League

Mackenzie smiles broadly before looking back to Alec and giving his arm a poke. "This is when you're supposed to say yes." 

Alec finally breaks his gaze from Ryan and looks down at his niece with a smirk. "Since when did you start running things?" 

"I don't run things... I just... convince you?" 

Alec tries to withhold his laugh and he gives her a hard enough nudge that she has to stumble to catch her balance. Sighing, he looks back to Ryan, recovering from his embarrassment. "For her sake, I'll accept... thank you." Glancing around and realizing that the lines had grown even longer, he shrugs lamely. "And I guess this is our new spot in line." 

Though just a little awkward, Alec remains in line behind Ryan, keeping himself busy talking to Mackenzie about supper rather than trying to force conversation with Ryan. Once they were all finished shopping, Alec and Mackenzie followed her out to her car - which Mackenzie discovered was very cool. 

"Wow... this is a neat car. It looks like it could be a race car." 

This time, Alec laughs outright as he opens the passenger door. "Genius. It is a race car. As a matter of fact, you're looking at a mighty fine racer."

Mackenzie's eyes widen before climbing in. "Really?"

"Mm-hmm. Ryan here is one of the best drivers I know. Some people think she wouldn't be good just because she's a girl, but lemme tell you... she could whup any guy's butt any day. And.. she does."

Mackenzie giggles. "Did you ever race against her?"

"You kidding?" Alec scoffs, getting in and making sure Mackenzie gets settled in the narrow back seat. "I'd be too frightened. She's always been..." His voice trails off for a moment, returning more quietly. "...out of my league." Buckling in, he keeps his eyes on the road instead of on Ryan where they wanted to be. He was very grateful for the ride, but he knew she probably wouldn't be doing this, if it weren't for the young girl. 

The ride didn't take long though, and as they pull into the driveway, Alec scoots forward and opens the door. "Here, Mac... climb on out and take these bags to the porch, would you? I'm right behind ya." 

Mackenzie nods and crawls out behind him, taking the bags. As she walks away though, she turns and gives a little wave and smile to Ryan before scurrying up to the porch to wait at the door. 

Still in the car, Alec slides back again and finally turns to look at Ryan. "She's um... spending the evening over here. Misty and Carson split and she's not allowed to see him so... I guess I'm trying to fill some sort of spot for her. Not that I know how, but we get along okay." 

Swallowing hard, his eyes search Ryan's face. Being in her car... this close... it brought back many a memory. "Thanks again for the lift... I appreciate it."

Could

Aiming for another line Ryan was a bit irritated with herself as she juggled the items in her hand. She was going to be late getting home now thats she had already been almost home when she remembered about stopping at the same. If Eli didn't have his beer with his steak she'd never hear the end of it. So turning around and coming back seemed like a better option.

As the young woman walks up to her Ryan stops just looking down at her. Something about her name rang a bell but Ryan just couldn't put a finger on it. Following her gaze though as she says she is with him Ryan looks up and is a bit surprised. Now she remembered who the girl was from a time long ago when Alec had let her know about his niece.

   "Well Hey there. I do have a car..and..."

Getting cut off by Alec Ryan gives a small smart as he and Mac go back and forth for a little bit. Watching them both Ryan couldn't help but see the bond that was there even if they were going back and forth. She couldn't help but smile at the whole scene.

   "You can tell your a Banks...but between you and be..thats not always a bad thing...right?"

Looking to Mackenzie and than back at Alec Ryan just gives a little shake of her head though her eye stay on Alec for a very long moment as her feelings bubble and churn. It seemed like she was seeing more and more of him lately and she had mixed feelings about it. On one had it was nice, and she enjoyed seeing him but on the other...she heart belonged to Tal now, Alec had his chance and blew it. 

Glancing down at Mac again she did feel slightly bad for the young girl and having to walk. She was already late heading home maybe a little longer would be ok.

   "Now if I walked away now after the plead I just heard that would make me heartless. So if you guys would really like a ride I can offer you one. I promise I wont drive to fast either."

Thinking for a long second and taking in all the information Nate leans against the desk with the folder in his hand. This wouldn't be to hard of a case, but it still needed to be planned out right. Taking the blue prints of the building he spreads it across the table along with a white peace of chalk.

   "Ok, we could use Con here, that way the front doors and windows are covers. We are lucky that this is an old building with one exit. How ever its double doored on the inside so we are going to have to keep our eyes open. Dalton, can move in, Jase and I can go around from the sides taking the people out there if need be."

Looking back to Jason Nate gives a small nod to him. He'd pretty much had it planned out in his head how things should work but he'd like to have everyone else thought as well.

   "How about you Jase? Any more ideas?"

  "Well...rusty in how to do a relationship the right way in general. I...don't want to mess this one up."

Trey could feel his cheeks go slightly red he did want to do things right even though Ariel new his past in a way it still embarrassed him.  Talking about it made it hard too but he was moving forward and doing his best to over come the past.

"I think I am doing pretty good so far, and how could I not be when I have someone like you on my arm."

"Circumstances"

Rosalyn manages a quiet laugh at Chad's humor about the lobster. She hadn't thought of how his job might affect his food preferences. "I like seafood too. Actually, it's been quite a while since I've had any. Usually I only come to town for shopping during the week. Or church on Sundays. It's probably been about six months since I was in town for supper at all, and I think that was after some auction or something. I'm pretty sure the meal was hotdogs." 

Closing her eyes and just letting herself relax next to Chad, she tries to forget about her dad for now so she could enjoy the evening. Easier said than done, but if anybody could get her to have fun, she had a feeling, it would be Chad. 

"There's a decent restaurant I've been to once or twice - I can't remember what it's called, but it's basically a steakhouse and they've got some seafood too..."

...Though not remembering the restaurant name, she still knew how to get there, so once they finally arrive to town, she directs Chad the right way. By the time they get to the restaurant it was supper time, and by the time they get settled, order and receive their food, Rosalyn's stomach was ready to handle the scrumptious smelling food. She'd chosen a dinner with both shrimp and lobster, taking advantage of actually getting to eat here again. 

"Thank you, Chad..." She pauses her eating to look across at him, truly thankful that he'd still been willing to stick around after what had happened. "I don't know what things will be like tomorrow... but I'd still understand it if you didn't want to stay. I wouldn't hold it against you."

Ariel laughs, letting Trey put his arm around her shoulders. "Only rusty since you've been in Nevada, I presume." 

Sliding her feet through the sand, she enjoys the sensation of the cool breeze combing through her hair. "Well, for what it's worth, if this is our first official date, you're doing an okay job." Glancing up at him her lips curl into a grin. "If you get me  back to my place without getting slapped then you'll know you fared well."

"There's a drug deal going down, and our goal is to stop it." Reese points to the map on the whiteboard in the meeting room. "Intel suggests there's going to be a meeting here at this warehouse. Intel also suggests that there will only be three or four people involved. But if we can bring those four in we will have successfully put two drug rings out of commission - temporarily at least." 

Turning around, he looks to Nate, Dalton, Jason and Con. "Tonight at midnight is when our targets should be meeting. They will most likely be armed and quite dangerous. The police have already had two run-ins with them and the outcome was not pretty. That's why they've come to us.  For some reason, these four have been pretty slippery. But I figure you four against them puts the odds in our favor by far." 

Jason sits at the table with the others, tapping his pencil on the notepad in front of him. It was early evening and all here would be working late tonight. Dalton wasn't usually put in the field, but Pete and Gunner were busy with something else and Wyatt was off. Jason was just as glad Reese was using Dalton though so they'd have four men out there tonight. Con knew his stuff and so did Nate - and Jason trusted Dalton too. He might usually be back here behind the computers, but he was a force to be reckoned with, no doubt. This right here was why they were called the Elite. 

Jason raises his hand slightly. "So you got a game plan or you want us to figure that out?" 

Reese shrugs. "I'm going to leave tactics up to you, although I suggest looking over the printouts Dalton has of the warehouse layout." 

Con leans back in his chair, thinking. "Prolly be good if we had a sniper's view - any buildings closeby?" 

"Mm-hmm. That's why I wanted you in on this. You're the logical pick to keep an eagle's eye on things. There's a building right across the street from this place that has an adequate roof - from there you should be able to see several entrances."

"Okay, good." Con glances to the other three, making eye contact with Nate last. "You're the high ranking officer in this one. What kind of a setup do you see?"

"No... nu-uh... no..." 

Alec rolls his eyes and points to another kind of ice cream in the freezer section of the grocery store. "Come on... you gotta like caramel and chocolate. Everybody does." 

Mackenzie smirks at him. "Maybe you're the weird one. Mint is my favorite."

"Well why didn't you say so to begin with?" Alec shifts the other items around in his arms to pick up the carton of ice cream. "How's this?"

Mackenzie nods. "Okay." 

"Okay... just okay." Alec huffs a sigh and turns to head down one of the other aisles. "Come on, Blondie. Last thing we need is some potato chips to go with the grilled cheese sandwiches tonight." 

He hadn't planned on bringing Mackenzie shopping tonight, but as luck would have it, Misty had called earlier, saying she'd be stuck at work a while longer today... and it just happened to be a night that Mackenzie was joining them for the evening. Ken hadn't seemed too leery dropping off his daughter in Alec's care for a little while... which had turned into more than a little while, with another call asking Alec to get some groceries so Misty could fix supper as soon as she got home. Alec didn't mind, although he wasn't going to risk taking Mackenzie on his motorcycle... yet... so they'd ended up walking to the store. It would take them a while to get back home, but Alec figured they might get there about the same time as Misty. As far as safety went, he was more concerned about being home when Misty was, than being out and about. She was the target, not him or Mackenzie, and Jason wasn't going to be here until quite late, by the sounds of it. 

"Can we get the sour cream and onion kind?" Mackenzie skips ahead to the chip selection, pointing out her favorite kind. 

Alec grins and nods. "Yeah, okay. You're gonna get spoiled, you know that?"

Mackenzie giggles as he grabs the bag of chips. "Isn't that what uncles are for?"

Alec squints and gives her a light shove to the back of the head. "Come on. We got a long walk and we wanna beat Misty back."

Mackenzie sighs. "Do you walk everywhere?"

"Sometimes." Getting up to one of the checkout lanes, Alec stands with her to wait in line. Glancing around, he suddenly spots someone he'd not planned on seeing. His heart jumps, and for a moment, he's caught staring. 

Mackenzie notices his demeanor change, and follows his gaze to a very pretty dark-haired woman. "Who's that?" 

Alec almost jumps. "Huh? Oh, um... Just..." His eyes remained glued on Ryan, watching her head for another checkout lane. 

"Well?" Mackenzie elbows him. 

Alec looks down at her for a moment before sighing. "That would be my ex-girlfriend."

"Seriously?" Mackenzie looks back over to Ryan again. "How come you broke up?"

"Well, I... guess it was my fault." Alec sighs. "Sometimes guys like me aren't too smart." 

"You so look like you wish you hadn't  broke up."

Alec's eyebrows arc. "Hush. I'm not that obvious."

"Oh yes you are." Mackenzie rolls her eyes. "You have no guts when you need them."

"What are you-" Alec stops short as Mackenzie starts to head for Ryan. "Hey, get back here. What are you doing?" 

Mackenzie just keeps right on walking until she'd come up close to Ryan and gotten her attention. "Hi. My name's Mackenzie. I'm with him." She points back to Alec before giving a sigh of disgust. "My feet are killing me and he and I have to walk allll the way back home. But something tells me he is so not going to ask you for a ride. So I thought I'd-"

By now, Alec had caught up to her from behind, and he slips a hand over her mouth. "Ummm..." He looks at Ryan, his face gaining a bit of heat. "Hi. Sorry. This is my niece who... has a big mouth."

Mackenzie shoos away his hand. "I do not!" She smiles sweetly up at Ryan. "You do have a car, right?"

Alec eyes the ceiling and shakes his head. "Mac... your feet will last."

"They will not! I have a blister and-"

"So do I, but you don't see me complaining. Ryan lives the other direction, and it's rude to ask her to give us a ride." He looks down at Mackenzie, throwing her an annoyed glance. "Especially under the circumstances." 

"What circumstances?" She quirks an eyebrow. "You mean about you not being smart enough to keep a girlfriend?"

"Mac!!" 

"Okay, okay!" Mackenzie holds up her hands in defense. "I was just trying to get us home before Misty." 

By now, Alec was more than embarrassed, leaning more towards mortified. Eying Ryan, he cringes a little and clears his throat. "So, um... yeah..."

Unstressful

As Rosalyn leans into him Chad gives a small smile. Taking his hand from her own he places it around his shoulder and pulls her a little closer. This was one of those time she was happy to have a jeep with the seats connected so he could bring her closer and still drive safely.

   "Lets see...what kind of food do I like?"

Chad pauses for a moment keeping his eyes on the road as he continued to drive. Giving a little chuckle while he was thinking about the question. So many things ran through his mind to him it was a bit funny.

   "I pretty much like all food. I think the only reason I don't look like a blimp is because of my line of work. I would have to say something I like to eat the most is steak, and I like lobster too. I kinda feel like a trader though when I eat it. How about you? What are somethings you like to eat?"

Hearing Ariel didn't mind walking on the beach Trey lets out a little sigh of re leaf. He new she wasn't picky on where they went or the stuff they did but there had been a little worry anyways that maybe she wouldn't like the idea of being at the beach this late. Slipping off his own shoes and throwing them into the car along with Ariel's Trey was acceptance to her hand slipping into his locking his fingers with hers.

  "Wonderful night, wonderful Lady by my side, sounds like a good night to me."

Starting to walk forward and feeling the sand under his feet it tickled a little bit. He'd never noticed that before. He wondered why...was it Rosalyn had awoken something inside of him that made him relize more, or was it that he was just taking the time. Maybe it was both.

   "I think this was a good idea. You'll have to forgive me when it comes to dating...I'm a little rusty. "

Pulling Ariel in a little closer Trey puts an arm over her shoulder and brings her in closer to him. Tucking her safly under his arm he continues to walk enjoying the night. He'd never been with a woman like this before. It was different though, it was...unstressful taking it slow and he...liked it.