[September's home - 6:30 A.M.]

September was in the kitchen. Beads of sweat were forming on her brow. Her neck arched as she let out a moan as she felt the warm coffee slowly run down her throat. After the last mission, a good cup of coffee and a full night's sleep seemed like pure ecstasy to her. She took another swig of the coffee and poured a cup for Michael.

She had just finished her morning run and was exhausted. It wasn't good for an agent to be out of shape. Maybe that was the reason Narrin was able to pin her to the ground the way he did with such ease. She shook her head trying not to think about how helpless she had felt at that moment before she shot Narrin.

The bedroom door opened and Michael walked out to the kitchen, kissed her and drank his coffee. Michael let out a loud groan while stretching and cracking his upper extremities and sat down at the kitchen table. September was gone a lot and Michael was still getting used to her absence. She loved to watch Michael move, almost as if he had planned every step. September sat down and started to flip through the morning paper. Max was at her feet, half asleep and half awake, not wanting to miss a thing.

"You're up early."

"I wanted to talk to you before you left for work," Michael put both his elbows on the table and took a long sip of coffee. Then he wiped his eyes and took a deep breath, preparing himself.

"Yeah, what about?"

"You got a few messages when you were in Florida."

"Really? Why didn't you say something last night? Who called?"

"September, who's Cody?"

"Cody?," with amazement in her voice. "Cody called?"

"I asked you a question. Who's Cody? He called twice." Michael stood his ground and would not back down. His heart was racing and he was scared. September was his entire life and he didn't want to lose her or the dog (Max was September's). Instead of being aloof, his "fight or flight" mechanism kicked in and he came out fighting like a bobcat.

"We were in training together. I haven't seen him since I left Quantico."

"Then why is he calling you? He mentioned something about NEEDING to see you. What's going on here September?"

September didn't like the way Michael stressed the word *NEED* but was too tired from her run, and let him get away with that one.

"What exactly are you accusing me of Michael?"

"I'm not accusing you of anything. But if the tables were turned you would be just as confused as I am. I just want to know who Cody is. That's all."

"I just told you," September reached out to stroke her husband's arm and he flinched. Stunned and hurt, she made no further attempt at contact.

"You're making way too much out of this Michael. I would never cheat on you. Now, I'm going to take a shower and we can talk about this later. Okay, honey?", September tried a last attempt at being civil.

"I want to talk about this NOW September, not later!"

*****

September arrived at work still fuming from her argument with Michael.

"Rough night?"

"Newt, I can't begin to describe the volatile discussion that me and Mike had this morning. I swear I'm glad my firearm wasn't in the kitchen", September said smiling, then cringing at even the thought of killing her husband. "Any calls?"

"Nope, pretty quiet so far."

>>They talked and laughed and kept busy as they pretended to have enough to do in the interim between missions.

". . . so the hooker slowly walked up to the guy and said . . .", September abruptly ended the joke and turned as she heard approaching footsteps.

>>Newt looked up at this stranger, not sure what to do. No one had mentioned that anyone new was coming. But that never seemed to stop them before.

>>I'm being assigned to team DELTA, or so I'm led to believe," she added.

>>"Agent September Foster," September said stepping forward and holding out her hand.

"But, you can call me September. I haven't figured out a way to shorten it yet." September said smiling.

After cordial greetings were exchanged, September suggested that the three of them do a little team building to find out a little about Leanna, the new member of Delta. Leanna agreed and she accompanied Newt and September to Hoover's Hangout for lunch. September shared her appetizers consisting of buffalo wings, potato skins and mozzarella sticks, then gouged herself on chicken and shrimp fajitas.

"Do you always eat like this?", Leanna asked, amazed that one person could eat so much food at one sitting.

"Only when I'm angry and I had a huge fight with my husband this morning."

"Well, that explains everything."

Leanna was quiet, but quick and pleasant to be around. On the way back to the office, they passed a newstand and loaded up on the daily necessities, soda, gum, candy and a few newspapers. September noticed that Leanna immediately reached for one newspaper in particular. The headline read, "Aliens Uncovered at the Post Office."

"You belive that stuff?", September asked.

"You never know who's watching?", Leanna said and pulled out $3.00 to pay the man for the newspaper.

Leanna couldn't contain her excitement and began flipping through the magazine looking for the main article. She found it and began reading it like a speed reader.

"Anything good?", Newt asked, still unsure what to make of this.

"It seems that some people were found working at the post office that displayed alien characteristics."

"Alien characteristics?", September asked scrunching her forehead and trying not to laugh. September had a firm disbelief in aliens.

"Ahh, an unbeliever is among us," Leanna said with a small chuckle.

"I just don't believe that "we are not alone."

"Well, don't be so quick to dismiss what can't be explained. From what I heard about your last mission, that was pretty much unexplainable."

"Strange yes, unexplainable no. Everything can be explained. Sometimes you just need a little bit of time."

"Yeah, but I see a little bit of intrigue behind those eyes. Maybe we can have an intelligent discussion about it sometime. I've always been fascinated by aliens. What about you Newt?"

"No comment", Newt said, walking towards the building.

September and Leanna joined Newt as they walked into the building. Leanna lagged a few steps behind, still engrossed in the article.


Back to logs