Fic: Rock and a Hard Place 7/10
<<--Chapter 6
.-#-.
Rule 7: Share your sorrows
“It doesn’t matter if your gut is telling you that you are on the right path, don't gamble like that without my permission again,” was all Gibbs said after Mann returned them to their quarters and they were alone in the kitchen. McGee and Cait's half of the list seemed to be taking longer than theirs.
Tony listlessly bit into one of the pre-made sandwiches he had found in the refrigerator and stared at his files, just as Gibbs was doing with some of his own beside him. The younger man wasn't permitted to use the NCIS network and AFIS, since Sheppard had never officially cleared him for that. A new director hadn’t been appointed yet, so no one could sign off on his clearance and grant him permission. But then trivial things like this had never stopped their team leader from handing his own codes to Tony and sending him to work.
Nothing new came up.
From here on out it would be a waiting game as they had no leads left until new information filtered in. Their dead body was still a John Doe and Abby had sent them a crushed sounding e-mail about Ducky not finding any more clues. The Goth was, in her own words, flummoxed at how the body had ended up in an Army garrison gated living area, since the prints were not in the system.
All that talking about SSFD, along with a new e-mail in his inbox just now, had reminded Tony about that infernal questionnaire, which added to the his bad conscience. Not about his failure to hand it in on time though; more like reminding him about aspects of his situation that he really didn't like. And, hey, was that an attachment to Agent Pope-Leyton's delightful message? Wonderful, now he could really push the hard copy through a shredder; the thoughtful bureaucrats had sent him an electronic version. He was so thankful about their thoroughness, really.
“If you were in your tiger form you’d be snarling at the screen,” Gibbs had his reading glasses on and was watching him over the rims. Though it seemed like as soon as he had the younger man's attention he became aware of those hated little helpers and swiped them off his nose.
Tony thought those readers emphasized Gibbs’ good looks, but he wasn’t about to say so.
“It's nothing boss, junk mail,” he wasn't really lying, per se. Not at all. And he really shouldn't feel remorse just because Gibbs was looking at him piercingly.
“In your official work inbox? Should ask McGee to set your spam filter settings higher.”
“And here I thought you wouldn’t even know what that is!”
“Tony, everyone knows what that is after the sixth idiotic penis enlargement ad.”
Tony grinned. He was about to open his mouth and say something, but shut it again when Gibbs held up his index finger in warning. Yep, OK. Pointing out aloud the obvious lack of need for such things would be considered bad taste.
Come afternoon the team was slowly going stir crazy from the lack of new leads, bad vibrations between Tony and Cait, a prowling Gibbs and the feeling of being helpless in general. A guard from downstairs calling up to say that they had visitors made for a welcome break, but the tension was back and rose to new heights when they heard the names of their visitors.
Gibbs opened the door and waved Jeffrey Mayer and his son in. Tony took one look at the scared boy and released a long breath. Yeah, they had found their young Feline.
Captain Mayer had his hands on his son’s shoulders, keeping him firmly at his front. “I thought about what you said - about the dangers - and looked some things up...” He cleared his throat after his voice broke then looked helplessly at them.
Gangly, too thin and with pitch black hair that was unruly and a little bit too long, 15 year-old Alec Mayer looked like a typical early teen as long as you didn't take the time to look him in the eyes. No kid should have eyes like that - scared, wary. And they didn't look very healthy, rims looking watery red and eyeballs irritated.
Gibbs looked at Tony and then dipped his head in the direction of their young visitor. No way he hadn't guessed about the boy's nature correctly as well, and he wanted the only other Feline in the room to break the ice.
Tony slowly approached the pair, not smiling - this was not a situation for smiles - and trying desperately to look non-threatening and confident. Like he actually knew what he was doing. The kid was scared enough; he didn't need Tony to be scared too. “Colored contact lenses are a b- ahem, are horrible, aren't they? You wanna take them out? Might feel better. Our eyes are more sensitive than other human's and don't take well to lenses. For me it felt like trying to put sandpaper on the one time I tried.”
He could see Captain Mayer's fingers tightening on the bony shoulders and it took a while before Alec moved, raising his hands and fiddling with his face. When he blinked at them again it was with golden, slid-pupilled eyes. No wonder his little sister had identified Tony's correctly.
“Do you want to wash your eyes out with water?” Tony asked.
Alec looked at the older Feline, studied him, his gaze watery. He slowly shook his head no and took a small step back, nearer to his father. It had been an honest offer from Tony, but he could see that they shouldn't try to separate father and son so soon. “You want to ask us questions?”
“Yeah.” Mayer croaked and then turned to Gibbs. “Swear on your honor as a Marine that you will do your best for my boy.”
Gibbs nodded sharply. “I swear that we will do our best to get Alec through this. I will do everything I can so he will have the best possible future.” Blue eyes wandered to the boy as if he wanted to add something but then refrained.
From the desperate and resigned expression in the father's eyes he had understood the restriction. “Is there any way that Alec can stay with us? He isn't a danger, he just has an unusual condition, like those kids who are albinos or have glass bones.”
“I contacted Major Williams yesterday - he is Head of the Feline Center. We'll talk to him over video link so you can get answers I don't know from him directly,” Gibbs turned halfway around and gave McGee the order to call Williams, before pointing at the coat rack. “Take off your coats, sit down and we will lay out your options. You want Alec to be part of this discussion? You have my word that we won't take him away the second you turn your back or he goes to another room.”
“I'm not a baby, I want to know.” Alec demanded, speaking with the unstable voice of a typical teenage boy.
“That’s all right.” Gibbs calmly waited for them to be ready and then led the way to the living room. The other two members had prepared the sitting area, placing glasses, cups, bottles of juice and water and a thermos with coffee on the low table, and then retreated. The most threatening-looking thing was the open laptop.
Gibbs sat down on one side in one of the armchairs while Tony took the other, leaving the couch to the Mayers. “First, we guessed that it was that car accident that activated Alec's Feline genes.”
“One... one of the windows the other car was transporting shattered and pinned him into the front seat, cutting into his clothes. It was a miracle that the glass didn't do more than a few small lacerations. There were shards everywhere though, and some were threatening to pierce his face. I was there - it was in front of our house, the windows were intended for our new neighbors,” the father haltingly described how he had ran to the car and found his wife in shock, crying and staring at the adolescent black panther beside her, with the girls shrieking in the back. The other driver was unconscious, and no one else had seen the accident. Mayer knew enough about Felines to realize that someone would take his son away if he had been seen in cat form. The father had done his best to calm the panicking young panther down, carried him into the house and bandaged the cuts Alec received. The family pretended that Alec was never in the car in the first place, and, thanks to Mayer's paramedic training, had avoided the need for a doctor.
“Do you have any rashes on your body, headaches, other things that hurt? Tony wasn’t trying to scare you when he talked with your father. A lot can go wrong when you morph for the first time.” Gibbs asked the boy after the father had fallen silent.
“No, none. But why do you have to take me away? I won’t hurt anyone. Running around as a panther is fun and kind of cool!” Alec demanded to know.
“Yeah, it is. I like playing in the snow a lot as a tiger too,” Tony decided that he should answer that question. “But you're not an adult and lack... well, discipline. If you get really, really angry you might loose control and just imagine what a panther can do that a person can't-”
“I'd be able to defend my family if someone wants to hurt them! I'm kind of like Wolverine now.”
The adults shared a sad look.
“I don't doubt that you’d make a good protector, Alec, but people don't know the difference between a Feline and a real panther that might attack them. People are more dangerous for you now, rather than the other way round. Did you sneak out of the house and go for a run? Once or twice? Just to try out your cat?” Gibbs firmly stared at the boy with that knowing look on his face, and held out till Alec slowly nodded.
“Mum was really upset when I got home and she caught me, tore into me like you wouldn't believe.”
The boy's father groaned beside him and rubbed his hands over his eyes.
“Alec, someone saw you and reported you to animal control. Just imagine what could have happened if a neighbor had a gun nearby and shot at you,” Gibbs tried to reason with the boy.
“That's what mum said but I ...” Alec tapered off.
You're a teenager, Tony sighed to himself. And teenagers were too sure of their own prowess and immortality to listen to reason.
Gibbs resumed his questioning. “We know that you didn't hurt that man, but Mrs. Greenham saw you in panther form at her place. What were you doing there?”
“I don't know. I don't remember that night, just a big headache. I didn't bite the man?” Alec imploringly looked at the silver haired agent. “I really can't remember!”
“No, you didn't. We have found a lot of evidence that the scene was staged,” Gibbs reassured the nervous boy.
Something occurred to Tony and he asked, one hand reaching for his cell phone before he remembered that Ducky wasn't with them, so he couldn’t help draw blood from the boy. “Did you transform again between that day and now? How many times? It's really important.”
“Only once, I think, when I came home I changed back to human. It's all...fuzzy. But I haven’t done it since then. Mum and Dad kept close. The whole neighborhood was swarming with people.” Alec said slowly.
“You said you've had medic training, correct, Captain Mayer? Would you be able to draw some blood from Alec for us?” And then they would have to pray that there was still something to be found, Tony sighed inwardly. If a drug had been used to knock the boy out, it would be hard to detect in Felines because of the increased metabolism, especially if they shifted a lot. Whoever was behind this, they had thought of everything.
“Who else knows that you are a Feline, Alec?” Tony asked.
Captain Mayer tugged his son close to his side defensively. “Just the family. Maybe someone I didn't see witnessed the accident?”
“It’s possible. The person has to be either malicious or has a grudge against you,” Gibbs tapped his fingers on the tables' surface. “Anyone else you can think of who would want to take revenge for something - a slight or a black mark - that held them back for a promotion?”
Again, a no. The agents and Tony would have to dig through his background and history even more diligently. Finding the boy had cut down the possibilities but not the workload.
Cait's phone rang. After listening she held it out for Gibbs wordlessly and began to set up the laptop for a video conference.
The Captain asked Gibbs to stay during his conference with Major Williams. The agent nodded, shoulders stiff, and positioned himself behind the couch where the Army officer sat, while the other adults attempted to lead the protesting boy away.
Alec only went willingly to the kitchen after his father shooed him away, where two agents and an adult Feline took to stand around the mulishly pouting, silent teenager. Gibbs had sent his team with him. All four of them were feeling like useless protagonists while trying not to think about what was being discussed in the living room. At least Cait and Tim weren't better than him at handling Alec. Tony watched as Cait, her overly friendly tone of voice adding another coat of neon paint to the elephant in the room, first tried to ask the young Feline about his school classes only to break off in mid-sentence and switch to hobbies instead. Not that Alec answered her anyway; his eyes were fixated on the closed door.
One of the flunkies standing outside of their suite must have informed Hollis Mann about their visitors; Gibbs would never do so voluntarily. Tony hadn't even thought about it. Midway through another round of trying to engage Alec in a conversation or to entice him with something to eat, the good Colonel arrived at their doorstep and loudly demanded to know why they hadn't called her and what they were doing with her officer.
Thankfully she was not early enough to intrude on the conference from hell in the living room. When the four in the kitchen, drawn by an angry female voice, dared to stick their noses into the livingroom, the laptop on the table had been closed and Mann was standing beside the table, trying to convince Gibbs of something, with emphasis on tried. Tony took one look at the rigid posture of his owner, seeing the way the line between his eyebrows deepened just so, and internally winced. Mann would have to call a battalion of her Army grunts for help and even then they would only be able to move Gibbs in pieces.
Mann was in the lead agent's face. Drill Instructors would disagree, but volume never added anything but headaches to an argument, in Tony's opinion. “Be reasonable! You were called in to help. You have no right to take one of my men into custody. I'll take the Captain and his son into protective custody and release him to Major Williams when he arrives. I won't have you bully my man!”
“Protection detail. Not custody. Captain Mayer agreed.” Gibbs spat back. He spared an angry glare towards the group at the kitchen door, sharing and spreading the foul mood a bit more.
“It's against every rule. You are not Army CID. I called the Feline Division on my way over and they agree with me that I am to protect them until someone officially takes custody of Alec Mayer.” Mann, another point against her in Tony's eyes, wasn't paying attention to the new onlookers to her little display.
“Call again. The Mayers stay with me. Major Williams approved.”
“You bet I will call, Special Agent Gibbs. And where will you put them, on the couch? How comfy.”
There wasn't an end in sight to their argument and Tony had had enough. He put his hands on the wide-eyed teenager's back and shoved him in the direction of the small hallway leading to the bedrooms, demonstratively not watching for a reaction. “Hey Boss!” He loudly and cheerfully called out over his shoulder. “I'll show Alec here that spare bedroom while you discuss the details of how best to protect him with Colonel Mann. That room is easily big enough for him and his father. Isn't it great that we didn't use it anyway? No stuff to remove and shift around.”
.-#-.
Chapter 8 -->>
.-#-.
Rule 7: Share your sorrows
“It doesn’t matter if your gut is telling you that you are on the right path, don't gamble like that without my permission again,” was all Gibbs said after Mann returned them to their quarters and they were alone in the kitchen. McGee and Cait's half of the list seemed to be taking longer than theirs.
Tony listlessly bit into one of the pre-made sandwiches he had found in the refrigerator and stared at his files, just as Gibbs was doing with some of his own beside him. The younger man wasn't permitted to use the NCIS network and AFIS, since Sheppard had never officially cleared him for that. A new director hadn’t been appointed yet, so no one could sign off on his clearance and grant him permission. But then trivial things like this had never stopped their team leader from handing his own codes to Tony and sending him to work.
Nothing new came up.
From here on out it would be a waiting game as they had no leads left until new information filtered in. Their dead body was still a John Doe and Abby had sent them a crushed sounding e-mail about Ducky not finding any more clues. The Goth was, in her own words, flummoxed at how the body had ended up in an Army garrison gated living area, since the prints were not in the system.
All that talking about SSFD, along with a new e-mail in his inbox just now, had reminded Tony about that infernal questionnaire, which added to the his bad conscience. Not about his failure to hand it in on time though; more like reminding him about aspects of his situation that he really didn't like. And, hey, was that an attachment to Agent Pope-Leyton's delightful message? Wonderful, now he could really push the hard copy through a shredder; the thoughtful bureaucrats had sent him an electronic version. He was so thankful about their thoroughness, really.
“If you were in your tiger form you’d be snarling at the screen,” Gibbs had his reading glasses on and was watching him over the rims. Though it seemed like as soon as he had the younger man's attention he became aware of those hated little helpers and swiped them off his nose.
Tony thought those readers emphasized Gibbs’ good looks, but he wasn’t about to say so.
“It's nothing boss, junk mail,” he wasn't really lying, per se. Not at all. And he really shouldn't feel remorse just because Gibbs was looking at him piercingly.
“In your official work inbox? Should ask McGee to set your spam filter settings higher.”
“And here I thought you wouldn’t even know what that is!”
“Tony, everyone knows what that is after the sixth idiotic penis enlargement ad.”
Tony grinned. He was about to open his mouth and say something, but shut it again when Gibbs held up his index finger in warning. Yep, OK. Pointing out aloud the obvious lack of need for such things would be considered bad taste.
Come afternoon the team was slowly going stir crazy from the lack of new leads, bad vibrations between Tony and Cait, a prowling Gibbs and the feeling of being helpless in general. A guard from downstairs calling up to say that they had visitors made for a welcome break, but the tension was back and rose to new heights when they heard the names of their visitors.
Gibbs opened the door and waved Jeffrey Mayer and his son in. Tony took one look at the scared boy and released a long breath. Yeah, they had found their young Feline.
Captain Mayer had his hands on his son’s shoulders, keeping him firmly at his front. “I thought about what you said - about the dangers - and looked some things up...” He cleared his throat after his voice broke then looked helplessly at them.
Gangly, too thin and with pitch black hair that was unruly and a little bit too long, 15 year-old Alec Mayer looked like a typical early teen as long as you didn't take the time to look him in the eyes. No kid should have eyes like that - scared, wary. And they didn't look very healthy, rims looking watery red and eyeballs irritated.
Gibbs looked at Tony and then dipped his head in the direction of their young visitor. No way he hadn't guessed about the boy's nature correctly as well, and he wanted the only other Feline in the room to break the ice.
Tony slowly approached the pair, not smiling - this was not a situation for smiles - and trying desperately to look non-threatening and confident. Like he actually knew what he was doing. The kid was scared enough; he didn't need Tony to be scared too. “Colored contact lenses are a b- ahem, are horrible, aren't they? You wanna take them out? Might feel better. Our eyes are more sensitive than other human's and don't take well to lenses. For me it felt like trying to put sandpaper on the one time I tried.”
He could see Captain Mayer's fingers tightening on the bony shoulders and it took a while before Alec moved, raising his hands and fiddling with his face. When he blinked at them again it was with golden, slid-pupilled eyes. No wonder his little sister had identified Tony's correctly.
“Do you want to wash your eyes out with water?” Tony asked.
Alec looked at the older Feline, studied him, his gaze watery. He slowly shook his head no and took a small step back, nearer to his father. It had been an honest offer from Tony, but he could see that they shouldn't try to separate father and son so soon. “You want to ask us questions?”
“Yeah.” Mayer croaked and then turned to Gibbs. “Swear on your honor as a Marine that you will do your best for my boy.”
Gibbs nodded sharply. “I swear that we will do our best to get Alec through this. I will do everything I can so he will have the best possible future.” Blue eyes wandered to the boy as if he wanted to add something but then refrained.
From the desperate and resigned expression in the father's eyes he had understood the restriction. “Is there any way that Alec can stay with us? He isn't a danger, he just has an unusual condition, like those kids who are albinos or have glass bones.”
“I contacted Major Williams yesterday - he is Head of the Feline Center. We'll talk to him over video link so you can get answers I don't know from him directly,” Gibbs turned halfway around and gave McGee the order to call Williams, before pointing at the coat rack. “Take off your coats, sit down and we will lay out your options. You want Alec to be part of this discussion? You have my word that we won't take him away the second you turn your back or he goes to another room.”
“I'm not a baby, I want to know.” Alec demanded, speaking with the unstable voice of a typical teenage boy.
“That’s all right.” Gibbs calmly waited for them to be ready and then led the way to the living room. The other two members had prepared the sitting area, placing glasses, cups, bottles of juice and water and a thermos with coffee on the low table, and then retreated. The most threatening-looking thing was the open laptop.
Gibbs sat down on one side in one of the armchairs while Tony took the other, leaving the couch to the Mayers. “First, we guessed that it was that car accident that activated Alec's Feline genes.”
“One... one of the windows the other car was transporting shattered and pinned him into the front seat, cutting into his clothes. It was a miracle that the glass didn't do more than a few small lacerations. There were shards everywhere though, and some were threatening to pierce his face. I was there - it was in front of our house, the windows were intended for our new neighbors,” the father haltingly described how he had ran to the car and found his wife in shock, crying and staring at the adolescent black panther beside her, with the girls shrieking in the back. The other driver was unconscious, and no one else had seen the accident. Mayer knew enough about Felines to realize that someone would take his son away if he had been seen in cat form. The father had done his best to calm the panicking young panther down, carried him into the house and bandaged the cuts Alec received. The family pretended that Alec was never in the car in the first place, and, thanks to Mayer's paramedic training, had avoided the need for a doctor.
“Do you have any rashes on your body, headaches, other things that hurt? Tony wasn’t trying to scare you when he talked with your father. A lot can go wrong when you morph for the first time.” Gibbs asked the boy after the father had fallen silent.
“No, none. But why do you have to take me away? I won’t hurt anyone. Running around as a panther is fun and kind of cool!” Alec demanded to know.
“Yeah, it is. I like playing in the snow a lot as a tiger too,” Tony decided that he should answer that question. “But you're not an adult and lack... well, discipline. If you get really, really angry you might loose control and just imagine what a panther can do that a person can't-”
“I'd be able to defend my family if someone wants to hurt them! I'm kind of like Wolverine now.”
The adults shared a sad look.
“I don't doubt that you’d make a good protector, Alec, but people don't know the difference between a Feline and a real panther that might attack them. People are more dangerous for you now, rather than the other way round. Did you sneak out of the house and go for a run? Once or twice? Just to try out your cat?” Gibbs firmly stared at the boy with that knowing look on his face, and held out till Alec slowly nodded.
“Mum was really upset when I got home and she caught me, tore into me like you wouldn't believe.”
The boy's father groaned beside him and rubbed his hands over his eyes.
“Alec, someone saw you and reported you to animal control. Just imagine what could have happened if a neighbor had a gun nearby and shot at you,” Gibbs tried to reason with the boy.
“That's what mum said but I ...” Alec tapered off.
You're a teenager, Tony sighed to himself. And teenagers were too sure of their own prowess and immortality to listen to reason.
Gibbs resumed his questioning. “We know that you didn't hurt that man, but Mrs. Greenham saw you in panther form at her place. What were you doing there?”
“I don't know. I don't remember that night, just a big headache. I didn't bite the man?” Alec imploringly looked at the silver haired agent. “I really can't remember!”
“No, you didn't. We have found a lot of evidence that the scene was staged,” Gibbs reassured the nervous boy.
Something occurred to Tony and he asked, one hand reaching for his cell phone before he remembered that Ducky wasn't with them, so he couldn’t help draw blood from the boy. “Did you transform again between that day and now? How many times? It's really important.”
“Only once, I think, when I came home I changed back to human. It's all...fuzzy. But I haven’t done it since then. Mum and Dad kept close. The whole neighborhood was swarming with people.” Alec said slowly.
“You said you've had medic training, correct, Captain Mayer? Would you be able to draw some blood from Alec for us?” And then they would have to pray that there was still something to be found, Tony sighed inwardly. If a drug had been used to knock the boy out, it would be hard to detect in Felines because of the increased metabolism, especially if they shifted a lot. Whoever was behind this, they had thought of everything.
“Who else knows that you are a Feline, Alec?” Tony asked.
Captain Mayer tugged his son close to his side defensively. “Just the family. Maybe someone I didn't see witnessed the accident?”
“It’s possible. The person has to be either malicious or has a grudge against you,” Gibbs tapped his fingers on the tables' surface. “Anyone else you can think of who would want to take revenge for something - a slight or a black mark - that held them back for a promotion?”
Again, a no. The agents and Tony would have to dig through his background and history even more diligently. Finding the boy had cut down the possibilities but not the workload.
Cait's phone rang. After listening she held it out for Gibbs wordlessly and began to set up the laptop for a video conference.
The Captain asked Gibbs to stay during his conference with Major Williams. The agent nodded, shoulders stiff, and positioned himself behind the couch where the Army officer sat, while the other adults attempted to lead the protesting boy away.
Alec only went willingly to the kitchen after his father shooed him away, where two agents and an adult Feline took to stand around the mulishly pouting, silent teenager. Gibbs had sent his team with him. All four of them were feeling like useless protagonists while trying not to think about what was being discussed in the living room. At least Cait and Tim weren't better than him at handling Alec. Tony watched as Cait, her overly friendly tone of voice adding another coat of neon paint to the elephant in the room, first tried to ask the young Feline about his school classes only to break off in mid-sentence and switch to hobbies instead. Not that Alec answered her anyway; his eyes were fixated on the closed door.
One of the flunkies standing outside of their suite must have informed Hollis Mann about their visitors; Gibbs would never do so voluntarily. Tony hadn't even thought about it. Midway through another round of trying to engage Alec in a conversation or to entice him with something to eat, the good Colonel arrived at their doorstep and loudly demanded to know why they hadn't called her and what they were doing with her officer.
Thankfully she was not early enough to intrude on the conference from hell in the living room. When the four in the kitchen, drawn by an angry female voice, dared to stick their noses into the livingroom, the laptop on the table had been closed and Mann was standing beside the table, trying to convince Gibbs of something, with emphasis on tried. Tony took one look at the rigid posture of his owner, seeing the way the line between his eyebrows deepened just so, and internally winced. Mann would have to call a battalion of her Army grunts for help and even then they would only be able to move Gibbs in pieces.
Mann was in the lead agent's face. Drill Instructors would disagree, but volume never added anything but headaches to an argument, in Tony's opinion. “Be reasonable! You were called in to help. You have no right to take one of my men into custody. I'll take the Captain and his son into protective custody and release him to Major Williams when he arrives. I won't have you bully my man!”
“Protection detail. Not custody. Captain Mayer agreed.” Gibbs spat back. He spared an angry glare towards the group at the kitchen door, sharing and spreading the foul mood a bit more.
“It's against every rule. You are not Army CID. I called the Feline Division on my way over and they agree with me that I am to protect them until someone officially takes custody of Alec Mayer.” Mann, another point against her in Tony's eyes, wasn't paying attention to the new onlookers to her little display.
“Call again. The Mayers stay with me. Major Williams approved.”
“You bet I will call, Special Agent Gibbs. And where will you put them, on the couch? How comfy.”
There wasn't an end in sight to their argument and Tony had had enough. He put his hands on the wide-eyed teenager's back and shoved him in the direction of the small hallway leading to the bedrooms, demonstratively not watching for a reaction. “Hey Boss!” He loudly and cheerfully called out over his shoulder. “I'll show Alec here that spare bedroom while you discuss the details of how best to protect him with Colonel Mann. That room is easily big enough for him and his father. Isn't it great that we didn't use it anyway? No stuff to remove and shift around.”
.-#-.
Chapter 8 -->>