Page 6 of Tooth and Nail

“What’s this?”

She sat back in her chair and smiled before looking over at Eoghan, nodding to him. Brown turned and looked at him. Eoghan pointed a finger at the box in his hand as he opened it, revealing a set of silvery DVDs. “That’s all four seasons ofTorchwood.”

“Torchwood…as in theDr. Whospin-off?” Brown asked with a laugh. He held up the box. “Okay, now I know you’re shitting me.”

Eoghan grinned as he shook his head. “No, man, that’s your homework.”

“My…homework?” he asked, dragging his eyes away from Eoghan and looking directly at the chief.

“Pay close attention to the first season,” Priest said. “A lot of what you need to know regarding alien objects is true. Anything that isn’t, Eoghan will fill in for you.”

“How could it be true? It’s a TV program,” Brown asked, sounding incredulous.

“One of the staff writers forTorchwoodwas an alien…in fact, the staff writingDr. Whois alien as well. Of course, their head writer trades off as frequently as they change the doctor but the BBCdoeslike variety.” She grinned and abruptly stood up.

He and Eoghan stood as well.

“Sapphire is going to take you on a little tour of the facility, and he’ll show you how to get in and out.” She bent and reached into her desk before pulling out a holographic card with his picture on it, handing it to him. “You’re to keep this with you at all times. If you lose it, you need to notify us immediately. I don’t care if it’s three in the morning…security gets a call. That card is your way into this facility and your way out. It’s your lifeline in case you ever get into trouble. Go with Sapphire and he’ll get you fixed up with some weapons. You won’t be using typical government issue weapons anymore. They won’t work with what we’re up against. Questions?”

“Tons of them, Chief Deputy Priest.”

“Good.” She looked at Eoghan. “Answer all of them, Sapphire. Go on. Get out of here now. I have work to do.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” Brown turned and looked over at him. He looked slightly shell-shocked as he tucked the box with the DVDs into his suit jacket. “What’s first?”

“Coffee,” Eoghan replied as he turned them toward the door. “I really hope you’re a coffee drinker.”

“I am,” Brown said as they reached the door. It slid open on its own. They stepped out into the hallway.

“A friend of mine brought some coffee back to me from a distant star system,” Eoghan said.

Brown’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Eoghan laughed. “No, man…I live on Starbucks,” he said, “but I had you going.”

Brown chuckled and Eoghan was forced to smile at the sound and the way it made him feel. Maybe having Aristotle Brown as a partner wasn’t going to be too terrible after all.

Chapter Two

As Eoghan led Brown back to the coffee room near the front of the offices, he couldn’t help but throw him a glance every now and then. The man walked beside him with long-legged strides, looking every bit as handsome as he had in his photo. Eoghan wasn’t exactly a little guy, at five ten, but Brown towered over him. He wasn’t bulky like so many body builders Eoghan saw at the gym, when he got a chance to visit one outside of work hours. Instead, this guy was well proportioned and probably didn’t sport an ounce of extra fat underneath his clothes. Though, Eoghan doubted he’d ever get the chance to see him without them.

What am I thinking?

He knew he shouldn’t even be checking his new partner out. He’d never dated anyone he worked with directly and had promised himself he never would. In the I.S.R. they didn’t exactly have rules spelled out about that, but it was implied that unit employees were to follow U.S. Marshals Service guidelines which included a no-fraternization policy. If partners were caught together, they might very well be transferred out of the office to another out of state or even internationally. Hell, they might even be bounced back to the civilian marshals.

Even looking at Aristotle in any other way than totally professional, was a no go and he knew it. He decided he was simply hard up. It’d been more than a year since he’d slept with a man…prior to Glad’s death. He hadn’t had the heart for it. Grief had a way of doing that to a person and frankly, hejust hadn’t felt like making the effort to jump back into his sex life. It wasn’t like it had ever been off the charts, blow your mind, exciting anyway. After college where he’d had his one and only boyfriend, he’d joined the military and settled for the occasional hookup while on leave. He decided then and there he’d have to end his life of celibacy. Maybe a hard fuck was what he needed to stop looking at him in any other way than as a colleague.

“How many people work here?”

“Sorry?” Eoghan turned to look at Brown as they reached the door to the employee lounge. “Oh, people?”

Brown’s hazel eyes twinkled as they stepped into the small room. “Yeah, people…unless you have something else working the keyboards at all those desks out there.”

Eoghan chuckled as he reached for the coffeepot and pulled two mugs out of the cabinet, setting them on the counter’s smooth surface. He filled both cups before handing one to Brown. “We have about seventy in this building on all floors and everyone out there is human. We have a couple of employees who are half-breeds and even get an occasional visitor from a paranormal clan or one from an alien world. But we only allow the ones we partner with regularly here inside. Those have all been checked and double checked thoroughly. They’ve all worked with us for a long time and have history with the marshals in this office.

“As the chief told you, we do a lot of fugitive recovery and then release those subjects back to the authorities from those populations, but we don’t trust all of them to come and hang out here. We’re careful. We all want to survive and keep the integrity of the I.S.R. at all times. It’s policy to err on the side of extreme caution…always. And everyone who’s not a marshal or support personnel gets an escort who stays with them the whole time they’re here.”

Eoghan wondered why he’d just word vomited all over the place. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt comfortable enough with anyone and it was strange since he’d known the man less than an hour. He took a deep sip of his coffee and watched Ari do the same. Brown’s light eyes rolled back into his head as he actually moaned. Eoghan smiled behind his mug as he let the scent of fresh coffee fill his nostrils before taking another sip of his own. It tasted fine, like normal coffee to him, nothing special. Clearly, he was going to have to make sure his new partner had a dedicated cup holder in their vehicle.

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