Eight

This is starting to get really weird and while she's even kind of grateful for it – it does provide a great excuse for being away from shoes and flowers and the wretched dress she still didn't bother buying – she can't help starting to get a bad feeling about this. First Blondie steals her purse and phones, then someone broke in their cover apartment and to top it all Evan and she could just barely keep Charlie from getting killed.

Seriously, if they hadn't both felt a strange hunch when Charlie, Anna and the boys had set off for a day in town and acted on it, Charlie might be lying in a back alley now, with a bullet through his head.

However, right now, Evan doesn't seem very relieved about it and she's inclined to agree with him. On the way from the back alley to the apartment Spencer's team rented, she had a short and hushed conversation with Evan about this and it had already shown that he's not happy… but at least now they know that Charlie had been up to something and that Evan had been right with suspecting something strange was going on.

Okay, well, part of Evan not being happy was probably because he'd been unnecessarily worried about her but he really didn't have a reason for that. There aren't even strangulation marks on her neck and most of the pain subsided. Seriously, there's nothing… "The truth, Charlie. All of it."

Oh boy. She can't remember ever having seen Evan so stern and tightlipped. And it's amazing what it does to Charlie, who's usually a very self-assured and poised man. Right now, he looks everything but. "Look, Evan, I never intended…" Evan narrows his eyes and looks very much like his anger will get the better of him but thankfully this time she doesn't have to intervene because Charlie noticed it. He takes a deep breath and starts again, "A month ago I found some papers on my desk that made no sense. It was mostly requisitions and some personnel figures. Nothing really added up and a lot of stuff didn't make any sense."

Evan nods, still not willing to cut Charlie some slack. "Doesn't explain what those people want from Laura and me, though."

Charlie rubs his neck. "Well, see, the words 'deep space telemetry' appeared far too often in those papers."

Uh-oh, Evan's gonna blow any moment. "Oh, and since you know we both work there, you thought it was a great idea to mention us to some crooks you've never seen before? Jesus, Charlie, are you out of your mind?"

Just this short of actually shouting. "No. Yes. But I knew what I was doing."

"You knew what you were doing? You knew what you were doing? Charlie, if it hadn't been for Laura and me, you'd be dead now. You stirred up a fucking hornets' nest! Do you have any idea what it could mean for Anna and your family that you thought you had to go poking around things that are none of your fucking business?" Charlie just became white as a sheet but she's not quite sure if it's because he just realized that this isn't just about him anymore or if he's now starting to become just as angered as Evan.

"I'm not stupid, Evan. Something's going on here and I just… I…"

Evan's about to shout again and she decides that it's a good point to intervene now… and voice a thought that had been stirring in her mind since it was first mentioned that Charlie found some papers on his desk. "Charlie. Did it ever occur to you that someone might have set you up?"

Suddenly, she's the center of attention again and it's a little hard not to squirm because they both look so… intense. After another shocked second Charlie asks "Set me up?" a little dumbfounded and she realizes he really never got the idea until now.

She takes a deep breath and nods. "Yeah. You're in Personnel, right?" He nods. "Those papers you found, that kind of records… does that land often on your desk?" Slowly, he shakes his head, and she can see that Evan starts to get what she's playing at.

Now trying to get his anger under control he joins in. "Is there anyone, really anyone in the department or in other departments who might want to see you gone?" Yeah, he knows exactly what she's trying to get at.

Charlie, though, takes a moment to think and then slowly shakes his head again. "No, none I can think off." His face changes from slightly confused to a frown. "I got a new boss three months ago. Some guy who'd been working in Brussels for the past ten years and got sent home for… no idea for what but… I heard him bitch about the DOD's budget decisions fairly often. Something about stupid projects getting more money than honest, hard-working airmen's projects that didn't have ridiculously high security clearance."

At this, Evan and she both groan and at Charlie's 'What?' expression Evan gestures to her – she loves it when he remembers that right now they're equals and the whole thing was her idea – and she explains, "He planted those papers on your desk, probably knowing full well you'd never let it go. Maybe he even somehow found out the project Evan's working in. I guess you just were the obvious choice for someone who didn't want to get his hands dirty with messy research."

Obviously, Charlie needs a moment to cope with all of this. He sits down on the bed and puts his head in his hands. Then, he looks at them again, a bit sheepish. "I really am an idiot, huh?"

With a barely veiled grin, Evan sits down beside him. "Yeah, just a bit. Don't worry, though. Happens to the best of us." But then he becomes serious again. "What I still don't get is, though… why them? How the hell did you find them in the first place?"

Charlie… is he blushing? "Actually, they found me."

Groaning, Evan lets himself fall backwards and then gets back on his feet and if he hadn't opened his mouth, she would have given Charlie another wigging. "Jesus Christ, Charlie! They contacted you out of the blue and you didn't see anything wrong with it?"

There's irritation on Charlie's face again as he gets up as well. "I told you Evan, I'm not stupid. Of course I did research on them before I answered their offer to help me." Evan raises his eyebrow and gestures for him to go on. Yeah, she'd really like what the research turned up as well. "Four of them – Spencer, the hacker, the grifter and the thief – really were crooks until they teamed up with Ford – that's the mastermind guy – roughly two years ago. Since then there still have been warrants out on them but I found some interesting police reports from a Detective Captain Bonano from Boston. Apparently, they had a hand in busting a diamond dealers' ring that was trying to frame some innocent armored car driver, in uncovering some big food scandal and last but not least bringing down Boston's corrupt mayor."

Oh, right, she actually remembers that last one. She has friends in Boston and the whole corruption thing had had the town abuzz for over six months. Evan doesn't look as convinced, so she feels compelled to say, "I remember that one. Something about that mayor and a weapons dealer ring… very shady and… wasn't some cop shot in the process?"

Charlie nods. "Yeah. It was that Bonano guy. Actually, they didn't get involved until he was shot. I even phoned the Boston PD to see if that was maybe because they had some part in that but the guy on the phone talked about Ford as if he were some kind of patron saint for the PD."

Huh. It's getting weirder and weirder. She frowns. "So, you're trying to tell us they're some kind of modern Robin Hood and his Merry Men?"

He shrugs. "Yeah, pretty much."

For a moment it's quiet and she can see that Evan is trying to make sense of it all. She can even almost see the wheels turning at high speed in his head, trying to work out a strategy how to deal with all of this. She wonders if she should voice her suggestions but she also knows that sometimes she needs to let him lead… or at least let him think he's in charge. Then, in the end, he says, "Right. So you've been set up by your boss, someone's out to get you, Laura and I have probably been compromised and we have a bunch of reformed crooks to deal with. Is that about right?"

Sighing, Charlie says, "Yeah," probably just waiting for Evan to get in his face again.

But he's past that. He's in the planning stage now and Charlie really should know Evan well enough to see that. "Okay, I need to…" Mean looks from both her and Charlie now. Yeah, farm boy, you're not alone in this, she thinks. "Alright, we need to talk to Ford again, see where he and his team stand, how much they know, that kind of thing. And I also think… we might need a little Black Ops backup." Wha… he didn't just suggest to bring Thomas Moore into the picture, did he?

"Evan, you don't seriously…"

"Yes, I do. Look, do you want to get it over with this wedding business in five days or not?" Grudgingly, she nods. Yeah, yeah. "See, me too. And we won't get this solved with as less hassle as possible if we don't call in some reinforcements. However, if you think it's a good idea to inform Sheppard…" Holy crap, no. Because he'll inform Woolsey, who'll inform his bosses at the SGC and the IOA, who'll inform their bosses at Homeworld Security, who'll probably inform the President… no, better Moore than Sheppard. "Yeah, thought so."

"Excuse me but could someone please tell me what this is all about?" Charlie intervenes and oh, Evan looks just a little bit like the cat that ate the canary now. Huh.

"Not what. Who. When we're done talking to Ford and his team… I'll call my Best Man." Oh, Charlie does not look happy. Well, she wouldn't either if two of her best friends had to come to her rescue because she was stupid enough to stumble into a trap open eyed.

But then again, he can probably call himself lucky that they practically forced Evan's team to take the last two weeks before the wedding off so at least they would be able to escape the frenzy until the actual wedding and that they decided to keep it that way and not inform them on the way here. She's not sure how well Charlie would have dealt with Meyers, for example.

Anyway, he tries to get out of it with dignity, so he just sighs again. "Yeah, well, could be worse. So, let's not keep Robin Hood and his Merry… People waiting, huh?" Not, let's absolutely not. And with that it's back to Ford's team.