Interlude One: The Delivering of a Mini
Written for miah_Arthur, as promised. Enjoy your new mini!
The two PPC agents that inhabited Response Center 6237 were at a loss as to what they should do with the newly acquired mini that they'd brought back from an NCIS badfic. Neither particularly had any desire to keep the mini-Abby, but conversely, they didn't want to abandon Abbey to the Mini Sanctuary. It was probably a good thing that they were between missions, Ian mused as he watched Lee and Abbey make a large batch of cookies. Well, Lee was the one doing most of the baking; Abbey was trying to steal as much of the chocolate chip cookie dough as she could without Lee noticing.
Ian shook his head, smiling in amusement, and then turned back to his laptop. He logged onto the PPC chat forum and navigated to the cheerily-named "Adopt a Mini!" thread, where he posted the following message:
From: RC 6237: Hey, all. Lee and I found a mini-Abby on our first mission to the NCIS 'Verse. Would anyone be interested in adopting her?
-Ian
He sat back on his bunk and waited for responses, returning his attention to what he privately had coined "The Lee and Abbey Show". Abbey had managed to steal quite a bit of the cookie dough, it seemed, and Lee had only just now noticed. The Lithrani woman began arguing with the mini (who oddly enough had an accent that Ian recognized as Redwall woodlander-ish), emphasizing her argument with the dough-caked wooden spoon she was holding. Abbey was giving as good as she got, though her continual attempts to snag even more of the remaining cookie dough hampered her rebuttals.
Just as it was getting good, Ian's laptop softly let out a ping!, catching its owner's attention. There was a response to Ian's message that made him smile.
From: RC 4096: Ian- Cali and I would love to adopt her. Could you bring her by soon?
Thanks!
-Miah
Ian typed a quick "Yes" in response and set his laptop aside. He clambered down from his bunk and then wandered over to the kitchenette.
'Hey, Lee; Miah and Cali over in 4096 say that they wouldn't mind adopting Abbey,' he told Lee. 'Well, okay, Miah said that; I'm not so sure what Cali said, but still, they're interested.'
Lee gave him a grateful look as she put the cookies into the oven. 'Thank the gods. Not that I don't like you or anything, Abbey,' she said to the mini, 'but you'll do better with them than with us. Come on; let's get you cleaned up before you go to your new home.'
'Sounds good to me, miss,' Abbey agreed, and jumped off of the counter where she'd been sitting, heading into the bathroom with Lee following after her. A few minutes later, the two exited the bathroom, Abbey scrubbed clean and in a fresh change of clothes.
'Ready to go?' Lee asked Ian, who paused in cleaning up the now-empty bowl.
'Wait, both of us are going? What about your cookies?'
Lee frowned thoughtfully. 'Well, I suppose both of us don't have to go. D'you want to do Rock-Paper-Scissors for it?'
Ian shrugged and set down the soapy metal mixing bowl. 'Why not? On the count of three, then: One, two, three!'
Ian threw rock, while Lee chose paper.
'Wait, did I win or lose?' Ian asked, confused.
'You get to stay here and make sure the cookies don't burn. I'll take Abbey over to Cali and Miah's. I've set a timer for the cookies, so just take them out when it dings, okay?' Lee replied with a grin.
'Yeah, sure.'
'See ya soon.'
With that, Lee and Abbey left the Response Center, Ian calling out a belated 'Bye!' as the door closed behind them.
---
Lee realized five minutes after she and Abbey left the Response Center that she'd forgotten to bring along anything with which to distract herself. Cursing softly under her breath, she turned around to go back and get her iPod, but the door to her Response Center has disappeared already. Lee sighed, and then fell back on the old standby of attempting to distract herself sans music player. Abbey watched in interest as Lee spun several times on the spot and then stopped, staggering slightly as the agent attempted to regain her balance.
'Okay, not doing that again,' Lee muttered. 'Right. Um... I know!' She launched into the first verse of "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" from The Rocky Horror Show, staying surprisingly on-key as she walked. Abbey followed after her, scrambling to keep up with Lee's longer strides. Just as Lee got to the part normally sung by Riff Raff, she spotted the door to The Lair, or as everyone else knew it, Response Center 4096.
'The darkness must go / down the river of- Ha, finally!' Lee grinned and knocked on the door to The Lair, Abbey standing next to her. There was a thud, a yelp, and then a few curses from behind the door before it was pulled open. A harried-looking Cali was revealed, his vibrant blue hair mussed up even more than usual, which was saying something, given that on any normal day some of the better descriptors of his hair could be "sentient and possibly trying to escape".
'Yes?' he asked, trying to hold on to a squirming Castor. The winged kitten waved a paw at Lee, recognizing a kindred feline spirit, even though it was currently in human form.
'I'm Lee,' she told Cali, 'and I'm here to drop off your new mini. Meet Ab- Gods below and above, where'd she go?'
Abbey had run into The Lair, having heard the Irish brogue of Magee as he was singing a particularly raunchy drinking song. The two NCIS minis had immediately started chatting with one another, talking rapidly as they introduced themselves and then settled down to dissect the broken CAD Magee had been messing with before Lee and Abbey had arrived.
'Oh,' Lee said with a smile, 'I see. Well, I'll be off then. Oh, by the way- don't give her too much caffeine at one time; she doesn't have the same high tolerance for it as her canon namesake does. If you've got any questions, feel free to message either Ian or me. I've got to run- cookies in the oven and everything. See ya soon!'
With that, Lee hurried off, leaving Cali staring after her. He shook his head and went back into the RC, awkwardly shutting the door behind him. Castor leapt out of his arms, landing on the floor with a thump before going over and joining the conversation of the two minis.
'Who was at the door, Cali?' Miah asked, coming out of the bathroom where she'd been taking a quick shower. 'Oo, a new mini!'
Abbey waved distractedly at Miah in greeting before turning back to her conversation with Magee and Castor, who were now arguing over the best way to repurpose the parts of the CAD for use in the holodeck furniture generator.
---
'I'm back!' Lee announced as she entered the Response Center. The heavenly smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies greeted her, as did the sight of her partner, who had been dozing in one of the rolling chairs near the console. He woke with a start at Lee's entrance, flailing slightly and managing to catch himself before he fell out of the chair he was in.
'How'd it go?' he asked as he regained his composure. 'Did Abbey like it there?'
'Yep,' Lee said around a mouthful of hot cookie. 'They've already got a mini-McGee, so Abbey'll be in fine company. When I left, they were dissecting a broken CAD and arguing about whether or not the OOC sensor would be able to be reprogrammed for something or another.'
'Oh. Well, I'm glad you're back. I was worried that that thing-' Ian jerked a thumb at the console, 'would go off and I'd have to take care of the 'Sue myself.'
'Fear no longer, my friend and partner, for I am returned and all that jazz.' Lee plopped down on her bed with a sigh. Mariposa wandered over to her and sniffed at her, probably wondering where her mistress had gone.
'Cool. By the way, these cookies of yours are really-'
[BEEEP!]
'-good.'
The two PPC agents that inhabited Response Center 6237 were at a loss as to what they should do with the newly acquired mini that they'd brought back from an NCIS badfic. Neither particularly had any desire to keep the mini-Abby, but conversely, they didn't want to abandon Abbey to the Mini Sanctuary. It was probably a good thing that they were between missions, Ian mused as he watched Lee and Abbey make a large batch of cookies. Well, Lee was the one doing most of the baking; Abbey was trying to steal as much of the chocolate chip cookie dough as she could without Lee noticing.
Ian shook his head, smiling in amusement, and then turned back to his laptop. He logged onto the PPC chat forum and navigated to the cheerily-named "Adopt a Mini!" thread, where he posted the following message:
From: RC 6237: Hey, all. Lee and I found a mini-Abby on our first mission to the NCIS 'Verse. Would anyone be interested in adopting her?
-Ian
He sat back on his bunk and waited for responses, returning his attention to what he privately had coined "The Lee and Abbey Show". Abbey had managed to steal quite a bit of the cookie dough, it seemed, and Lee had only just now noticed. The Lithrani woman began arguing with the mini (who oddly enough had an accent that Ian recognized as Redwall woodlander-ish), emphasizing her argument with the dough-caked wooden spoon she was holding. Abbey was giving as good as she got, though her continual attempts to snag even more of the remaining cookie dough hampered her rebuttals.
Just as it was getting good, Ian's laptop softly let out a ping!, catching its owner's attention. There was a response to Ian's message that made him smile.
From: RC 4096: Ian- Cali and I would love to adopt her. Could you bring her by soon?
Thanks!
-Miah
Ian typed a quick "Yes" in response and set his laptop aside. He clambered down from his bunk and then wandered over to the kitchenette.
'Hey, Lee; Miah and Cali over in 4096 say that they wouldn't mind adopting Abbey,' he told Lee. 'Well, okay, Miah said that; I'm not so sure what Cali said, but still, they're interested.'
Lee gave him a grateful look as she put the cookies into the oven. 'Thank the gods. Not that I don't like you or anything, Abbey,' she said to the mini, 'but you'll do better with them than with us. Come on; let's get you cleaned up before you go to your new home.'
'Sounds good to me, miss,' Abbey agreed, and jumped off of the counter where she'd been sitting, heading into the bathroom with Lee following after her. A few minutes later, the two exited the bathroom, Abbey scrubbed clean and in a fresh change of clothes.
'Ready to go?' Lee asked Ian, who paused in cleaning up the now-empty bowl.
'Wait, both of us are going? What about your cookies?'
Lee frowned thoughtfully. 'Well, I suppose both of us don't have to go. D'you want to do Rock-Paper-Scissors for it?'
Ian shrugged and set down the soapy metal mixing bowl. 'Why not? On the count of three, then: One, two, three!'
Ian threw rock, while Lee chose paper.
'Wait, did I win or lose?' Ian asked, confused.
'You get to stay here and make sure the cookies don't burn. I'll take Abbey over to Cali and Miah's. I've set a timer for the cookies, so just take them out when it dings, okay?' Lee replied with a grin.
'Yeah, sure.'
'See ya soon.'
With that, Lee and Abbey left the Response Center, Ian calling out a belated 'Bye!' as the door closed behind them.
---
Lee realized five minutes after she and Abbey left the Response Center that she'd forgotten to bring along anything with which to distract herself. Cursing softly under her breath, she turned around to go back and get her iPod, but the door to her Response Center has disappeared already. Lee sighed, and then fell back on the old standby of attempting to distract herself sans music player. Abbey watched in interest as Lee spun several times on the spot and then stopped, staggering slightly as the agent attempted to regain her balance.
'Okay, not doing that again,' Lee muttered. 'Right. Um... I know!' She launched into the first verse of "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" from The Rocky Horror Show, staying surprisingly on-key as she walked. Abbey followed after her, scrambling to keep up with Lee's longer strides. Just as Lee got to the part normally sung by Riff Raff, she spotted the door to The Lair, or as everyone else knew it, Response Center 4096.
'The darkness must go / down the river of- Ha, finally!' Lee grinned and knocked on the door to The Lair, Abbey standing next to her. There was a thud, a yelp, and then a few curses from behind the door before it was pulled open. A harried-looking Cali was revealed, his vibrant blue hair mussed up even more than usual, which was saying something, given that on any normal day some of the better descriptors of his hair could be "sentient and possibly trying to escape".
'Yes?' he asked, trying to hold on to a squirming Castor. The winged kitten waved a paw at Lee, recognizing a kindred feline spirit, even though it was currently in human form.
'I'm Lee,' she told Cali, 'and I'm here to drop off your new mini. Meet Ab- Gods below and above, where'd she go?'
Abbey had run into The Lair, having heard the Irish brogue of Magee as he was singing a particularly raunchy drinking song. The two NCIS minis had immediately started chatting with one another, talking rapidly as they introduced themselves and then settled down to dissect the broken CAD Magee had been messing with before Lee and Abbey had arrived.
'Oh,' Lee said with a smile, 'I see. Well, I'll be off then. Oh, by the way- don't give her too much caffeine at one time; she doesn't have the same high tolerance for it as her canon namesake does. If you've got any questions, feel free to message either Ian or me. I've got to run- cookies in the oven and everything. See ya soon!'
With that, Lee hurried off, leaving Cali staring after her. He shook his head and went back into the RC, awkwardly shutting the door behind him. Castor leapt out of his arms, landing on the floor with a thump before going over and joining the conversation of the two minis.
'Who was at the door, Cali?' Miah asked, coming out of the bathroom where she'd been taking a quick shower. 'Oo, a new mini!'
Abbey waved distractedly at Miah in greeting before turning back to her conversation with Magee and Castor, who were now arguing over the best way to repurpose the parts of the CAD for use in the holodeck furniture generator.
---
'I'm back!' Lee announced as she entered the Response Center. The heavenly smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies greeted her, as did the sight of her partner, who had been dozing in one of the rolling chairs near the console. He woke with a start at Lee's entrance, flailing slightly and managing to catch himself before he fell out of the chair he was in.
'How'd it go?' he asked as he regained his composure. 'Did Abbey like it there?'
'Yep,' Lee said around a mouthful of hot cookie. 'They've already got a mini-McGee, so Abbey'll be in fine company. When I left, they were dissecting a broken CAD and arguing about whether or not the OOC sensor would be able to be reprogrammed for something or another.'
'Oh. Well, I'm glad you're back. I was worried that that thing-' Ian jerked a thumb at the console, 'would go off and I'd have to take care of the 'Sue myself.'
'Fear no longer, my friend and partner, for I am returned and all that jazz.' Lee plopped down on her bed with a sigh. Mariposa wandered over to her and sniffed at her, probably wondering where her mistress had gone.
'Cool. By the way, these cookies of yours are really-'
[BEEEP!]
'-good.'