Our Stars Scattered Like Dust (7/11)
Title: Our Stars Scattered Like Dust (7/11)
Authors: icedteainthebag and wishflsinfl
Characters/pairings: Adama/Roslin, Kara/Lee, Gaius/Caprica, other assorted affairs, ensemble cast
Rating: MA (graphic sex)
Warnings: AU, Character death
Spoilers: through Daybreak
Summary: As the new bartender on the cruise ship Galactica Bill Adama is hoping for an uneventful first voyage, but his life is irrevocably changed when he meets cruise director Laura Roslin.
A/N: A-frakkin'-U. Thank you to fragrantwoods and somadanne for their invaluable beta assistance. Also thanks to the folks at bsg_checkin for cheerleading.
Chapters: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven
*
The crisis team assembled around the table included the captain, the bridge crew, the senior staff and their aides plus the bartender.
Laura couldn't help but notice the strange looks that Bill was getting from the other senior staff. The last time they'd included a bartender at an emergency crew meeting, half the passengers had fallen ill with listeria, thanks to some tainted ice.
But from the look on the captain's face, the crisis they were facing right now made fifteen hundred people with diarrhea look like a day at the beach. She grimaced and dismissed that disturbing analogy from her mind. Lords she needed a drink. She'd told herself she would show up for her date with Bill stone-cold sober and now she was paying for that quaint notion with a bad case of the jitters.
She stilled her foot where it was bouncing a dangling pump under the table and smoothed her skirt. The captain called the meeting to order with a tap of her gavel on the table.
Laura had never seen a captain use a gavel before, but then again, there were a lot of things about Ellen Tigh that were unique.
"As I'm sure you're all aware," Ellen began, "we have an emergency situation on board." She briefly outlined the incident-boarded by pirates, twenty-four hours to meet their demands, negotiating with terrorists is against company policy.
Laura raised her pen. "Have you spoken with headquarters? Given the potential PR nightmare we're facing, I think they might reconsider their … policy."
Felix spoke up before the captain could answer. "They've jammed all outgoing communications. Cells, shortwave, ship-to-shore, satellite phones. Even our nav systems are completely frakked. All we've got left is the onboard phone system-"
"Thank you, Mr. Gaeta," Ellen said.
"So you're telling us," Laura said, directing her words to the captain, "that we're adrift in international waters with no navigation and no communications and no way to get rid of a bunch of frakking pirates who want to … what?"
"The Asian one said something about total annihilation of the human race, I think," Kara said.
"The pirates," Ellen began, her eyes locked with Laura's, "have made certain demands that we're unable to meet. To do so would endanger-"
"The human race?" Kara seemed to think this was a joke. Even Laura was starting to get pissed off with her childish comments.
"-many, many people," Ellen finished.
"So what are you saying, exactly?" Gaius blurted out from his position at Laura's elbow. "Are you saying that we're carrying something dangerous on this ship? Because I'm certain that's a violation of international law. Or at the very least, dangerous and not at all what I signed up for."
"Gaius," Laura hissed.
"But Laura darling-"
"Not. Now."
Gaius huffed out a sigh and sank back into his chair. Laura reminded herself to bring Tory to these events from now on. The further away Gaius got from the activities room, the less fun he became.
The captain spoke up over the din that erupted around the table. "The demands of the pirates are the problem of the bridge officers. This meeting is to discuss how well provisioned we are for withstanding a prolonged standoff."
Laura didn't miss the look Bill shot the captain as she delivered this news. She tried to catch his eye, but he dropped his gaze back down to the pad he'd been scratching notes on since she arrived.
"Chief, what's our fuel status?"
"Still three quarters full plus the reserve tank," Tyrol replied confidently.
"Good. Mr. Gaeta, you've already informed us of our communications and navigation status. Saul, how's the water situation?"
The head of the maintenance crew squinted at his wife with his one good eye. "Same as it always is. We can desalinate more than we'll need as long as we have power. I'll switch over the showers, toilets and slop sinks to seawater and start banking fresh water for when the fuel goes dry."
A few people around the table gasped at that last suggestion but Ellen quickly quashed her husband's moment in the spotlight.
"I don't think that will be necessary, but thank you for being prepared for the worst." She looked around the table. "You'd all benefit from more of that kind of thinking. Chef Romo?"
"Well, ma'am, if we're thinking worst case scenario, we have about five days of food on ration quantities and then we'd have to start fishing, I guess."
"There's always the cat," Bill muttered.
"Baaah. That cat'll feed but two people max, and he's a shitty mouser," Saul said.
"Objection!" Romo said, jumping up out of his seat. "What's he doing here anyhow? Last time I checked bartender wasn't exactly an executive position."
“Oh, and Chef is,” Bill shot back.
"Thank you, Mr. Romo," Ellen said, ignoring the outburst and all that it implied.
Damn, she's good, Laura thought. Bill was side-eyeing Chef Romo where he sat two chairs to Bill's left.
Laura cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention away from the two men. "We'll prepare to reposition our staff for crisis management and mental health and welfare support on your orders, Captain." Which meant they'd sit around the office, bitching about how whiny the passengers were while handing out "Stress and You" booklets to anyone who wandered into the activities center looking to distract themselves from the crisis.
"Thank you, I think that wraps things up here." Ellen stood, effectively dismissing them. "Nonessential personnel are dismissed."
Everyone stood to leave except Thrace, Anders, Gaeta, Agathon, the Tighs, Tyrol and … Bill. Again Laura tried to catch his eye on her way out, but he refused to look at her. Something wasn't right here. More secrecy, more evasion. It was getting old.
She turned to Gaius as they exited the ward room. "Are you as curious about what's really going on as I am?"
"It's really none of our business."
Dropping her voice so the other staff members in the corridor wouldn't hear her, she replied, "Which is exactly why I'm dying to know what's being said in that meeting."
Gaius shot a glance over his shoulder as the door to the ward room thudded closed. Laura watched his eyes narrow. Gaius hated being left out of the loop.
*
"There's something I haven't been completely honest with you about," Ellen began.
Bill had heard this before from Ellen, but he was pretty sure she wasn't talking about the herp this time. "Is it related to why there's an entire boatload of pirates off the starboard bow demanding something that nobody else besides you knows exists on this ship?"
"It's entirely related to that."
Anders let out a sigh, sprawling out in his chair and rolling his eyes. "You know, when I signed up for this gig, there was a lot of talk about chicks in bikinis and no talk about pirates. None. Everybody knows there's no pirates within, what, at least three hundred miles of Mexico."
"Well, Samuel, we're three hundred one miles away. And there is something you need to know. Something … you all need to know. It's a secret about me and it's a secret about a few of you."
Suddenly Saul jumped up on his chair. “Do ya hear that?”
“The incessant bitching? Yes, yes I do,” Ellen said.
“No. More than that.” Saul strode to the wall, pounding on it with his fist and yelling. "Will ya please stop playin' Jimmy Buffett in there? We're tryin' to conduct a meeting!"
"I don't hear any Jimmy Buffett," Gaeta whispered to Agathon.
"Which song?" Agathon asked Saul.
"'Margaritaville,'" Anders said. "Don't you know shit? Everybody knows that song."
Tyrol looked around nervously. "Yeah, who doesn't know that song …"
"No, Sam, I don't hear anything," Gaeta said. "Nothing except you being an-"
"STOP THE FRAKKIN' MUSIC," Saul hollered into the wall.
*
"Where is that coming from, for the sake of the Gods?" Gaius whispered frantically. He and Laura were cramped into a small bathroom, pressed up against its adjoining wall with the meeting room. The mesh between the slats of the wall allowed for a somewhat obstructed view and Laura hoped to hell Saul couldn't see them like they could see him. Luckily, he was busily pounding at the wall about five feet away from them.
"My frakkin' cell phone alarm, sorry." Laura scrambled for her phone. She managed to turn it up-damn jittery hands-and three more thumps against the other side of the wall rattled the both of them.
"What's the alarm for?" Gaius asked.
"Happy hour."
Laura was not very happy.
*
"It stopped," Saul said.
"Can we continue?" Ellen motioned to the table. "Sit down, honey."
It had shaken Ellen when the song began to play and even more so that everybody heard it. It had been a long time since she'd heard "Margaritaville" and every time she did, trouble followed.
Saul walked back to the table and sat, eyeballing Gaeta. "Somebody needs to get his hearing checked. I'm no fool."
"It's not a something that the pirates are demanding," Ellen explained, faltering for words. "It's someone. Some … ones."
"Like a kidnapping?" Gaeta said.
"Yes, Mr. Gaeta, very observant."
Saul rolled his eyes and mimicked Gaeta's words behind his head. Ellen made a note to talk with Bill about keeping Saul out of the private stash. If there would even be a private stash left after this little debacle was over.
"So who do they want?" Anders asked.
"That's not important. What you need to know right now is that there are five people on this ship who are very, very valuable. And no matter what happens, we can't let them fall into the hands of the pirates."
"But you're not going to tell us who they are …" Kara said.
"That's right. It's safer for all of us that way." Ellen wished she had a drink. "Especially them."
Gaeta leaned forward, folding his hands on the table. "But they know who they are, right?"
"Only one of them does."
"So it could be any of us then?" Anders pointed to Saul. "It could be him."
"Hey, who are you pointin' at? It could be you, ya arrogant sack o' crap."
Ellen banged her gavel on the heavy wooden table. "Enough, gentlemen. And I use the term loosely."
*
On the other side of the wall, Gaius had gone wide-eyed. "It-it could be me! I could be in danger!"
"Shhh, I'm sure it's not you." Laura pressed her ear to the wall but all she heard was the scraping of chairs as the bridge crew filed out of the ward room.
"But why not? Why wouldn't it be me?"
"Because you're too important."
"So …" Gaius looked confused. "The pirates want … the least important people?"
Laura's fingers twitched for the flask that was no longer at her hip. "I mean … Gaius, I need you to do something for me that nobody else can do."
She hoped that her frustration didn't show. The longer she spent without a drink, the harder it was getting to communicate effectively.
"Oh," he said, smoothing down the front of his shirt. "Of course. Yes. Just say the word-"
"Gaius! Focus. Right now what I need you to do is go back to the office and start preparing the 'Stress and You' handouts. Hopefully the printer cartridges are full. Gods help us all if they aren't. I think we're going to need a lot of them."
"A lot?" His voice went up a whole octave-never a good sign-but Laura didn't notice.
As they sneaked back out into the corridor, she was contemplating why Bill was at the meeting. And why he wasn't exiting the ward room with the rest of the crew members. Obviously there was more to her new lover than met the eye.
*
Bill was out of his chair before the door to the ward room closed behind the last of the bridge crew. "You knew this was coming, didn't you?"
Ellen laid her palm on his chest, fingering the edge of his open dress shirt. "I might have had a suspicion."
Wrapping his hand around her wrist, he pulled her closer. "Don't frak with me. I'm not one of your wet-behind-the-ears crewmen."
"Get your frakkin' hand off me or this will turn into a replay of the night we met."
Bill let her go. A knee to the nuts was the last thing he needed now that he was finally getting laid again. He glanced at his watch, wondering if his date with Laura was still on. If those frakking pirates cockblocked him …
"Give me the short version," he said, all business now.
"I'll take this whole ship down with me if I have to."
Bill knew the protocol. You didn't turn over a high-value target to the enemy. Better to destroy an asset than lose it. "So we need to take out the pirates-or whatever the hell they are-before the deadline?"
Ellen nodded. "And we need to do it quietly. I was thinking you could attach a bomb to their hull."
"A quiet bomb?"
She rolled her eyes. "We'd be long gone by the time it detonated."
"And you just happen to have a remote-detonating bomb big enough to blow up this boat?"
"I might."
Bill sighed. It was worse than he'd anticipated. He popped the lid off the pill bottle in his pants pocket and shook one white capsule out. When had he learned to do that one-handed?
"What do you need from me?" He turned the pill over in his fingers, still concealed in his pocket.
"Your tactical knowledge."
"Bullshit. You could out-strategize me any day."
She frowned. "How are you feeling?"
"That's irrelevant. Tell me what you need. I have plans for tonight that are far more interesting than standing here arguing with you."
"No need to get bitchy about it."
She outlined her plan and Bill agreed it might work, if she could fill in some of the holes in the next few hours. He made some more notes on the pad and then thought for a moment, finally giving in to his need for the painkiller in his pocket.
Arms folded, tapping her foot impatiently, Ellen watched him toss back the pill. "That's not going to affect your performance is it?"
"Let me worry about my performance." He tore the top page off his notepad. "This is what I'll need. Substitute for anything you don't have on hand. I'll be back at oh-two-hundred to get started."
He looked at his watch. That gave him four hours to spend with Laura. He was gonna make the most of them.
Authors: icedteainthebag and wishflsinfl
Characters/pairings: Adama/Roslin, Kara/Lee, Gaius/Caprica, other assorted affairs, ensemble cast
Rating: MA (graphic sex)
Warnings: AU, Character death
Spoilers: through Daybreak
Summary: As the new bartender on the cruise ship Galactica Bill Adama is hoping for an uneventful first voyage, but his life is irrevocably changed when he meets cruise director Laura Roslin.
A/N: A-frakkin'-U. Thank you to fragrantwoods and somadanne for their invaluable beta assistance. Also thanks to the folks at bsg_checkin for cheerleading.
Chapters: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven
*
The crisis team assembled around the table included the captain, the bridge crew, the senior staff and their aides plus the bartender.
Laura couldn't help but notice the strange looks that Bill was getting from the other senior staff. The last time they'd included a bartender at an emergency crew meeting, half the passengers had fallen ill with listeria, thanks to some tainted ice.
But from the look on the captain's face, the crisis they were facing right now made fifteen hundred people with diarrhea look like a day at the beach. She grimaced and dismissed that disturbing analogy from her mind. Lords she needed a drink. She'd told herself she would show up for her date with Bill stone-cold sober and now she was paying for that quaint notion with a bad case of the jitters.
She stilled her foot where it was bouncing a dangling pump under the table and smoothed her skirt. The captain called the meeting to order with a tap of her gavel on the table.
Laura had never seen a captain use a gavel before, but then again, there were a lot of things about Ellen Tigh that were unique.
"As I'm sure you're all aware," Ellen began, "we have an emergency situation on board." She briefly outlined the incident-boarded by pirates, twenty-four hours to meet their demands, negotiating with terrorists is against company policy.
Laura raised her pen. "Have you spoken with headquarters? Given the potential PR nightmare we're facing, I think they might reconsider their … policy."
Felix spoke up before the captain could answer. "They've jammed all outgoing communications. Cells, shortwave, ship-to-shore, satellite phones. Even our nav systems are completely frakked. All we've got left is the onboard phone system-"
"Thank you, Mr. Gaeta," Ellen said.
"So you're telling us," Laura said, directing her words to the captain, "that we're adrift in international waters with no navigation and no communications and no way to get rid of a bunch of frakking pirates who want to … what?"
"The Asian one said something about total annihilation of the human race, I think," Kara said.
"The pirates," Ellen began, her eyes locked with Laura's, "have made certain demands that we're unable to meet. To do so would endanger-"
"The human race?" Kara seemed to think this was a joke. Even Laura was starting to get pissed off with her childish comments.
"-many, many people," Ellen finished.
"So what are you saying, exactly?" Gaius blurted out from his position at Laura's elbow. "Are you saying that we're carrying something dangerous on this ship? Because I'm certain that's a violation of international law. Or at the very least, dangerous and not at all what I signed up for."
"Gaius," Laura hissed.
"But Laura darling-"
"Not. Now."
Gaius huffed out a sigh and sank back into his chair. Laura reminded herself to bring Tory to these events from now on. The further away Gaius got from the activities room, the less fun he became.
The captain spoke up over the din that erupted around the table. "The demands of the pirates are the problem of the bridge officers. This meeting is to discuss how well provisioned we are for withstanding a prolonged standoff."
Laura didn't miss the look Bill shot the captain as she delivered this news. She tried to catch his eye, but he dropped his gaze back down to the pad he'd been scratching notes on since she arrived.
"Chief, what's our fuel status?"
"Still three quarters full plus the reserve tank," Tyrol replied confidently.
"Good. Mr. Gaeta, you've already informed us of our communications and navigation status. Saul, how's the water situation?"
The head of the maintenance crew squinted at his wife with his one good eye. "Same as it always is. We can desalinate more than we'll need as long as we have power. I'll switch over the showers, toilets and slop sinks to seawater and start banking fresh water for when the fuel goes dry."
A few people around the table gasped at that last suggestion but Ellen quickly quashed her husband's moment in the spotlight.
"I don't think that will be necessary, but thank you for being prepared for the worst." She looked around the table. "You'd all benefit from more of that kind of thinking. Chef Romo?"
"Well, ma'am, if we're thinking worst case scenario, we have about five days of food on ration quantities and then we'd have to start fishing, I guess."
"There's always the cat," Bill muttered.
"Baaah. That cat'll feed but two people max, and he's a shitty mouser," Saul said.
"Objection!" Romo said, jumping up out of his seat. "What's he doing here anyhow? Last time I checked bartender wasn't exactly an executive position."
“Oh, and Chef is,” Bill shot back.
"Thank you, Mr. Romo," Ellen said, ignoring the outburst and all that it implied.
Damn, she's good, Laura thought. Bill was side-eyeing Chef Romo where he sat two chairs to Bill's left.
Laura cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention away from the two men. "We'll prepare to reposition our staff for crisis management and mental health and welfare support on your orders, Captain." Which meant they'd sit around the office, bitching about how whiny the passengers were while handing out "Stress and You" booklets to anyone who wandered into the activities center looking to distract themselves from the crisis.
"Thank you, I think that wraps things up here." Ellen stood, effectively dismissing them. "Nonessential personnel are dismissed."
Everyone stood to leave except Thrace, Anders, Gaeta, Agathon, the Tighs, Tyrol and … Bill. Again Laura tried to catch his eye on her way out, but he refused to look at her. Something wasn't right here. More secrecy, more evasion. It was getting old.
She turned to Gaius as they exited the ward room. "Are you as curious about what's really going on as I am?"
"It's really none of our business."
Dropping her voice so the other staff members in the corridor wouldn't hear her, she replied, "Which is exactly why I'm dying to know what's being said in that meeting."
Gaius shot a glance over his shoulder as the door to the ward room thudded closed. Laura watched his eyes narrow. Gaius hated being left out of the loop.
*
"There's something I haven't been completely honest with you about," Ellen began.
Bill had heard this before from Ellen, but he was pretty sure she wasn't talking about the herp this time. "Is it related to why there's an entire boatload of pirates off the starboard bow demanding something that nobody else besides you knows exists on this ship?"
"It's entirely related to that."
Anders let out a sigh, sprawling out in his chair and rolling his eyes. "You know, when I signed up for this gig, there was a lot of talk about chicks in bikinis and no talk about pirates. None. Everybody knows there's no pirates within, what, at least three hundred miles of Mexico."
"Well, Samuel, we're three hundred one miles away. And there is something you need to know. Something … you all need to know. It's a secret about me and it's a secret about a few of you."
Suddenly Saul jumped up on his chair. “Do ya hear that?”
“The incessant bitching? Yes, yes I do,” Ellen said.
“No. More than that.” Saul strode to the wall, pounding on it with his fist and yelling. "Will ya please stop playin' Jimmy Buffett in there? We're tryin' to conduct a meeting!"
"I don't hear any Jimmy Buffett," Gaeta whispered to Agathon.
"Which song?" Agathon asked Saul.
"'Margaritaville,'" Anders said. "Don't you know shit? Everybody knows that song."
Tyrol looked around nervously. "Yeah, who doesn't know that song …"
"No, Sam, I don't hear anything," Gaeta said. "Nothing except you being an-"
"STOP THE FRAKKIN' MUSIC," Saul hollered into the wall.
*
"Where is that coming from, for the sake of the Gods?" Gaius whispered frantically. He and Laura were cramped into a small bathroom, pressed up against its adjoining wall with the meeting room. The mesh between the slats of the wall allowed for a somewhat obstructed view and Laura hoped to hell Saul couldn't see them like they could see him. Luckily, he was busily pounding at the wall about five feet away from them.
"My frakkin' cell phone alarm, sorry." Laura scrambled for her phone. She managed to turn it up-damn jittery hands-and three more thumps against the other side of the wall rattled the both of them.
"What's the alarm for?" Gaius asked.
"Happy hour."
Laura was not very happy.
*
"It stopped," Saul said.
"Can we continue?" Ellen motioned to the table. "Sit down, honey."
It had shaken Ellen when the song began to play and even more so that everybody heard it. It had been a long time since she'd heard "Margaritaville" and every time she did, trouble followed.
Saul walked back to the table and sat, eyeballing Gaeta. "Somebody needs to get his hearing checked. I'm no fool."
"It's not a something that the pirates are demanding," Ellen explained, faltering for words. "It's someone. Some … ones."
"Like a kidnapping?" Gaeta said.
"Yes, Mr. Gaeta, very observant."
Saul rolled his eyes and mimicked Gaeta's words behind his head. Ellen made a note to talk with Bill about keeping Saul out of the private stash. If there would even be a private stash left after this little debacle was over.
"So who do they want?" Anders asked.
"That's not important. What you need to know right now is that there are five people on this ship who are very, very valuable. And no matter what happens, we can't let them fall into the hands of the pirates."
"But you're not going to tell us who they are …" Kara said.
"That's right. It's safer for all of us that way." Ellen wished she had a drink. "Especially them."
Gaeta leaned forward, folding his hands on the table. "But they know who they are, right?"
"Only one of them does."
"So it could be any of us then?" Anders pointed to Saul. "It could be him."
"Hey, who are you pointin' at? It could be you, ya arrogant sack o' crap."
Ellen banged her gavel on the heavy wooden table. "Enough, gentlemen. And I use the term loosely."
*
On the other side of the wall, Gaius had gone wide-eyed. "It-it could be me! I could be in danger!"
"Shhh, I'm sure it's not you." Laura pressed her ear to the wall but all she heard was the scraping of chairs as the bridge crew filed out of the ward room.
"But why not? Why wouldn't it be me?"
"Because you're too important."
"So …" Gaius looked confused. "The pirates want … the least important people?"
Laura's fingers twitched for the flask that was no longer at her hip. "I mean … Gaius, I need you to do something for me that nobody else can do."
She hoped that her frustration didn't show. The longer she spent without a drink, the harder it was getting to communicate effectively.
"Oh," he said, smoothing down the front of his shirt. "Of course. Yes. Just say the word-"
"Gaius! Focus. Right now what I need you to do is go back to the office and start preparing the 'Stress and You' handouts. Hopefully the printer cartridges are full. Gods help us all if they aren't. I think we're going to need a lot of them."
"A lot?" His voice went up a whole octave-never a good sign-but Laura didn't notice.
As they sneaked back out into the corridor, she was contemplating why Bill was at the meeting. And why he wasn't exiting the ward room with the rest of the crew members. Obviously there was more to her new lover than met the eye.
*
Bill was out of his chair before the door to the ward room closed behind the last of the bridge crew. "You knew this was coming, didn't you?"
Ellen laid her palm on his chest, fingering the edge of his open dress shirt. "I might have had a suspicion."
Wrapping his hand around her wrist, he pulled her closer. "Don't frak with me. I'm not one of your wet-behind-the-ears crewmen."
"Get your frakkin' hand off me or this will turn into a replay of the night we met."
Bill let her go. A knee to the nuts was the last thing he needed now that he was finally getting laid again. He glanced at his watch, wondering if his date with Laura was still on. If those frakking pirates cockblocked him …
"Give me the short version," he said, all business now.
"I'll take this whole ship down with me if I have to."
Bill knew the protocol. You didn't turn over a high-value target to the enemy. Better to destroy an asset than lose it. "So we need to take out the pirates-or whatever the hell they are-before the deadline?"
Ellen nodded. "And we need to do it quietly. I was thinking you could attach a bomb to their hull."
"A quiet bomb?"
She rolled her eyes. "We'd be long gone by the time it detonated."
"And you just happen to have a remote-detonating bomb big enough to blow up this boat?"
"I might."
Bill sighed. It was worse than he'd anticipated. He popped the lid off the pill bottle in his pants pocket and shook one white capsule out. When had he learned to do that one-handed?
"What do you need from me?" He turned the pill over in his fingers, still concealed in his pocket.
"Your tactical knowledge."
"Bullshit. You could out-strategize me any day."
She frowned. "How are you feeling?"
"That's irrelevant. Tell me what you need. I have plans for tonight that are far more interesting than standing here arguing with you."
"No need to get bitchy about it."
She outlined her plan and Bill agreed it might work, if she could fill in some of the holes in the next few hours. He made some more notes on the pad and then thought for a moment, finally giving in to his need for the painkiller in his pocket.
Arms folded, tapping her foot impatiently, Ellen watched him toss back the pill. "That's not going to affect your performance is it?"
"Let me worry about my performance." He tore the top page off his notepad. "This is what I'll need. Substitute for anything you don't have on hand. I'll be back at oh-two-hundred to get started."
He looked at his watch. That gave him four hours to spend with Laura. He was gonna make the most of them.