fandomtownies | The Devil's Nest, Friday Evening

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The Devil's Nest, Friday Evening

There had been an unexpected, but entirely welcome, ~~albeit handwavey~~ message waiting for Allie when she'd gotten up that evening. It left her in such a good mood, she almost didn't mind dealing with Portalocity. "No, I have no interest in a layover at Milliways. I just want to get to the Citadel at some point in the next twelve hours."

The bar was open.

The bartender possibly needed a better travel agent.

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Parker came in and said, "Chocolate mudslide, please." She cocked her head. "You're in a good mood."

Allie took a moment to look up the recipe for Parker's drink, just to be sure she got it right, before explaining. "I got a message from a friend I haven't seen in a while. I've got a portal to go see him in a few hours."

"Oh, that's cool. Where's he live?" Parker spun on her bar stool, then came back to rest. "When you get back. Can we do some more night patrols? I think I need to learn the island better."

"Out there," Allie said, pointing up. "He's a space marine."

She turned off the blender and poured Parker's drink into a glass before drizzling lots of chocolate syrup over the top. "Look good?"

Parker gave her evil little happy laugh, then cut herself off to answer Allie. "Yes. Delicious. Space marine? That's a thing? That's not the guy that annoys Eliot so much?"

Pleased at Parker's reaction, Allie smiled. "I don't think so. Kaidan's not the type to annoy anyone. Plus he's been gone from the island since the end of last summer."

Hardison would be so, so disturbed later to find out Parker was finding new places to get chocolate. Too bad for him.

"Hunh. So, he's on leave, and you're visiting him... in space?" Parker considered. "I wanna go to space."

"No leave. They've got a war going on. But he's getting a promotion so there's going to be some sort of ceremony. He asked me if I wanted to be there." The pleased, fond expression on Allie's face should make it obvious about how she felt about being asked. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. Even if every time I visit him I wind up being shot at for one reason or another."

"Awww. Does he get a medal with it?" Parker asked. "Wait, why would they shoot you? Is it an active war zone?" EEK.

"I honestly have no clue," Allie admitted. "I guess I'll find out tomorrow."

She reached into the cooler and pulled out a bottle of True Blood. Given how things had turned out the last few times she'd visited Kaidan, it was probably best to start the visit well-fed.

"There is a war, but the Citadel should be safe. Then again, one of the first times I went to visit him there, we got mistaken for smugglers and wound up in a flying car chase and ended the night with a huge brawl in a casino."

"Fun! Except for the getting shot part. That's never fun, from what I've seen." And Parker had no intention of breaking that streak if she could help it, either. "Is that the stuff you drink? Really?" True Blood. Snort. "They don't have it there, hunh."

"It's this or asking people if I can nibble on their necks every two weeks," she shrugged. "This is simpler."

"Does it taste real?" Parker asked, looking closer. "I know there are weird people here who'd be okay with the nibbling, but I'm not sure about space."

Allie had a sudden memory of Nick's blood, warm and so alive as it slid across her tongue. "It's close, but it's still not quite the same. As for space? I'm sure if I looked, I could find someone. But this is easier."

Parker took another slurp of her mudslide, suddenly very glad it wasn't made with carob or some fake sugar. "So you'll be back next week? You know, if a war or smugglers don't stop you?"

"Oh yeah. I don't think he's going to have all that much down time. I won't be staying longer then a day or two," she said. "We can go out one night next week if you'd like."

"Yay. Yes!" Sluuuurp. Vibrate. Grin. "Call me when you get back in, I have all this gear, I want to know where I can use it. There was so much weirdness when everyone was old. I gotta be prepared."

Parker's enthusiasm made Allie smile. "That got you? It passed me this time. So I just kept a low profile till it was all over."

Parker nodded. "Me and Hardison and Eliot. They're still way hot when they're old, so yay." Yay! "And I'm in good shape, even if I'm over fifty... but Hardison still gets kidnapped sometimes, so I need to be on top of this stuff."

"Is that something that happens a lot?" Allie asked.

"More often than it should," Parker responding, making a face, and stabbing her straw into her drink a few times. "He's not the fighter type, really. So bad guys tend to look at him as an easy grab."

"Well if you ever need help grabbing him back," she offered. "Count me in."

Parker's face lit up. "Thank you! That would be cool. Maybe we can keep Hardison's kidnap calendar from getting too low, or Eliot from getting hurt again."

"Probably a good idea. Although now I'm curious about just what you guys do that that a thing that happens." Yes, she was curious.

Parker paused, then shrugged. "Security consultant?" Well, they did that sometimes. "Conflict mitigation." Cool words, no? "...we provide. Leverage."

"Leverage?" Allie repeated, not really understanding.

Parker was a teeeeny bit tipsy now, and the chocolate made her happy. "Sometimes, corporations, corrupt government officials, rich guys... they take stuff from people, and they're covered by loopholes in the law. And the people they take stuff from have this weight of doctor bills, and costs, and maybe legal fees or jail time. Loss of money. Loss of hope. All this weight on them." She used the straw to flip a coaster upward into the air, then catch it, even buzzed. "Put the right pressure in the right place, and the weight comes off. And the rich guys go splat on their face. Leverage!"

That...made more sense.

"We could have used that back where I came from. Although I'm not sure there's all that much that can be done to take down a Master Vampire without a whole lot of bloodshed."

"Hmmmm." Oh, now you've given her a project, Allie. "It's a matter of knowing where to push... although it's vampires. I think bloodshed is kind of just in there. But we'd have to know what they want. And then you give it to them. And then they're very, very sorry. 'Cause there's always a trap in that."

"He has everything he needs. Power, and a steady food supply," Allie replied. "You'd be upsetting a whole world. I don't think it can be done."

"I said what he wants. Not what he needs. But... usually we have Hardison figure that stuff out from doing a deep background check on him. Are there even computers in your world, any more?"

"Some," she said, remembering Jackal's lab in Old Chicago. "But nothing like what we have here. I'm pretty sure there's no internet."

"That makes it all harder, yeah." Parker gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm not saying anyone has to. Just if anyone ever gets a chance to take that guy down, it'll be because he made a mistake. And people make mistakes when they go after things they want.... How come those guys are in charge? Are there just more of them?"

When Red Lung hit and the rabids appeared the vampires realized that to keep a food supply, they'd have to protect people," Allie explained. "It evolved into walled cities, each master vampire with his own little kingdom. I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I'd guess it's like that all around the world."

"Might not be. Bet there's some places where people just set fire to them with the plague victims," Parker said. "No offense and all. Is there any cure for Red Lung, that vampires don't have?"

She though of Zeke and how he'd recovered from Sarren's deadly version of Red Lung. "There might be. That's something I'm going to try and help with when...if I ever get back there."

Parker held up her mudslide in a toast. "Hey, if there's anything we can do to help, from here, or, you know... Well, maybe not going there, but checking it out, then, we'd be happy to."

"No, no going there. I brought Kaidan, the friend I'm going to see, there once and he almost died," Allie said, grwoing somber at the memory. "I won't make that mistake again. It's not worth risk."

"There's a lot more scientists here," Parker said, thinking it over. "Maybe you could find somebody to work on that Red Lung. Well. Someone you trust not to turn it into a bio-weapon."

Because that had almost happened a couple times, and wow, no.

"Or someone could accidentally make it more deadly and people here would start dying."

She was speaking from experience.

"Ugh." Parker blew into her straw, then sucked up the last bits of the mudslide. "Yeah, let's not do that either."

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The Devil's Nest, Friday Evening

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