It was the last fitting before the wedding and Tia was glad that the muscle had returned quickly, otherwise she would have looked like a sunken skeleton in a baggy suit. The suit was comfortable against her skin, knowing Tessa would have stopped at no expense to have the most expensive silk for the dresses. It was a good thing that Theresa handled most of the bills otherwise Thran would have a heart attack (despite the fact he probably had enough to buy three planets with) even though Tia promised to never tell Thran the total cost, it was tempting to show him the amount of zero's just to see his facial expression. Next to her stood Connor, his face twisted and miserable like he had a thunder cloud hanging over his face. If there was one thing that her son hated it was dressing up in clothes he was not allowed to get dirty.
"Cheer up, five more minutes and then a new toy." Tia reassured, kissing him on the head. Blackmail was not something Tia wanted to encourage, but in tough situations like this, sometimes it was the only answer. Even with the promise of a new toy her son did not look happy. With a few more adjustments to each suit, the two of them were free to leave.
In the toy store, Connor was taking his time picking the perfect gift for himself. Tia smiled as she watched him, watching him act like a battery as he bounced from shelf to shelf, examining every detail of the objects; she had never seen him look so serious before. Meanwhile, she was also looking among the shelves herself, trying to help him find something. But everything seemed so babyish for him. Even though her son was only three, the boy was intelligent beyond his years. It only made the job harder as the older stuff just looked dangerous. An endless battle, she sighed as she continued walking along the store floor. Turning around, she saw her son inspecting some kind of action figure, looking at it carefully before shaking his head and placing it back. She got distracted reading the instructions of a car racing set when she bumped into someone.
"Sorry." Both of them said at the same time, only a second later realising who they were looking that.
"Tia!" Mei called out in surprise, pulling her old team mate into a hug. Thankfully, she was able to hold back the urge to punch her in the face; it was not the best way to greet an old best friend. Instead she hugged the woman back.
"Mei it's so good to see you." Tia beamed back, stepping away to take in her friends appearance. The woman looked stunning as ever, she still had the flawless curves, shape features and big blue eyes that earned her the title of the sexiest woman in the universe. Even though, the blonde had accepted long ago that she could never stand up to the same standards as her friend, she still felt the dark void over her mind that poked at her confidence.
"What are you doing here?" Mei asked. It was then that Tia remembered that there was a three year old boy loose among the store. Turning around, she found Connor gone.
"Connor!" She called out but no response. Panic rose in her chest. All she could think about were the child missing cases she had handled over the years. It only took a second. One bloody second of not watching him was all they needed. She knew that and yet she had let it happen. Franticly, she began searching down the aisle. "Connor where are you?" She shouted louder, this time she was answered with a musical note. Turning around the corner, she found the boy playing with the piano bricks on the floor.
"Mummy! Mummy! Can I have this?" He beamed at her, while taking giant steps to try out the out keys. Without thinking, she ran to him and pulled him into a hug.
"I'll buy the whole store if you want. Just… just don't disappear like that again, okay." She pleaded with him. The young child just stared at his mother, unsure of why she was so worried.
"It's okay mum, I just want the piano." He grinned, pressing two other musical buttons to get his point across. Tia was so relieved that she didn't care about the complications it would cause.
"Tia. Are you alright?" Hearings Mei's voice reminded Tia that she had just gone berserk in a toy store.
"Oh Mei…" Tia paused, trying to regain her calm composure. "This is my son Connor, Connor, Mei is an old friend of mine." At first the boy hid behind her legs, unsure of how to react to the tall lady with the longest amount of hair he had ever seen. In a way, she reminded him of the Disney princess Rapunzel. Bending down, Tia nudged the boy forward so he could meet the actress properly.
"Hi." The three year old mumbled, still clinging slightly to his mother's leg.
"Well hello, aren't you the cutest kid I've ever seen." Mei beamed, ruffling the boy's hair. Connor smiled a little back, though all he could think about was getting his toy and then heading home to play with it. The lawyer had to cover her mouth to supress the laughter; she wouldn't be surprise if she was reading her sons mind. Despite the fact she loved her friend, Mei was only good with female children, she found it easier to talk about dress up and playing with dollies. Having a boy around just confused the living daylights out of her; she was never one for getting dirty unless it involved mud baths. "He looks so much like you Tia, I never knew you married."
"Well… actually." She stumbled, lifting her left hand up to show no ring on the wedding finger.
"Oh I didn't mean to jump to con…"
"It's okay Mei; everyone does it all the time." Tia tried to ease her friend's guilt. But what she said was true. If anyone was ever lucky enough to be introduced to her son then they instantly thought she was married. She had gotten used to people coming up to that conclusion quickly.
"Mum! Can we go and buy the piano now?" Connor asked, jumping up and down the piano keys to make musical sounds.
Later on, Tia had successfully changed her son's mind about the piano, but she had to give in when it came to buying a full pirate outfit with matching sword and hook. She now had Mei's phone number added into her contacts, promising to meet her old friend up for a cup of coffee before the wedding. Connor was showing off his new pirate suit to Sonny, who had been napping on the couch. D'jok was hiding in the kitchen, having a private conversation on the phone, he turned around to give her a quick wave, before turning back to his conversation. She left him to it, sneaking into her office. Surprisingly, she hadn't expected to find a message from her fax machine waiting for her. It was a habit to go in her office and check if she had any updates and usually if there was anything important, someone would just call her. She looked at the fax in confusion; her secretary had notified her that a package had been dropped off at her office. Still, she was intrigued to know what it was
"Sonny, will you look after Connor for me while I pick up something from the office?" She asked, just in time to find her son fully dressed in his new outfit.
"To the plank lassie!" Connor shouted, pointing his sword at her. Sonny tried to looking innocent, oblivious to the evil glares that Tia was aiming at him.
"Sure I can do that." Sonny spoke towards the window, turning his attention towards the three year old and hoisting him on to his shoulders. Leaving them to it, Tia left to investigate the package.
Everyone at the office was shocked for half a second when they saw Tia walked into the office. Then they realised it was Tia they were thinking about and knew she wasn't the type to take a month lead like she was supposed to do. In addition they were too busy with cases they had to solve to pay any attention for more than a second. Thankfully, she remembered to grab her idea, as security had seemed to have doubled after her shooting incident. She found her secretary working away, doing her best to keep order in the amount of cases that needed sorted, which were growing at an alarming rate.
"Miss de Medic!" Her secretary called out in surprises, a young grad student, who was attempting to get work experience in the law firm. Tia was always changing her assistance every few months, so that it was harder for them to be bribed for information, plus they weren't placed in any danger of drawing any attention for important information they may achieve. "I was just about to ring you, someone left a package for you." She indicated to the large box that lay on the desk.
"Phone me?" Tia questioned, looking back and forth between the young woman and the delivery. "I got a fax from you to come and get it." Both of them looked at the box at the same time, studying it. It was a rectangle shape, plain with brown wrapping around it. From where Tia stood, she could see no sign of an address or any indication where it had come from. She phoned the bomb squad.
Finding herself with a gun pointed at her was something that Tia had become used to over the years. Bombs were rarer but she had come toe to toe with them nevertheless. She had been lucky first time, an assistant had read the number wrong and sent it to another office, three people died. One of them had been a close friend. Tia sent the bastard who done it to life imprisonment without any chance of patrol; it didn't feel like enough. The second attempt, the bomber had wired it wrong so it didn't blow up when she opened it. Since then, she didn't open anything that was made to look inconspicuous. She watched behind the glass with the man in charge, ordering his men what to do. Her assistant had left, unable to watch. The bomb disposal unit did an excellent job as they placed the package in a safe box and started scanning the contents inside. They all came up negative. Confused the chief ordered the box to be cut open. In his protective suit, the man bomb disposer took his time peeling it open. On the positive side, there was no bomb. On the negative side, there was a pair of eyeballs staring back at everyone.
Tia had to phone home and inform Sonny he would have to look after Connor for a little longer. She hadn't expected to be waiting around the office for another three hours. Witnesses were interviewed, place had to be dusted for DNA and security camera's had to be checked. But no one knew how the package got into her room. One minute her office was clear and the next there was a box sitting on top of her desk. Even the fax machine had been rewired to leave no trace. Her brain hammered against her skull as she dropped another tablet into the water. Tiny bubbles hovered to the surface as the white circle slowly dissolved. The familiar tapping of Briars leather shoes made her turn around to see him. Tired skin sagged from under his eyes.
"Go home Tia, there's not much else you can do here." Speak for yourself! Tia thought to herself but knew whatever she said would just fall on death ears. Besides he was right, there was no reason to stay around anymore. She patted him on the shoulder and ordered him to get to bed soon, something she was sure was going to be ignored.
"Hey Tia!" A voice called for her and she turned around to see her boss coming towards her, along with someone else, who she had never met before. He was very attractive, with dark hair hanging over his chocolate brown eyes, a well tailor suit to show off his trimmed figure and a dazzling white smile that reflected his perfect tanned skin. She had to shake her head hard to focus on her boss again. "Tia I just heard of what happened, I hope you're alright." Davis questioned, the concern on his face was real.
"Fine Davis, nothing to worry about." She waved off his concerned like she usually did when Davis was worried about her. "You should know I'm used to these things by now."
"Well, I'm upset that you were back to work so quickly, you weren't trying to do some work were you." He teased, trying to break the tension.
"No Davis, I just came into pick up the package." She shrugged. "Guess it didn't turn out well." It made her boss laugh, it was good to see him smiled under such stressful conditions. Davis always blamed himself when one of his employees in danger, especially if it happened in his own building. No matter how much money he got his company to spend on security, the bad guys always found a way to sneak through it.
"Tia, this is Mark Flanders, I was just interviewing him for the Senior Partner position." Tia and Mark shook hands but there was something in the way he looked at her the made her feel like a mouse being targeted by a bird of prey.
"It's nice to meet you." Mark smiled, white teeth flashing off against tanned skinned.
"It's nice to meet you too Mr Flanders." Tia answered. Just then, one of the tech's working in her office slipped over and whispered something into her boss' ear.
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid my attention is need elsewhere." Davis apologised to his two companions, giving a sympatric nod to Tia before turning to the other man. "It was good to meet you Mr Flanders, I'll be contacting you soon about the position." The man assured, holding out his hand for Mr Flanders to shake.
After all that had happened, Tia was just glad to be in the fresh air again. The sun was still high in the sky, so there was still a few hours to get things done. She still needed to pick out shoes for he son, go through the case files that had been dropped off at her office (before the whole bomb threat) and then she would have cook dinner for everyone at home tonight; which reminded her that she needed to pick up some food before she got home.
"I wish we could have met under better circumstances Miss de Medic." Mr Flanders smiled, his dazzling teeth making Tia's stomach perform a flip flop. Man this guy is smoking! Tia could help to wonder, only just releasing that she had used the word 'smoking' to describe a guy. She hadn't done that since… No! She refused to think of him right now. He was ancient history.
"Trust me, I've been in worse circumstances." Tia shrugged, trying not to notice how close she was standing next to her. Why had she not released this before?
"I don't mean to sound forward but would you like to go on a date tonight?"
