Slate's office; [backdated to] Sunday; Slate and Ketty
After dropping off the crates of booze to Sadie and then helping out with a morning ROTC exercise to fill in for a sick instructor, Slate returned home so that he could shower and change into his proper uniform. He walked to his office instead of driving and got down to business once he'd taken off his jacket and hung it up by his door. Sitting behind his desk, he opened a file that had been set on it in his absence and started to leaf through its contents. Apparently the Carters were in need of some fabric and thread supplies for their clothing shop. He turned to start up his laptop so he could access their information and see how they were on their supply rations.
Ketty had been pleased to see she had a voicemail on her phone when she got out of church. It was from her sister, no doubt irritated that Slate had been the one to drop off the illicit containers of alcohol. After saying goodbye to her parents, Ketty walked out to the street and listened to the message. A sarcastic thank you, that was a given. Ketty smirked, but then arched her eyebrows as her sister trailed off, sounding confused.
"Wait, I didn't...you don't even like tequila. Bye."
Well, that was odd, and kind of lacking in the oomph Ketty had been hoping for. Oh well. She went home, got herself uniformed, and then headed to the base. Eventually she made her way over to Slate's office and knocked on his door.
Slate was through one pile of files and had just finished approving them. He looked up at the door pencil stuck in his teeth, from his spot at his desk, typing away over keys like a pro, when he heard the knocking. "Enter!" He called out around the pencil, figuring it was a secretary with some more mail or some other task for him to take care of. Slate was fairly bored today, other than the amusing alcohol drop off and the ROTC training. He tugged the pencil out of his mouth and finished off the e-mail he'd been typing. He set the pencil down, hit send, closed his laptop and stood up to straighten out his shirt. Then he rested his hands on his hips as he looked at the door while it opened and waited to see who was on the other side. He idly wondered if Sadie had discovered the tequila yet but didn't give it much more thought than that.
Ketty opened the door and walked in with a smirk on her face. "Hey there, delivery truck," she greeted, shutting the door behind her since this delivery stuff was all hush-hush. "I trust everything went smoothly this morning?"
Slate smirked a little himself and gave a mock little salute and wave before he sat back down and motioned to one of the cushy chairs on the other side of his desk. "Major," He greeted with a grin and a nod in greeted. He feigned shock and then nodded. "You expected it to go anything other than smoothly?" He smirked. "After all these years of knowing me, frankly, I'm offended, Major Shepherd."
"I expected it to go amusingly," Ketty corrected as she walked over to another cushy chair. She sat down and leaned back, lacing her fingers together and resting them on her stomach. "And judging by the voicemail I got from Sade, it probably was."
"It did," Slate grinned. He watched her sit down and arched his eyebrows up a little. A voicemail? That sounded promising, but not too surprising. "Oh?" He asked as he folded he sat back and folded his arms behind his head, lifting his right foot to rest his ankle against his left knee. The chair leaned back with him. "What exactly did this voicemail entail?" He asked curiously, an amused expression on his face.
"Oh, y'know," Ketty mimed a phone with her hand and held it up to her ear before launching into her Sadie-voice, which was a pretty good imitation of her sister. "'You're the one who owed me, you were supposed to stop by, did you tell him to lecture me?'" She snickered and lowered her hand. "What did you say to her?"
Slate actually threw his head back a little and looked up at the ceiling as he laughed. Ketty's impression of her sister was eerie in Slate's opinion since it was so dead on. He figured that was only natural since they were sisters and all though. He could pretty much picture Sadie's face as she'd have been leaving that message. He shrugged innocently. "I merely told her not to bribe you into sending requests in for her and to get her lazy ass over here and do it herself." He smirked. "And I also informed her that even though it was you who owed her a favor, she now owes me a favor. Which of course she didn't like." He grinned and sat forward, folding his hands and resting them on the desk and let out a dramatic sigh.
"My conversations with your sister are so...stimulating." He smirked. "She takes a few jabs at me after I do her a favor out of the kindness of my heart because I'm dear, dear good friends with her older sister, I give her a few jabs back with the reminder that I'm doing her a favor lest she had to shut down that shabby shack of a business...in the end it all boils down to the argument over who looks better in uniform. She seems to insist it's her," He reached up to straighten his collar for show and smirked at Ketty. "I think she's delusional, don't you?" He grinned.
Ketty pressed her lips together in a slight smirk and shook her head. "You know better than to fish for compliments from me," she reminded him. She pushed herself back in her chair so she'd sit up a little higher. "I'd be surprised if she even remembers what she looked like in uniform, it was so long ago."
Slate smirked and sat back to lean on his elbow on his desk. Yeah it was a long time ago. The kind of made Slate feel old for a second. "Theory," He said with a smirk and a firm nod. "She'd got a picture somewhere that she pulls out and longingly looks at night after night, wondering just why she gave up all the fun," He nodded as if there was no way this wasn't true.
"Better theory," Ketty countered, grinning. "She keeps it in that locket of hers, along with a little cut-out fabric swatch so it always stays close to her heart."
"Ha!" Slate let out the snort of laughter, eyes widening comically. "Of all the theories I've had about the locket over the years," And he'd had plenty - non comical ones he'd kept to himself and funny ones he'd shared with Ketty or snarkily teased Sadie about. "That one would've never crossed my mind." He grinned. "I wonder if she opens it up and pets the fabric," He mused with a few chuckles.
"Of course she does," Ketty nodded. "And it's probably worn down to just a single thread at this point."
"Well at least you'll know what happened if a patch of your uniform goes missing," Slate smirked. And then he made a mock serious face. "Unless....Theory - she still had the uniform tucked away and cuts off new pieces whenever her locket piece wears out, yeah?"
Ketty laughed and pointed at Slate. "I think you got it right there. She keeps it in a shoebox under her bed and there's only a fourth of the uniform left."
Slate shook his head slowly - sadly of course. "Poor unfortunate uniform...first it was mutilated to fit her short stature...now it's just an echo of its former glory..." He sighed and shook his head again before he clapped his hand down on the desk. "How was church?" What? It was an obvious question. "And when are you going to give in and take me up on my perpetual dinner offer?" He asked right afterward with a grin as he rested his hand in his chin.
Ketty let out a dreamy sigh. "Maybe never, since I do so much enjoy watching you beg, Colonel," she said with a very big smirk. "And church could have been better, thank you for asking. The Peterson's twins wouldn't stop crying."
"Pretty soon I'm pulling rank and ordering you," Slate warned. Of course he would never do that but it was a fun conversation to frequent. "Besides, you can only resist me so long. I know it, you know it." he shrugged up his shoulders a moment. Then he arched his eyebrows and jumped right into the other conversation. "...They were crying?" He tried so very hard to keep from adding 'no doubt from the overwhelming power of Jesus' love.'
Ketty smirked and rolled her eyes off to the side. Resistance was a good idea. She wouldn't want to compromise their friendship now, would she? Of course not.
She nodded at his question. "They're six months old. They were crying. Someone should have taken them outside for a walk, but they didn't. Father Charlie looked like he was about to blow a gasket."
She could cop out all she wanted in third person narration, it'd still be a cop out in Slate's mind!
"How are you so sure they were crying? You were in church after all," He grinned, "They may have been weeping with joy...or...singing with the choirs of angels," He said. Slate went to church at least once a week, but he certainly wasn't quite as into it as the elder Shepherds. "Poor Father Charlie..." He smirked. "Other than the racket, though?" He paused enough to let her answer and then added. "So...Italian...or barbecue?" He arched and eyebrow.
"Italian or barbeque what?" Ketty batted her eyelids with a small smile, purposefully playing dumb.
Slate grinned. "For that dinner we're having," He replied easily with a firm little nod.
"You're going to have to try a little harder if you want to trick me into going on this dinner with you," Ketty shook her head.
"Guess I'll have to bring you to Sadie's place and get a few drinks in you first," He sat back and scratched his chin. "I think I can handle that, sure..." He nodded as he rolled is eye up toward the ceiling and pretended to think about this ploy.
"Speaking of," Ketty said, grateful for the convenient segue, "Sadie sounded all confused at the end of her message, muttering something about tequila. Did you order a little something for yourself, too?"
Slate sat up straight and looked toward the door of his office just to make sure there was no one in close distance outside of it. "Shhhhh," Not that she'd ever been loud in saying it. "Of course not," He scrunched up his forehead and shook his head at Ketty. "I simply...fulfilled my supply list duties and also did a favor for you," His eyebrows bounced a moment. "Hey, you know what that means by the way? You owe me too, you sneaky Shepherd, knowing which drawer I'd look in..." He grinned. "So! I'll be a gentleman and ask again," He leaned back and folded his hands behind his head. "Italian or barbecue?" He smiled and bounced his eyebrows.
Ketty looked down at her wrist and then lifted up her arm to show Slate her watch. "Would you look at the time?" she asked with a grin. "I should be heading over to the main gate." She put her hands down on the arms of the chair and pushed herself off. "Sorry to run, Colonel. Duty calls and all."
Slate stood up and did his best to affect a firm tone as he stood - something that was always hard to do when the elder Shepherd sister was involved, being friends and all. "Major, I have half a mind to relieve you of your duty today. Surely there are other grunts to fill in for you..." He smirked and pointed at her. "You have to eat some time," He added as a warning, a joking warning of course.
"Yes," Ketty nodded. "I do. But I just had lunch, so that won't be for a while." She gave Slate a smirk and salute before going on her merry way.
Slate let her get to the door before he called after her. "Expect to see me with barbecue at some point in your shift," Hey, she hadn't picked either way so....he got to pick. And it wasn't like he hadn't shown up with food at the main gate while she was on duty before. He just...showed up with enough for everyone that was there at the time as well. He sat back down and shook his head.