Hey y'all!

First attempt here in the KND archive, and it's gonna be... 1X362! Well, actually it's more of a 362 thought process, but don't worry 1X362 fans, Numbuh 1 will be there! Enjoy the story!

Someone to Rely On

"No…no…it's the third file to the left…Yes, the file marked Classified, June 2007, …hey…whaddya mean it's not there?! I told Numbuh 242 to put it back last Tuesday…well, don't just stand there! Go find Numbuh 242 and ask him where he put it!" And with that an exasperated Rachel McKenzie, aka Numbuh 362 or Supreme Leader, slammed the phone down, frustrated by the incompetence of some of the operatives down at the Archives.

Why do I even have to deal with this type of stuff again? She questioned herself as she stared at the vast amount of papers and briefcases lying on her desk. Oh yes, it's because I'm the Supreme Leader of the Kids Next Door…and leaders don't do anything fun except for read through paperwork and try to keep everything under control. She sighed. This had been the third straight call in which she had to yell at the operative at the other end of the line for not being able to follow seemingly simple instructions. She missed the good ol' days when she was still a bright and energetic KND field operative, where she got to battle all sorts of adult tyranny and make the world more fun for the kids every day. Now she was at the highest position available in the global organization, sitting behind a desk and dealing with just about every sort of politics and chaos every day. It was terribly boring, and she had often contemplated just hanging up the helmet and retire for good to live out the rest of her kid years as a normal kid…but she knew without her the organization would fall into complete anarchy without the command of a strong leader.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. "Come in," she said.

The door opened and she noticed it was Numbuh 65.3 (Herbie) with more files to deliver for the leader. She silently cursed the bad luck as her communications officer dumped the huge stack of files onto the desk. "Sorry, sir, there was a squabble along the Rhine River around the French-German border between Sectors F and Sector G over who got credit for capturing Count Spankulot. Seems those European operatives really have a huge competition going on to who can capture enemies. Darn guys were blasting each other up with their weapons when the Prisoner Transport crew arrived to pick up the villain."

"Idiots," she groaned. "Doesn't anyone here have any sense of morals anymore? We're the Kids Next Door for heavens' sake. We're here to stop adult tyranny, not to have a competition on who captures what villains." The nerdy boy shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, you better get down to filling out those reports. The committee is demanding why you still haven't filled out last week's reports on the Arctic incident involving Sector D." With that he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

She stared at the pile of paperwork and files to go through, wondering where the heck she was supposed to start. Already the KND global committee had been riding her rear end for the past two weeks on missed appointments and critical paperwork and deadlines that she had missed. Her schedule had become too overwhelming to handle, not to mention the tension that ran through the organization right now. The deadly game of politics played by the incompetent people in the committee had already caused fractures in relationships between certain sectors, not to mention that the tension was threatening to weaken their image in front of their enemies.

Muttering a phrase or two about how some kids weren't fit to be part of the committee, she began sifting through the files and pulled out a file marked Sector L Monthly Report and was skimming through it when her phone began ringing again. She picked up the phone and heard the all too familiar sound of Numbuh 65.3 stating, "Sir, you have a call on Line 1. Should I page them through?"

"Go ahead," she said, not really paying attention to her communications officer as she continued to scan detailed reports on the battles that Sector L had fought over the past month.

"Hey, babe," a suddenly familiar voice said over the phone. She widened her eyes at who was speaking. Could it be…?

"Nigel?" she wondered, "is that you?"

The familiar British voice continued, "Hello, Ms. Supreme Leader. You having fun up there? Paperwork and all?" in a teasing voice.

A small blush crept onto her face as she struggled to find words to address the Sector V leader. "What do you want? I'm kinda busy at the moment," she said.

"Well, there's a new restaurant that opened today near the Arts District. And if I recall, someone's been excited for weeks to eat at this new…shall we say…exquisite French restaurant. Guess who got reservations to it?"

"That new place that I've been looking forward to? Le Bon Plat? Nigel, how did you?! I thought that place had been booked out for weeks!" she gasped, not believing what she was hearing.

"Let's just say my mum knows a chap whose brother owns the place. She managed to secure early reservations for us. So what do you say? Shall we have a splendid time together, or do I have to give up these reservations for someone else? There's a long waiting list for reservations like these, you know," he asked.

"Of course I'll-" she started, but then stared at the mountain of files and immediately stopped. She was at a crossroads. On one hand, she hadn't spent quality time together with her boyfriend for nearly two weeks. On the other, she really had to catch up on this paperwork. Failure to finish them on time would cause the committee to jump all over her case again.

Suddenly, she had an idea. Covering the speaker of the phone with one hand, she buzzed Herbie on her personal pager. Within a few moments, he strolled in and she said to him,

"Hey Herb, I've made up my mind. I've been working too much for the past week or so. And on top of that, I haven't spent time with my boyfriend in so long. So take my official stamp and stamp through every single file here. Tell the Earth sectors that I read through them already."

Numbuh 65.3 stared at his leader like she had just proposed an alliance with the Delightful Children from Down the Lane. Finally, he exclaimed, "Are you alright, sir? I can't just stamp through every single one of these files and tell all the Earth sectors that you read through them. There's bound to be questions sooner or later. And besides, the committee will go ballistic when they find out that you're going a date rather than working on leadership duties."

"Never mind the committee. I'll handle them sooner or later. After all, I am the supreme leader here. I can decide what to do for myself and how to handle my Friday nights," she confidently stated.

"But what about the files? Do you expect me to go through every single one of them?", he wondered, emphasizing the last five words.

"If you do that, I'll buy you lunch for the next two weeks," she said in a sing-song-y voice, batting her eyelashes for effect, "And I hear the cafeteria's serving up meatball sandwiches and pizzas next week…"

Numbuh 65.3 stared, bewildered at the change in attitude from his leader. Adjusting his glasses, he sighed, "All right, I can't believe I'm actually doing this, but… I'll stamp 'em."

He was caught off guard when his leader came over and gave him a quick hug. "Thanks, Herb, you're the best. Files from the last week are all on the table!" she said.

"No problem," he muttered as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Rachel smiled as she watched him leave the room. Suddenly she remembered that Nigel was still on the phone. Rushing over and picking up the phone, she asked breathlessly, "Hello? You still there sweetie?"

"Clear as ever, my lady."

She giggled and replied, "All right, Mi-ster Uno. I'll be there in 20 minutes or so. By the way, do I like good in the red dress or the white one?"

"You look beautiful in either one, honey. I'll be waiting for you near the valet parking service when you show up. See you in twenty minutes!" he said before he began to hang up the phone.

"All right, see you there!" she replied before hanging up the phone.

As she leaned back in her chair, she stared at a picture of her and Nigel at the beach which had been tucked away at the corner of her desk next to the huge mountain of paperwork. She smiled as she thought, Boy, being leader does feel good. Especially when you have a boyfriend that's always there to cheer you up.

Man, I hope I didn't make these too characters too OOC...especially 362...oh well, thanks for reading the story! :)