| "Certain Tragedy" | ||
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June 13, 2008 Paige's Place 0500 hours "Yeah," Joshua said sleepily as he rolled over trying to hold on to his cell phone and see the alarm clock. "Joshua, it's Rebecca," the woman's voice said softly, though not apologetically. And that kind of pissed him off. He spied the red glowing numerals grimacing at what they told them: that is was five in the morning. And where was Paige? She should have been back already. He stifled a yawn and stretched his body. Paige's smell engulfed him as he did this and he wished she was there lying next to him...maybe doing something. Or maybe he'd just like to know where she was. Or why good old Becs was calling. "What's up, Rebecca." There was a mutual respect between the two and he wouldn't call her Becs to her face...not yet anyway. One day he might, when he didn't respect her anymore. "There's been an incident," she said evenly. Incident? His brow furrowed in the dark, incidents were never good things. No, good things were labeled something else, an event, a happening, something, but never were good things labeled an incident. He shook his head a little trying to clear it. "What?" Was Paige involved? His eyes narrowed, she had been out somewhere doing something, right? Maybe something happened to her? "It's Sebastian," Rebecca said. Or maybe something happened to Sebastian. Yeah, he'd been out...on a meet. Paige was on the team shadowing it in case something went wrong. Which he guessed by the fact that he wasn't sleeping anymore that something indeed did go wrong. "What happened?" Joshua asked calmly as he flicked the lamp on nearest to his side of the bed. The room flooded in a soft glow. Paige hated bright light bulbs in the bedroom which surprised him because he never really cared one way or the other. But then, she did possess that uncanny ability to continually surpise him. "He was on an intel meet, it went bad..." "And?" Joshua asked already fearing the worst. "He was shot and killed," she said finally. Joshua shivered as he stared at the sheets that covered his lower half. "Baz is dead?" he asked making sure he heard correctly. After all, it was five in the morning. "Yes, I'm afraid so," she said softly. Baz was dead. A pit formed in the bottom of his stomach and he had to suppress the urge to let even a single sound escape his lips. Dead. That was so...final. He had quickly become friends with Baz, it was hard not to. It wasn't very often Joshua came across someone that was genuine, nice, that would accept you for who you were. There just weren't many people like that on the planet. He closed his eyes willing the feelings away. "Joshua?" Rebecca asked. "Sorry," he said happy his voice didn't waiver in the slightest. "I just woke up and you took me by surprise." Not many people took him by surprise anymore. But he would let this slide, certainly the news was shocking. "I understand completely how you feel. I only got the call myself an hour ago." "It was Alpha that went out?" he said getting up and standing. "Yes, Safara had lead, Paige, Jordan, Isabella, and Simon," she responded. That was a good team. Shouldn't have ended like that. "They alright?" "That's what I'm calling about," she answered. This time there was no denying the pit in his stomach and his eyes closed as he took a breath. They weren't alright. "What do you mean?" "I mean, they're a little...off. Listen, you know them, I thought maybe you could talk to them." His jaw clenched but he said nothing. What could he possibly say to Paige, Jordan, and Safara, especially Safara, that would make them feel any better? What words of wisdom could he spew from his mouth that they wouldn't just nod to for the sake of agreeing with him then scoff at him behind his back? He couldn't make them feel better. He couldn't talk to them. "Joshua?" But Becs didn't need to know that. "Sure, I'll talk to them." "We've got them sequestered here just to keep an eye on them." "Sure, I can be there within an hour," he glanced at the window curtain that was just a shade brighter than it was before, "probably sooner at this time of the morning." "Once you get here I'll give you the full details. There are some other issues I'd like your input on," she said matter of factly. Joshua's eyebrows raised in curiosity. Other issues? His patented 'fuck you' smirk settled upon his lips, "sure, I'll help out if I can." "Great, thank you, Joshua," she said and hung up. Joshua pressed the call button, smirking and shaking his head. "Just keep giving me things to hold over your head, Becs," he said quietly as he made his way to the shower. "Just keep giving 'em to me..." Return |
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