The long-awaited update!
Well, hopefully, anyway. ;) (If you check my journal, you'll see that I was briefly distracted by a plotbunny from another fandom, but it was taken care of, and now this is back! ^_^)
Pairings are: Viola/Duke, Viola/Olivia, Cassie/Lin, Cynthia/too many to list. ;)
Title: Parallax (part 2c/?)
Author: That'd be me. *grins* Andrew, Obsidian, call me what you want. But only if it's nice. ;)
Rating: R. The girls are already more then earning that 'R' rating. *sniffs* I'm just so proud... ;)
Comments: Well, here's hoping my second D.E.B.S. crossover fic will be as good as my first one. ^_^ This is a continuation of the Christmas Wishes series of short 'She's The Man' stories I've written, but you don't really need to have read those to understand this. This is also going to be the first actual sequel to 'D.E.B.S.' that I've written, as opposed to an AU fic. (Well, I guess all fic, by its very nature, is AU, but you know what I mean. *winks*)
And now we get to part three of chapter two. I've never had to split my chapters up that much before, you know. What do you think? Should I do that again if a chapter starts getting rather long, or should I just wait and post it all at once?
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.', as I am most definitely NOT Angela Robinson. Likewise, I also do not own 'She's The Man', which belongs to... Well, it was written by Ewan Leslie, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, directed by Andy Fickman, based on the work of William Shakespeare, and distributed by Dreamworks. So whoever 'owns' it, it isn't me. ;)
Parallax, or more accurately motion parallax (Greek: παραλλαγή (parallagé) = alteration) is the change of angular position of two stationary points relative to each other as seen by an observer, due to the motion of an observer. Simply put, it is the apparent shift of an object against a background due to a change in observer position.
"Are you sure about this?" Lin asked as she followed Cassie down the hall on the fourth floor of the office building that served as the headquarters for the British station of the International Bureau.
"Am I sure about what? That we're meeting in room Four-Oh-Three? Of course." The two were dressed in drab, gray professional business clothing to better blend in with the section of town they were in. And if their outfits projected something of a boring air that discouraged any further study of them... well, Cassie figured that was the basic idea, really.
"No, I mean..." Lin sounded mildly embarrassed. "You really think they're going to like me?"
Cassie paused outside the door, facing her. "Trust me, they're definitely going to like you." She slipped her hand into Lin's, interlacing their fingers. "I do."
After a purely reflexive check to see if they were being observed, Lin leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss. "You're biased."
"How does that make me wrong?"
She chuckled softly, despite herself. "I just... don't want anyone to think I'm sleeping my way up to the top."
Cassie's lips quirked in amusement. "Given that we're not actually sleeping together just yet, I don't think that argument would hold water. Besides, we're not the first people to hook up in the International Bureau - hell, we're not even the first this year. I think that prize goes to... what's her name, Jill?"
Lin shrugged. "Something like that, I think. I don't know. It's not like we girl-loving Asians have some kind of club, or something."
Cassie permitted herself a brief, wicked grin. "Pity. It'd be so popular with the rest of the agency."
Lin giggled at that, and, before her confidence could fade, allowed Cassie to lead her into the room.
They weren't the first ones there, but they weren't the last, either. Room 403 was little more then a box with a simple metal table, four not terribly comfortable looking chairs, and a water cooler tucked into one corner.
A woman that Lin presumed to be Jenna Gold sat in one of the chairs, flipping through some papers in a manilla folder on the table in front of her. She looked up at their arrival and smiled, clearly pleased to have something else to focus on. Lin let herself relax a little. She could do this. Cassie was right, things would be fine.
Of course Cassie was right. Cassie was always right.
It was just that... Well, this was her first team mission with the International Bureau. She'd been assigned to it only a little over a month ago, and thought she'd finally managed to adjust to their way of doing things. She just... needed this to go perfectly.
There was far too much counting on her.
"Hey, Jenna. What, did you camp out downstairs overnight to beat us here?" Cassie asked, crossing the room to give her a quick hug. "This is Lin Zhang. Lin, Jenna Gold."
"Nice to meet you," Lin said, deciding a handshake would do for a greeting until they got to know each other better. "I've heard a lot about you."
Jenna grinned. "Well, don't believe any of it. I'm actually a perfectly lovely person." That elicited a laugh from all three of them, and Lin relaxed a bit more. Jenna pushed a stray strand of dark hair - it looked almost as black as her own, and Lin couldn't tell if it had been dyed or not - away from her face as she continued, "I'd love to say the same, but no one's been able to get a hold of this one for the past few months." She nodded her head at Cassie as she and Lin sat down across the table from her.
"I was on assignment," Cassie defended. "Deep-cover. Thus, no contact." She hadn't even finished it until the day after Kristin had resigned, which she hadn't been happy to learn about after she'd gotten back.
"How'd that go, anyway?" Jenna asked. All she really knew about it was that there had been some terrorists in Berlin or somewhere that the U.S. State Department had wanted taken care of.
"One terrorist leader captured, as requested," Cassie replied. "The German authorities handled the cleanup. Luckily for me, his daughter had a thing for blondes."
"That didn't bother you?" Lin asked cautiously. "Using her like that?"
Cassie shrugged. "I wasn't thrilled about it, but that's the job, sometimes." Smoothly changing subjects, she asked Jenna, "Do we know when Max is likely to show up?"
"Well," Jenna began, but the door opening cut her off. "I'd say any minute," she said instead as Max walked inside.
Max in a suit seemed wrong, somehow, even if the skirt did show off her legs. "Max," Cassie said with a nod. "Perfect timing. This is Lin." She waved her hand toward their new teammate.
Max returned the nod as she took her seat. "I try." Her eyes flicked over to Lin. "Zhang."
"Agent Brewer," she replied. Cassie had warned her that Max might be the hardest to win over. Not that that was because of her, Cassie had hastened to assure her. Max just took a while to warm up to people. So she would be professional, and she wouldn't push. Max didn't seem to dislike her, and she figured that was a good first step.
Cassie gently scolded Max with her gaze, then got down to business. "All right, we all know why we're here. Something's up, but for once the usual people won't talk. Either they genuinely don't know anything, or they're that scared of whoever's responsible, and I'm not sure which would be worse." Because for no one to know anything, whoever was responsible for... whatever it was would have to be exceptionally smart, and command absolute loyalty. And given that it was often the less intelligent, hired grunts that tended to give things away, for there to not be a peep about anything... Well, that was a bad sign.
For everyone to be that scared of them, however... Well, it was obvious why that would be bad.
"Assuming, of course, that whatever's going on has gotten past the early planning stages," Lin added. "It's possible that no one's heard anything because there isn't anything happening for them to have heard of, yet."
"It would be nice to get ahead of the bad guys for once," Jenna admitted. "But we can't count on that."
"The first thing we've got to do is figure out what this plot - if there is a plot - entails," Max decided. "All we know right now is that nobody wants to talk to us."
Lin frowned as something Max said caught in her mind. "Just to us?"
Cassie nodded, seeing where she was going. "We haven't heard anything from any of the other intelligence agencies around the world, but you're right. It does seem like people don't want to talk to us specifically, doesn't it? It's possible someone else might have heard something, and just doesn't want to share it until they're certain it's reliable."
"Or they don't care if it's reliable and just don't want to share anything like that with us in any event," Max added darkly.
"Either way, if the whoever behind the whatever is someone who doesn't like America..." Lin sighed. "That doesn't exactly narrow it down all that much, these days, does it? Thanks to the current administration, even our allies are probably expecting us to screw them up the ass eventually."
"With friends like us, who needs enemas?" Jenna agreed solemnly.
Cassie winced slightly and shook her head as irritation flashed over Max's face before she could stop it.
And they'd been doing so well, too.
"So we at least have a place to start," she said before any verbal sparring could spring up - or physical, if Max's mood got worse. "I'll call Petrie and see if she can get our assets abroad to see if their governments know anything about... well, anything." She didn't look like she was looking forward to making that call, unlike most DEBS, who might have given anything to have Petrie take their calls, or even talk to them at all.
Or at least remember their names.
But from what she could tell, Cassie simply did not overly care for Ms. Petrie. She thought she knew why, but she wouldn't say anything until Cassie felt ready to tell her herself.
They continued tossing ideas around for the better part of an hour, giving Lin a better idea of just who her new teammates really were. She thought Max was almost starting to like her, but she made a mental note not to do anything to tick the other agent off, anyway. She got the feeling Cassie hadn't been understating her temper. Fortunately for Jenna, she managed to keep the puns to a minimum. In exchange for that courtesy, Max didn't give her a black eye.
Shortly before the meeting broke up, Cassie focused her attention solely on Jenna. "You also may want to go talk to Leah."
A look somewhere between giddy excitement and wary concern flitted over her face so quickly Lin wondered if she'd really seen it at all. "I may, yes. But she'll want something in exchange for her help, you know. That's how it works. And right now I'm not authorized to tell her anything. The Princess won't do anything to help if it doesn't benefit her in some way. Remember what happened when my predecessor in this particular "relationship" tried to pull something like that on her?"
Cassie winced again. Oh, yes. She remembered. That poor, poor woman. "I'll mention that to Petrie, too."
"Does she take calls from all the squad captains in the International Bureau?" Lin asked. She knew she shouldn't have, but she couldn't help it. She'd never once gotten that high up the chain of command when she called in, and didn't know of anyone else who did, either.
"I wouldn't know," Cassie said flatly, and that was obviously the end of that discussion.
The meeting broke up shortly after, and they began their predetermined exit pattern, so as to minimize chances of being seen together.
Lin hung around until she and Cassie were the only ones left. "I'm sorry about before," she said softly, sitting on the table in front of the blonde. "You're not mad at me, are you?"
"No," Cassie said, and Lin could all but hear the words 'not at you' floating through her mind. "It was a fair question, after all. I'm just not in the mood to talk about that right now."
"Fair enough." Lin crossed her legs, smirking inwardly as she caught Cassie's eyes involuntarily following the movement. "Do you think they noticed anything?"
"I rather doubt it," Cassie replied, standing and leaning forward to capture Lin's lips. She obviously also didn't care.
Outside in the hall, Jenna had just caught up with Max. "So, do you think Cass noticed just how obvious she was making it that she has a thing for the new girl?"
Max snorted, remembering the lingering glances from both sides. "I rather doubt it."
**********************************************
"...and that's really it," Jia said with a shrug as she reclined in her chair and faced the monitor. She'd only just managed to sweep her hotel room for bugs before her scheduled check-in, and hoped the privacy screen the tech boys had come up with did its job. She already knew the encryptions in the signal on the video phone would keep anyone from overhearing her conversation. They always did, after all. "No one really knows anything, but they have, at least, determined a few places to start."
"Understood," her handler replied. "Keep us informed of any further developments."
"Of course." She paused, then, uncertain if she should ask the next question. Deciding she had little enough to lose, she went ahead. "Do we know anything about the situation?"
"That is none of your concern," came the expected response. It wasn't like she didn't understand why, but still, it grated, at times.
Especially in a situation like this. "Respectfully, Sir, I must disagree. If our country has a vested interest in whatever is going to happen, or is involved in it in any way, I might just need to know, so I can control what the DEBS do or don't learn."
Her statement was met with a long silence, and only her very thorough training kept her from fidgeting or wilting under the weight of his stare. Finally, he said, "We have nothing to do with the developing situation. At present, our interest is merely in seeing how the Americans react to it." It went without saying that if something happened that they could exploit, they would naturally do so. "That is all you need to know."
"Yes, Sir." Because what else could she say?
"Is there anything else?"
She considered that. "Just that I seem to have started a trend, relationship-wise," she said with a small smile. "A couple other girls in the International Bureau have just hooked up. Which should help make what I'm doing less obvious." Not that she was just seducing her teammate for information. That had been the idea when she'd begun, certainly, and her superiors had been pleased with her initiative, but she had to admit, she was enjoying herself, too. "They also still haven't improved their security against listening devices."
"Excellent. As your new friends would say, keep up the good work, Agent Chin."
"Yes, Sir," she said one final time before the connection broke. She began packing up her laptop on sheer reflex, her mind otherwise occupied.
She'd been proud when she'd been chosen for this mission. Out of two dozen potential candidates, they'd chosen her. Naturally, the others would be put to good use elsewhere, but they were no longer her concern.
All she needed to concern herself with was carrying out her orders and protecting the interests of the People's Republic of China.
She'd been recruited for service at the age of twelve, as most of them had been. Her birth had been an accident, she knew. A second child, who was a girl, when her parents already had a son? She supposed she was lucky she hadn't been killed outright. But the government had its uses for children like her, the Undesirables, and once she'd reached a certain age, she was drafted.
She was given a very thorough training in espionage and combat tactics, then she and her new "parents" - actually two CELD agents assigned to support her - moved to America.
She didn't know when it was exactly - or much of anything beyond the fact that it had happened - but at some point in the past, China had acquired a copy of the secret test that the DEBS placed in the SAT. Given their different kinds of governments, it obviously would produce much different results if the Chinese had tried to use it on their own people, but it did help in infiltration. Her handler had told her exactly what questions to answer correctly in order to attract the DEBS attention, though making sure she didn't do too well, so that they wouldn't focus heavily on her.
She had to admit she still felt a trace of resentment about that. She would have liked to see how well she did on it on her own, but after she'd seen the answers there was no chance she could have done that.
But it didn't matter. She was there to do a job, after all.
So for now she would wait, and watch.
She would not fail her superiors, as others had.
That had... unpleasant consequences.
**********************************************
Between jet lag, information overload, and grocery shopping with Susan, Viola was wiped.
She had to admit, though, that the shopping hadn't gone quite as badly as she'd feared it might. Neither of them tried to engage the other in any personal conversation, neither said anything to provoke the other, and they each found what they wanted in terms of food (and drink), which they paid for seperately. Viola helped Susan carry some of the heavier things she'd bought back to the dorms (and thank goodness Toby had suggested she make sure to bring that little handtruck with her for just such a purpose), Susan seemed to appreciate it...
It had gone about as well as it possibly could have, she supposed. After putting things away, she'd retreated to the bedroom and called Duke.
It had only made sense to call him first, given the time zone difference. She'd been worried that she'd wake him up, and that she should have called the next morning, but he'd still been awake.
She felt a sliver of guilt at the idea that he was waiting up for her, even though she knew him well enough to know that he would have been having trouble falling asleep anyway, after such a big day.
They'd quickly gotten each other caught up on their respective days, though Viola had obviously needed to do some censoring. "So, the tryouts are Saturday, which means I'll have tomorrow to sleep off my jetlag, so I can be at the top of my game. Or at least, you know, not fall asleep in the middle of the field."
He chuckled. "I'm sure you could play great even in your sleep."
She raised an eyebrow even though there was no way he could see it. "I've heard of walking in your sleep, but that's ridiculous. Anyway, all in all, things are looking up, here. If I can just manage to get along with my roommate, I'll be good. You sure you're gonna be all right way out there, all by yourself?"
"I think I'll manage," he replied dryly. "A few of the guys here are gonna be organizing an informal 'Welcome to Princeton' party tomorrow night, so I think I'll manage to make a few friends."
"Female friends?" she teased.
Predictably, he sputtered for a second. "No!" He calmed down and added, "Of course not."
"Why not? Girls don't make good friends?"
"That isn't what... I mean, you know what..."
It really was too easy, sometimes. "Hey, I could hardly blame any girls who had their attention caught by you, now could I? And given that I'm all the way out in California, well... I could see you getting lonely. And don't tell me you haven't been thinking that about me."
"That's not exactly the same," he defended. "You're in an all-girls school."
"What makes you think that'll save you?" she asked with an audible smirk. "What if I was bi, and just never mentioned it?"
"I think I would have noticed that," he replied.
"Not necessarily. I mean, you don't seem to have picked up on the fact that I've been sleeping with Olivia for months."
What the fuck are you doing?!her brain screamed at her.
"Excuse me?"
"Since New Year's, actually," she continued, despite the continuing protests of her brain. It felt so good to stop keeping this to herself... "Three of my new friends here are wicked hotties, too, and I think one or two of them might just want to jump me."
He snorted in amusement. "Good one, Vi. You almost had me for a second, there."
"You don't believe me? I can take pictures."
"Oh, I'm sure that part's true. But I think I know you well enough to know there's no way you'd do something like that behind my back, especially for this long."
Insert knife into stomach. Twist. "Yeah, I suppose that would be a pretty shitty thing for me to do, wouldn't it?" she agreed weakly.
"Yeah, and that's just not you," he said fondly. The guilt ripping apart her insides got worse by a factor of ten.
"Anyway, I should probably let you get some sleep, now, so that you're not totally dead on your feet tomorrow," she said, barely able to keep her voice steady.
Duke did notice, but guessed incorrectly as to the cause. "I miss you, too. I'm gonna try and come out over Thanksgiving break, all right? Love you."
"Love you, too," she choked out. "I'll see you then." She'd barely hung up, though, when her inner masochist evidently decided she hadn't had enough for one day quite yet, as her fingers reflexively hit the autodial button for Olivia.
"Hey, Vi!" She sounded so happy to hear from her.
Viola felt some of her tension melt away just from hearing her voice. "Hey. So, how goes day one?"
"Oh, it's great!" Olivia then launched into a description of pretty much every single thing that had happened since they'd parted company earlier. Had that only been a matter of hours ago? It felt like days, at least, had passed since then. And Olivia certainly was mentioning enough things to fill up that much time. She went into detail about her class schedule (which Viola reminded herself she needed to pick up tomorrow, along with books and the like), her roommate (who sounded like a perfectly nice young woman that Viola wouldn't mind getting to know during her inevitable visits), and pretty much everything else she could think of.
Viola listened to her talk, interjecting little comments here and there. Olivia was so adorable when she rambled. She could just picture the blond's hands moving about descriptively to emphasize whatever point she might have been making just then.
"Anyway, I'm... I'm..." She laughed, a touch sheepish. "I'm totally monopolizing the conversation, aren't I? I'm sorry."
"No, that's okay," Viola hastened to assure her. "I love listening to you talk."
She could almost hear Olivia blushing. "Thank you. So, what have you been up to today?"
She didn't have quite as much she could tell Olivia, but after how overboard Olivia herself had gone, she probably wouldn't notice anything amiss. Viola launched into a quick recap of her day thusfar, mentioning how she'd somehow gotten off on the wrong foot with Susan for no reason she could figure out. "Do you have any ideas about that?" she nearly pleaded. "I'd really like to smooth things out, but right now, I have no idea what I could do."
Olivia was silent as she mulled that over, and Viola tried not to be impatient. "Sounds like she's got a crush on you," she finally said. "She just doesn't want to admit it, even to herself. It might be a harmless girlcrush, or she might be so deeply in the closet that she doesn't even know what it is she's feeling. Either way, I'm not sure what else you can do but wait it out." She paused. "And introduce her to me, so she knows you're taken."
"My, aren't we possessive today?" Viola asked with a grin. "That reminds me, though. Our initial argument caught the attention of one of our neighbors. While we were talking to her and our RA, we met her roommate... who just happens to be a certain blonde that we both met at the airport."
Olivia was silent for several stunned seconds. "You're kidding me," she finally managed.
"Oh, don't I wish. But no, it was her. You'll want to be careful around her, when you do meet her, as she seems to throw herself at pretty much any warm body in proximity."
"Yikes."
"Tell me about it. Anyway, after that came the 'Welcome to the School' assembly, then some bonding, and then grocery shopping." She paused. "And I just called Duke. He says hi, by the way."
"Oh. Well, that's... I'll have to email him later, or something." She didn't sound especially happy, anymore, for obvious reasons.
"I told him about us."
Another, longer stunned silence. "You... what?"
"Told him I'd been sleeping with you since New Year's. I don't think he believed me. But at least he can't say I never told him, now." She paused. "I'm breaking up with him."
She had no idea exactly when she'd reached that decision, but it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Things had really gone on for too long as it was.
"You are?" She sounded cautious, but oh-so-hopeful.
Viola nodded, forgetting that Olivia couldn't see her doing it. "Yeah. He says he wants to try coming out here over Thanksgiving break. I think I should do it then. After everything... I can at least do it face-to-face, no matter how tempting it would be to do it via email or a phone message or something. He deserves that respect."
"What are you going to do in the meantime?"
"Just treat him normally, I guess. I'll probably be too busy around here for a while to have much in the way of contact with him at all, and when I do... If I just treat him like a friend, don't really respond to any of his advances, maybe he'll start getting the hint before Thanksgiving even rolls around." And it would certainly help if it wasn't a total shock to him. Well, it would help her, anyway, but she hoped it would help him at least a little, too. "I just... I want to be with you."
"Yeah?" Olivia asked warmly.
"Yeah," Viola confirmed, the happiness welling up in her telling her that she was making the right decision, finally making the choice part of her had known all along she'd make. "Kinda wish you were here now so I could show you."
Olivia giggled. "You can show me soon enough, don't worry. Just be patient."
"You certainly have been," Viola said softly. She hadn't actually meant to say that aloud, but... It was true, wasn't it?
"True enough," she said, as if responding to Viola's thought. "But another day or two won't kill either of us."
"My libido and I will see you soon, then," Viola replied in as serious a tone as she could muster.
"Count on it," Olivia told her in that low, sexy voice she loved so much.
They exchanged goodbyes, neither especially wanting to hang up, but neither really having anything else to say just then, either, and hung up.
And even as she got ready for bed later on that night, Viola simply could not stop smiling.
Well, that took long enough, didn't it? *lol* Sorry for the delay. Anyway, this time I have pictures of the International squad (excluding Max, of course, because if you don't know what she looks like by now, you've really not been paying attention. :P) Oh, and I threw in a bonus pic of Princess Leah, whom you'll be meeting soon enough.
Ashley Tisdale as Cassandra Walker
Brenda Song as Lin Zhang
Ah, Disney. You've been so good to my fics. ;)
Alex Breckenridge as Jenna Gold
Clare Kramer as Leah Taylor
(Heh. *snickers* I just couldn't resist. Hopefully, most of you reading this will get it. ^_^)
Pairings are: Viola/Duke, Viola/Olivia, Cassie/Lin, Cynthia/too many to list. ;)
Title: Parallax (part 2c/?)
Author: That'd be me. *grins* Andrew, Obsidian, call me what you want. But only if it's nice. ;)
Rating: R. The girls are already more then earning that 'R' rating. *sniffs* I'm just so proud... ;)
Comments: Well, here's hoping my second D.E.B.S. crossover fic will be as good as my first one. ^_^ This is a continuation of the Christmas Wishes series of short 'She's The Man' stories I've written, but you don't really need to have read those to understand this. This is also going to be the first actual sequel to 'D.E.B.S.' that I've written, as opposed to an AU fic. (Well, I guess all fic, by its very nature, is AU, but you know what I mean. *winks*)
And now we get to part three of chapter two. I've never had to split my chapters up that much before, you know. What do you think? Should I do that again if a chapter starts getting rather long, or should I just wait and post it all at once?
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.', as I am most definitely NOT Angela Robinson. Likewise, I also do not own 'She's The Man', which belongs to... Well, it was written by Ewan Leslie, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, directed by Andy Fickman, based on the work of William Shakespeare, and distributed by Dreamworks. So whoever 'owns' it, it isn't me. ;)
Parallax, or more accurately motion parallax (Greek: παραλλαγή (parallagé) = alteration) is the change of angular position of two stationary points relative to each other as seen by an observer, due to the motion of an observer. Simply put, it is the apparent shift of an object against a background due to a change in observer position.
"Are you sure about this?" Lin asked as she followed Cassie down the hall on the fourth floor of the office building that served as the headquarters for the British station of the International Bureau.
"Am I sure about what? That we're meeting in room Four-Oh-Three? Of course." The two were dressed in drab, gray professional business clothing to better blend in with the section of town they were in. And if their outfits projected something of a boring air that discouraged any further study of them... well, Cassie figured that was the basic idea, really.
"No, I mean..." Lin sounded mildly embarrassed. "You really think they're going to like me?"
Cassie paused outside the door, facing her. "Trust me, they're definitely going to like you." She slipped her hand into Lin's, interlacing their fingers. "I do."
After a purely reflexive check to see if they were being observed, Lin leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss. "You're biased."
"How does that make me wrong?"
She chuckled softly, despite herself. "I just... don't want anyone to think I'm sleeping my way up to the top."
Cassie's lips quirked in amusement. "Given that we're not actually sleeping together just yet, I don't think that argument would hold water. Besides, we're not the first people to hook up in the International Bureau - hell, we're not even the first this year. I think that prize goes to... what's her name, Jill?"
Lin shrugged. "Something like that, I think. I don't know. It's not like we girl-loving Asians have some kind of club, or something."
Cassie permitted herself a brief, wicked grin. "Pity. It'd be so popular with the rest of the agency."
Lin giggled at that, and, before her confidence could fade, allowed Cassie to lead her into the room.
They weren't the first ones there, but they weren't the last, either. Room 403 was little more then a box with a simple metal table, four not terribly comfortable looking chairs, and a water cooler tucked into one corner.
A woman that Lin presumed to be Jenna Gold sat in one of the chairs, flipping through some papers in a manilla folder on the table in front of her. She looked up at their arrival and smiled, clearly pleased to have something else to focus on. Lin let herself relax a little. She could do this. Cassie was right, things would be fine.
Of course Cassie was right. Cassie was always right.
It was just that... Well, this was her first team mission with the International Bureau. She'd been assigned to it only a little over a month ago, and thought she'd finally managed to adjust to their way of doing things. She just... needed this to go perfectly.
There was far too much counting on her.
"Hey, Jenna. What, did you camp out downstairs overnight to beat us here?" Cassie asked, crossing the room to give her a quick hug. "This is Lin Zhang. Lin, Jenna Gold."
"Nice to meet you," Lin said, deciding a handshake would do for a greeting until they got to know each other better. "I've heard a lot about you."
Jenna grinned. "Well, don't believe any of it. I'm actually a perfectly lovely person." That elicited a laugh from all three of them, and Lin relaxed a bit more. Jenna pushed a stray strand of dark hair - it looked almost as black as her own, and Lin couldn't tell if it had been dyed or not - away from her face as she continued, "I'd love to say the same, but no one's been able to get a hold of this one for the past few months." She nodded her head at Cassie as she and Lin sat down across the table from her.
"I was on assignment," Cassie defended. "Deep-cover. Thus, no contact." She hadn't even finished it until the day after Kristin had resigned, which she hadn't been happy to learn about after she'd gotten back.
"How'd that go, anyway?" Jenna asked. All she really knew about it was that there had been some terrorists in Berlin or somewhere that the U.S. State Department had wanted taken care of.
"One terrorist leader captured, as requested," Cassie replied. "The German authorities handled the cleanup. Luckily for me, his daughter had a thing for blondes."
"That didn't bother you?" Lin asked cautiously. "Using her like that?"
Cassie shrugged. "I wasn't thrilled about it, but that's the job, sometimes." Smoothly changing subjects, she asked Jenna, "Do we know when Max is likely to show up?"
"Well," Jenna began, but the door opening cut her off. "I'd say any minute," she said instead as Max walked inside.
Max in a suit seemed wrong, somehow, even if the skirt did show off her legs. "Max," Cassie said with a nod. "Perfect timing. This is Lin." She waved her hand toward their new teammate.
Max returned the nod as she took her seat. "I try." Her eyes flicked over to Lin. "Zhang."
"Agent Brewer," she replied. Cassie had warned her that Max might be the hardest to win over. Not that that was because of her, Cassie had hastened to assure her. Max just took a while to warm up to people. So she would be professional, and she wouldn't push. Max didn't seem to dislike her, and she figured that was a good first step.
Cassie gently scolded Max with her gaze, then got down to business. "All right, we all know why we're here. Something's up, but for once the usual people won't talk. Either they genuinely don't know anything, or they're that scared of whoever's responsible, and I'm not sure which would be worse." Because for no one to know anything, whoever was responsible for... whatever it was would have to be exceptionally smart, and command absolute loyalty. And given that it was often the less intelligent, hired grunts that tended to give things away, for there to not be a peep about anything... Well, that was a bad sign.
For everyone to be that scared of them, however... Well, it was obvious why that would be bad.
"Assuming, of course, that whatever's going on has gotten past the early planning stages," Lin added. "It's possible that no one's heard anything because there isn't anything happening for them to have heard of, yet."
"It would be nice to get ahead of the bad guys for once," Jenna admitted. "But we can't count on that."
"The first thing we've got to do is figure out what this plot - if there is a plot - entails," Max decided. "All we know right now is that nobody wants to talk to us."
Lin frowned as something Max said caught in her mind. "Just to us?"
Cassie nodded, seeing where she was going. "We haven't heard anything from any of the other intelligence agencies around the world, but you're right. It does seem like people don't want to talk to us specifically, doesn't it? It's possible someone else might have heard something, and just doesn't want to share it until they're certain it's reliable."
"Or they don't care if it's reliable and just don't want to share anything like that with us in any event," Max added darkly.
"Either way, if the whoever behind the whatever is someone who doesn't like America..." Lin sighed. "That doesn't exactly narrow it down all that much, these days, does it? Thanks to the current administration, even our allies are probably expecting us to screw them up the ass eventually."
"With friends like us, who needs enemas?" Jenna agreed solemnly.
Cassie winced slightly and shook her head as irritation flashed over Max's face before she could stop it.
And they'd been doing so well, too.
"So we at least have a place to start," she said before any verbal sparring could spring up - or physical, if Max's mood got worse. "I'll call Petrie and see if she can get our assets abroad to see if their governments know anything about... well, anything." She didn't look like she was looking forward to making that call, unlike most DEBS, who might have given anything to have Petrie take their calls, or even talk to them at all.
Or at least remember their names.
But from what she could tell, Cassie simply did not overly care for Ms. Petrie. She thought she knew why, but she wouldn't say anything until Cassie felt ready to tell her herself.
They continued tossing ideas around for the better part of an hour, giving Lin a better idea of just who her new teammates really were. She thought Max was almost starting to like her, but she made a mental note not to do anything to tick the other agent off, anyway. She got the feeling Cassie hadn't been understating her temper. Fortunately for Jenna, she managed to keep the puns to a minimum. In exchange for that courtesy, Max didn't give her a black eye.
Shortly before the meeting broke up, Cassie focused her attention solely on Jenna. "You also may want to go talk to Leah."
A look somewhere between giddy excitement and wary concern flitted over her face so quickly Lin wondered if she'd really seen it at all. "I may, yes. But she'll want something in exchange for her help, you know. That's how it works. And right now I'm not authorized to tell her anything. The Princess won't do anything to help if it doesn't benefit her in some way. Remember what happened when my predecessor in this particular "relationship" tried to pull something like that on her?"
Cassie winced again. Oh, yes. She remembered. That poor, poor woman. "I'll mention that to Petrie, too."
"Does she take calls from all the squad captains in the International Bureau?" Lin asked. She knew she shouldn't have, but she couldn't help it. She'd never once gotten that high up the chain of command when she called in, and didn't know of anyone else who did, either.
"I wouldn't know," Cassie said flatly, and that was obviously the end of that discussion.
The meeting broke up shortly after, and they began their predetermined exit pattern, so as to minimize chances of being seen together.
Lin hung around until she and Cassie were the only ones left. "I'm sorry about before," she said softly, sitting on the table in front of the blonde. "You're not mad at me, are you?"
"No," Cassie said, and Lin could all but hear the words 'not at you' floating through her mind. "It was a fair question, after all. I'm just not in the mood to talk about that right now."
"Fair enough." Lin crossed her legs, smirking inwardly as she caught Cassie's eyes involuntarily following the movement. "Do you think they noticed anything?"
"I rather doubt it," Cassie replied, standing and leaning forward to capture Lin's lips. She obviously also didn't care.
Outside in the hall, Jenna had just caught up with Max. "So, do you think Cass noticed just how obvious she was making it that she has a thing for the new girl?"
Max snorted, remembering the lingering glances from both sides. "I rather doubt it."
**********************************************
"...and that's really it," Jia said with a shrug as she reclined in her chair and faced the monitor. She'd only just managed to sweep her hotel room for bugs before her scheduled check-in, and hoped the privacy screen the tech boys had come up with did its job. She already knew the encryptions in the signal on the video phone would keep anyone from overhearing her conversation. They always did, after all. "No one really knows anything, but they have, at least, determined a few places to start."
"Understood," her handler replied. "Keep us informed of any further developments."
"Of course." She paused, then, uncertain if she should ask the next question. Deciding she had little enough to lose, she went ahead. "Do we know anything about the situation?"
"That is none of your concern," came the expected response. It wasn't like she didn't understand why, but still, it grated, at times.
Especially in a situation like this. "Respectfully, Sir, I must disagree. If our country has a vested interest in whatever is going to happen, or is involved in it in any way, I might just need to know, so I can control what the DEBS do or don't learn."
Her statement was met with a long silence, and only her very thorough training kept her from fidgeting or wilting under the weight of his stare. Finally, he said, "We have nothing to do with the developing situation. At present, our interest is merely in seeing how the Americans react to it." It went without saying that if something happened that they could exploit, they would naturally do so. "That is all you need to know."
"Yes, Sir." Because what else could she say?
"Is there anything else?"
She considered that. "Just that I seem to have started a trend, relationship-wise," she said with a small smile. "A couple other girls in the International Bureau have just hooked up. Which should help make what I'm doing less obvious." Not that she was just seducing her teammate for information. That had been the idea when she'd begun, certainly, and her superiors had been pleased with her initiative, but she had to admit, she was enjoying herself, too. "They also still haven't improved their security against listening devices."
"Excellent. As your new friends would say, keep up the good work, Agent Chin."
"Yes, Sir," she said one final time before the connection broke. She began packing up her laptop on sheer reflex, her mind otherwise occupied.
She'd been proud when she'd been chosen for this mission. Out of two dozen potential candidates, they'd chosen her. Naturally, the others would be put to good use elsewhere, but they were no longer her concern.
All she needed to concern herself with was carrying out her orders and protecting the interests of the People's Republic of China.
She'd been recruited for service at the age of twelve, as most of them had been. Her birth had been an accident, she knew. A second child, who was a girl, when her parents already had a son? She supposed she was lucky she hadn't been killed outright. But the government had its uses for children like her, the Undesirables, and once she'd reached a certain age, she was drafted.
She was given a very thorough training in espionage and combat tactics, then she and her new "parents" - actually two CELD agents assigned to support her - moved to America.
She didn't know when it was exactly - or much of anything beyond the fact that it had happened - but at some point in the past, China had acquired a copy of the secret test that the DEBS placed in the SAT. Given their different kinds of governments, it obviously would produce much different results if the Chinese had tried to use it on their own people, but it did help in infiltration. Her handler had told her exactly what questions to answer correctly in order to attract the DEBS attention, though making sure she didn't do too well, so that they wouldn't focus heavily on her.
She had to admit she still felt a trace of resentment about that. She would have liked to see how well she did on it on her own, but after she'd seen the answers there was no chance she could have done that.
But it didn't matter. She was there to do a job, after all.
So for now she would wait, and watch.
She would not fail her superiors, as others had.
That had... unpleasant consequences.
**********************************************
Between jet lag, information overload, and grocery shopping with Susan, Viola was wiped.
She had to admit, though, that the shopping hadn't gone quite as badly as she'd feared it might. Neither of them tried to engage the other in any personal conversation, neither said anything to provoke the other, and they each found what they wanted in terms of food (and drink), which they paid for seperately. Viola helped Susan carry some of the heavier things she'd bought back to the dorms (and thank goodness Toby had suggested she make sure to bring that little handtruck with her for just such a purpose), Susan seemed to appreciate it...
It had gone about as well as it possibly could have, she supposed. After putting things away, she'd retreated to the bedroom and called Duke.
It had only made sense to call him first, given the time zone difference. She'd been worried that she'd wake him up, and that she should have called the next morning, but he'd still been awake.
She felt a sliver of guilt at the idea that he was waiting up for her, even though she knew him well enough to know that he would have been having trouble falling asleep anyway, after such a big day.
They'd quickly gotten each other caught up on their respective days, though Viola had obviously needed to do some censoring. "So, the tryouts are Saturday, which means I'll have tomorrow to sleep off my jetlag, so I can be at the top of my game. Or at least, you know, not fall asleep in the middle of the field."
He chuckled. "I'm sure you could play great even in your sleep."
She raised an eyebrow even though there was no way he could see it. "I've heard of walking in your sleep, but that's ridiculous. Anyway, all in all, things are looking up, here. If I can just manage to get along with my roommate, I'll be good. You sure you're gonna be all right way out there, all by yourself?"
"I think I'll manage," he replied dryly. "A few of the guys here are gonna be organizing an informal 'Welcome to Princeton' party tomorrow night, so I think I'll manage to make a few friends."
"Female friends?" she teased.
Predictably, he sputtered for a second. "No!" He calmed down and added, "Of course not."
"Why not? Girls don't make good friends?"
"That isn't what... I mean, you know what..."
It really was too easy, sometimes. "Hey, I could hardly blame any girls who had their attention caught by you, now could I? And given that I'm all the way out in California, well... I could see you getting lonely. And don't tell me you haven't been thinking that about me."
"That's not exactly the same," he defended. "You're in an all-girls school."
"What makes you think that'll save you?" she asked with an audible smirk. "What if I was bi, and just never mentioned it?"
"I think I would have noticed that," he replied.
"Not necessarily. I mean, you don't seem to have picked up on the fact that I've been sleeping with Olivia for months."
What the fuck are you doing?!her brain screamed at her.
"Excuse me?"
"Since New Year's, actually," she continued, despite the continuing protests of her brain. It felt so good to stop keeping this to herself... "Three of my new friends here are wicked hotties, too, and I think one or two of them might just want to jump me."
He snorted in amusement. "Good one, Vi. You almost had me for a second, there."
"You don't believe me? I can take pictures."
"Oh, I'm sure that part's true. But I think I know you well enough to know there's no way you'd do something like that behind my back, especially for this long."
Insert knife into stomach. Twist. "Yeah, I suppose that would be a pretty shitty thing for me to do, wouldn't it?" she agreed weakly.
"Yeah, and that's just not you," he said fondly. The guilt ripping apart her insides got worse by a factor of ten.
"Anyway, I should probably let you get some sleep, now, so that you're not totally dead on your feet tomorrow," she said, barely able to keep her voice steady.
Duke did notice, but guessed incorrectly as to the cause. "I miss you, too. I'm gonna try and come out over Thanksgiving break, all right? Love you."
"Love you, too," she choked out. "I'll see you then." She'd barely hung up, though, when her inner masochist evidently decided she hadn't had enough for one day quite yet, as her fingers reflexively hit the autodial button for Olivia.
"Hey, Vi!" She sounded so happy to hear from her.
Viola felt some of her tension melt away just from hearing her voice. "Hey. So, how goes day one?"
"Oh, it's great!" Olivia then launched into a description of pretty much every single thing that had happened since they'd parted company earlier. Had that only been a matter of hours ago? It felt like days, at least, had passed since then. And Olivia certainly was mentioning enough things to fill up that much time. She went into detail about her class schedule (which Viola reminded herself she needed to pick up tomorrow, along with books and the like), her roommate (who sounded like a perfectly nice young woman that Viola wouldn't mind getting to know during her inevitable visits), and pretty much everything else she could think of.
Viola listened to her talk, interjecting little comments here and there. Olivia was so adorable when she rambled. She could just picture the blond's hands moving about descriptively to emphasize whatever point she might have been making just then.
"Anyway, I'm... I'm..." She laughed, a touch sheepish. "I'm totally monopolizing the conversation, aren't I? I'm sorry."
"No, that's okay," Viola hastened to assure her. "I love listening to you talk."
She could almost hear Olivia blushing. "Thank you. So, what have you been up to today?"
She didn't have quite as much she could tell Olivia, but after how overboard Olivia herself had gone, she probably wouldn't notice anything amiss. Viola launched into a quick recap of her day thusfar, mentioning how she'd somehow gotten off on the wrong foot with Susan for no reason she could figure out. "Do you have any ideas about that?" she nearly pleaded. "I'd really like to smooth things out, but right now, I have no idea what I could do."
Olivia was silent as she mulled that over, and Viola tried not to be impatient. "Sounds like she's got a crush on you," she finally said. "She just doesn't want to admit it, even to herself. It might be a harmless girlcrush, or she might be so deeply in the closet that she doesn't even know what it is she's feeling. Either way, I'm not sure what else you can do but wait it out." She paused. "And introduce her to me, so she knows you're taken."
"My, aren't we possessive today?" Viola asked with a grin. "That reminds me, though. Our initial argument caught the attention of one of our neighbors. While we were talking to her and our RA, we met her roommate... who just happens to be a certain blonde that we both met at the airport."
Olivia was silent for several stunned seconds. "You're kidding me," she finally managed.
"Oh, don't I wish. But no, it was her. You'll want to be careful around her, when you do meet her, as she seems to throw herself at pretty much any warm body in proximity."
"Yikes."
"Tell me about it. Anyway, after that came the 'Welcome to the School' assembly, then some bonding, and then grocery shopping." She paused. "And I just called Duke. He says hi, by the way."
"Oh. Well, that's... I'll have to email him later, or something." She didn't sound especially happy, anymore, for obvious reasons.
"I told him about us."
Another, longer stunned silence. "You... what?"
"Told him I'd been sleeping with you since New Year's. I don't think he believed me. But at least he can't say I never told him, now." She paused. "I'm breaking up with him."
She had no idea exactly when she'd reached that decision, but it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Things had really gone on for too long as it was.
"You are?" She sounded cautious, but oh-so-hopeful.
Viola nodded, forgetting that Olivia couldn't see her doing it. "Yeah. He says he wants to try coming out here over Thanksgiving break. I think I should do it then. After everything... I can at least do it face-to-face, no matter how tempting it would be to do it via email or a phone message or something. He deserves that respect."
"What are you going to do in the meantime?"
"Just treat him normally, I guess. I'll probably be too busy around here for a while to have much in the way of contact with him at all, and when I do... If I just treat him like a friend, don't really respond to any of his advances, maybe he'll start getting the hint before Thanksgiving even rolls around." And it would certainly help if it wasn't a total shock to him. Well, it would help her, anyway, but she hoped it would help him at least a little, too. "I just... I want to be with you."
"Yeah?" Olivia asked warmly.
"Yeah," Viola confirmed, the happiness welling up in her telling her that she was making the right decision, finally making the choice part of her had known all along she'd make. "Kinda wish you were here now so I could show you."
Olivia giggled. "You can show me soon enough, don't worry. Just be patient."
"You certainly have been," Viola said softly. She hadn't actually meant to say that aloud, but... It was true, wasn't it?
"True enough," she said, as if responding to Viola's thought. "But another day or two won't kill either of us."
"My libido and I will see you soon, then," Viola replied in as serious a tone as she could muster.
"Count on it," Olivia told her in that low, sexy voice she loved so much.
They exchanged goodbyes, neither especially wanting to hang up, but neither really having anything else to say just then, either, and hung up.
And even as she got ready for bed later on that night, Viola simply could not stop smiling.
Well, that took long enough, didn't it? *lol* Sorry for the delay. Anyway, this time I have pictures of the International squad (excluding Max, of course, because if you don't know what she looks like by now, you've really not been paying attention. :P) Oh, and I threw in a bonus pic of Princess Leah, whom you'll be meeting soon enough.
Ashley Tisdale as Cassandra Walker
Brenda Song as Lin Zhang
Ah, Disney. You've been so good to my fics. ;)
Alex Breckenridge as Jenna Gold
Clare Kramer as Leah Taylor
(Heh. *snickers* I just couldn't resist. Hopefully, most of you reading this will get it. ^_^)