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AJ sighed as she looked at the clock.
The guys didn't get back until Tuesday and she was still on vacation. Saturday's weather would usually make her happy, but - just as in her previous life - no work made AJ bored.
Her fellow secretaries, four in all, that made up her little group of five - her included - were busy at work. She really didn't have any other friends outside of the office.
Well, no one she really knew, anyway, but there was Gia...
AJ had met Gia Belfan a few months after moving to Denver, back when she still worked for the FBI. The hairdresser place that AJ had wandered into on a slow day was where she had met Gia. The 'hairdresser rookie' had been new and was looking for customers, so AJ decided that she wanted a trim.
Now, the Canadian was her dresser of choice.
She reminded AJ so much of her other Canadian friend that sometimes AJ ended the session in tears. Sometimes, the curly haired blond would stare into space and act like she wanted to say something, so AJ didn't feel as bad about her own shortcomings.
As AJ found herself heading for Starstruck, she started to think. The more she thought, however, the more she liked her decision for something a little different...
Hair, new glasses and contacts and a peek at what Julian had sent her from Vermont were all included in her day.
Hair was a brilliant place to start.
***
"I don't know," JD frowned as they got in the elevator. "Buck, I really think we should've got her the charm bracelet."
"Kid, that girl's skinnier than Junior," Buck waved his worries away. "She needs as many sweaters as she can get."
JD sighed as they got closer to their floor. He really hoped AJ liked the sweater they ended up getting her, because he - for one - wanted that look on her face out of his memory. The light that was usually in her grey eyes had dimmed when Chris had to break the news to her. It had pretty much killed them all when she looked like she was going to cry at the thought of her being left behind while the guys were at that conference.
The week had been boring, but they still couldn't have brought her because they had had no need for a secretary and she had made the best of it, even going so far as to shoot Ezra down when he offered to come up with a plausible reason for her going with them.
The last day, the guys all went to different shops to get her a little present and all of them hoped it made up for having to leave her behind at the office.
The elevator doors opened and they noted that all but Ezra was in the office according to the clock set above the vending machines directly in front of them.
The pair rounded the corner, expecting to find their brown haired secretary, bespectacled grey eyes trained on her screen and silky looking almost mid-back hair put up in one of her usual styles. Instead, they found a platinum blonde with teal eyes, almost ear-length locks pinned away from her face.
JD blinked and looked to Buck, who stared back at him. "Er, hello..."
She looked up and smiled warmly. "Good morning," floated over to them in a soft Irish accent.
"How're you, Darlin'?" Buck smiled back as he herded JD to the office door. Once doors were safely shut behind them, he frowned at the four gathered in front of him. "Where's AJ and who is that imposter?"
"AJ evidently had some things to do," Chris waved a familiar black post-it in the air with AJ's familiar writing on it. "The girl out there is supposed to stay there until she gets back."
"Okay," Buck nodded, going over to where the others had put their own gifts in the corner and put the sweater in with it. "Guess we'll corner her when she gets back, then."
***
By the time Ezra got in, his own present tucked in his pocket, AJ still hadn't shown up.
"Hope we didn't run her off," Nathan frowned after checking to see if AJ had got back yet. "Not like her to not call or anything."
"Maybe ya should've figured out how to get her to come with us," JD told Ezra.
"You don't think she could be mad at us, do you?" Buck frowned.
Josiah shrugged. "In my experiences, women have different ways of reacting to certain things. In my recent experience with AJ, she's in a different class of her own."
"Maybe one of us should have given her flowers," Buck mused.
"Not after what happened the last time," Vin reminded him. Although, in their defense, Chris and Buck had no idea that their apology concerning AJ's dress a few weeks into their working together would result in them spending three and a half hours trying to track the girl down. They had managed to get the whole sordid story out of her a few months later.
The six of them frowned as they tried to come up with a reason why AJ had up and left without prior warning.
About an hour later, the blonde slipped into the office and frowned at them all. "Alright. What seems to be the issue with me this week?"
Chris stepped out of his office to slouch against the wall. "I'm not sure what you mean."
"Don't pull the innocent act on me," she frowned, hands on hips. "You've been acting strangely since you got in and I want to know why."
"And how, pray tell, have we been acting strangely?" Ezra looked up from his report. "Dear lady, I should think that we are not well enough experienced with each other for you to draw such conclusions."
Teal eyes leveled as she stared at him. "You're not kidding, are you? Seriously, what's going on? Did something happen at the conference that no one's told me about, yet?"
"And why would you be concerned about what happened?" Nathan frowned at her. "We don't even know each other."
"What's that supposed to mean? Of course, we know each other!" she scratched the back of her head.
"I'd remember," Buck told her. "Just ain't seen a white-haired, teal-eyed secretary from Ireland before."
"'From Ire-' oh no. I did it again, didn't I?" she shook her head. "Guys, it really is me," she pulled at her left sleeve to expose a familiar teal wristband. "The dress is something Julian sent me and the hair was a spur of the moment desicion," she sighed. "I just felt so much like the old me that I must have ordered platinum instead of the strawberry blonde I was originally thinking of. I couldn't use my new glasses today so I put in contacts, only I must have grabbed the teal ones instead of the clear. Danni'd always told me that one day I would walk into a building and have no one recognize me because I'm so used to playing 'Celina' that every time I put contacts in while I have platinum blonde hair, I start talking with an Irish accent. I just didn't think about it," she pulled at a bit of her hair. "I completely forgot that you don't know what Celina looks like and I guess I got so used to having people know me despite all of this that I automatically expected all of you to do the same."
As she talked, her accent slowly disappeared to leave the familiar voice of AJ Johnson ringing through the office.
"AJ?" Buck started laughing. "Sorry, Darlin'. Guess I wasn't expectin' you to be in disguise."
"I'm just glad you didn't run off because you're mad at us," JD told her. "You know, because of having to leave you here."
"Oh, no," she waved his worries off. "It's fine. I was bored over the weekend and decided to do something. Don't worry, the color won't last more than a few washes," she told the group. "I just thought I'd try a shorter style."
"Well, it's good to know that even you aren't perfect," Nathan smiled at his friend, reaching out to pat her shoulder. "But what was all this about Chris finding a note that you would be out for a few hours?"
"Oh, that would be the note I put on his desk a few weeks ago," she remembered. "I wasn't sure that you got my email, so I wanted to make sure you knew about it."
"I remember now," Josiah nodded. "Annie was a great substitute."
"Must have overlooked it back then," Chris shook his head. "Never would have thought a few things could change how we look at you. We're used to seeing you one way, and then you up and change."
"It's served me well in the past," she grinned. "And Ezra is always doing that, too."
"Really?" Vin frowned at her.
"Well, sure," she teasingly nudged the Southerner with her elbow. "Why did you think that gardener in the park looked so familiar?"