Natha was again dressed in black, tee-shirt, cargo pants and shoes. Her hair was in a French braid and then tightly confined against her head. It was her usual work attire. She found the security offices where they’d been moved into on the second floor. What had been the main treatment area was now a mass of CCTV monitors, and screens showing the feeds from the ops center along with masses of communications equipment. Some of the rooms had been converted into offices.

She was looking for Laz’s and found it, not due to superior detecting skill when confronted with a bunch of doors without names of any sort on them but because his door was open and his feet were on the desk, while he was leaning back in a chair and talking rapidly in Spanish to someone who was not making him happy.

She grinned at him and took the chair he waved her to. It took another five minutes or more but he finally ended the call and sat up straight in the chair. “Natha, good morning. How are you? Settling in alright?”

“I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve got a room to myself. So I’ve got no complaints.”

“Good. What would you think of a longish term assignment here?” he asked.

“Depends on the job, you know that. What have you in mind?”

“Well Trevor St. Cyr needs an aide who can act as a liaison with our side of the operation as well as Ocala and who also has field experience. It also needs to be someone who can help with his transport needs and that we can depend on to work independently as needed.  I think you might be a good fit for him. Would you be interested in talking to him about it?”

“As long as this isn’t a secretarial job sure I’ll talk to him.” She made the caveat non-negotiable with her tone. You want to do it now?”

“No time like it. You ready?”

She nodded and followed him down to Trevor’s office, which had been renovated to include an inner and outer office. The outer office had monitors that could pick up a feed from any of the monitors in the main area along with all the standard office equipment. It hadn’t, however, been feng shui’ed, Jordon being a bit busy these days.

Laz knocked and led her into the inner office where Trevor was flipping though stacks of paper, clearly looking for something, a phone trapped between his ear and his shoulder and a cup of tea growing cold on the desk.

Trecor glanced up and waved them on in. To the phone he said, "Do forgive me, but we're still organizing here. I'll call you back with the final list, Cassidy."  A pause, then "Yes, fine. Cheers."  Trevor put the phone down and sighed.

He stood. "Natha, I believe?"

"Yes, that's right," she said as she shook his hand.

"Please, sit."  His invitation clearly included the both of them.

"Natha, as Laz has suggested you for the position, your qualifications are a given. I suppose the real question is, will you be happy stuck here, and even more so will you mind terribly dragging a normal, if slightly magical, fellow from place to place?'

"I'm given to understand that I'd hardly be stuck, since we'd be working here and at Ocala which would also mean some autonomy of action?"  Her intonation made it a question.

"Yes, to both questions. As you know already, we plan to keep the existence of the monitors as quiet as possible. So I'm planning to obfuscate the numbers and assignments of the security teams to the operations centre. Cassidy and Jordon will know the rota but no one else over there.  The monitors will be put in place before the ops teams are dispatched. Security teams will be on site, ideally also. And of course we'll have at least one backup team ready to go at a moment's notice. Just keeping track of all that is challenge enough, without adding the fact that we are providing protection for each of the major personnel who must leave the safety of the refuge. As I'm not particularly brilliant, I'll need help, a lot of it, to keep all that working smoothly, not to mention someone I can trust to make split second decisions regarding emergencies or sudden alterations to plans.

"My management style is pretty casual. I do however expect anyone I work with to be honest, blunt when needed, and innovative. I take criticism well, and do my best to accommodate each person's preferences, although I confess I hate paperwork, and will insist that everyone do their fair share of that.  At least until we can dragoon someone who likes it to do it.

"Comments?  Questions?" He added, as he picked up his cup of tea. He made a face when he realized it was cold.

She blinked at him.  "Well that was both comprehensive and blunt.  So let me try to to be equally frank...I prefer to multitask, dislike boredom and enjoy challenges.  I work best without micromanagement, and will get you tea if I have to but would rather not go there.  I learn fast and am impatient with both fools and anything that smacks of it's not my job.  If I err in any direction it's that I tend to take too much initiative and not to little, since if it needs doing I'm unlikely to wait for someone to cut me a set of orders.  I have no interest in jockeying for position, will not involve myself in office politics or power plays.  I have little to no diplomatic ability and tend to speak my mind.  So, if you can deal with that, then I expect we might work well together."

Trevor's lips twitched. "I worked for Interpol. You've no idea how much diplomacy that involved. I hated it but can do it when necessary. If you can blackmail Stephen or whomever into opening a Starbuck's equivalent establishment in the Refuge, I'd be eternally grateful and that will nicely take care of my caffeine needs, and I'll even order yours if you like.  And, quite frankly, I prefer too much initiative to to little. As they say, easier to say sorry than ask permission. If you take a misstep, I'll back you up. If I'm about to take a misstep, or already have, I expect you to tell me, in no uncertain terms.

"It has been my experience that not telling leads to the sort of situations I despise. I'll keep you as fully informed as I can and will expect the same.  And I'm told Tabitha has plans for a coffee bar in the dining room having already heard from a number of the new teams they expect 24 hour food and beverage service.  I am also told she did not take it well."  She tried, but didn't manage to keep the grin off her face at the memory of the encounter.

Trevor ginned, picturing the scene with Tabitha. "I do believe we have an accord, Ms Carvahlo. You will please call me Trevor, or Trev if you must. I've come to appreciate the modern need for nicknames. I also respond to Bloody Hell, and Hey You.."  He held out his hand to her again. "An accord, so long as it is mutually pleasing?"

"I do believe we have a pact." she answered, grasping his hand.

She was about to say something else when Dinah poked her head in the door.  "May I interrupt for a moment?"

"One second," he said to Dinah. "Yes, Natha?"

"I was going to ask if you wanted a fresh cuppa to seal the deal?"

Trevor grinned. "Only if you plan on getting yourself one. Otherwise, I'll be fine."  He waved Dinah on in. "And what can we do for you, Ms McNeill?'

"Please, call me Dinah.  I wanted to let you know that I'm going to need to spend a couple of days at home.  Some things have come up.  I'll be leaving Saturday morning and back on Wednesday morning I think.  I don't know how you want to handle the...er...need for an escort?"

Trevor frowned as he thought. "Yes, we'll arrange for someone to accompany you. Low key."  Trevor flicked a glance toward where Laz had sat silent through all of this.

Laz considered her and her mood.  "Ideally, I think, it might be best, given the traffic there on a holiday weekend, to send two people with her, Trevor.  Perhaps Paul, now that Marc's back and maybe Chance.  They both can blend in with the tourist crowd and you know them Dinah, so it'll make it easier, perhaps to deal with having them around?"

She allowed as that would be better, though her tone made it clear she was only doing this because she had to.

Trevor added, "I'm dreadfully sorry for the burden, Dinah, but given recent circumstances, it looks as if things might be even more dangerous than we thought."

She sighed.  "I know and I'm sorry.  I just hate....well," she shrugged.  "At least they'll get a weekend at the beach.  You want me to just talk to Paul about the arrangements? Or do you need to speak with him first?"

"Feel free to break the news. I hear there's to be a clam bake. Lucky devil. More fun than he had on Home."

She snorted.  "It remains to be seen what Julian comes up with to enliven things.  If I go anywhere else do you need to an itinerary?"

"No, Paul will keep in touch. Good luck with Julian," Trevor added, with a grin.. "I first met him in India, when I was stationed there. He was no easier to deal with back then, and he's done his best to make my life miserable ever since."

"Well the guests are enjoying his antics and I'm getting some renovations out of him, so I suppose I can't complain.  Thanks for making this easy for me.  I'll try to make it easy for Paul and Chance."

"Thanks for understanding, Dinah. Give my love to Mabel."

She nodded and left.

Laz watched her go thoughtfully.  "Our Dinah is most definitely not her usual feisty self.  She's gonna be looking to blow her stack somehow before the weekend's over, mark my words."

-------------------

Reno tippytoed through the Infirmary, Jordon beside him walking quite normally. "It's completely irrational, you know," Jordon said in a normal voice.

"Shhh," Reno hissed.  "She does!"

"Tabitha likes you quite well. How else to explain how she personally fetches you special breakfasts."

"It's Marc," Reno explained. "She's trying to get on his good side. Me, she'd squash like a bug."

"Is that a fact," Tabitha said as she suddenly confronted Reno from out of nowhere. He jumped.

"Oh, hi. How ya doin'?" he asked, suddenly sounding 13.

"He's that way," Tabitha said with a nod toward a room.

"Oh right. Thanks," Reno said.

Jordon shook his head. "Why does she terrify you so much?" Jordon asked interestedly. Given that Reno had no problems with Marc, it was rather odd, Jordon thought.

"She's my Aunt Agatha come back to life," Reno explained.

"Ah. I see."  Jordon replied. Actually he didn't, but he wasn't at all sure he wanted to see.

Then they were walking through the open door into Tommy's room.

Tommy, looking a bit pale, grinned his usual grin. "Did you get it?" he asked.

"Shhh," Reno said and scooted back to the door, flicking it closed.

"Here," Reno said, slipping Tommy his note book and a pen.

"They may let me go tomorrow, but I wanted to get a head start." Tommy was happily noting down all the things that had occurred to him during his many moments of enforced idleness.  "So what's up?" he asked as he scratched away.

"There's a new minion," Jordon remarked.

Tommy looked up. Given the funereal overtones, not surprising.

"It's a she," Reno explained.

"Uhm..." was all Tommy could think to reply.

"Natha," Jordon added, even more funereally.

"But...." Tommy started.

"Exactly," Jordon and Reno replied in unison.

"But...but who?  How?"  Tommy stammered.  "What are we gonna do?"

"Disband?" Reno thought out loud.

"Rather drastic, isn't it?" Jordon replied.

The three of them thought and thought. "Well," Reno finally offered, "It's not like she's a _real_ girl. I mean, she's unlikely to leave lipstick lying around the clubhouse."

"What clubhouse?" Tommy and Jordon said in chorus.

"Yeah, there is that..." Reno moaned.

"But wait, wasn't Cal going to take care of the clubhouse for us?"  Tommy asked, his attention fixed on that point.

Jordon, however had moved on.  "Whaddya mean, not like a real girl?" he demanded.  "She looks like a real girl to me!"

"Well, true the curves are there," Reno conceded.

"And quite nice ones," Jordon added, glaring at Reno.

"Are they?" Reno was trying to get it through his head that they were even there at this point. Natha's Xena Warrior Princess persona was rather getting in his way.

"I suppose we'll have to admit her to the IBMs,"  Tommy concluded.

"Yeah," Reno conceded giving Jordon a speculative glance.

"What if she doesn't want to?" Tommy asked.  "She might not understand, being a girl."

Jordon shook his head.  "I think she'll understand.  I think it's possible she'll understand too well, if you ask me," he finished darkly.

"Okay, well, we'll wait for tomorrow to officially invite her. Then all three of us can do it together," Reno concluded. Then he added, "Unless you'd like to do it all by yourself, Jordon?"

"Why would I wanna do a thing like that?" he demanded, indignant at the idea.

Reno grinned. "Never mind. Okay, tomorrow it is."

---------------------------

Tommy looked around his office and heaved a sigh of relief.  Not only was it good to be back, Stephen hadn't changed anything while he was gone.  He took his seat and started wading happily into the piles of paper.  He didn't look up again until Jordon and Reno arrived.  "Hey, guys, what's up?  Is it lunchtime?"

"We thought we'd go invite Natha."

"Oh," Tommy said then added, "I've got a lot of catching up to do, so.."

"You aren't getting out of this. It's gotta be all of us or she'll feel like it's not a real welcome," Reno replied. "Get up. Come on."

Tommy reluctantly arose and dragging his feet followed Reno and Jordon. Tommy wondered just what had made Reno more open to this. He frowned as he thought about it.

Then Jordon was knocking on the open door that led through Natha's office to Trevor's.  The old infirmary looked nothing like it used to. But then Natha didn't look a thing like a healer.

Natha looked up as the three of them slunk into her office...the only word that came to mind to describe their entrance.  She looked them over and then raised her eyebrows, "So what can we do for you guys?  Collecting for the high school band, maybe?"

Tommy shuffled his feet and glued his eyes to the floor, causing her lips to twitch.  Reno said, "uhm...well..." and got stuck.  It was left to Jordon to save them all.

"We came by to congratulate you...on your new job.  As a minion."

"Thank you," she said.  "From one minion to another that means a lot."

Jordon, Reno noticed, beamed out of all proportion to the compliment. "And," he continued, poking Jordon in the side.

Jordon jumped and went on, "And we want to tender a formal offer of membership in the International Brotherhood of Minions or as we like to think of it,  I Be Minion's, a sort of unofficial union.  Right, guys?"

Tommy nodded and tried to lift his eyes from the floor, failing lamentably, causing Natha to have to bite her lip to keep from laughing.  "Right," he managed to get out, in a cross between a whisper and a real voice. Reno just grinned.

Natha nodded, treasuring every second of this.  "And, er...what benefits does membership confer?"

"Uhm, benefits?" Tommy asked, now no way he'd get those eyes unstuck.

Reno, sounding quite normal, to Tommy's shock, replied, "You get to design the clubhouse!  Jordon will help. He's into feng shui."

Natha nodded again, giving the matter some thought.  "Well, it does sound delightful, but I'm not sure I qualify.  I'm not a brother."

All three brothers frowned in concentration. It looked painful to Natha.

Jordon took refuge in a large smile.  "Well, that's just the name.  It doesn't mean anything."  He thought again, hard.  "And we can change it if you'd like...to maybe something like..."  and he ground to a halt, his eyes pleading with Reno for help.

"Uhm," Reno frowned harder, "International B... Buh buh..."

Natha decided, uncharacteristically to take pity on them. "Band?" she suggested.

"Yeah! Oh yeah!  Band," Reno enthused. "International Band of Minions. Let's see, me on the piano, Tommy on the flute, Jordon on the, uhm, guitar, and you on percussion."

Natha grinned back at Reno.  "So, uhm, now that we've gotten the name settled, and as long as you understand I don't cook, clean or do laundry, what do I have to do to accept this one of a kind offer?  Do we seal the deal with spit or will a simple yes work?...unless there's an initiation period?"  She added the last as if she'd been suddenly struck by a horrible thought.

"Uh... Uhm.." the boy minions were once again struck dumb. Natha wondered what had rotted out their brains.

"A simple yes," Jordon finally offered. "Initiation enough working for these guys."