It was quiet at CIA headquarters late Saturdays mornings. Some people would come in early in the morning to get a little work done, but they were usually in by six and out by ten, racing off to be with their families or significant others or whoever. It was now ten thirty in the morning and Janice was relishing the sudden calm. There were a few support personnel there; the place was never empty of people, but for the most part, it was very quiet and you could get some work done.
Janice wanted to get some work done at the very least. She was supposed to be pulling together several analyses of a situation developing in Africa, and coming up with a proper plan if going in and making adjustments were required. It was due on Monday, and she had yet to get more than four sentences together that made sense. "Kill 'em all and let God sort them out" was not considered proper CIA protocol even if it was a method they used occasionally. It was still all she could think of. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes trying to come up with the least violent method for doing what needed to be done.
Castrating the jerks causing the problems would leave them alive. Unfortunately most of her superiors were men, and there was just no way they could allow that to happen to another of their species. Maybe…maybe…Janice sighed, her eyes flicking open. She knew where her tendencies towards killing and/or maiming men were coming from. Cole. As much as she didn't want to admit it, the whole situation was really bothering her. She was working fifteen to eighteen hours a day to keep from going home and having time to think about it.
She still wasn't sure what happened. It had been two weeks since that night. She hadn't heard a damn thing. She thought about maybe calling, or even asking Xander, but then decided that since he was the one to walk out, she wasn't going to run after him, begging and wailing to find out what happened. She had far more pride than that. Women that did that were looked on as weak doormats. It didn't matter that she had caught herself a few times almost about to hit the last digit of his phone number so she could talk to him and ask what the deal was. She hadn't dialed it.
And it wasn't like she didn't know what the deal was. She had made a simple error in judgment. She thought they were heading into a relationship and he wanted more of a one-nighter than something long term. He must have realized that, and then left rather than tell her she had made a mistake. Maybe that was his way of being nice about it. Maybe he was a total jerk and needed to be castrated along with the assholes in Africa.
Janice had thought about talking to Xander to see what was going on. But she couldn't do it at work, and she didn't want to call him at home. If Cole answered, then that would just be more than she could handle. Besides, she had a feeling Xander wouldn't want to talk about Cole anyways. Janice had heard some people laughing about Brickman the day after New Year's Day, and when she asked, they said she would have see for herself. She had. He had blacked eyes and a taped up nose. Others assumed it was a barroom brawl or something, but Janice knew a regular person couldn't get to him like that. It would have taken another X-6 to do that, and Janice was willing to bet she knew who had. Why would Cole be so upset to get into a fight with his brother though? According to the male code of behavior, they should have opened a couple of beers while Cole bragged about bagging her. Maybe Xander didn't appreciate such talk about a fellow agent and that's why they fought. That made the more sense then Xander upsetting Cole.
"Agent Miller," a familiar voice that still put shivers of disgust up her spine called from the doorway. Janice shoved thoughts of Cole out of her mind and steeled herself to talk to Special Agent Carlton Danvers.
Janice looked up and then stood, feeling his eyes drip over her body. He was the creep she had refused the honor of sleeping with. On the weekends, suits were not required and Janice was glad that he wasn't getting to see much of her figure with her heavy sweater loose around her body and her slacks that certainly didn't cling to her body. She caught the note of disappointment in his eyes before going back to his usual superior smirk. He was probably trying to envision her in some studded leather teddy beneath her rather frumpy attire.
"Agent Danvers," she greeted coolly. "What can I do for you?" She mentally cringed, knowing he was thinking about things she could be doing to him. His thoughts seemed to broadcast out with a light coat of telepathic slime. But this time he seemed as though there was some secret joke that only he knew about and it was on her.
"Well, there seems to be a bit of a mystery that I believe you could clear up," he said, gliding into the office, looking about with a smirk. Her office was actually a medium sized room that housed her entire team. It didn't have a window. He didn't quite have a corner office yet, but he had a window and a decent parking spot.
"Well, you got me," she said a little sarcastically, throwing her hands up. "I was the one on the grassy knoll. I also cleaned up Roswell. It was a pretty busy century, luckily this one has been quiet."
"When I want you to be sarcastic, I will tell you," he said. She blinked, not apologizing in the slightest. There wasn't much he could do to her really. Granted, the tape of him coming onto her couldn't be used in formal proceedings since he didn't know the call was being recorded, but it would ruin his career in a less than spectacular way. Since he couldn't do anything really damaging, he could still give her lousy assignments as punishments, like the Whitestone party.
"I just had a rather interesting phone call from General Wellington, US Air Force," Danvers announced as if she didn't know who he was. "It would seem that you were doing more at the party than you were supposed to be." He noticed the tightening of her lips. "Exactly why was the Air Force involved, and why did you feel it was not required to tell me?" he snapped.
"The Air Force wasn't involved," Janice replied sharply.
He smirked. It reminded her that she was armed. If you shot your boss, then who would be there to punish you? That was a great philosophical question up there with a tree falling in the woods.
"Really?" Danvers drawled out. "Then please enlighten me as to what you were doing there with a certain Major Cole Lydecker." She was damn good at keeping control of her expression, but at the mention of his name, Danvers could see a flicker in her guard. She wasn't expecting him to know that she was bringing in outside help. But for what? He had overheard Brickman mention her name. Was there a special assignment she had been given directly by Brickman? Why had he been taken out of the loop then? Was she up for a promotion?
"It's never been forbidden for me to be there with an escort," she replied evenly.
Danvers changed tactics. He wanted to know what was going on. He'd make the accusation so far off base that she would admit to the real reason just to keep him from thinking the worst. Women. They were so easy to predict. He knew she hadn't killed Reispian. She didn't have what it took to be so cold-blooded and calculating.
"And why exactly did you feel it was acceptable to bring your boyfriend?"
"He's not my boyfriend," she replied heatedly. So this is what it was all about. Danvers wasn't allowed in her bed, so he was going to try and find out who was. Not going to happen.
There was something slightly off, but Danvers insisted. He was on the right track. He knew it. "Of course he isn't," Danvers said patronizingly. "He's not your boyfriend, he's not mentioned on reports, therefore he is what…a one night stand you had? Ringing in the New Year's right I see."
He wasn't expecting Janice too look away from him with a wry smile. Anyone who really knew her would know that expression. They would also know they had until she looked back to run. And they would. Quickly. Screaming for their lives.
"What's wrong Danvers?" she asked in the same patronizing tone he was using. "Not getting any again and have to find out about all of our personal lives? You know, if you would just admit to being gay, you wouldn't have to hit on every woman here to show you are such a stud. DiAngelo really wanted to get of piece of you before he died, and I wouldn't have minded having you in our apartment. I was used to seeing men with him." She put her hand on his arm as if offering him a little friendly advice. "You know what they say in your special circles. Be true to yourself. Also, fuck you asshole." She dropped his arm and brushed past him to walk out of the office.
His jaw flopped open at her sudden attack. He wasn't a dumb man by any means, just supremely egotistical. It only took him a second, but he realized that Wellington was the one completely off base. There wasn't anything work-related going on. They had been there…together.
"Miller!" he shouted, running to the door and grabbing her as she tried to get into the hallway. He spun her around. "Do you have any idea of what you are doing?" he asked incredulously. "Of course not. You wouldn't," he answered for her, ignoring the fire in her eyes. "I am ordering you to stay away from him, do you hear me?" he half-shouted.
Janice jerked away from him. So Wellington told Danvers about Cole. Who cared? Wasn't her problem. But she was not going to let him think that he could run her life. "I will do as I please and if you got a problem with that, you can shove it up your ass along with everything else that's already up there," she yelled back at him. "You want to be pissed that I'll have a little fling with him and not you, that's your problem, not mine!"
She turned to leave again, and he grabbed her again. She was not going to talk to him like that! He was her superior, and when he was done, she'd be lucky to get a job as an office girl for any federal agency again. He was not expecting the quick burst of speed from her. His fingers skated off of her as spun around, her leg lashing out in a vicious crescent kick that sent him sprawling to the floor below.
He looked up in shock as blood poured from his nose. Janice reached behind her to pull her gun. She wasn't going to kill him, but a shot in the knee would explain her point of view so much better than words ever could. There was a gentle tap on her shoulder. She froze and then looked over her shoulder. Xander was standing there. He had just rounded the bend that started the hallway they were in. He seemed…well, rather amused.
"You're fired Miller," Danvers gasped from the floor. "Get the hell out of here and I might not file charges."
"I don't think that's going to happen," Xander said casually. He had a packet of honey-roasted peanuts that he had just gotten out of the vending machine. He popped one into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
"She attacked me!" Danvers said in shock. "You witnessed it!"
"No, actually I witnessed you attacking her first, and she defended herself," Xander replied in that same casually amused tone. He glanced at Janice and realized she still had her hand way too near her gun. "Agent Miller, if you'll excuse us for a moment."
Janice paused, but turned and left anyways. Xander let out a mental sigh of relief. Now for the fun. He ate another peanut. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "I've been trying to come up with a way to get rid of you for about two years now. I wasted all that time when all I had to do was let you hang yourself." He grinned and shook his head. "Now, you have ten minutes to have your desk cleaned out and a resignation letter on my desk by Monday morning or this is going to the Review Board."
Danvers knew what that meant. The minute this became public, any hope of any other career was over. He had Brickman willing to state he saw Danvers attack a female agent. She would tell how he'd hit on her before. An image of his face on a newspaper came to mind. From Brickman's smirk, he could see it too. Brickman didn't wait for an answer. He turned and walked away, whistling a happy little tune.
********
Janice heard the whistling behind her and slowed down. If Xander wanted to catch up to her, there wasn't any chance of her getting away. She took a deep breath as he came up behind her. "Listen," she said quickly, "I know I shouldn't have nailed him, but he really caught me at a bad time, and there is no way I am going to apologize. We can call it draw, but there is no way in hell I am going to tell him that I'm sorry. The only thing I'm sorry about is that I didn't do it about two years ago."
There was an empty conference room about two doors down and Xander quickly propelled her into it. He shut the door before speaking. "Actually, I think I am going to be seeing his resignation letter very, very soon," he said with a charming smile. She smiled at that, her eyes lighting with a rather malicious pleasure, and he thought it was a good time to risk asking, "What the hell did he say to finally really piss you off?"
The smile evaporated. "It's not something I care to discuss with you," she replied coldly. Xander didn't know how Danvers would know about Cole and Janice, but that seemed to be the best guess. Xander paused for a moment, trying to decide the best way to handle this without getting another broken nose. There was only one way he knew to handle a totally pissed off female.
"Peanut?" he offered. She took one and sat down in a conference chair, chewing furiously. Food had always been an instinctive offering of peace.
"Listen," he said, trying to find the right words. "I know my brother is a total dipshit. That's just a given. But all things considering, he's having a hard time…"
"Xander," Janice interrupted, "The last thing I want is to hear about Cole's problems, okay?"
"I'm not about to make excuses for him," Xander replied. "He's going to have to deal with what he did, okay? But, there's a lot of things from back then that's tripping him up right now."
Janice shot him a withering look. "Do not even bring up that dysfunctional childhood crap on me. If there was someone who was going to have relationship problems because of their early years, it would be me, okay?"
He smirked. "I don't think yours can nearly be like ours," he said rather superiorly.
Janice blinked. "Ever met my mother?" she asked flatly. She waved her hand dismissively. "I can't believe you're sticking up for him in any case. I saw you after…after…anyways it's not like there's many people in the world that can break your nose and you're sticking up…"
"I am not sticking up for him," Xander interrupted.
"You're making excuses, same thing," she pressed.
"If I was sticking up for him I'd be telling you how you pushed too much," Xander snapped.
"I pushed?" Janice almost yelled, jumping to her feet. "I? Pushed him? I didn't hear him say anything about not wanting to."
"Guys aren't supposed to say they don't want to. It's a rule somewhere. You're the one that jumped into bed with him."
Her eyes narrowed. "So I'm just a slut now? Is that it?" She was moving closer, and Xander felt himself backing up involuntarily. He couldn't do anything damaging to her, and he knew from painful experience she was not to be trifled with. Why was she so mad? He hadn't said any of that stuff to her, and certainly didn't call her a slut. Shit. He was arguing with a woman. Logic and reason had no place here.
"Let me tell you something, Mister Brickman," she hissed, "Since you are *so* concerned about what happened. Let me guess, a few members of your screwed up family have got money on this right? I hope the odds were good for whoever bet on him doing everything possible to act like there was something starting for real, and then as soon as the really, really great sex is over, he was out the damn door. And since I know Cray's got a pool going somewhere, after that, you feel more like a used tissue than anything else."
Xander didn't realize until he felt the wall against his back how much he had retreated. Shawna would have pulled a knife at this point, and a little blood later, all would be fine. Xander had no idea how to handle a very pissed female norm. He had never had to really deal with one before. He'd had disagreements with some that he worked with before, but that was a professional consideration of each other's opinions. They had been upset, and there was a little cussing, but none of them had ever looked at him like this before. They were far more scary than he had thought they could be.
"He's got some issues, that's fine," Janice continued. "So do the rest of us. Call Rikki Lake if you can't deal with it. You guys were made in a lab instead of the old-fashioned way, but that has nothing to do with the fact that he fucked then dumped me with without so much as a goddamn note. Sorry if that doest work for me."
It didn't matter that she was echoing Xander's words to Cole about the situation. Cole was his brother. He would do as he pleased to his family. She was not his family, and he was not going to let an outsider say such things about his brother.
"Issues?" he fired back. "You don't know a damn thing about issues. When you are born for the express purpose of killing and spend your entire lives being trained to do just that, to have the one thing that's decent and clean in your life end up getting barbequed, that's going to cause some minor issues."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she asked a little uncertainly, but still quite angry. A barbeque? Didn't make any sense. She suddenly remembered the look on his face when she showed him that picture of the funeral. A thought began to form, but she shoved it away before it could blossom. That didn't matter.
"You want to know about Cole's past, then you need to ask him," Xander said in a much calmer tone. "That's for him to explain, not me. But if he does try, then at least listen to him. There are a lot of things you haven't had time to learn about him."
Janice took a step back. "He can explain all he wants," she said coldly. "But you better hope he can talk faster than I can reload." With that, she spun on her heel and stormed out of the conference room.
Xander watched her go as a small, rather bemused smile formed on his lips. Without even really trying, she had backed him down, and he still wasn't sure how she had done it. If it weren't for other things, he might even try a go at her. Women like that didn't come along often, and Cole better get his thumb out of his ass quickly and realize that before he really lost out. He was going to have to do some serious groveling though. Xander didn't have a lot of experience with norm women, but he knew that much. The thought of Cole actually apologizing, no, begging for forgiveness was enough to put a smile on Xander's face.
"Sure, Cole," Xander said aloud softly, touching his nose lightly. "I think if you talk to her, she would be happy to listen. She really wants you back. As a matter of fact, I think she's just looking for a reason to forgive you and get back with you." He had known Cole was going to pay, but he had thought it would be more traditional like Cole waking up from a drugged sleep in the middle of a swamp. Naked.
Xander didn't have any illusions about what was going on in Cole's head. He knew enough about the way Cole operated in regards to the opposite sex. Janice had misunderstood him earlier when he said guys don't say no. Cole had known he shouldn't have gotten something started with her. Intellectually, he did at least. He knew that she was getting to him. Any time there had been a woman that he had started to like, he had pushed her away quickly without any intimacy. This time he hadn't been able to stop himself from being with her. Janice might not understand how profound that was, but Xander did.
Xander blew out a breath. When he called Alicia, she had seemed as if she would know exactly where he was and how to get a hold of him. Xander hoped she did. Maybe she could talk some sense into him. Whatever decision Cole was coming to, he had better make it fast. All kidding aside, something great was slipping away, and if Cole wasn't fast, he was going to lose it forever.
