Part 3

Aries reached for her phone wondering if it was her mysterious caller or someone that she needed to speak with about Section business. She was tempted not to answer but if it was Operations and she didn't answer it, she really did have a problem on her hands.

"Yes?" Aries answered in the way she usually did only sounding a little more weary than she normally did.

"Hey, what's up?" North responded worried about the way Aries answered her phone.

"Oh, not much. You?" Aries asked trying to mask her current stressful situation. She knew it was of no use but she tried anyway.

"I'm fine but you're lying to me." North replied accusingly. Aries and North almost never lied to each other unless it was Black Ops related. The two were very close.

"Somehow I knew that you wouldn't see through that. Meet me for coffee in fifteen minutes in my office and I'll fill you in." Aries responded resigned that there was no way out of telling North what was going on. Besides, if anyone could help her figure out who it was, North was top on the list.
North readily agreed and they got off the phone just as Birkoff's voice filled the room.

"Aries?" Birkoff asked.

"Yeah, what's up Birkoff?" Aries asked hopeful that Birkoff had found something useful.

"Can you come down here? There's something that you need to see." Birkoff said tired. He was being overworked in this place but had too big of a heart to turn down anyone when they were in a bind.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes." Aries responded and then waited for North to arrive. North being there timely person that she was, knocked on Aries' office door precisely fifteen minutes after hanging up the phone with her.

"Ok, what's going on?" North said walking into the room.

Aries quickly filled her in on the situation and then the two headed down to comm to see what Birkoff had to show them.

Birkoff looked up surprised to see North walking up with Aries and put his guard up. He didn't know how much Aries had told the other mom so he wasn't going to leak anything considering the close relationship that North had with Operations.

"It's ok, I told her what's going on. She wants to help." Aries assured Birkoff as they gathered close to view on the computer screen what Birkoff had to show them. Aries' jaw dropped at the sight.

"I found this shortly after you left. I got to thinking about you saying that Walter's missing a voice modulator and remembered that there are surveillance cameras in munitions just in case someone did take it upon themselves to borrow something they should not have. This is what I found."
Birkoff said noticing Aries' shock.

"What would O'Brien want with a voice modulator?" Aries asked in shock.

"Could he be the person who called you?" North asked wondering.

O'Brien had gone out on a few missions with Aries since she had been back and had frequently asked North about Aries' whereabouts and her current romantic involvement’s. North remembered this and told Aries.

"It couldn't be!" Aries exclaimed just as DeLeah walked up to the trio.

"What's going on?" DeLeah asked. "New development?"

"Yeah, I'd say! What did you find out?" Aries asked desperately hoping that DeLeah had found something for her.

"Well, where do you want me to begin?" DeLeah asked not sure her friend was going to want to hear the news.

"At the beginning please!" Aries responded getting impatient.

"Ok, here goes…" DeLeah began.

Part 4 -

"Michael was in his office at the time of the call that you received working on a current mission he's in charge of." DeLeah responded.

"Well, he could have made the call. You know he has a voice modulator that he doesn't have to turn in." Aries responded hopefully.

"Uh, Aries, I don't think it was Michael…" DeLeah began sort of unsure about letting her friend down. She didn't know the new development but it obviously wasn't something that made Aries very happy.

"Why?" Aries asked suddenly on guard.

"Because Michael wasn't alone in his office. He had Mentz and Sherry with him. They're a part of his team for that particular mission he was working on." DeLeah revealed.

"Damn!" Aries exclaimed frustrated. She'd wanted it to be Michael so badly.

"I'm sorry. So what's the new development?" DeLeah asked curious trying to distract Aries from the news she'd just received.

"O'Brien took a voice modulator out of Comm without anyone knowing about it. Birkoff found the surveillance tape of him doing it." North explained because Aries was still trying to figure things out in her head. O'Brien had never hinted anything towards having romantic feelings for her. He's always treated her like a respected colleague.

"What are you going to do?" Birkoff asked.

"Have you found out why that call isn't showing up on my incoming call log yet?" Aries asked suddenly remembering that.

"No but I'm running a program now that traces anyone who accessed it in the last 12 hours. I should know soon." Birkoff replied easily distracted from his previous question.

"Good, let me know when you find anything out. Right now I need that cup of coffee you and I were going to have in my office (Aries turned to North speaking) care to join me for that?" Aries asked North and gestured to DeLeah that she was included in the invitation.

"Sure." Both ladies responded. It was a first for DeLeah to be included in the "mommy fold" and she wasn't sure about it.

The three ladies headed for Aries' office quickly. They wanted to talk about the current situation more and see if they could figure out how and why this was going on.

When Aries' keyed in the code to open her office door and opened it she was in for more of a surprise than she could have ever bargained for. The whole interior of her office was covered in white gardenias. Not many people knew that this was her favorite flower. Michael was one of the few. There was an occasional bouquet of peach colored roses with red tips that was her second favorite. The scent was powerful but pleasing to Aries as she walked in.

"Who in the world could have done this? How would they have gotten into my office?" Aries asked shocked.

"Well, I'd have to say it's your mysterious caller." DeLeah responded picking up the gardenias from one of the chairs and sitting down in it.

"That would be my guess. I'd say they really want to impress you going to this extreme." North responded with a smile. She knew that her friend could not be won easily and the admirer was going about this in the right way to win her over.

"But how did they get in? No one but me has the codes to that door!" Aries responded then realizing that Birkoff did too being the head of comm. "Except Birkoff!"

North and DeLeah looked at each other surprised at Aries' revelation. Birkoff had access to just about all Intel inside of Section including access codes to the mommies' offices.

"What if Birkoff was your admirer?" DeLeah asked wondering.

"I doubt that. He's too busy with Mcddor to worry about trying to win me over. He's completely mad about that girl. It has to be someone who knows how to work with a computer to get confidential Intel or this person has an accomplice." Aries mused while rearranging flowers in her office so that she could get to the coffeepot and brew a pot of Irish crème coffee. To her surprise when she reached the pot, the coffee was already made but she couldn't smell the strong scent due to the overpowering scent of flowers.

"Well, this guy sure did his homework about me!" Aries exclaimed and poured three cups of coffee giving North and DeLeah cups then made her way to her desk and sat in her chair.

"I wonder if there's a note with these flowers." DeLeah mused and began searching through the many bouquets to see. North joined her but Aries just sat and watched them. She was thinking of a way to bring this person out into the open.

Sure enough, in the center and largest bouquet of gardenias on top of Aries' desk there was a card that read:

"Please meet me outside in the gazebo tonight after dinner to watch the sunset."

Signed,
Your admirer

Aries read the card out loud to the two women in the room and then became quiet. Maybe she should just meet the person since it seemed that they were a part of Section already.

North already knew the direction the wheels of Aries' mind were taking and smiled. Her friend needed to get out a little after being cramped in this office so much lately due to work.

"Why don't you just meet the guy and see who it is?" North commented encouraging her friend's thoughts. DeLeah just looked back and forth between the two.

"That would be against protocol North and you know it!" Aries replied fighting the urge.

"Yeah, but that didn't stop us on Black Ops!" DeLeah responded helping North out. DeLeah also knew how hard her friend was working on the dance and missions and wanted to see her get out and have some fun for a while.

"No, but there isn't much protocol on Black Ops either." Aries pointed out not really taking the bait.

"So what about protocol? Don't worry about Ops, I'll take care of him!" North responded smiling and waving her hand in the air. "This is my time with him!"

"You're not going to let it be unless I go meet this guy are you?" Aries responded resigned.

"You got that right!" North responded and DeLeah nodded her head smiling as well.

"Oh all right! I'll meet him tonight!" Aries responded exasperated.

The two ladies left Aries' office happy that they'd won the battle. They wanted to see how this turned out so they made sure that they had front row seats to the show after dinner.