Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

 

It had been four and a half hours since the Texan had received the phone call. Four hours, a fifty mile drive,  three aspirin and a long series of paper work.  Bleary eyed and frustrated, he was now on the question portion of the bail out process, as he repeatedly assured the cop that yes, he really did want to release these blockheads from jail. Yes, all eight of them, yes even that one, and that other one.  Yes, he knew the consequences.  No really, he knew. The cop glared at him and finally, reluctantly handed over the last form to sign and disappeared to make him wait for another half hour.  He fidgeted, trying to make himself comfortable on the hard wood bench. He really should have ignored the phone call and gone to bed. Or at least had some breakfast or coffee. It wasn't like any of them were going anywhere.

This was not the first time the Engineer found himself having  to bail any of the team out of jail. Though having to bail all of them out was a first. At least RED had a procedure to handle it; there was a budget set aside for bail and a number to call and have Pauling handle any other complications like trials or sentencing. As long as they didn't exceed the budget or fail to show up for a skirmish, the company didn't seem to mind. The local police however did mind. They got more and more agitated each time RED paid off all the bails and fines, sweeping their employee's indiscretions under the rug with threats and greased palms. 

The Texan had somehow managed to ignore the complaints of his sore joints and was just starting to doze off when he heard a clamor of footsteps and arguing up the hall. The jailbirds had been released. Grudgingly he got up from the bench as his team mates entered the room, with multiple police officers behind them ready to re-arrest them if they did anything stupid. Anything. The Texan felt  his headache starting to return as the room echoed the sound of everyone talking at once.

"Alright-" he started to talk but no one heard him.

"-'m telling ya, this is the stupidest-"

"-ja ja -"

"-dissapointing-"

"finally out of there, took long-"

"-if ye had listened to me we could have-"

The Texan rubbed his eyes, his patience had long gone thin "ALRIGHT!"  he bellowed over the chaos. The room went silent as the mercenaries finally seemed to notice him. Some of them were giving him odd looks but he was too tired to care. "Alright...now anyone want to tell me what exactly happened?"

The room exploded again.

"Schweinhunds! begann auf die schlagenden-"

"-we finally get to the frickin' place after his stupid van breaks!"

"Not sure what happened, she hasn't broken down sin-"

"we were late and these imbeciles-"

"-THEY SHOULD HAVE-"

"'m not the one who-"

"hudduh hurm huh!-"

"-hell , couldn' leave the bleedin' -"

"like babies-"

He really shouldn't have asked, he thought to himself massaging his temples.  That had been his mistake. All the blows to the head, the exhaustion, it was  bound to make him do something stupid.

"Forget I asked." he said turning to walk away. He had done his part. Technically he was supposed to make sure they didn't go do something else unlawful, he just didn't have the energy to care. He'd go find some breakfast and sleep.

"Truckie!" the Sniper called quickly catching up with the Texan.  "thanks for bailing us out."

"Weren't nothin" he said reflexively.  

"Never thought we was gonna get out of there! Was startin' to get a bit stir crazy."

The Texan grunted a reply, unable to think of anything much to say.

"Say...Truckie...you going somewhere?"

"Hunh? "

"Dressed like that...Thought you might be going somewhere."

Dressed like...he froze in his tracks. Catching a glimpse of his reflection in a nearby window he realized in horror that he hadn't changed out of the suit.

After a moment's hesitation he spoke, "No...no...I...uh...already went."