Three Heads are Better than One (Or So They Say)
--Revivial Bar, 2100hrs --
“Pipes!”
“Aves!”
Piper and Ava rushed forward to hug each other as soon as Ava and Beatrice stepped into the alcove.
“Always so dramatic those two, you’d think they haven’t seen each other in forever and not two weeks.”
Alex rolled her eyes and commented to Beatrice who chuckled in response as they exchanged their own more muted greetings.
“Good to see you Young.”
“Of all things that you and Lilith influenced each other, this is by far the most annoying bit. Vause.”
Beatrice laughed and returned Alex’s hug.
“What am I? Chopped liver?”
Ava complained as Beatrice went to greet Piper.
“I’m sorry, is someone saying something? I cannot really see who it is.”
Ava swatted Alex.
“Meanie.”
“Childish.”
“Children!”
Alex and Ava gulped as Piper thundered behind them while Beatrice laughed out loud.
“Hi Al, I missed you. Even if you’re a meanie idiot.”
“Hi Ava, I missed you too. Even if you’re just an idiot.”
They laughed and hugged each other before Alex and Piper walked with them to their usual booth.
“Cam called to say they are running late and Beca sent her regards. She and Chloe are a little tied up tonight to make it for dinner.”
“Becs and Chlo? Isn’t Becs touring Europe now?”
“Facetime idiot, Facetime. Becs said she might be able to make a short call somewhere in between her soundchecks before tomorrow’s performance.”
“Why the sudden call? I mean, not that I’m not stoked that they are calling but they have been so so so busy with this world tour of hers.”
“Did you think you can make dozen of people cry in the office and we would not know?”
“….”
“Alright, who told you?”
“Cam.”
“Lilith.”
Alex and Piper chimed in unison before looking at each other.
“Lilith?! Pipes, Lilith??”
“Aves, why are you so shocked? Lilith said and I quote, you and Ava are scarily alike and are practically twins. Except maybe you are less of an idiot than she is. Alex did marry you. Btu then again, Beatrice married Ava. So the bar is non-existent. But, I digress. You and her are two peas in a pod so I need your help in dealing with this. Ava has made 10 people cry so far and is well on her way to making it a dozen. Something needs to be done.”
“That….is a long quote. Can’t you just quote the important part?”
“They are all important!”
“What is so important that we are talking about here?”
“Cammie~!”
Ava jumped up and hugged Camila.
“Devil.”
“Idiot. Young, Vause, Piper.”
“Why does everyone get a variation of their name while I get idiot?”
“That is because that IS your name.”
“Mean! Cammieeeeeeee”
“Lilith.”
“Fine.”
Lilith looked at Ava.
“Silva.”
“Yes!!! I got last named!!”
Ava crowed.
“This is dumb.”
Lilith rolled her eyes and slid into the booth after Camila.
“So what is the plan here?”
“Food, drinks, come up with a plan to dump John Vincent on Vincent?”
Piper replied, looking around the table for confirmation.
“JV on V!”
“Ava, no.”
The table roared back in unison.
“Jesus, everyone is a critic.”
“Love, just no. That gives scarring mental images. Just. No.”
With the food consumed and more than a couple of drinks in each of them, the group settled in, readying themselves for a long night of discussion.
“We have like 5 brilliant minds here plus pure chaos. I’m sure we can figure something out between us.”
Camila looked around, optimistic that they would be able to figure something out soon and get Ava out of this mess.
The night dragged on. Somewhere along the way, Alex rolled in a whiteboard and began writing out all the ideas they had thus far but have vetoed.
Whoever said three heads are better than one needs to rethink their statement.
Alex surveyed the chaos that was their table.
“I told you, when you said yes, that you needed luck to deal with this one.”
Alex jabbed the marker in Ava’s direction.
“I’m the lucky one you said. Do you feel very lucky now?”
“Lucky that the chaos has not hit me?”
Alex shot Beatrice an unimpressed look.
“Just looking on the brighter side Vause.”
Beatrice smiled fondly at Ava who was trying very hard to get her point across.
The night had devolved spectacularly. Once the whiteboard was wheeled out, Alex began noting down the suggestions the group had thrown out in hopes of solving their collective annoyance. What began as an, in Ava’s words, Operation Dump John Vincent on Vincent (she was still workshopping the name) had somehow became Operation Get Rid of John Vincent, Vincent and Adriel without Adriel being a Wanker.
Naming things obviously wasn’t their day job.
Alex snorted at that thought. The names given to each operation were trying to outdo each other in terms of being convoluted and a mouthful.
The persistent vibration of her phone broke her concentration on the chaos at hand. Gesturing to Beatrice that she was going to step out to take a call, she handed the marker over.
I couldn’t have been gone THAT long.
Alex surveyed the shot glasses that littered the table. During the short phone call, Piper (Alex was dead sure it was Piper, or maybe Ava, or that Ava wheedled Piper into it), the table had taken and consumed an entire bottle of tequila from the bar. Most of which, Alex was sure, appears to be consumed by the combined efforts of Camila, Ava and Piper. Beatrice’s attempts to remove the shot glass were evident in that there were small amounts of tequila spilled on the table.
Alex pinched the bridge of her nose and looked at their board. The large fonts she used had been followed by Beatrice’s smaller ones and the fonts were decreasing in size. Alex took a quick read through at what was written and knew that they were definitely not going to get anywhere tonight. The chaos wrought by Piper and Ava together was something Alex was used to. She knew what to expect and how to clean up the mess. What was unexpected was Camila’s influence on the chaotic duo. Sweet innocent Camila who had Lilith wrapped around her finger was a chaos mastermind with the singular focus of watching the world burn as she exacted vengeance on those who have wronged her people. Unsurprisingly, Lilith had been completely and utterly useless in stopping or reining in Camila’s wilder, more outlandish idea.
God help us if she gets her hands on a laptop right now.
Alex found herself uncharacteristically praying.
“Oh!! Guys! Why are we writing things down when we can TYPE them! Look what I brought!!”
Camila giddily announced, high off the amount of tequila she drank.
“Lily baby, can you please grab my bag for me?”
Lilith looked at Alex helplessly as the latter shook her head.
“Cammie….”
Lilith’s voice sounded weak even to herself. She kicked herself for being such a pushover when it came to Camila.
Alex glared at her. They were now on the precipice and one step away from Camila hacking any and every system that takes her fancy.
“Cammmmmmmmm”
Ava crashed into Camila’s side.
“I have got an idea!!”
Alex heaved a sigh of relief at Ava’s unexpected but timely diversion of Camila’s attention.
“You suck.”
She mouthed to Lilith in an effort not to call any attention to the fact that none of them had handed Camila her laptop. Lilith looked at Alex helplessly.
“Young, I never thought I would say this but, de Almeida is more whipped than you are.”
Lilith’s eyes sparkled with annoyance when she heard that but did nothing to refute the statement. Camila had her well and truly wrapped around her finger.
“It is about time we broke this party up. This whole brainstorming session was going nowhere even before tequila got involved.”
Beatrice motioned to Alex to grab a hold of a swaying Piper who was trying to sneakily make her way to the bar for another bottle of tequila.
“Damnit. Sorry Aves, I got caught.”
Piper’s voice came out muffled from the fireman’s hold Alex had her in.
Now that is efficient.
Beatrice looked on as Alex swatted Piper’s wriggling form on her shoulder.
“I will drop you Pipes and you are not going to like it.”
At Alex’s threat, the wriggling stopped and Piper began to feel the effects of all the tequila she drank.
“I’m tired Al. Could you put me down?”
“Promise to behave?”
Piper nodded and Alex set her down in her chair.
Piper looked around the table to see Beatrice trying, with moderate success, to get Ava to drink water while Camila was sprawled on the table, close to passing out.
“Time to go home?”
Piper asked Alex with a lazy smile.
Alex looked at her wife fondly.
Stupid blondie with that stupid smile.
“Yeah, time to go home.”
Alex kissed Piper on her forehead before trying to get Beatrice’s and Lilith’s attention as the pair was trying to clean up the mess Ava and Camila made whilst keeping an eye on them.
“We will get the crew to get this tomorrow. As much as I hate to leave it overnight we are obviously in no shape to deal with this mess right now.”
Alex gestured to the pair to cease their efforts and to gather their respective drunks.
“I guess it is now up to us to figure something out that is actually feasible and deployable.”
Alex pointed to the three of them.
“I would say I’m surprised by Camila but who am I kidding, Camila lives for such chaos. You -”
Alex poked Lilith in her shoulder.
“Keep the laptop far away from Camila the next time we go drinking. We got lucky tonight. The last time I had to stage a big distraction to stop her from hacking the DoD.”
Lilith stared at Alex quizzically.
“Hack the DoD? When? Why?”
“In her own words? She was bored and just because she can.”
They looked over to see Beatrice scooping up a sleeping Ava.
“Trust Young to be showing off at a time like this.”
Lilith muttered under her breath whilst putting Camila’s arm over her shoulder.
“Wow, didn’t know you were such an environmentalist de Almeida. Green is TOTALLY your color.”
Alex snickered next to her as Piper struggled to remain on her feet without swaying. Lilith glared at Alex but softened at the sight of Ava burrowing deeper into Beatrice’s hold on her.
“Some days when I look at the both of them, I’m still amazed that Ava managed to land Beatrice. And some days I wonder how the hell Beatrice managed to get someone like Ava.”
“I know that feeling. But in quiet moments like these, you cannot help but feel like the both of them are inevitable and they belong with each other.”
“What are you both going on about?”
Beatrice walked up to the group, looking first at Lilith then at Alex. It had taken her longer than she had expected to get Ava situated.
“De Almeida here is an environmentalist did you know?”
Alex drawled while looping her arm over Piper’s shoulders, pulling the other woman close.
“Are you planing on moving to Environmental and Sustainability?”
Beatrice quirked an eyebrow in Lilith’s direction.
“That is not a bad move. All signs point to that trend and Suzanne has been thinking of growing the team there.”
Lilith spluttered.
This is a leap. How did Beatrice get there? I would never understand her brain.
“Ignore Alex, she is being annoying.”
Lilith eventually settled on that retort.
“Brunch on Sunday?”
She looked at both Beatrice and Alex.
“Shouldn’t it be….”
Beatrice looked down at the sleeping woman in her arms, cutting herself off.
“What am I talking about. They will never make it tomorrow. Sunday it is. Same place same time?”
The other two nodded and as one, they made their way to the back entrance. Alex dumped Piper on Lilith as she pulled out her keys to lock the door.
“Now I have got to get a picture of this.”
Alex dug her phone out of her pocket after dropping the keys in Piper’s bag. The sight of Lilith standing as still as a statue with Piper and Camila hanging off both sides of her was absolutely comical.
“Alright, let’s go.”
They went their separate ways after Alex snapped the photo and took Piper back from Lilith.
“Send me that?”
Beatrice called as they parted.
“Do you even need to ask? Everyone should see that photo. Ciao~”
Alex wound down the window and retorted before driving off.