ROUND ROBIN: Steele Trying to Get
it Right Part 5
Date: Friday, August 30, 2002
Posting this for Cindy...
Steele Trying to Get it Right 5/?
by Cindy
Editor's note: This story is not part
of Debra Talley's "Brendan Universe" series of RS fanfic.
Trevor was in the Steele's house again. He started with the bedroom
this
time since he hadn't gotten a chance to search it before. When
he heard
someone enter, he froze as he looked over at the bedroom door.
He
started for the closet when he heard,
"Young Blood?"
Trevor came out of the bedroom, "Jesus! What the hell are
you doing
here?" Trevor descended the stairs.
"Mr. Hapgood has had a change of plans Young Blood."
"Stop calling me that! Every time you call me that all I
can think of is
that crappy remake of that song that Bruce Willis did." Robbie
chuckled.
"C'mon." Robbie let Trevor leave first and he made sure
the door was
secure behind them.
Hapgood was sitting in his study talking over his options with
a 'new'
operative. Robbie had been with Hapgood for over five years and
had
never seen this man before.
"Hapgood, how you've managed to screw this up, I'll never
know." The
stranger took a drink of his two finger scotch.
"Me? I screwed it up? You can stay in your dream world as
long as you
want as far as I'm concerned!" His voice was up about 30
decibel
levels.
"Calm down! It's still salvageable. I just had to get more
creative. You
need to be a little more careful about who you assign to these
jobs.
Robbie's good, but the new kid? He's strictly amateur. We can't
risk
it."
"What do you propose?"
"I'm taking over. I'm calling the shots. Trevor's out, and
I'm in."
Hapgood knew that Trevor was incompetent but he was family. He
had to a
least give him a chance to fail. He wouldn't ice him, anyone else
he
would have, but he was his sister's kid after all. If they needed
a
patsy, he would take that role. With that thought, Hapgood laughed
quietly to himself.
Remington had quietly taken his son from a sleeping Laura and
sat back
down to marvel at him. He was incredibly happy to be a father.
He had
loved Laura for a long time now and their marriage, while pleasant,
hadn't always been laden with streets of gold. Brendan wasn't
planned,
but he certainly wasn't a mistake. Early in their marriage, they
had
decided that they would use birth control until they had both
wanted a
family. Laura had taken that upon herself. The Pill was fine for
the
most part, but she had a lengthy discussion with her gynecologist
and
they decided that her body needed a break. Neither her or Remington
were fans of condoms so they decided, that again, Laura would
handle
the details. It was her body afterall.
Their ardor for each other hadn't cooled any and when one of them
started the passion ball rolling, so to speak, the other was completely
helpless. So they had several close calls and vowed that they
wouldn't
play that type of Russian roulette again. Yeah, fat chance. Laura
had
tried to keep her head on her shoulders and point out to him that
they
were treading dangerous waters again, but he didn't care. He had
decided he was ready to be a father and she hadn't shied away
from
their talks about expanding their family. Plus, once he got to
that
spot on her neck, all her words were for naught. Let the chips
fall
where they may.
Now they had this happy bundle of joy to share their love. Remington
held him and marveled at all his little fingers and all his little
toes. He was beautiful. And he was theirs. A product of their
love. The
ultimate commitment. Remington turned slightly when he heard the
door
to Laura's room open.
"Mr. Steele?"
"Ah, good morning Mark." He greeted Laura's nurse.
"It's time for Brendan's bath." Mark extended his arms
to take the
sleeping newborn. Remington handed him over gently after placing
a
small kiss on the boy's forehead. "After his bath he'll be
in the
nursery so you two can recuperate in peace some. Dr. Kendall will
be in
later." He took Brendan and left the room. Remington got
up and walked
over to Laura and bent down to place a light kiss on her lips.
She
stirred some. He decided that he would crawl in beside her, there
was
barely enough room but he fit and drew Laura close. A few minutes
later
she woke.
"Morning Mummy."
"Morning Daddy." She turned her head to return his earlier
kiss.
"How are you feeling?"
"Tired."
"I can imagine. Why don't you rest some more. Mark just took
Brendan for
his bath. I'm going to run home to change. I'll be back before
Dr.
Kendall comes to see you." Laura was almost back asleep again.
"Mmmm" was all she could muster. Remington quietly moved
off the bed,
kissed her again, and left her room.
Robbie and Trevor entered Hapgood's study and were greeted by
Hapgood's
new man. "Robbie, Trevor, have a seat please."
"Where's Mr. Hapgood?" Trevor was a bit nervous.
"He'll be back shortly. Can I get either of you a drink?"
he poured
himself more scotch. Trevor shook his head no.
"Little early for me."
"Me too." Trevor was still pissed about his middle of
the night wake-up
call. The stranger sat down.
"You're probably wondering why we scrapped your latest task,
Trevor."
"Something like that."
"Honestly? You were screwing up too bad. I have little patience
for
incompetence. So we had to change strategies. You see, Steele's
too
smart to leave anything of value laying around his house. Especially
what we were looking for."
"What are you getting at? What I don't understand is why
you guys made
up a story about someone breaking into the warehouse. Why hire
a dick
to investigate something that never happened?"
"You ask too many questions, Trevor. You are paid to do,
not think.
Understand?" Trevor held a little resentment towards this
characters
attitude. He was Hapgood's nephew after all, shouldn't that gain
him
some respect?
He managed a disgruntled, "yeah, I got it." just as
Hapgood came back
into the study.
"I see we're all here. Good. Now we can start. As you two
now know we
have had a change in plans. In order to finish Steele off once
and for
all, we need to go for the jugular."
"What's the plan boss?" Robbie was curious.
"Ah, a simple one indeed. It will all be orchestrated by
new associate
here." He glanced at Robbie and Trevor and made the introductions.
"Robbie, Trevor, I 'd like for you to meet the best man in
the business
for this type of job, Mr. Tony Roselli."
It was still early and the nursing staff was preparing for shift
change.
A messenger with balloons and flowers stepped off the elevator
and
continued down the hall. He passed the nurses station and the
night
shift was giving the morning shift their hand offs for the day.
All
were occupied. He continued down the hall and made a right down
a short
corridor. At the end of that hall was the nursery where the babies
were
sometimes kept. Today there were three. Two wrapped in pink blankets
and one in blue. A card with B. Steele was written on the back
of the
bassinette. The man quietly slipped into the nearest room and
put the
balloons and flowers down. He stuck his head back in the hall
and saw
no one. He deftly opened the nursery door, crept in, double checked
the
newborn's bracelet for conformation and quietly crept back out
with
him, still sleeping and bundled in his blanket. He was down the
hall
and out the emergency exit that lead to the stairwell long before
anyone noticed anything amiss.
Remington had returned to the hospital as quickly as he could
to find
Laura still sleeping. He kissed her until she awoke. "Rise
and shine
sleepyhead." She yawned and slowly opened her eyes.
"Is Brendan back yet?" He sat on the edge of her bed
and leaned towards
her, taking her hand in his.
"Not yet, love. Shortly I would think." He kissed her
hand. She was
fully awake now and pushed herself up to sit higher in the bed.
"I feel like a truck hit me."
"The joys of being a woman, eh?" She smiled. She was
about to speak when
there was a knock at her door. "Come in." It was Dr.
Kendall and a man
in an inferior suit. "Ah, good morning Dr. Kendall."
Remington got up to
shake his hand. He noticed that the doctor wasn't quite as happy
to see
him as he would have thought.
"Is something wrong?" Laura's motherly instinct, now
infallible, kicked
in. She sat upright. It was hard for Dr. Kendall to speak, and
when he
did, the words chilled the Steele's to the bone.
"Laura, Remington, this is Detective Jermain."
"What's the matter doctor?" Remington wasn't sure if
he should be scared
or not.
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but it seems that, uh,
when Deborah
went in to get Brendan from the nursery, she couldn't find him."
Laura
sobbed quietly.
"What do you mean couldn't find him? What the bloody hell
are you
talking about?"
"Mr. Steele," Jermain spoke, "your son is missing.
We think he's been
taken."
End Part 5