Myriam smirked at the dumbfounded looks on the three agents as they attempted to make sense of the four-inch gold sticker she dug out of the desk and stuck it on Sebastian’s shirt. She waited for someone to say something and the reactions weren’t disappointing.
“Did she just give me a sticker like I was in grade school?” Sebastian question.
Gregorio stood and started to approach Myriam angrily. “What gives you the right to treat us like children?”
“Well, when you behave like a child, how else am I to interpret your actions? Besides, he doesn’t look like he’s upset about it,” she replied as she eyed the forensic agent with mild amusement.
Chris wasn’t as upset as his teammate as he seemed more lost in his thoughts. “I don’t know which is more insulting. Gold sticker stars or headslaps.”
Myriam let out a sound that mimicked a wounded howl. “Oh, most definitely a headslap! At least my method is only humiliating for a few minutes. A headslap will stay with you all day. God, the migraines I suffered as a probie! I chewed on ibuprofen like it was candy.”
“I like the sticker,” Sebastian mused, his hand petting the sticker with fondness. “I’ll cherish my first gold star from Agent Mikaelson.”
She raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Instead, she turned back to the screen. She clicked to zoom in on the shoreline and ports that had been mentioned. “While I’m game for a good manhunt, Parsons wouldn’t stick around in the city while things are as hot as they’ve been. She’ll get out of town fast, and the cleanest way I would take is the port on some cargo ship. The only problem with that is we have no idea where she is now.”
“So we just let this go?” Gregorio argued. “This bitch tried to kill Pride, and we just let her disappear?”
“When did I say we let it go? I don’t recall ever saying those words,” Myriam sighed, rolling her neck. “What I am pointing out is that you all have been stressing yourselves out, to the point of burnout that makes you useless for when another case comes up. I already have a call out to the Coast Guard and all docking ports to run thorough checks on all ships. I also have a contact running her photo running through one of their programs that keeps an eye on all traffic surveillance.”
Everyone was quiet as there seemed to be a decision if a line would be drawn in the sand or not.
“This is ridiculous! Finding Parsons should be our main goal!”
“No,” Myriam simply said. “And I’m not saying that because I want to be a bitch. The last time your team decided to obsess over a target it eventually developed to this result. You can’t just gnaw on that bone. We will get her, but give it time. I’m not an idiot. Pride is my friend too. I want to bring her in and get justice just as much as you all do as well,” she calmly explained, struggling to keep her temper under control.
Chris shook his head and went to sit at his desk. “So you’re saying you brought us in at stupid o’clock to tell us that we won’t be chasing shadows? Thanks a lot.”
“Take it as however you want LaSalle,” she responded as she moved to head into the kitchen. “I’ll admit to being a bitch for that move and having some fun at your expense because yall couldn’t stow your attitudes. Now that you know my score, you can get on with your usual business and cut out early if you want unless a case comes up. I, however, have plenty of crap to deal with thanks to Pride.”
She disappeared from the room, leaving them to themselves. “So, we didn’t have to show up so early?” Sebastian yawned, still working on catching up with everything.
“No. She was flexing her muscles, letting us know that she controls our strings,” Gregorio replied.
LaSalle shook his head. “I’m gonna pay Pride a visit and see what he knows about her. I don’t know too much about her family name, but I know it wasn’t terrific. I remembered seeing it now and then come across the desks at NOPD as persons of interest when I was there.”
“That sounds great and all, but what do we tell Agent Mikaelson? She’s going to want to know where you are, right?” Sebastian asked, drawing a concerned look from Gregorio considering their experiences from previous agents they’ve had to work with.
“He’s right. Mikaelson pulled our chain just by having come in this early to prove she can.”
Chris looked over in the direction of the kitchen with a smirk. “Mikaelson wants us to maintain the status quo since we can’t pursue Parsons, so let’s do just that. I have some cases I need to follow up on. I should get on that,” he winked as he went to his file cabinet to sort through files. Seemingly grabbing one at random, he held it up and saluting his team with the folder. “I’m going to go get to work. I’ll catch up with you all later. Let the boss lady know I headed out.”
Sitting back in her chair, Gregorio narrowed her eyes on LaSalle as he left. “So he’s just going to leave us here like that?”
“Looks like it. Unless you have something that you need to do. I could always head over to the lab and help Wade with some stuff to get away if she becomes too overbearing,” Sebastian shrugged.
“Yeah, right. That’s if she’d let you. Remember, your job is here now. You need permission to be loaned out there,” she pointed out.
The two quietly went to their desks to find something to do, and by the time Myriam returned, it was nearly 0730, and she looked over at LaSalle’s desk curiously before turning to raise a questioning eyebrow to the others.
“He said he was going to follow up on an old case since we weren’t doing anything else,” Sebastian answered for Tammy after exchanging a glance.
Myriam gave an understanding nod and continued to Pride’s desk, scowling as the phone rang as she approached. Eying the time, she hesitated before answering. “Mikaelson,” she said, closing her eyes after picking up the receiver and sat down, resolute to the conversation to come.
“Agent Mikaelson. Are you settling in well? Pride’s team not giving you any problems?”
She rolled her eyes at the question and sat back in her chair. “Deputy Director. Everything is going well. Introductions went as I had expected and I anticipate a smooth transition if that’s what you are asking,” she answered, pulling out her cellphone and begun to compile a text message. She had a slight smile at the nervous reactions when she had announced aloud who she had on the phone, enjoying Gregorio’s discomfort for the moment.
“Well, I know how much you can be like the man you are there to replace for the time being. I wanted to make sure that you remember that you follow the book and that you have that team of his do so as well. We don’t need any repeats of the last two years. They’ve got me under a mountain of paperwork and Vance questioning my ability to keep them in line.”
“Is that so? I’ll see what I can do. However, I do believe I should keep my opinions to myself about people’s abilities to keep their teams in order. DC has their problems that they shouldn’t be throwing stones and tossing other teams under the bus to keep themselves out of the press,” Myriam replied. “If that is all you called me for, Sir, we do have a lot of work to do, and I have reports to catch up on here to get up to speed if you want me to make sure that we stay inside the lines.”
She could almost picture his frog-like face reddening at her bold challenge as he responded. “I suggest you watch yourself Agent Mikaelson. Agent Pride has enough enemies in Washington because he pissed the wrong people off too many times. I hate to see you be included.”
Raising an eyebrow at the thinly veiled threat, she replayed the words over as she quietly sat and let it roll over in her head for a moment. “Is that a threat Deputy Director? I hate to think that you have anything to do with all this drama.”
“Interpret it however you see fit Agent Mikaelson. You’re a smart agent. Good day.”
Deputy Director Prince hung up in the interim team leader, leaving her with a confused frown on her face as she stared back at her handset. “Huh. Well, that was certainly interesting,” she muttered, glancing around the desk as her mind tried to process the suspicious conversation.
“Problems?” Gregorio asked, this time genuinely concerned because what affected their team leader, usually came down on the rest of the team.
Myriam tapped her fingers on the desk, still considering the conversation herself. “I don’t know. I think it’s something we may have to tread carefully with anyone that’s not family. There are only a handful of agents I fully trust in NCIS and even less in other agencies. This isn’t exactly sitting well with me right now. I’ll figure something out.”
“So, what do you want us to do?”
“Whatever you’ve been doing? Lay off the other case for now as I asked. I have a BOLO out at all ports for extra inspections on all incoming vessels. Coast Guard will be checking anyone they come across. She’ll turn up eventually, especially when she thinks we’ve given up or are too busy with other things and beaten down with our tails between our legs. Which is exactly what DC wants us to feel like. Let them think it,” she winked and sat back in her chair, picking up her report to begin reading. “Just have to let them think we’re down under their game, we just have to play it better and honey, I always win.”
~o.O.o~
Pride let out a grumble as he fell back into his hospital bed after making an exhausting trip to the bathroom. He looked around and tugged on his hospital gown, disgruntled at having to have still to stay in the hospital as long as he already had, despite being grateful for the readily available pain medication for his injuries.
He was in the middle of contemplating calling for a nurse for more medication, something he didn’t want to do when someone knocked on the open door.
“Mornin’,” a familiar voice called out.
“Hey!” Dwayne smiled over his shoulder, though it faltered with the rise of discomfort reminding him of his discomfort. “Please tell me you brought me some decent coffee. Or something stronger.”
“Coffee, sure,” Chris nodded, handing over the extra cup in his hand. “How you doin’?”
“Ugh, can’t wait to get outta this place, for one. How’re things at the office? Tammy and Sebastian are driving you nuts?” he asked as he took a grateful sip from the coffee and sighed with pleasure.
“Things are fine with them. Just fine,” LaSalle replied as he went to lean against the windowsill. “You sure you okay, King?”
Dwayne nodded and pulled himself up into the bed and checked his messages, chuckling as he set his phone back down. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’ll just take time before I’ll be cleared for work. Though this time, I’m pretty sure the bosses will do whatever they can to avoid clearing me. I know you aren’t telling me the truth though. How about you try the truth.”
“I don’t know what you mean what you’re talking about. You are talking crazy King. I think you’re getting too much of the good stuff in here maybe,” Chris joked.
“If that’s so, then Myriam put a request in for when you’re on your way back to the office. Does she want something called an addiction? I have no idea what she means,” he muttered as he pointed at his phone. “I’m gonna go out on a limb that she played her mind games on the team and you left running. Did HQ send her to fill my shoes? Are they crazy?”
Chris scratched his jaw, annoyed even more, not only at his new teammate but also at his longtime friend. “What do you know about her? I know a little about the Mikaelson name that came across the NOPD desks as persons of interest in some cases, but nothing ever panned out over the years.”
“And nothing ever would. Their official positions in the city and way of life are over Chris,” Pride said, calming down and growing serious. “Look, I get it. She’s an outsider to you. But trust me, she’s not any more than when Gregorio joined the team. Myriam’s a local with a troubled past and a complicated family. She got out and made something of her life. Don’t hold it against her, LaSalle. Yeah, I know she can be a handful. But she’s a good agent. She fought hard to get passed everything she learned about her family.”
“And just what is that?”
Dwayne hesitated as he stared at his friend. “I can’t say. And not because I don’t want to. It’s because there are more people involved. It doesn’t involve you, so leave it. You can trust her. She knows what she’s doing and has worked under the DC flag for long enough to know how to avoid their radar.”
Chris shook his head. “How did she know I’d come here to text you for coffee?”
Pride smiled and shrugged. “She’s good like that. You were upset with her being there, and I had information about her. I think you and her will get along eventually. Just give her a chance. You might surprise yourself at how well you two work together.”
“That what you think I should do, King? Just put with this crap that she throws at us? I dunno,” he wavered.
Pride smiled and waved a finger at him. “Start with that coffee. She’s easy to get along with if you give her time. That’s all.”
“She’s pulled us off hunting Parsons, King.”
Dwayne paused at hearing that, his face freezing in place to avoid revealing any emotion. “Did she say why?”
Chris sighed as he moved closer. He thought about the best way to approach the subject, knowing how his friend and boss often tended to be with his enemies. “She doesn’t believe her to be in the city any longer. Theorized she managed to slip out through the ports after she shot you. She practically ordered us off the case, saying she has eyes searching for her in practically every port, searching ships coming in. How the hell can she have that kind of pull with as many possibilities there are?”
“Well, I doubt that these aren’t exactly kosher contacts she’s using,” Pride muttered, narrowing his eyes as he picked up his phone. The instinct in him wanted to contact Myriam to find out what she was trying to do, but he knew to let her handle things her way and to stay out of it.
“But didn’t you say she wasn’t involved in her family’s business?”
“That doesn’t mean she wasn’t able to create her network of loyal followers of her own, despite her age at the time. Myriam Mikaelson isn’t stupid. She knows how to work the system having grown up watching her father and grandfather, then her brothers.” He pulled his legs up under the covers and sighed. Peering over at Chris, he grinned. “Get her that coffee she asked for and make friends. She might let you in on some of her secrets too.”
LaSalle shook his head and shrugged. “Yeah, well, we’ll see. But I’ll head back and see what I can find out. I still think we should keep on Parsons regardless.”
“If you try, she will find out. Despite her not being in town, she still does have eyes and ears in places that even I have no idea exist,” Dwayne warned. “Watch your step. She can have you benched if she wanted to.”
“I can take care of myself, King. You get yourself back to fightin’ form and get back to work,” Chris replied as he strolled out the door.
~o.O.o~
It was sometime after lunch that Myriam decided to call it a day, leaving Gregorio and Sebastian in the office. She had told the two that they also could go if they chose, but they decided to stay to catch up on old paperwork.
Pulling her backpack over her shoulder as she made her way down the sidewalk, she glanced around, unable to shake the feeling that she was being watched. It’d been years since she had been in New Orleans and she knew she left the city with the city having a sour taste on her family’s name. She had no ill will against them as she shared similar sentiments.
Stopping around the corner from her family home, where she usually snuck in through a hidden entrance so that the public didn’t know anyone was using the Mikaelson Abattoir. She still had access to a plantation home as well, but she had loaned the property to the city as a museum until she decided to take it back and as far as she knew, it was doing well.
Pausing at the gate, she looked around at all the neighboring doors and windows within eyesight on the street and people walking by. No one seemed suspicious, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was still being watched. Hesitating, she shrugged off the sick feeling like a healthy dose of paranoia for being back home after so many years.
Walking through the long back hallway into the compound, she looked around at the courtyard, stopping to take in its timeless beauty. She’d always loved the home. Her eyes drank in each detail and how nothing had changed since walked out of there nearly twenty years before. And that was what struck her as odd. It all was clean and dust free. Which made her wonder if she needed to pay her brother a visit to see if somehow he managed to stay in touch with someone. Maybe his lawyer had access to family funds still to pay cleaning staff. Too many questions rattled her mind as she began to search to see if anything in any of the bedrooms appeared out of place.
After a nearly hour-long search, Myriam found nothing out of place, but she still failed to shake the feeling something was off. She couldn’t talk to her new team about this. They wouldn’t understand. But when she saw Patton, she would have him run some checks on her surviving family so make sure they were doing, were where they were supposed to be.
Shooting a message to Pride to get Patton’s number, she needed information for her peace of mind. Otherwise, she wouldn’t rest easy for the foreseeable future in New Orleans.