of Jen or yourselves for that matter. And it's not happpening," she said shaking her head no.
"You are our best chance at finding them Earhardt," Eric said crossing his arms and sitting down in one of the chairs in front of her desk.
"He's right Taylor. You know this town better than any of us could ever hope for. You know it's ins and outs. All the secret hiding places that no one would go to. Well ok that made no sense but you're still our best chance of finding them and ending this for good. What do you say?" Wes said sitting in the chair beside Eric and looking up at Taylor with pleading eyes.
"No way in hell Collins. Those eyes might work on Jen but they have no effect on me. Besides if I went it wouldn't be undercover. That whole town knows my name," she said without a pause. That's when Eric got an idea.
"Come on Wes. It's pointless. It's obvious she's not a ranger anymore. Not even a fighter anymore. All she does is sit in an office and do paperwork all day. We'll figure something else out. Good day Earhardt," Eric said as he stood up and walked to the door. Wes looked at him thoroughly confused but stood up and walked to the door with Eric.
"Bye Taylor. We'll let you know how it goes," he said waving as they walked out the door and shut it behind him. He started to walk down the hall with his head hung low trying to think of what they could do now that their last hope had given them a resounding hell no. Since he wasn't watching where he was going he bumped into Eric's back when he stopped half way to the exit. "What are you doing?" he asked looking up at him to see him holding up 3 fingers. Wes continued watching confused as Eric slowly counted down to 1. When he ran out of fingers he just pointed behind Wes and when he turned around he saw Taylor rounding the corner at a run trying to catch them. When she saw them standing there the trick Eric had played finally sunk into Wes.
"Figured you would need to talk to us," Eric said smirk. She glared at him for tricking her.
"So you'll do it?" Wes asked with excitement seeping into his voice.
"One condition," she said and at Wes's nod she continued, "I call all the shots when we get there."
"Oh it won't be a we. Someone has to stay here and keep Silver Hills safe. It'll be a you two," Wes said pointing to her then Eric. "Did I forget to mention that? Oh wells you already agreed. Briefing at HQ in 2 days and then you leave directly after that. See you then Taylor!" Wes said before running out the door and away from the wrath that he knew was coming. Taylor just glared after him and then turned her gaze to the Silver Guardian that was still standing in front of her.
"See ya later Earhardt," he said smirk as he saluted her with two fingers before slowly following behind Wes.