Introductions

Bret chuckles. "I'd love to come rescue you, but seeing as though you got several hours left, I'd probably wind up getting us both in trouble, and you out of a job."

He kicks the fridge shut and finds the bottle opener to pop open his beer and take a swig. "Never did understand why they got you on nights down there anyway. No one comes through after nine o'clock anyway."

He sighs and flops back down onto the couch, beer in hand. "Wallowing? Me? What have I got to be wallowing about? I'm talking to a lovely young woman on the phone, I've got my favorite beer in my hand, I'm sacked out on a comfortable couch...."


Jason tries to calm his own emotions down enough to read Katie, getting her message but feeling it as all garbled at first. Finally figuring it out, he starts to relax a little more. The man was down...and Katie and Con could handle the rest quite well. Good job, Hero.

He finishes out the band's song, just to go into the last one for the night.

Kyle can see bits and pieces of what's happening, and once falters on the keyboard to produce a sour note, but quickly tries to recover. He had to trust the others to take care of things. Trying to focus, he's back to playing, forcing his smile again and eying Misty.

Con tries to get a handle on the situation, but with the loud music, he sees Katie's mouth moving, but can't hear her. Hoping he's assuming right, he gives her a hand getting the guy onto his feet and half-dragging him out the back, Wyatt ensuring that no one gets too suspicious. Someone does throw him a questioning glance, and he just rolls his eyes and shakes his head, acting like he's drinking. The other person nods and rolls their eyes too before turning back to the concert.

"Oh, and here's your partner right now." The police officer outside has the other man in cuffs, and slams him up against the wall as he sees Con and Katie appear with the sniper. "Great going, guys. How bad's he hurt?"

Con scoffs. "Not bad enough. "He'll live."

The sniper curses and groans as Con and Katie drag him, but doesn't have enough energy to fight.

Several more cop cars show up with their lights flashing, one car to take the criminals downtown where Brown and Reese were waiting, and the others to be there for questioning and in case anything else happened.

It seems to move fast, and before anyone knows it, the two Agency men are being taken away, and the outside is quiet again except for the sporadic sounds of the police radios in the cruisers.

Con sets his hands on his hips and just watches for a moment, then gives a sigh. Turning to Katie, he gives her a grin, then turns to sling an arm around her shoulder, aiming them both back inside. "Well, Kat, you haven't lost your touch."

Back in the main room, the concert is just coming to an end. Phil is closing out the evening with words to the audience, and within minutes, all the people are starting to file out, the noise of chatter erupting.

The band is quick to abandon their instruments and get off the stage. Kyle goes straight for Jen, sliding into a chair next to her. Receiving her hug, he returns one, drawing back to search her eyes with worry. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Jen nods, Kyle's hands in hers. "A little shook up, but they got the guys."

Kyle's hands are shaking and he takes a deep breath. Thank God they had taken down the two men. "Good."

Jen smiles at him, knowing he had been worried to death about her. "Now go help take everything down so we can get out of here and you can get some rest. You look like death warmed over."

Kyle slaps on a grin as he stands up. "At least I'm warmed over." Heading to the stage, he stops to see Misty, just looking at her for several seconds. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't have been able to convince the guys to play tonight...and she'd done a very good job as well. "Thanks, Misty." His eyes are glazed and bloodshot, showing their exhaustion, but he stands tall anyway. Reaching out, he pulls her into a hug for just a moment, trying to grasp onto the things he cared about...the things that were real to prove that this was really over.

As the late evening progresses, Wyatt goes downtown to give statements, while Con sticks around to help keep an eye on things with Katie. The band is busy packing everything away, in a hurry to leave, but at the same time, so relieved that no one had been hurt, that they take their time. Soon, the band and their close friends are the only ones remaining in the room. The audience had cleared out completely, and it was up to them to lock the doors on their way out.

"Dude, where’s the party?!”

Everyone was so busy cleaning up and packing things away that no one had noticed the small group emerging from the back.

The band squints at the group, trying to figure out who they were.

“Nice red and blue lights outside…thought maybe we’d see one of you all in the back of one of them cruisers.”

A grin spreads on Phil’s face. “Rocky, you dog!”

Rocky laughs as he leads his bunch toward the front. “Yo, what up? Did we miss anything?”

“Just the whole show,” Mike teases.

Rocky steps up on the stage to give the guys hearty handshakes. “And you must be Jason.”

Jason nods, accepting the handshake. “You must be the guy who said he couldn’t make it.”

“We would have even made it sooner if he hadn't told the taxi driver the wrong place to go.” Max rolls his eyes and approaches too.

Jason chuckles. “Well, we managed.”

Rocky glances to the knee brace on Jason’s leg. “I thought it was Kyle who was the one having trouble.”

Jason rolls his eyes. “Someone told me to break a leg so I did. And Kyle is definitely the one having trouble. Or should I say, he IS the trouble.”

“Hey!” Kyle’s rebuke is forced and scratchy. “Don’t listen to a word he says!”

“Kyle! You were playing with one hand?”

Kyle looks over to Logan and grins. “As if you didn’t notice.”

“Honestly? No. Who was that sweet voice next to you though?” Logan grins at Misty as he steps up on stage.

Kyle laughs. “Misty, this is Logan – he and the others here are Cryptic. And Logan, the answer is no.”

Logan shoots him a look of innocence. “What?”

“You know what.” Kyle smirks. “She’s mine.”

“Aw, rats.” Logan grins, throwing Misty a wink, showing how he was teasing. “Thought maybe I was in luck.”

“The only thing you’re going to be in is trouble if I don’t get a hug,” Jen pipes up from the floor.

Logan whirls around and stretches out his arms. “Jen!”

Kyle shakes his head in amusement, and some quick introductions are made for those who don’t know the visitors. It’s obvious that the Mitts and Mike all know Cryptic very well and vice versa. Though they hardly had seen each other through the last few years, their time spent together in and around high school had formed their bond.

“So why on earth are you guys here?” Phil asks.

“Well that flight did get canceled,” Joel explains. “But we got another one sooner than we thought. Rocky thought about calling you back, but we figured we’d still be too late, so we just left it at that. Looks like you managed well, but what was with all the cop cars?”

“Oh, nothing much.” Phil shrugs off the whole incident, not really wanting to get into it right now.

“Try stalkers out to kill someone.”

Heads shoot up to the new voice and Rocky whirls around, slapping a hand over his heart. “Axel! You’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days! Why do you always sneak around and then pop up out of nowhere?”

The redhead grins slyly, his hands tucked into the pockets of his gray hoodie. “Because it’s fun?”

Rocky rolls his eyes. “Now what’s this about stalkers?”

“How about asking these fellas?”

Phil bristles a little at Axel’s forwardness, and looks to Rocky, showing some question.

Rocky lifts his eyebrows. “Oh, sorry. Y’all prolly don’t know Axel here. He joined up with us about…eight months ago or so.”

Axel nods. “Heard a lot about you guys.”

“Aww…” Mike grins. “You’re the ones traveling around the country and getting albums produced.”

Taylor laughs. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

After hellos and nods are exchanged to the newest band member, the conversation reverts back as Rocky doesn’t let the subject drop. “So you guys got stalkers or what?”

Phil eyes Axel warily. “Who’d you talk to?”

Axel meets Phil’s gaze, picking up on the suspicious vibe. “Well, I didn’t go to the media.”

Rocky elbows him. “Cut it out, Grease.”

Axel takes a moment, something between humor and defiance glinting in his eyes. “I asked the cop outside. Did you think I was psychic?”

Logan laughs at him. “You do have some strange traits.”

Rocky shakes his head and looks back to Phil. “So what’s up with that? Everybody okay?”

Jason sees the hesitance on Phil’s face and steps in. “I’m in law enforcement and we had a run-in with some nuts who were out for a thrill.”

Axel looks to Jason, studying him intently. “Law enforcement, huh?”

“Yeah. I’m an officer of the Elite. It’s a branch started by the local police department in cooperation with the FBI.” He pauses, seeing the surprise on several faces, and finding it just a little fun. “Katie over there is on the team, and Scott…and Misty…and that tank, Con over there is for tonight...” He glances around, seeing that several friends had left with the police, but not knowing if Nate was still around or not. “…and a few others around here.”

Max’s eyes widen. “Well, looks like JetStream is well protected.”

Kyle grins and nudges Misty, throwing her a wink. “You’d be surprised.”

“So what are y’all doing after you get packed up here?” Rocky leans down to pick up a cord and wind it up, the other guys starting to pitch in as well, knowing this routine.

“We hadn’t made any plans.” Phil shrugs. “Might go hang out or…”

“Food,” Kyle states flatly. He might not have been that hungry himself, but he knew both these bands well, and he also played his part well. “Definitely food.”

Rocky grins. “You haven’t changed a bit. You guys still got that little Italian place?”

Mike’s head perks up. “Mom and Pop's? Yeah, it’s our favorite spot. It’s still early enough…they might whip us up some pizzas.”

“Now that sounds mighty good.”

“It can be a welcome home Cryptic party,” Jen suggests, smiling.

Kyle makes a quick glance in Misty’s direction, not wanting there to be any bad feelings, but also knowing that they couldn’t just avoid Mom and Pop's because Carson might be there. He might not be working either. They might not even see him, and it was not a good reason not to go.

Kyle himself was completely exhausted though, and didn't know which option to take. He was still running on adrenaline...maybe just a few minutes would be okay, then he could leave the party early. He looks to Misty, giving her a crooked grin and a couple signs. "Want to go?"


Jason picks up his guitar case and sets it with the others, letting his eyes roam to Katie. Join us?

"Hey, Katie..." Scott walks up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm gonna head out. I got an early start in the morning, and I promised Domino some daddy time tonight." He leans around to plant a kiss on her cheek. "See you tomorrow?"