Chapter 97
After the whirlwind weekend Alex had she was happy when she woke up in her own house, her own bed and surrounded by the other two members of her family on Monday morning. Phoebe had learned the art of sleeping though most of the nigh and to only wake up around 5AM, which was better than the 2AM cries they had to deal with when she was younger.
It was 05:15 and she sat up in her crib playing with her pacifier, moving it from one hand to the other before finally deciding to discard it. Making her way to a standing position she stood up with her little hands curled around the edge, chewing on the white wood contently until someone wakes up and finally gives her some attention. Or if they don't she'll demand it either way.
It wasn't long when Alex turned around and saw her daughter chewing on the edge of the crib that she decided to take her out and place her on the bed. Having to sit up and restrict her busy little human from crawling too far to the edge of the bed. Ending her father's sleep when she crawled over to him and settled on hitting his face with her little hands continuously until he woke up.
"No Phoebe." He groaned not opening his eyes. The fact that he responded seemed to urge her on when she repeated the action.
"Daddy was never a morning person baby girl." Alex told Phoebe softly Ryan heard and opened one eye looking at his wife.
"Don't listen to that Pheebs, mommy's lying." He changed his mind giving his daughter some attention that she's been trying to get since the moment her mother put her down on the bed.
Alex held up her phone to get a look at the time. 05:30, she could do with some more sleep but right now that wasn't even an option. She might as well get up and get the day started instead of lying in bed waiting for her alarm to go off.
She turned on the shower leaving Phoebe and her father to their playing so early in the morning. Setting out clothes for both herself and her daughter she headed towards the shower, smiling when she heard the laughter and babbling coming from the bedroom.
When Alex entered the office she was overwhelmed by questions of people asking her how she's doing and if her mom and Joey will be okay. She had no idea how fast the news had spread but she was grateful for all the support she got and people who cared.
She walked over to her desk seeing the usual bunch and two of her friends, who were just as surprised as she was when they saw their fourth wheel walk into the office.
"Shelby Haas?" Natalie asked looking at the blonde in surprise.
"Good morning to you too, Natalie. And the rest of you." She greeted walking over to her desk as their eyes followed her.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you still be on maternity leave?" Alex trying to calculate in her head how old little CJ is by now.
"Yes I should. But Caleb agreed to stay at home and watch him for the day while I come in to work." She explained switching on her computer. "I got bored at home might as well do something productive, tomorrow I'll be out of your hair again." She said and the rest accepted her answer. Not sure how Maranda would take it when she saw them there.
They went through their usual morning routine and an email got their attention. But they were discouraged when they came to the end of it saying that they were lacking Special Agents to go with them into the field so it'll be best if it is put on hold for now.
"This is like giving someone cake and then taking it away before they even got to taste it." Nimah whined and turned her attention back to the tasks they needed to get up to date. Lazily because none of them liked the admin part that went along with the job.
Alex walked out to the cafeteria to get some coffee, and make a quick phone call to her mother to see how she was doing. Sita answered on the third ring answering the phone groggily.
"Hello child." Sita answered sleep still evident in her voice and Alex felt bad for waking her mother.
"Hey Ma Sorry I didn't mean to wake you I was just calling to see how you guys are doing." She explained quickly walking up to the counter and held up four fingers, the waiter smiling and nodding her head knowing what she wants to order.
"We're fine, you need to stop worrying now. I think you've done more than your share of that this past weekend that you guys were here. If something changes we'll let you know." Sita answered knowing it won't be enough to settle her daughter's mind.
"All right. But the moment I find out you or Uncle Joey are down playing anything Ryan and I will be back there." Alex warned and her mother smiled at her daughter's word of warning.
"Yes Alexandra." Sita smiled knowing how much she hated it when her mother called her by her full name. "Joey and I will let you know in case anything changes. Thank you for caring baby girl. And I love you Alex."
"I love you too, Ma. And I'm not a baby anymore." She whined accepting the coffee. Turning around when Shelby pulled her into a corner at the cafeteria and she put the coffee down on the table.
"What's up? Is everything okay?" Alex asked not sure what to make if all this.
"Firstly, why didn't you tell me about your mom? I'm glad they're going to be okay though. Secondly, that email we got this morning. What do you think about us going to check it out at lunch time?" Shelby suggested looking at her friend in suspense.
"I don't know. It said we're not going because we don't have enough Special Agents available for the day but I mean we've done a few cases without them before. So why not ask Maranda if we.."
"No. We don't ask Maranda if we can go, we just go. Because of we ask her she's going to stop us. So let's just go." Shelby said and Alex thought about it for a while before she nodded her head and shrugged.
They delivered the coffee to the rest of their squad members and sat down filling out forms for the rest of the day until lunch time and the two of them can slip away without the rest finding it odd.
When the office got empty and everyone went their ways for the lunch hour, Shelby and Alex walked outside and got into Shelby's car driving to the warehouse address that was stated in the email.
It said that there were a bunch of drugs stashed down there, but it there was heavy security. People sleeping inside the warehouse and never abandoning it. At least not until the drugs were shipped off to who knows where. They pulled up in front of the abandoned building, windows covered with black plastic. No one was standing outside so they assumed it was fine to enter. The door were hanging on its last hinges and creaked when they opened it.
"You sure you wanna do this?" Alex asked her friend when they stood in the doorway and she nodded as they walked inside slowly checking corners for someone hiding. For a stash house it was relatively empty except for a few boxes that were stashed on top of each other in the middle of the floor.
The light was low and little dust particles flowed around in the air where the windows wasn't closed with the black plastic properly. A loud noise stopped the two women in their tracks, both of them unsure of the noise came from but pointed their weapons in the direction they think they might have heard it.
A young man about the age of fifteen or sixteen appeared from behind one of the boxed with a knife in his hand slowly walking towards the two of them.
"What are you doing here?" He asked looking at them pointing the knife out.
"We can ask you the same." Alex said and the teen laughed dryly.
"You two think you're untouchable don't you. I mean I would hate it if I had to mess up two pretty faces with my knife work." He said twisting it around in his hand.
"Hey! Cut the crap and tell us who you're working for and what you're hiding in the boxes." Alex lost her patience with the young man.
"And so feisty. Let's start with a formal introduction first. May I get your name?" He said walking over to Alex but before he got to her Shelby punched him in the nose and he stumbled back for a little while, regaining his balance he came back at her with the knife pointed in her direction but Alex knocked it out of his hand, and it slid across the floor. Punching him again and restraining him on the floor. Two older men with pistols and two more teens with knifes walked out from behind the boxes.
"Seems like we have company. DJ's the name. And that guy you have pinned down there is Sylvester. Now, if I were you I'd let go of him." DJ said calmly
"Or what?" Shelby asked walking up towards the men.
"Trust me you don't want to get into our bad side. My guys might be young but I'm giving them more training than any formal school will give them. You see this is the school of hard knocks." DJ said stroking a finger across Shelby's cheek but she swats his hand away.
"Get your hands off me." She said grabbing a hold of his wrist. He turned back to his entourage and they all laughed slowly forming a circle around the two women. Alex let go of the teen she had in a hold on the floor and he walked off to where the others came from.
It was only the two of them compared to all of these guys. They can't call for back up because they're not supposed to be where they are. And if the FBI finds them here they could be in serious trouble.
"Look. Just answer the question, what do you guys have in these boxes and why are you using minors to do your dirty work for you?" Alex asked turning around slowly weapon pointing out in front of her.
"That has nothing to do with you two bitches!" DJ yelled out and punched Shelby's stomach who was closer to him. She let out a low groan and hunched down onto the floor holding her abdomen. Alex's breath got caught in her throat and she felt bad for her friend sitting in that position, but she cannot risk attending to her right now.
Before she could think twice she shot DJ in the shoulder, and when he stumbled back the other man who was with him came forward. Shelby had no idea where she got the strength from but she got herself together. She got up and shot the second one in the stomach.
The teens came at them with knifes but they managed to fight them.
"Alex look out!" Shelby yelled but the teen was on Alex already. He was stronger than Alex expected and she fought with him. He ran behind her and ripped open the sleeve of her shirt with the edge of the knife holding it against her skin as a threat to stab her, when the door creaked and Liam and Maranda rushed inside.
"Don't even think about it." Liam said calmly and he let the knife drop. Shelby who was fighting with the other one looked up when she heard the voices from the door.
"Wyatt, Parrish wait outside." Maranda said her eyes spitting fire and the two of them knew better than having to argue with them. They took one last look at the scene. The two guys bleeding the teens looking at the other agents who entered letting their weapons fall to the ground.
Maranda and Liam took over the scene and got the guys arrested. Avoiding eye contact with their superiors they got into the car and followed the other two to the office.
It didn't have to be said they walked straight to Maranda's office and waited for her there, neither of them saying anything to each other. When she came in they stood up.
"What were the two of you thinking! Didn't I state that no one will go to that scene because we're lacking Special Agents today? What if we didn't get there in time. What if you couldn't get the two older men and they hurt you guys. What if something worse happened?" Maranda yelled neither the blonde nor the brunette replied.
"Maranda I'm sorry. I told Alex we should.."
"I don't want to hear it Wyatt. You two know I can fire you on the spot for insubordination. See this as your first verbal warning. Next time I may not be so nice." Maranda took a seat behind her computer looking at them.
They got up without a word nodding at her walking towards the door.
"You had good intentions. I appreciate it, but don't do it again." Maranda said not looking at them, a small smile appeared on their faces and they left the office. That smile soon disappeared when Ryan was standing in his office door when Alex left Maranda's office and she knew he heard it somewhere. Shelby walked back downstairs ready to call it a day and head back to her family.
Her stomach settled but she thought about getting it checked out since she had a c section and anything can go wrong.
She walked into the room and he closed the door behind him, Alex standing in the middle of the floor arms crossed over her chest. "That was bad ass don't you think?" She smiled looking at him.
"What!? Alex what the hell were you thinking! Do you know what could have happened. Both you and Shelby in a room full of men who couldn't care less about the two of you." Ryan said raising his voice.
"But nothing happened, Ryan. We're fine."
"That's not the point! Alex there are rules in place to protect you but if you're going to keep breaking them then you're gonna get hurt. And when that happens I can promise you it's going to be ugly." Ryan said looking at her hoping she would see how serious he is about all of this.
"If it were you and Liam, or Caleb or Matthew do you think it would've been such a big deal? Just because it was two women it becomes an issue. That's sexist and I can't believe you're…
"That's not the point! Damnit Alexandra just. Sometimes I just need you to stop thinking about what's happening in the moment and think about consequences." He sighed but Alex shook her head, not only annoyed by the fact that he is making such a big deal out of it, but he uses her full name. That's usually when she knows he means business.
"We caught the drugs before they were shipped off to who knows where. We got the two guys who made use of child labor to do their dirty work on their behalf. Those teens are finally getting the help they need and hopefully they won't return to gang life. See the other side to this also." She tried to rationalize with him.
Not waiting for his reply she walked out of his office looking for Shelby to see how she's doing.
Hey guys someone asked for a case Shelby and Alex need to work on together. I'm not entirely happy about it but here it is. And I figured we didn't have some drama in a long time. Thank you for reading.
