six_word_stories | (no subject)

"Hey now, you had us all worried, that's all. It's good to have you back in the saddle."

"Damn right I am. Spent enough time laid out like I was in a coffin.

Hey, there ain't no videos of me dancing, are there? They're all over the internet."

"Of you? No, only cameras that got any of it are the security feeds, and you know we don't go posting those on the internet."

Though there have definitely been times that she wanted to.

"Naw, I didn't think mine were. Just wonderin' if they existed, and what kind of sweet talkin' I have to do to make sure soooomeone saw that they were deleted."

Oh yeah, definitely buttering things up. Or trying to.

Mostly he's just lucky that she considers him a friend. After all, he never tried to block her from becoming a field agent.

"You know we can't just go deleting things, especially things that might be valuable research. But, that said, sometimes files, and especially video files, have a tendency to get corrupted when they're transferred over to the archives."

She sighed, shaking her head, "It's a known issue, something we've been trying to fix at least as long as I've been here."

When the vote came up, he was all in. She was their teammate and partner now. That was all that mattered.

That she was a computer genius? Well that was just a benefit he was willing to try and exploit a bit.

"Well well, isn't that just a damn shame then. Horrible things happen when technology goes sideways. Good thing this isn't important to no one, huh?"

Grinning even as he played along. "I suppose, not for any reason, I sorta owe you a favor then."

"Damn shame indeed." She replied, tisking and shaking her head, "If only there was some way to predict just when and how these things were going to happen. Never can tell what bits are going to get eaten by the ether."

She sighed heavily then, not full melodrama, but bordering on it even as she shook her head sadly again.

Though the actual smile broke through again at the follow up, giving a little shrug, "You might just at that. A small one."

He made a bit of a pouty face, shaking his head. "You would think in this day and age, but that's just how computers are. Here's hope its fixed before it's something important."

Chuckling, he fixed her with a look. "Oh no. I've seen me dancing on the best of days. I can't even imagine. Nope. Big one. I'm willing to accept that like a man," he said, sweeping his hat from his head and placing it over his heart.

That earned him an actual laugh and she shook her head again, tone gone warm and nearly conspiratorial, "I'm not one to take advantage of a friend. We'll call it a middling-range favor."

And chances were good she'd make it an easy one even then, bring her back something from his next overseas trip, make him play chauffeur while she ran some errands, something of the sort.

"Well, you're still a peach. Thank you... for doing nothing but having a faulty system," he teased, tipping his hat before sliding it back on his head.

"Now is that the only reason you came all the way down here to see me?" Not that it was really all that far, it was just a sort of running joke with most of them, that they kept her hidden away in the basement.

She did, of course, have full field agent status, but she liked her lair, and was in the process of vetting someone to take over as tech supervisor, moving someone into her recently vacated position had been left up to her.

"It certainly wasn't because I bet someone that I'd find you down here. You do know you were promoted, right?"

Smirking as he braced his hands on his hips as if he was being funny, and he thinks he is.

He was being funny, a little, enough to make her smile, anyway, "I am aware of that fact, yes." She agreed, nodding, "It's just that we haven't found someone to take over y'know..." A vague, semi-circular gesture with both hands, "All of this, yet."

Another nod, "'Yet' being the important part of that sentence. Working on it."

"And all of this will wait while you get on the job and out in the field," he pointed out, twirling a finger to imitate her gestures about the area.

"Don't let them hold you up in this. You got your place fair and square. Take advantage of it."

Her brow furrowed, squinting suspiciously at him for a moment, "You know about a job coming down the pike that I haven't heard about yet?" Truthfully, she wouldn't put it past him, sometimes he learned things -especially about potential missions- even before she did, and she'd never asked how and wasn't about to start, either.

He shrugs, looking to one side and the other, overplaying at being innocent. "What? Me? You say that like I'd have any clue about something like that. Like I consort with those types."

Because using the word consort, or nearly dying from recreational drug use, totally makes him seem innocent.

"Maybe. And it might be nothin'. I don't think it will but it might be."

She nodded at that, making a thoughtful little sound before gathering up a stack of folders, "Well, guess that means now's as good a time as any to take Champ the reports he asked for."

Even if he hadn't, she'd learned a long time ago that if she needed an excuse to get to his office, she could claim he'd asked for one report or another because often he didn't remember if he had requested them or not.

And Tequila can't help but chuckle at that.

"Probably for the best. And you get a whiff of what's going on, let me know. I need to get back out in the field."

Prove himself, if only to himself, after what had happened.

That earned him an actual smile and a short nod, "Of course, this turns out to be a two man job, I know just the man to ask for."

More than that, she could vouch for his readiness to return to the field, which was more than she could say for some of the agents currently in the field.

Kid, all I'm asking is how many of those shots you've had. Cause that stuff is 96% alcohol.

[ And this is the oooone night Robert said he'd watch his buddy's bar. He really doesn't want anyone dying here. Least not tonight. ]

That's why you should never clear the glasses. Counting system, right?

[He glanced at the bottle and then at the bartender with a crooked grin.]

I know how much it's got kickin' in there. I breathe it twenty four seven. Might as well replace my blood with it.