Summary: Buck decides that since he's got some time off he ought to go bug. . . errr visit Jo. The others tag along to try to keep him out of trouble.
Categories: Non Buffy/Angel Crossovers Characters: None
Genres: AU
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: Greta Universe
Chapters: 15 Completed: No
Word count: 23048 Read: 302360
Published: 2008.09.24 Updated: 2009.05.09
Story Notes:
Set in my Greta Universe, canon changes for some tv shows.
1. Criminal Minds--Prentiss did join the team but Jason didn't leave. Aaron did divorce, but earlier than he did in the show.
2. Eureka--Set after season two but season three did not happen. Allison is still head of Global Dynamics.
1. Arriving in Eureka by josette grover
2. Introducing the family to the neighbors by josette grover
3. Pumping the family for information by josette grover
4. What can possibly happen? by josette grover
5. Greta's luck holds true to form by josette grover
6. Shoot at me will you? by josette grover
7. Dealing with the aftermath by josette grover
8. Phone calls from home by josette grover
9. Deliveries from Dayton by josette grover
10. Cleaning up the farmhouse by josette grover
11. Torturing family is evil. . . but fun! by josette grover
12. What did you say? by josette grover
13. Umm Hello, it's August. Why is it snowing? by josette grover
14. Is this normal for Eureka? by josette grover
15. Greta at Global Dynamics by josette grover
Arriving in Eureka by josette grover
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: Miami, Criminal Minds, Eureka, Hercules: TLJ/Xena:WP, or Magnificent Seven. Greta however is mine.
“Thank Gawd,” Greta says, getting out of the car the second Buck pulls into a parking lot. “Why the hell did we decide to let Buck drive?”
“It's his car,” Ryan says calmly, opening the other car door and getting out of the back seat of the convertible. He and Spencer had been taking turns sharing the back seat with Greta to keep her company, and to keep her from strangling Buck for his choice of music. Country music has a place, but not on a 24 hour straight road trip. Buck hadn't even wanted to stop at a hotel or motel for a few hours sleep until Greta had announced that she was going to freeze his car solid for eight hours and had walked off in the direction of a nearby hotel. Spencer and Ryan had exchanged amused looks as they followed her off, a fuming Buck following them fifteen minutes later when the car had refused to turn over.
“So this is Eureka.” Ryan says turning and looking around the small parking lot across from a place called Cafe Diem. “It seems. . . quaint.” he says finally, seeing nearby pedestrians looking at him oddly. “Don't seem too friendly.”
“Small towns can be like that.” Greta snorts. “Newcomers are looked at with suspicion until they start to fit in.” Greta looks across the road to the cafe. “I don't know about you, but I need something to eat before we find Jo since somebody,” she turns to glare at Buck, “only stopped for gas when we were running on fumes.” Buck snickers as he heads across the road, the others following him.
Buck walks into the cafe, the occupants of the building stopping and staring at the stranger as he walks over to the woman in uniform he'd seen going in from across the road.
“Hello Darling Jo. .” he says, throwing an arm around her shoulder. Without moving, Jo plants an elbow in his ribs and he goes down to the floor. “. . . casta?” he squeaks. Everybody stops and stares at the deputy as she continues talking with Henry.
“Ha, pay up suckers.” a female voice from the direction of the door says. Everybody in the room stops to stare at the newcomers. “Jo's already decked him.” The two men with her grumble as they hand over money. Greta smirks as she walks over to the counter. “Give me a double cheeseburger, a large fries, and coffee.” she says.
“Damn it Buck, couldn't you have waited five minutes before pissing Jo off so I could have won the bet?.” One of the newcomers asks, stepping over the figure on the floor and sitting at a table. “Thank you,” he says, taking the menu automatically offered him as Buck, moaning, gets up from the floor and settles in the chair pulled out by Spencer.
“I take it you know our newcomers?” Jack asks dryly as Jo gives the female at the counter and the other two men warm hugs, glaring at the first man as he grins at her before rolling her eyes and finally giving him a hug as well.
“You might say so, they're my brothers and sister.” she says, walking out leaving the building speechless. “When you get done eating, come over to the sheriff's office so we can catch up.”
Introducing the family to the neighbors by josette grover
“Wonder how long it will take for the news to get back to Stark that you have visitors?” Jack says, walking across the street in the direction of the Sheriff office with his deputy.
“I saw Fargo scurrying off when I hit Buck, he's probably already waiting for us.” Jo snorts.
“Told you.” she says as Jack opens the door to find Allison Blake and Nathan Stark waiting for them in the office.
“You hit a ATF Agent?” Stark says as they enter the building.
“No, I hit my pain in the ass brother, who just happens to be an ATF agent.”
“You have family?” Stark asks, starting to pace.
“No, I was built at the Smith and Wesson factory.” Jo snorts, sitting behind her desk. “Of course I have family, though in Buck's case there's times I would love to deny it.”
“Why did you hit him?”
“Because he was about to say my full name.” She hold up a hand. “I HATE” she snarls, “my full name. Buck knows that, he does it to piss me off. So I hit him before he could say it.”
“Deputy Lupo, he's a ATF agent. I'm sure that his superiors would be upset if you hurt him.” Stark moans, throwing up his hands as he starts pacing the room again. Jo smiles as she picks up the phone, dialing a long distance number.
“Larabee.” a voice says.
“Larabee, this is Jo Lupo.” She says, putting the phone on speaker. A click can be heard letting them know whoever is on the other end did the same thing.
“I take it Buck's arrived?” Chris says, raising an eyebrow. The others stop what they were doing in the Team Seven office, Ezra smirking as he pulls out the notebook he'd written the bets down on.
“Yeah, you don't mind that I already hit him, right?”
A snort can be heard over the phone, followed by the sounds of male laughter and a 'Gentlemen, I believe the pot belongs to me'. “Not at all.”
“Mr. Larabee?” Nathan asks, pausing by the phone.
“Yes, who am I speaking with?” Chris says, raising an eyebrow.
“Nathan Stark, Deputy Lupo works for me, more or less.”
“A lot more less than more.” Jo growls.
“You really don't mind that your agent has been struck by Deputy Lupo.”
“Buck's a big boy.” Chris says with a smirk. 'Damn pencil pusher, has to be' he thinks. “If he wants to piss off his sisters, he can take the lumps. So where are Buck are the others?”
“Getting something to eat at the Cafe Diem.” Jo says. “Want him to call you when he gets done eating?”
“No, Buck's supposed to be on vacation for the next two weeks.” Chris says.
“He pissed off the wrong person and got told to 'get out of here' until the boss cools down?” Jo smirks.
“Something like that.” Chris sighs. “I'm surprised they arrived so early, they only left Denver yesterday morning.”
“That's because Buck drives like a maniac.” a female voice says from the doorway as Greta comes into the room, dropping onto the chair by Jo's desk with a sigh.
“Coming from you that might say something.” Chris says with a smirk.
Greta snorts. “Coming from me that does say something. Buck only stopped for gas. I put my foot down around midnight and made us get some food and hotel rooms so we could sleep.” Greta looks over at Jo. “Your friend at the cafe is bringing us some food so we don't scare the natives any more than we already have. Can I use your bathroom to freshen up?” Jo points the way as Jack gets a call.
Pumping the family for information by josette grover
Jo and Jack head to their vehicles when Jack hangs up the phone, passing Henry and Zoe coming in the door with a bag of food. Jack pauses long enough to kiss Zoe's cheek in passing. “Shouldn't you be in school?” he asks calmly, raising an eyebrow.
“Parent-teacher thing Dad. .” Zoe says rolling her eyes. “School let out at noon.”
“Just checking.” He says with a smile as he walks off, leaving Zoe rolling her eyes as she puts the food down on the table. “Sorry for making you guys eat over here, the others should stop staring . . . eventually.”
Greta snickers. “Let me guess, you're not from around here originally.”
Zoe smiles. “You can tell, huh? No, Dad and I are originally from LA.”
“I'm from New York, Buck's from Denver, Spencer's from DC, and Ryan's from the home of tans. . . Miami.”
“Cool, I've always wanted to travel.” Zoe says pulling over a chair and sitting down.
“Zoe, you did do some traveling, which is why your Dad is upset with you.” Henry says calmly, pulling up another chair and sitting down as Greta starts unwrapping her burger. “So what do you guys do?”
“Buck's an ATF agent, Spencer is a profiler with the FBI, Ryan's a CSI in Miami, and I'm just a computer technician.” Greta says. Buck snorts, Spencer rolls his eyes, and Ryan throws a french fry at her head. “Yeah, suuuuurrrreeeee you're just a computer tech.” Buck drawls in his best sarcastic tone. “And I'm Queen Latifah.”
“You'd look horrible in her dresses.” Greta says, rolling her eyes.
“Why are you in Eureka?” Henry asks, subtly trying to question the newcomers without being suspicious. The looks on their faces tell him he's not succeeding.
“Just came to visit Jo for a couple of days while I'm off.” Buck says, leaning back in his chair. “I haven't seen little sister in . . . well years.”
“Little sister?” Henry asks with a smile.
“Yeah, can't say baby sister 'cause that's Greta there.” Greta tosses a onion ring in his direction. “Why thank you darlin. . .” he says, grabbing it out of the air. “Want to pass me the salt too?”
“Nope,” Greta says. “Unc 'Pol said no salt for you, your blood pressure is too high right now. He wants you to cut the salt for a few months and see if it makes a difference.”
“Damn,” Buck mutters. “Fries and onion rings don't seem the same without salt.”
“Vincent uses a salt substitute in cooking.” Henry says. “You can't tell the difference.”
“Where was I? Oh yeah, we haven't seen Jo for a couple of years and since I had some time off I decided a little road trip was in order. The others decided to tag along. . .”
“To try and keep you out of trouble.” Ryan snorts. “Do you have to piss Jo off every time you see her?”
“Yep.” Buck says with a grin. “Don't you know you only hurt the ones you love?”
“Is that along the lines of 'I'm cold, put on a sweater.'” Greta asks, rolling her eyes. The phone in her purse beeps and she excuses herself and walks over to the corner to answer it.
“Yeah?” she asks, closing her eyes and leaning against the wall.
“Hey Greta, you guys make it to Eureka yet?” Joxer asks, leaning back into his throne.
“Yeah, we got here about fifteen minutes ago.” Greta says. “We're going to head to a grocery store for some supplies and then to the farm.”
“You guys got a place to stay here?” Zoe asks, perking up. Greta may look older, she's already got a job anyway, but she would swear the other girl isn't that much older than she is. It might be nice having somebody close to her own age in Eureka for a couple of weeks to talk to, one who isn't a super uber genius or lived in Eureka her whole life.
“Yeah, the family brought some land just outside of town, an old farm that went belly-up.” Buck says, “We passed a grocery store on the way in, we can stock up there.”
Greta listens to the voice on the phone, nodding before hanging up. “Dad says everything should be ready to go there, we might need to turn the generator on and open the windows for some air. The satellite dish is already installed and turned on so we've got tv and internet, and a decent selection of dvds.”
“Well, as soon as you've finished eating we can go.” Buck says, leaning back in his chair. “I already ate so we can leave anytime.” Greta says. Buck blinks. “When did you get a chance to eat?”
“And where are you going?” Allison asks, following Nathan out the door at his look.
“I'm going to go do a background check on our visitors.” he hisses. “Don't you think it's a little suspicious that Lupo suddenly has family visiting?”
“Nathan, don't be paranoid.” Allison says, rolling her eyes as Buck and Greta, already bickering good naturedly walk out of the sheriff's office, Greta calmly walking backwards. “Some things in life are just what they appear to be.”
“Allison, they're government agents. . . .” He hisses.
“Well Greta's not, I don't think she's any older than Zoe and I'm sure both of them are relieved to have somebody their own age to talk to, somebody who hasn't lived here all their lives.” Allison says, getting into her car. Nathan's hand stops her as she gets ready to turn the key.
“Allison, they brought land outside of town!” he hisses.
“Well, not much you can do about that, Nathan. You can't control anything that happens outside of Eureka.”
“I still say they're up to something.” He hisses, getting into his car and angrily driving off. Sighing, Allison heads out, in the opposite direction.
“Hey Jo, we're heading off to the farm.” Ryan calls as they pull up to the patrol vehicles on the way to the grocery store. “Meet us after you get off work?”
“Sure, oh ignore the bald guy dressed in khakis with the night vision gear. That's Taggart, he's harmless. I've got his trank darts.” Jo says as they get ready to go.
What can possibly happen? by josette grover
Ryan looks at the others as they pass the parked patrol vehicles. “Trank darts? Why do I think Jo wasn't kidding?” he asks calmly. “Anybody else think there's more to this town that Jo's not telling us?”
“Probably,” Greta says with a sigh. “Dad laughed and told me to stay out of trouble when I called to let him know where we were going to be going.”
“That's what I was afraid of.” Spencer says with a sigh. They pull in the parking lot of the grocery store they'd passed on the way in, Buck and Spencer heading inside while Ryan and Greta hit the small farmers market across the street.
Fargo skulks in the background as the newcomers pick out fresh fruit and vegetables grown in Global Dynamics hydroponic gardens before heading into the grocery store, returning with bags of food. They hadn't batted an eye at the selection of the store. They manage to get everything in the small trunk and Fargo can't figure out how they did it because he can see they already had bags in there and head back onto the road.
“You know we're being followed, right?” Buck grins as he pulls onto the lane leading to the farmhouse.
“Yeah, I saw him scurry out of the cafe after Jo decked you.” Greta snickers. “I have the feeling the Stark Jo was bitching about at the party sicced him on us.” Greta turns in the back seat and waves at him. Fargo is stunned, how had they spotted him, he was so sure nobody knew he was there.
Greta dials her sister's number and has a quiet conversation, nodding. “Okay, Jo. Fargo,” Greta bellows, “Jo says get your ass back to Global Dynamics before she shoots you again, if Stark wants to know what's going on he can come over here and ask.” Greta hangs up the phone as they pull up in front of the farmhouse, finding the key where Joxer had said it would be hidden.
Buck immediately starts coughing as he opens the door, holding a hand over his mouth as he goes through the rooms opening windows, pulling the sheets off the furniture and shoving it in the direction of Spencer and Greta to take outside.
“Take those outside and throw them on the line to air.” Ryan orders. “Buck, go turn the generator on and then refrigerate anything perishable. I'm going to clean in here before we put any food away.”
“Can't Greta just,” Buck makes a handwaving motion, “it clean?”
“Not good enough,” Ryan says, pushing him out the door. “Go turn the generator on so I can have hot water for cleaning.”
“God save me from OCD.” Buck mutters, doing as he's ordered. He sees Greta pinning the sheets to the line, taking the old carpet beater Spencer had found in the garage and beating it until she starts coughing from the dust.
Fargo drags his way into the Sheriff's office, finding Jo waiting for him at her desk smirking.
“They knew I was following them. . .” he whines.
“Fargo, except for Greta, they're all law enforcement officers. They knew you were following them before you did.” she snorts.
“Are they really your brothers and sister?” Fargo asks, it's not so embarrassing to have been caught following them if they are. Jo's a competent, highly trained law enforcement officer, the others have to be just as well trained.
At his desk Jack snorts, of course they knew Fargo was following them. Fargo might think he's super spy material. . .
Jack picks up the phone on the first ring, hearing bellowing on the other end. “Yes Stark?” he sighs, picking up a ink pen ready to take notes. Fargo immediately scurries out the door heading back to Global Dynamics. “Fargo is on his way up now.” he says. “Anything else?”
Nathan seethes on the other end of the line, strangling the phone imagining it was Jack's neck. “Yes, would you be so kind as to ask Deputy Lupo why she neglected to mention that her sister works for Dayton Enterprises?”
“Okay,” Jack holds the phone to his chest. “Jo, Stark wants to know why you didn't tell him Greta works for Dayton Enterprises? And just what is Dayton Enterprises?”
Jo picks up her phone and smirks at her boss. “Dayton Enterprises and it's sister company Dayton Industries is Global Dynamics biggest competition. Yes, Dr. Stark?” she says into the phone.
“Your sister works for Dayton Enterprises?” he shouts in fury. Alison and Henry exchange looks across the room. “Nathan, calm down.” she says. He listens to the phone and hangs up abruptly, dropping into his seat.
“Nathan?” she asks, walking across the room and taking his wrist, momentarily worried about a stroke.
“Deputy Lupo just told me that not only does Greta work for Dayton Enterprises, she's Steven Dayton's oldest daughter.” He sighs, dropping his face into his hands. “The daughter of our biggest competition is in town.” he moans.
“Oh relax, Nathan.” Alison says, “Greta's only going to be in Eureka for a couple of days. What could possibly happen?”
Greta's luck holds true to form by josette grover
Back at the farm Ryan is busy cleaning the kitchen while the others bring in the bags. The groceries are put away under his direction while the other bags are tossed on beds upstairs. Greta's phone rings and she leans against the side of the car to answer it, snickering when she hears Jo's voice on the other end.
“They do a background on you already?” Buck asks with a smirk when Greta comes in grinning.
“Yup, seems Stark already called her to complain that Jo didn't tell him I worked for Dayton Industries.”
“How'd he react when he found out you're going to own Dayton Industries in a few years?” Ryan asks, wiping his hands on a towel in the kitchen doorway.
“She didn't get that far, seems Stark hung up on her after she told him that I'm Steven Dayton's oldest daughter.”
“Well, that wasn't very nice of him.” Buck smirks. “Downright rude as a matter of fact.”
Greta sniggers, “From what Jo was muttering, Stark isn't real big on manners.”
“So who was the little guy following us?” Spencer asks.
“According to Jo, he's Douglas Fargo, general assistant/gofer for the boss at Global Dynamics. He means well, but he gets in more trouble than I do.”
Buck, Spencer, and Ryan snort in unison. “Not possible.” Buck says. “Why'd Jo shoot him, he couldn't have pissed her off that badly.”
“You'd be surprised, but she did it to save his life. Seems somebody slipped a personal forcefield in his pocket and he turned it on. Unfortunately, they couldn't shut it off and only had a few hours before it started growing and destroyed not only Global Dynamics but the town and possibly the entire state. Since it had started feeding off his body for energy, she shot him with a sonic weapon stopping his heart. The forcefield shut off and they were able to shock him back to life.”
Buck blinks “Hokay, you haven't done that. . . yet.”
“Ha, ha, ha.” Greta snorts, rolling her eyes as she drops onto the couch, finding the remote to open the wall panels hiding the entertainment center. A second button turns the television on and she channel surfs the local stations before tossing the remote to Buck who turns on the satellite dish.
Greta gets up and stretches, heading upstairs to change clothes. She comes down in shorts and a tank top, putting up her hair and spraying lotion on before heading outside.
“Where you going?” Spencer asks over his shoulder.
“Aunt Hestia planted a garden when we brought the farm, I'm going to see if anything is ready yet.” Greta heads outside, shading her eyes with one hand before going back inside and pulling on Miami Dade police department ball cap on. Stepping back outside, she smiles as she sees a patrol car coming up the drive, her whole attitude changing when she sees Jack Carter stepping out alone.
“Tell me you didn't get her killed, Sheriff.” Greta says, sounding just like her father Ares.
Jack blinks, he hadn't expected that. “No, Jo is fine, she's at. . . . talking to some people. About you actually.”
Greta relaxes. “Stark still bitching because Jo didn't tell him I work for Dayton Industries?”
“No, Allison finally got him calmed down, she had to threaten to sedate him to do it, but he's sleeping on his office couch. Dr. Blake is asking her some questions about you and the others. She asked me to come get you since you have a high enough security clearance to find out what really happens here.”
“Okay, what the hell is going on here?” Greta asks, “No way this is a normal small town, not with how our family laughed and told us to stay out of trouble when I told them we were going to go visit Jo.”
“What do you know about Global Dynamics?”
“Big government contractor, they consider Dayton a rival but we don't,” Greta smirks. “Main employer in town according to Jo.”
“You don't consider Global Dynamics a rival?”
“Ask us again when you become multi-national.” Greta smirks. The door of the farmhouse opens and Spencer sticks his head out. “Good afternoon Sheriff, is anything the matter?” his face changes momentarily and Buck and Ryan are there immediately, but all three relax when they see Greta's not worried.
“Jo asked me to come pick up Greta for a talk.” Carter says, opening the passenger side door of his vehicle. Greta nods behind his back and the three men relax. “One of you want to grab my purse for me?” she asks, turning around to get in the seat. Ryan leaves the doorway and returns with her purse, handing it over.
“Shit down,” Buck bellows, grabbing Ryan and Spencer by the shoulder, pulling them back inside as something splatters against the side of the house. Jack immediately pulls Greta into the shelter of the car as he pulls his weapon, hitting the button for the radio on his shoulder.
“Shots fired, the old McGuire farm. Repeat, shots fired.”
Jo hears the radio crackling at Global Dynamics and swears, getting to her feet and heading for the door.
“Jo?” Allison asks. Jo pauses momentarily in the doorway as she runs her id through the scanner. “I sent Carter to get Greta, that's the farm my family brought.”
“I'm coming with you.” she says, grabbing a bag from her closet and following her out of the building.
Shoot at me will you? by josette grover
Jo runs to her car, barely allowing Allison to shut the door behind her as she peels out of the parking lot. Fargo gulps audibly in the back seat as he fastens his seat belt.
“Fargo, what the hell are you doing here? Carter, report. Over.” Jo snaps into the radio.
“You might need my help.” Fargo says, meeting Jo's eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Okay, but stay in the car until we know what's going on. Dammit Carter, report! Over.”
Back at the farm, Carter is peering through the window trying to see movement from the woods where he thought the shots had come from.
“Are you okay?” he asks, taking his eyes off the woods to look at Greta. He'd expected her to be upset, but the glare on her face is identical to his deputy's before coffee and he blinks at the gun held securely in her fist. Where had that come from?
“Never better,” Greta smirks. “I hadn't been shot at yet today, I was feeling neglected.”
“Greta,” a voice moans from the house and Jack chances to look that way to see all three men holding weapons. The biggest man has an assault weapon in his hands, and Jack wonders just what the hell kind of family Jo came from.
“Can you reach your shotgun?” Greta asks, “neither of our weapons are going to be able to reach the woods.”
“Not without losing cover.” Jack says. “Dammit, Jo told me that only being able to get in the back from the back was going to mean trouble some day.”
“Cover us.” Greta snaps, a hand on Jack's back as Buck snaps off a couple shots in the direction the shots had come from. Crabwalking, Greta and Jack run across the yard towards the relative safety of the house, Buck covering them. Ryan and Spence grab Jack and Greta, yanking them into the house and slamming the door behind them.
“I don't think I hit anything,” Buck says, checking his remaining bullets. “But I sure made them keep their heads down.”
Jack looks up from his spot on the floor, the radio crackling on his shoulder.
“Carter, report damn it.” his deputy's voice says from the radio.
“We're fine, we're inside under cover.” Carter's voice says through the radio as Jo's cruiser runs through town, siren screaming. “No shots fired yet aside from the first one so we can't pin down a location where the shots were fired from aside from the woods. . .” Jo glowers at the road ahead of her when, as usual, Carter doesn't bother with proper radio protocol.
“Tell me Dad was paranoid and set up a security system?” Ryan asks from by the window.
Greta crawls across the floor as more thuds can be heard from outside, opening a door in the entertainment system and beginning to type.
“Tell Jo I have at least three heat signatures in the woods heading this way.” Greta calls over her shoulder. “Hey Buck, according to the system, we got gas canisters down in the basement.”
“Tell me it's the good stuff,” Buck turns quickly to look at the display on the tv and shoots out the window over where the heads of the three intruders were shown.
“Shit, somebody's shooting back at us.” A voice complains from the woods.
“What, what do you mean somebody's shooting back at us? The farm is supposed to be unoccupied. That's why we used it as the target.”
Greta looks over her shoulder at Buck and smirks. “Tear gas, itching powder, and Dad's special recipe.” She says in Greek.
“Bring up an itching powder and tear gas grenade, plus a launcher.” Buck calls over his shoulder. He shoots out the window again as Greta brings up the launcher, checking to see where the heat signatures are located in the woods and shoots a tear gas grenade in that direction.
“Quit shooting, for god's sake quit shooting.” somebody yells as they come out of the woods.
“Drop your weapon and lie down on the ground with your arms outstretched.” Buck bellows. Jack turns to look at him. “Sorry, force of habit. At least I didn't try to cuff him for you.”
“Thank you for small favors.” Jack mutters as he walks across the yard, his gun in his hands as Buck covers him. He reaches down to pull off the camo mask of the figure on the ground and cuffs him as Jo's squad car comes screaming into the yard.
“Who the fuck are you?” Jack asks, looking at the Global Dynamics id he finds patting him down. “Section Two?” he asks, passing the id to Allison.
“I am Dr. Allison Blake, Director of Global Dynamics. If there are any of my employees in the woods, I want them to drop their weapons and come out with their hands over their heads by the time I count to five.” Allison calls over the loudspeaker in Jo's car. Rustling is heard in the woods and more employees, also dressed in camouflage, come out from the woods.
“Gentlemen, what the hell were you doing?” Jo asks cuffing the other men. A howl is heard in the yard and she turns around to find Buck on his knees crying as he sees his car.
“You bastards shot my car.” he moans, grabbing Greta around the knees. “They shot my baby.”
Jo can't help it, she snorts in laughter. “Cheer up Buck, Henry will fix your baby up as good as new, better even.” Ryan nudges Spencer in the shoulder with his, tilting his head in his brother's direction. “Wonder who started the betting pool on how long it would take us to find trouble.”
Dealing with the aftermath by josette grover
“Fargo, get on the phone and call Nathan. Have him and Henry meet us out here.” Allison calls over her shoulder as she walks up to the crying men on the ground. “Gentlemen,” she says dryly.
“You shot at us.” one of them whines. “You shot at us and used tear gas on us.”
“You shot at my baby sister,” Jo snarls in their face. “Be damn lucky Buck shot over your heads. As for the tear gas? You were attacking them, they were just defending themselves.”
Nathan pulls into the driveway and moans, shaking his head. Henry pulls in behind him and blinks. They both stare at the shot up car and house, men bound on the ground and sigh.
“What happened?” Nathan asks, pinching his nose to fight the headache pounding behind his eyes.
“These gentlemen,” Jo says in her most sarcastic voice, “were out in the woods trespassing when they decided to start shooting up the yard. My sister and Carter were outside at the time, luckily they didn't get hurt. Buck covered them so they could get inside. Now they're whining that Buck shot back at them.”
“We weren't trespassing,” one of them whines.
“Actually yes you were, the city limits ended a few miles back.” Allison says. “Now for the more important question, what were you doing out here in the first place?” She taps her foot. “I'm waiting gentlemen.”
“What sort of damage are we looking at, Spencer?” Greta asks as Spence comes back outside, his camera phone in his hand busy taking pictures of the surroundings.
“We got a couple of broken windows, we need to dig bullets out some of the walls. We need to buy some new light fixtures and I don't trust the electrical until somebody looks at it. The house will need repainting thanks to the paint balls.” Nathan moans at the lurid pink splotches on the house and barn. “And of course there's Buck's baby.”
“Damn it, I just got the kitchen clean.” Ryan moans.
“Relax bro, the kitchen is the only room that wasn't touched.” Spencer sighs.
“Please don't touch anything, lawyers from Global Dynamics will need to look everything over.” Nathan sighs. “I'll call and have an electrician come out to check everything over, make a list of what you need to replace and we'll take care of it and any other repairs needed. Deputy Lupo, will you and Sheriff Carter take these 'people' to the jail, I'll be there later to deal with them.” He holds the phone to his ear and immediately starts snapping orders. Meanwhile, Allison is also talking into her phone and Fargo is busy running between the two of them, making notes. Henry pulls Buck's car onto his wrecker and takes off for his garage as a van pulls into the yard, a global dynamics crew emerging as a smart car pulls in behind them.
“You can use this car until yours is fixed.” Allison says, “Henry should have your car fixed in a couple of days.”
Jo and Carter drag their prisoners to their cars and head for the station as Nathan follows one of Global Dynamics lawyers through the house with Spencer making notes of what needs to be fixed or replaced. Meanwhile Allison is on the phone with another of Global Dynamics lawyers, telling them what happened and sending them to the station to talk with Jack about what the charges would be.
Jo looks up after locking the last prisoner in the cell as Vincent rushes in.
“Sheriff Carter, Jo, I just heard. What can I do to help?”
Jo looks over at him, then at Carter. “Carter, call Dr. Blake and see if Ryan's started dinner yet? If not, Vincent can take them some food so they don't have to cook tonight.”
“I can do that,” Vincent turns to look at Jack who picks up the phone and calls Allison.
“No he hasn't, Vincent.” Vincent nods and quickly leaves the Sheriff office, passing Zoe as she runs into the room.
“Dad, I just heard, how's Greta?”
“She's a little shook up honey, but she's not hurt.” Jack holds her by the shoulders and pulls her into his arms for a hug, thankful it wasn't his daughter that had been shot at. “Her brothers are with her right now.”
“Yeah, but I bet she could use a hug from her dad right about now.” Zoe reads his mood like an open book.
“And I know her Dad probably wishes he could hold her right now.” Jack whispers against her hair. “All I could think was thank god it wasn't you.”
“Are you going to be home for dinner?” Zoe asks, pulling out of his arms.
“I really shouldn't. . “ Jack says, looking at the prisoners.
“Go,” Jo waves him off. “We'll be fine. I'll call when the lawyer from Global gets here, go home, relax, and hold Zoe.”
“Thanks Jo,” Jack grabs his keys and follows his daughter out of the door.
The phone rings about five minutes after Jack leaves, she sighs and picks it up, knowing everybody in town is going to be calling when they hear what happened. Briefly she wonders if Henry would be willing to make a special announcement but that would mean a second announcement asking everybody to have their VidCell's on. Oh well, he can make an announcement tomorrow during his regular talk.
“Sheriff's office, Lupo speaking.” she says, picking up the phone and putting her feet up on the desk.
“It's Stark, let me talk to Carter.”
“He's not here,” she says.
“What do you mean he's not there?” Nathan yells into his phone. Jo knew what was coming and had held the phone away from her ear.
“He's . . . not . . . here.” she says slowly like she's talking to a particularly stubborn two year old refusing to eat their vegetables. “I sent him home with Zoe, the shooting was catching up with him. I told him to go home, relax, and hold Zoe.”
“I need his report for the records.” Nathan sighs, pinching his nose.
“Give him a couple of hours to calm down and call him at home, or wait until the morning and he can do it then. We both didn't need to be here and all Carter could think about is that it might have been Zoe being shot at today.”
“Dammit, I hadn't thought of that.” Nathan sighs, hanging up. He turns to look at Allison. “Lupo sent Carter home, he was shook up after the shooting. Something about imagining it might have been Zoe instead of Greta being shot at.” Allison shakes her head, knowing as a parent what Carter has to be going through.
Phone calls from home by josette grover
Greta reaches into her purse when her phone starts ringing, flipping it open and checking the incoming number before walking over to a quiet corner of the yard.
“Authorization,” a mechanical voice says when she hits the answer button.
“Logan, Greta,” she says followed by a nineteen digit alphabetic and numeric code that changes weekly.
“Code accepted, Logan, Greta,” the voice drones as Nathan and Allison try to unobtrusively skulk in dark shadows. Buck nudges his brother and points in their direction. Ryan and Spencer snicker, knowing there's going to be a good show.
“Retinal scan required.” the same mechanical intones, and Greta sighs. “Damn it Dad, did you have to take so many security precautions?” She holds her eyes steady as a red light scans them and the call connects. Nathan and Allison gasp, hands in their mouths to keep Greta from knowing they're there when a hologram appears in midair over the phone.
“Greta, are you okay?” Steven Dayton asks in New York, putting his phone down on the desk as his eldest daughter's form appears in midair. He watches his daughter put her phone on her belt and looks her over, she doesn't seem too upset by what happened.
“Yeah Dad, I'm fine, Jo's boss got me behind cover immediately.” Greta pushes her bangs out of her eyes with one hand as yet another car pulls into the yard and she recognizes Vincent from the cafe. He opens the back of his car and brings out trays of food. “Oh thank god, somebody thought of food, I was about ready to eat Buck I'm so hungry.”
“As tough as he is, he'd be old and stringy.” Steven says with a chuckle.
“Hey, I heard that.” Buck bellows from across the yard. Greta and Steve cackle in unison. “Care to introduce me to your friends trying to hide in the shadows?”
“How, how, how. . .” Nathan asks, coming over to Greta's side and staring at the figure. Allison blinks but remains calm. “Dad, this is Drs. Nathan Stark and Allison Blake from Global Dynamics.”
“Ahh yes, Jo mentioned you both during our last family party.” Steven says, nodding. “Thank you for taking care of the situation.” He turns his attention back to Greta. “Try to stay out of trouble while you're there?” he asks plaintively.
“Hey, I always try to stay out of trouble,” Greta says with her best innocent look. “It just keeps finding me.” Greta smirks as Steven rolls his eyes and prepares to end the call on his end. “Hey Steve, hold up.” Buck bellows across the yard. “Anybody start a betting pool on how long it would take for Greta to find trouble?”
Steve rolls his eyes. “With our family? What do you think?” He smirks. “Oh by the way, Greta and your team weren't the only ones who had a bet going on how long it would take for Jo to deck you.” Ryan and Spencer snicker while Buck moans. “Try not to get in any more trouble tonight, huh?” Steve asks his daughter, “Dad's going to be calling tomorrow when he gets out of meetings.”
“Give Dad my love if you talk to him before I do.” Greta reaches out for the holographic image and Nathan moans again as, instead of her hands going through it like he'd expected, Greta is enveloped in a pair of solid arms.
“Dad?” Allison asks after Greta ends the call.
“I'm adopted,” Greta looks over her shoulder. “Biologically Dad is actually another brother, but everybody in the family thinks of him as my dad first, my brother second.” She snickers. “Really pissed off an uptight historian who was doing a family history when I kept calling him dad. She didn't think it was proper, and that our family had to have had a problem with that.”
“What happened?” Buck asks, throwing an arm over his sister's shoulders. “I didn't get the whole story.”
“I told her, 'Lady, he's my father, he was my father when I was sixteen months old, he's my father now that I'm sixteen years old, he'd be my father if I was sixteen decades old. He changed my diapers, comforted me through nightmares, yelled at me to stay out of trouble but was the first one there if I did get in trouble. He's my father, he'll always be my father.”
Buck nods. “What was her reaction?”
“Well, she huffed and said she doubted that would be our father's reaction. So I called him.” Buck, Ryan, and Spencer snicker, knowing what had to have happened. “Yup, he listened to her bitching and told her the exact same thing, Steve is my Dad, he will always be my dad.”
“Why were you adopted?” Allison asks.
“The family couldn't take care of us when we were born, family troubles.” Buck says sadly. “Most of us kids were raised by either family, family friends, or people who worked for the family.” He shakes his head. “Most of us grew up knowing we were adopted and knew who our biological parents were. We spent as much time with them as we could growing up.”
“You have a large family?” Allison asks.
“Ohh yeah, between the ones we're related to, the ones we adopted into the family, the ones who married into the family, and our teammates who have become like family we've got a lot of relatives.” Buck says.
“Your phone?” Nathan asks, staring at the phone on Greta's belt. It looks so normal.
“Experimental Dayton technology.” Greta says, fudging the truth a little. “Still in the design phases. It will cost too much to ever be mass produced. So for the mean time we're using it for the family. It's a satellite phone too, so mostly those of us who are on jobs where you don't have regular phone services use them.”
“Why do you have one?” Allison asks. What would this young woman be doing that she needs that sort of access?
Greta smiles at her. “I helped invent it.” she walks into the house leaving Nathan and Allison staring at her back.
Buck smirks at the current and former head of Global Dynamics. “Told you she was more than a computer technician.”
“Ehhh, I like to tinker.” Greta calls over her shoulder as she takes the plate from Vincent. “Ahh thank you, I'm starved.” She pulls out a bar stool and begins to eat. Buck leans against a counter and Spencer and Ryan at the kitchen table while Nathan and Allison make their exit. They stop to stare as a light suddenly appears overhead.
Buck sticks his head out the door when he doesn't hear the cars starting up and follows their gaze. “Yo Greta, there's a pod from Dayton making a delivery.” he calls over his shoulder.
Greta comes out of the house, wiping her hands on a towel stuck through a belt loop and walks toward the light, which hovers in front of her face for a minute. She holds perfectly still and Nathan realizes that whatever the light is, it must be taking another retinal scan before the light settles onto the ground, disclosing a small metal pod.
“What the hell would Dayton be sending me?” Greta asks, lifting a cover and flipping a switch. There's a creaking sound as the cover lifts up and folds into the body. Sticking her head into the body of the pod, she ignores the looks of everybody watching her and crawls inside.
Nathan splutters, it is physically impossible for her to have crawled inside, the 'pod' as Greta had called it, it wasn't big enough!!! Spencer nudges Buck and hands over his phone with a smirk. Sniggering, Buck takes a picture of the look on Nathan's face and sends it to Jo.
Jo sighs as she opens the message, but smiles at the picture, transferring it to the computer and blowing it up to use as her wallpaper. She smirks, Eureka might be strange but it has nothing on her family.
Deliveries from Dayton by josette grover
Greta's voice echoes from the door of the pod before she pokes her head out, looking at her brothers.
“Dayton sent a couple of cycles for us to test out. Who wants to help me?” Greta hits the buttons on the control panel to open the door and walks the first cycle out.
“Gimme.” Buck chortles, rubbing his hands. “What sort of improvements did Dayton want us to dest . . . err, test out?”
“Bigger battery,” Greta looks at the list of details. “the option to plug directly into an outlet instead of having to take the battery out. Longer flight time . . .”
“Flight time?” Nathan splutters. Ryan grabs his phone and starts recording as Buck takes the helmet Greta tosses him, gets on the bike, which looks like a normal motorcycle, and with a silent hum starts across the yard before pulling up the front wheel and doing a loop de loop in midair before landing. Nathan stands there staring at the flying motorcycle. Allison waves a hand in front of his face, and sighing, pushes him into the passenger seat of her car.
“Greta, how long's the flight time?” Buck asks, looking over his shoulder.
“Looks like two hours.” Greta says, flipping the pages on the notepad in her hand. “Yeah, two hours before the battery needs recharging.” Buck rolls the bike into the basement, Ryan following him with the second bike and plugs them into the generator to charge fully as Allison gets into her car.
“Are you sure you don't mind us leaving Nathan's car here?” she asks Greta. Greta snickers softly as Vincent comes out of the house lugging empty containers. Spencer helps him load his car and they stand in the doorway watching the two cars pull out of the yard before shutting the door and bringing up the security system. Greta heads back to the kitchen, Spence taking her plate from the refrigerator and warming it in the microwave as Buck inspects the containers of food filling the refrigerator and cupboards, shaking his head.
“We ain't going to be able to eat all this, even with the way Greta eats.”
Greta flips Buck off with her tail and deliberately takes seconds. Ryan shoves everybody out of the kitchen and Greta drops into a chair. The glass from the broken windows has been swept up and the windows boarded up until they can be replaced. A fire is started in the wood burning stove to take the chill out of the air as Ryan comes out of the kitchen, everything put away to his liking.
“I don't know about you but I'm ready for bed.” Buck says, stretching and yawning elaborately. “You didn't use all the hot water, did you Ryan?”
“No Buck, there's plenty of water for showers.” Ryan says, rolling his eyes. He picks up the remote and turns on the tv, finding the late news on a local channel.
“You and Spence don't mind sharing a room?” Buck asks, standing at the foot of the stairs. “Spence can stay in my room if you need the space after this.”
Spence waves him off. “Ryan and I shared a womb, we can share a room. And I'm not one to make messes for him to fuss over. Just remember to clean the bathroom up when you're done.” Ryan nods and, satisfied his brother has everything under control he heads up the stairs.
“Buck means well.” Spencer says, his arm on the back of the couch, not sure if Ryan would appreciate being touched right now.
Ryan rolls his eyes again. “I'm fine. . .” he tells his brother. “To quote Greta, shit happens. The house will be fixed up soon and everything will be back to normal.”
Spence snorts. “According to Jo, this is pretty much normal for Eureka.”
“Why did Vincent bring so much food?”
“You guys haven't been around many small towns, but they tend to close ranks and help out when something happens. Vince couldn't help any other way but he could cook for us, so he did.” Greta says from her chair.
“But we aren't from around here.” Ryan says.
“Ahh, but Jo is and we're Jo's family. That's all that matters.”
Ryan and Spencer still look confused, Greta rolls her eyes at the denseness of her brothers heads. “Think of your teams guys, if one of you was injured the others would be there with food so they don't have to cook, taking them to doctors appointments, staying at their place when they got out of the hospital if they needed the help. . .” both men think a second and nod, finally understanding what Greta had been saying. “Same thing here, except on a slightly larger scale.”
Ryan reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, dialing a familiar number before walking over to the doorway. “Horatio, are you busy?” He asks quietly. “No, no I'm okay, I just needed to talk.” Spencer and Greta grin at each other, knowing Ryan's taken care of.
“What about you?” Greta looks over at Spencer.
“I got a text message saying they were leaving on an assignment a couple hours ago.” Spencer says quietly. “I'll call them when they get back to the BAU.” Spencer looks over at Greta. “I'm fine...” he says looking at her.
“Yeah right,” Greta snorts. She looks up at the ceiling. “Yo Dad, one of you want to come down here a second? Spence's team is busy and he really could use a hug, he and Ryan are freaking out.”
“GRETA!!!” Ryan and Spencer squawk in unison.
“Greta,” Joxer sighs as he pops into the farmhouse. He drops onto the couch beside Spencer and pulls him into his arms. Spencer stiffens a second but relaxes, curling up against his father as the other man begins humming an old lullaby. On the second or third lap around the room by Ryan, he reaches over, grabs Ryan by the belt, and pulls him down onto the couch. Ryan rolls his eyes but leans into his father's embrace as Buck sticks his head down the stairs.
“Greta, I moved your bag into the back bedroom.”
Greta looks over at Buck. “It's safer, this way we're at the front of the house in case something happens they gotta go through us.”
Greta rolls her eyes. “Buck, I'm the goddess here, remember? I'm supposed to be protecting you.”
“Hello, me big brother, you little sister.” Buck comes down the stairs, ignoring the level three Ares glare his sister is leveling his direction. “We're supposed to protect you, not the other way around.” On the couch, Joxer is quietly having hysterics as he listens to Buck and Greta argue. “See, Dad agrees with me.” Buck crows, waving a hand at him.
“Greta, give it up.” Joxer finally says when he catches his breath. “Turn on the security system, anybody coming near the house will be kept out. And after what happened, I think everybody on Mount Olympus has a telltale on the house in case something happens. But if something does happen,” he turns a look on all three of the boys. “I want you to grab your sister and get the hell down into the hideyhole. Opening it will send an emergency message to Jo.”
Greta snorts. “Like anything could get through one of Heph's security systems.”
Meanwhile in Allison's car Nathan shakes his head vigorously, coming out of his daze.
“Welcome back,” Allison says, not taking her eyes off the road. “I was wondering if I was going to have to take you to GD.”
“What happened?”
“You had a little break from reality when you saw Buck on the flying motorcycle.” Allison pulls into the driveway of his house, shutting off the car before she turns to look at her ex-husband. “The others helped me get you into the car.”
“Where's my car?” he asks,
“Back at the farmhouse, Fargo can drive you out there tomorrow to pick it up, I'm sure you'll want to supervise the repairs anyway. Nathan, at least try to get some sleep tonight?” she asks her ex, knowing he'll be up most of the night trying to get to the bottom of the mystery that is Greta Logan. She blinks, swearing she had just heard somebody crowing 'You can't handle the truth' in a very bad Jack Nicholson impersonation. Shaking her head, she heads for her own home, Nathan isn't the only one who needs sleep.
Cleaning up the farmhouse by josette grover
The next morning Nathan steps into Cafe Diem to find it packed, even at this early morning hour. Taking a seat, he listens to the talk around him, not at all surprised to find everybody is talking about what happened at Jo's family farm. Sighing and shaking her head, Allison steps into the building after parking the car. Vince immediately comes to their table to take their order.
“Dr. Stark, Dr. Blake, have either of you been out to the farm yet?”
“Not yet Vincent, I doubt Jo's family will be up yet.”
“Oh they're already up.” Jo snorts from her spot in the corner. Nathan turns to look at her. “Most of my family tend to be early risers to greet the sun.” A look crosses her face. “Greta might still be asleep, she tends to stay in bed later, but then she can set her own schedule. Unless she's got insomnia again, then she's been up for hours.”
“Your sister suffers from insomnia?” Allison asks.
“Yeah, as does my father and one of my brothers. For them it's not a matter of not being able to sleep, it's sleeping for an hour or so then they're wide awake again. Trust me, you do not want to be around my sister when she's in the middle of a full blown insomnia cycle, she tends to become scary.” She shudders as everybody looks stunned. What could possibly scare Jo?
A chirp sounds in the building and in unison everybody flips open their vidcells.
“Good morning, this is the Monday Morning Minute.” Henry says from his garage. “As most of you are aware, Jo has some family visiting who brought the old McGuire farm outside of town. There was an incident there yesterday, Sheriff Carter and Jo's younger sister Greta were shot at by Global Dynamic employees who did not know the farm was occupied and was using it as a target during an exercise. Nobody was hurt, but there was extensive property damage done to the house and grounds.”
Henry pauses and shuffles some papers in front of him. “In other news, the recycling center on the north end of town is closed today from noon to three pm for routine maintenance. Recyclables will still be picked up as scheduled but the facility is closed for drop-offs. That's all for this Monday Morning Minute, thank you all for listening and have a nice day.”
The vid cells shut down as one and everybody begins talking again.
Nathan stands up and whistles. “We are accepting volunteers to help in the clean up at the McGuire farm.” he announces when everybody turns to look at him. “We're going to be having a buffet table there to feed people, get with Vincent if you want to make a dish. Vincent, can you post a sheet here for volunteers for that?” Vincent nods, wiping his hands on his apron. “There is a list with what needs to be done posted on GD servers.” Everybody nods and turn to their meals, finishing quickly and either leaving or going over to Vincent's whiteboard and adding something to the list started. Nathan nods and finishes his breakfast as Fargo enters the cafe.
Twenty minutes later Nathan arrives at the farmhouse to find Jo's family is already up and around just like she said they'd be. Buck sticks his head out the door and bellows as both men step out of the car.
“Greta, check the solar panels, the generator is giving a low reserve warning.”
Greta nods and shimmies up the corner of the house, reaching the roof in seconds. Nathan watches as she pulls covers off a solar panel array, moving down the line to the next one. The covers are tossed over her shoulder onto the ground and Ryan immediately picks them up, folding them and taking them into the house.
“Toss me up my tool kit, will ya?” she calls over her shoulder. “I've got a loose wire error message on the readout.”
“Coming up,” Ryan calls as he climbs on Buck's outstretched hands and slides the toolkit over the edge of the roof.
“Got it,” Greta calls and Buck puts him back down as trucks from GD come into the yard. A call from the roof has Buck heading back inside and yelling that that seems to have fixed it. Greta drops the toolkit over the side of the roof and slides down, Ryan and Spence grabbing her legs and lowering her down. Greta brushes her hands off on her shorts and pulls her shirt back down as Nathan comes over.
“May I ask why you aren't hooked up to the main power grid?” he holds a hand up to shade his eyes and looks at the array of solar panels covering the roof line. When had they done all this? Shouldn't GD have seen some sign of renovations in the area. And if they didn't do it, what kind of people had owned the property before Lupo's family had brought it? He's going to have to do some investigating when he gets back to his office.
“Why?” Buck asks. “If somebody was going to be here full time yeah but for the most part nobody will be here enough to need it.” he shrugs. “Solar panels power the generator, if it's foul weather we got a backup system. The water we use is recycled and put on the garden when it's not fit for drinking. Steve installed one of the waste treatment units Dayton designed for the toilets, what's left is small pellets we use in the garden.”
“You have a garden here already?”
“Yeah, one of our great aunts is very big on gardening. All the family homes have them if they're big enough. She planted it as soon as we brought the property. She's got a real green thumb. You might says she's a goddess when it comes to gardening.” Nathan briefly wonders why it looks like Spencer, Ryan, and Greta are trying not to laugh. “Then of course there's our great grandmother, she's a real earth goddess.” That did it, Spencer crossed his hands on Ryan's shoulder and started giggling while Buck swatted at Greta.
“Family Joke.” Greta says at Stark's questioning look.
“Don't forget Auntie De.” Spencer gasps out between giggles.
“Another one of our great-aunts,” Greta asks at Nathan's raised eyebrow. “She's big in commercial farming, Auntie 'Tia is into more smaller gardens, big enough for the home and hearth. She raises all her own fruits and vegetables, you will never find anything out of a can when you eat at her table.” Greta walks out to the garden, nodding her head before walking back to the house.
“How long did it take to install the solar panels?” Nathan asks, shielding his eyes with one hand as he peers up at the roof. He's itching to grab one of the ladders the building crew is pulling out of their trucks.
“Three days, we needed to replace the roof anyway.” Greta says absently, coming out of the house with her laptop and walking over to the picnic table. “You want to look at them? They're a new advance by Dayton, smaller, lighter, the panels are made of a polycarbonate blend that can stand up to a class five tornado.”
Fargo hurriedly takes one of the ladders and rushes back across the yard, steadying the ladder from underneath as Nathan climbs up.
“How much energy do you produce?” Nathan asks, turning to look at Greta. Ryan and Spence turn and look at each other, smiling as Nathan and Greta talk technology
“Hey Greta, what's the latest on the experimental spray that works on plain glass? Horatio heard me talking about it one day and Speed made a joke about with all the glass at the lab, we could run off the power grid forever.”
“Still experimental, but Auntie Tia nagged me into seeing if we could use it on some of her greenhouses, that way they could run wires and stuff without losing light. It wouldn't work on normal houses, not enough glass.”
“Like I said, the lab could live off the power grid forever as much glass as we have.” Ryan smirks.
“Which is damn dumb considering how many hurricanes Miami gets every year.” Buck snorts.
Ryan rolls his eyes. “We got the lab remodel as part of a grant, they didn't design for practical, just pretty. It hasn't fallen in yet anyway.”
“Speed told me a story when we were down there, did somebody really try surfing one of the waves during a hurricane?” Spencer asks.
“Yes,” Ryan moans. “Another Darwin nominee. I wasn't with the lab yet, I was still in uniform.”
“Some people have no common sense.” Fargo says, then blushes when everybody looks at him.
“And they all decide to vacation in Miami.” Ryan agrees. “Usually for Spring Break.” Buck snickers. “Go ahead and laugh, you don't have to put up the with the insanity of having to deal with the public every day.” Ryan looks over at the vehicle that pulls in next and grins. “I'm sure Jo and her boss would agree with me.”
“Agree with you on what?” Jo asks warily. It is never good to agree with anything with her family without hearing both sides of the story. It could be anything as simple as 'what do you want for dinner' to the dreaded 'does this make my ass look big?'
“Half the trouble of being a police officer is having to deal with the public.” Greta says, never looking up from her laptop.
“Hell yes,” Jo answers fervently. “You and Spence don't have to deal with the public on a day to day basis, Ryan and I do.” She stops, “Or at least Ryan did until he went to the lab. What brought this on?”
“Somebody was out surfing waves during a hurricane.” Spencer rolls his eyes.
“People are fucking dumb.” Jo shakes her head.
“And they all come to Miami for vacation.” Ryan says, rolling his eyes. “What brings you out here?”
“Carter told me I could use the farm as a base of operations while you were here, no reason to have both of us in the office.” Jo drops onto the bench beside Greta and puts her radio down in front of her. “I'll handle calls at this end of Eureka, Carter will handle the other end of town. If something big happens, we'll both go out.”
The sheets of plywood covering one of the broken windows is cleared off by the building crew, one man inside taking out the remains of the old frame as two others come up with the new window. . . which doesn't fit. Greta smirks as the sound of muttered complaints can be faintly heard across the yard.
“Of course they don't fit, it's an old home. They didn't come in standard sizes back then.” Fargo yelps as he runs across the yard, nearly falling over a rock until Ryan catches him. “Is it too big?”
“Too small, we'll need to reframe the window.” one of the men says, sliding his hammer into a loop on his work pants as both the window and old frame is measured.
“How much smaller gentlemen? I don't want to give them a smaller window after all that happened.”
“The window itself is the same size. It's the frame that's smaller, they built them bigger in the old days.” He sighs, “unfortunately it means we're going to have to tear out this wall and re-frame everything. The outside will need work too.” Nathan shakes his head. “Do whatever it takes gentlemen, I want this house in the same condition it was before GD employees shot it up.”
“Yes sir.” the men working nod and turn their attention to removing everything in the room and putting it in a storage unit they'd brought with them before tearing out the wall. Stark moans as a familiar set of vehicles come into the yard, what was the DOD doing here now?
Torturing family is evil. . . but fun! by josette grover
“Yes Gentlemen, may I help you?” Nathan asks, straightening his jacket as he sees a four star general step out of the car. He silently shudders, what would bring him here now? The man has a reputation for being a cut throat hold no prisoners take charge type of personality, if he's here in Eureka it's going to be bad. Briefly he runs through a list of 'trouble projects' in his head, coming up blank
“At ease Dr. Stark, I'm not here for you.” Ares sighs, turning around in a circle with his hands on his hips looking around the yard. “Can't you stay out of trouble just once?” he sighs. “For the sake of my gray hair, nerves, and ulcers. I'd add my sanity but I seem to have lost that years ago.”
Greta doesn't bother to look up from her spot staring at the computer screen. “Love you too Dad.” she says absently. Everybody in earshot stops and stares. Everybody but her family that is, they just roll their eyes and continue what they'd been doing. Sighing, Ares walks over to the bench where most of his children are settled.
Greta stares at the screen, absently reaching out and grabbing Ares by the tie with her left hand and her sister's shoulder with her right hand, pulling them over to look at the screen.
“Tell me this isn't what I think it is?” Greta says, getting up to let Ares have her seat.
“This isn't what I think it is.” Buck says absently, staring at his own computer screen. Ryan reaches out absently and swats him on the back of the head. “What?” he says at the amused looks. “I spent most of the family party with Ducky, Tony, and Gibbs. If it works on Tony, it will work on Buck.”
“I'm going to tell Chris you hit me.” Buck says, the grin on his face at odds with the whine in his voice.
Ares snorts, not looking up from Greta's computer screen. “Larabee probably asked Gibbs how it's done so he can use it on you next time you try goofing off at the office.” Buck moans, shaking his head and muttering under his breath about how mean his family is to him.
“You want some cheese to go with that whine Buck?” Jo asks, smirking.
Fargo is doing a credible imitation of a fish and Ares rolls his eyes. “I take it you're an only child.” Ares sighs. Fargo nods. “See in most families with more than one kid they're close in age and know just what buttons to push to annoy each other, just how far they can take it, and how fast they have to run to stay ahead of their brother or sister when they've went too far.” Buck smirks nodding. “That one,” he waves a hand in Buck's direction. “Is an expert at pissing off his sisters and his ATF team who might as well be his brothers as close as they are.” He looks over at Greta who chokes and falls to the ground cackling. “What?” he asks, knowing he really doesn't want to know the answer but having to ask anyway.
“What if Chris really was Buck's brother?” Greta wipes her eyes. Buck blinks before a sick look crosses his face and he moans. “Oh come on, he and Dad are just alike. And he could have got the blond hair from your mom.” Buck begins whimpering, banging his head onto the table and moaning no under his breath. Ares sighs, he was right, he hadn't wanted to know why Greta was cackling like Strife on a dozen espressos.
“And that is a prime example of a little sister fucking with her brother's head.” Ares says, rolling his eyes. “Greta, get up, you're going to get dirt all over your clothes rolling around like that.”
“Well Chris does glare almost as good as you do Dad,” Spence mutters, looking at his notebook as his team sends him information.
“You're not helping Spence,” Buck moans.
“Didn't figure I was,” Spence says. “Dad, can I borrow one of the cars? I've got some confidential information I need to look over.” Ares tosses a set of keys at him and he settles in the back seat, the tinted windows blocking him from view of the others. “Okay, I'm back.” Spencer says, opening his laptop back up to see Aaron waiting on the other end.
“What's going on?”
“There was a little 'excitement' at the farmhouse.” Spencer says carefully, knowing the others are going to start to freak. He holds up a hand when Gideon and Derek push into view. “Nobody's hurt, just some property damage,” he smirks. “Unless you count Buck's car but according to Jo that will be fixed by the time we're ready to go.”
“What happened?” Gideon asks.
“The property's been vacant until we brought it, some of the people at a business in town didn't know it had been brought and used it for a target in a war game. They were using live rounds and paint pellets. We got a few shot up walls, broken windows, and paint splotches on the outside walls.”
“Was anybody outside when they started firing?”
“Yeah, Jo's boss and Greta. Sheriff Carter got them behind cover of the his patrol car and we covered them while they got inside.”
“Is your sister upset?” Derek asks, he'd grown attached to Greta during the time the team had been in Miami, Spencer's younger sister was smart, thought she could take care of herself, and had everybody either loving her or hating her from the first moment you met her, a lot like her older brother in that regard. Derek flushes as he remembers wet dreams about how he would like to love her older brother.
“Greta?” Spencer snorts. “Hell no, she immediately pulled her gun out of her purse the second she and Sheriff Carter were safe behind the car and made a crack about how she was feeling neglected because nobody had tried to kill her yet today.” He rolls his eyes. “It's going to take more than somebody shooting at her to get my sister upset, she's too much like Dad in that regard. Somebody shoots at Dad, you'd only piss him off.”
“Where are you?
“Dad's car, we've got workers scurrying around the house.”
“What's your dad doing there?” Derek asks.
Spencer rolls his eyes. “What do you think he's doing here? He heard what happened and came to make sure we were okay.” He smirks. “Well actually to complain and ask Greta if she can possibly stay out of trouble for the sake of his nerves, his ulcer, and his gray hair.” He sniggers again. “Dad must have done the same thing to them he did to you, Dr. Stark looked terrified when a convoy of vehicles pulled into the yard and he walked out. He covered it good, I don't think anybody but a trained observer would have noticed it.”
“Stark, that wouldn't be Nathan Stark, would it?” Aaron asks. Spencer nods. “You're in Eureka?” Spencer nods again. Gideon moans, shaking his head but Derek looks confused. “Okay, obviously you know something I don't.”
“Eureka is a giant corporate thinktank, home of Global Dynamics. GD has come up with most of the biggest discoveries in the last fifty years.” Aaron says calmly. “How did Stark react to Greta being there?”
“According to Jo? Screamed and raged when he found out Greta worked for Dayton, then was stunned to find out she's Steven's oldest daughter. He's calmed down since then though, though he's probably silently freaking with all the advanced gear Greta's been showing off. He thought Dayton was their biggest competition, Greta's just shown him that he's got a way to go before he's in Dayton's league.”
“Okay, something that bugged me.” Derek asks, deciding he'll find more out about Nathan Stark and GD later. “Why does your Dad do that?”
“Do what?” Spencer asks.
“Come off as an asshole when he's dealing with people?”
Spencer sniggers. “Reminds him of the good old days when he was still the big bad, he's mellowed in his old age and doesn't get the chance to scare people now that he's married with children. The kids just roll their eyes and ignore his moods and our other dads usually try to fuck him into a better one.”
Ares bellow of 'I heard that' can be plainly heard by those on the other end, along with the others snickering or 'coughing' to hide their smiles.
Gideon looks at the screen a second and seems to make a decision. “Give Dr. Stark my regards when you see him.” he says before shutting down the connection. Spencer blinks at this uncharacteristic move and reaches behind him to open the door, finding Ares standing outside the door scowling at him. Spencer calmly pats his father on the cheek and walks back to the picnic table leaving Ares muttering under his breath about not getting any respect from his kids, stopping to look at Dr. Stark.
“Jason Gideon gives you his regards.” he says. Nathan stops what he was doing, turning to stare at the younger man. “You know Jason?” he asks. Spencer nods. “I work with him at the BAU, how do you know him?”
Nathan starts to talk, stops, then starts again. Finally, nearly too soft for anybody but a god to hear, he says. “He's my father.”
What did you say? by josette grover
Back at the office they'd taken over, Aaron turns to look at Gideon. “How do you know Stark? You were excused from GD's annual evaluations for personal reasons?”
Gideon looks at his friend and takes a deep breath, softly letting it out. “He's my son. His mother and I met one summer, I was leaving that fall for school. We were both sixteen, she ended up pregnant and her parents made her give the baby up for adoption, go on with her schooling. We met again years later, she told me what had happened. By that time her parents were dead and we put our names on the list in case he ever wanted to find us. He contacted me about five years ago, his adoptive parents had died and he decided to contact his birth parents.” Gideon shakes his head. “He'd always known he was different than the rest of his family, not the least bit being a genius who skipped four grades in school, went to college on a full scholarship, and was working on his first masters when kids his own age were saving money for their first cars. It wasn't that big of a surprise to find out he was adopted.”
“His adoptive parents?” Derek asks.
“Killed in a car accident, he's got a brother around somewhere, they were never close. He knew that Nathan was adopted, he felt that he should have gotten more of his parents attention since he was older and their natural son, or so he thought. He blew up at dinner one night, told Nathan he was adopted, he should be the one getting all the attention. Nathan told me he'd calmly finished eating, walked upstairs, packed his belongings and left for school out of state that night, only coming back to visit on holidays.. He says they found out they were both adopted when they went through their parents belongings, his older brother got real quiet and never said another word about him not being his brother.”
“How did his brother find out he was adopted but didn't know he was as well?”
“Seems his mother kept a journal for years and he found it when he was going through their personal papers when a distant cousin asked for help in doing a genealogy. Seems he overheard one of the older neighborhood woman complaining about how wasn't it just awful how they treated that freak of a boy they adopted like their own boy. It wasn't proper how he'd been allowed to skip grades when her own grandson was kept in his grade, he had to be just as smart as that Stark boy, why she remembered when they brought that baby home from the orphanage, she gave birth to her children, you never would have seen her taking in a baby somebody gave up for adoption.' She knew the younger boy was adopted, but not the older one too.”
“Ohh yes, we had one like that in my old neighborhood growing up.” Derek shakes his head. “Looked down on the entire neighborhood, they let their kids be kids, her children were proper who would never get into trouble like the other kids, even if the trouble was normal childhood mischief. She shut up soon enough when it was found out her daughter had gotten pregnant, refused to marry the baby's father, refused to give the baby up for adoption and raised him herself. She threw her out of the house, she lived with a neighborhood family whose daughter she'd tutored while she went to school, they watched the baby for her while she worked and put herself through school, she ended up marrying one of their sons.”
“Good for her.” Aaron says. “Hopefully she didn't have any more children?”
“Two sons, one of whom she thought hung the moon. He should have been the best in our class if the teacher hadn't tanked the grades, went out for football but didn't get picked for the team. She complained but the coach was firm, she tried to get him fired because her precious son should have been the quarterback, went to a bunch of school board meetings where she brought it up every meeting until they banned her from any future board meetings. Last I heard he was in prison, he'd been involved in sticking up a liquor store and shot two people, killing the clerk.”
Aaron shakes his head. “And the other boy?”
“She didn't have a good thing to say about him, he was her husband's from a previous marriage and not as good as her children. He was older than her kids, got good grades and went on to college and medical school. Last I heard, he lived with his partner and they had adopted three children. He ended up inheriting everything with his sister when their father died, he'd disinherited the other boy. She howled like a banshee and hired an attorney, sure that thieving older boy had changed the will to keep her and her boy from getting anything, how dare that slut get a dime from her husband, she'd threw her out of her house.'”
“I take it it didn't go the way she wanted?” Jason smirks.
“Nope, the judge threw her case out, ordered the kids to let her live in the house until she either moved or died, but she couldn't damage anything there, sell any of the furnishings, and had to have somebody from the court inspect the house weekly to make sure she was behaving since she'd threatened to burn the house down if they got to keep it. She died alone and bitter six months later.”
“There's always someone with nothing better to do than gossip and look down on the rest of the neighborhood.” Jason shakes his head as they leave the office, shutting the light off behind them.
Back at the farm, Spencer settles in at the table with the others when the sound of an explosion has Jo rolling her eyes and grabbing for the radio on the table. “Carter, come in.” she sighs as Fargo and Nathan run for his car. Her brothers and Greta look at her when she doesn't even get up from the table. “Please,” she waves a hand at them. “This happens at least once a week in Eureka.”
“I'm here, Jo.” a voice crackles from her radio. She scowls, that's not Carter, at least not the Carter she'd been expecting. “Zoe?”
“Dad was giving me a lift, he hit his head when something exploded. Allison's with him.”
“Where are you, Global Dynamics?”
“Yes,” Zoe says.
“Ask Dr. Blake if she needs me there, Stark and Fargo headed that way.”
Jo listens to voices further away and Zoe's voice comes back. “Yes, with Dad out she's going to need your help.”
“Hold on, Stark and Fargo just came back into the yard. What's up?” she calls.
“Tree down across the road, we can't get around it.” Fargo calls.
“Buck, grab the cycles.” Greta orders. Buck's already halfway across the yard, Spencer a step behind him. “Jo,” Greta tells her sister. “Grab whatever you think you might need out of your vehicle and bring it with you, Buck and I will get you around the tree.”
Spencer comes out with a motorcycle, tossing Greta a helmet and holding the motorcycle up as she straddles it, buckling the helmet and getting settled as Jo comes back with a bag strapped to her back. “Dr. Stark, get on behind Buck, I'll take Jo.”
“What about me? You'll need me, Dr. Stark.”
“Get in front of Jo,” Greta orders. “There's not enough room on Buck's motorcycle.” She smirks. “Besides, I'm better at this.” Fargo squeezes himself between the two sisters, squeaking as Jo's strong arms wrap around his waist. Twin roars are heard in the yard as the motors are kicked into life, along with a high pitched squeal as Greta takes off.
“Tell me before I reach the tree.” she turns her head slightly to look at Fargo.
“Up around the next bend.” he says in her ear as the motorcycle slows down, pausing by the tree.
Buck pulls in behind Greta and looks at the damage. “Damn,” he whistles.
“Dr. Stark, who owns this area?” Greta asks him.
“I think you do, the town limits are a couple miles that way.” he points around Buck's shoulder. “Either you do or it's owned by the government for future town use.”
“Cool, Buck when we drop them off, head back and get the chain saw. Grab the ATV and cut up the tree so the trucks can get through. There's a couple of other trees that look like they're ready to fall.”
Buck nods as they rev their engines, turn around to get a running start. Fargo starts to ask a question, screaming like a little girl when Greta aims directly for the tree, flipping a switch and pulling up on her handlebars second before Fargo is sure they'll hit.
“Damn you're loud.” Greta smirks as Fargo opens his eyes, looking around to see they're flying. Buck follows Greta as they fly into town, low enough to follow the streets and for people to look up and recognize who's flying over their heads as Greta follows Jo's directions out to Global Dynamics.
“Land here,” both Jo and Stark order suddenly. “Neither of you have the clearance to go any farther.” Greta and Buck land the motorcycles and watch as the three people run down a rickety bridge and disappear. Buck looks at Greta who smirks and heads back through town, this time on the ground.
The guards blink as Dr. Stark, Fargo, and Deputy Lupo come running through the holographic barrier, pausing at the guard shack. One of the guards on duty immediately calls Global Dynamics, bringing a golf cart down to pick up the new arrivals.
Coming back through town, Buck and Greta are stopped by a figure they recognize as Henry Deacon after a second and pull into vacant parking spaces, Greta taking off her helmet and putting it on the handlebars as she fluffs her hair up.
“Did I just see you flying through town?” he asks.
“Hey, Jo was with us. It's okay if you have a police officer with you, right?” Buck says, wincing.
Greta rolls her eyes, “Relax Buck, it's not like when you got caught joyriding in your mom's car after she went to bed. I don't think he's seen a flying motorcycle before.”
“Exactly.” Henry nods.
“It's an experimental Dayton design, two hours flight time before the battery needs recharging . . .” Greta starts to say.
“I noticed there wasn't a gas tank. How do you recharge?”
“You can plug them into a regular outlet, it takes about two hours for the batteries to recharge after flight, overnight for a full charge. It's slightly heavier than a normal motorcycle, but you can go up to three hundred miles on a single charge if you're not flying. I'm something of a guinea pig for new Dayton technology, if it holds up to my abuse it's good to go.”
“What's the weight limit?”
“About four hundred pounds is the limit we're comfortable with the bike carrying in flight. It drains the battery faster than regular flight.”
“We could have just flew over the tree and landed on the other side.” Buck snorts.
“What's the fun in that?” Greta snickers. “The techies at Dayton did want us to test the bikes out after all.”
“There's a difference between testing and total destruction.” He smirks.
“That's why they send them to me, they know I majored in total destruction.” Greta smirks back at her brother as she kicks the cycle back into life, waving to Henry as they head back to the farmhouse.
Buck pulls off his helmet when they reach the farmhouse. Somebody had already cleared the tree from across the road, and looking at the tidy pile of wood split he knows who it must have been.
“Dad went to check up what's happening at Global Dynamics after he cleared the tree.” Ryan echoes his thoughts when they walk to the table. Buck looks over at the plywood covered broken windows, frowning.
“They're going to be building new windows to replace the broken ones.” Spencer says, coming out of the house. “Everybody left, the windows need to be back in before they can pressure wash the walls, too much of a chance of the water breaking the plywood. The walls that were damaged have been ripped out, the electrical has been inspected and passed, and now we're waiting on the insulation and new walls.”
“Dad coming back?” Buck asks.
“Officially no, he's heading back to Washington after they find out what's going on at Global Dynamics.” Ryan says. “Unofficially, he'll probably pop in a couple of times while we're here.”
Everybody heads inside as the rain that had been threatening for the last hour finally arrives, Greta putting an energy shield through the walls to keep the rain out and heat inside as Buck lights the gas fireplace. Ryan stands in front of it, rubbing his arms.
“Damn, it turned cold suddenly.”
“You've been in Miami too long, all that warmth has spoiled you.” Buck snorts. “This is just a little rain, wait until it's blowing snow and twenty below to start bitching about being cold.” But for all his bluster, Buck pulls a thick sweater out of a closet and drapes it over his brothers shoulders.
“Why do you think I moved to Miami? I hate the cold.” Ryan mumbles, zipping the sweater up and shoving his hands in the pockets. He takes the mug of hot chocolate Spencer pushes at him and sits down, blowing on the chocolate to cool it before he takes a sip.
Umm Hello, it's August. Why is it snowing? by josette grover
Author's Notes:
Posted as chapters 13-15 on the list.
"Umm Buck, is it snowing out there?" Spencer asks, getting up from his chair and passing a window on the way to the kitchen.
"Spence, it's August, that's too early for snow, even in Oregon." Buck snorts, not looking up from the magazine he's reading.
Spencer walks back over to the couch, grabs the magazine out of his older brother's hands and, grabbing him and Greta by an arm, drag them to the window.
"Huh, it is snowing." Buck blinks as he looks out the window.
Greta grabs the phone, dialing her sister's phone.
"Lupo." Jo says at Global Dynamics.
"Jo, is there a reason why it's snowing outside?" Greta asks calmly, taking a picture of the scene outside the window.
"Greta, it's not snowing outside." Jo says, rolling her eyes. "That's strange even for Eureka."
"I just sent you a picture." Greta says and Jo can swear she can hear her sister smirking over the phone. "If that's not snow, we've got a forest fire outside the door. And it would be turning warmer, not colder."
Jo looks at the picture and sighs, holding her phone out to show the others. "Would whatever happened here earlier be causing this?" Fargo chokes as he sees the picture.
"It shouldn't." Nathan blinks as he takes the phone. "Hello?" he starts talking to Greta on the other end as Allison comes in from checking on Carter. She looks at Nathan quietly talking in the corner of the room, Jo sitting in a chair smirking and Fargo making fish out of water motions. She sighs. "What happened this time?"
"Greta says it's snowing at the farmhouse." Jo smirks. Idly, she wonders if Uncle Hermes has started a betting pool on how much 'weird even for Eureka standards' shit happens in Eureka while Greta and the others are there.
Up on Mount Olympus, Ares sighs and nudges Strife away from his feet with a toe to his ribs as the younger god rolls on the floor cackling. Meanwhile in the farmhouse Greta rolls her eyes and starts shutting doors to keep the heat in the room. Buck turns off the gas fireplace, running down to the basement, banging is soon replaced by the whoosh of heat coming up from the registers.
Ryan immediately walks over to the nearest register and sighs, standing over it as he finally begins to warm up. Buck rolls his eyes when he comes up but sets the thermostat for seventy and settles back down on the couch with his magazine. Greta settles in midair, one leg tucked under her, the other hanging free as she leans against one of the bookshelves talking to Nathan.
Nathan hangs up a few minutes later, handing Jo back her phone. "Deputy Lupo, your sister seems to think they will be okay until you can check on them tomorrow?"
"Yeah, Greta shouldn't piss off the others too badly before morning." Jo snorts. "Buck, Greta, and Spencer are used to snow. They can dig out if they have to. And with the motorcycles, they can get into town for supplies if they have to. Or if they drive each other nuts.. . or more nuts in Buck's case." she says.
"You can't really be this . . . calm," Fargo shrieks, "It's snowing at your family farm, they might be in danger." He starts waving his hands around in midair. "Snowing!" he shrieks again if she might not have heard him the first time.
"The only danger they're in is from boredom." Jo snorts. "They have food, heat, electricity, enough books and movies to keep even Greta occupied, and they can go outside and throw snowballs at each other if it doesn't melt before morning. It's a little snowstorm, not the end of the world as we know it. If they were in any danger, Buck would have grabbed everybody, stuffed them in my car, and brought them into town."
"Your brother knows where you keep your car keys?" Nathan asks.
"Of course, the family always keeps a spare set in the same place on every car they have access to, that way if it's an emergency and need to use it, they don't have to hunt up the keys." Jo snorts. "Even if they didn't, Greta or Buck could hotwire the car, they have in the past."
"Your sister can hotwire a car?" Allison asks.
"Yeah, one of my uncles taught all of the kids. We can all pick locks, hotwire cars, get out of handcuffs. . . anything with a lock. Dad just sighs, gives us that look, and pinches the bridge of his nose like he has a headache." Jo snorts. "The kids, and yes I mean Buck, have a bet going on who can make dad sigh the most." She smirks. "Greta's winning, but our newly adopted sister Josette is off to a good start."
"I didn't know you had any family."
"Ohh yes," Jo sighs as she leans back in the chair, one leg tucked up under her in a posture identical to Greta's. "I've got. . ." she starts counting on her fingers, "nine brothers and three sisters, a shitload of cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. out the wazoo. That weekend I was off?" Everybody nods. "We had a mini-family reunion when Greta, Buck, Spence, Ryan, and Daniel were in Miami at the same time. We opened the beach house, with Buck's ATF team, Spencer's FBI team, Ryan's CSI crew, Peter's team, and the others, we had nearly a hundred there."
"nine brothers?" Fargo blinks.
"Buck, Ryan, Spencer, Daniel, Garfield who's Greta's twin brother, Blair, Cupe, and Steve, Greta's adoptive Dad. Oh yeah, and Peter." She snorts. "Another brother I'd rather not admit I'm related to."
"Peter. . .?" Nathan asks.
"Venkman, yes that Peter Venkman."
"You're related to one of the Ghostbusters?" Fargo shrieks in a high-pitched voice.
Jo glares at him. "Yes, I'm related to one of the ghostbusters."
"Actually most of the Ghostbusters are highly intelligent scientists," Nathan says. "I had hoped to lure Dr. Spengler to Eureka while he was in college, but he started his business instead. He and Dr. Stantz designed and built their proton accelerators."
Jo snorts. "Peter's just as smart, he just enjoys being a goofball in public." She smirks. "Everybody in my family has genius level IQ's, we just choose to use them in different ways."
Fargo blinks. "You're a genius."
"Deputy Lupo tested at 162 on her IQ test." Nathan says absently.
"But why???" Fargo waves a hand around.
"I'm too much like my dad," Jo smirks. "I don't like the hard sciences. . . or the soft sciences either, but I enjoy being a cop. Greta's a lot like me, she . . ." she sniggers, "tinkers with things, but it's not the main thing she does. She's an author, she has a job with Dayton as one of their top computer technicians, and she does other things. Nobody in the family can really just settle on one thing."
"How smart is your younger sister?" Nathan asks, afraid to hear the answer. The smirk Deputy Lupo gives him makes him silently moan.
"Greta's sixteen, she's already graduated from high school and college with no less than three degrees. Her IQ? I think it was around 200 when it was first tested, and that was a few years ago. But then, Greta's . . . special."
/That's a nice way to put it./ her father snorts in her mind.
Allison pushes Fargo into a chair before he falls down. Nathan sighs, he had been right. He hadn't wanted to hear the answer.
"She's . . . y. . .y . . .your sister is smarter than anybody here in Eureka?" Fargo finally whispers.
"I don't know about that," Jo snorts. "But yes, she's a little smart. . .ass." She thinks a minute and smirks.
On Mount Olympus, Strife had finally settled down. He starts howling again and Ares sighs, seeing the look on his daughter's face. "What did Jo do to set you off?"
"Fargo's a fan of that one series Greta writes, the scientific adventure series. Even Nathan likes the books because they've got a basis in fact, Jo wondered if Greta could reveal she writes them before she leaves, something about making Fargo finally faint."
Ares moans and looks at his husbands, both of them giving him ear to ear grins. "Why are our daughters so . . . ?"
"Hell raising smart mouth brats?" Hermes asks with a smirk.
"I was going to say difficult." Ares says huffily. Joxer and Hades smirks and kiss him. "Because they're your daughters love, they take after their father."
Back in the farmhouse, Greta settles at a table with her laptop, fingers flying over the keyboard as she starts writing a report for Dayton on the bikes use today. Sending it off, she checks her e-mail and shuts the computer down. She'd sent off the next couple of chapters of the book she started while in the hospital to her editor before they left Denver, she should be hearing back from him in a couple of days.
Settling back in one of the old over-stuffed chairs, she pulls a book from the shelf telekinetically and listens to her brothers quietly talking about their jobs as she starts reading.
"Ahh, Chris don't mind me fooling around." Buck says. Ryan snorts. "Really, that's not what he had to say at the family reunion."
"Awww, ol' Chris was complaining because he was supposed to be complaining." Buck waves a hand. "He don't really mind, he's just got to yell at me because the ATF don't like agents actually having a life, they just want clones who don't think for themselves."
Spencer snorts. "The FBI is the same way, at least the ones assigned to the normal cases. I've heard there's a missing persons bureau in New York that has a good reputation, and of course there's the BAU."
Buck chuckles, "Yeah, I can't see you or your boss Gideon as normal FBI agents. Hell, I can't see Ryan as a uniformed police officer."
Ryan snorts. "Why do you think I joined the lab as soon as I could? At least I can be myself there. I'd hate to see what would have happened if Speed had died and I'd really had had to replace him. I don't think it would have been as easy fitting in as it was, not with Speed dropping in whenever he could and making sure I was part of the team."
"I think Greta has the right idea being her own boss." Spencer says.
"Greta's a goddess, I can't see her allowing anybody tell her what to do if she didn't want to." Buck smirks.
Ryan snorts. "Greta wouldn't let anybody tell her what to do even if she wasn't a goddess. She's too much like Dad. Jo's the same way, she'll listen to Dr. Stark, Dr. Blake, and the sheriff, but she won't immediately jump to do something they tell her."
Spencer starts sniggering. "Can you imagine Fargo as Jo's boss."
Buck snorts. "Fargo reminds me one of them yappy little dogs, all bluster no bite."
"Jo would shoot him the first time he opened his mouth and started telling her what to do." Greta snorts. "Did she tell you she slugged Sheriff Carter the first time she met him?"
Buck starts rubbing his hands together. "No, what happened?"
"Seems there's a stray dog running around town, Sheriff Carter, well he wasn't the sheriff then just as US Marshal, ran off the road to miss him. He walked into town with the prisoner he'd been transporting ,walked into the sheriff's office. Jo saw the gun and . . ."
"Fist meet face?" Greta nods. "I don't know the whole story because Dad wouldn't stop laughing, but the old sheriff retired due to injuries, Carter got the job."
"That would have pissed Jo off, an outsider coming in and getting the job."
"He didn't even know he was in the running, he got a 'promotion'" Greta makes quotation marks in mid-air.
"He got promoted from US Marshal to town sheriff?" Buck asks, stunned. "What the hell? That would be like the job of Dad's high priest going to the first guy who walked in off the street." He stops to think a second. "Or the chief of police getting a promotion to town dogcatcher."
"Dad says the town is a big think tank under the DoD, Sheriff Carter found out what was going on and they brought him in."
"How did Jo take it?"
"Well, it was rocky the first couple of months, the fact Jo tried to kill him under the influence of something didn't help matters either . . . " Ryan cackles. "I wonder if I can use that for an excuse the next time Stetler sticks his nose in the lab's business."
"You mean they let him come back?" Greta asks in disgust. Ryan nods. "Damn, I thought everything I did would have made him the laughing stock of the Miami-Dade Police Department."
Ryan snorts. "Too late, he already was. You just showed the entire city what the entire police department already knew, he was an asshole with a grudge against the lab. They're supposed to be keeping him on a short leash, but . . . "
"He needs a muzzle as well as a leash?" Spencer asks. Buck snickers.
"Ohh after he shot his mouth off in front of a microphone, he got a muzzle from the chief of police." Ryan sighs happily. "I guess my ex is good for something after all, besides just letting me know there was a mole in the lab."
"Was, not is?"
"Was." Ryan says in satisfaction, leaning against the back of the couch, arm tucked behind his head. "I took what information Erica had and took it to Horatio. Speed being off due to the shooting gave us somebody on the outside to investigate and he knew the lab intimately."
Greta looks over at Ryan. "You actually dated that thing?" She'd seen Erica on the news while in Miami and wasn't impressed. "I thought you had better taste than . . . that!"
"She wasn't that bad." Ryan says.
"She was a whiny opinionated bitch."
"Pot kettle black," Buck says, looking at her.
"Yeah, but I'm actually good at what I do, it's not bragging if it's the truth." Greta snorts. Spencer leans against Buck, cackling.
"So you had a mole in the lab? What happened?"
"I had an accident with a nail gun to the tear duct." His brothers and sister look at him. "Unc Apollo took care of it, but Horatio had me putting out a story that I might lose the sight in my eye. A couple of different stories to different people, when one of the stories I had put out was told by somebody outside the lab, we had the mole. It turned out to be the cold cases DNA tech, she was part of the grant that got us all the glass in the lab, she was pilfering money from the grant, claimed it was a 'salary' for her, she was tampering with evidence, passing along stories to a DA that was out to get Horatio, and worse of all," he growls, "the damn bitch was trying to get Eric, Horatio, and Speed to date her with a poor, poor, pitiful me sob story that made you want to protect her. Cow!" he spat. His brothers cackle. "Even Buck wouldn't have pretended to date her."
"Don't hold back Ryan, tell us how you really feel about her." Greta says.
"Oh, and don't get me started on Eric's sister, Marisol has cancer but she doesn't lose her hair, lose or gain weight, and always looks her best? She's trying to get Horatio to marry her, she wants a baby before she dies. Of course Horatio being so damn gallant would have married her until Eric and I put our foot down, Speed growled at her and Mrs. Delko dragged her off by her ear."
"She couldn't find her own man, she had to try to take her brother's?" Spencer asks, looking at Ryan.
Ryan smirks. "What, haven't you heard of sharing your toys? Not that she knew Horatio and I had finally had enough, tackled Eric when he was going to go out clubbing one night, and showed him where he belonged, in our bed moaning and screaming our names as he shakes from orgasm. She just thought he was a cute guy and a sucker for a sob story."
"It's really coming down out there." Spencer says, passing the window an hour later on the way into the kitchen. "It's," he looks at his watch, "barely seven pm and it's already dark out?"
"Don't tell me that." Ryan moans from his spot on the couch. "The worse you make it out there, the longer we're stuck in here."
"Turn on the local news, see if there's something on it about this freak snowstorm." Buck says, tossing the remote to Ryan as Greta comes up from the basement.
"We going to be okay?" Buck asks.
"Yeah, the generator has enough juice from the solar panels to last a couple of days, then if it doesn't clear up we can switch to the other generator. We've got a good supply of wood if the furnace conks out, we aren't going to starve, and if we do lose electricity we have flashlights and kerosene lamps. And if this storm lasts that fucking long we aren't staying here."
"There is nothing on the news about this storm." Ryan says, running through the local channels before turning back to the local station and tossing the remote on the table. "The weather channel, local stations, or national affiliates. It's like it doesn't exist."
Greta snorts. "From how Jo was reacting? Weird shit happens here all the time and nobody even blinks."
"Dinner." Spencer calls from the kitchen. "We might want to eat out there, it's cold in here."
"Eat in the living room? Grandma would have a fit." Buck snickers.
"Then let Grandma come sit in this cold kitchen, because I'm not." Spencer snorts, coming out of the kitchen with a plate, putting it on the coffee table before grabbing a tv tray from the stack in the corner of the room and starting to eat. Snickering, the others head into the kitchen, filling their plates, and settling down to eat. Ryan picking up the remote when he sees a blurb scroll across the bottom of the picture. Snickering, he turns to look at his brothers and sister. "There's unusual weather patterns developing. . . Who would have thought?"
"Somebody finally looked out their window?" Greta snorts. They finish eating, Ryan shoving everybody out of the kitchen so he could clean it to his satisfaction. This takes less time than normal as they'd had leftovers, no pots to clean just containers and dishes to put in the dishwasher and turn on. He runs a cloth over the counters to catch any crumbs and hangs it over the over handle to dry before walking out of the kitchen, shutting the door firmly behind him. Spencer had been right, it was damn cold in there.
The next morning finds Dr. Stark, Jo, and Henry coming down the road to the farmhouse in one of the town's snowplows. A figure heavily bundled in clothes is shoveling the walkway while somebody else blows out the driveway. A whistle and call of look out below has the person shoveling moving away from the house. Jo looks up and smirks, the person on the roof has to be Greta by the height. Greta's got a heavy push broom in her hands, brushing snow off the solar panels. Once all the snow is down, the person shoveling bellows up at her.
"You couldn't have done that before I started shoveling? Now I have to shovel the walk out all over again."
"Bitch, bitch, bitch, there's no solar panels over the walkway." Greta snorts as Ryan pulls the window open, allowing her back into the house.
"I see everybody survived." Jo smirks at her brothers.
"Not from lack of trying." Buck rolls his eyes as he looks at the path he'd just dug. "Dammit, Greta was right. I don't have to shovel the walk again." Identical cackles from his sisters greet his statement and he sighs. "I get no respect." he mutters as he knocks the snow off the shovel and puts it back in the garage, Spencer shutting off the snowblower and shoving it inside a few minutes later, Buck hitting the controls for the garage door opener when his brother is inside.
Everybody walks into the house from the garage, taking off their heavy coats and hanging them in the entryway before walking into the living room. Greta's settled on the couch with a book while Ryan finishes emptying the dishwasher.
"So any idea how long this shit is going to last?" Ryan asks his sister, tilting his head to look at her. He ignores the two men for the minute, knowing his sister would tell him the truth.
"Not a clue, it's not snowing in town. It starts up about a mile outside of town, we haven't figured out how far it extends the other way, but we've got people finding out. I just came to get my patrol vehicle and find out if you'd killed Greta yet for being annoying."
Greta snorts and Buck chuckles. "Nah, if we were going to kill Greta for being annoying she wouldn't have made it through puberty. Now Ryan on the other hand . . ." Ryan snorts and tosses the dishtowel in his hands over Buck's head. "Well at least you stopped bitching about being cold."
"I'm wearing thermal underwear, two pair of wool socks, and a long sleeved shirt. And I'm still cold."
"And when you get back to Miami you'll start bitching about being hot."
"Not with the way they crank the ac up at the lab, there's a reason why I wear sweater vests to work."
"Yeah, because you're a geek."
"Keep it up, I'm going to tell Dad you're picking on me."
Jo chuckles as she gets her heavy coat back on, heading out to her patrol vehicle. With Carter out, she's going to be pulling double duty. Hopefully with the weather as screwy as it is, people will stay inside and make her job easier. Jo snorts. Yeah, and maybe Fargo will dance naked through Global Dynamics professing his love for her. She shudders, that's more likely to happen than people staying inside making it easier on her. She sighs as she opens the door, yup, already a call for her. She sighs as she picks up the microphone. "Lupo, over."
"Jo, are Stark and Henry around?" Allison asks.
"Yes, they're still inside listening to my family tease Ryan about being cold."
"We have some information on how far this snow extends. Have one of them call me." the radio shuts down and Jo heads back into the house.
"Stark, Henry, one of you call Dr. Blake. She says she has information on how far this snow extends, I'm heading back to town now." Jo pretends to grumble as her brothers and sister tag team her in hugs and admonitions to try to stay out of trouble. Watching Jo, Henry snickers as Stark pulls out his phone and calls Global Dynamics. It's nice seeing the oh so deadly deputy dealing with her family, none of whom are the least bit intimidated by her grumpy mood.
Jo finally makes it back out to the patrol vehicle, cursing slightly when the wheels begin spinning on the snow before catching and driving through the snow until it reaches the area Spence had blew out. Once she reaches the area where it hasn't snowed she pulls onto the side of the road and pulls off her winter coat and gloves, tossing them into the back of the car before heading to the office.
She grabs her winter gear, storing it back in the closet in the office before settling in her office chair. She doesn't even have time to turn on her computer before the door flies open and Fargo comes running in like one of Ares warhounds were nipping at his heels.
"Now what?" she sighs. Sometimes she really hates her job.
Fargo is too busy gibbering to make coherent sense, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her towards the door. "Fargo, don't make me shoot you again." She warns. "It wouldn't be a sonic weapon like last time and Drs. Stark and Blake aren't here to give you CPR." She leaves unspoken the lie that she wouldn't give him CPR, he's an annoying little twerp but he grows on you. She's still grumbling when Fargo drags her outside and points upward.
Jo blinks and grabs her phone, fingers automatically finding the button for Dr. Stark. "Stark, where are you?" she asks when he answers.
"Still at your family's farmhouse. We were just about to leave." Stark says. He stares at the phone. The others, recognizing Jo's voice turn to look at him.
"Do me a favor and tell me how many suns you see in the sky?"
Stark blinks. "How many suns do I see in the sky?" he repeats. Buck chokes on a swig of coffee, spraying it all over Ryan while Spencer 'helpfully' pounds on his back. Ryan sighs and takes the towel Greta hands him, dabbing at his clothes.
Henry goes over to the door, looking out the window that isn't covered up. "One. " he reports back to Stark, who repeats that to Jo.
"Well there are three here in town." Jo says, taking a picture and sending it to his phone. It's Stark's turn to choke when he gets the picture, showing it to Henry.
"First it snows in August, then there's three suns in the sky in town. . ." Greta immediately heads upstairs. "And where are you going?" her brothers ask. "This I wanna see." she calls over her shoulder.
"Dress warmly, and wear my coat if you're going to be riding the 'cycle." Buck bellows up the stairs as he settles back on the couch. The two men he's not related to turn to look at him. "What? Greta's got a curiosity streak the size of her hair and Jo ain't one to make jokes." The two men nod. Greta comes down wearing her warmest clothes, a backpack on her back. "Somebody grab my computer and put it in?" she asks, turning around to show it's not zipped up. Spencer grabs the computer and cord, sticking it in the bag then zipping it up as Ryan comes in from the garage with Buck's coat. She stomps her feet into boots and follows the two men outside, sliding between them in the cab of the plow at their looks when she starts to head for the motorcycle.
"Well fuck." Greta breaths when the plow turns a corner and the snow vanishes abruptly. They pull off the side of the road to remove their winter clothes, Greta grabbing her camera out of the bag to snap pictures as she shoves her outer wear into the bag one handed. The other two men blink, they wouldn't have thought the bag big enough to hold much more than her laptop, let alone all her outer clothes and camera. Getting back into the cab, they drive into town, Stark and Greta looking up at the sky periodically to see how many suns are in the sky. Topping the ridge, they stop to look down at Eureka, staring at the three suns in front of them.
Everybody piles out again and Greta pulls a camera that burns to a dvd out of her backpack, zooming in on the scene in front of them, slowly turning around to zoom in on the single sun behind them. "Okay, this is becoming seriously strange, even for Eureka." Henry finally says.
Jo sighs in relief when the plow pulls up in front of the sheriff office and Henry, Stark, and . . . her sister get out. "Greta, what the hell are you doing here?" she asks.
"You think I was going to miss this?" Greta says.
Is this normal for Eureka? by josette grover
Everybody goes inside, Greta opening her computer and transferring the images from her camera to the computer before sending it to her brothers in the farmhouse. Her fingers fly over the keyboard as she sends a message to Ares with the picture as an attachment.
Ares chokes as he opens the picture, Hades and Joxer leaning in from either side of him to see what Greta did this time. Hades blinks at the film of the three suns over the sky in front of them, the single sun behind them as Greta turns around and the simple message /Was this what you meant by strange stuff happens in Eureka?/
Ares moans. "Only our daughter."
"Which one," Joxer snorts. "Jo or Greta? The only difference is Jo's 'unusual occurrences' are usually limited to Eureka while Greta's are a little better known."
"Are you suggesting Jo lies to us?"
"Lies, no. Tells us the entire truth? Hell yes, just like the boys. Trust me, we don't know a fraction of what our children get into, Greta's antics mean we focus on her and the others slide by, wiping their brows in a 'whew' gesture for not getting yelled at." Joxer snorts. Ares glowers at him. "You can't tell me Peter doesn't have a dangerous job Ghostbusting, Spencer hasn't been in danger as a member of the BAU, or Buck doesn't go on dangerous busts as an ATF agent. Hell, Ryan getting shot in the eye proves that being a CSI isn't all that safe."
On the drive back from Global Dynamics Zoe screeches to a halt just outside of town, pulling off the road. Her father, who had been resting in the passenger seat opens his eyes and looks over at her.
"Zoe, what's the matter?"
Without saying a word, she points out the windshield. Carter follows her gaze and blinks, rubbing his eyes. But the three suns are still up there in the sky. He twists in his seat, wincing as his bruises remind him they're still there to grab his Global Dynamics improved binoculars, getting out of the smart car. Reaching into his pocket he pulls out his cell phone and dials Allison's number.
"Umm Allison, why am I seeing three suns in the sky?"
"Jack, I promise you. . .you are not seeing three suns in the sky, it's a hallucination from the concussion." Allison says patiently.
"Okay, but Zoe's seeing it too." Carter says in a singsong voice. Back at Global Dynamics, Allison stares at the phone. "Give the phone to Zoe, Carter." Smirking Carter hands the phone to Zoe.
"Dr. Blake?" Zoe's voice says over the phone line as Allison waves Larry towards her.
"Zoe, your father says you see three suns in the sky?" Larry starts making fish out of water faces
"Yes Dr. Blake, I was nearly to Eureka when the smart car pulled around a corner and I saw them. But if you look behind us, you can only see one sun in the sky."
"Can you send pictures?" Allison asks, grabbing Larry. "Call Nathan, ask him where he is and what's going on." she orders. He takes a deep breath and grabs a phone, dialing a number from GD's directory.
"Dad, how do I take a picture? Dr. Blake wants some sent to her." Zoe hands the phone back to her dad who takes pictures of the suns in front of him and the single sun behind him, making sure to add landmarks in the pictures before sending them off.
Larry looks up. "Dr. Blake, Dr. Stark is aware of the situation, he's currently at the sheriff's office." he hands her the phone and Allison holds one to each ear, listening to the two men talking.
"Carter, Nathan is at your office, head there and tell Nathan what you saw." she orders him.
"Let me drop Zoe off at the bunker, I want her somewhere safe." Carter says, getting in the car. He moves to get behind the wheel but the smart car refuses to start and Zoe pushes him across the seat, getting behind the wheel and starting the car.
"Carter, Jo's sister Greta is at the office, they can keep each other company." Allison says before hanging up both phones.
"Zoe, Greta is at the office. Do you want to stay there with her or at the bunker?" Carter asks as they start moving again.
"I can stay at the office," she holds up her hand as her father starts opening his mouth. "I promise, if it gets hairy, I'll grab Greta and take the smart car somewhere safe." Carter nods, he'd rather Zoe was home safe in the bunker but he's satisfied with her thinking ahead.
Nathan hangs up his phone, looking over at Henry and Jo, then at Greta sitting behind her sister's desk, typing on her laptop. "Carter was coming back from Global Dynamics, when you get around the last corner before Eureka, you can see the three suns there."
"Same thing, behind them one sun, ahead of them three?" Henry asks. Fargo had run to his garage and returned with his laptop, Henry had set it up on the table. Nathan nods and he makes a note of it on the Eureka map he'd pulled up. Jo looks over his shoulder and puts a finger on the screen. "Once Carter gets here, I'll head out that way, see how far it extends."
Jo leans over her sister's shoulder as the smart car pulls up in front of the station and Carter and his daughter pile out. "Zoe's going to be here with you, if it gets dangerous, grab her and get to the farmhouse, pile into the hideyhole and stay there." Raising her voice she addresses the others.
"Good to see you Carter, I'm heading out towards the retirement home, see how far this extends that way while Fargo heads the other direction. We'll keep in touch by phone or radio." she gets behind the wheel of her SUV, honking to make the people milling around outside staring up at the three suns move out of her way.
Carter walks over to the table where Stark and Henry are working, Stark smirking over at the Sheriff while Zoe rolls her eyes and grabs a chair, pulling it over to Jo's desk.
"So does this happen often?" Greta asks, looking over her glasses at Zoe.
"Nope, I can truthfully say this is the first time we've had three suns in the sky."
"How about snow in August?"
Carter looks over at Greta, "Ask them, they were there."
"That's right Carter, it's snowing at Jo's family's farmhouse." Stark says. Greta digs out her camera, showing Zoe the pictures. She squeals and shows them to her father who blinks before handing the camera back to her.
"Damn it, what a time for our satellites to be out for programming updates." Stark growls, pacing around the sheriff's office. "I'd like to see what the view is from space."
"Why don't you use the one of the satellites attached to the space program?" Greta asks, pushing up her glasses absently as she stares at her computer. "NASA has that big satellite in orbit, ask to use their satellites to see if you can spot anything from space?"
Stark turns and stares at her. "We don't have access to it, how did you know about it?"
"I spent two six month tours on it." Greta finally looks up from her computer. "You don't have access to it?"
"No." Henry shakes his head. "We know about it, but we've never had anybody go up there and we haven't been able to get access to it from the DoD, so we've used our own orbital satellites that are having their programming updated."
Greta looks around and shakes her head. "I can't get on here, you got anywhere else I can connect?"
Stark and Henry look at each other while Sheriff Carter and his daughter smile. "Oh yeah, I think we can find you a place you can connect to them."
Greta at Global Dynamics by josette grover
Greta smirks as Nathan and Carter argue about him driving his patrol vehicle until Henry grabs the keys from his hand. Pouting, Jack gets in the passenger seat while Nathan smugly ushers Greta to his car. Zoe rolls her eyes but listens to her fathers instructions to stay in the office for Jo and Fargo, she can catch a ride home or up to Global Dynamics with one of them.
Greta settles in the passenger seat of Nathan's car, shoving her backpack under her feet with her laptop on her knees, fingers flying over the keys as the car moves.
"What are you doing?" Nathan looks over at her as they hit a traffic light, Sheriff Carter's patrol vehicle pulls up behind them.
"I'm trying to connect to one of Dayton's satellites," Greta says absently. "See if one is in the area. Dayton satellites are in a lower orbit than the Space Station's, but they still might pick something up." She looks over her glasses at him. "If you tell me where to look that is."
Nathan rattles off a string of longitude and latitude numbers, Greta's fingers fly over the keyboard again, grabbing her phone and talking quietly into it. She finally hangs up. "There's one nearby, it will take about fifteen minutes for it to be in position."
"We should be there by then." Nathan says, turning the corner heading to Global Dynamics.
Five minutes later they pull up before the rickety bridge where she and Buck had dropped him off . . . had it really been less than twenty-four hours earlier?
"Hold on," Nathan says and drives onto the bridge. Greta blinks as the end comes rapidly into sight, Doctor Stark wouldn't really be foolish enough to drive off the edge and the sheriff's vehicle is driving right behind them. A flash of light and they emerge on the other side, onto a paved road.
They pull up in front of the guard shack. "If you have id, hand it over now please." Nathan says. "Otherwise, we're going to need a retinal scan from you."
Greta shimmies under the laptop, reaching for her bag under her feet. Reaching in without taking her eyes off the guards looking at her, she pulls out her DoD issued id, handing it over to Dr. Stark who hands it on to the guard who scans it and looks at the readout before nodding and handing it back.
"Keep it out, you're going to need it." Nathan tells her as he pulls into his usual parking spot. Greta looks over at the building as she stuffs her laptop into her bag, zipping the top before tossing one of the straps over her shoulder and following Dr. Stark into the building. Her id is slapped onto her shirt and receives many strange looks from Global Dynamics employees as they all head for the Global Dynamics head's office, the glass walls being darkened once everybody is inside.
Greta looks over at a table and Nathan nods, putting her backpack on the table and taking a seat before opening it and pulling out her laptop. "Five minutes until the Dayton satellite is in the area." She tells Nathan, who nods as leans over Allison's shoulder as they go over what information Global Dynamics has found on the strange weather phenomena.
"Dayton satellite?" Henry asks, looking over her shoulder.
"Since your satellites are down for programming, I checked the Dayton satellites to see if one was in the area. One was nearby, I've got it arriving at the coordinates Dr. Stark gave me. If that doesn't help, I'll get one of the space station's satellite's to give us some readings."
"You can get hold of the space station's satellites?" Allison asks. Not even the DoD had gotten Global Dynamics access to them.
"I spent two six month tours up there." Greta says absently. "Okay, the satellite is coming up into view . . . now."
"Can you send the information to my computer?" Allison asks. :"Who's network are you on?"
"Dayton's, I'm bouncing off the satellite. You got a big screen I can send this to?"
Allison gets her onto the Global Dynamics server as a guest and she sends the information to the main screen in the office; Nathan, Henry, and Allison immediately going over the data as Greta leans back in her chair Jack stands beside her, watching the others go over the data.
"You understand any of this?" he finally asks, nodding at the others in the room.
"Nope, not a field I'm interested in. You?"
"Not a chance."
"Do you need me to get one of the station's satellites?" Greta asks, sending the Dayton satellite back into it's customary orbit twenty minutes later.
"Please." Nathan says, dropping into the seat on Greta's other side, watching as Greta opens another screen, typing in a complex string of numbers, letters, and symbols into a box on a website that doesn't show up in the address bar. The screen vanishes and a picture of the NASA symbol flashes on the screen.
"Hey Ms. Logan," a female voice says over the speaker on Greta's laptop. "Where are you, the computers are showing you at an 'unknown location.'
"Hi Cassandra, yeah, I'm visiting family and something came up. Can I borrow a satellite for an hour if there's one free and somewhere around North America?"
"Let me check the schedule," she turns her attention to another screen, absently pushing herself back into the chair when she starts floating out of view. Nathan is stunned when he realizes that Greta is connected directly to the station.
"Station?" Jack asks Henry.
"The US government has a space station in orbit that's home to the best and brightest young minds in the US and friendly governments. It's extremely classified, Global Dyamics can't get clearance to access it, and we haven't sent any students up there since it was built. It looks like Dayton Industries has clearance?"
"Not Dayton," Greta smirks. . ."Me."
"The normal period spent on the satellite is three months. For Greta to have spent not one but two six months tours up there. . .?"
"Actually the tour of duty is nine months, three spent on the satellite, six spent on the ground training, both before and after being on the satellite. And that includes six to eight hours daily in NASA schools. " Greta looks over her glasses at everybody. "Since I'd already completed my schooling, I was allowed to skip classes."
"Ahh, I'd wondered why students missed an entire year of schooling when the normal rotation was three months."
"This way they could do an entire year of school while they were there. Otherwise, can you imagine trying to get caught up heading back to your old school after you'd been in space for three months?" Nathan, Allison, and Henry shudder. "Yeah. . ." Greta says in her best just this side of sarcastic but not really voice. "How come the brain/geek/weird kid got to go into space and not me. . . I'm a football player." Greta says in her best teenage whine voice. "Most schools, Jo's told me about yours so I know it's not normal." Jack muffles a snicker in his hand when Nathan glares at him, "bend over backwards for the jocks and pretty much ignore the brains. Fast forward twenty years, the popular kids probably aren't doing a damn thing and it's the geeks, nerds, and outcasts who have become successful."
All the adults in the room nod, remembering their own school days.
The screen in front of Greta clears as another person comes into view, this one older and military by the patches on his uniform. "Why do you need the use of a satellite, Greta? I know you have access to Dayton's?"
"Yours are in a higher elevation, Colonel. There's a . . .incident occurring that we could use a satellite to track."
"You just need it for an hour?" he asks.
"By then, if we need more pictures I can arrange for a different satellite."
"Okay, I'm transferring control of a satellite to you for one hour, let me know if you need more help." The screen shuts down and another one opens, Greta's fingers begin flying over the keyboard again as she takes over control of a satellite.
"How long before the satellite is in position?" Nathan asks.
"8 minutes, 15 seconds." Greta says, looking up at the counter in the corner of the screen. "Higher orbit, shorter trip." Taking off her glasses, Greta rubs her eyes as the door opens and Zoe Carter and her sister enter the office.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.