This Is a Terrible Time for a Surprise [party]

[jemmadorny]

While Jemma had promised Drew that she would cut back on her extra hours, it was impossible to get her out of her office this Sunday, trying to catch up on any loose-ends she might have missed while investigating the murder pack. It was a silly name but it stuck ever since Sebastian came to visit. With him hunting, she felt she had no choice but to

Comments

[reidinggg]

Reid had had the days of the full moon highlighted on the full-year calendar he had pinned to his wall (previously meant mostly for birthday reminders and occasional hints that he was overdue for a drop-in on his dad or a quick pass by his aunt's) since this time last month when the lunar cycle had suddenly become something he was overly invested in keeping track of. March 16th, April 15th, May 14th, he had practically made it a point to memorize every day and date for the next year.

With this month's upcoming date specifically orange-highlighted somewhere in the back of his mind, he had still been terribly amused to receive Kiki's invitation to an arranged surprise birthday celebration - if a party Sebastian had actually agreed to (albeit reluctantly) take part in could turn the grump levels up as much as they had, Reid could only imagine the reaction they would have in store if he was surprised by one.

Whether a warped sense of anticipated amusement or his usual carelessness when it came to details was to blame, the fact was that the brightly printed invitation and the brightly highlighted date on his wall somehow had never quite lined up-

Until he was pulling open the flat's front door, grumbling slightly at the instant knocking as he hurriedly finished tugging his shirt down over his head, hair still damp and haphazardly spiked from the shower he had just jumped out of.

One look at Jemma's face was somehow enough to send the pieces crashing into place, that annoying feeling that he was somehow forgetting something suddenly all too horrifyingly confirmed.

"Hey-ohhhhh-fuck-" The automatic greeting morphed as quickly as his expression did, jaw dropping and eyes widening. "Ohfuckohfuck, no way-"

He didn't need to ask for confirmation or specify his own concerns. He'd never known many things to be able to phase Jemma to the point of panic, but he imagined that this would likely be one of them.

[jemmadorny]

Typically, there was no amount of work that could really overwhelm Jemma, the piling of paperwork and cases keeping her on her toes most of the time. She relished in the pressure. But lately, she'd been falling short of that. She could blame a million things on it- the case with the werewolves, the new relationship with Drew, the sudden and unexpected pregnancy morphing into twins- that was still a bit too much to wrap her head around.

But this- not even catching the bloody date imprinted on the invitation- that was a failing point for Jemma. And now, as she clutched the cardstock in her hands, staring at Reid, the realization hitting him smack in the face as he pulled open then door, the only thing Jemma could do was hold out her hands in exasperation.

"We have to get there right now," she said, shaking her head. "I don't even know who's already there- I mean, this is- well, this is exactly the wrong thing that should be happening today-"

Of course, that was a vast understatement. But as she sucked in a breath, her hand reaching toward her swollen stomach as if on instinct, she looked to Reid with a furrowed brow.

"If everyone finds out-"

She trailed off, knowing he could fill in the end of her sentence.

[reidinggg]

In the split second it had taken for the realization of their vast oversight to hit him, Reid had gone from mildly annoyed to borderline panicked, suddenly all too aware of just how dim the light filtering into the living room had become.

"Fucking hell- how did we-" He shook his head to cut himself off, scrambling to grab the hoodie he had tossed across the back of the couch earlier and shove his feet into his haphazardly discarded slip-on sneakers. There would be plenty of time to kick himself later when the full moon wasn't quickly rising and Daley Manor wasn't in the early stages of the worst birthday party ever.

"Right, yeah, very bad, let's go-"

If he still had lingering concerns that anyone in that family was still a flight risk, he'd rather not think of what a houseful of people being present for the oncoming shift would do to those odds of sticking around-

[jemmadorny]

She was trying not to panic. It was an atypical reaction for Jemma, usually one to find calm in the chaos. She could handle anything.

But this wasn't really about her, or what happened to her- this was about Sebastian and Sabrina and a secret that shouldn't be found out this way. (If at all.)

So, when Reid moved into the hallway, her first reaction was to Apparate out- heading immediately to the Daley Manor, landing on the front step. She could see the lights coming from the windows, the muffled sound of music filtering out. She turned to Reid as he popped in beside her.

"So- we might need a game plan-" Jemma said. "Bursting in and saying 'Party's cancelled due to lycanthropy' might not be the best course of action-"

[reidinggg]

Right. A game plan. Of course. Because bursting in and ordering everyone to leave without an explanation was hardly likely to work, and going with anything even resembling the truth was obviously off the table-

Reid's mouth open and closed wordlessly a few times, his hand violently scraping through his hair as he flailingly gestured.

"I- I don't- fuck, whatever, anything- there's a gas leak, guest-of-honor got food poisoning, the punch got spiked with arsenic- whatever works?"

He had barely even finished his (lack of, really) argument before he leaned a shoulder against the door to push it open, slipping inside and holding it back to allow Jemma to follow. Game plan or not (plans were Jemma's thing, he was a strict wing-it-and-see-how-things-land kind of guy), with the sun dipping even lower in the horizon, he had no time to pause for brainstorming.

[jemmadorny]

Jemma watched as Reid pushed forward, a shrug tugging at her shoulders. No matter the circumstances, she could always count on him to act completely within his nature.

"Well, I guess we could really work with a mix of all of them, then-"

She huffed a breath before following him inside. She could feel the heavy bang of the door closing behind them, a few eyes turning in their direction. There was no sheepish glance, no apologetic shrug- there was just Jemma trying to figure out the best way to approach this.

She could already spot Sabrina on the landing.

"Reid, we've got to make sure Sabrina and Sebastian get out of here, too-" she said.