“Yeah, I could see that working out well for you. How old are the triplets now?” I asked.
Cap glared at me. “I’m not saying that I would stay home all the time.”
“Right,” Florrie laughed. “Because if you walked away from here, Maggie would just stay home and take care of the kids while you moved on to something else.”
“No kidding. She would stick you with the kids while she went and chased down stories,” Craig chimed in. “Seriously, we’re the better option, Cap.”
“Why does that not make me feel better?” he grumbled just as the door opened.
“Yo,” Hunter said, walking in and slapping me on the shoulder. Derek and Rocco followed and sat around the table. “Team meeting? Are we all going out on a job?”
“Something like that,” Cap answered. “We’re just waiting on Storm’s team.”
“Question, when did it become Storm’s team?” Derek asked.
“When Coop lost his shit and decided he didn’t give a shit about leading the team anymore.”
“I think Tacoman could have been a good team leader,” Rocco nodded. “The kid has the chops for it.”
“The kid is thirty-fucking-two,” Tacos said from the doorway. “Why does everyone look at me like the newbie?”
“Because you’re the youngest here,” Cap reminded him.
“Am I not good enough?” Storm asked, placing his hands over his chest like he was hurt. “You wound me.”
“I think we all know that our team would have fallen apart if Storm hadn’t stormed in,” Tacos chuckled to himself, “and taken over.”
“Wow,” I said blandly. “How long did it take you to come up with that gem?”
“You’re an asshole,” Tacos growled at me before flopping down in his seat.
“So, what’s this about?” Storm asked as he took a seat across the table.
Cap looked around the room at everyone, his face serious as he studied everyone. I felt like shit for breaking up another team. That wasn’t my intention, but I knew it needed to happen.
“Alec has decided to leave his team.”
“What?” Derek demanded. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Yeah, and what does that have to do with us?” Hunter asked, his gaze narrowing in on Florrie and I.
Cap looked to me to explain. I cleared my throat, looking one last time at Florrie. “On our last job, Florrie and I had a bit of a disagreement. It caused some problems on the job. Not enough that the job was affected, but it made me realize that we can’t keep going the way we are now. As the team leader, I made the decision to leave for the good of the team.”
Everyone looked around at each other, obviously wondering what was coming next.
“Obviously,” Cap stated, “we would like to keep Alec on one of the active teams. Now, we have two options here. Alec could take on a different role in the company and we can hire in someone to replace him on the team. What that role is has yet to be determined.”
“What’s the second option?” Storm asked warily.
“The second option is that someone would switch teams. I brought in the two teams that I thought would be most likely to switch.”
“Whoa,” Derek said, holding up his hands. “Cap, I know that our team is a little newer than some of the others, but we have a rhythm. We all work well together. Why would you think breaking us up is a good idea?”
“Because you have two medics on your team. At the time, when we hired Rocco, your team was the only team that had an opening, so his medical experience took a backseat to what the team needed. But having him on another team, having another medic with another team would be a huge benefit.”
“So, it’s me you want to move,” Rocco surmised.
“I’m not saying you have to. It’s one option. The other choice would be moving someone from Storm’s team. You guys have barely done any jobs together. Moving you around at this stage would still be easy enough to navigate.”
“Yeah, but which one of us would make that move?” Coop questioned.
“Look, I think any of you would be a good fit. And you’ve all trained together long enough that I think it would be an easy transition,” Cap said.
It was silent around the room as everyone thought about what I was asking. I could feel Craig and Florrie glaring at me, unhappy with the decision I had made, but I knew it was for the best.
“I’ll do it,” Rocco spoke up.
“Thanks, man,” Derek ground out. “I’m really feeling the love.”
“Yeah, we went on the run with you,” Hunter piped up.
“You took pictures of me on the toilet,” Rocco shot back. “And you left me in a jail cell overnight.”
“And look at how that turned out,” Derek snapped. “We practically made it possible for you and Brooke to find a connection.”
“Yeah, that had nothing to do with me,” he retorted.
“Still, we have something special. Our team is rock solid. Why would you want to split us up?” Derek asked.
Hunter snorted, shaking his head. “Yeah, we’ve already been through this once. It’s not fun.”
“Look, it’s not that I don’t like working with you guys,” Rocco said. “I like our team and you’re right, we do work well together. But Cap has a point. My skills as a medic would be advantageous to another team. I was a medic for years, and now those skills are on the back burner.”
“Not if I decide to shoot Hunter. He’s a real pain in the ass sometimes.”
“Aside from that,” Rocco said, narrowing his eyes at Derek. “It just makes sense that I make the transition. Besides, Craig and Florrie are closer in age to me.”
“By like five years,” Derek said incredulously.
“And that means our team will stay together longer. Face it,” Rocco grinned. “You’re old men and your time is almost up.”
Derek shoved back from his chair and Hunter snagged him around the arms to hold him
