Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.
Chapter Twenty: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space
Computer officially shut down, Vanessa Kimball was just about to head out of her office for the night when she heard a slight knocking at the door. She glanced up in surprise given the rather late hour, only to find a woman a few years older than herself and a younger man standing in her office doorway. The brunette in particular looked somehow familiar to her, though she knew they'd never met face-to-face before. It only took a second for recognition to dawn on her when she heard the woman speak up, "Detective Vanessa Kimball?"
"Former detective now, though I'm going to assume you already knew that." Kimball stated plainly as she narrowed her brown eyes in consideration, "Wouldn't you, Ms. Andrews?"
"Oh, she's got you there!" The young man next to the well-known journalist was quick to respond, making a snapping motion with his fingers. Both women ignored him.
"I'm sorry we're bothering you so late." The reporter stated instead, tilting her head to the side thoughtfully as she regarded how Kimball had clearly been about to leave, "Were you just heading out?"
Kimball nodded, thinking of the party she'd been invited to and was already late for, which was entirely her fault for thinking she could try finishing up her less pressing cases in one sitting, "Whatever it is you have to say, could you make it quick?" She asked the press, not entirely sure why they were even there.
Dylan opened her mouth to respond when there was a fluttering sort of movement in the hallway behind her, "Yes, I'd appreciate that too." A familiar voice to Kimball's ears stated rather sardonically a mere moment later, "We're in a hurry, you see."
Kimball's eyes widened in surprise at seeing Carolina standing in a cyan skirt and white shirt ensemble. She had to tear her gaze away and keep her face schooled in a neutral expression, "What are you doing here?" She asked the redhead.
Carolina raised an eyebrow in mild amusement, "Isn't it obvious?" She replied to Kimball, "I thought we could go together."
Not that Kimball wasn't inwardly thrilled at the idea, but…
"Hey!" The dark-skinned young man next to Dylan exclaimed suddenly, "You're the lady who is usually at the crime scenes of those Special attacks for like a split second!" He gripped his boss' shoulder and pointed at Carolina as if now having definitive proof of something, "I told you it wasn't just smudges on my lens!"
Kimball and Carolina both looked at one another over the tops of the reporters' heads, Kimball wondering just how Carolina would want to approach this matter. Dylan was moving her head back and forth to shoot the pair an assessing gaze, "You certainly have interesting friends, Ms. Kimball." She muttered, mostly to herself.
Carolina took a step forward, a slight breeze coming from the hallway at that exact moment. Kimball couldn't help but wonder if she'd try to intimidate the two into silence. Not always a good idea when one liked the idea of freedom of the press.
But that brief worry seemed unnecessary, as Dylan didn't seem bothered or concerned by this turn of events. If anything, her brown eyes were gleaming with unconcealed excitement, "This is perfect." She stated, causing the other two women to glance towards her in open surprise, "I actually wanted to ask you a few questions about those attacks! Especially with the obvious cover-ups."
Kimball and Carolina both stared at one another again, and the redhead seemed to be considering their options before she gave Kimball a barely perceptible nod. "All right." Kimball stated in response to the still patiently waiting Dylan and her oddly clueless cameraman, "But can you ask your questions on the go? We're supposed to already be somewhere."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Matthews asked nervously for what was probably the umpteenth time since they'd exited Church's house to wander the nearby streets.
Antoine Bitters rolled his eyes at his friend's nervousness, "No, not really," he answered truthfully, "But I needed the fresh air."
There was only so much loud music, glitter, and light shows that Bitters could take in one sitting, and the party over at Church's had definitely maxed out his limit. To be fair, he was pretty sure it had maxed out Church's limit way earlier than his own, but an aggravated Church was forced to stick around and make sure none of his shit got ruined, as opposed to Bitters who could just leave any time he wanted. Matthews deciding to tag along was just an added bonus that he sure as hell wasn't going to complain about, even if the slightly younger teen was nervous about leaving Church's residence for the first time since the attempted kidnapping. Not that Bitters could necessarily blame him, but…
"You were going to have to step outside eventually, you know." He informed Matthews matter-of-factly.
Matthews nodded his head, his auburn hair covered in glitter thanks to Palomo's earlier antics. He looked nervous all the same though, "I know, but…" He trailed off and Bitters simply sighed and bumped his shoulder lightly with his own in a comradely fashion, ignoring how the other teen slightly winced at the force. Matthews was overdramatic like that. Bitters was used to it.
The last time they'd been at the party, it had been getting progressively louder and crazier. Donut and Kai had both declared a dance-off contest which no one else save them seemed interested in competing in, but boy were they getting into it! Donut had even dragged Doc out onto the quickly set-up dance floor, and the bespectacled brown-haired guy's face was about as red as a fire hydrant once the grinding started.
Kai was content to dance by herself like no one was watching, though she had been shouting about wanting to do a striptease for a jubilant Volleyball in particular as the other "lieutenants" cheered her on. Palomo was trying desperately to get Jensen to dance with him, but she was still a bit annoyed with him for getting glitter in her retainers and thus seemed to be enjoying his pleading a bit too much. Andersmith had been busy with Caboose watching Junior interweave between the legs of his father and Washington as they got into a rather heated discussion on the best way to simply have fun at a party while apparently enjoying themselves immensely discussing that very topic. Lopez was helping Sheila with suggestions for the light show following the dolphin act for Caboose earlier.
The Triplets and their former Insurrection cohorts had gathered everyone else around for an impromptu game of "Never Have I Ever" and to also share battle stories or some shit. Sarge and Grey were both laughing and giggling and falling into one another when Bitters and Matthews had left, and every one of the legal drinking age save for a very amused-looking Tex seemed pretty red-faced already at just the halfway point. Bitters suspected that Doc would be handing out some of his homeopathic hangover remedies tomorrow when all was said and done, though personally he thought it was bullshit since they weren't allowing any of the younger guests to even try some of the alcohol.
…Which had led to him wanting to escape to the outside, and now here they were. He couldn't really complain. After all, Matthews was pretty good company for being a nervous suck-up and…
"Bitters."
He stopped walking abruptly at the serious note in Matthews' tone, wondering just what had put the other teen on edge. Matthews was glancing at a figure in black, walking down the opposite end of the street as them in a way reminiscent of being just as smashed as most of the adults were back at Church's. Matthews' whole body tensed up, "That's one of the guys who tried capturing me!" He exclaimed just loud enough for Bitters to hear.
Bitters tensed, heat instinctively coiling around his now smoking fingers, "You sure?" He asked, anger starting to seethe in the pit of his stomach.
A nod, Matthews' face was grim, "I wouldn't forget that."
Bitters knew he wouldn't. After all, the young man in tan and yellow had a memory like a steel trap for all the trauma his asshole parents inflicted on him even though Matthews never wanted to admit it outright. "All right." Bitters whispered, "I have a fucking plan."
And so, just a few seconds later, a fidgeting Matthews was crossing over the silent street right in front of the still swerving guy, "H—hey!" He called out in as brave a voice as he could muster despite his trembling.
The man squinted over at him, recognition dawning across his drunken face a few moments later when he saw the fear looming brightly in Matthews' widened hazel gaze, "I know you." He managed to heavily slur out, "You're that brat who got away! Do you have any fucking clue how much trouble I got into because of you?!"
"So you figured you'd drink yourself stupid?" Matthews put on a good face of bravado just then, "That's pretty fucking lame."
"Whatever." The man scoffed, "If I get you now, no one's going to be calling Miller out as a failure anymore!" He stumbled forward as if to grab at Matthews then, but the auburn-haired teen simply stepped backwards and let gravity do its thing. Miller fell into a heap on the sidewalk. He glared up at Matthews, "You little shit!"
But there was a rush of heat and air from behind as Bitters activated his ability, flames shooting up from his hands rather threateningly, "You were saying, asshole?" He asked with a smirk, hoping to at least singe the guy a little.
Miller turned his head abruptly and puked right there on the sidewalk. Matthews and Bitters both let out an "Eww!" at the same time as they quickly stepped away from the heavily inebriated man.
It was just then that a sudden burst of air caused Bitters' fire to rise up even higher than he had planned, Carolina suddenly racing over to the three of them, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded, Kimball and two more people who Bitters didn't recognize hot on her heels.
"He's one of the assholes who tried kidnapping Matthews!" Bitters quickly replied, wanting to defend himself from her rather heated question.
Understanding glinted in Carolina's eyes for a brief second, though she looked rather tired all the same, "And just what were you planning on doing with him now?" She asked Bitters, clearly curious.
"Uh…" Bitters glanced sheepishly over at Matthews, the pair drawing a blank on what they had been expecting to do next, "We hadn't exactly figured that part out yet."
"I thought so." Carolina muttered, knitting her eyebrows together in thought as she peered down at Miller.
"Oh wow." The young man who had walked up to them with Kimball and the other woman exclaimed happily, "This is shaping up to be an awesome story! Check out all the plot twists!"
The brunette standing next to the stranger merely sighed and shook her head.
Dexter Grif stood in front of the main computer terminal for Church's house, wishing fervently that the download he'd been instructed to get would hurry up and finish. Right now, Church and Sheila both seemed distracted enough by the party escapades that they shouldn't have noticed what he was up to. However, his cover would be fucking blown if anyone happened to come by in the next few seconds.
"Grif?" Of course a tentative voice would call out his name from the hallway, because Grif's luck had always been pretty shitty.
Grif froze at the sound of Simmons' slightly slurred voice. He took in a deep breath and moved so that he was standing in the doorway's space, effectively blocking entrance and vision into the room behind him, "Simmons." He tried going for casual and probably failed miserably, "Frien—buddy! What are you doing down here?"
They were in the lower levels of Church's residence, past the training area. It wasn't exactly a spot someone would go without a purpose, and Grif hoped that the glitter-coated Simmons was tipsy enough not to really pick up on that fact just then. The redhead certainly looked it, his face a splotchy red save for his freckles and his all too pale synthetic skin grafts.
"I was…" Simmons hiccupped, "I felt something and you weren't there, so I got bored!"
Yeah, this was probably something the cyborg would never admit to sober and Grif couldn't help but raise a dark eyebrow and smirk at how he was mentioned in the same breath too, "Really?" He asked, surprisingly giddy and elated, before something that Simmons had said caused alarm bells to go off in his brain, "You felt something?" Shit! He hadn't counted on the nerd's cybernetics being sensitive to things like large amounts of data being copied!
"Yeah. Like a…" Simmons waved his arms weakly as he tried to come up with a way to describe what he'd meant, "Pulling. Or a really bad itch you can't scratch."
Simmons hadn't seemed to put two and two together just yet though, and Grif was immensely grateful. He stepped outside of the room, the door shutting behind him and effectively cutting off the space from view completely. Simmons swayed where he stood, and Grif noticed for not the first time just how exhausted the other man looked. He hadn't really gotten the chance for a good night's rest yet, huh? Of course he hadn't, Grif reminded himself with a flash of brief annoyance, given how high-strung Simmons was and how adamant he'd been on not receiving help. Never mind that Grif so rarely offered it to people in the first place.
The redhead really couldn't know what was going on in the computer room. For all of their sakes. The underlying threat implied in the message that Grif had gotten before was still clear as day in his head. They could very well hurt Kai if he didn't do what he was ordered to. Simmons nearly fell over then, and Grif instinctively reached out to grab his arm in order to steady him, the action pulling them closer together than he had intended.
Simmons flushed even more at the sudden contact, and actually giggled, "I think I'm drunk." He stage-whispered over to Grif as if he was telling him a huge secret.
"Uh-huh." Grif replied, the grip on the maroon-wearing man's arm not lessening.
Simmons frowned, once again peering over his shoulder at the closed-off room, "My cybernetics must be on the fritz because I can swear…"
"Simmons." Grif's hold on his arm tightened marginally and he clasped onto Simmons' lack of inhibitions just then and his tiredness. They were so easy to hold onto, floating as they were at the very top of the redhead's emotions right then. The chubby man reminded himself that this was for Simmons' own good despite the sudden wave of guilt he felt. If Simmons found out what Grif was really doing, then…
"Wh—what?" Simmons was peering over at him curiously before staring down at the heavyset man's fingers still wrapped around his arm. Realization seemed to dawn on his features at how he could simply reach out and touch Grif's chest given how close together they were currently standing, his face heating up all the more in that cute flustered way Grif was starting to somehow see as endearing. Not that he'd ever fucking admit it to anyone. Ever.
"Simmons, you're tired." Grif began, pushing that suggestion to the forefront of the lanky redhead's being, "You're really exhausted, aren't you?"
The cyborg yawned, trying to blink the sudden sleep from his eyes, "I'm not…"
"Look, it seems like it's even affecting your cybernetics now too." Grif continued in that coaxing sort of tone he always used when he activated his Special ability, "Don't you think a nap would be good?"
"I…" Simmons furrowed his eyebrows together in tired consternation.
"I love naps." Grif was slowly, slowly walking them away from the door. He kept repeating in the back of his mind how all of this was for Simmons' own good given the situation. For his little sister's good too. He had passed a room before that had been set up like some sort of bunker, complete with a bed. Grif knew that Church probably had the place set up for when the dark-haired man couldn't be bothered heading upstairs again after working on computer projects all through the night. He guided a now very bleary-eyed Simmons into the room until they were standing over the mattress.
"I'm not…sleepy…" Simmons tried protesting again, but his eyelids were struggling to stay open. Grif gently pushed him down on the bed, the other having lost the energy to try and fight the motion.
"Simmons." He murmured again, softly running a hand through the cyborg's red hair. It was fine. The kiss-ass would get some much needed rest and wouldn't even remember a damn thing in the morning about what was going on given how drunk he was, "You need to rest." Grif ordered.
"Rest." Simmons repeated the word sleepily and finally his eyes started to close, "Maybe…" He didn't even finish his sentence before drifting off.
Before Grif could even stop himself or think too deeply on why he did it, he was brushing his lips over the other man's forehead lightly, "Sorry, Simmons." He muttered, feeling a sharp stab of guilt at his core even though he knew it was necessary. If someone found out what he was about to do, there was no telling what kind of danger everyone would be in.
…At least now the nerd could get some proper rest.
Grif closed the door to the bunker room behind him, making sure it locked shut as he did so. He'd wake Simmons up himself once the download had completed, if Simmons didn't end up waking up himself beforehand. Grif hoped he wouldn't though. He knew that the redhead could really use the sleep, and that the dumb cyborg didn't really take the best care of himself.
He kept repeating to himself over and over again that he'd done the right thing as he made his way back to the computer room to check on the download's progress. When he opened the door, however, the sight that awaited him made his blood run cold.
The download had finished already, which was great news. But what totally sucked was the form of one Agent Washington standing right next to the computer terminal.
The blond former Freelancer had his back turned to Grif, staring at the screen announcing that the download was complete before he reached over and pulled out the flash drive himself, "Hi, Grif," he stated without preamble as his grip tightened marginally around the drive he was holding, "We really need to talk."
Author's Notes: I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to this fic! As some of you may know, I have quite a few longer WIPs that I'm currently working on, but I'm going to try and be good about not creating anymore of them until I finish at least one or two of the ones I'm working on right now! I love these stories, and even if it takes me a while to complete them because I have so many and real life can get hectic, finishing them is something I definitely want to do! Getting the chance to jump back into this story again was actually quite fun!
Next time in Specials: Church might actually have a dungeon, Washington and Grif meet up with a certain pair of mercenaries, and Simmons gets treated to some yummy hangover food. :)