interregnum
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG-13
Challenge:
Apfelstrudel #15 - über-
Flavor of the Day #241 - interregnum (The interval between two reigns; any period when a state is left without a ruler)
Extras / Toppings: blueberries (None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress. - Wilfred Owen), malt (Dear Santa: more Face and Shania), peaches (Critical objectivity helps)
Word Count: 1,582
Story: Misfits
Summary: When Face goes one step too far, Hobbie and Shania see the need to interfere.
Notes: I’ve written a bit between Face and Shania but this is a huge shift in their relationship, so the malt prompt felt appropriate (I don't think that's what "more" about them meant). Also, this was really hard to write.
“It could turn into a huge mess,” Hobbie whispered and Shania nodded, her eyes trained on the door, waiting for the rest of the team to come in.
“I’m prepared to do this if you are,” Shania acknowledged, her lower lip slightly trembling. She knew that what they had been doing recently was far beyond their jurisdiction but when she and Hobbie had found out what Face intended to talk about today, they knew they needed to sit down and talk this over, take control.
“I can do this on my own if you’re not comfortable with the idea of doing this. I would understand given everything you and Face have or had or …” Hobbie trailed off and looked down.
He was a lot calmer than her but then again, nothing ever seemed to get to Hobbie. Sometimes, it was calming to know that he was unaffected because that meant that they would get through it but right now, Shania would have loved to see some emotion in his features, any confirmation that this was affecting him, too.
“I’m not backing down. I will support your efforts and make sure that we get what we want out of this,” she assured him knowing that at the same time, she was also assuring herself that she was capable of such a feat. It was different from anything she had ever done before, more extreme and in secrecy.
“Have you ever done anything like this before?” She asked and Hobbie shook his head, hiding the gun he has just checked to make sure it was loaded in a shoulder holster that was covered by his jacket. The gun would only get used if absolutely necessary and he was the only one carrying one. Shania had refused to when Hobbie had instructed her to take the gun into the meeting, reminding him that nobody aside from Hank would be carrying one.
“Believe me, this is the last thing any person in the world wants to do.”
***
The others came in a little later and Shania busied herself at the coffee machine while Hobbie was drank a glass of water, already sitting at the oval conference table next to the place Face usually took. There was no strict seating order aside from the places Dennis and Stella had always occupied and Face had taken Dennis’ seat when he had taken over leadership of the team.
On the way to the last free chair left between Lara and Hank, Shania balanced the tray of coffee mugs and glasses of water and set it down at the center of the table. There was never a meeting without beverages and she didn’t intend to change that tradition. Today, everything needed to look as if it wasn’t any special day and coffee was required for that.
Once everybody had served themselves, Face cleared his throat and attention focused on him, the chatter dying down.
“I got all of you here so we can have a vote on what we should do with Kenneth.” He sounded calm and that made Shania almost as angry as the fact that he wanted to put this to a vote, that he didn’t have enough common sense to know the right answer to the question he was about to ask. This was not the man she adored, who was a good partner and a good listener. Shania wasn’t sure where that man had gone, but his streak as the team’s leader had turned his emotional side off. There was no other way she could explain what had been transpiring.
“As you all know, we broke Kenneth out from Cerberus to get intelligence out of him and I don’t think that there is anything left for us to do with him. Cerberus can’t ever find out what we did; the consequences would be too devastating for all of us, we would be considered co-conspirators and we’d end up in custody forever. None of us wants that, so now I ask you, how do you want to deal with Kenneth. There are two options and I think we all know what they are.”
Shania looked to Hobbie but he shook his head. He wanted Face to keep going, wanted the others to not jump up in horror once Hobbie made his move; instead, he wanted them to understand why it was he was doing what he was doing. They had discussed this but Shania couldn’t bear to hear the words she knew Face would say next. She wanted to get this over with.
“Either we keep Kenneth prisoner for a while longer, waiting till the hunt for him has died down and then think of a way to dispose of him alive, putting ourselves in great danger forever or we take the easy way out and kill Kenneth.”
There was complete silence following Face’s words and Shania looked to her sides to see how the others would react to this. Lara didn’t show any signs of change in emotion, but then again she had been the one who had alerted Hobbie, taken advantage of her special link to Face to find out that he was going to propose all of this. And she was an incredible actress who could fool anyone.
Wes was looking around in confusion as if trying to find someone to assure him that this idea was acceptable in the situation. Yes, they had all killed before. Shania, Wes and Hank probably had the highest body count but this was different. This wasn’t someone they needed to eliminate to get their mission accomplished. What Face was talking about was an execution to cover up his errors of judgement from the beginning of his leadership period till now.
“Those in favor of killing Kenneth, raise their hands.”
Shania’s eyes darted around the table to see who would raise their hands but nobody aside from Face did. When he appeared to realize that his intention was not going to be met with agreement, he sighed. “Okay, there is no point in voting. You obviously don’t get the gravity of the situation. We’re all screwed if we don’t kill him now. Forget I ever put this to a vote. I’m the leader and we’re doing it.”
Protests were about to start all around the table but before they could, Hobbie had already jumped to his feet. “We’re not killing anyone so you can feel better,” he said coldly. “Your judgement is completely fucked up right now and as a higher-ranking officer, I’m relieving you from leadership duty, effective now.”
There were gasps and Face pulled a gun, training it on Hobbie. “You can’t do this. You don’t understand. I’m doing this to protect all of us. All of our asses are on the line and maybe you don’t get it, but this is serious.”
“Serious enough for you to break every rule you swore to follow when you took over for Dennis?” Hobbie asked, not showing any reaction to the gun that was aimed at him.
The only thing that kept Shania from wrestling the gun out of Face’s hands, making sure that he didn’t do anything stupid was the way Hobbie looked at her, his blue eyes telling her that it was okay, that he had this under control.
“You can’t mutiny against me all by yourself, Hobbie, no matter how tough you are, you don’t seriously believe that all of the others will turn on me, too, do you? I’ve known all of them longer than you have and they trust me. That’s why I took over as this team’s leader when Dennis left, not you.”
“I can’t speak for the others, but I see that I made an error there,” Hank’s voice suddenly rang out and everyone who appeared to have been frozen in place before turned to look at the quiet sniper who never voiced his opinion.
Hank was standing now, his gun in hand, trained at Face’s forehead. “Drop that weapon now or I will kill you. You won’t pull the trigger on Hobbie but you know that I won’t hesitate just because we’re on the same team. I’m going to count to three and then I’ll shoot if you haven’t handed Lynn the gun by then.” His voice was raspy and menacing and at no point in her life had Shania felt more scared of unassuming-looking Hank McDonald.
Face lowered his gun slowly and Lynn took it from him right away before Hank had even reached two. There was complete silence once more and Face looked around lost, ignoring the gun still pointed at him.
“So you’re all against me, huh? Even you, Lara? I kept you from being turned in as a traitor, remember?”
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t know right from wrong,” Lara responded cockily and got up to walk over to Face and cuff him.
“Shan?” Face called out desperately, as if she was his last hope and Shania felt her heart breaking. Lara was right, her feelings didn’t keep her from being able to tell right from wrong but it made all of this so much harder. This was a man she had always admired, thought the most capable of all on the team. This was a man she had briefly thought she was falling for.
“I’m the one who decided that it was time for your reign of terror to end,” she said coldly. “And I’m glad to see you go down like this.”