"Someone broke into my apartment."
"Was anything taken?" Alex asked, obviously Susan wasn't hurt and she was fairly sure that her co-worker hadn't been home at the time (or else she would have taken out whoever broke into her apartment and this discussion would have gone a different way).
"No," Vasquez told her. "But you know it's weird as all hell, and we've seen weird, when I come home from assignment with SHIELD to find flowers on my table with a box of donuts next to them, my fridge stocked, and some kind of weird at home spa kit in my apartment."
Alex tilted her head. "Have you given your key to anyone?"
"No, but I have a good idea who might have gotten in."
"Lock was picked?"
"Pretty sure," Vasquez responded. "It was all locked up the way I left it even."
Alex smirked at that and added, "I'm surprised there weren't candles lit."
"There were LED tea candles in the bathroom. It was super creepy… I mean, I don't mind all the food in my fridge or the awesome cookie dough bits that I just have to pop in the oven...but-"
"VASQUEZ!" came Benanti's shouting squee from across the DEO control room. There was a sudden and almost ninja-like rush that happened next before Benanti was attack hugging Vasquez. Alex just stood there blinking with both shock and concern. There was really no interfering, unless you were Adler or the boss. Benanti looked like she was squeezing the life out of Vasquez in that moment and just started to ramble. "Thank the stars that you have returned to us! I can't believe you had to go and be with those weird, lesser, uptight SHIELD people," Benanti went on a bit more dramatic than need be. "You poor, poor soul!"
"Let her breathe," Adler said as she came along and tugged her wife away by pulling the back of jacket. "The poor woman just got back, give her a minute."
"Uh, thanks...and hi," Vasquez said turning her attention to both Adler and Benanti. "I missed you both as well."
"It wasn't my idea, just so you know," Adler added quietly a moment later as she held out the box of donuts she'd brought with her. Vasquez took one and Alex grabbed two, handing one back to Winn (who had been quietly watching the entire thing from his seat).
Benanti seemed to catch onto this and looked between Winn and Vasquez. "Now we can go back to how things normally are…"
"Winn's not going anywhere," Alex said as she looked over to see Winn looking a little confused mid-donut-bite. "We have multiple chairs and computer screens for multiple-"
"But Vasquez is back."
"But we still need Winn." J'onn had officially hired Winn and it hadn't been a temporary thing. She could see Winn motioning a thumb's up. He really had no idea what he'd gotten himself into joining the DEO. Sure, they needed more people at computers than just Vasquez, but the DEO had been through a lot of change over the last couple of months and their agents really didn't do awesome with that much change (especially Benanti).
"But-"
"You have a BB-8?!" Vasquez was suddenly taking a chair next to Winn and snatching the tiny robot from his work area. "Is this the one with the wrist strap that controls it or do you control it with your phone app?"
"Whoa...no one knows anything about personal space around here, do they?" Winn questioned as he looked around before taking another bite of the donut he'd been given. He looked to Vasquez next before pulling up his sleeve slightly to reveal the wrist strap controller for the droid. "Cool, right?"
"Only if there's sharing."
Winn seemed to be looking around before he took the strap off and handed it to Vasquez. "I can share. I'm all about sharing." He was quiet for a moment. "Just don't let the boss confiscate it."
Alex smirked at that.
Vasquez was immediately playing with it.
And Winn found himself with a second donut being handed to him, this time it wasn't Alex that was handing it to him. This time it was all Adler. "Seriously?" Winn asked as he took the donut. Adler just gave a nod before walking past him. "This means I'm official," Winn said far too excited.
Alex just shook her head and watched as Benanti just seemed now consumed by the toy that Vasquez was currently borrowing. She supposed that this was a better homecoming for their fellow agent than it could have been.
Thank goodness for donuts and droids.
The End.