Dibs

Susanne watches Dalton leave, cocking her head a little. He was certainly an interesting replacement for Scott... talk about opposites. Getting into her desk drawer for a ruler, she spies an expired coupon for beef jerky that she'd planned to pass along. She hadn't had the heart to throw it away yet.


Reese spins around, startled out of his thoughts, and can't help just a little surprise. It passes quickly though, and he slides into professional mode, extending his own hand. "Hi, Dalton, Yes, I'm Mike. Everyone around here calls me Reese - that one's up to you."

He smiles and tucks Scott's nameplate in his back pocket. "Good to have you - we're going crazy around here. You'd think our computers would at least work for a little while, but as luck would have it..."

Reese sighs and shakes his head. "Anyway...follow me. Let me show you around the place and the office you'll be in too."

Taking Dalton around the department, he introduces him to people that are there, shows him the lower level, then finally winds up at the office. "Well...in here's the main hub I guess." He switches on the light. "I'd try to show you the ropes, but I don't have a clue how the network was set up. Thankfully, Scott seems to have kept pretty good records. There's a couple notebooks there of stuff he had written down... then there's a couple files on his computer's desktop that have a lot of information too. I, um..."

Reese pauses, trying not to let it show how difficult this was for him. "...be prepared for the staff to yell when something goes wrong... Scott was always real good about running to people's computers, even when it was a user error. So... bear with us I guess. Oh, and..."

He quickly changes the subject. "There's a room right down the hall you're more than welcome to stay in until you find a place, unless you've already got one, that is."


Jason falls over backward as Katie pushes him. "Hey!"

Receiving Wes' words, his eyes widen. "I didn't bring the ice in here! I just..." His voice trails off, and he decides maybe it's better just to leave things as they were and not make them worse. I just made a complete idiot of myself is what I did.

Picking himself up from the floor, he brushes himself off and trots down the hall. "First dibs on the shower!"


Cindy is grinning as Wes comes up behind her, and turns her head to give his cheek a kiss. "You can get the plates out if you want."


Before they know it, breakfast is over, and the table has been all but exhausted of small talk. Jason twirls his juice glass in his hand, glancing to Katie. "I take it you're going to head to the ranch. I figure I might come along, then just leave from there. Call a cab or something to get to the airport. You sticking around here, or heading back to Nevada today?"


Carson hurries into the kitchen, grabbing his apron and heading for the sink. It was the third morning in a row now that he'd been late... Herb hadn't said anything, and Carson was grateful, but knew he needed to work harder. It was just as well that no one ask why he was taking longer on his jogs in the mornings...for now, it was just better that way.

"Sorry, Herb. Where we at?"