M is for Megan
By Jelsemium
For the 2006 Alphabet Challenge Series
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters; I am not trying to make a profit
Dedication: To M, of course.
MMM mmm MMM mmm MMM mmm MMM mmm
Megan was having a bad day. It started the night before when she had pulled her laundry out of the washing machine and discovered that a red t-shirt had somehow inserted itself into her load of white, thus turning everything pink, including most of her lingerie.
Which meant that she wouldn't be able to wear any of her white blouses for a while. Well, the one white blouse that had escaped the pinking, that is.
Then Larry had called and had apologetically broken their date for that eveing, citing a family emergency, of sorts. "My Aunt Louise hurt her hand," he said. "I am required to drive her home from the hospital."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Megan said. "What happened?"
"She punched Charles in the face. Apparently she overheard a comment he made about the witch of Agnesi, and assumed it was a reference to herself."
"Oh, dear," Megan had said. She'd wanted to ask about this witch, but Larry had apologetically explained that there was a line for the payphone and he wanted to see if Charlie was out of X-ray yet.
Megan vowed to not engage Aunt Louise in fisticuffs.
It turned out later that Charlie hadn't been injured when Aunt Louise had hit him, but when he had tripped in trying to avoid her.
Charlie's ankle wasn't broken, but the sprain was nasty enough to keep him off his feet for a day or so. So Charlie had not been able to come into the office to explain the "hot zone" theory of finding a serial rapist by plotting the scenes of the crime.
Since, the hot zone thing was old hat to the LA team. They didn't actually need Charlie to explain it. But Megan hadn't heard this explanation and she felt put out that she had been cheated of her cute li'l analogy.
Especially since the only people Megan had interacted with for the past 48.3 hours were criminals, criminal lawyers and her teammates. (Including a VERY grumpy Don Eppes; who had spent the day muttering about the need for senior citizen facilities in Federal Penitentiaries.) She was quite frankly tired of conversations that revolved around crime. A cute li'l analogy would have been just what the doctor ordered.
Then, just to top of this lovely, lovely day, she was now walking through the worst side of town, at midnight, in a rainstorm. She didn't have to worry about her clothes getting wet, however. There really wasn't enough cloth in them to be impacted by the rain.
"How come you get to sit in the heated van, Granger?" she muttered.
click click "Hey, partner, it's not my fault that this perp likes to attack half dressed streetwalkers, not manly men," the afore-mentioned Special Agent Colby Granger replied from his comfortable, upholstered seat in his cozy, heated van.
"Or even guys like you," Megan said.
click click "Ow, Reeves."
"If you don't want that to be literal, Granger, you'll keep your hands off my Hillside coffee."
"I wouldn't dream of touching your self-heating coffee, Reeves," Colby said.
"Good, because…" Megan stopped because out of the corner of her right eye, she saw a shadow lurch towards her.
"Well, hello, what have we got here?" Megan said.
click click
No talking from Colby, now. He had gone into alert and listening mode.
"What do you want?" Megan asked the shadow as cheerfully as if she were safe in a well lit bar.
There was a choking cough and the figure staggered. This did not fit the profile she'd made of the killer.
"You okay?" Megan approached warily.
The figure dropped to its knees.
Cautiously, Megan touched the figure's shoulder. The figure reared back, throwing its… her… blonde hair flying and she looked at Megan frantically.
"Miss, are you all right?" This was mainly for Colby's benefit, as Megan could clearly see that the woman was NOT all right.
The newcomer pointed to her throat and mouthed furiously, but no sound came out.
That's because no air was coming out, Megan realized. She didn't need Charlie to draw an airflow chart to realize the woman was choking.
"Hang on, sweetie," Megan said. She went behind the woman and clasped her hands. "I'm going to do the Heimlich on you."
Click Click Colby acknowledged her situation. He'd have an ambulance down there in minutes, if one was needed.
The woman nodded frantically.
Megan dragged the proper moves from her memory. She had to make a fist and place her thumb against the victim's upper abdomen, below the ribcage and above the navel.
It was easy to find the woman's navel, because she was actually wearing less than Megan was.
Megan grasped her fist with her other hand and jerked upward sharply. The second jerk caused the woman to cough something into the street.
"Th- thanks," gasped the blonde woman. She spent a few minutes sucking air into her lungs as Megan backed off a few paces. You never knew when somebody in the trade was going to get all territorial on you.
But all the blonde said was, "You… you new here?"
"Yeah," Megan said.
"I'm Florida," the blonde said, as her breathing came under control.
"Megan," Megan replied.
"You need a better street name than that, honey," Florida said. "Megan's too… preppy."
"Thanks," Megan replied. "I'll work on it."
Florida staggered to her feet and Megan steadied her. "You need to see a doctor?" Megan asked, instinctively reaching out to steady her.
Click Click from Colby.
Florida shook her head, causing her peroxided hair to fly. "Girlfriend, you are really new at this. If you ain't bleedin', you ain't needin'. Look, you ever need any help, ask for me at Ryker's. You know where that is?"
Click Click (Of course Colby knew where the bar was.)
Megan knew too, so she nodded "Thanks," she said.
"No, I'm the one who owes you some thanks, and a shot," Florida took a deep breath, pulled a packet of Mentos from her pocket and flicked them into the gutter and then swaggered off into the night.
"Did you hear that?" Megan said, amused.
click click "Looks like we might as well call it a night," Colby said. "We could both use some rest. Besides, you need to work on picking a name with some more street cred."
Megan dubbed Colby with a new name.
"Language!" Colby said in mock shock as he opened the back of the van.
"Just get outta the van and let me change," Megan snapped. "And that coffee had better be there."
"It's not only here, it's warmed up and ready for you," he said.
Megan was almost grateful enough to thank him, but she took a swallow of coffee instead.
"You're welcome," Granger said. His sniff of mock annoyance was off-set by his grin.
"Get outta here," Megan said. She also grinned as she mimed kicking him out of the van.
Click Click "Geez it's cold out here."
"Ah, button it, Granger, at least you have a jacket," Megan replied. She shrugged out of her street walking clothes and into her street clothes. She pulled on her jeans, then her shoes because the floor of the van was icy cold. She'd just picked up her shirt when…
Click Click
"What?"
Click Click
Wait, Colby wasn't talking? That was as unusual as … as Charlie not doing math. A quick peek out the back window showed a struggle going on in the alley.
"It's goin' down now, guys," Megan said.
Then she burst out of the van like John Wayne on a rampage, Glock in one hand, self-heating coffee in the other.
And her shirt flapping open in the cold wind.
Colby's attacker looked around when the van door burst open and he froze, eyes bugging out of his head.
Megan didn't dare shoot with the two of them so close, so she launched her coffee at the attacker, who flinched.
Colby had a vague impression of the state of Megan's clothing, but didn't take time to look. By the time Megan actually reached the fight, the assailant was face down in the muck, with Colby's knee firmly planted in the small of his back.
Colby cuffed his attacker and looked up hopefully, but Megan's shirt was firmly shut by then. He sighed in disappointment.
Megan smirked and she kicked the attacker's knife away. "He cut you?
Colby shook his head. "Nah," he said. "I'm okay."
Megan shrugged.
Their back up arrived in time to take charge of their captive.
"Sorry about the coffee," Colby said. "C'mon, I'll buy you a Starbucks."
"Throw in a scone and you have a deal," Megan said.
"Done and done," Colby said. Then he added with a laugh. "That was some entrance you made. I thought his eyes were going to pop right out of his head."
Megan laughed and shook her head. "Honestly, Colby, you'd think our sex-offender had never seen a pink bra before."