A/N: Alright, this chapter sort of got away from me, but I managed to keep myself on track. Though I will not lie, old habits die hard. For those of you have been so patient and putting up with me, while on this new non-cherri adventure. There's a tiny bit of Cherri in it just for you. ;)
A week went by. Then Christmas had gone and went. Chris LaSalle couldn't remember the last time he'd kissed a woman that he was really into and had so much time pass without communicating. He'd assumed that Addie had made her point with that and was content with the guy she'd been seeing. As much as he hated the idea, he needed to respect it. And respect he did. Over the Christmas Holiday he'd allowed himself to slip back into his destructive habits in order to cope with the rejection and the cropping up of old wounds that every once in while continued to plague him with sorrowful memories of Savannah. He taken up with cuddling with some women, lonely like himself, but none that he ever wanted to see again. It was safe that way, no one got hurt he thought reaching for the lukewarm cup of coffee that was being handed to him.
"So what's up with you and Beyoncé?" Percy had perched herself on the corner of his desk, her hands wrapped around her own warm mug.
"Excuse me?" Chris should be used to Percy's nicknames by now. Oddly however the new term Beyoncé had taken him by surprise. It was a contrast to the typical Disney characters that she usually went for. But at least she was no longer referring to his dead girlfriend as the Little Mermaid.
"You know, the Lieutenant." Percy coached.
Chris took a swig of the coffee and made a face. The caffeinated beverage was definitely passed its prime. "It's Lieutenant Commander and the answer is nothin'."
"Well your nuthin,'" Percy said, making quotation marks with her fingers before hopping off the desk. "Just walked through the door."
There was Addie dressed in her dark blue BDU's along with Master at Arms, Brown, who was dressed the same. The MA's son had recently been listed as a suspect in a string of home invasions that struck Navy Housing, killing one.
Chris rose to his feet meeting the pair as they walked through the door. "Lieutenant Commander, What can I do fer ya?" He crossed his arms over his chest while Addie stood dutifully with hers behind her back. Unconsciously, he wet his lips. Damn she looked mighty sexy with her sleeves rolled up to her tone biceps.
"As requested, by Agent Pride, I've brought MA Brown in for some more questioning. He's here voluntarily and will cooperate fully."
"Well, that's good tuh hear," Chris replied meeting her smoldering eyes, "I'll just grab Agent Brody and the two of us will meet you in the interrogation room."
He turned toward the kitchen only to have Addie call out to him. "Agent LaSalle, if you don't mind, I'd rather it just be the two of us." She trusted Chris' judgement and with her credibility with NCIS there was no need for a second agent. The questions were routine, none that would lead to an accusatory argument requiring a lawyer.
What? He looked back at her with a peculiar glance. Obviously, her words had come out wrong as evidenced by the slight flush to her face. It was hard to see at first but even with her darker skin tone, Chris could see it was there.
"All right." he said turning back to her, with a salacious grin, "We'll make it a threesome then. Just you, me and MA Brown."
Addie tried hard to steel herself to the agent's response, but ended up breaking a slight grin. She had to wonder how her charge was keeping his composure. God help the man but he was still standing there, ramrod straight, waiting for her order to move.
"Lead the way, Agent," If it weren't for the fact that her man had been standing there she would have let LaSalle have some lewd comments on her own. As it was she was still a little miffed over the whole kiss me and then run thing. She'd tried hard not to dwell on the fact that she'd lead him into it. But she hadn't expected him to storm off mad. She had rather liked the way things were going between them before he showed up on her doorstep that night.
Chris walked them out the back door through the courtyard to the interrogation room and unlocked the door. "Ladies first," he said with a way of his hand.
"If you don't mind, Agent I'd like a word before we begin."
Chris' brow furrowed. She wanted to prep her man now? He would have thought that was something she would have done on the car ride over, but since the meeting was more or less procedural he'd give her the time. "Sure, take all the time you need. I'll wait out here."
"Not with him, with you." She added motioning her man into the room. When MA Brown had disappeared inside she placed her hands on her hips, looking sternly at the agent, "A threesome really, Chris?"
"I was just following your lead, Lieutenant Commander," he grinned, secretly pleased he'd gotten under her skin.
"My lead?" What in the hell was he talking about? The remark about it being just the two them? Oh Lord, she really hadn't meant to stir things up. But she could see why his jilted ego might feel the need to strike back.
"Yeah, the way you kissed me back the other night, with yer boyfriend standin' there. I thought maybe ya wanted to spice things up a bit."
"I can do that all on my own, I don't need any help from you. Thank you very much." She bit back, keeping a professional tone, "And just to let you know his name is Royce."
"Well, be sure ya tell Royce hello for me the next time ya see him." He retorted, with the sarcasm dripping. His heart was breaking just a bit. She was really going to flaunt some other guy in his face after he'd kissed her? The girl had more bite in her than he'd originally thought. Lord please have mercy on his tortured soul. He tried to school his reaction but he could tell by the look on her face that it was better than she'd hoped for. Jesus, she was killing him and thoroughly enjoying every second of it.
Unfortunately for LaSalle, there were just no words at the moment to retort as the conversation suddenly spun into a whole new level of sexual frustration for the agent: one that wouldn't be resolved with a person of interest waiting in the interrogation room for them.
He need time to think he reasoned, pushing the door opened, grossly unprepared. Had he not been so caught up in Addie he might had caught onto the fact that Brown was waiting with a handheld stun gun. Chris went down fast as the white hot jolt surged through the sensitive skin on his neck.
Brown's arm slide around the agent's neck catching him before he hit ground, his opposite arm wrapped around Chris' chest anchoring the Taser right over his heart. "Don't do it Ma'am," he warned Addie as she started for her sidearm. "Just throw it to the ground and nobody gets hurt."
Addie did as she was told and removed her Navy issue M9 from the holster, dropped it to the floor and kicked it toward Brown. She couldn't take the chance that the Master at Arms, turned into an angry father wouldn't hesitate to hit LaSalle with another jolt.
"This isn't this the way to do this." She pleaded, hoping that Pride or one of his team was watching. She was fully aware of the cameras in the room and in the courtyard with any luck someone had caught Brown when he hit LaSalle with the Taser.
"Close the door and secure it." The angry father ordered ignoring her comment, "Then take a seat."
After fulfilling his request, Addie slid into the one of the metal chairs at the table, clasping her hands together in front of her so that Brown wouldn't get nervous. He was still holding tightly to LaSalle but judging his quivering muscles, he wouldn't be able to hold up the agent much longer. LaSalle was 155lbs of dead weight at the moment and getting heavier by the second.
She sat silent as Brown finally dropped Chris to the floor. Restraining herself, she fought the urge to go to her friend. The three inch bullet shaped barb with the fish hook tip that was sticking out his neck scared the hell out of her. He was bleeding. Not excessively so, but if the barb had hit the artery and was currently keeping him from bleeding to death he was going to need medical attention soon.
Brown killed the camera that was normally used for videotaping and then slapped a hand over his mouth. He may have avoided getting himself caught on tape but could do nothing about the one way glass.
Addie watched her man carefully and quickly concluded that he had no idea of what he was doing. "So now what?" she asked. "What's your plan?"
"Don't know fer sure, Ma'am. All I know is that my boy didn't do what he's being accused of."
Delicate eyelids fluttered as Chris slowly opened his pretty blue irises to world filled with haze. Jumbled words floated around him. He could hear Addie's voice but he couldn't make out what she was saying. Then there was Brown. Their conversation seemed amicable enough, but with almost 500 volts of electricity still surging around in his body it was hard to tell.
Shifting his glance, he tried to focus on the gun that was lying just inches from his face on the hard concrete. His fingers felt like rubber as he slowly walked them to it and wrapped them around the barrel. His hand moved in an uncoordinated wave, directing his aim under the table. Fingers squeezed down on the trigger, firing one misguided shot into the black boot directly across from him. It wasn't his best, or ever close to being accurate but it had done the trick. He hit Brown just above the ankle.
He heard Brown let out a lamented yowl of pain and then watched him drop before succumbing back into the darkness.
Crescent City Hospital
"LaSalle"
"Can you hear me?"
This time Chris awoke to the soothing sound of Brody's voice and a god awful bright florescent light of a hospital room.
"Yeah," he grimaced. Still feeling quite lightheaded he managed to move his head toward his teammate and friend. He felt her squeeze his hand and tentatively he squeezed it back. It was good to know that something seemed to working right.
"Do you remember what happened?" Brody asked softly removing her hand from his moist palm.
Chris blinked as an aching pain started to throb in his neck, "Got shot with uh stun gun by MA Brown."
"And then you shot him with a real gun." The pretty agent smirked sardonically at him.
"Ya say that like it's a bad thing." Chris closed his eyes and swallowed before trying to sit up. Let it not be said, that getting hit with a stun gun was not without consequence, because right now he was about to lose his breakfast of shrimp and cheese grits with stale coffee.
Brody refrained from saying anymore, reaching for an emesis basin as Pride appeared in the doorway.
"We'll talk about the specifics later." The older agent said, watching his best friend heave as Brody shoved the kidney shaped dish into his hands. "You uh…just…um…get some rest." There would be time to flesh out things later.
LaSalle apologized to Brody as she handed him some tissues and a cup of water, taking the offense dish away.
"It's okay, in high school and college, Emily could never hold her liquor and I was always the one who cleaned it up."
But still, Chris felt bad until he remembered that Addie had seen him toss his cookies, a while back. In fact it had been quite some time now but it had happened. "Where's Lieutenant Commander Watkins?" he asked Pride, using Addie's official title as if there were a sudden need for professionalism.
"Off talkin' to her superiors, trying to smooth things out."
LaSalle took a swallow of water and spit into the fresh basin that Brody had just brought him. "What about Brown?"
Pride shoved his hands into his pockets, crossing into the room, "In surgery, getting the bullet removed that you gave him."
"He tased me." Chris said, feeling the need to defend his actions. He vaguely remembered shooting the guy in the foot.
"I know, got that part on tape." Pride replied tossing a glance Brody's way, "would you mind given Christopher and I just a minute?"
The Midwest agent's eyes went wide before replying with a common plausible response. "LaSalle, I'm going to take your keys, go by your place, and pick up some fresh clothes and your shaving kit." Getting shot in the neck with a stun gun and having a barb lodged near a major artery the agent had earned himself a night's stay.
"Appreciate it," he briefly glanced at Brody on her way out the door. "What's this about King?"
Pride's eyes fell to his shoes. "You and Addie. Your relationship threw you off of your game today."
/What relationship?/ Chris thought indignant, turning his head to the wall. He supposed he had become somewhat caught up in the pretty but enigmatic LT Commander. But- "Again, Brown used the Taser Gun on me, first."
"Well aware." Pride's hands shot up. "Not accusing, I just want you to be careful."
Chris shook his head. "You're sending me mixed signals King. First, ya tell me I should date the woman and now yer telling me to stay away?"
"All I'm saying is be careful, Chris."
LaSalle sank his teeth into his bottom lip. "You've got nothin' tuh worry about King. Addie's seein' someone else."