WARNING 1: Spoilers for "Hair of the Dog" WARNING 2: Spanking of an adult
Briggs walked forcefully down the stairs toward his truck. The peace he'd been able to find during his NA meeting was quickly bleeding out, and seething anger was taking its place. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed. No answer. He dialed again. "Mike, pick up your damn phone," he growled through gritted teeth. No answer. He dialed again.
"What?" Mike answered.
"Where are you?"
"Out." Mike's own anger mirrored Briggs'.
"Get home. Now," Briggs ordered.
"Why?"
"Mike, I'm not in the mood. Get home," Briggs replied, his anger increasing.
"I'll be home when I'm home," Mike replied petulantly.
"You'll be home by the time I get there. You have 20 minutes," Briggs snapped, then abruptly ended the conversation. He shoved his phone back in his pocket, threw his bag in the back seat of the truck, got in and slammed the door. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down enough to drive safely then headed home. "He'd better be there when I get there," he murmured to himself.
Mike stared at his phone for a moment, then angrily shoved it back in his pocket. "Who does he think he is?" he wondered out loud to no one in particular. "Daddy knows best." Johnny's words played over in his head as he walked up the beach toward home. Even in his anger, he knew better than to not make it home before Briggs did. He was in enough trouble already.
"Where's Mike?" Briggs snapped at Paige.
Paige gave him a "what the hell" look. "He's upstairs," she answered. "What's your problem?" she challenged.
"Don't worry about it," Briggs brushed her off and bounded up the stairs.
Mike had heard the door slam a few moments earlier and his heart had started beating faster. He heard Briggs coming up the steps, but no amount of deep breathing could help him calm down. He was pissed and scared, and he knew he had very good reasons for both.
Briggs barged into Mike's room, full steam. "There's this thing called knocking," Mike said sarcastically, reminding Briggs of his own words just a week earlier.
"Save it. With me," Briggs ordered. He turned around and walked out of the room. When he sensed Mike wasn't following him, he yelled "Mike, now!"
Johnny walked through the front door just in time to hear Briggs yell at Mike. Paige stood at the bottom of the steps looking very concerned.
"Johnny, what's going on?" she asked.
"I'd say Mike's about to get the whipping of his life," Johnny answered, a matching look of concern on his face.
"Why?" she asked, "what did he do?"
Johnny glanced over his shoulder as he headed up the stairs toward the commotion. "His list of crimes is pretty long this time, but I'd say at the top is probably punching Briggs in the middle of the FBI office."
"He what?!"
Upstairs, Johnny tried to head Briggs off at the pass. He grabbed his arm as the senior agent barreled past him. "Briggs, you don't want to do this right now."
"Stay out of it, Johnny."
"No," Johnny stood firm. "You don't want to do this. Go get yourself under control and deal with it later so you don't do something you regret."
"He went too far this time," Briggs replied, his eyes fiery and dangerous.
"Yeah, he screwed up, but you can deal with it later," Johnny tried again.
Briggs leveled him with a glare. "You don't even know the half of it," he growled. "Now get out of the way or you're next for disobeying a direct order." He pushed past Johnny then yelled again, "Mike!"
Mike appeared in the hallway, his jaw set. "Thanks for trying Johnny," he said as he walked by him toward the Com room.
"Johnny, get downstairs," Briggs ordered before he slammed the door shut. Johnny shook his head then headed downstairs to tell Paige what had happened.