Knick-knacks
Disclaimer: Hmm…
Team fic! Because I love team-time. Wish there will be more in the next season.
"Don't tell me you brought your bunny pet?" Jules teased as she walked inside the briefing room and found Spike sitting in his usual chair with a box on his lap. The delight and adoration plastered all over his face were impossible to miss. She put the evaluation folder on the table and made her way to Spike. Peering down, she found it filled with colorful stuff.
"It's from last year," Spike began to dive into the box, sorting out various types of masks and picking up the ones that caught his attention. "There's a Halloween celebration at the Goose this weekend. I know that you guys won't bother to dress up, but at least we have to show our efforts."
"More like you're free to show your effort." Lew quipped from his seat across him.
"And by 'we' you mean…" Sam trailed off. He had been silently watching Spike fussing with his toys - it hadn't taken him long to figure out Spike's antics- and finding it difficult to believe that he was the same composed, cool guy defusing the C4 in town hall the other day.
"Team One! We have to come. It's tradition, and now it's yours too." Spike replied, blowing a thin layer of a year's worth of dust off a Santa hat. "Do you think this will fit Sarge? I hope Wordy still keeps his Jack-o-Lantern mask. His kids were scared shitless of that."
"Santa isn't so scary, is he?" Jules bit her lips. But since it's the ever fatherly Parker, maybe it was the right choice. She touched the once white ball at the tip of the hat. "Unless Santa loves to kidnap children on Christmas Eve and put them in his sack."
"Unless Santa likes to play hanky panky with the elves." Sam said with a suggestive grin, leaning slightly towards her and successfully invading her personal space.
Jules released a long exhale and turned from him. There's just something about the rookie that bothered her terribly; flustered her. She was yet to decide if that's a good sign or not. "I guess Wordy's girls better stay away from Sam if he's chosen to be Santa this year."
"I so will not tell him you said that." Sam groaned, shuddering at the image.
"Lew, buddy, you can be Frankenstein!" Spike cheerily passed him the grayish flat, square-shaped head mask with one bolt on each side of the neck. "Thanks to his hairless head, Ed can be whatever he wants. Lots of options for him this year. Nosferatu, Captain Picard, Britney Spears…"
"I so will tell Ed you say that!" Jules chuckled, echoing Sam's words.
Lew studied the grotesque mask, displeased. "Don't you have anything else?"
Spike dismissed his complaint with a wave of his hand. "You're probably not 8 foot tall, but do you know that Frankie's highly sensitive and emotional? Just like you when you're being sappy, he only wants to find someone who can understand him. Doesn't all that spell your name?"
"And what will you be? Some malfunctioned AI from Planet X?"
"I'm thinking of Iron Man because his brain is admirable, but maybe we can be Batman and Robin if you'd like," Spike set aside the maroon and gold mask and produced a worn out leather Robin mask from the box. He touched it to his face, dark colored eyes shining with mirth from the twin holes. "Rock, paper, scissor to decide who's who."
"Why not Einstein? His brain is admirable and funky." Jules retorted dryly, crossing her arms across her chest in unconscious gesture of self-defend. She knew it would be her turn soon. Then Sam leaned his forearms on the table and she had to hold herself back from appreciating how the new position had made his shirt seem to mold with his rock-hard body.
"He wants to get laid, not scares girls off." The blond team member remarked.
"I don't say yes or no. It's entirely up to the media to interpret that," not lifting his head from the 'treasure chest' in front of him, Spike dug out another mask; red and web-patterned. "Until some creative people make a superhero out of you, you'll have to survive with this. The Samtastic Spider Man."
"Better cut off the Timmy's or your plastic thread won't be strong enough to support your weight." Lew chuckled, twirling his Frankenstein around his finger.
"Jules, catch!" She barely missed the pink object Spike frisbeed. When she turned the object over in her hand, she rolled her eyes. "It'll suit you well." Spike assured, unaware of her piercing glare.
"Pink Ranger? Seriously, Spike?" Jules grimaced in distaste. The visor was see-through but the pink was too pink and the white… there's way too much pink that the white might as well be painted pink.
Sam's laughter rang in her ears, breaking her trance. "The Pink Ranger was one of my crushes when I was a kid."
Jules crinkled her nose even more. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"If my memory serves me right, the pink ranger was also a brunette," Spike explained. "And she's short, too." He added as an afterthought.
Lew whistled and Sam snorted. Scowling, Jules merely gave him the finger.
"It could be worse. Barbie, for example." Sam's attempt to calm her down wasn't appreciated. At all.
Before things could break into world war three, the alarm went off, followed by Keira's urgent announcement: Team One hot calls at Munro Street! Sighting of two suspected gunmen. No shotst fired.
"Come on, guys." Lew was the first one to get up.
"Damnit, why do people always decide to be a real smart-ass Hannibal Lecter on Halloween week? The only blood I see today better be fake blood." Spike swore under his breath.
They all immediately scrambled to their feet, throwing the masks Spike had bestowed on them (with relief) on the table before leaving.
"So, Jules, how about this weekend?" Sam asked nonchalantly when they're trotting out of the briefing room towards the gun cage.
She glanced at him carefully. "What about this weekend?"
"You know, the party?"
She didn't slow down her pace. It was like his burritos invitation all over again. "Do I need to prepare a default answer for you, Sam?"
"Just one dance, Jules."
Jules shot him an incredulous look that lasted several seconds. Then she smiled. Too sweet and too sunny to be real.
"Sorry, Sam, but I hate spiders."
:) Sam in tights. Yum.