The party was exactly what Janice remembered it to be.  Some of the wealthiest business people on the East Coast were there along with assorted politicians and military leaders.  Everyone was smiling politely and sipping expensive champagne and pretending that they actually liked each other.  By two in the morning, most of the dignified, respectable people would be gone, and the remainders would be completely drunk, and anything but respectable and dignified.  This year she had won a heated round of "rock, paper, scissors" and got to pull the first shift, which was over at midnight.

It was a different feeling having a date with her, especially since he knew most of the people there by name.  Name hell, he kept whispering to her some of their dirty little secrets, and she was having a hard time not laughing out loud.  Some of them she knew, like Senator Broward's little side-fluff that he kept up in Vermont, but others she didn't.  Cole waited until she was taking a sip of champagne to mention that the billionaire Don Markham was probably wearing women's underwear beneath his designer tux.  Janice would have been okay except the man started walking and she realized he was moving like a woman with a wedgie.  She had to fight to keep from spitting champagne all over the floor.  She did stomp on Cole's toe for that one.  He just shot her a grin.

Cole had to admit that if Janice hadn't been there, he might have called a couple of his brothers to come and storm the place.  She had to leave for a minute to go to "the ladies room", translated, she had to talk to one of her people that were on unseen guard duty, probably on the roof somewhere.  This was beyond boring.  He knew most of the people, and they didn't impress him in the slightest.  He'd kept with Janice, working the crowd, keeping his eyes open for any trouble.  This should be an FBI kind of assignment, but the CIA was much more familiar with international troublemakers.  It didn't make it any less boring though, even with the two snow leopards prowling around in their cage in the middle of the room.

"Major?" a startled voice came from behind Cole.  He turned to see General Wellington watching him.

Cole managed a polite smile.  "Good evening, sir."  Wellington was technically his superior, and one of the few that knew about his true history.  He was also usually in a bad mood whenever a low ranking "special attaché" would be called into a meeting with a member of the Joint Chiefs and then not tell him about what had been said.

Wellington stepped in closer.  "Is there trouble expected tonight?" he asked in a low voice, glancing around the room.  Cole smirked.  He was looking for some other X-6, not that he would know what one looked like in the first place.

"Not that I know of," Cole replied casually.

 "What are you here for then?" the general asked quickly.  He gave Cole a hard look.  "You're not doing private security are you?"  There was a note of triumph in his voice.  If Cole was renting himself out, well, this was all that was needed to get him off of his staff.  Wellington didn't care what they were keeping Lydecker around for, but he got the creeps every time that freak was near.

"I'm here because I was invited," Cole said.  He took a drink of his champagne, trying not to laugh at Wellington's surprise.  The guy was an egotistical moron that thought stars on his collar begat intelligence.  In the military you had to have someone to report to, and for Cole that someone was Wellington.  Unfortunately, The Powers That Be thought it best to explain to Wellington why Cole would be rather low-ranked for the position he was in, and especially when considering his record and official years of service.  Cole knew why.  He didn't blame them really.  He was never going to be ranked high enough where he might be in charge of anything major.  The public notices people in those positions.  People in those positions might be investigated, and there were a few gaps in Cole's history that the public didn't need to know about.

"There you are!" Janice said coming up behind Cole.  She smiled at him, catching the glint of amusement in his eyes.  "Sorry I took so long, but I ran into Debra Whitestone, and she wanted to show me Snowflake and Noel's new matching collars."

"Not a problem," Cole replied, slipping his arm around her.  Wellington almost dropped his glass, especially when Janice smiled at him.

"Benton," she greeted.  "Nice to see you again."  There was something in her tone that said the pleasure was far more hers than his.

He swallowed hard, glancing from her to Cole as if he couldn't quite believe that they were there together.  "It's…ah…good to see you as well," he finally replied.

Janice glanced at Cole, hoping he wouldn't start laughing.  If he did, there was no way she was going to be able to hold back.  "You didn't tell me that you knew Benton," she said in a playfully accusing tone.

"I'm attached to the General's staff at the Pentagon," Cole explained, knowing that Janice would get the difference between being "on his staff" and being "attached to his staff".

Janice elegantly swept a glass of champagne off of the tray of a passing server, and held it up in a toast to Wellington.  "I can see you still have excellent taste then," she commented, and then took a sip.  She looked up at Cole.  "Debra's going to be taking the leopards out in a minute, and asked me to be over there.  Ever pet one before?"

Cole grinned.  "I'm not much of a cat person really," he said, making her snicker.  Wellington caught that little by-play.  His expression didn't change, but Cole caught a few of his mental comments.  She knew?  They seemed to be…together.  How could that be if she knew?  Had she told him about the time…

"But I guess we should get over there anyways," Cole said, blocking off Wellington's thoughts.  He didn't want to know the man that well.  Whatever Janice had over him, if she wanted to say something, she would, but he wasn't going to pry.  There were some things you just didn't need to know.  Cole looked over at the general.  "Happy New Year's to you, sir."  He made his exit with Janice quickly, wandering to the middle of the room where Debra was to be opening the cage.

"I can't believe you have to work for that guy," Janice commented in a low voice, wrinkling her nose for a second with distaste.  "He's such a…a…"

"I know exactly what he is," Cole finished for her.  "But he's the type that won't delve too deeply into what I'm really doing.  He's too pissy that the people that he can only get hold of their secretaries, I have their direct and cell numbers.  That's why I was assigned to his staff and not someone with a clue."  He blew out a breath.  "Everything okay out there?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Fine," she answered, her volume dropping.  Cole could hear her fine anyways.  "It was some paparazzi wanting to see if he could get some pictures.  He probably won't remember much about tonight, but such is life."  Cole snickered as they both seemed to be watching the leopards pacing about, their new diamond and ruby collars twinkling under the lights.

"Looks like someone is trying to hack their heads off," Cole muttered.  The ruby collars were not flattering at all, and looked more like blood dripping down their necks than precious gems.  Janice let out a little laugh.  That was her thought exactly, but Debra was so pleased about them, she wouldn't see how hideous they really were.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Harris Whitestone announced from where the band was playing.  "On behalf of my family, and of course, Snowflake and Noel, we would like to thank you all for coming to celebrate their birth."  Janice rolled her eyes as he babbled on for a few minutes about how endangered they were and how these two were so important to the world.  She checked her watch.  Ten minutes until midnight.  Ten minutes and she was off duty.

"And with that in mind, I know that we will have more of their kind back in the wild, and someday be taken off the endangered species list," Harris finished with a flourish of polite applause from the guests.  "Ah, as I can see, it's almost midnight.  After we officially ring in the New Year, Debra is going to be taking our lovely girls out to personally meet their guests.  Until then, enjoy, and Happy New Year's to you all."  There was another round of applause as he left the microphone and the band started playing again.

"Same speech, different year," Janice muttered.  Cole glanced down at her.  "You can set your watch to it," she explained in a low voice.  "And if you look by the cage door, Debra is pouting because she has to wait to let the cats out."  Cole took a covert glance and bit back a laugh.  Debra, a woman in her mid-fifties, was pouting openly.

At the Whitestone affair, it was tradition that there would be dancing only after Harris gave his speech, and then the first dance would end as the New Year's countdown began.  Janice had no idea who came up with that gem of an idea.  Probably Debra since her and Harris usually led out the first dance.  She was the type that had to be the center of attention at all times.  Janice watched as Harris led his wife to the dance floor and began the first dance with her.  She also noticed the blonde in her early twenties glaring at them.  Odd, Harris's mistress was the redhead by the stairs.  Janice didn't want to analyze the situation further.  Sometimes always noticing the small details was not a gift.

Other couples began filtering onto the dance floor.  A few were a bit unsteady depending on the amount of champagne they had already consumed that evening, but for the most part all was well.  Janice glanced at her watch again.  A few more minutes to go.  She wanted to get out of here so she could really enjoy her night with Cole.  For a moment she thought back to their date when they had walked hand-in-hand on the snowy streets and talked.  If they had a repeat of that, she certainly wouldn't complain even if she had been frozen when they finally got back to her apartment.

"Would you like to dance?"  Cole's question broke through her thoughts.  Janice knew she should say no.  She wasn't allowed to have anything resembling enjoyment for another four minutes.  Then he smiled.

"I'd love to," she said softly.  He took her hand and led her to the dance floor, his arm wrapping around her waist, their eyes meeting as they moved in time to the music.  This wasn't keeping an eye on the crowd.  Who cared, it was wonderful anyways.  Cole normally moved like a regular man, but sometimes his natural sense of grace and rhythm couldn't be contained.

"Why is New Year's so special to you?" Janice asked, more to distract herself from getting completely caught up in him and forgetting where she was than to get an answer.  She had realized that this night was important to Cole for some reason other than the obvious.

He looked a bit embarrassed for a moment.  "It was the first holiday we learned about," he replied softly.  "We didn't know about Christmas or Easter, but we knew that the year did change, and the day it did, there was less personnel on base.  It…it became talismanic to us.  Making it another year.  We always made sure we were together that night."

He was with the people he cared about, Janice thought with a little shiver.  That's why he was so nervous about asking me out.  He only spends it with people that are…special to him.  She couldn't help the brilliant smile from spreading across her face.  She was glad she was with him.  He was rapidly becoming special to her as well.

The music changed to the New Year's countdown, but they continued the slow and easy dance as the crowd around them started to chant.  10…9…8…7…their faces drifted closer together for a kiss at the stroke of midnight, for once neither of them caring about keeping a proper appearance in public.  6…5…4…3…2…Janice could feel his breath against her lips.  Neither was expecting the loud squeal as a body crashed into them.

Cole caught the movement out of the corner of his eye a split second before she actually hit them.  His lightning reflexes pulled Janice to the right slightly, as he took the full impact of the drunken woman tripping on her four inch stiletto heels and tumbling into them.  Her champagne glass slapped against his chest, spilling the contents down his jacket as she fell to the floor, giggling wildly.

"I've fallen, and I can't get up!" she cried out, and then started to laugh again.  Her tight gold dress had ridden up, exposing thighs best left to the imagination.  The man she was with tried helping her up, but she flailed about, demanding another drink in between drunken laughs.  Janice and Cole just looked at each other, disgust written plainly on each other's faces.  She glanced over at the clock, and then back at him.  It was 12:01 AM.

"Ready?" he asked.

"You have no idea," she growled, stepping over the woman on the floor.  Cole took her hand as they fled as quickly as possible, the next shift discreetly coming into play.