VegReg - for bewize
by firechild
Rated: T
Disclaimer: They're not mine, though I claim her.
Warning: It's not exactly high drama, people. :)
A/N: No, the main character is NOT me. :) I wrote this for a dear friend of mine, just to try to give her a little grin.
She was rubbing her head and her eyes wearily, staring down at the black-on-white of her job (she was inexpressibly past loathing white copy paper and Times New Roman,) trying to fix yet another brief for yet another coworker before Doug could find a way to blame yet another problem on her, and she didn't realize that she wasn't alone in her cramped office until she caught movement from the corner of her eye. She jumped, startled, and thoughts of the four-inch stilettoes she kept in her bottom desk drawer doubling as personal security devices flashed across her mind as two familiar-looking young men (boys?) in matching green coveralls gracefully split from a line and went to different spots, quickly but carefully putting her possessions into the boxes they carried, while a third perched on the corner of her desk closest to her, leaning down and sideways, smiling, his molten-amber eyes raising her temperature a few degrees.
"Hey, there, hot stuff, whatcha doin'?" Her eyes widened even more, and the corners of his full mouth quirked up mischievously. "What? You were expecting a Bela-Lugosi-ish 'Good eeeevening?'"
Her mouth worked, and it took her a few seconds to find her voice. "E-emmett?" She looked from him to the other green-clad boys, who had just finished clearing everything but her desk drawers without even displacing any unnecessary air. "Edward? Jasper?" They turned and smiled at her, and Edward rounded the other side of the desk and opened that bottom drawer, tossing her a wink. She looked at Jasper and suddenly felt the gentlest brush of peacefulness before turning her attention back to Emmett. He had his hand out to her, and some part of her suddenly noticed that his hair and eyelashes were damp. "W-what are you doing here?" She glanced toward the window, just now noticing the less-than-anticipated light rain outside.
"I think the question is more like what are you doing here... and the answer is, nothing." She met Emmett's eyes again, her eyebrows up.
"You wanna run that by me again, Bear Breath?"
Emmett tossed back his head and laughed freely at that. "Oh, you are going to be fun to have around!"
"Yyyyyeeeeeeeeah. That's nice of you to say. Now you wanna tell me what that's supposed to mean? 'Have around?' 'What am I doing here?'"
"Quittin'." She turned briefly at the sound of Jasper's soft drawl, but he nodded her back to Emmett. "Might be a good time to explain, Little Brother."
Emmett snorted.
"Okay, I'm starting to feel like I'm at a tennis match, and that's not really doing wonderful things for me right now, so either you," she pointed at Emmett, "start talking, or I tell Esme that you've been selling dates with Carlisle on eBay."
Emmett shuddered. "You're cold. And I have not!"
She smiled sweetly. "Yes, but sweetheart, I'm a highly-trained litigator. How much do you want to bet against my ability to argue, especially woman-against..." she eyed him up and down, "-boy?"
He stood up, pretending to be offended, but could only hold it for a second before conceding with a smile. "I bow to your superior skills. Nah, seriously, though, what you're doing here," he gestured at her mostly-packed office, "is getting the heck out. For good. In pretty much every sense of the word. So come on, Tiger Lady, let's get you fed and then figure out what you want to do with *your* time."
She glanced down at herself, wondering why he'd called her that and then suddenly glad that she'd bothered to put on a little jewelry for once-the gunmetal/tigereye necklace seemed to have drawn some attention. "Oh... um... I haven't actually talked to Doug today-"
"Ya don't have ta." Jasper put in, and then Edward picked up the thread.
"Your resignation letter, complete with demands for severance, is on his desk-printed on unmissably red paper, with very large type, so that he can't possibly miss anything. There are also copies in three other places."
She thought about this for a moment, then, flicking her eyebrows and shaking her head, she smiled, accepted Emmett's hand, squeezed the marble, let go, and stood up on her own. "Well, then, if that's all taken care of..." She glanced at her shiny desktop. "Uh... that brief I was working on..."
"Is back on the desk of the person who actually should have been fixing his own mistakes."
"Uh huh. And just how did the, uh..." she leaned down to look at Emmett's namepatch as the other boys finished with her drawers and Edward handed her her bag, "VegReg find out about me? And why would you care?"
Edward answered. "Oh, let's just say that we have... connections. Especially in the Dallas area. They called, said they needed a favor, so we went."
"And then we came." Emmett winked at her.
She gasped a little and turned to Jasper. "You went to Texas... for me?"
While he never touched her, never got within a foot of her, his eyes were bright amber and his smile was genuine. "Anything for you."
She found herself smiling in return, then turned to regard each of them as Edward held her coat for her to don. "And the girls are okay with this? And your parents?"
They bestowed wide smiles that were just a little too... self-satisfied for good sense. "Darlin'," Jasper spoke for all of them, "who do ya think gave us the coveralls?"
The wheels in her head turning, her mind swirling with way too many questions (like how Edward had known not to try to carry her bag for her,) she made a conscious decision to shove aside all but the most important matter. "You mentioned food. Unless, of course, you're planning to give me an, *ahem,* extreme makeover."
Emmett snorted again as Jasper held the door and Edward opened an umbrella to protect her from the rain. "Uh, no. Much fun as you would be, you know, made over, we're just here to be your friends. My lady, your carriage awaits." He gestured to the lot, where-she blinked-a sleek black stretch-Mercedes indeed awaited.
"Start thinkin' about what you want ta eat," Jasper murmured as he held the door for her. She was halfway into the backseat before she realized that Jasper and Edward were shucking their coveralls, revealing tailored suits (Edward was in black double-breasted pinstripe with a gold tie and a tiny badger-shaped lapel pin, while Jasper wore a dark blue Western-cut suit with a white shirt and a red tiger-eye bolo-she guessed the whole not-sweating thing came in handy sometimes) while Emmett held the umbrella. She lowered herself into the seat and hadn't even blinked when she found Emmett sitting by her other side, coverall gone to reveal a buttercream-white suit with a black silk shirt and a buttercream tie. She'd never have thought that a white suit could make her mouth go dry.
"So what are you in the mood for?"
As the first six (okay, seven) responses that came to mind were intriguing but not so much viable options with these three (they were spoken for, after all,) she sighed a little, ignored Edward's snickers, and returned to thoughts of actual food. "What are my limits?"
Jasper turned to look at her across the expanse between her and the passenger seat. "Did we say anything about limits?" And whatever there was inside of her that hadn't already melted... did.
When she had her brain in somewhat working order again, she thought of the thing she'd been craving for a long while-thoughts of Dallas and her favorite little bird of (pregnant!) hyperness were adding to it, but she'd be having that this weekend, anyway, so she didn't want to spoil it. Instead, she said, "I've got a yen for some baseball food."
She turned to see Emmett's scarily mischievous grin. "Oh, I think we can arrange that. In fact, I know just where to find some baseball to go with it."
Baseball. Food that hadn't come from a vending machine. And three seasoned escorts in semi-formal wear, one of whom was currently both icing and massaging the back of her neck with a very large hand.
She was soooooo tipping the movers.