The Baby Shower
By Terri "Tex" Zavaleta
I never expected to be one of three hostesses at a baby shower after only six months on the job. I am friendly, but don't have a lot of close friends living nearby. I was one of the newest employees here in the Federal Building but had been made welcome and settled right in and found myself getting involved in the social activities in an attempt to get to know more people and maybe make some friends.
Mrs. Tidwell, the head of Admin., had asked if I would like to help throw a shower for Eleanor Merrill, who works in the same section as I do. Eleanor is a sweet girl, very quiet, married to a mechanic who recently opened his own shop. Money seems to be a bit tight for them and we all wanted to help them out as they prepare for the arrival of their first baby.
Having done this kind of thing before back in my home town, I was the one who talked her into setting up a gift registry with Babies R Us so that family and friends could get her what she really wanted and needed either at the store or ordered online and delivered to her. Pretty much she needed everything, but she was very circumspect and tried to go for sale items or the inexpensive versions of everything.
Anyway, I helped her set up her registry and create a list and then Marcy Sutherland and I got some invitations and sent them out, mostly through interoffice mail with some help from Betsy Hawkins. And I know for a FACT, that none of us invited any of the field agents of the ATF, most especially not Team Seven. That small fact, however, did not stop them from showing up anyway. Well, at least six of them. It certainly wasn't boring.
We had chosen the break room on the Admin floor for the party because it was the largest. Fortunately, there were three of us working on it, so no one got stuck with the whole chore.
Eleanor was surrounded by gifts and still seated in her 'throne'—a very comfortable executive desk chair—that someone had liberated from someone else's office, with or without consent. All I know is that chair is big, expensive, and definitely is not from the Admin. Floor.
Marcy, Betsy, and I had decorated the break room with balloons and banners and were ushering the guest of honor in when JD Dunne suddenly appeared, pushing in a chair that was basically a 'throne'—a very comfortable executive desk chair—that someone had liberated from someone else's office, with or without consent. All I knew was that chair is big, expensive, and definitely is not from the Admin. Floor.
Dunne set it at a good vantage point where Eleanor could be seated and see almost everything going on. She's about eight and a half months along and it's painful to see her walk, much less stand. He held the chair for her and seated her like a real gentleman. I expected that was what he'd come for and he'd be on his way now, leaving us to our party, but no, of course not. He just stood there behind that chair –It really does look expensive—and grinned as in came Buck Wilmington with a beaming smile on his face and his arms around two of the guests as another ten or so admin workers followed them into the room.
"Ladies," he boomed, "don't you all look lovely today. Miss Eleanor, it is an honor to be here."
Before he could go on, Nathan Jackson pushed in behind him and studied Eleanor for a moment. "Now, Eleanor, look how swollen your feet are. You need to put them up. JD, get her a foot stool or something." He stepped on into the room, took Eleanor's arm and checked her pulse while studying her. She just sighed and let him. She must know the Seven better than I'd thought. At least Jackson wasn't intimidating her.
JD had grabbed an empty box that had held decorations and placed it by her feet then gently helped her lift her legs up and rest them there. "There you go, Ma'am."
Josiah Sanchez came into the room with a booming voice. "Nathan, stop fussing. She has her own doctor. This is a party. Let her enjoy herself. Does that feel better, Eleanor?"
She nodded with a shy smile. "Thank you."
"Now let's get this party started," Buck announced, seating himself on the floor next to Eleanor's feet. To my astonishment, it didn't seem to bother her at all when Buck slipped the shoes off her feet and began to massage her feet and ankles with some level of expertise. Eleanor looked blissed out and several of the other ladies sighed as they found seats around the room.
That was unexpected. I'd been told Buck wasn't sexually harassing anyone, but just loved the ladies and enjoyed spending time with women but this was the first time I'd seen him not flirting but just being a really good friend.
Marcy and Betsy were handing out sheets of paper and pencils so we could play a baby shower game before we got to opening presents. Before we got started, Ezra Standish came through the door with a box in his hands and behind him, Vin Tanner entered pushing a huge stroller covered by a large baby quilt with a mint green bow wrapped around it and he wheeled it to the side of the room near the gift table.
Marcy and Betsy and I had plans for the party. Well thought out, organized, and hopefully fun... but then six members of Team Seven showed up and our plans—didn't exactly happen, at least not the way they were supposed to.
The game involved unscrambling words and as an ice breaker, everyone was supposed to be in teams of two. As Marcy is explaining the rules, Standish interrupts to ask, "What is the prize for winning?"
Marcy looked blank.
"Aw, c'mon, Ezra," Dunne protested, "you mean you won't play a game without a prize?" He'd already teamed up with Cindy and seemed eager to get started. I'd heard he tends to be competitive.
"That's not what I meant at all, Mr. Dunne," Ezra protested. "I am proposing that I shall provide the prize." He withdrew a handle of colorful balloons from the box he'd carried in and handed one to Vin to blow up for him. When he had three balloons in his hand, he quickly wove them into a crown of red, white, and blue. "The winner shall be crowned queen—or king—of the day." He grinned like a little boy, pleased with himself and swept a bow in Eleanor's direction.
Tanner was getting red in the face and quit after blowing up a bunch of balloons and leaving them in the box. Ezra didn't play the game but spent his time creating a variety of balloon animals and passing them out to the guests including an elephant, a tortoise, several kinds of dogs, a unicorn, and a parrot on a perch.
Meanwhile, Vin Tanner had moved to the corner of the room where the refreshment table had been set up. As Marcy got the game started, I moved over to see what he was up to. He was eying the snacks and finger foods as if he hadn't seen food in several days, but he seemed especially fixated on the large cupcakes with electric blue or neon pink icing heaped on them. He looked yearningly at the food, then turned on those blue eyes on me. Okay, I'll admit it. I'm weak. I crumbled. I surreptitiously passed him a plate.
"Maybe you could do a taste test for us?" I mumbled.
The smile I received was blinding. "Yes, ma'am. Be glad to. Thank you, Diane."
I blinked. I didn't know he even knew my name. I left him to his own devices, hoping at least he'd be discreet about his sampling and returned my attention to the rest of the party just in time to hear Buck let out a shout of victory. "We got it!"
Marcy checked over his answers and sure enough Buck had unscrambled all the words on the sheet, some of which had stumped mothers who'd actually shopped for the items and hadn't recognized the terms. Since Buck was still rubbing Eleanor's feet, he called out to Standish. "Ezra, bring me my prize! Crown me!"
The Southerner rolled his green eyes as he brought the balloon crown. "If we weren't in mixed company..." He placed it on Buck's head and pushed it down, probably with unnecessary force to make sure it would stay in place. He bestowed a gentle smile on Eleanor then moved back to his balloons to create a pink and blue crown for her.
Betsy started moving everyone towards the refreshments and I hoped Tanner was swift enough to avoid the stampede. It seems he was. He suddenly appeared next to Buck, holding out a filled plate to the honoree. "Here ya go, El'nor. Got you about one of ever'thing."
"Thank you, Vin, but I don't think I can eat all that," she replied, rubbing her stomach gently as if in discomfort.
Standish snapped to attention at the gesture. "You're not going into labor, are you?" He sounded appalled at the idea.
Eleanor giggled. "Of course not, but indigestion is a problem. And sometimes the baby kicks. I promise, Ezra, you won't have to deliver this baby."
He smiled wryly and backed away.
Okay, that was a story I hadn't heard...yet. Why would an undercover agent have to deliver a baby? And whose was it? The rumor mill had failed me.
Jackson and Sanchez came over at that point. "You feeling okay?" Jackson asked. "I saw you rubbing your stomach."
"Nathan—" Sanchez said warningly. Jackson subsided into silence but kept watching her. "Eleanor, are you announcing if it's a boy or a girl?"
"We don't want to know," she said. "We want to be surprised."
"You should give some thought to names. Names have great power in many cultures," Sanchez said. And he was off on a lecture about the significance of names and their impact on the child's future.
For the next twenty minutes, the older man began giving examples of names that he felt would be more interesting than more popular names. While he may be a very good profiler and maybe a good anthropologist, believe me, he is not good at choosing names. I learned some interesting facts about names but none of them were something a child in today's schools would find acceptable.
"Mehitabel—God's joy" was shot down by JD on alliteration issues. Mehitabel Merrill was not mellifluous. In the least. Josiah's next offerings of Tabitha (that was a witch on a TV show Buck protested), Hepzibah (sounds like a disease according to Jackson), and Zephaniah for a boy (diplomatically dismissed by Eleanor as too long and too many syllables) were unappreciated and he finally surrendered to popular opinion, stopped talking, and went to get some food.
Standish, sensing a lull in the conversation, reappeared with a clipboard he'd gotten somewhere. "Now, gentlemen, the betting pool is currently—"
"What are you bettin' on now, Ez?"
"Opportunities are plentiful, Mr. Tanner. Since Mrs. Merrill herself does not know the gender of her child, I'm offering wagers on sex, weight, length, hours of labor..."
"No. I don't want to hear about it, Ezra," Eleanor stated firmly. "I'm trying not to think about it."
"Fine," he said with a sniff and went looking for those who were interested. That man is such a paradox. He flips attitudes faster than a remote changes channels.
Before Team Seven or anyone else could start something, I announced, "Let's get started opening the gifts. Marcy, do you want to sit down and write out the list?"
It took some rearranging but everyone managed to find a seat facing Eleanor, except for Vin Tanner and JD Dunne who took it upon themselves to be the runners and bring the wrapped presents to Eleanor then take the opened gifts and hold them up for everyone to see before taking them to display on the gift table. It was nice they were making themselves useful and I noticed that Vin seemed much more comfortable being up and moving rather than crowded into a seat. He was less showy in displaying the gifts than JD but then, JD probably watched more games shows and knew how it was supposed to be done.
Most of the gifts had been chosen from her registry and were very practical, except for a few hand made items such as a crocheted blanket and a baby sweater that I suspected had been made by Mrs. Tidwell, the head of Administration. The real surprise was when Tanner brought the stroller to a halt in front of the mother to be. He helped her remove the bow and lifted off the covering baby quilt. She let out a gasp. I think I did too.
It was not a stroller. It was certainly not the inexpensive stroller she had selected on her registry. This was a 'travel system', a stroller frame with large wheels and a car seat that could be used as a baby carrier as well as attached to the stroller frame. In fact, this was the Lamborghini of travel systems. When creating the registry, Eleanor and I had seen this model and knew just how expensive it was-and had been shocked at the price.
Her mouth dropped open then she tried to look the men of Team Seven in the eyes, but for some reason, not a single one of them was within range. Except for the brazen Standish, they'd all rapidly disappeared behind her chair, even Buck.
She fixed the Southerner with a stare and pointed at the extravagant gift. "Ezra, this is too much. I can't accept—"
"Told ya she'd say that," came a mutter from behind her.
"Shut up, Vin," came a chorus of whispers, also behind her, and echoed by the man standing in front of her.
Everyone else in the room was watching the confrontation in silence.
Standish took the pointing finger, turned her hand and planted a kiss on the back of it. "My dear, it isn't for you... it's for your child."
"My child can do just as well in a less expensive—"
"Less expensive also means lesser quality. Are you going to trust your child's life to an inferior—"
"Do not try to baffle me with bullshit," Eleanor stated firmly.
I know my jaw dropped. I didn't expect that. The silence in the room was absolute.
Evidently, Ezra did because he had a practiced look of indignation as he widened his eyes at her and placed his hand over his heart. "Never. I take umbrage—"
"No, Ezra, you've already done so much—"
"Eleanor, do not violate a confidence," he said haughtily. "If you really refuse to allow Team Seven to provide a Magnificent gift worthy of your firstborn, you should take it up with our fearless leader."
That statement provoked a bit of a reaction from the watching crowd. No one ever wanted to take up an issue with Chris Larabee.
Seeing her on the ropes, Standish went in for the kill, still managing to look hurt at her refusal. "I assure you that our team has pooled our resources and all contributed to the costs so that it wasn't a burden to procure this lovely and useful travel system, which if I dare to say so, should be of a quality that it will be useful for your next two children as well." There was a twinkle in the green eyes as he took in her shocked expression. "If there should be more children, that is."
"Don't rush her, Ez," Buck admonished. "Got to get this one trained first then she can think about another one."
"Shut up, Buck!" was the chorus this time, which had the fortunate side effect of setting everyone off laughing.
"But Ezra," Eleanor began.
"Give it up, El'nor," Tanner advised. "You know ol' Ez will just out-stubborn ya."
Standish was giving her the green eyes. Dang, that man knows how to work a crowd. Everyone in the room was giving Eleanor a nod and muttering that she ought to accept. With a sigh, she surrendered. "All right, Ezra, thank you—and Team Seven—for the very generous and thoughtful gift—but that's IT. No more gifts from you. You've done enough."
He planted another kiss on her hand. "Of course, my dear, though as I've explained I was not the sole contributor—"
"Yeah, yeah." She looked around the room, at the crowd of co-workers and friends, the severely depleted refreshments table, and the heaping pile of gifts on yet another table and smiled tiredly. "I want to thank everyone. This is so kind of you and means so much."
"Back to work!" Betsy announced. "Take any extra food with you—"
Before the words were out of her mouth, Tanner was filling a plate with leftover cupcakes, taking only the ones with blue icing and leaving the pink behind.
Betsy continued undaunted. "Boys, we could use some help taking the gifts down to the garage to put in Eleanor's car. Her husband is meeting us there with his truck – which is a good thing with the size of that stroller."
"It's not a stroller," Standish corrected. "It is a travel system."
Betsy just gave him a look but her resolve failed when he flashed his gold tooth at her and she had to avert her eyes to avoid laughing or swooning, which would only encourage him in greater flights of fancy.
JD Dunne scrambled towards the door. "I'll get the elevator and hold it if you want to start bringing down the gifts, guys."
Sanchez, Jackson, and Wilmington all loaded themselves down with as much as they could carry. Tanner put the rest inside the 'travel system' and pushed it out the door with one hand, the other being used to hold onto a full plate of blue icing cupcakes. Ezra stayed behind to help Eleanor to her feet and escort her back to her desk.
Marcy and I pulled out the trash bags and started putting in the wrapping paper and other detritus. Standish returned, used the last of his balloons to make another parrot on a perch and settled it on his arm. I wondered if he was playing pirate. "Ladies, I thank you for your efforts. I believe the Merrills are most fortunate to have such fine and generous coworkers. Oh, and I realize that we were not invited, but I do hope you did not find our presence onerous."
Yeah, he really talks like that. All the time. The others came back from the garage and stopped by for Buck to yell, "Ezra, time to get back to work before Larabee finds out we're gone." He still had on his balloon crown and was tipping it like a hat when he encountered a lady in the hall.
"How uncouth," Standish said mournfully, trailing out the door still playing with his parrot idly.
Tanner followed him out but stopped just outside the door when Sanchez snagged his elbow. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop but I couldn't help but hear their conversation as I was gathering up used plates.
"Vin, is my boy keeping secrets again?"
"Why're ya askin' me?" Tanner shrugged. "Y'all just ain't been listening. Remember El'nor's husband is a mechanic?"
Jackson and Sanchez stared at him.
Tanner sighed. "He just started his own business." Still no reaction. "As a mechanic. Okay, but you didn't hear it from me. You remember Buddy's Body Shop? The place that ripped off Tessa Tidwell. He, uh, went out of business and Joe Merrill got him a silent partner who put up the money for him to take it over."
"That sneaky—" Jackson said with a grin. "He really knows how to hold a grudge. Buddy was doomed from the minute he offended those Southern gentleman sensibilities of Ezra's."
"And while we're on the topic of our brother's honesty or lack thereof," Sanchez said, "how much money do you remember giving Ezra for our share of that travel system?"
Jackson frowned. "I think I gave him $20. Thought $140 would buy a nice gift."
"That thing costs at least ten times that much," Sanchez said. "I gave him $20 and I think JD gave him ten."
"Wonder if the Cowboy kicked in—" Vin said thoughtfully. "Mebbe not. Wouldn't want to make Ez a liar so all of us have to kick in. We can ride him about that. Want to bet he's missed us by now?"
"No bet. You quit hanging around Ezra so much. We better get back upstairs," Jackson said.
I watched them wander off. For some reason JD was now wearing a blindfold and Ezra seemed to have a bet going with Buck or possibly Vin by the time the elevator arrived. They were a strange bunch. Nice, but strange.
I turned back into the room and called out to Marcy. "Hey, we may have set a record. Team Seven came to our party, stayed an hour, and no one got hurt, shot, killed, or had property damage."
Marcy thought for a moment. "I'm not sure it counts if all seven aren't in the same place. That seems to be how the hoodoo works."
Betsy came charging up the hall and stopped in the doorway to catch her breath. "I just heard Judge Travis is on the warpath! It seems someone stole his office chair."
We all turned to look at the 'throne' JD had provided. Uh-oh.
"What do we do, Diane?" Marcy asked. "Call him and tell him it's here?"
I shook my head. "Oh, hell, no. We remove all traces of where it's been, including the icing smear on the seat, and we put it in the elevator and send it up to his floor. Make sure we don't leave fingerprints."
Maybe I've been spending too much time around Team Seven myself. Ya think?