My first 24 ficlet...

[tree_talking]

birdseyeview set me this task: Day 3. Slightly AU. There's some big computer crisis and Ryan has to babysit Angela for about 15-30 minutes.

And here it is:

Show me the money.

It always annoyed Ryan that that particular line ran through his head every time he did financial investigations, but ever since he and Vicki had gone to see that movie, it had stuck in his mind ever since.

Show me the money.

And he knew he was on to something now. He wasn’t quite sure of what it was yet, but he’d done this sort of thing for years, and he could almost smell it up ahead of him, just waiting to be found. He enjoyed this sort of thing—as much as he could enjoy anything these days.

The knocking at the door of the office where he was working jarred his concentration. “What?” he snapped irritably. Whatever it was, it had damn well better be fast, it had better be important, and preferably both!

Kim Bauer came into the room, tugging the baby carrier (with a fussy Angela inside)and a large bag over her shoulder. She was upset and flushed. “I’m so sorry about this, Mr. Chappelle, but I just don’t know what to do, we’ve got a huge problem with the computers and Chloe needs everyone focused, but I just don’t know what to do with Angela, she’s fussing and I can’t concentrate on the computers--!”

God, she’s giving me a headache! “Kim...Kim!” Anything to stop her talking! “Leave Angela here with me and get your work done!”

She smiled in an embarrassed way. “I really appreciate this, Mr. Chappelle…”

Ryan took the carrier and the bag from her, and after waving the young woman out the door, sighed heavily and plunked the carrier and bag down on the table. Angela was fussing but Ryan didn’t think she looked all that upset. She looked bored. He wondered how long she’d been in that carrier. Chris certainly wouldn’t have put up with being in a carrier that long when she was that age, he thought with a shake of his head.

“All right kid, c’mere,” he said, taking Angela out of the carrier. He sat in front of his laptop again and held her balanced on one knee while he worked one-handed. She stopped fussing rather abruptly, and Ryan continued working, keeping one eye on the screen, and one eye on Angela, who was looking all around her.

Unfortunately, Ryan found that he’d lost his focus—he’d never been able to concentrate properly the few times he’d tried to work with his own kids like this, either—and sighed again irritably, turning away from his laptop. He looked at Angela and she looked at him. She smelled of soap and baby powder, and to his surprise, Ryan was impressed at how well-taken care of she was. She had bright, inquisitive blue eyes.

He wasn’t as pissed-off as he probably should be. It was probably the baby-powder smell, he reflected. No matter how exhausted or cranky he had been when he’d gotten up in the middle of the night to tend to one of the kids, as soon as he’d smelled that baby-powder smell, irritation just drained out of him.

And Angela had just grabbed his nose. Ryan actually laughed.

His co-workers, he was sure, would never believe it.

“Isn’t it crooked enough as it is?” Ryan sighed. He really should get back to work. But now he was missing his kids, even though they were mostly grown and gone now.

He remembered when Christine was born, because he’d actually been present for her birth. (For Ryan Jr. and Caitlin, he’d been away on assignment both times. He had spent many weekends trying to ‘make up’ for his absence by making Vicki and the kids first priority when he wasn’t at work. Well, he’d tried, anyway.) He remembered that she’d seemed so very tiny and fragile. He’d felt like a clumsy oaf as the nurses helped him hold his newborn daughter…

He was jerked out of his reminiscences by Angela’s yawning. “Poor kid. You’ve had a long day, haven’t you?” He placed a cloth from the bag upon his shoulder before placing Angela against him. No kid liked suit material to sleep on, he’d found. She snuggled in, and he could feel her getting heavier as she fell asleep.

There. No trouble at all. People panic too much.

Kim came back five minutes later to find Ryan working, with Angela asleep on his shoulder. She stood there for a few moments, then said softly, “Mr. Chappelle?”

“Computer crisis over?” he said, not looking up from his laptop.

“Yes sir, all fixed. I hope…she wasn’t much trouble.”

“Not much,” he said, standing up to place Angela gently in the carrier, fastening her in. “She’s been asleep for about ten minutes, and she’s sleeping fairly soundly.”

“Okay,” Kim says. She’s still looking at him oddly.

“Kim…don’t you have work you could be continuing to do? Because I sure as hell do.” He sighs in exasperation. “I do have three kids, you know.”

“Oh! Oh, yes, all right. Thank you,” Kim says, blushing furiously. She takes the carrier and bag off of the table and exits the office.

When they were both gone, he shut the door behind him. It was really quiet when they left.

Ryan made a promise to call his kids.

As soon as this long day was over.

Leave a review. Pleasy please. This was unbetaed, so it probably has scads of canon and other errors. :)

Comments

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I appreciate that!

I wasn't sure how well I could write him. :)