Warning: I don't have a beta-reader (yeah that hasn't changed either) and as English is not my main language I'm bound to make mistakes. I hope it's not too bad and you'll bear with me.
If you don't like, don't read. Flames will probably be ignored; constructive critics and other reviews are always very welcome. Read and enjoy.
So here we are with chapter 7. We're back with our meddlers with some twists. Again the chapter took a life of his own, but it was fun to write. Next time we'll go to the party for likely two chapters.
Disclaimer: Don't own, just playing around so don't sue… Belongs to CBS Studios, Sony Pictures Television and many others.
"We have every right to create our own destiny, but none to interfere in someone else's." Martin Rubin. ;)
Deac looked absentmindedly at the computer screen in front of him. The party at Luca's was supposed to take place in two days and Annie had somehow convinced him to attend the last plotting, sorry planning meeting before the big day. His wife had gone to grab a glass of Chardonnay and he was nursing his alcohol free beer. Somehow he hoped that something would go wrong so that he would have an excuse to leave this sinking ship. A little music rang warning him of an incoming caller and he was surprised to see a very sullen Hondo appear in front of him.
"Hondo? What are you doing here?" He wondered and the other man just shook his head. Nichelle sat next to him and gave a satisfied laugh.
"He lost a bet, he is part of the team now." She informed him with glee and her boyfriend rolled his eyes at her cheerful tone.
"Don't ask, man." He simply answered and Deac laughed already feeling better not being the only reluctant participant.
"Welcome." He raised his beer bottle at his friend and a half grin appeared on the other man's face. "I'm going to sound selfish but I'm so glad you're here with me."
Just as Annie sat next to him, Luca and Bonnie also appeared on the screen.
"So the only person not joining the madness is Tan… lucky bastard." Deac said with a chuckle, but he had barely uttered the words when Victor appeared next to his wife. "Oh no, not you too."
"Why?" The younger man asked. "Bonnie told me you guys were planning and discussing our team's parties. That sounds like fun, you can count me in."
His eager face brought a round of laughter from the people present.
"Oh Bonnie that was a very mean trick." Annie joked. "But welcome to our team, I'm sure your insight will be invaluable."
"Why?" Tan turned to his wife with a questioning stare. "What didn't you tell me?"
"Tan… the planning team is complete… anyone missing you would have expected to be present? Like other team members?" Deac pushed and he heard Luca and Hondo laugh at his question. The younger man's eyes scanned the screen in front of him and they could see as realization dawned on him.
"Where are Street and Chris?" He turned towards his wife and Bonnie simply shook her head, worrying at her lower lip.
"Welcome to the meddling party. Our wives and Luca have decided we needed to find them the perfect someone." Deac informed him with humor. "I'd tell you to run for your life, but I'm afraid you're too late for that. So join us in the current madness. If we're lucky they'll still talk to us in a close future."
"What? No, no… I don't want any part in that." Tan closed his eyes as he suddenly understood all the scheming Bonnie had been engaged in when she had modified the table placement at their wedding. "Street already gave me hell because of the wedding and your friends, Bonnie. We can't do that again. And all those efforts were for nothing… Because if I remember well Street left with Chris and all those bridesmaids were very disappointed."
Tan sighed and rubbed his hand over his tired face.
"It worked for your friend Eddy. He's been dating Sarah since our wedding and they are both really happy about that." Bonnie reminded him.
"Hun it's been what? Not even three weeks it's a little early to congratulate yourself about that big success. I'm not part of anything that aims to set up Street and Chris. They're my best friends."
"Don't you want them to be happy?" His wife challenged him right away, using Annie's usual argument. She looked at the screen to get some support from the other people present, but they were all silent.
"They seem pretty happy to me as it is. I'm sure they don't need us to find them partners if they're really looking for someone."
"You have to admit that Chris hit it off with Julian pretty well at your wedding." Luca finally chimed in taking pity on the pretty blonde.
"Thank you Luca." She flashed him a radiant smile. "That's exactly what I was going to say! Julian is more than interested. Sadly he probably won't make it to the party."
"Oh no!" Annie gave a disappointed sigh at the news. "You said he had managed to free some time to be in LA this weekend."
"Yeah but he had to reschedule an important surgery last minute tomorrow. The patient was too unstable to be operated on yesterday." She pursed her lips and shook her head. "He really tried, but it just wasn't possible. He has to be back in Chicago on Monday so it would be too tiring for him…"
"Chris and Julian?" Tan asked disbelievingly staring at his wife and the other participants of the call.
"You didn't notice how close they were during the ceremony and after that at lunch?" Bonnie wondered.
"Chris is not interested in Julian." He delivered wryly with an absolute certainty. Seeing all the questioning looks on him, he chuckled. "Believe me I know Chris pretty well and I've seen her flirt more than once over the course of the years. I don't want to burst your bubble guys, but she was not interested in your hot and sexy cousin, Bonnie. She was being polite and while she might have found him entertaining, he's totally not her type. He'll never ever score with her."
"Well I think you are wrong." His wife pouted. "And most people present here agree with me. Luca even said that they had shared a private moment at our ceremony."
"Chris and Julian?" He turned questioning eyes towards Luca looking for any kind of confirmation from his friend.
"When I needed to leave and I was looking for Street I found a rather flushed Chris and you should have seen the look Julian sent her way, she blushed like crazy."
Tan's eyes scrunched up before popping open as he exhaled loudly. He shook his head, his lips were moving but no sound left them.
"What?"
"Nothing." He finally gulped painfully. "I just had a crazy thought…"
"Care to share?" Deac asked. He was not used to seeing Tan act this strangely. It looked as if the young man had had an epiphany but he seemed more than reluctant to share it with the rest of the team.
"Oh no that was really dumb idea. But still consider me completely out of this project."
"Victor!" His wife grabbed his arm as he stood up. "You cannot abandon us."
"Watch me." He bent over and looked straight at the camera. "See you guys tomorrow and the lovely ladies at the party. I love you all, but no thank you."
He waved at the screen, pressed a soft kiss to his wife's lips and left the room much to Bonnie's very ostensible displeasure. Deac grinned at the younger man's brave stance and Hondo applauded as Tan was leaving. Their respective partners shot them death stares, but Hondo just went on clapping not at all impressed by Nichelle's displeased stance.
"I give credit when required." He finally said to everyone. "That was one hell of a statement. And for what it is worth, I agree with him. I don't think that your cousin will seduce our Chris, Bonnie. But as I don't speak mime I didn't understand his silent show."
"I'll be right back!" Bonnie stood up abruptly and disappeared from the screen.
"Oh my!" Luca burst out laughing. "Someone better come back or our man Tan will sleep on the couch tonight."
"Speaking of our man, where is Street?" Hondo wondered. "Are we having this call with him next door or is he out for the night?"
"Ah…" Luca looked a little miffed. "He went out with friends but he is supposed to be back some time tonight. He was very busy this week with selecting the activities for the kids for our Oktoberfest and getting them ready. He said he needed to wind down because Chris had vetoed many of his ideas and he was not happy about it… something about certain games being too messy or I don't know, but they argued a lot…"
Most chuckled imagining the conversation between their friends when Bonnie reappeared with a visibly annoyed Tan.
"I can relate to someone being obviously forced by a woman to do or give up something..." The young officer bit between his teeth. All the men present snorted while the women shook their heads.
"That's your second strike Mister!" His wife warned him.
"I still don't understand why the heck you want to do that. You saw what occurred at the wedding. You tried to play matchmaker with all your friends and he was clearly not interested." He sarcastically added before frowning for a moment and shaking his head. "What's your plan now because so far you have been extremely successful?"
"That's an excellent question." Deac said and he turned towards his wife. "Who is taking the lead now? If the plan is only to invite SWAT and their families how are you going to come up with people for either Street or Chris."
"And no, absolutely no to try anything with Chris." Tan added moving closer to the camera. "Guys seriously, Street is a good sports, he'll probably be a little pissed at us for doing that kind of things behind his back. But Chris… Don't go there…"
"I totally agree, Tan." Hondo said in a very serious tone. "We have to be very careful with Chris… She's had pretty bad years recently. Since she came back from TLI she seems much better and I definitely want that to go on."
"Julian is our only plan for her." Annie chimed in a little sheepishly as she had definitely planned more for her friend. "If it doesn't work, we won't try anyone else. But you could all see that she really liked him. They spend most of the afternoon talking to each other and she was relaxed and happy the whole time."
"And my cousin is a wonderful man." Bonnie added with a grin before Tan snorted next to her. "What? You don't agree?"
"Your cousin is a pompous and obnoxious ass who keeps talking down to me because I'm just a cop." He stared at her as he delivered his truth. Bonnie sent him a confused look. She opened and closed her mouth several times but no sound came out. "He's the last guy I would want with Chris. Sorry Hun, I love you but Julian is the archetype of the self-centered surgeon. I only tolerate your stupid idea because I am absolutely certain that Chris would never ever give him a chance."
"Why didn't you tell me that he treated you poorly?" She looked at him visibly very shaken.
"You worship the ground he is walking on and so does the rest of your family." He finally admitted. "And he was nice to my mom and my brother… I guess it's just me he can't stand. It's not like I'm seeing him often anyway."
"I will talk to him. He does have a strange sense of humor at times…" She tried to explain still a little uncertain about the issue. "But Victor, you should have told me. As much as I love him, you are the person who matters the most to me and it's really disturbing you didn't think I would take your side in a disagreement with Julian. I will always choose you over anyone else in my life."
She brushed away a few tears and kissed him tenderly. Tan hugged her tightly and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips.
"So what are we doing about Julian?" An obviously emotional Annie wondered. "After what Tan said and Hondo's opinion, I don't think we should push anything there."
"He can't make it to the party anyway." Bonnie finally said, her head resting on Tan's shoulder. "We'll discuss that issue another time. I need to speak with him first about all of this."
"I'm still sure they spent a nice afternoon together. We all saw them talk to each other and Chris herself told us at HQ the next Monday how she had enjoyed the whole wedding immensely." Luca reminded them. "So it must not have been a chore for her to spend time with Julian… And as for Street I might have found the perfect candidate. I won't say more you will see on Sunday. And you will be blown away by the party. We've worked so hard, Chris is a tough general."
"So you finally settled to call it Oktoberfest?" Nichelle wondered with a huge grin.
"Yeah Chris found that great Oktoberfest sign when we were looking for decorations for the party. There was no way we were going to pass on that. You will see."
Street entered the house with a wary sigh. He would have preferred spending the night at Chris but she had been adamant that Luca might become suspicious and had sent him home after a quiet dinner at her place. He looked around trying to figure out where Luca was hiding. His truck was in the driveway so he had to be somewhere. He put down his backpack and walked quietly into the house. His roommate was nowhere to be seen but he could clearly hear his muffled voice. He walked over to his bedroom door and listened with great attention. It clearly sounded as if he was again on a call with some of their colleagues. He retrieved the cellphone from his pocket and started texting Chris. In no time he could see blinking dots telling him that she was typing and he chuckled at her answer. That was perfect. He called Chris and put the phone on speaker, before pocketing it again. Then with one swift motion, he opened the door and walked inside the room.
"Hey Luca I'm back." His eyes scanned quickly the laptop screen in front of him trying to see if he could recognize who was present. Luca shrieked before hastily lowering the screen without closing it. "Wow you're jumpy!"
"Why did you just enter my room like that?" He nervously wondered taking in his friend as he was leaning against his doorframe. "You never do that!"
"You told me to tell you when I was coming home." Street explained with a smirk. "Well Hun I'm home."
"I could have been with someone..."
"I thought Melissa was visiting her sister in San Francisco." He frowned before smirking. "Are you keeping another woman on the side? Luca I didn't think you had that in you."
"Of course not… But still it's rude to barge unannounced in anyone's room. Weren't you told that?"
"I grew up in foster care, I've had people barge into my room at odd hours my whole childhood." Street took in his friend's embarrassed look and felt a little bad playing that card with him. "Well I'm home I'm leaving you to your sex call or whatever that thing is. You might be a little overdressed for that Buddy!"
"You perfectly well know that's not what I'm doing here." Luca's indignant retort brought a few muffled laughs, proof the call was still active and their friends were enjoying the exchange.
"Me? I have no clue, but don't give me details. I swear I'll never barge in again." Street said raising his hand in a mock scout honor gesture.
He hastily retreated and checked his phone. He looked confused when he saw Chris had hung up but by the time he had grabbed his bag and entered his room he saw her video call request and he smirked.
"Did you enjoy the show?" He wondered when he took in her delighted expression. She nodded enthusiastically.
"That was so good. I wish I had been there." She added. "I would have loved to be able to see his face I'm sure that was golden too!"
"And you probably didn't hear it, but you weren't the only one enjoying our exchange. They are so up to something. Before he partially closed his screen I saw the whole team and their plus ones were present."
"All of them?" Her brows drew together.
"No need to worry about it now." He opened his door and checked the corridor to make sure their friend was still in his room. When he was satisfied, he closed it again. "The party is in two days, we'll see our conspirators then. Let's play our cards close to our chests to get to the bottom of it."
"You're right." Chris nodded and smiled. "Sleep well. Love you."
"Love you too." He smiled at the screen as the call ended. His eyes went back to his door. He just hoped they would know more after the weekend.
Luca opened his laptop again and stared at the laughing faces of his friends.
"Now that was an interesting stunt from Street." Hondo said and wondered. "Are you sure he doesn't suspect something because that sure looked like it. I think we're busted."
"He totally knows you guys are up to something." Tan added shaking his head. "That's not normal Street behavior."
"Yeah well there's not much we can do at this point." Annie admitted unhappily next to a grinning Deac.
"We can still do nothing at the party." Tan insisted. "We don't have to introduce him to someone else."
"Nah it's too late, it's already arranged." Luca said with a grimace. "I will be more careful. I'll only call from Melissa's place from now on. I didn't think he would be back this early."
"You better watch it, Luca." Deac called out and when their friend visibly gulped and looked back at his door, they all laughed.
