| "Missing the Obvious" | ||
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Monday April 28th 00.25hrs When it was over, she saved the files, the images onto the computer and closed it down. Gray was talking on the phone to Rebecca, she thought, she excused herself and went out into the dark of the night. Once outside, she had the shakes, convincing herself it was the cold night air, but when she felt the nausea rising in her throat, she knew it was more than that. Afterwards, she put it down to a reaction to the stress involved in the mission. She had concentrated so hard on the matter at hand that she hadn't had time to think, just do it. When she returned to the van, Gray looked up concerned "Are you ok?", she nodded, "Just something I ate earlier, I'll be fine." She took her seat, and concentrated on putting things back where they belonged, aware that Gray was continuing to stare at her. Gray put a hand on her shoulder, "Thanks," he patted her shoulder, "You made this look easy." She ignored him, all she wanted to do was get back to the SH, debrief and get blindingly drunk; anything to stop the need to do something, it was almost as if she had more energy than she knew what to do with. Not being able to take an active part in the mission had been worse than she could have imagined, she could do with going for a workout to get rid of the tension. Instead, she concentrated on the tasks at hand, packing the kit away. The drive back to SH2 didn't take too long, the debriefing kept her busy, reconciling data and images ready for legal teams to take over. She didn't have to speak, just upload the data into the servers and listen to Riley discussing the mission details, it was so unlike Section; normally they would just deal with the issues of people being off position, or body counts, but here the only thing that counted was that it should stand up in court. Finally, the meeting dissolved, when she looked up from her screen, most of the participants had gone their separate ways, only the alpha team was around as was Riley, while the head honchos sat in a corner, discussing performances, well that is what she surmised, it would be what she expected, for all she knew they could be discussing the weather. She listened to Riley as he requested that copies of the data be sent to various locations, and then out of the corner of her eye, she saw that TPTB were packing up and leaving. She knew they were nearly through, and hung on until Riley thanked them and then they were alone. She yawned widely, putting the laptop back in her sack, and stowing it under a convenient table out of the way; she got out the packs of beers from the fridge that she had put in before this started along with some pretzels and rolls, with various fillings. Paige had tuned the radio to the local rock station and despite it being 2.30am, they were playing a decent list. Opening a bottle of beer, she said quietly "To Alpha", the others echoed the response, but it was muted, they were all bushed. Still, they gave it their best shot, talking and laughing as though they had done nothing more hectic than work late at the office, but finally the silences grew longer and she knew if she didn't do something, she would fall asleep. "We so kicked ass tonight," she smiled as she looked at the faces around her, nodding in agreement. Baz sipped his beer reflexively, "Talking of kicking ass, New club opening in the city, Club Samovar, right in Manhattan. I think we should go and you know...hang, just the four of us." The name struck her as a bit odd, but she ignored the feeling and smiled. "Friday," she murmured, "then we can sleep in Saturday." Even the others agreed. Paige stood up and stretched, "I am fucking exhausted...I have to get home...to feed my fish." She smiled, the tiredness showing on her face. "Your fish? Are you kidding me? Stay, you can crash at my place," Baz said chewing on a pretzel. Paige stuck her tongue out at him, "chew with your mouth closed, you're disgusting. And no, I'm going home to sleep in my own bed, though I thank you for your offer." Baz shrugged, "don't forget about Friday." "I won't and leave those bandages alone. Later guys," Paige said as she left. Jordan agreed to drop Baz off at home, since he couldn't drive himself with the bandages on his hands, and then she was left alone. She debated about finishing the beers, but put them back in the fridge. The remnants of the food, she cleared away, feeling disconcerted. She had brought a few snacks, but the only person who had really eaten anything was Baz. She sat down on the sofa, it wasn't like them, they had healthy appetites even when tired, and yet they had hardly touched the food, herself included. Though she was putting that down to the fit of nausea earlier, but Paige? And Jordan? She couldn't be bothered to go anywhere tonight, not even home. She was just too damn tired, at least she didn't have to go into work tomorrow. Stretching herself out on the couch, she shut her eyes, but sleep eluded her,, she would doze off and then 20 mins later wake up with a start. Something was bugging her, almost as though she had forgotten to do something important, but she couldn't remember what it was. 07.00hrs Giving up on sleeping, she threw the remnants of food and bottles in the bin, and picking up her sack she made her way out into the early spring morning. What she needed was exercise, she threw her things into the jeep and drove out of the car park and over to the Edison facility. She managed to log four hours, three of which she spent on the gym equipment as well as logging an hour of weapons practice, when she felt incredibly tired, she gave in and stretched out on the bench in the locker room and was out like a light. 15.00hrs She woke up, stiff and aching, almost as though she were coming down with a bug, but she put that down to the drafts in the locker room. She took a long hot shower, and turning the power up high, she massaged her shoulder muscles, getting the kinks out. Dressing in her clothes of last night, she slowly drove home, not quite knowing what to do with herself and yet not wanting to have company either. The apartment was quiet, too quiet. She turned on the music station and ramped up the volume and made herself some tea. It was easy to just sit here, but she decided to work on the paper that she was due to present at a meeting tomorrow afternoon. It was a good distraction, the time passed, and so engrossed in the details that she wasn't aware of the time passing, until she printed off the final copy and found that the clock was reading 02.10hrs. Tuesday 29th April 2008 16.30hrs The paper had gone down very well, Dr Chapman had been effusive in his praise, and she had been pleased that despite her lack of knowledge in this area, she was able to do the work justice. She felt justified in finishing early today, if the team were going out on Friday night, she wanted something new to wear, and nothing in her meagre wardrobe was good enough. Shopping Mall, South Amboy The trouble with shopping was the assistants knew that you were in for an entire outfit, and Saf hated shopping for anything anyway; happy to have the first thing that fitted. When she had spoken to Hazel, she had suggested a service operated at Pembleton's, a personal shopper, who would take the measurements over the telephone, arrange a time and have a selection of outfits. Saf had faxed over the information, including hair and eye colour, and now she was going to see how easy this was going to be. Karyn Elder, was a petite blonde and met her at the fourth floor. "Hi, you must be Sara?" smiling brightly, `must she' she thought to herself, but made herself smile in return. "Yes, thank you for arranging this so quickly." Karyn took her through to a private room, with a covered rack and pulled the cover off. She had put together an array of outfits which were in a rainbow of colours. A small changing area was supplied, with a surround of mirrors, so that she could see all angles. Karyn stood by the side of the rack and looked at Saf, "Do you have any preferences for colours?" Saf shook her head, "No, not really, just not a lot of black." Karyn, went through the rack and discarded several outfits, and then held others up against Saf before deciding whether it went on the discard section or onto the other section. In the end, there were 15 outfits, day and evening to choose from, with matching shoes and accessories. The hardest thing was trying them on, it was always when she felt like throwing them all away or buying them all as she hated seeing herself in the mirrors. This time was different, Karyn had chosen well, matching colours and styles to suit Saf's figure. She kept the two suits, Navy and Gray as they would do for work, with a couple of extra blouses and skirts to ring the changes. The evening wear was harder, she was attracted to a silvery gray dress, that plunged deeply at the back and front, and it was Karyn who swayed her decision, "You will be fighting the men off wearing that," she murmured. Saf added it to the purchase pile, along with another couple in a cool blue, and Jade colours. When the bill was added up and the purchases packed, Saf handed a tip discreetly to Karyn. "Thank you for your assistance; I will use this service again." Karyn, acknowledged the tip with a nod, "We will keep your records on file, and if I see anything I think will suit you, I will leave a message." Saf picked up the bags, and headed home, she hadn't spent that amount of money in a long while, it seemed rather frightening without the thought of Section picking up the bills. Still she had the money, and what else use was it to her if she couldn't spend it? When Saf had asked about places for getting her hair cut, Karyn had suggested a salon that she recommended, and an appointment had been made for Friday morning. Saf was going to look different on Friday night, the Alpha team were not going to recognise her. The dress was stunning, and made her look very different from her normal style, and with a new hair cut, the town was going to be painted red. Return |
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