Notes: Written for the yuletide challenge, just now getting around to posting it.
Pairing: None, Diana with appearances by Maia and Nina
Neutral Parties
by Ijemanja
"You think she'll like it?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Maia straightening the big pink bow on the box in her lap. "Of course she's going to like it. You said pink's her favourite colour, right?"
"Right."
"Then we're fine."
She didn't know which of them was more nervous. She certainly had her own reservations, but judging from the way Maia was fidgeting - not to mention the hours they'd spent at the mall that morning picking out just the right gift, and then just the right wrapping paper and ribbon and a card on top of all of that - Maia was probably edging her out in the anxiety department.
"Now, you know you can call me any time, and I'll come right back and pick you up."
"I know."
"Or maybe I'll just stick around, I'm sure lots of the other parents will be there."
"You don't want to spend the afternoon at a kid's party."
"Sure I do, it'll be fun. I can... help." Not wanting to take her eyes off the road, she sensed more than saw the dubious look on Maia's face. "Hey, I'm a government agent, I can handle a few kids."
Well, she could handle one. Most of the time, anyway. How bad could it be?
*
"Wow."
Surely, she thought, this had to be some kind of fire code violation. She'd never seen so many people packed into one backyard before.
She felt Maia step closer to her side as a trio of boys dashed past, shooting each other with water pistols. She wasn't used to crowds, her class at school still only comprised a handful of students.
"A bit of a madhouse, isn't it? Not all 4400s, of course, most of the kids are from Sophie's old school, plus a bunch of her brother's friends, too. Hi," the woman who had stopped to speak to them held out her hand. "Lauren Sullivan, nice to meet you."
"Diana Skouris, and this is Maia."
"Oh Maia, Sophie's told me so much about you, I'm so glad you could come today. She was just over there, counting her presents last I saw, why don't you go and find her?"
Suddenly shy though, Maia reached for her hand and didn't seem keen on going anywhere just yet.
"You just take your time, sweetie." She turned her attention back to Diana, smiling tolerantly. "It's probably a little overwhelming."
"We'll try and ease into it."
*
"We don't have to stay if you don't want to," she said, soda cup in one hand and a sparkly, pointed party hat someone had given her stuffed under her arm.
"I didn't give Sophie her present," Maia protested weakly, looking like she wanted to be anywhere else.
Between the jumping castle, the constant screaming and blaring of novelty noisemakers - and yes, still with the water pistols - Diana was all for making a run for it, herself.
"Maia!" The girl who ran up to them all of a sudden had pink fairy wings and a tiara with 'birthday girl' spelled out in rhinestones. "My mom told me you were here but I couldn't find you! Is that your mom? Is that my present? It's so pretty! You should see everything I got!"
And, they were off.
Sophie was apparently quite the motor-mouth - appropriate for a child who could, by all accounts, mimic voices well enough to fool the most sensitive voice-recognition software. What surprised her was how Maia responded, all but throwing herself away from Diana and into the throng of little girls surrounding the guest of honour, talking a mile a minute.
"So, I'll just be over here," she said after a moment.
She was largely ignored in favour of witnessing the tearing into of one painstakingly - with extra emphasis on the pain - wrapped gift, and the admiring oohs and aahs that followed.
She hovered, waiting for what she didn't know - for Maia to change her mind and fling herself back into her arms and beg to be taken home, perhaps. But instead of that happening, someone suggested loudly: "Jumping castle!"
And everyone loudly agreed.
"Maia?" She reached out and caught her just as she was about to dash off across the yard.
"Oh, you don't have to stay, Mom," Maia said quickly, distracted and slightly breathless. "Don't you have to go to work or something?"
It was one of the more pointed dismissals she'd ever gotten.
"Well," she hesitated, but Maia was already edging away, looking up at her with those pleading eyes - "All right, I'll be back to pick you up at five-thirty, o-"
"Bye!"
"-Kay?"
*
"Feeling festive, Skouris?"
"I'm sorry?"
Nina Jarvis took the coffee pot from her and nodded at her shirt. "You're sparkling."
Looking down at herself she saw that she was, in fact, sparkling - there was purple glitter all down her front. "Great," she said, putting down her mug and attempting to brush herself off. "I just took Maia to a birthday party. I didn't know it was catching."
Nina watched for a moment, and then went about pouring her own coffee. "So you've got the afternoon off and you're here?" she said.
"Thought I may as well catch up on some paperwork. Besides, I didn't know how the whole party thing would turn out - Maia doesn't have a great track record with this sort of thing. One minute it's 'don't go, Mommy', the next, apparently my presence is not required."
"They grow up so fast." Nina's shoulder lifted in a half-shrug. "Or so I hear."
She found herself frowning slightly, disturbed by the idea. So she hadn't raised her from a baby - Maia still was her baby.
"Next thing you know," Nina went on idly, reaching for a packet of artificial sweetener, "She'll be breaking curfew and coming home with her tongue pierced."
"That's very comforting, thank you," she replied, and took her coffee and her separation anxiety back to her office to get some work done.
*
It was a few hours later when Nina poked her head in the door of the office she shared with her partner. "Did you get that report the DC office sent over -"
"Wayne Chekanski, robbed three banks, last seen headed our way?"
"That's the one."
"Law enforcement and airports are already on alert, pictures in tollbooths, the usual. It's a pretty wide net but if he shows up on the east coast we should hear about it."
"Hopefully before he goes underground."
"He might be looking to find refuge with the Nova Group - they'd welcome him, I'm sure. Him and his newly acquired funds. The guy chews through metal, if you can believe the witness accounts. Probably something in the saliva."
"Wouldn't be the first time."
Diana sat back with a sigh, tossing the file on the desk. "You know, when I was a kid, I saw a guy in a sideshow who ate nails, razorblades, that sort of thing. That was one thing. Now I'm trying to picture this guy gnawing on the door of the vault..."
Leaning in the doorway, Nina snorted lightly. "Feel free to file Mr Chekanski under F for Freak, as long as we get him."
"That's not very PC, you know," she pointed out mildly.
"The good thing about being in charge - no one can sign you up for sensitivity training. You weren't offended, were you?" she added a moment later when Diana didn't respond. "I was making a joke, not calling your daughter a sideshow attraction."
"Good to know," she said dryly. "I'm not offended. Actually, I can appreciate that sort of attitude a lot more now - at least it's honest. I'll take a little political incorrectness any day over someone who says all the right things and has a different agenda the whole time."
Nina tilted her head in understanding. "Never thought you'd be glad I'm here instead of Ryland, did you?"
"Hey," she held up her hands, "Tom was the one going out for drinks with the guy."
"Nicely evaded, Agent Skouris."
"I like to keep myself on a more neutral footing. I'm a scientist, it's what we do."
"Really." Crossing her arms over her chest, Nina looked at her, apparently unconvinced.
"You don't think so?"
"'Neutral' isn't the word I'd use to describe someone whose adopted family is a 4400. You and your partner - you're my top agents but if it weren't for that, for your results, frankly I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw you."
There was more of that directness she had just claimed to appreciate. The funny thing was, she actually did.
Collecting herself then, Nina pushed away from the doorjamb. "Well, that's enough bonding for one day. This is why I hate weekends - always too much and not enough to do. Keep me up to date on the Chekanski situation."
"You know, I'm not actually supposed to be working today," she called after her superior, but Nina either didn't hear or simply chose not to.
*
Her cell phone rang a little before five, just as she was thinking about tossing the paperwork and heading back over to the party to pick Maia up.
"Please can I?" Maia was saying. "Some of the other girls are staying over, too. We're going to order pizza and watch scary movies!"
"How scary?" she demanded flatly.
"Not that scary. Not scary at all. Please?"
"But you don't have your pyjamas or anything -"
"I can borrow Sophie's."
"What about your toothbrush?"
"Mom." She could practically hear the eye-rolling accompanying it. But her mind was on the last sleepover, and how that had turned out.
"Maia, honey, I don't know..."
"You don't have to worry, it's going to go well."
"Did you see that or are you just trying to get me to say yes?"
"I already know you're going to say yes."
"Oh I am, am I?"
"You are kind of a pushover."
"Well yeah, but I was hoping you hadn't noticed."
"Thanks, Mommy!"
Thanks Mommy. She gave an eye-roll of her own, but it was no use really, she was helpless in the face of her daughter's enthusiasm. "All right," she relented. "Just let me talk to Sophie's mom first, okay?"
Once everything had been double-checked she ended the call, putting the phone down with a sigh.
"God, I really am a pushover," she said, and this time did start packing up.
If she wasn't killing time waiting for Maia, then sitting in with the weekend shift when she didn't have to was just plain pathetic.
*
"I'm heading home."
Nina barely looked up from her work. "I didn't know you were still here. Don't you have anything better to do on a Saturday? Or did we cover that before."
"We covered that before. And you'd think so, wouldn't you?"
Nina spared her a glance over the top of her glasses before returning her attention to her computer screen. "I'll see you Monday - barring any emergencies."
It was a dismissal, but for some reason, she hesitated.
'And what are you doing here, Nina?' she was tempted to ask. 'Who are you when you go home at the end of the day?' Or maybe just: 'Do you want to go get a drink?'
But that wasn't who she was. And she didn't think Nina would thank her for the overture, either. She wasn't the only neutral party around here.
"See you Monday," she said.
*
"So did you have a good time?"
Back in the car, Maia buckled her seatbelt and sat back, looking happy if a little worse for wear. She nodded. "It was great."
Diana, however, couldn't help noticing the dark smudges under her daughter's eyes. "Did you get any sleep?"
"Not very much," Maia admitted, grinning like it was the best thing in the world.
Starting the car, she mentally assessed the likelihood of getting Maia to take a nap that afternoon.
"What about you, Mommy, what did you do last night?"
"Me?" Folding laundry in front of the TV, followed by falling asleep before eleven while reading last month's Scientific American. "I got pizza, too."