A/N: absolute pure ridiculousness and team love and men supporting women. yay!
It was the 8th of March and when Jane looked out of the window she could already see the first buds in the still leave-lacking trees and hurt some birds chirping their first song of the year. She smiled at that. Spring was her favorite season and she loved seeing reminders of this rebirth of nature all around New York City.
Sighing she looked back towards her computer screen – sadly, she couldn't enjoy the weather from outside the office building since she still had paper work to do. It never did seem to end.
Letting her gaze wander around the room a little, her eyes found her two best friends who seemed similarly distracted as her. She sent Tasha a smile before tackling the work that still lay before her. At least she had something to look forward to. Today was girl's night!
It took Jane another hour and a half to finish all the paperwork of their latest case and – thank goodness – there hadn't been a new case that demanded their attention all day. Stretching her arms and rolling her head to either side to undo the tension that had built in her neck from a day spent at the computer, she got up and walked over to Tasha's workplace where the Latina was giving her computer a death glare.
"Not done yet?" Jane wanted to know, leaning against the table with her arms crossed over her chest.
Tasha simply huffed "No. Apparently AD Weller doesn't think it suffices to say that I fired a shot at one of the guys. I have to tell them exactly when that happened, where he was hit, how big the wound was, if he survived, what angle I shot from…" she glared up at Jane "I should be used to bureaucracy by now but I'm really not."
"Yeah. It really does suck" she admitted "But I think they do it to keep you from firing at people just so you don't have to fill in the paperwork." They went silent for a moment, Tasha typing furiously on her keyboard and Jane deep in thought gazing into nothingness until she felt a kiss to her cheek.
She blinked a few times before moving her head to the side to smile at her boyfriend who had just come up behind her "Already done for the day?" Kurt asked.
Jane nodded "Just waiting for Tash and Patterson to be done as well so we can leave early today."
"Right. Girl's night" he said thoughtfully "Do you know where you gonna go tonight?" he inquired and put an arm around her waist lightly.
Tasha frowned up at him "Why? So you can crash it again? No, thank you" and waved him off with her hand "It's women's day. We get to have this one night to ourselves and now go, you're keeping me from doing my job. My boss would not be happy about that."
He grinned and pressed a quick peck to Jane's lips "Okay. But behave, all three of you" he said with a pointed look "I'm gonna head home for today."
"Hey boss! You leaving already?" Patterson called through the office, joining the girls at the work table and raised an eyebrow at the man.
"I don't have to be the last one in the office every night, do I?" they heard him just before the elevator doors closed on him and they exchanged confused looks, Zapata and Patterson training theirs on Jane – his girlfriend after all.
She simply shrugged "He's been acting strange all week. I have no idea what's going on with him" she laughed quietly "Just the other night when I got out of the shower I found him with his head in my side of the wardrobe and when I asked him what he was doing there he stammered something about looking for his sock. You should have seen his face!"
Patterson joined in her laughing "Oh my goodness. I can so picture his caught face. Maybe he's going to propose. Who knows?" she grinned at her friend "I mean it wouldn't be too far- fetched."
"Hm- Mh" Tasha denied absentmindedly "I don't think that's it. Even though you're right, it's not far- fetched at all. I already set my money on last month. But what I wanted to say-" she completely ignored Jane's incredulous look and continued "All of our boys have been acting strange this whole week."
She saw the other women frown at her and leaned a little towards them conspiratorially "Reade has been trying to stare at our lockers inconspicuously, and believe me when I tell you that we should be glad he only has to catch thieves and not actually be one."
"But what does he want from our lockers?" the blonde asked.
"What did Weller want in Jane's clothes?" Zapata gave back "I just hope they're not planning anything. I hate when they plan something."
Jane laughed loudly at the pure desperation in her friend's eyes "I still remember that last time when Rich convinced them into planning something for us. I really hope they don't try that again."
"Speaking of Rich" Patterson frowned at Jane, deep in thought, "He helped me into my jacket on Monday. I was so taken aback that I even let him."
"So they're planning something? With clothes? Dios mio!" Tasha groaned and buried her face in her hands "This is going to be even worse than last time. I didn't even think that was possible! I just hope they're not doing it today. We have earned ourselves one evening off."
"We'll just be careful when we're heading out and once we're at the bar I don't think they're going to surprise us there" Patterson said reassuringly "Speaking of going to the bar… Are you done yet?"
"More than done, to be honest" the Latina threw one last look at the still unfinished work on her computer before hitting save and shutting the device done. "Let's have some fun!"
And with that they left the office and went to the locker rooms, chatting about small things and big things and nothing and everything all at once.
"It seems so quiet here" Jane noticed when they reached the room and shared an alarmed look with the other girls "Too quiet."
Patterson giggled but immediately put her hand over her mouth and stepping closer to Jane's side "Can you hear anything?" she whispered when suddenly she was pulled backwards, a hand that wasn't hers covering her mouth.
She struggled to free herself from the iron tight grip around both her arms and hips but couldn't manage to escape. She couldn't hear anything either and before she knew it she had a bag over her head and someone threw her over her shoulder but not before taping her mouth shut. She wiggled and tried to kick her attacker but apart from a faint ouch she didn't think she'd done much damage. She just hoped Tasha and Jane were doing better.
Tasha had turned around when Patterson had been stepping closer to Jane and so she had been met by the bag immediately and couldn't see anything. That didn't keep her from lashing out at her assailant, though, and she managed to kick him a few times before he had her in a headlock and she couldn't even manage to scream anymore.
Jane, however, had better luck. She had heard something and had been about to reply to Patterson when she had already felt the blonde being dragged away from her and also felt someone trying to cover her mouth. Before the hand could cover it completely she bit him and heard a hiss before everything went black around her, she felt a something being put on her head which felt a lot like a bag. But she had learned how to fight with closed eyes and both hands behind her back.. and in this case at least one hand was free because she had taken the attacker by surprise.
She turned around, kicking out her leg at the same time and smiled grimly when she heard the man huff again. She was about to throw another punch when he ran towards her – catching her by surprise – and they both fell into a wall of lockers. No. This couldn't be… Incredulously she struggled against the grip and suddenly she realized that she knew those hands.
"Kurt?" she hissed, shoving him in the chest and ripping the back from her head "What the hell?"
She looked around the locker room – it had looked better when they had first stepped in – but couldn't find a trace of the other women. She turned back to Kurt who was scrambling up from the floor, with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Care to explain that stunt?" she asked again when he didn't seem to be answering any time soon.
"It was Rich's idea" he replied rubbing his hand through his hair "I guess it was a stupid idea."
"Stupid?!" she practically yelled "I could've killed you, you idiot!"
"Yeah" he smiled that stupid sheepish smile that she couldn't be mad at and her heart melted it little, not that she let him see that.
"So, why exactly did you risk your life to kidnap us instead of just asking us?"
"We thought you'd probably say no anyway, and-" Kurt Weller, Assistant Director of the NYO and the most grumpy and stubborn man of the year, looked down on the floor and admitted timidly "It's all on Rich. And I couldn't stop him from going through with it. So I thought the only way to minimize the collateral damage was to participate."
"You-" she didn't even have words for this. Also, he was adorable.
"Are you going to come with me?" he asked after they stared at each other for another second "I promise, it's not too bad."
She nodded in defeat "It's not like I have much of a choice. You just kidnapped my two dates for the night."
From that moment on, the whole way to whatever secret location that had chosen, Kurt and Jane didn't talk much. Even though there were so many questions running around in her mind that it felt like her brain would explode any second now, she didn't ask them. She watched him staring at the road, then she looked at the road, out of the window and back to him.
He seemed so excited about whatever they had planned and she didn't want to ruin it for him and really, the most pissed she was about the fact that she could've killed him and would've at least hurt him badly if she hadn't realized it was him. Lucky thing he always used that bearlike attack whenever they trained together and he felt like he didn't have another resort. What an idiot… but she smiled at him anyway when he got out of the car and took her hand to lead the way.
From the outside it looked just like any old abandoned fabric building, if they were in tactical gear this would almost feel like work… In fact, Jane squinted her eyes at the house in front of her…
"We've been here before. Some raid on some drug dealers" she realized but he didn't comment on it so she simply kept walking behind him until they got to the entrance of the building.
Kurt shot her one last look and squeezed her hand tightly before letting it go and opening the big metal double door to let her inside.
Jane took a step forward into the hall that looked nothing like she remembered but rather warm and welcoming.
There was a huge table, it almost felt festive, in the middle of the room and at least 5 bar tables that she could see with different kinds of alcohol and snacks on them. The room was bathed in a warm light by over a hundred candles and a few bigger indirect light spots in the corners of the room. What fascinated her the most, though, was the merchandise that seemed to be everywhere.
She took another step towards the middle of the room and reached out to one of the cardboard masks that where hanging from the ceiling. It looked like it was supposed to be a face, only that it was completely metal, like a robot. For eyes the mask only had two slits and there wasn't any indication of a nose and only a very grim looking mouth. The thing was in the same color as the rest of the room – red and golden.
"Stubbles!" she heard Rich's voice and turned around to find Reade and him walking towards them, two sulking ladies coming in behind them, "You weren't supposed to just ask her to come" he frowned at them.
Jane returned with her own icy gaze and he shrunk a little, bit barely noticeable "I could've killed him, DotCom" she shot back at him, but only half angry. She looked at the other two women "You okay?"
"Yeah" it was Patterson who replied first "But it's not like I was close to a panic attack and in complete darkness and kidnapped" she glared at the three men who were standing together now. At least they had the decency to look guilty.
"And now what" the blonde continued, taking in her surroundings "Where having a party? For… Ironman?" she shook her head, trying desperately to find some kind of sense in this whole plan but failing miserably.
"Yes. And no" Rich had gone back to being incredibly annoyingly bossy "In reality we're celebrating the Original Ironman"
Tasha shot the man a dark look "You do know it's women's day, right? Why would we want to celebrate some metal dude on our day?"
"That's because you're not celebrating any dude" Rich exclaimed happily and on the clap of his hand the decoration changed.
An enormous banner fell from the ceiling and now hung over the big table which read "[Fe]- Male. The Original Ironman" and all over the place pictures of Tasha, Patterson and Jane had popped up. Some close- up portraits, some laughing on a night out, some in tactical gear, some in the gym kicking and punching the punching bag.
While Patterson had tears in her eyes and her hands clasped over her mouth, Jane and Tasha simply stared at the other woman in confusion.
The blonde laughed and went to hug Rich – something that seemed to surprise even him – before turning to her friends. "Fe is the symbol for iron in the periodic table of elements –" at Jane's quizzical expression she explained "It's a way to organize all known elements so far."
Tasha understood first "So Fe- Male means Ironman in some nerdy chemical way?" she said slowly "And you're throwing a party for the Fe- Male Ironmen… so you're throwing us a party… for women's day?" she concluded looking up at them to find all three men nodding at her "And why on earth couldn't you tell us? Why did you have to kidnap us?!"
"Would you have come?" Reade replied nonchalantly and shrugged "And we wanted it to be a surprise."
"Oh come on, girls" Rich exclaimed with a pout "Live a little. I even made you T- Shirts for the occasion!" and with that he handed each of them a T- Shirt that had the element symbol of Iron on it and the same slogan that was on the banner.
Jane's was – surprise – a very dark blue with the print in a lighter blue. Patterson's was a dusky pink with black print and Tasha's T- Shirt was a sunset orange- yellow with a black print as well.
They smiled at their men and as if they were on a telepathic count, they all ran forward to hug one of them. Jane jumped into Kurt's arms, almost crushing him with her hug. Tasha's slim form was almost lost in Reade's embrace and Patterson picked up Rich and swirled him around a little before pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.
"Now. Let's get this party started, ladies!" she exclaimed.