Fanning The Fire Marshal's Flame

Its A Collective Not a g**g

Lita exited her debrief session with Psych-One and wondered whether her head would explode. There were times she was convinced the woman pushed her harder than everyone else because she had been her personal assistant and she knew most of the woman’s weird quirky habits.

Even if she had been captured and tortured, it wasn’t like she was going to tell anyone she once booked a vacation for Psych-One and her husband at a swinger’s resort or how a month after her return she had to go buy the woman a bunch of pregnancy tests. Psych-One was a crazy-assed b***h and she had learned too much about the woman. Because of it, as if concerned Lita would break and spill Psych-One’s naughty secrets, she got pushed hard. Lita was sure it was the reason. It had to be.

She walked in the direction of the workspaces where a bunch of open desks were available to anyone who might want to use them and noted Clara, Jesse, Naomi, and Artemis all hovering around. She gave a wave and intended to walk right past them and then sighed internally at Artemis’ c****d eyebrow. Apparently, they were waiting on her.

“What’s going on?” she walked to the quartet.

“Heard you have a mafia boss chasing you hard.” Artemis held her gaze.

She glared at Naomi and Jesse who both smirked. “Psych-One has the notes. You can review with her if you think it’s a problem.”

“I have one mafia kingpin in my okay list. Stavros Pappas is not a man to trifle with. Watch your ass.” Artemis ordered her.

“I’m f*****g him not marrying him.” She grimaced, “or at least I was f*****g him. He keeps calling me to go on a date.”

“How bendy are you?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me this?” she glared at Clara’s question.

“I’m just saying, I’ve known the guy a long time. A long time. He’s the reason mob movies exist. He’s also never screwed the same woman more than once. I’m certain of it. If he’s calling you for a date, you have his teeny tiny little balls in your hand.”

“Are they teeny tiny?” Psych-One appeared over her shoulder and grinned devilishly.

“No. Not tiny. They are normal. He is normal.” She paused, “has he ever trafficked or r***d or beaten a woman? Weird question to ask given I’ve already had him at least twenty times in the last month and a half but I assume you would have warned me off and Jesse wouldn’t be partying in his club if he’s dirty.”

“No. He’s not an abusive prick, just a prick,” Artemis grunted.

“I went to dinner once with my grandfather before I had met Elian,” Clara grinned suddenly, “and he walked in with three girls on his arm. Two of them got into a scrap at the restaurant and he had security take them away. Turns out they were fighting over who got to suck him off under the table. The third girl, while the first two were arguing, simply slipped under the table and did the job.”

“A go-getter,” Psych-One exclaimed gleefully.

“I’m glad I made him wrap it. I can’t even begin to count the number of lips on his dick.” Lita suddenly felt ill.

“I don’t judge him for getting laid,” Naomi said with a shrug. “Before Bliss, I probably hit as much as he did. We all have issues of some kind.”

“Speaking of issues,” Jesse changed the subject, “as much as I’m enjoying talking about my favorite club’s owner, can we talk about the Federal Fire Marshal who is parked on O’Malley’s sofa?”

Clara reached out and squeezed Lita’s arm, “Lolita, my sweet arsonist extraordinaire, you have nothing to worry about. I have his full file and case load. I’ve hacked the main office. He’s a very by the book guy. Even his notes he uploads to his file. He even documented he had you review the chemical pages. He likes rules.”

“He’s investigating us.”

Jesse shrugged, “we get investigated all the time, Lita. Don’t sweat it. Really don’t. Besides Clara’s already f*****g with him.”

“How?”

“Well, we used one of your devices in Miami the same weekend we did the Boston gig, remember? You got to watch two explosions same night, right here. I made sure the fire from down south is going to make it to his desk. How can one person do two fires at the same time with all that distance between them?”

“He thinks it’s g**g related,” she protested. “Gangs operate all over the country. He said his hypothesis is a g**g is using the fires as a way to get rid of murder victims.”

“We’re so much better than a g**g,” Naomi chuckled dryly. “I prefer organization or collective. Yeah, it’s a collective.”

“Just because he has a hunch, which we admit is entirely accurate, doesn’t mean he’ll ever be able to prove it. He also will never be able to prove you are involved. Not even remotely. You don’t have to keep him in your house.” Artemis reassured her.

“I think she does but not because of the fires,” Psych-One countered earning the groan from four women. “It’s making her face one of the last of the demons in her head. He didn’t do anything wrong other than disappoint a kid. She needs to get her head wrapped around it. He is no more at fault than any other person who was supposed to attend the ball and didn’t.”

“I disagree,” Clara argued. “He might not be at fault, but it doesn’t mean she needs to face him down every day while he sleeps on her sofa.”

“When he lived in New York in the past, Lita, how many times a week was he at your house for dinner with your dad?” Psych-One asked her.

“At least two or three, especially once he moved to the investigator’s office. They bounced ideas around a lot. He met dad as a senior in high school when he did a job shadow thing. He was always around after.” She admitted.

“And now he’s back, how often do you think he’ll be around?”

“At least a couple times a week. I can tell dad missed him. Saturday and Sunday night they were up well into the early hours just talking and catching up. This morning they went for a run together.”

“Are they a couple?” Jesse asked curiously.

“Nope,” she sighed loudly, “my dad had a younger brother who died in his twenties. Dad was in his late thirties. He has always said Diarmid reminds him of his little brother. I think having Diarmid around makes dad feel he has family other than me still in his corner.”

“What you’re saying then is, no matter what, this man is likely to be at your dad’s kitchen table multiple times a week for the unforeseeable future?”

Lita almost rolled her eyes at Psych-One’s question. “Yes.”

“When you go to the beach, are you one of those people who tiptoes for three hours letting your tootsies get acclimated to the water or do you dive in and just get it over with?”

“f**k,” Clara hissed.

“Jesus,” Naomi grunted.

Jesse shook her head, “unbelievable.”

“It’s a valid question,” Psych-One retorted.

“Answer it,” Artemis commanded quietly.

“I dive in, every single time.” Lita admitted with a loud sigh. “I also rip bandages off in one go and even though Cat would slap me for saying it, I pop blisters with a sterilized sewing needle because I despise waiting for it to resolve on its own.”

“She’s a ballerina, she get’s lots of blisters,” Psych-One said dryly. “Dive in and get used to him being around again, Lolita O’Malley. Otherwise, you’re prolonging the agony. He’s not a bad guy. We’ve reviewed his file. He’s stupidly wealthy thanks to old family money and shrewd investments so we know he’s smart. He has really weird taste in girls though. This last one makes me ashamed to admit we’re of the same species and it seems she works in an office full of them.”

“My friend at the divorce firm down the street is going to help him out. She’s good.” Jesse grinned, “when he had to divulge his income to her, she apparently berated him for most of the call she made with him to set up the appointment on not signing a prenup. Dude’s loaded.”

Deidre came up behind them, “hey, I know you ladies are having fun with the chit chat but Artemis you have a call in three minutes with the team leader in London. Psych-One and Juno, you should both be in attendance to the call. Lita, do you have ten minutes to help me with something?”

“Yeah,” she turned and smiled at the younger woman. Deidre had taken over for her when she had decided to focus her time on working in the labs and then doing field work. Continuing to be Artemis, Psych-One and Jesse’s PA had been impossible and so Dee had stepped in and had been doing an amazing job. They had grown very close in the last several months since she had guided the girl through the demands of the job she once held.

They got into Dee’s office and Deidre closed the door and then stood on tiptoe to make sure nobody had followed to eavesdrop.

“What’s going on?”

“I messed up.” Dee started pacing in circles. “I messed up and I don’t know what to do. They’re all going to kill me.”

“Who is going to kill you?” She followed Dee’s eyes towards the corridor leading down to Artemis’ office. “What did you do? Did you tell Mathis about us?”

“No,” she made a face. “Worse.”

“What could be worse?”

“I married him this weekend.”

“You did what?”

“I’m pregnant.”

“What!”

Dee slapped at her, “shh, they’ll hear you. I took a test on Friday. Mathis insisted no child of his would be born out of wedlock and in my enormously emotional state, I found myself with Portia and Dylan, who both swore to secrecy, at City Hall on Saturday getting married in a civil ceremony. Mathis is rich so he made it happen fast.” She wiped a tear off her cheek.

“Dee, is this what you want?” Lita stepped closer and put her hands atop her shoulders and looked into her blue eyes seriously. “You have options.”

“If you had asked me Thursday if it were what I wanted I would have said hell no. Then Mathis showed up Friday with a test and said he was at his place in Boston during the week and realized we had s*x the week before when normally I would have refused.” She made eyes at Lita, “Normally I’m pretty regular. I didn’t even notice I was late. I did the test and I’m freaking pregnant now, married to a man who lives in Boston, while I’m living with my cousin and her husband in a farmhouse in Flushing. We don’t even live together but we’re married.”

“I thought he was trying to break his contract and come to New York.”

“Do you know how hard it is to get out of an NHL contract?”

“No, but I’m guessing it’s not easy.”

“No.” she let herself be pulled into Lita’s hug. “Lita, I want my baby and I want Mathis, but I don’t want to lose any of this. I love my work at Bellona.”

“You do know we have a daycare on the first floor of this building for a reason.” Lita chucked her chin with her thumb, “you don’t have to lose anything. Nobody says you have to pick and choose Dee.”

“I have memory issues. I have to make post-it notes for everything. What if I forget to feed the baby?”

“Pretty sure they have an alarm which goes off when they’re hungry.” She grinned at her joke and Dee giggled against her shoulder.

“I don’t think anyone in this building is going to be angry you are pregnant. They all might be pissed off because you, just like Arwen, robbed them of a wedding.”

“Mathis wants to do a big elaborate thing next summer after the baby is born. He kept me up all night Saturday night talking about all the things he wants for us.”

“Just talking huh?”

She gave a snort, “have you seen him?”

“I have,” Lita grinned and then paused, “I thought you had an IUD.”

“Weird story,” she sighed loudly, “about a month and a half ago, we were,” she waved her hands, “you know,”

“Having s*x?” At Dee’s blush she laughed, “you can say having sex.”

“Well, we were having s*x and it really hurt. Bad. I thought he punctured my cervix or something it was terrible. He took me to emergency, and I found out my IUD had slipped. They removed it and told us to use protection until I could get back in with my doctor. Things have been busy here. I missed my appointment, but we used the condoms every time. We didn’t miss once.”

“Nothing is foolproof” Lita stroked her back thinking of the time a man had used a c****m and how it had failed. “What did Arwen say?”

“I haven’t told her.”

“Holy s**t Dee!” Lita pulled away, “Deidre, you can’t tell me before Arwen!”

“She’ll snipe me. You’ll just set me on fire.” Deidre moaned and then moved to sit behind her desk. “I’ve already been burned up once. You can’t hurt me.” She waved at the scars on her face.

Lita threw her head back and roared with laughter at Deidre’s words. “You’re hilarious. You need to go talk to your cousin. She’s the one person who will have your back no matter what. No matter what,” she insisted when Dee started to protest. “Addy might kill Mathis, but they will have your back.”

Dee wailed loudly throwing her hands in the air, “I forgot about Addy killing him!”

Lita laughed again, “you’re this hormonal now. Imagine what you’ll be like in a couple weeks.” She grinned suddenly, “I should warn you though Dee. Those three down the hall don’t miss anything. If you think Artemis, Psych-One or Juno don’t already know you got hitched over the weekend, you’re dead wrong.”

She peered up from her fingertips and frowned, “what?”

“Artemis signs into the city’s mainframe every day. She checks to see if there are any child brides from foreign countries who were forced into marriages here.” She grinned as Deidre paled, “unless you used an alias, she saw your name on the list.”

“Oh god,” she grimaced. “What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to do what any woman part of the Bellona Collective would do. Lift your chin, put your game face on and own your s**t. You can cry in the bathtub later into a pint of ice cream using a pickle for a spoon. For now, my friend, you need to take a walk to a physio clinic and have a chat with your cousin.” She paused and looked through the slats of the blinds in the office, “check that. You don’t need to go the physio clinic.”

“Why not?” Dee asked

Lita nodded to the office area, “because Arwen’s here. Shall I send her in?”

“Yes.” Deidre sounded resigned. “This sucks.”

She turned and faced her younger friend, “Dee, if this is what you want, if you want the baby and the husband and all the trimmings, then stop moping. This is amazing and wonderful and if you present it to Arwen like it’s a death sentence, she’s going to respond like it’s a death sentence.” She pointed to her stomach, “is the embryo in there, what you want?”

“Yes.” Deidre said emphatically with a nod.

“Then get the tears off, put the smile on and tell your cousin the good news. It’s something to celebrate not hide from.” She was pulling the door open when Deidre called her name. She turned back to face her, “yeah?”

“Thank you. I knew you would know what to say to make me feel better. All those girls out there are not like us. You and me, we have to put on we can be loud, feisty, and extraverted. I’m glad there’s at least one other person in this building who get’s me.”

Lita smiled and nodded as she left the office and waved to Arwen, “hey, Dee was looking for you.”

“Great! I’ll go see her. Naomi was just telling me how Stavros is hounding you. We should talk,” she wiggled her eyebrows and made a shooting motion with her hands as she headed into Deidre’s office and closed the door behind her.

Lita chuckled and made her way down to the third floor’s Bellona innovation department and wondered if she’d hear the explosion from Dee’s office all the way down in her ballistics lab.