Participants:
| Scene Title | Wicked Serve |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Raquetball and a little revenge are on the menu for the DHS/DoEA weekly workout-and-update session. |
| Date | January 25, 2011 |
The local gym
The on-going sparring-match-via-raquetball that is Jane and Audrey's work out schedule is a time honored tradition. Not rain nor sleet nor snow has kept them from their appointed time slot. Although bodily injury has once or twice.
Today, the air of playful competition has been kicked up a notch, to something closer to actual fierce play time out there on the court. And while the ex-Army, ex-lawyer can keep up, after a particularly hard serve on Audrey's part, curiosity heightens a little too much and Jane can't help but comment. After she hits the ball, of course.
"Jesus, Hanson. Did one of the interns call you fat or something? I haven't sweat this much since Iraq."
"How about you almost quite possibly cost me my job Pak" She swings again and the small hard ball that they've been swatting back and forth bounces off the floor, ricochet's off the wall and back at Jane at an angle that may be hard to hit. "If an intern called me fat, you know that they'd be tasting the back of their knee, not making you sweat like some pig" Not that Audrey herself isn't dripping in it and the tell tale v's of damp at her neck and back.
"What? I haven't even filled out those dissatisfactory service cards in weeks," Jane says, and while she tries to twist to hit that ball, it ends up smacking her in the arm instead. "I guess I should be glad they don't allow sharp object in here," she comments as the ball bounces across the floor, "What happened?" Instead of chasing the ball, she takes this moment for conversation. Not at all to snag a breather.
Audrey's bending over, palms on her knees and raquet resting on the floor. "I checked into Gibbs for you, pulled some favors, got footage of Gibbs outside the Center. Within a half hour I had someone with a lot of official titles crawling up my ass and cleaning out my colons and telling me that if I didn't lay off, I'd find myself lacking a job, and lacking my freedom if I didn't back the fuck away from Gibbs"
Audrey looks to the side towards Jane, face all screwed up and unhappy. "Who's fucking bowl of wheaties did you piss in to get his case?"
Well, that gets a frown from the other agent. "Katie Sebastian's apparently." Jane takes a moment there, mouth turned decidedly down. "I got a phone call from Gibbs. I woke up to a voicemail. He had some… interesting things to say. But ultimately wanted to tell me he's going to ground for a while. If it was even him and not some wacky misdirection attempt. And I realize I'm starting to sound paranoid, but that's only because this case is driving me a little nuts."
"Yeah well, the NSA told me to back off, stop looking and turn over what I had dug up. Gibbs got shoveled into a coffin like case attached to the back of a van by some hazmat suited guys. I don't have a copy of the tape. There's no evidence in the system at all of anyone going to pick him up, DHS shows no warrants or paperwork period involving Gibbs much less a file on him. The NSA Pak."
Breathing hard, she lifts her raquet, pointing it to her friend. "That's not the half of it. After that lovely colon cleansing I got, I had a second caller. This time, they opted not to leave a number, or a name, just that my looking had tripped flags, big giant red flags and that he was sympathetic to any frustration I might have towards what's happened to Gibbs and that" She bunny fingers in the air. "I am not alone"
"Not alone, huh? Comforting," Jane comments wryly. "Look, Hanson… I don't know. Something about all this with Nash and Harrison and Redbird and Gibbs and everything… it's just rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, I was in the military, I know how it goes when things go on and you're just not meant to know. But I also spent years spouting off about Evolved rights and trying to make things… equal and now I feel like what's going on behind the scenes is making me look like a liar and a hypocrite and I gotta tell you… It's really pissing me off. I didn't sign up to shove people in coffins. Or let other people do it. I believe that shit about equality and basic human rights, I wasn't just trying to impress the boys."
"Neither was I Pak. But if you're gonna keep dipping your toes into this, you need to do it quietly. This Sebastien chick in your face about it. Cooper had an idea that we should look into rumored takings, where DHS was supposedly involved, see if this is more than a one time thing. I don't know how we're going to do it without sending up more red flags, but if you want help Pak, it's not like Sylar or his dad are leaving me bodies to play with of late"
"I've never been any good at quiet," Jane says with a crooked smile, "I was always more the type to shout and charge in guns blazing. Sort of famous for it, in the service." But she puts her hands on her hips and looks over at Audrey. "I do mean to keep on this. Even if my only answers are some black suits telling me to mind my business. Or whatever they decide to do with people who piss them off. But you… are you sure you want to stir the bee hive more? I don't actually want to get you fired."
"Just enough that maybe this sympathetic man who called might choose to make contact. Not stir enough to make me actually loose my job. I like my job Pak. I'd go crazy without my job. But I like you too and I don't want to see you on a television screen being shoved into a coffin and disappearing like your Mr. Gibbs did before he re-appeared" Audrey points out.
"Yeah, well. If I get shoved into one of those, rest assured, it's all part of some brilliant infiltration scheme," Jane says at first, still keeping a bit of her usual lightheartedness about her. But it drops after a second and she lifts a hand to scratch at her nose. "I appreciate this. Just don't get fired. Because when I get fired, I'm going to count on you to keep me in the lifestyle I've grown accustomed to," she notes, a smile creeping back into her expression there at the end.
"I'm not gonna marry you and put you under my insurace pak. What do I look like, a lesbian? I don't need a life partner, i already got Felix and Cooper" By that she means the dogs. "I'll pay for your gym membership and occasionally feed you, but that's about it" Getting back into the humor of things. 'Come on, I'll go easier on you, I think i've bruised you enough"
"I was thinking more like a sugarmama, but instead of sugah there would be banter and hilarious hijinx." Jane chuckles as she goes on, though, "Lord knows no woman could live up to the competition with those dogs." At the mention of bruising, she lifts a hand to rub at her arm that was so recently the victim. "Thanks for that, Hanson. Tomorrow I'm going to claim the welts are the result of a mad bee attack. Can't let the interns thinking DHS can get the upper hand."
'My pleasure Pak. My pleasure" Audrey quips back, jogging over to pick up the ball, a glance to make sure that Jane isn't ready, and THWACK, it's taking off against the floor and the wall, hopefully scoring audrey a cheated point against her partner. Killer bee's indeed.
Jane blinks as the ball goes flying passed her and she looks over at Audrey, "Oh, we've stooped to cheating now, have we! Well, you asked for it." And as she runs to grab the ball for her own turn, she kicks off what will no doubt be a terribly unorthodox game of raquetball.