"You're to be in South Dakota at those coordinates at noon tomorrow. You will mention our meeting and your pending assignment to no-one. Is that understood?"
Staring at 'Mrs Frederic' silently for a moment, Pete Lattimer pushed down the growing urge to crack a 007 joke. "How long am I going to be in South Dakota?" he asked instead, part of him wondering if he was already being punished for his screw up at the museum.
"Indefinitely".
"Indefinitely?" he echoed, nodding his head slowly. "No," Pete corrected shaking his head quickly, "No, no, no, no. No, I've got a life here".
The look Mrs Frederic sent him seemed to disagree with his argument, as she slowly looked around his apartment with an amused "Really?"
"Yeah!" Pete blurted, "I've got…" he trailed off as he looked around his apartment slowly. "Things," he finished, ignoring the smirk on Mrs Frederic's bodyguard's face, "And a dog!" he added as he quickly pointed out the black Labrador lounging on his bed, "I've a dog!" he repeated smugly.
"Pack light, Mr Lattimer," Mrs Frederic said in farewell, the woman nodding to her bodyguard as she started towards the door. "We'll ship what you need and store the rest".
As the door slammed shut behind the woman's bodyguard, Pete slowly glanced down at the file in his hands, shaking his head slowly as he realised that this was definitely a joke gone too far.
"Also," Mrs Frederic's voice added as she opened the door suddenly, making his hand drop down to his gun. The woman pausing to shoot him an unimpressed glare over her glasses, her eyes flicked past him to his bedroom, "You can bring the dog".
"Great," Pete exhaled as the door shut again, turning to stare at the dog that was wagging his tail happily. "You're a terrible guard dog you know," he whined, "Where was the barking? The 'Oi! Get off my territory?'" he asked, sighing when his only response was a loud woof.
"No?" he muttered under his breath as Harry (named after the great Houdini) slid off the bed and ran into the kitchen. "Dumb dog".
"Turn right? There's nothing to the right!" Pete exclaimed as he peered into the field to his right.
Ignoring what he swore was a judgemental look coming from the peanut gallery, Pete glared at his GPS as he reversed until he was parked in front of a small cattle gate that seemed to lead down into the canyon-valley-thing.
Sighing slowly Pete drove up to the gate and parked again, staring at it for a moment before glancing over at the passenger's seat. "You think this is it?" he asked slowly, part of him almost hoping the dog would say no… because then his dog would be talking and he'd know this was all a bad dream. When Harry only blinked at him slowly, tongue lolling out as the dog pulled his head back in front of the window, Pete sighed again and shook his head.
"I'll get the gate," he muttered under his breath as he left the car and threw open the gate, not caring enough to shut it behind him as he jumped back into his SUV and drove off down the dirt road towards the gorge.
He was Pete Lattimer. Secret Service. He shouldn't be getting transferred to the middle of Bumfuck USA just because of one slightly messed up mission. Besides, as far as he was concerned, he'd done his job and the President was fine. Just because someone had stolen the creepy voodoo head thingy didn't mean he was wrong or guilty of being wrong. He'd managed to warn that stuck-up librarian chick that he'd felt a vibe, and she'd acted on it as he'd been chasing down the weirdo with the lightning gun thing. Win win as far as he cared… even if he'd actually lost instead of that second win.
"What'ya think Harry?" Pete asked slowly as he pulled up at what looked like an abandoned run-down bomb-shelter dug into the canyon wall. "This the place?"
As Harry growled and tried to climb over him, Pete automatically latched onto his collar and yanked him back, glancing out before sighing and turning back to the dog. "Leave Bessy alone," he ordered firmly, poking his best friend in the nose to catch his attention, "No. Bad. No cows".
Harry seeming to sigh and sag back down in his own seat – totally pouting at Pete – the man turned back to stare at the building before sighing himself and undoing his seatbelt and sliding out of the car, letting Harry out before grabbing his suit jacket and slamming the door shut.
Not even needing to look at his dog to know Harry was obeying him and leaving the cow alone, Pete looked around slowly and removed his sunglasses. "Yeah… endless wonder eh boy?" he asked sarcastically, hearing Harry barking at him from a distance, "I'm ready… promotion!" he drawled before whistling loudly as he started towards the door he could see set into the building's wall. "Come on boy! Maybe they've got some bowls for us to drink from," he joked to himself as he started to pull on his jacket, "I really wish I hadn't drove past that gas station now, I'd kill for some chocolate milk – no you can't have any," he added as he caught sight of Harry's ears perking up at him.
Once again ignoring his dog's unhappy look, Pete slammed his fist into the door, knocking loudly as he cleared his throat. "Hello?" he called out, hoping someone inside would hear him and let them in out of the heat. "Agent Pete Lattimer? I'm here just like you wanted me? Hello?"
Harry's bark caught his attention, and Pete glanced over to where the dog was staring off into the sky, a faint whistling drawing his own eyes up to a small black dot spiralling his way rapidly. Barely having time to realise that he was apparently being bombed, Pete jerked away from the missile as it slammed into the building wall beside him, the football bouncing off across the sand as Harry shot after it. Chuckling as he watched his dog almost tripping over himself in an attempt to catch it, Pete crouched down and allowed his friend to deposit a slightly worn and very sloppery football into his hands.
"Thanks. I've always wanted one of-" freezing as he heard a car approaching, both Pete's and Harry's heads snapped around to stare in direction of the road, "-these," he finished as he slowly stood, chucking the ball to the side and shading his eyes as he watched the silver car approaching.
Groaning as Agent Bossy Librarian (which totally wasn't a turn on for him) climbed out of her own car with an annoyed expression, Pete shot Harry an unhappy look of his own. "I don't want one of those though," he lied bluntly, the dog replying with a disbelieving look before letting out a rumbling growl as the other Agent approached them.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, "I heard you were suspended".
"Yeah. I heard that too," Pete confessed – mainly because it was true – before slowly stepping in front of Harry when she shot his dog a disgusted look.
"I wouldn't go near that thing if I were you," the Agent warned, "You never know what strays could have".
"Aside from fleas he's got an endless stomach," Pete drawled, not liking this woman even more now she'd insulted his dog. "He's mine".
"Of course you're a dog person," the Agent muttered under her breath, speaking more to herself than to either of them. "Why are you here?" she asked again.
"I've been promoted," Pete dead-panned, "Some lovely lady named 'Mrs Frederic' ordered me here. Said it was a-"
"Matter of National Security?" the Agent interrupted, the two of them nodding slowly as they both found either things to look at. "Yeah. Me too," the woman admitted slowly.
His hand automatically flying to his gun as Harry let out a throaty snarl, Pete turned around in time to see the door to the building begin creaking open loudly. Exchanging a look with his dog, Pete started forward, Harry slinking across the ground almost on his belly as they approached the door with a disgruntled looking Lady Agent quickly catching up with a hand on her own gun. "You could have waited for me," she hissed in annoyance, "Instead of taking orders from a dog".
"I don't take orders, I give them," Pete corrected bluntly, not wanting to talk about it, only to falter as both Lady Agent and Harry gave snorts of disbelief.
"Whoa that's creepy," the Agent blurted as she stared down at Harry, "Does he do that often? Act like he knows what we're saying?"
"I swear that dog's smarter than I am," Pete confessed, only half-jokingly.
"Well I swear that can't be hard," the Agent countered automatically, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Yo Harry, I think Lady Agent is more your kind than mine," Pete said loudly, "After all. She's definitely acting more like a bit-"
"How you guys doing?"
Whipping around as his mouth snapped shut, Pete stared at the figure before them as it pulled the mask away from its face and took off his hat. "Sorry I'm late," the man from the museum apologised, "I uh… had to fix the fish".
"Hey! Whoa!" Pete exclaimed, pulling his gun as Harry snarled, "Hold it there".
"What are you doing?" the Lady Agent asked slowly even as Pete's eyes flicked down to Harry.
"See Harry? I told you I wasn't insane. This is the guy from the museum, the one who stole the creepy bleeding rock," Pete explained, not making a good case for his sanity as he spoke to his dog as per his usual habit.
"You stole the rock," Lady Agent pointed out.
"It's actually a Blood Stone," Thief Man corrected, "It's safe, it's inside the building if you want to check it out".
"I want to check it out and return it to the museum," Pete argued, "It's theirs!"
"And they belong to the United States, which so does the Warehouse," Thief Man dismissed, "Come to think about it. So do I!" he declared. "So Secret Service. I also work for Mrs Frederic. I'm Doctor Nielson. You can call me Artie".
"You got some ID?" Lady Agent asked as Pete exchanged a confused look with Harry, who looked just as bewildered as he did.
"Uh no?" Artie admitted, "We take the secret part very seriously around here. Oh! And I just want to thank you, for your help in last night's retrieval," the man added turning to point at Pete, "Made my job easier. It was very good. Oh! Hi puppy!" he greeted happily as he caught sight of Harry. "Come on, come on inside. I'll show you around".
The two Agents and the Dog just stood there for a moment, none of them making any move to join Artie as he half-entered the 'Warehouse'.
"Come on," Artie repeated, "I made cookies?" he offered.
Pete and Harry were moving before they could stop themselves, both scrambling towards the door and a grinning Artie as he started inside.
"I think she had other plans," Pete mused slowly as he glanced over at Artie.
"So did I," the sighing man agreed as he stood and moved over to stand before Pete, the two staring at each other for a moment. "Do you want juice or are you a milk person?" Artie asked suddenly, making Pete chuckle.
"Do you know what I'd really like?" Pete muttered to himself.
"Oh I do, but falling off the wagon isn't the best option," Artie countered, knowing exactly what Pete was meaning without him actually needing to say it. After the two stared for a moment longer, Artie just nodded, "Milk it is".
"Yeah. Juice for Harry though," Pete added quickly as the man left, "Milk makes him gassy".
Artie paused and glanced back at Harry, who was sitting at Pete's feet. "Right. The calcium in the milk reacts strangely with the digestive tracts of all shape-shifters, not sure why," the man explained before turning and leaving the room.
Blinking down at the suddenly shifty-looking Harry, Pete could only groan. "Shape-shifters?" he echoed.
"Uh-huh," Artie's voice called out, "Might be some ancient native american spirit shifter. Could be some kind of artifact-based transformation. Or my least favourite of all," the man added as he stuck his head back in through the doorway, "It could be one of those blasted European people who were exposed to the artifact known as the 'Breath of Hecate', it gave them magic powers, one of which was shape-shifting. They're a bunch of arrogant bastards if you've ever met one".
As Artie popped back into the kitchenette, Pete just stared down at Harry, who shrugged back up at him, the picture of complete innocence.
"I could probably find something to change him back you know?" Artie offered as he re-entered the room with his arms full of plates and cups. "Should have something in here that can turn him back into his natural state," the man explained as he shuffled things around until Pete was holding a glass of milk and a plate of cookies, leaving Artie to set two bowls – one of juice and the other of cookies – on the floor for Harry. "Won't be that hard".
Looking down at Harry, who was completely ignoring him and stuffing his face full of food, Pete could only shrug as he looked back up to Artie.
"Maybe later".
MASCOT
Inspired by Whitetigerwolf's Animagus Lover challenge.
So… I'm not entirely sure about what this is, but I was chatting with a friend about his own challenge when I stumbled across WTW's and this idea blossomed from the chaotic mess that is my mind. If you hadn't guessed, Harry's the dog named Harry.
And I dunno about you guys, but I kinda like it. :D
The Undercover Operative can't claim to own either Harry Potter or Warehouse 13.