Esmeralda moved over beside Coral to begin prepping the vegetables, but Coral simply glared at her. Esmeralda held up her hands in surrender, moving to take a seat at the table beside Saphira. Amber grabbed three coffee cups, pouring them up and topping off Coral's before passing it to her. Then she set out to make another pot of coffee.
While it made, Amber grabbed a knife and started slicing toppings for the hamburgers Coral was preparing. Saphira and Esmeralda just exchanged looks, then Esmeralda cleared her throat to speak. Coral and Amber turned their heads slightly to acknowledge they were listening and continued their work, waiting for Esmeralda to break the silence. It didn't take long.
"Okay... so this is a mini-team meeting since the two of you are my night-shifters and won't be here in the morning when I sit down with everyone else. I need to know what's going on with your charges." She saw Coral's startled look at her and continued. "They've been avoiding being alone with me like the plague - like my being witness to their interaction the other night is the ultimate embarrassment. I figure it will be another day or two before someone breaks down and hunts me up to talk. But until then, I need to know what's going on with them from your point of view."
Coral and Amber gazed at one another briefly, then Amber jerked her head towards the table and turned back to her slicing. Coral neatly put four hamburgers into the pan, then turned to face Esmeralda and Saphira.
"Brianna's been very cool... laid back and reserved with her people. Indi and Jas haven't mentioned a whole lot to me at any rate. But she seems to be intent on driving Charisma crazy."
Esmeralda cocked her head. "How do you mean?"
Coral shook her head. "You'll have to talk to the rest of the team; I haven't seen anything myself."
"All right. Then what have you seen? How is she spending her nights?"
"Sedately. She's been leaving her office early as you know," waiting for Esmeralda to nod, "then coming back later to work alone. Since she's been sending Indi home, my watch starts there."
"But she's not in contact with Charisma then?"
"No. Her time in the late evenings seems to be dedicated to actually working on Senate stuff - please don't ask me what exactly. I haven't figured out all that mumbo-jumbo they use in those stacks and stacks of paper."
Esmeralda chuckled. "Don't feel bad, Coral. I don't think they understand a majority of it. Hence the reason for the stacks and stacks... clarification."
Coral grinned and turned back to the burgers, flipping them smoothly before looking at Esmeralda again. "Probably."
"So what happens once you leave there?"
"We go back to her apartment and she maps out ways to get Charisma's attention." Amber whipped around, but Esmeralda asked the question.
"Excuse me?"
Coral shrugged her shoulders. "You heard me. So far, every night she's pulled out a legal pad and made a list of ways to be nice, ways to aggravate, ways to grab her attention - and let me tell you... some of what I've seen on *that* list are REAL doozies - ways to offer Charisma her support. You name it, Brianna's been thinking about it."
"And I haven't heard about any of this before now because...?"
"There's really not anything to tell," Coral replied practically. "She makes a list, then she wads it up and throws it away."
Esmeralda closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She smiled when Saphira moved behind her smoothly and began a gentle kneading of her shoulders. After a moment, she turned her attention back to Coral who was just lifting the burgers from the pan. "Is there anything else?"
Coral nodded. "When she throws the list away, she pulls out an album - the same album every night. From what Amber's said and what I can figure out, it's twin to the one that Charisma keeps locked away in her home office." Es nodded but didn't speak. "Brianna's gone through it twice since I was assigned to her Friday, but usually she stops on a singular picture and...." She stopped and shrugged. "She studies them is the best way to describe it - memorizing or reliving or...." Another pause. "I don't know. I'm not really sure how to describe it."
Esmeralda nodded again. "Is it always the same photograph?"
"No," Coral denied immediately. "In fact, it hasn't been the same one yet." She put the burger patties on the buns Amber had ready and moved the plates to the able. Amber placed the sliced vegetables she'd prepared in the center with the condiments and she and Coral to their places. Coral returned her attention to Esmeralda. "Is that important, do you think?"
"I think everything's important at this point," Esmeralda stated plainly. "We can't afford to overlook anything." She turned to Amber, just as she took a large bite of her burger. "What about you?"
Amber glared at her and held up a hand, chewing and swallowing as rapidly as she could manage without choking. "You've been taking lessons from Saphira, haven't you?" narrowing her eyes in Esmeralda's direction and garnering her a full-bodied laugh from everyone at the table. She swallowed the rest of her food and took a healthy draught of coffee.
"Better?" Saphira asked with more than a hint of laughter in her voice.
"Much, thank you," Amber responded regally, pulling another snort from Saphira. Amber stuck out her tongue and faced Esmeralda.
"How do you stand it?"
"Love conquers all," Esmeralda said. Saphira grinned; Amber gagged.
"Remind me why I put up with the two of you again."
"Love conquers all," Esmeralda repeated, this time allowing a fond smile to etch itself on her face. Amber's head hit the table.
"I give up. I can't compete with all the mush around here. You guys are killing me." The other two snorted, but Coral patted her back.
"Sit up and tell your story. Surely watching over Charisma gives you a break from all the mush these two provide."
Amber glared at her. "You have *no* idea." She sighed and looked at her plate. "You have no idea how lucky you are to be following Brianna instead of Charisma. I mean... she seems kind of mellow about the whole thing, right? Maybe making a few plans and doing some reminiscing, but for the most part she's calm at the moment, isn't she?"
"Yeah," Coral nodded. "I expect that to change sooner or later, but for now she seems pretty much in control of things."
"And she's not overly concerned with how this affects her career, is she? I mean... Brianna has a job to go back to if she decides this political thing isn't working out for her or she gets voted out at the end of this term - politics has never been a long-term goal for her."
"Right," Coral agreed again.
"This is all Charisma has. Aside from her son, politics is her life. It's all she's ever known... all she's ever wanted to do with her life. And Brianna Walker is poised to take all of that away."
Coral tilted her head in question. "Why would she?"
Amber shook her head, curls bouncing all over in an effort to make her point. "I'm not saying she would... or that she even wants to. I'm trying to make you see things from Charisma's point of view. To her, Brianna Walker is a threat - to her and everything she knows... everything she cares about. And yet for all that, I don't think she wants to destroy Brianna."
"What do you think she wants?" asked Saphira. Esmeralda nodded, telling Amber she wondered the same thing.
Amber blew out a breath. "I think what she really wants is for this all to have never been. Barring that...."
"Wait... all of what? Brianna and her ever becoming friends? Brianna leaving her twenty years ago? Brianna showing up in her life now? What??"
"Yes," Amber stated emphatically. Amber got up to pace, mindless of the food that sat cooling on her plate. After a few moments, Esmeralda grabbed her by the hand. Amber met her eyes and blew out a breath before she resumed her place at the table.