Chris Larabee was sitting at his desk working on a report due soon to his boss, ADA Travis. He was close to completion.
“What the hell...? No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No...you lousy piece of… you can’t do this, not now,” he growled at the computer. Pulling his gun he seriously thought about shooting it’s little micro chips 'or whatever they are' to hell.
He re-holstered his side arm, counted to ten, in English, and then Spanish, and then finally yelled, “JD, GET YOUR ASS IN HERE, NOW!”
JD Dunne was leaving the break room with a bag of chips and a bottle of coke. He jumped about ten feet when he heard Chris bellow his name. He paled and calculated how fast he could make the elevator, and then, if he could do it without Chris seeing him.
Chris, tired of waiting, got up from his desk and stormed to the door. “NOW, JD.”
JD quickly followed Chris to his office, thankful the office was empty. Nathan was at an EMT seminar, Josiah was visiting his sister, Ezra and Vin were at lunch, and Buck was hitting on the new file clerk.
Resigned to his fate, JD walked to Chris’s office.
“You wanted to see me, Chris,” he said bouncing from foot to foot, looking like he really wanted to bolt from there..
“JD, this thing ate my report. Can you get it back?” Chris asked.
Chris’ phone rang before JD could answer. “Larabee... I’ll be right up, sir.” Chris hung up the phone and started to hit his head on his desk. “Ok, JD, I have a meeting with Travis, try and get the report back,” He said getting up and heading for the elevator.
JD was very relived that he was not in trouble. He sat his coke on the edge of the desk and started his task. While
JD was recovering the data that Chris had lost, he didn’t notice Vin and Ezra come in till they spoke his name.
“Hey, kid,” Vin called.
“Mr. Dunne,” Ezra greeted.
“Hey, Vin, Ezra, you just get back from lunch?” he asked leaning back in Chris’ chair.
“Ya, kid, we did.” Vin answered walking into the office.
“Mr. Dunne, whatever are you doing in here?”
“He lost his data again. I am just reformatting it to retrieve everything that's gone,” JD answered.
“Bet Larabee was ready to shoot it again,” Vin replied.
“That, Mr. Tanner, is a fools bet,” Ezra said laughing.
They all had chuckled at that.
“Any way, Kid, Chris was suppose to leave a file on his desk for Ez and me. Have ya seen it?” Vin asked while poking through stuff on Chris’ desk.
“It is on Thomas Monroe, Mr. Dunne, if you could check,” Ezra said, watching Vin poke through things. “Mr. Tanner, whatever are you doing?”
“Trying to help JD find it,” He answered, while reaching for a file that was on the other side of the desk.
What happened next was as if someone opened Pandora’s Box and chaos reigned supreme in Chris Larabee’s office.
JD had found it and, without thinking flipped it to Vin and Ezra.
The normally graceful undercover agent and the sure- footed sharpshooter, seemed to have developed two left feet. Each managed to grab a corner of the file and were starting to grin.
Then they watched in shock as it hit the framed photo from the team's fishing trip that was on Chris’ desk. The photo tottered for a moment and then tipped over into the bottle.
JD, watching the coke go, looked at Vin and Ezra and said, “Don’t worry it is still sealed, I haven’t opened it yet.”
Vin and Ezra both lunged to grab it before it hit the floor, amazed that while it teetered on the desk it looked like super slow motion, but once it toppled and started to fall, well... it was faster that the speed of light.
It rotated once in the air and landed upright, then the most unusual thing happened. The bottle launched itself about a foot into the air, while spewing coke from the bottom . It then tipped over and starting spinning incredibly fast, spraying the office, the desk, chair, computer, photo’s on the wall, the stunned agents, and everything else it came into contact with.
After what seemed like an eternity, Vin lunged and grabbed the coke bottle by the neck, so then when he picked it up, it continued to spray coke everywhere.
Ezra grabbed the trashcan for Vin and threw the bottle into it.
After a moment of silence, the three agents looked at each other and started hysterically laughing. They were doubled over with tears coming from their eyes.
“Ah, hell,... ain’t never seen a coke bottle do that.” Vin gasped.
“Neither have I, Mr. Tanner,” Ezra replied trying to catch his breath.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, JD said “Um, guys, we need to take care of this before Chris gets back.”
Quickly, they set about attempting to clean while JD finished restoring Chris’ computer. They heard the elevator and took off for their desks, trying to look innocent.
Chris walked in and immediately could tell something had happened. He just didn’t have the time to figure it out. He hoped that JD had gotten his computer fixed so that he can finish his report and get it to Travis.
“JD?” Chris asked.
“It’s fixed and on your screen, Chris,” JD answered, having a hard time meeting his eyes.
Chris glanced at Vin and Ezra, both were trying to appear absorbed in what they were doing.
Chris raised an eyebrow and could feel the vein in his forehead start to throb.
He walked into his office and looked around. He could tell something was different, but wasn’t sure what.
He scrubbed his hands across his face as he plopped down into his chair. ‘This day can’t end soon enough.' he thought.
He laid one arm on his desk, and grabbed his mouse to bring up the report.
“What the hell?” he had something sticky all over his desk. Slowly, it also dawned on him that he had sat in something.
He then heard a hissing sound coming from somewhere in his office. He got up to investigate and found his jeans were wet and sticky. He located the noise, in his trashcan, he picked up the coke bottle and raised his eyebrow. He dropped it back.
He thought for a moment, and then yelled “TANNER, STANDISH , DUNNE, GET YOUR SORRY ASSES IN HERE, NOW.”
He heard no sound in the outer offices. He walked to the door and looked out. It was as deserted as a ghost town. He could have sworn he saw a tumbleweed drift by.
He heard the elevator and stood there glaring at it with his arms folded across his chest.
Buck stepped out when the doors opened, and involuntarily backed up when he saw the look on Chris’ face. “What’s going on, Big Dog?” he asked Chris
“Have ya seen them, Buck?" Chris growled.
“Who, Chris?” Buck replied knowing who he was looking for.
“Tanner, Standish, and Dunne. They blew a coke up in my office, and then they left it there... didn’t bother to clean it up,” Chris growled.
“Passed them downstairs, big dog. Vin said something about heading to Mexico, and Ezra commented not to expect them back anytime soon."
Chris stood there glaring at the elevator doors.
“Buck?” Chris replied with an evil grin on his face.
“Yes, big dog," Buck answered with a matching grin
“You feel like helping me teach the pups a lesson?” Chris asked slapping Buck on the shoulder.
“What have ya got in mind, pard?” Buck grinned while shutting the door to Chris’ office.