The group began exploring the apartment. Mike immediately headed for the sound system. Becki moved to the window to look out over the city. Brad and Crispy began searching the entire loft, both for different reasons. Vickie, however, had something to attend to first.
Spaz circled her feet. She couldn't remember having brought the little mouse droid aboard the Red Home. "Would you please sit still for a moment."
The little black boxy droid came to a stop before her. He chittered incessantly, going on and on about nothing.
"SPAZ!"
The moment her voice rose, the droid stopped everything. He hated when she yelled.
Vickie sighed. "Did you follow me aboard the Red Home?"
He began to squeak again. She glared and he stopped, giving her the desired response, 1.
"I want you to listen closely to what I tell you. You are to in no way get underfoot of anyone here, especially Zee. You are to listen to whatever anyone here tells you to do. And lastly, you are NOT to go out that door under any circumstances unless I say so."
Spaz spun in a circle, acknowledging what she had said. When he saw her nod, he skittered off to find the other droids.
Zee set the table, and everyone moved to take a seat. "Help yourselves," Josh C. said as he reached for the rice. Besides enchiladas and rice, there were refried beans, fresh tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, chips, all the fixings.
The others realized just how hungry they were and began to dig in. "Where in all of Paris did you find Mexican food?" asked Becki.
Cochran grinned. "It was a long, hard search, but I finally found everything I needed. Seven grocers later, I had all of the ingredients for what you see here."
"I'm impressed," Brad said in his usual stoic tone.
Vickie took a swallow of Coke and turned to Josh, "Not bad. Maybe we should get you working with Rich in the kitchen. Maybe you would be useful then."
Beside her, Mike snorted. She could hear Josh N. chuckling from the other side of the table. Even Becki had to hide her grin.
Cochran looked levelly at her. "This coming from a woman who spends all her time playing video games."
"At least it's productive."
Becki finally raised her hand. "Children. Let's not bicker at the table."
Vickie let a small grin come to her lips as she looked up at Josh. He nodded and they both turned to Becki and stuck out their tongues.
Mike and Crispy started laughing so hard they fell from their chairs. Zee watched the whole thing in confusion. Brad grumbled and looked at the droid. "Never mind them. They're both insane."
The bowl of guacamole and the bowl of sour cream rose into the air. Before anyone could think, the two bowls dumped themselves on top of Lieutenant Corletti's head.
Brad glared at the two Jedi; his blaster suddenly leveled at them. "Don't EVER do that again." Everyone sat blinking as he stood and moved towards the bedrooms.
"Well, wasn't that entertaining," Mike said as he clambered back into his chair. "I think the git should have expected it."
"Smeg, did you see the look on his face?" Josh N. was still giggling.
"That was really uncalled for," Becki chastised.
Vickie shrugged. "Well, there is more than one person around here who needs the stick removed from his..." Josh C. cut her a look and she stopped. "So, we're going to the last address the NR knew for Cheriss tomorrow?"
He nodded and looked at the others. "I thought it would be the most logical place to start."
Crispy nodded. "Quite. Perhaps we can find something out."
"My thoughts exactly. Maybe a clue. Anything. Cracken was rather worried that she hadn't contacted him in weeks."
Vickie's brow furrowed. "Cracken worried? You mean you could tell?"
He nodded. "You aren't the only empath."
"Oh, of course, Lieutenant Troi. I forgot." She grinned.
Cochran stuck his tongue out at her before continuing. "Anyway, at least it's a place to start."
"And a good place, at that," added Mike. "So, what time shall we start?"
Josh shrugged, "As early in the morning as possible would be the best."
"In that case," Vickie said as she stood, "I better get some things done."
"Same here," said Josh N. Mike stood at the same time and moved back to the stereo.
That left Josh and Becki. After a rather lengthy and awkward silence, Josh finally stood and began removing the dishes from the table. Becki watched to see if he was going to clean up the mess at Brad's place. When he brought back a dishrag from the kitchen, she smiled and began taking up the rest of the dishes.
"Vickie should be over helping clean this up, too," Josh grumbled.
Becki sighed, "We all need to find a way to get along."
"And we need to get started looking for Cheriss." He pushed the chair back to reach under the table. "I know I probably should have spoke up this morning at the café, but Mike startled us and you and Vickie had coffee all over you and..."
"Stop beating yourself up about it. What's done is done. What we need to do now is get all our eggs in one basket and actually work together."
He nodded as he clamored out from under the table. "That's why I want us all to go to the address together tomorrow."
"Six heads are better than one," she said as they went into the kitchen.
"Five. I seriously doubt that Brad will be coming along."
Becki nodded. "True. He's the loner type. A bit like you in that respect."
He turned to look at the woman standing behind him. "Do I really come off like that?"
"At times."
"You know, you live your whole life with expectations and when they don't pan out..." He sighed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't dump on you like this."
She shrugged, arms crossed, "It's ok. Please go on."
He tossed the rag into the sink. "No, what's in the past is the past. Things are getting better."
Becki stood there and sized him up for a moment. He was slipping into his lead role rather easily. "It has been a long year. Things are constantly changing." Her face dropped as she began to think about Thayer and the fact that she still had yet to hear from him since they had left.
Josh immediately felt the change in her demeanor. A change in subject was needed. "So, any suggestions on what we might look for at Cheriss's apartment?"
Her brow furrowed for a moment as she thought. "How long ago did she abandon it? Do we know that? It hasn't been rented out again to someone else, has it? That would complicate our search."
"We don't even know for sure that she did abandon it. If we're really lucky we might get there and she could be waiting for us with milk and cookies."
Becki chuckled as they moved to the window and looked out over the city of lights. "I just hope that she really is out there and safe."