Showtime.
Chapter 1
Jo Danville hovered outside Mac's office, listening to an angry one way conversation.
"Chief I understand..." he said "Yes I know but..."
She tapped on the glass door after hearing him slam the receiver down.
"Problems?" she asked.
"Only if you consider trying to run the lab two detectives down a problem!" he exploded "The Chief has sequestered Danny and Lindsay to this damn circus coming to town!"
"The circus is coming to town?" Jo looked excited. To anyone who knew her less, it might be considered a dumb question, to Mac he knew it was Jo's way of drawing him out, of adding humour to the situation. Still he gave her a look of impatient disgust.
"Some of the highest profile Heads of State are visiting New York in a month" he said, his manner short "The Mayor and the Chief have decided that they need to give a show of force and put bodies on the street"
"Two of those bodies being ours?" Jo asked.
"Yes" he snapped "Lindsay and Danny are reassigned to the HOS Visit Task Force for a month"
"They won't like it" Jo mused "Danny hated being back in uniform"
"I don't like it" Mac told her "And I'm expecting a furious Danny in here any minute demanding I get him out of it, which I can't, because I just tried"
"We'll manage Mac" Jo soothed with a smile "Hawkes is capable in the field, Adam seems perfectly able to mainline caffeine, so he can take on extra lab duties and oversee the tech's. We can take a break from paperwork and do more fun stuff, and we'll still have Flack, he's getting better with the 'geek speak' as he puts it" her expression changed to one of concern "We still have Flack right?"
"I don't know" Mac sighed, running his hand through his hair "The way this is going, he could be directing traffic for a month, especially after the stunt he pulled a couple of months ago"
"Flack on traffic?!" she said, incredulous "I don't want to be anywhere near that conversation!"
Mac allowed himself a small smile, he had been wildly speculating about that, but the mental image of someone telling Don to go direct traffic, or more accurately, Flack's response, was amusing.
…...
Don Flack walked into ESU headquarters, heading straight for Kate's office, the place was a hive of activity, men shouted, women laughed, music played somewhere.
He tapped on her door, pushing it open "You ready for dinner?" he asked.
"Two minutes" she said, not taking her eyes from the computer screen, scrolling to look at something in closer detail.
He sat in the empty chair, picking up a sheaf of paper to do so "Glad to see you're as untidy here as you are at home" he said, trying to find an available space to put them, and failing. He gave up, putting them on his lap as he sat down.
"I have more important things to worry about" she frowned, turning her head sideways to get a better view of whatever was on the screen "Geniuses don't clean up"
He laughed "Neither do super hero's" he said.
"Then we need a maid, Batman" she said, finally giving him her attention with a smile.
"I think you're onto something there Krazy" he said "As long as you're not like my mother, and clean before the cleaner comes"
She pulled a face "No way"
"Good" he frowned as her attention wavered back to the screen "Whatchya doin?"
"It's classified" she said.
"What?!" he started to laugh, stopping as she glared at him.
"I'm not joking" she said "It is"
"Oh right well" he sulked, feigning hurt "If you don't want to tell me..."
"I can't tell you" she teased, switching the computer off and pulling her coat on.
He stood, returning the papers to where he found them, and putting his arms around her waist, holding her tight against him "I have ways of making you talk Howard" he said.
"I know you do" she grinned at him "I'm looking forward to that later"
"So you're gonna tell me?" he wheedled.
"Depends how good your persuasion is, doesn't it?" she replied cheekily, wriggling away and picking up her bag.
"You're mean, hiding stuff from me, I thought we were gonna talk more?" he said, following her out.
"Yeah that worked out real well didn't it" she laughed "It lasted all of a month!"
They got into his car, shutting the doors "We do talk more" he said, firing the engine.
"Yeah we do" she agreed "It's good"
"So make it better" he wheedled, looking at her sideways "Tell me what's so top secret"
"As of Monday" she said "I am assigned to protection detail, on the HOS visit task force"
"Really?" he said, eyebrows raised "That's um... What's HOS?"
Kate laughed "Heads of state visit" she supplied, seeing his look of confusion intensify "You still have no idea do you?"
"No" he admitted, fighting a grin.
"In a months time, New York is hosting some huge conference for all heads of state" she told him "A task force has been set up to provide security to the heads of state, to provide intel on anyone dumb enough to try terrorism and generally make sure that no one screws it up"
"I read something about that in the paper" he mused "HOS though? Sounds like a bad western movie character"
She laughed "I know, the Mayor just loves his abbreviations"
"Why do you think it's such a long word?" he mused, pulling into a space outside the bar.
"What? Abbreviation?" she asked.
"Yeah, it means 'short for something', you think they'd have thought of a shorter word, ironic don'tcha think?" he said as they shut the doors and walked towards the door of the bar.
"Ironic instead of abbreviation?" she asked, looking as confused as he had.
He led her over to the table where Lindsay and Danny were waiting already.
"What's this?" Lindsay asked.
"Don thinks the word abbreviation is too long, he thinks it should be ironic" she said.
"What?!" Danny started to laugh, Lindsay's grin spread.
"No" Don said, waiting for Kate to sit so that he could sit beside her "What I actually said is, that I find it ironic that abbreviation is such a long word, and that they coulda thought of a shorter one to describe a word that means 'short for something'"
"Well you didn't say that" Kate laughed "He didn't, I swear" she added to Lindsay, taking the glass of wine she offered.
"I did!" All four were laughing now "It is though, right?" he looked at Danny for back up.
"You were seriously having this conversation?" Danny laughed.
"I think we were" Don grimaced.
"You two are so made for each other" Lindsay said "Let's order, I'm starving"
"Good idea there Messer" Don said, flipping open a menu.
"I may regret this" Lindsay added, grinning at Danny "But what brought the conversation to that?"
"I was telling him about HOS" Kate said.
"Oh that" Lindsay sighed "You on it too?"
"Yeah" Kate looked surprised "Protection, heading up a team. What you doing?"
"Intel, bug sweeps and stuff" she replied "Mac is spitting feathers that we've been pulled out the lab for a month"
"I'll bet" Kate agreed.
"Am I the only cop in New York not heard about this?" Don asked the table.
"Probably" Kate and Danny said in unison.
…...