Talent Night

By Sherry

(Disclaimer: Credits for the songs used are listed at the end of the story.)

Part 1

Sherry headed for North's office. In her new position as one of the CLHQ "moms," she attended regular meetings with North and Trace to handle CLHQ business, assign tasks, troubleshoot, discuss scheduling, assign missions, review and update files, etc. So far she had pretty much kept quiet, watched and listened. She was still new to the job and wanted to observe things before jumping in with both feet.

She walked into North's office and was greeted by her friends. "Okay then, let's get down to business." North began. "We've got a lot to cover today. A few new recruits want to join CLHQ and we have to peruse their files and make our decision. There are also a few scheduling matters to handle and a couple of vacation requests."

After two hours of wrangling over scheduling, recruit admittance to CLHQ, and other minor details, they were about to wrap up the meeting when North remembered another matter they needed to handle.

"Oh, I almost forgot. It's time for the annual CLHQ/Section Talent Night." Trace rolled her eyes and Sherry groaned.

"Come on guys, it's not THAT bad." Turning to Sherry she continued, "Sherry, seeing as how you're the new mom on the block, you have the distinct privilege of organizing and overseeing it this year."

Sherry sat there speechless for a few seconds. "What? Me, plan this thing?"

Trace made a sound that could only be considered the combination of a mew and a cat with a furball. Sherry threw her a dirty look.

"On that note, I'm outta here," Trace said and quickly jumped up and left the office.

Sherry turned back to North. "You can't be serious. I've never planned anything like this. No one likes this thing ... they won't cooperate. And besides, everyone knows this is Operations' favorite night of the year. I think you'd better handle it." (Anyone who had been around Section for any length of time knew that Operations loved to perform. Whether it was singing, acting, whatever ... he loved it. It was a common theory that if Operations hadn't been recruited into Section, he would have become an entertainer upon his return to the States.)

North laughed. "Now you know the true joys of leadership. And I'm totally serious. Operations wants to hold it on Friday evening, two weeks from today. So I suggest you get busy. Oh, and by the way, Operations actually suggested you plan it this year."

Sherry sighed. "North, I can't do this. How in the world do you expect me to get these people to cooperate? Like any of them are going to volunteer to make fools of themselves in front of the rest of us."

North shook her head. "How you do it is entirely up to you, but, if you can't persuade them, just tell them participation is mandatory or they'll end up in Abeyance. Works every time."

Sherry stood up. "Fine. So, North, seeing as how participation is mandatory and all ... just what are you going to do for us?"

North looked up at Sherry. "Very funny. Don't even think about getting me involved in this."

Sherry studied North for a few seconds and then turned the page on her clipoard. "Fine. I'll simply tell Operations that you were uncooperative and will not perform for his Talent Show."

North shook her head. "Boy, you certainly learn quick. Okay. Once you have a theme worked out, let me know and then I'll tell you what I'm doing."

Sherry smiled widely and then demurely added, "Why thank you ever so much, North." North picked up the nearest thing, which happened to be a container of paper clips and threw it at Sherry. Being the quick and agile operative that she was, Sherry easily dodged the flying object and was out the door when she heard the container hit the wall and paper clips fly all over the place.

Sherry went back to her room and booted up her computer. She was working out the details and trying to come up with a schedule when Michael entered. "Hello, mon amour. What are you doing?" he asked as he leaned down over her shoulder and kissed her cheek.

Sherry turned to him for another kiss and then answered, "Just working on my first real function as a CLHQ mom."

Michael nodded. "Sounds serious. Need any help?"

Sherry shook her head. "Not yet. But I will be asking for your help a little later."

Michael threw his jacket on the sofa and went to the fridge for a couple of Diet Cokes. "Fine. Whatever you need. So, what do you say we go to a movie this evening?"

Sherry shook her head. "Sorry Michael. I'd love to, but I have to get this done. I've gotta have it worked out tonight so I can begin to implement it tomorrow. Rain check?"

Michael nodded. "Always." Then he tried a ploy that almost always worked. "I suppose I could ask Rita to go with me."

Sherry, knowing what he was up to, didn't even turn around to look at him. "Yeah, I guess you could. I'm sure she would love to go."

Michael laughed. "Okay, you really must be serious. The Rita ploy always works."

Sherry shook her head and laughed. "Yeah, well, this time it won't. Sorry. But, if you're free later, I might drop in."

Michael walked over and massaged her neck and shoulder muscles for a few minutes. "I should be free all evening, unless something breaks with the Jakarta mission. Drop by whenever you're done." Then he leaned down, kissed her once more, grabbed his jacket and disappeared through the door.

Sighing, Sherry turned back to her computer. She worked quietly for a while and finally had the schedule worked out. Now she needed a theme. She flipped on her radio and it hit her immediately. She laughed out loud ... she knew a lot of people would have a fit, but she was going with it. And she would have a ball watching all of them.

She quickly typed up the memorandum and sent it off to everyone. It simply read:

She chuckled to herself again, imagining their faces when they read that message. The moans, the groans ... and the interesting email she would receive. This just might turn out to be a fun little project after all! Now, she simply had to devise incentives and/or "promises" to use as a way to get everyone's cooperation. Of course, knowing each of her friends as well as she did, it didn't take long to get that list together.

Having finished what she could for the night, Sherry got up, stretched her aching shoulder muscles, and made her way to Michael's door. She knocked and Michael immediately opened the door, took her hand and ushered her inside.

************

Part 2

The next morning Sherry headed back to North's office. She had decided that it would be best to get the leaders and key personnel on board first, then it wouldn't be quite so hard to get the rank and file to cooperate. She'd had quite a time convincing Michael to cooperate. She had known he would be difficult, but really! Finally, she reverted to her well established "subtle hint, moment of passion, sweetly delivered threat" routine to get him to give in. She was still amazed that it had worked.

Now she had to get North and Trace on the schedule. Then it was Operations and Madeline. After those four were out of the way, the others should be a breeze. She knocked on North's door and was granted entrance. "Hey Sherry. What can I do for you?"

Sherry laughed. "Oh I think you know. Remember our little conversation yesterday? I assume you got my email." North sighed. "Yes, I did. And I know you must be kidding about the theme. Country western? I mean, really. What were you thinking?"

Sherry looked wounded. "Well, North, I'm sorry. I thought you gave me the okay to do whatever I wanted with the program. I thought country and western would be fun. But if you really think it's awful, I guess I can scrap the whole thing and start over. I just thought we would get to see a whole new side to everybody this way."

North felt somewhat guilty that she had made a fuss. "Sorry. I guess I'm just not in a particularly good mood today. Really, it's fine. I mean, country western isn't that bad. Especially the new stuff that they're doing these days. Your theme is fine. And ..." North paused, not wanting to, but knowing she had to, "you can put me down to sing a number."

"Really?" Sherry asked, still seeming unsure of whether she would have to scrap the whole idea and start over again. "Are you sure?"

North nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. It's fine, and I'm sure you will do a great job."

Sherry smiled tentatively. "Thanks North. I really appreciate it." Then she got up to leave.

"No problem," North called after her as Sherry shut the door. Once outside of North's office Sherry could hardly contain her laughter. "Well, that's one down. I just hope the rest are as easy to convince!"

Next up was Trace. Sherry went to Trace's room and knocked. There was some grumbling on the other side of the door, but eventually the door flung open. There stood Trace, clearly having been awakened from a sound sleep.

"Sherry, what is it? Is there an emergency?"

Sherry shook her head. "No, Trace. Sorry. I was just making the rounds to sign people up for the Talent Show. I've snagged Michael and North so far. I was just wondering what you will be doing for us."

Trace snorted. "Not a thing. I don't do talent shows. Now, if you don't mind, I would really like to get back to my cat nap."

Sherry stood there a moment and then continued. "Are you sure, Trace? I mean, you're a very gifted person, you know."

Trace laughed. "Nice try, Sherry, but no way. I will not be making a fool out of myself in front of everybody!"

Sherry nodded and then referred to her clipboard. "Okay." As she turned to leave she said, "Oh shoot! I forgot to contact security and have all shipments of Doritos and Dew to CLHQ stopped indefinitely. And I've got to remember to tell them that if anything like that shows up to immediately dispose of it. I'd better get right on that. Thanks, anyway, Trace. I'll talk to you later."

Trace paused for a few seconds and then said, "Wait. You know that's dirty pool ... but I love it. Fine. I'll do something. Give me a few more hours to think about it, and I'll let you know."

Sherry smiled. "Thanks Trace. I really do appreciate it."

"Yeah, right," Trace grumbled as she shut the door behind Sherry and headed back to bed.

Sherry's morning continued in much the same manner. Lots of people wanting nothing to do with the talent show and an equal amount of threats and promises to get them to change their minds. A few people were really quite easy to convince. Like Birkoff. All she had to do was threaten to tell Operations that Birkoff was being uncooperative and he changed his mind very quickly. Then there was Curlly. Sherry promised to have North and Christopher stop supplying cheesecake and Curlly was volunteering her services in no time. And on and on and on it went. DragonLady was promised no exercise, no martial arts, and no weapons training for the foreseeable future. Kathy was guaranteed teaming with Bauer for an indeterminate amount of time ... and no Davenport. Nabiki was informed that Roy couldn't wait to see her perform.

Rita, of course, was difficult. Sherry thought long and hard about that one. Eventually, she simply went to Rita and told her that participation was mandatory and that if she didn't cooperate, Operations would see that she was assigned very low-level grunge work for the foreseeable future. She wasn't thrilled, but Rita agreed to help.

Operations had promised Sherry that he would get Madeline's cooperation. There were a few people who were adamant about not performing, and Sherry had to resort to her last hope ... this was a Directive from Operations. That pretty much took care of everyone else.

Finally, having everyone on board, Sherry was exhausted. She hadn't made a lot of friends today, but she was sure they would all enjoy themselves once they got into the swing of it. Hopefully that would make up for all the trouble she was causing them.

Let's find out what happens next...