Work Text:
Coreen watched as her boss, Vicki Nelson, collapsed with a huff into her chair.
"Pizza's ordered."
"Thank you..." Vicki sighed, reaching up to pull free her blonde ponytail, the previously neat hairdo now loose, off-center and sagging haphazardly. The sight made Coreen reach for her own hair. Patting the intricate creation carefully, she determined that tonight's activities hadn't messed up her hair. She had remained mostly on the sidelines anyway, being more info girl than action girl.
"You were incredibly helpful tonight."
"Yup, that's me, very helpful. Queen of information gathering. If you need to know anything, absolutely anything about possessed, animated, evil, people-eating washing machines and the evil, demon-allied psycho who's controlling them - then I'm TOTALLY your girl!" Coreen gave her the most big-eyed, earnest look she could possibly pull off, totally enhanced by her dramatic make-up.
Vicki stared. Then her lips stared to twitch, her eyes crinkled and she started to chuckle. Coreen grinned. The chuckle built into a full laugh, tears began to gather and Vicki put her head on her desk, laughing too hard to sit upright anymore.
The laughter was contagious and Coreen felt it bubble up as well, laughing out loud as a stress release and simply over the fact that Vicki lost it over something as stupid as a ramble and an innocent face. Vicki was finally winding down a little, wiping her eyes, sitting up and tossing her hair back; though still laughing.
"Say boss, I bet this wasn't the way you'd originally planned that this detective agency was going to go, was it?" Coreen giggled.
"Oh my god!" Vicki dissolved again. "What happened to cheating husbands and bail-jumping convenience store robbers?! No! Instead I'm dealing with vampires, demons, witches, zombies, ghosts, rats and goddamn possessed washing machines!!"
Back to hysterics again, Coreen dabbed carefully at her eyes. "Wow! I picked the best agency on the planet to work... Wait a minute! Rats?? Did I miss something?"
Vicki snorted, laughing. "No, but rats are pretty much guaranteed on these cases and even some of the normal ones and I just don't like `em." She wiped her eyes as well, straightened her shirt, tossed her hair back and took a big relaxing breath. "Thanks for that, I needed it. Oh, and speaking of thanks..." She got up and walked over to her jacket hanging on the rack. Digging in the pocket for a moment, Vicki produced a colorful, wrapped silk bundle. Coming back to the desk she unrolled the scarf, dumping an odd instrument onto the surface.
Coreen came over, "I'd never really gotten a good look at what you guys made. This is SO cool. Twisted, but cool." She picked it up and turned it over in her hands, carefully. It was a blessed silver athame that had been wired, with silver wire, to a standard Philip's head steel screwdriver. They had then been sage/incense smudged, re-blessed and wiped down with both holy water and holy oil. This creation then needed to be transported so that it remained as pure as possible. Vicki and Henry had confiscated Coreen's silk scarf to wrap it in. Coreen put the athame/screwdriver down and picked up her scarf stretching out the purple, red and black patterned length to check for damage. A couple of spots that could be oil or could have been from before were all she saw.
"Thanks for letting us use it. At least I didn't have to worry about the weapon remaining intact and blessed along with everything else. Let me go ahead and get that dry cleaned for you."
"No need. I've got a great home remedy for silk. And I'm just glad I had it handy for you guys to use."
"Really? What do you..."
"Anyone call for a pizza?"
"Mike!" Vicki's face lit in a smile that Coreen felt echoed on her own. "What are you doing here?"
"Ahhh, just wanted to drop by and make sure everything worked out alright. You ladies ok?" Coreen and Vicki both nodded. "And I brought food," he held up both hands, one with a big plastic bag hanging from it, the other supporting the pizza box. He'd changed from his working suit to a casual shirt and khakis. Coreen thought he looked hot. Vicki did too by the sidelong once over she gave him as he put down the pizza, leaning slightly over the desk.
And wow, was that a messy triangle or what? Vicki and Mike or Vicki and Henry? And, if Coreen was being honest she'd take a shot at either one of them herself. Yup, make a big ol' square out of the whole thing, two pairs. Or better yet make a big scribble out of the shape, a shapeless mess, a big pile of foursome goodness. Not that Vicki or Mike would be anywhere up for something like that. No way, no how, no sir. Though she'd gotten the impression that something like that would be nothing really new or shocking to Henry. Coreen sighed a little over the tragedy of the whole thing.
Mike and Vicki were chatting while she'd been lost in her brief little fantasy fugue, unpacking chips and dip, McDonald's fries and burgers, cookies, a six-pack each of soda and beer. Coreen turned and made a quick trip to the kitchenette for paper plates and napkins.
She was engaged in a delicate balancing act of keeping the mini ketchup, mustard, mayo and tobasco bottles and salt and cheese shakers (what can she say- she liked her condiments) balanced on a stack of less-than-stable paper plates when she slammed into something solid that smelled extraordinarily good. Gasping, she staggered and the bottles headed downward in a cascade.
A pair of ultra-fast hands snatched them all out of the air. "I'm so sorry..." Henry's smooth tones washed over her.
"Oh no," it came out a little breathlessly, for various reasons. "Totally my bad, ought to watch where I'm going better."
"Nevertheless, some of the fault was mine. Let me help you," and with swift, sure hands he deposited all the bottles on the plates and relieved her of those as well. Leaving her holding the napkins she'd tucked into her other fingers, Henry smiled and glided steadily back into the other room with not a single wobbling container.
Coreen followed him and paused in the doorway. The other three were already amicably snarking and laughing, in too much of a good mood to go for nastiness.
"Come on Coreen, get it while it's hot." Vicki held out a plate with a pizza slice. Coreen grinned widely and as she walked forward to take it she thought to herself; `Nope... not your usual detective agency!'
~End~