Who: Adam, Shiri and the Marines
What: Adam's Birthday
Where: At the Bar he works at and then a field
When: Today. This Evening.
Warnings: none




The bar was still fairly quiet, as Adam went about checking to get his station ready once the rush came in. The first shift was handling most of the customers, working from their own stations, as the evening crew got ready. It was a Friday night, and the DJ was setting up. The bouncers looked bored as they checked the few IDs of those who were already starting to come in.

"Hey, I thought you had the night off?"

Adam turned and arched an eyebrow at his co-worker. "Why?"

"Birthday, isn't it?"

Adam shrugged. He wasn't vastly concerned about it. "It's Friday. You need me here."

The other bar tender simply shook his head and went to check on his own area.

The stage seemed ready for the rush, with bottles full and stand-bys close to hand. Clean glasses, cold beers, sliced citrus. Grabbing a rag, Adam dunked it into a bucket of disinfectant, ready to wipe down the counters and also to wipe off his own hands through out the night. Wringing the water free, he turned back to the counter, checking to see just how crowded it'd gotten so far.

The bar was still relatively empty when he turned around, but the few people inside gave the three Marines walking toward the counter a wide berth. The three of them were striking in their blue uniforms as they moved with a purpose. Only once did they pause. A deeply tanned, perhaps biracial Marine wearing an MP armband turned to the tallest of them and muttered something. The tallest of them pointed at the bar and then three of them nodded and continued their approach.

"Are you Adam Jenkins?" The MP asked.

Military? The arm band was a good hint they weren't here for drinks. Arching his eyebrows, Adam wiped off his hands and set the rag aside. He gave a small nod, "Yeah."

It was now the tallest's turn to talk again, his uniform slightly different than his two comrades to denote that he was an officer, "You are under investigation. We need to ask you some questions."

Sadly, this mortal knew little about the military and the meaning of the uniforms, but he seemed to look the trio over, and consider his options. His eyes went back to meet those of the one who had spoken first. "What am I under investigation for?"

Now the third spoke up, "Perhaps you would be more comfortable speaking about this in a less public place."

Adam looked to the third as they spoke, then around the bar. "How long do you think this will take?"

"It depends on how cooperative you are and what you have to say," the officer was quick to reply.

But the MP couldn't help but say softly half-under his breath to the third, "And if we don't arrest him."

He blinked. Arrest? He hadn't done anything illegal. Maybe someone stole his identity and hacked into the military or something. "Alright, just a minute though." Turning, he gave a brief whistle, and caught his co-workers attention, waving him over. Briefly he explained that the military wanted to talk to him about something and he didn't know how long it would take, so he needed his station covered.

The co-worker eyed the members in the uniforms and looked mildly freaked himself before giving a nod and telling Adam to give him a call later. The birthday boy nodded and gave a half wave before walking down to a break in the bar, lifting it and stepping out to meet the trio with hands in his pockets. He was assuming they had someplace in mind.

The three led him out of the bar into the side alley where a black van was idling, but they didn't wait to reach to the van to barrage him with accusations, "We have evidence that you are harboring a suspected terrorist. What do you have to say?"

Harboring a terrorist? He glanced at the officer to see if they were kidding. "The only person I live with is my girlfriend, Shiri." Did they think he somehow had enough money to help hide someone else?

"Shiri Eneas is an alias. Her name before she took that was 'Naghmeh Khanjani' and we have been tracking her since 2001," The officer explained calmly, which contrasted greatly with his two companions.

The MP was already taking out a pair of handcuffs, while the third opened up the back of the van, "He's confessed."

The officer waved his hand to halt his comrades, at least for the moment, "I believe you've just been tricked into her web. What has she been planning?"

Adam's eyes went to the handcuffs, temporarily distracted from answering. They couldn't really think that he, or Shiri, were terrorists. "Dinner?" he answered before fully realizing the first half to the statement. Glancing up to the officer, he frowned slightly. "What do you think she's been planning?"

The MP was swift then and grabbed Adam by the shoulder as he got the cuffs around one wrist and then reached out to grab the other, "You don't answer a question with a question. Permission to throw him into the van, sir?"

The officer held his hand up again to pause him, "You're either surprised by the question or covering for her especially well. We'll get to the bottom of either so you might as well come clean now. What do you know?"

Adam managed not to shout something in surprise at the sudden handcuffing, and only looked looked at them in slightly annoyance before turning once more to the officer. It was hard to not be annoyed when being ambushed. "Shiri is a widow, from Kabul. She's here on a student visa, and goes to school at the University of Miami, where I met her." He shrugged, looking unconcerned. He couldn't exactly add that she was a goddess and other members of her family were also here. "She had a friend of ours who has done some real estate sell her house, and gave us the one we live in now." Slowly, his eyebrows went up. This was all common knowledge. What exactly were they expecting him to say?

The officer nodded and the two other Marines pulled Adam backwards and toward the back of the black van. Their commander seemed to casually stroll to keep up, "Don't think she has it in her to plan chaos and death on a grand scale on American soil?"

He stumbled slightly as he tried to keep up with the Marines that were pulling him backwards, and seemed to pause to consider the question. Could she? That wasn't really what was a question in his mind. Sure she could. The question was, was she? He gave his head a small shake.

Without another word, they shoved him into the back of the black van and it sped off to somewhere. The three marines surrounded him as it took its night journey.

Fairly calm, Adam looked at his captors, then shrugged and settled into his seat, closing his eyes and leaning back. He had no way of knowing what would happen next, and there wasn't a lot that he could do if he did know. So, why stress? "She's not trying to destroy the US," he mentioned off hand after a few moments.

The three Marines were silent for the whole drive, ignoring his off hand comment. They only traded glances to each other before looking back to Adam and shaking their heads a little. Finally, the van came to a stop and the MP grabbed Adam by the shoulders and shoved him back outside with a shout, "What do you do, Shadow, keep him drugged? We could have been taking him to Gitmo 2 and he's all calm!"

Shiri had been leaning peacefully against a tree, waiting for Adam to appear, but this was not the way she would imagine it to happen. She pushed off the tree, her eyes narrowing just slightly. This is not what she agreed to. There was no burlap sack. Just because Adam was incredibly hot in those handcuffs... The muse shook her head. No, focus. "You were just supposed to grab him. And where is my burlap sack?"

He stumbled a step as he was shoved from the van, then glanced about him to realize where he was. Seeing Shiri though, and how calm she was, he could only turn to glance at the van, then the Marines that had taken him. He wondered briefly how they had found the van if this wasn't an official grabbing. He glanced to Shiri and arched an eyebrow. "I didn't tell them anything."

"Of course you did not." Shiri approached him and tenderly touched his cheek before turning to the three Marines that now leaned against the side of the van snickering and to the female driver in a slightly different uniform climbing out of the front to join them in their jest. "What do you all do? Say I was a terrorist?"

One of them nodded with a grin, "You were the one with the idea of putting a burlap sack over his head, shoving him into a van and not explaining it...'

"And where is my burlap sack?" Shiri asked in a friendly but almost annoyed tone. Her boyfriend handcuffed beside her? Not the problem. Where her burlap sack was? Yes. Her priorities were clearly in order.

Shifting his weight, he turned so that he could lean against the van as well, facing the group, a slightly amused smirk on his face. He wasn't too worried about the handcuffs yet. When they started to chafe, then he would. For now he was wondering if they realized it would be best to give it back to her. Speaking of which...

Glancing to Shiri, he moved away from the van toward her enough that he could bend and kiss her temple. Now he'd given her a proper greeting.

The third of them chuckled a little at the sight, "You're a lot more fun to rile up when we can see your face but..." He pushed off the van and took the key from the MP to uncuff Adam, "We're keeping your burlap sack hostage. We want to make sure you actually hang out with us tomorrow and its not all 'Kidnap my boyfriend for me because he's bigger than me.'"

"I said I would before I came up with that," Shiri replied and then turned to Adam, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, "Anyway, Happy Birthday."

"Wait..." The woman spoke up, "You had us go and kidnap him from his job for a birthday surprise?"

The muse nodded, resting her head against his shoulder, "He would not have left. He actually went." And then she peeked up at him, "Make me have to go through all this effort to get you here."

He looked down at his girlfriend, and blinked. Uncuffed, he was able to drape his arms around her properly. "I didn't think you had anything planned for tonight," he defended with a slight shrug, then glanced to the Marines. "Why does her reasoning surprise you?"

"You took me camping," Shiri whined lightly. Of course she had something planned tonight. It was only fair. Especially since this was his real birthday. It was important.

The woman, who had been driving, shrugged, "I know I wouldn't want to be arrested and kidnapped as the headline of my birthday." She then nudged the officer at her side as if to warn him away from such logic if it was ever there.

Now that they'd done it, it probably wouldn't have the same effect to do it with any members of the group. Adam himself shrugged though. "I didn't do anything illegal. And if I was going to be arrested, it wouldn't matter if it was my birthday or not." Sounded like good logic to him. Smirking, he turned to Shiri. "You didn't just send Alana to put me up on auction at least."

"You have to stop being at that bar on important days," Shiri murmured to him and then turned to her Marine friends, "You guys can go now. I will see you tomorrow. Promise."

The four of them looked to each other and then smiled to her with a nod. The MP couldn't help but mention as he jumped into the van, "He did try to claim your innocence. Most people would have sold someone down the river... Maybe he is as good as you claim he is."

"I know he is. Now go on. I have birthday things to do with him."

Arching an eyebrow, he followed the MP with his eyes, and smirked at the words. He glanced down to his girlfriend. Of course she would send them off for birthday things. Chuckling a bit, he bent down to whisper to her ear. "Do you want to ask them for the handcuffs?"

"Of course not. Their cuffs are all rough..." Shiri whispered back and then pulled away from her boyfriend only to wave to her friends as they drove off. "Besides, I have other plans before that anyway." As the van disappeared down the road, she turned and pointed down the field they were standing in, "See all the way down there? A concert is setting up."

Adam turned as directed and looked down the span of space to where the concert seemed to be setting up. Other people seemed to be filing in as well, and Adam could now see her plans. He nodded and kissed her cheek. "What type of concert is it?"

"The band is described as 'artsy-folksy-rocky in the spirit of the Woodstock revolution'. I appreciated the honesty and they would be the type to offer a free night concert in the middle of a field. But..." Shiri smiled softly at him, a schoolgirl air almost wrapping around her as she traced a line along his shoulders with the tips of her fingers, "It should be fun and I brought food, drinks and a blanket..."

"Sounds like it should be fun..." He twisted to peer at her. "Did you make arrangements so that I could take work off?" he asked, thinking of his co-worker's comment.

She nodded, "I called your boss. I may have implied that you are clearly some sort of madman wanting to work on your birthday and your boss agreed. He also did not mind giving you the day because you are one of his better employees."

"Huh." That explains the co-workers comments. It also meant that he didn't have to worry about getting back to work or feel guilty for leaving them. Smiling, he bent and gave her a kiss. "Thank you."

Shiri giggled lightly as she moved away from him to reach behind the tree for the picnic basket and blanket hidden behind it. "I knew you were a keeper. I have you arrested and kidnapped and you thank me."

Adam chuckled, hooking his hands in his pockets as he watched her grab things. Then, acting like a gentleman, he gestured that he would take them. Or at least one of them. No reason for her to carry everything. "I wasn't really arrested."

Looking down at the basket and the blanket, Shiri shrugged a little and handed him the basket, only to then wrap the blanket over and around her shoulders in some sort of makeshift cloak. "But you were really kidnapped." She frowned slightly as she took his hand and began to lead him further down the field, "I hope they do not get into trouble for that. I guess they would not have agreed if they thought they would be still." But then again, less decorated Marines had done much worse in bars and faced no repercussions and no one was going to cite fault on them. Her smiled returned, "It is probably fine."

And if Adam could see her thought process he would witness a very structured, perfectly logical flow full of transitions. However, she didn't speak any of those so instead she simply wheeled around on him, walking backwards to face him, "You went to work and did not think something was odd when I had not given you any gift yet? It is nice to know you would tolerate such inconsiderateness but really..."

Adam chuckled. "I thought you might be preparing something for when I got home." He shrugged, carrying the basket in one hand as he followed her. "Half the time I forgot what day it was."

"When you got home?" Shiri couldn't help but shake her head, "When it was no longer your birthday and I would have been asleep? That sounds like terrible planning, my knight."

"You could have stayed up or had something waiting." It made sense to him. He wasn't really concerned about it after all. He also couldn't say that he'd been half prepared for Shiri to grab some of his friends and raid the bar either. The Marines arresting him had been far more drastic than he had expected.

Shiri really only had two modes: sublime calm and drastic, Adam had just gotten the short end of the stick when it came to getting him to this field. But she seemed to be calming now, with every backwards step. "I could have but it still would have not been your birthday anymore when I started."

Taking a few quicker steps, Adam caught up with her and lightly touched her waist to draw her close so he could kiss her. "I knew you hadn't forgotten. I just didn't know what you'd planned." Did that settle it? Because food was starting to sound like a really good idea.

Draping her arms around him and kissing him twice more, she casually looked over her shoulder. Well, this was a pretty good spot for the concert. Close enough to see and hear. Far enough to make out without being bothered. She smiled softly as she pulled away to place down the blanket and then sat herself down. "Here is good."

As she wished. Once she was settled, he set the basket down then sat himself, opening the basket up to take a peak inside. He didn't get very far before pulling out a sandwich he assumed was for him, and starting to unwrap it to take a bite. Food took priority it seemed. chewing the bite, he reached in to pull the rest of the food out, inspecting the desert of a cupcake. Smirking to himself, he wondered if she'd bothered to find candles to bring.

The muse plopped down to her back on the blanket, relaxing as he ate and heavily implying it was all for him. Her body was accustomed to its schedule and now was not when she ate so she was not hungry. And it was his birthday after all. "Are you going to ask for 'Happy Birthday' in another language like you did last year?"

He grinned between bites, and leaned on one arm to peer down at her. "Sure. What language should I ask for this year?" he asked, trying not to scatter crumbs on her as he took another bite.

A little reluctantly, she turned to her side to make his peering easier for him. That had been a comfy position but this would have to do, "You are the birthday boy. Any one... Just not an Asian language. I do not speak those." Asia Proper was either atheist, simply superstitious or some other strange set of barely religious beliefs to her understanding for to even want to venture there.

For a moment, the mortal considered, finishing his sandwich before reaching a choice. He arched his eyebrows, "Do you know any of the African languages?"

"Somehow I knew you would ask that," she said with a smile, and assumed he did not mean the European languages that were also there, "Yes. Arabic, Swahili, Amharic and Berber for starters."

"Swahili then?" It made sense to him to ask it. Pushing himself up enough again, he looked over the contents from the basket again, and pulled the wrapped gift into his hands. Hunger lessened for the moment, it was time to give some attention to the the gift.

Shiri returned to her back. Ah, much easier to sing like this than on her side and closed her eyes in thought. How did Happy Birthday go in Swahili? Not that he would know if she messed it up, but still... There it was! The translation popped up in her mind and she looked to him again and began to sing.

As she began to sing, Adam began to break the tape on the packaging, and unwrap it. Opening the box, he found himself staring down at a fine set of paint brushes. The wood was clearly special in type itself, and as he picked one up to examine it more carefully, he could feel designs engraved into the wood. He studied them as she sang, then turned to her with a grin before bending to kiss her deeply.

He was lucky it was a short song, but that didn't stop her from being any less surprised. She squeaked softly into the kiss before coming to her senses and returning it just as deeply. Well, well. This certainly implied he liked the gift, which pleased her greatly.

He also liked kissing her. Breaking the kiss, he was smiling. "Thank you." His fingers hadn't missed the subtle design put on them that would have little meaning to anyone beyond the two of them, but that was something else all together. Holding it up into her line of sight, he grinned as he asked, "Does the symbol mean they've been muse blessed?" He was teasing.

"Of course they have been," She was not teasing. Were they filled with inspiration? No. Clearly not. But they had been blessed. Which would make it easier to flood them with inspiration later, but that wasn't the point. "You are mine to bless."

Adam smiled and bent to give her another kiss as a thank you, before straightening to put the brushes safely away. He would see them put to good use. Later. For now, there was more food to be had, and a concert to prepare for. Pulling out a second sandwich, he lay on the blanket next to her, staring up at the sky as she was. This would make for a good birthday. Turning his head, he glanced to the goddess. "There aren't any other surprises, are there?"

"Yeah, I have the 101st Airborne scheduled for later," she teased lightly and then scooted a little to curl up to his side, relaxing against him with a small smile, "No, I am all surprised out, I think."

"Good." He smiled and shifted an arm to pet her hair as best he could. Letting out a slow breath, he relaxed as he heard some of the warm up from the concert. "How did you find the ones that you sent to kidnap me?"

What Shiri heard was the guitars desperately scrambling to be in tune and the sound sent a chill down her spine like nails on chalk board. Oh, how she hated that sound. It made her nuzzle at his side as if to transfer the sensation into him, even though it didn't work like that, "They are my friends from Kabul. They actually filled out 90% of the paperwork to get me here."

"Really?" He wrapped his arm around her as best as he was able to as she snuggled against him. That was mildly impressive, and meant that they had taken an active interest in getting her, specifically, to the States. "Shadow?"

With a soft giggle, Shiri nodded against him and then settled to simply rest her head against his chest again. "Well, when we met... after some of the awkwardness died down between us all, we were hanging out but I had not changed my name yet and refused to answer to the one I had so they gave me a nickname... That and John-boy loves nicknames. Since they only ever saw me in a black burqa and I was following them around, it seemed obvious."

Well, explained that way it did. Far more sense then in the ways that he had known her. He nodded at the explanation, chuckling a bit himself. "So did you know all of them, then?"

Again, Shiri nodded. "The taller of the three guys' name is Greg. I think he just became a major or something like that. Salvatore is the MP, and the third guy is John-Boy. He was going to go into the Bugle corp but then the whole terrorist attack happened and he enlisted normally, he said. The woman driving was Claire. Technically not a Marine. For some reason the Marines just steal Navy people and dress them up like Marines for medical staff. Weird."

"Huh. And they all had time off together?" Having never been in the military, he didn't know any of the ins and outs, but it still seemed impressive they would have time off together. As he held her, his fingers automatically began to trace against her skin.

And she automatically began to relax again. It helped that the guitar tuning was now complete it seemed, "I think they said they were all Stateside now on leave before they get new domestic deployments. I guess they will tell me more tomorrow. I am just glad they are out of that hellhole." Shiri was not one to resort to swearing, but the muse of eloquent speech could find no other word to describe Afghanistan besides "hellhole".

Shifting slightly, Adam moved just enough to kiss her forehead before laying back down and resuming his slow tracing. It was instinctive to do so. "Mind if I come with you tomorrow?"

Shiri glanced up at him, "Why do you want to?"

His eyebrows went up at her question. "Just to meet the people who helped bring you here." She could say no, that it was some special, private reunion, and he wouldn't mind or think twice about it. They were her friends, but he was still interested in actually meeting them when he wasn't being kidnapped.

"Oh." And with that Shiri settled back to his chest, "I thought you were pulling some macho thing and I did not want to be in the middle of that. But sure. Easier for me. Now I can bring them to the house."

He smiled, and briefly ran a hand over her hair. "'Some macho thing'?"

"You know," Closing her eyes, she nuzzled against him softly, "And then facing off with them. I think the house would explode from testosterone. But I figured it was an off chance that was why you were asking and I was right. Not some face off." Not that she wouldn't think it was hot to witness but it would also be a hassle.

And after her friends seeming to think she kept him drugged, it would have been out of character as well. He knew it had all been a well staged prank. Why worry beyond that? He shrugged his free shoulder slightly. "I don't have any other plans exactly," he mentioned. Which was to say he could always work on something art wise.

And she shrugged likewise. The concert would begin soon. She could nearly feel the excitement in the air... Or maybe she had heard someone shout that. To be honest, Shiri wasn't sure and didn't care which was her source. "If you get bored tomorrow, just wander off. That is what I do when you have your friends over."

He chuckled, moving his hand to her back and rubbing there, as the other went to pillow his head. "Alright."

Suddenly, she picked up her head, "Enjoying your birthday?"

"Yeah. Thank you." Night off work and an evening concert? Food provided and a nice new set of paint brushes? It was a rather mellow and relaxed birthday, and that was fine with him.

"Good." The muse might as well have been beaming. She had done well. "I just hope this band is good. But then again, it cost nothing so..."

He smiled. "If they aren't, we can just go somewhere else." Far easier to do with a lawn concert than a theater one. As long as it didn't rain, they would be fine.

"Or we can just ignore them," She was good with either. As far as she was concerned, the night was already a success.

"Or we could do that." If she could do that. He wasn't entirely sure she could. Either way, it would be a good evening.



Summary: It's Adam's birthday and he went to work. Clearly, that was a mistake as the Marines come to "arrest" him and bring him to his girlfriend.