One Month: Silverheart, keyword "bikini"
Title: Office Distractions
Prompt: Bikini
Word Count: 3366
Summary: Usually Andrew Ryndes is a pest. That, uh, can sometimes change with the circumstances. Perhaps. If you squint.
He’d been attempting to work when Andrew burst into his office. “Silverheart. We need to talk.”
For a split-second his mind skipped through the numbers: how much time would he lose? How much more time would he lose if he didn’t let Andrew go ahead? How high were his chances of success for getting Andrew to leave without this oh-so-important “talk” he claimed to need? Was it too soon to threaten him with a pay cut again? (The last was dismissed almost as soon as it popped into his mind. He would have hated for it to become so overused, no matter how entertaining it was to watch his reaction. Besides that, if he continued to threaten him with it, sooner or later he’d have to make good on the threat, and that was really something he didn’t feel like bothering with.)
At any rate, none of the odds were very good. He sighed, setting down his pen and shifting his papers together into a neat stack. “What is it, Andrew?”
The man grinned, dropping into a chair on the other side of Silverheart’s desk. “You’re sending Maddi out on another mission, aren’t you?”
Silverheart narrowed his eyes. “Why does this concern you?” The man was a liability to him. How had he gotten that information? He’d need to speak to one of his other contacts-preferably one outside of the agency-to see what he could do about tightening security on his computer.
Andrew, however, didn’t seem to realize he was irked; he waved a hand idly. “That doesn’t matter. You are, aren’t you?”
“Andrew, why would I tell you if I was or wasn’t? That makes you a liability.”
“It’s Cali, right?” He was being ignored. This seemed all-too-familiar.
“Andrew…”
“No, I’m right, aren’t I?” Another grin. “You got a lead on that one guy, the one sharpshooter-assassin-guy. In Cali!”
Sometimes, he didn’t know if Andrew really knew all this or if he was just an extraordinary guesser. “Sharpshooter… assassin… guy?” Silverheart repeated, an eyebrow arching.
“Yeah! You know, that guy whose murders have been being copycatted in New York!”
Right now, he was leaning towards extraordinary guesser. “Jarod Santiago is not wanted for murder, Ryndes. He’s been accused of coordinating criminal activity and counterfeiting, as well as several thefts. We have no records of murder on his name.”
“Then you haven’t done your homework well enough,” Andrew informed him with a nod, wagging a finger at him. “And here I thought you’d graduated eighth grade.”
Silverheart sighed. “Ryndes, tell me why you’re in here or I’m putting you over in juvenile. Again.” Someday-someday he would be able to quit making these sorts of idle threats. He looked forward to those days.
“Didn’t they tell you they didn’t want me working over there any more?”
“Yes.” He frowned. “As I recall, you were more of a hindrance than a help. Particularly when it came to asking the kids what they had been up to.”
“They were lying to me!”
“You don’t get them to admit to things by bearing down on them with threats of the death penalty!”
“It was only a joke…”
“Joke elsewhere and at different times.”
“So Maddi’s going to California, then, right?”
Silverheart closed his eyes, touching his temples as Andrew grinned again, going back to the initial question. “What of it?” He couldn’t deny it now; he’d known that as soon as Andrew had brought up Jarod Santiago.
“And this Jarod Santiago you’re talking about. The guys in tracking think he’s hiding out, yeah?”
“Apparently he’s got the ‘surfer’ stereotype down pat, I’ve been told.”
“And that means that Maddi’s going to have to go and infiltrate, yeeeaaaaah?”
“What are you getting at?” Silverheart frowned, eyeing Andrew suspiciously.
“Well, she’s gonna need a disguise!” chirped Andrew loudly, clapping his hands together. “Let me help!”
“What?”
“Yeah! Me and the boys downstairs, we’ll get her all set up to ship out!” Andrew was grinning again. “We’ll make her fit in perfectly!”
“Andrew…”
“You know, we’re thinking along the lines of blonde hair; you know, sun-bleached. And tanned, definitely tanned, you can’t get away without it if you’re gonna work off that stereotype. And what about clothes?” Andrew wasn’t listening to him. Again. “I don’t know, I think pink’s her color.”
“Andrew.”
Abruptly, Andrew cut off, head swiveling to look at Silverheart. “I don’t know, man. One piece, bikini, or-” He paused, raising his hands and curving them downwards, defining an exaggerated hourglass shape, “-I’m thinking strings.”
“Andrew-out of my office!” This wasn’t something he wanted to be discussing during work. “We’ll leave the disguise to the people who usually do them-so no gifts from you and the boys. Clear?”
“Crystal!”
Did that mean he was going to listen to him? Probably not. Silverheart sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “Andre-”
“Oh, look at the time!” Andrew grinned as he pointed at his watch, effectively cutting his boss off. “Sorry, promised I’d meet Simone-you said strings, right?”
“Andrew, I-”
He was out the door before Silverheart could even begin to make the threat.
- - -
Loathe as he was to admit, he wasn’t surprised when it finally happened.
Still, he hadn’t exactly anticipated it happening as it did.
The meetings he’d had had actually gone fairly well. He’d managed to keep Noble from shooting him on the spot when he’d told her she was shipping out for a week or two (and despite what she said or thought, he actually had tried to avoid it; her fiancé was like his brother, after all…), and Maddi had taken her new job without too much complaint. He’d seen the both of them a couple days ago, the latter lamenting the loss of her long hair, the former just glaring at him until he’d ducked a quick exit. Still, it wasn’t as bad as it could have gone, and for that, he was grateful. He wasn’t sure where Andrew had been for the past few days-he had a feeling that if the man had been around, there would have been a lot more arguing than there had been.
That’s why he hadn’t been expecting it, days later.
It had been close to noon-time to break for lunch. He’d been planning on meeting a friend for lunch; he hadn’t seen Rory since high school and he’d been looking forward to catching up a bit. Silverheart closed down his files, reactivating all his security tricks as he shut down the computer (no sense in making it easy as walking in, was it?). He’d flipped through the paper files that Corrance had given him earlier, mentally checking them off of his list. All he was missing was a few from Noble, and they would be all caught up. That would be nice.
He flipped open one of the files, absentmindedly straightening the papers clipped to one side of the folder, casting a critical eye down the contents. Everything seemed to be in order… but. He frowned, peering closer (as though it would help him to see better…). That didn’t seem quite right. He was sure he recalled Jamie sending out more than one-
“ANDREW RYNDES, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU.”
…that didn’t sound promising.
Silverheart sighed, touching a hand to his temples. And here he’d thought they were going to be able to get through this round of missions without this sort of thing happening.
There were footsteps coming down the hall. He raised his eyes to the ceiling, then back down to the file. If he were lucky…
The door slammed open.
He wasn’t lucky.
“You’ve gotta hide me, Dak-Silverheart!” Andrew pleaded, skipping the preamble entirely. “She’s gonna kill me!”
Silverheart raised an eyebrow at him disparagingly. “I would kill you too, Andrew, with the sorts of stunts you like to pull. What did you do this time?”
“Nothing!” Andrew protested, raising both hands in the air. “I didn’t do anything!”
“The sounds of footsteps coming closer to this room doesn’t seem to agree with that,” noted Silverheart.
“That’s why you’ve gotta hide me!” was Andrew’s answer-he looked both ways, then darted around Silverheart’s desk, pulling his chair back (Silverheart blinked at this, but allowed it, arching an eyebrow again) and sliding into the hollow space under the desk-and then pulling Silverheart’s chair back into position. “Don’t tell her I’m here!”
Some days, Silverheart was certain he was running a high-school instead of the agency.
Seconds passed-only seconds before the door was shoved open again. “He came in here, didn’t he? Where is he? I’m going to kill him!”
Sighing again, Silverheart looked up, ready to say something. And then he stopped. Began to start again-stopped short once more. He blinked, uncertain of what he was seeing in front of him. And then finally: “Maddison… what are you wearing?”
“This is why I’m going to kill him as soon as I see him,” she spat, folding her arms self-consciously across her chest. “You don’t mind losing one of our agents, right? Right?”
He actually couldn’t respond to that-although he did have to keep himself from kicking the man hiding under his desk when Andrew sniggered at him. “What… what happened?” he finally managed, dragging his hand down his face again.
Unsurprisingly, she glared at him. “That’s not important.”
“I think it might be,” he sighed, resting his head in his hands. He could handle this as long as he didn’t look at what she was wearing. Somehow-somehow-Andrew had apparently managed to get her into that sort of outfit he had been discussing earlier in the week. “If you willingly accepted anything he gave you and then put it on, I’ll be left to question your judgment.”
He glanced up only long enough to see her shift her eyes away, reddening slightly. “That was his fault, too.”
“Enlighten me?”
She sighed, looking around. “Didn’t you bring some sort of jacket or something with you today?”
“It’s been nice out lately. I didn’t need one…”
“You don’t keep a spare one?”
He shook his head. “Let me see.” Inwardly, he smirked as he pulled his chair away from the desk (it would have really served Andrew right to be caught now), but he didn’t point out the other man to Maddi-he slid the chair back in, starting to the small closet near the door. “I should have a spare shirt or something in here…” He was fairly certain, at any rate. He pulled open the door, glancing in and-“Ah. Here we are.”
He pulled the shirt off the hanger, tossing it to Maddi; she shrugged it on quickly, buttoning up the front. “This… is awkward.”
“A bit,” he agreed. Not only would people get the wrong idea if they were to barge in at the moment, but locking the door to rid themselves of that possibility would most definitely send the wrong message to Andrew-and Silverheart knew what would happen if that happened. He would never hear the end of it. “Now, would you care to enlighten me? Before I lose one of my agents, I would prefer to hear the reason for his unfortunate departure.”
Maddi sighed, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk and slouching down, bracing a foot up against his desk. “It’s stupid.”
Wrong angle, thought Silverheart tiredly as he returned to his side of the desk, pointedly looking away as he slid his own chair back, propping his feet up. “Let’s hear it.”
She seemed to resign herself to telling the story. “He gave me the present last week. Right after I got the assignment.”
Why hadn’t he heard anything about it then, he wondered?
“I’m surprised you didn’t hear us then,” she noted, shaking her head, almost as if she were reading his mind. “Anyways, he wouldn’t give me my files back until I at least accepted it.”
“Why did he have your files?” Silverheart asked, halfway-surprised by this.
“…I threw them at his head.”
That explained things perfectly. “I see. Go on, then.”
“Right, so after that, I threw it in my locker.”
So far, normal enough.
“Skip to today. Things are going fine. I’m getting work done, reading up on the case some more, you know the drill. Enter Andrew.” Maddi had to pause a moment, glaring at nothing in particular. After a moment, she seemed to regain her composure, and continued, “I was doing my best to ignore him, but then he decided that my life would be infinitely better if he were to dump his coffee all over me.”
Silverheart covered his face with a hand. That honestly didn’t sound too far out there, when it came to Andrew.
“I was just going to change clothes and be done with it. But no. That coffee? It was the entire damn cup. It soaked. All-the way-through.” She waited a beat again, raising an eyebrow at him, making sure her point was entirely clear before continuing again. “Now, I don’t know about you guys, but we ladies? Don’t keep entire changes of clothing here at work. So clearly, my train of thought went exactly where he was planning for it to go-hmm, I don’t have anything to change into. I suppose I’ll just wear the damn gift and put my normal clothes on over top of it, right? Sounded like a good idea to me. So I went in and got my stuff, then went over to take a quick shower and change.”
It kept sounding more and more like high-school with every word she spoke. “Let me guess,” groaned Silverheart. “You went in, and when you came out-”
“Gone,” confirmed Maddi darkly. “Leaving me no choice but to rip out his brain through his nose.”
“Lovely image.”
“Be grateful I’m not adding on what I plan to do with the intestines.”
“You can’t kill him, Baker.”
“Are you certain?” she eyed him. “Don’t think I don’t know he comes in here all the time, too. You can’t be overjoyed by that. He’ll be out of your hair, too.”
Silverheart shook his head. “Oh, I’m certain he already knows exactly what I think of his company. I expect won’t be back in here for at least a month after this, unless I call for him specifically.” Good way to set his terms, here. He could see out of his peripheral vision Andrew’s expression-he wasn’t pleased with the idea at all. However, after a moment, he nodded slowly. Silverheart smiled to himself. Good. One less obstacle to overcome, then. “I understand your frustration, but we need Andrew here.”
Maddi still had that glare fixed on him-he matched it, raising an eyebrow. For a long moment, neither of them spoke, but then Silverheart dropped his feet from the desk, sitting up. “Well, at any rate, I’ve got an appointment I need to keep. I’d, ah, ask if you wanted a ride, but…”
“Don’t be stupid,” she snapped, folding her arms a little tighter, looking away from him. “I’m not leaving this building like this.”
“And what are you planning to do if your clothes don’t magically turn up before the end of the day today?”
“The coffee will have dried by then.”
“I’ll have to do something about that,” noted Andrew quietly, looking contemplative.
Silverheart highly doubted Maddi would have heard the comment, but he still gave Andrew a warning kick under the desk. Frankly, even if he did think Andrew deserved everything that was coming to him, he didn’t want her to find him while he was in the room still. The explosions were sure to make the entire building shake. “I hope nothing happens. I might advise keeping them with you.”
“I hope you won’t be the cause of anything happening,” Maddi said, raising an eyebrow at him. “That would be a bit unfortunate.”
Silverheart held up both hands placatingly, to ward her off. “Trust me, Maddison, I wouldn’t risk your anger in that respect. I won’t do anything.”
“Good.”
“Now, then.” Perhaps he’d make it as far as the door this time? “As I’ve said, I’ve an appointment to keep. I hope you don’t mind that I leave now.”
“You get a kick out of this, don’t you?” Maddi asked, sighing. “Letting me get all riled up and then pulling something like this?”
Silverheart shook his head, chuckling. “Of course not. It’s just a strange irony.” He stood up, picking up the slip of paper he’d written the lunch details down on. “You’re welcome to keep that shirt for the time being, if you’d like.”
“And I wonder where all these rumors come from.”
“Would you prefer to run around in that…” For a moment he couldn’t figure out what to call it; finally he gestured vaguely, “that, all day?”
“You have a point there,” Maddi relented. “I suppose I’ll have to ask you to do me a favor, since you’re about to leave anyways.”
He had the sinking feeling that this was about to get him in even more trouble. “Of course.”
“I’m going to give you my keys. Run past my apartment and grab me a change of clothes, if you would.”
…yup, there it was. He could almost see the expression on Andrew’s face-‘Oh, you got the keys! You sly dog!’ was probably what he was saying. “That should be no problem,” he agreed anyways, knowing that there was no good way to turn her down (even if he had wanted to). “If you’ll give them to me before I head out?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Now?”
“Now.” As Silverheart started from the door, Maddi began to follow, tugging at the shirt and scowling. Silverheart paused, raising a hand to her silently and shaking his head. Hold on.
She paused, raising an eyebrow at him, cottoning on to the silence rule quick. ‘What?’ she mouthed, raising both hands in a gesture.
He smiled, then pointed towards his desk. After all… Andrew really did deserve what was coming to him, he supposed. ‘Wait until I’m gone,’ he silently said back, gesturing to be sure she understood. At the same time, he opened the door that he’d gotten the shirt from in the first place, giving himself a reason to still be in the room. ‘Your keys?’
Maddi pointed at herself, then at Silverheart’s desk-then mimed pulling out the middle drawer. There. Silverheart nodded, then shut the door to the closet. “Well, then, I’ll find you when I come back,” he said, opening the office door and stepping out into the hallway. “I would suggest you set Andrew’s death aside for now and go back to that work you owe me from that last case we sent you on. I don’t want you turning into Noble.”
“Noted.” Maddi stepped out into the hall as well, just to set the acoustics properly before she stepped quietly back into the office. Silverheart nodded to her, hard-pressed to keep a straight face as he shut the door and started down the hall. Maddison’s office was on his way out; he’d just have to be quick to avoid the new round that had begun.
It only took a second to nip into her office, keys pulled quickly from the desk drawer and slipped into his pocket. In a moment, the yelling was sure to begin, and he had little doubt that it wasn’t going to end well for Andrew-he almost felt bad for pointing him out to Maddi, no matter how deserving he was of this.
And even so, he mused, that probably hadn’t been the best of ways to pay Andrew back. But he did need to keep up his appearance around the office, and admitting to any of the allegations Andrew had been making could have been disastrous.
“Off to lunch, Silverheart?” Corrance asked him as he passed, slipping a pile of forms into an envelope.
He opened his mouth to respond, but as he did so, a shout came down the hall, followed by another voice: “YOU ARE SO DEAD, RYNDES.”
Silverheart winced as the door slammed open. “Yes, Corrance, and I think my cue has just been called.”
He still had an appointment to keep, after all!
8D
Prompt: Bikini
Word Count: 3366
Summary: Usually Andrew Ryndes is a pest. That, uh, can sometimes change with the circumstances. Perhaps. If you squint.
He’d been attempting to work when Andrew burst into his office. “Silverheart. We need to talk.”
For a split-second his mind skipped through the numbers: how much time would he lose? How much more time would he lose if he didn’t let Andrew go ahead? How high were his chances of success for getting Andrew to leave without this oh-so-important “talk” he claimed to need? Was it too soon to threaten him with a pay cut again? (The last was dismissed almost as soon as it popped into his mind. He would have hated for it to become so overused, no matter how entertaining it was to watch his reaction. Besides that, if he continued to threaten him with it, sooner or later he’d have to make good on the threat, and that was really something he didn’t feel like bothering with.)
At any rate, none of the odds were very good. He sighed, setting down his pen and shifting his papers together into a neat stack. “What is it, Andrew?”
The man grinned, dropping into a chair on the other side of Silverheart’s desk. “You’re sending Maddi out on another mission, aren’t you?”
Silverheart narrowed his eyes. “Why does this concern you?” The man was a liability to him. How had he gotten that information? He’d need to speak to one of his other contacts-preferably one outside of the agency-to see what he could do about tightening security on his computer.
Andrew, however, didn’t seem to realize he was irked; he waved a hand idly. “That doesn’t matter. You are, aren’t you?”
“Andrew, why would I tell you if I was or wasn’t? That makes you a liability.”
“It’s Cali, right?” He was being ignored. This seemed all-too-familiar.
“Andrew…”
“No, I’m right, aren’t I?” Another grin. “You got a lead on that one guy, the one sharpshooter-assassin-guy. In Cali!”
Sometimes, he didn’t know if Andrew really knew all this or if he was just an extraordinary guesser. “Sharpshooter… assassin… guy?” Silverheart repeated, an eyebrow arching.
“Yeah! You know, that guy whose murders have been being copycatted in New York!”
Right now, he was leaning towards extraordinary guesser. “Jarod Santiago is not wanted for murder, Ryndes. He’s been accused of coordinating criminal activity and counterfeiting, as well as several thefts. We have no records of murder on his name.”
“Then you haven’t done your homework well enough,” Andrew informed him with a nod, wagging a finger at him. “And here I thought you’d graduated eighth grade.”
Silverheart sighed. “Ryndes, tell me why you’re in here or I’m putting you over in juvenile. Again.” Someday-someday he would be able to quit making these sorts of idle threats. He looked forward to those days.
“Didn’t they tell you they didn’t want me working over there any more?”
“Yes.” He frowned. “As I recall, you were more of a hindrance than a help. Particularly when it came to asking the kids what they had been up to.”
“They were lying to me!”
“You don’t get them to admit to things by bearing down on them with threats of the death penalty!”
“It was only a joke…”
“Joke elsewhere and at different times.”
“So Maddi’s going to California, then, right?”
Silverheart closed his eyes, touching his temples as Andrew grinned again, going back to the initial question. “What of it?” He couldn’t deny it now; he’d known that as soon as Andrew had brought up Jarod Santiago.
“And this Jarod Santiago you’re talking about. The guys in tracking think he’s hiding out, yeah?”
“Apparently he’s got the ‘surfer’ stereotype down pat, I’ve been told.”
“And that means that Maddi’s going to have to go and infiltrate, yeeeaaaaah?”
“What are you getting at?” Silverheart frowned, eyeing Andrew suspiciously.
“Well, she’s gonna need a disguise!” chirped Andrew loudly, clapping his hands together. “Let me help!”
“What?”
“Yeah! Me and the boys downstairs, we’ll get her all set up to ship out!” Andrew was grinning again. “We’ll make her fit in perfectly!”
“Andrew…”
“You know, we’re thinking along the lines of blonde hair; you know, sun-bleached. And tanned, definitely tanned, you can’t get away without it if you’re gonna work off that stereotype. And what about clothes?” Andrew wasn’t listening to him. Again. “I don’t know, I think pink’s her color.”
“Andrew.”
Abruptly, Andrew cut off, head swiveling to look at Silverheart. “I don’t know, man. One piece, bikini, or-” He paused, raising his hands and curving them downwards, defining an exaggerated hourglass shape, “-I’m thinking strings.”
“Andrew-out of my office!” This wasn’t something he wanted to be discussing during work. “We’ll leave the disguise to the people who usually do them-so no gifts from you and the boys. Clear?”
“Crystal!”
Did that mean he was going to listen to him? Probably not. Silverheart sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “Andre-”
“Oh, look at the time!” Andrew grinned as he pointed at his watch, effectively cutting his boss off. “Sorry, promised I’d meet Simone-you said strings, right?”
“Andrew, I-”
He was out the door before Silverheart could even begin to make the threat.
- - -
Loathe as he was to admit, he wasn’t surprised when it finally happened.
Still, he hadn’t exactly anticipated it happening as it did.
The meetings he’d had had actually gone fairly well. He’d managed to keep Noble from shooting him on the spot when he’d told her she was shipping out for a week or two (and despite what she said or thought, he actually had tried to avoid it; her fiancé was like his brother, after all…), and Maddi had taken her new job without too much complaint. He’d seen the both of them a couple days ago, the latter lamenting the loss of her long hair, the former just glaring at him until he’d ducked a quick exit. Still, it wasn’t as bad as it could have gone, and for that, he was grateful. He wasn’t sure where Andrew had been for the past few days-he had a feeling that if the man had been around, there would have been a lot more arguing than there had been.
That’s why he hadn’t been expecting it, days later.
It had been close to noon-time to break for lunch. He’d been planning on meeting a friend for lunch; he hadn’t seen Rory since high school and he’d been looking forward to catching up a bit. Silverheart closed down his files, reactivating all his security tricks as he shut down the computer (no sense in making it easy as walking in, was it?). He’d flipped through the paper files that Corrance had given him earlier, mentally checking them off of his list. All he was missing was a few from Noble, and they would be all caught up. That would be nice.
He flipped open one of the files, absentmindedly straightening the papers clipped to one side of the folder, casting a critical eye down the contents. Everything seemed to be in order… but. He frowned, peering closer (as though it would help him to see better…). That didn’t seem quite right. He was sure he recalled Jamie sending out more than one-
“ANDREW RYNDES, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU.”
…that didn’t sound promising.
Silverheart sighed, touching a hand to his temples. And here he’d thought they were going to be able to get through this round of missions without this sort of thing happening.
There were footsteps coming down the hall. He raised his eyes to the ceiling, then back down to the file. If he were lucky…
The door slammed open.
He wasn’t lucky.
“You’ve gotta hide me, Dak-Silverheart!” Andrew pleaded, skipping the preamble entirely. “She’s gonna kill me!”
Silverheart raised an eyebrow at him disparagingly. “I would kill you too, Andrew, with the sorts of stunts you like to pull. What did you do this time?”
“Nothing!” Andrew protested, raising both hands in the air. “I didn’t do anything!”
“The sounds of footsteps coming closer to this room doesn’t seem to agree with that,” noted Silverheart.
“That’s why you’ve gotta hide me!” was Andrew’s answer-he looked both ways, then darted around Silverheart’s desk, pulling his chair back (Silverheart blinked at this, but allowed it, arching an eyebrow again) and sliding into the hollow space under the desk-and then pulling Silverheart’s chair back into position. “Don’t tell her I’m here!”
Some days, Silverheart was certain he was running a high-school instead of the agency.
Seconds passed-only seconds before the door was shoved open again. “He came in here, didn’t he? Where is he? I’m going to kill him!”
Sighing again, Silverheart looked up, ready to say something. And then he stopped. Began to start again-stopped short once more. He blinked, uncertain of what he was seeing in front of him. And then finally: “Maddison… what are you wearing?”
“This is why I’m going to kill him as soon as I see him,” she spat, folding her arms self-consciously across her chest. “You don’t mind losing one of our agents, right? Right?”
He actually couldn’t respond to that-although he did have to keep himself from kicking the man hiding under his desk when Andrew sniggered at him. “What… what happened?” he finally managed, dragging his hand down his face again.
Unsurprisingly, she glared at him. “That’s not important.”
“I think it might be,” he sighed, resting his head in his hands. He could handle this as long as he didn’t look at what she was wearing. Somehow-somehow-Andrew had apparently managed to get her into that sort of outfit he had been discussing earlier in the week. “If you willingly accepted anything he gave you and then put it on, I’ll be left to question your judgment.”
He glanced up only long enough to see her shift her eyes away, reddening slightly. “That was his fault, too.”
“Enlighten me?”
She sighed, looking around. “Didn’t you bring some sort of jacket or something with you today?”
“It’s been nice out lately. I didn’t need one…”
“You don’t keep a spare one?”
He shook his head. “Let me see.” Inwardly, he smirked as he pulled his chair away from the desk (it would have really served Andrew right to be caught now), but he didn’t point out the other man to Maddi-he slid the chair back in, starting to the small closet near the door. “I should have a spare shirt or something in here…” He was fairly certain, at any rate. He pulled open the door, glancing in and-“Ah. Here we are.”
He pulled the shirt off the hanger, tossing it to Maddi; she shrugged it on quickly, buttoning up the front. “This… is awkward.”
“A bit,” he agreed. Not only would people get the wrong idea if they were to barge in at the moment, but locking the door to rid themselves of that possibility would most definitely send the wrong message to Andrew-and Silverheart knew what would happen if that happened. He would never hear the end of it. “Now, would you care to enlighten me? Before I lose one of my agents, I would prefer to hear the reason for his unfortunate departure.”
Maddi sighed, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk and slouching down, bracing a foot up against his desk. “It’s stupid.”
Wrong angle, thought Silverheart tiredly as he returned to his side of the desk, pointedly looking away as he slid his own chair back, propping his feet up. “Let’s hear it.”
She seemed to resign herself to telling the story. “He gave me the present last week. Right after I got the assignment.”
Why hadn’t he heard anything about it then, he wondered?
“I’m surprised you didn’t hear us then,” she noted, shaking her head, almost as if she were reading his mind. “Anyways, he wouldn’t give me my files back until I at least accepted it.”
“Why did he have your files?” Silverheart asked, halfway-surprised by this.
“…I threw them at his head.”
That explained things perfectly. “I see. Go on, then.”
“Right, so after that, I threw it in my locker.”
So far, normal enough.
“Skip to today. Things are going fine. I’m getting work done, reading up on the case some more, you know the drill. Enter Andrew.” Maddi had to pause a moment, glaring at nothing in particular. After a moment, she seemed to regain her composure, and continued, “I was doing my best to ignore him, but then he decided that my life would be infinitely better if he were to dump his coffee all over me.”
Silverheart covered his face with a hand. That honestly didn’t sound too far out there, when it came to Andrew.
“I was just going to change clothes and be done with it. But no. That coffee? It was the entire damn cup. It soaked. All-the way-through.” She waited a beat again, raising an eyebrow at him, making sure her point was entirely clear before continuing again. “Now, I don’t know about you guys, but we ladies? Don’t keep entire changes of clothing here at work. So clearly, my train of thought went exactly where he was planning for it to go-hmm, I don’t have anything to change into. I suppose I’ll just wear the damn gift and put my normal clothes on over top of it, right? Sounded like a good idea to me. So I went in and got my stuff, then went over to take a quick shower and change.”
It kept sounding more and more like high-school with every word she spoke. “Let me guess,” groaned Silverheart. “You went in, and when you came out-”
“Gone,” confirmed Maddi darkly. “Leaving me no choice but to rip out his brain through his nose.”
“Lovely image.”
“Be grateful I’m not adding on what I plan to do with the intestines.”
“You can’t kill him, Baker.”
“Are you certain?” she eyed him. “Don’t think I don’t know he comes in here all the time, too. You can’t be overjoyed by that. He’ll be out of your hair, too.”
Silverheart shook his head. “Oh, I’m certain he already knows exactly what I think of his company. I expect won’t be back in here for at least a month after this, unless I call for him specifically.” Good way to set his terms, here. He could see out of his peripheral vision Andrew’s expression-he wasn’t pleased with the idea at all. However, after a moment, he nodded slowly. Silverheart smiled to himself. Good. One less obstacle to overcome, then. “I understand your frustration, but we need Andrew here.”
Maddi still had that glare fixed on him-he matched it, raising an eyebrow. For a long moment, neither of them spoke, but then Silverheart dropped his feet from the desk, sitting up. “Well, at any rate, I’ve got an appointment I need to keep. I’d, ah, ask if you wanted a ride, but…”
“Don’t be stupid,” she snapped, folding her arms a little tighter, looking away from him. “I’m not leaving this building like this.”
“And what are you planning to do if your clothes don’t magically turn up before the end of the day today?”
“The coffee will have dried by then.”
“I’ll have to do something about that,” noted Andrew quietly, looking contemplative.
Silverheart highly doubted Maddi would have heard the comment, but he still gave Andrew a warning kick under the desk. Frankly, even if he did think Andrew deserved everything that was coming to him, he didn’t want her to find him while he was in the room still. The explosions were sure to make the entire building shake. “I hope nothing happens. I might advise keeping them with you.”
“I hope you won’t be the cause of anything happening,” Maddi said, raising an eyebrow at him. “That would be a bit unfortunate.”
Silverheart held up both hands placatingly, to ward her off. “Trust me, Maddison, I wouldn’t risk your anger in that respect. I won’t do anything.”
“Good.”
“Now, then.” Perhaps he’d make it as far as the door this time? “As I’ve said, I’ve an appointment to keep. I hope you don’t mind that I leave now.”
“You get a kick out of this, don’t you?” Maddi asked, sighing. “Letting me get all riled up and then pulling something like this?”
Silverheart shook his head, chuckling. “Of course not. It’s just a strange irony.” He stood up, picking up the slip of paper he’d written the lunch details down on. “You’re welcome to keep that shirt for the time being, if you’d like.”
“And I wonder where all these rumors come from.”
“Would you prefer to run around in that…” For a moment he couldn’t figure out what to call it; finally he gestured vaguely, “that, all day?”
“You have a point there,” Maddi relented. “I suppose I’ll have to ask you to do me a favor, since you’re about to leave anyways.”
He had the sinking feeling that this was about to get him in even more trouble. “Of course.”
“I’m going to give you my keys. Run past my apartment and grab me a change of clothes, if you would.”
…yup, there it was. He could almost see the expression on Andrew’s face-‘Oh, you got the keys! You sly dog!’ was probably what he was saying. “That should be no problem,” he agreed anyways, knowing that there was no good way to turn her down (even if he had wanted to). “If you’ll give them to me before I head out?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Now?”
“Now.” As Silverheart started from the door, Maddi began to follow, tugging at the shirt and scowling. Silverheart paused, raising a hand to her silently and shaking his head. Hold on.
She paused, raising an eyebrow at him, cottoning on to the silence rule quick. ‘What?’ she mouthed, raising both hands in a gesture.
He smiled, then pointed towards his desk. After all… Andrew really did deserve what was coming to him, he supposed. ‘Wait until I’m gone,’ he silently said back, gesturing to be sure she understood. At the same time, he opened the door that he’d gotten the shirt from in the first place, giving himself a reason to still be in the room. ‘Your keys?’
Maddi pointed at herself, then at Silverheart’s desk-then mimed pulling out the middle drawer. There. Silverheart nodded, then shut the door to the closet. “Well, then, I’ll find you when I come back,” he said, opening the office door and stepping out into the hallway. “I would suggest you set Andrew’s death aside for now and go back to that work you owe me from that last case we sent you on. I don’t want you turning into Noble.”
“Noted.” Maddi stepped out into the hall as well, just to set the acoustics properly before she stepped quietly back into the office. Silverheart nodded to her, hard-pressed to keep a straight face as he shut the door and started down the hall. Maddison’s office was on his way out; he’d just have to be quick to avoid the new round that had begun.
It only took a second to nip into her office, keys pulled quickly from the desk drawer and slipped into his pocket. In a moment, the yelling was sure to begin, and he had little doubt that it wasn’t going to end well for Andrew-he almost felt bad for pointing him out to Maddi, no matter how deserving he was of this.
And even so, he mused, that probably hadn’t been the best of ways to pay Andrew back. But he did need to keep up his appearance around the office, and admitting to any of the allegations Andrew had been making could have been disastrous.
“Off to lunch, Silverheart?” Corrance asked him as he passed, slipping a pile of forms into an envelope.
He opened his mouth to respond, but as he did so, a shout came down the hall, followed by another voice: “YOU ARE SO DEAD, RYNDES.”
Silverheart winced as the door slammed open. “Yes, Corrance, and I think my cue has just been called.”
He still had an appointment to keep, after all!
8D