The Mystery Of The Missing Post-It Notes
(ATF)

by Kayim

Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. If they were, they'd be naked more often.
Summary: In Team Seven's office, nothing is sacred.
Rating: G
Challenge: Write a story where a mystery plays a key role in the story.
Author's Note: Inspired by the fact that a certain work colleague of mine has a habit of stealing both pens and post-it notes from my desk. You know who you are!

All was quiet in the offices of Team Seven. No bad guys to chase. No clandestine meetings to bust. No weasels to intimidate.

Team Seven were bored to death.

Ezra sat at his computer, surfing the 'net to see if there were any hints of weapon trades. JD and Buck were deep in a game of Diablo 2 across the internal network. Vin and Nathan had decided to go on a long-overdue coffee run to Starbucks. Josiah was flirting with Caroline downstairs, trying to replace some of the stationary that always appeared to go missing from his desk.

Chris, sitting in his office alone, decided to see if there was anything even slightly more interesting than catching up on his filing. Wandering into the main part of the office, he was just in time to catch JD shout "Die, Griswald, Die" and hammer various keys on his keyboard. With a shrug, he perched himself on the edge of Ezra's desk and looked over at the computer screen.

"Found anything?"

"Not since the last time you asked me, no," Ezra replied rather irritably. He hated to be rushed and he hated anyone sitting on his desk. If he wanted the thing polishing he would damn well do it. Unfortunately, with Chris being his superior, advising him of possible other occupations for his buttocks may not go down too well.

Doing his best to ignore the man currently flicking through the paperwork on his desk, Ezra continued searching online.

"Nice pen."

"Yes, Chris, it is. And it's mine."

"Just commenting."

After a while of fiddling with every possible item on Ezra's desk, Chris wandered off, back into his office, with a quick "I know what you're doing" to JD and Buck, who showed no signs of remorse.

Ezra, relieved, turned his attention back to the website he was perusing. An odd comment stuck out and he suspected some kind of code. Looking for a notepad, he was horrified to realise that his usually well-stocked desk was completely devoid of any kind of note paper.

"Mr Wilmington..."

"Not now Ez, just about to get killed."

Under his breath, Ezra muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "you will be" and tried again.

"Buck."

"Damn." Buck slammed his fist down on the desk and stretched up in his seat to talk to JD. "Hold the fort, Kid. What?" he snapped at Ezra, who had obviously been the entire cause of his character's untimely demise. Not the fact that he had been trying to simultaneously chat online with Julianna.

"Is it possible that somewhere on that bombsite you call a desk that you have some post-it notes?"

Buck rummaged amongst the CD's, car magazines, unfinished reports and empty fast food wrappers but came up empty handed.

"Sorry Ez. I had some, I know it. Can't imagine where they got to."

Ezra sighed.

"I opened a new pack yesterday," came JD's voice from behind the monitor. "Hang, on, I'll find them."

Like Buck, JD failed in his mission.

"Where the hell have they all gone?" Buck was starting to sound more concerned than he should be, considering they were only talking about pieces of yellow paper.

"Maybe someone's stealing them?" suggested JD.

Or maybe you accidentally ate them when you were stuffing your face with donuts this morning, thought Ezra, rather uncharitably, especially as they had saved him one of his favourite jelly ones.

"It's like something Sherlock Holmes would have to deal with," said Buck. "The mystery of the missing post-it's."

Jumping onto the ludicrous bandwagon, JD forgot about the game and headed over to Ezra's desk.

"When did you last see the alleged missing object?" he asked in his best English accent, which was about as good as Chris's sense of humour.

Ignoring the younger man, Ezra began checking the desks of his absent colleagues. Surely someone must have some.

*******

Meanwhile, Chris finally succumbed to the boredom and decided to start filing. Picking up the huge amount of reports, he opted to sort them into groups, labelling each pile as he went. He opened his desk drawer for some post-it notes and was intrigued to see approximately 20 pads. Wondering how they all go there, he tried to remember the last time he had used one.

It was yesterday. He had been the first person in that morning and was heading straight into a meeting with Travis, so he wanted to leave a note for Buck. He'd found JD's post-it notes on his desk. After writing the note and pulling the top sheet off, he had slipped the pad in his top pocket. After the meeting, he'd emptied his pockets into his drawer, as usual.

Oops. He really needed to apologise to JD. Then he remembered something else.

A few days earlier. Taking orders for the coffee run. Ezra's post-it notes. Popping them in his back pocket.

Sometime last week. Sitting at Josiah's desk and taking a phone message for him. The post-it's had ended up on top of the pile of paperwork he carried back to his desk.

Damn. He was some kind of serial, sub-conscious, post-it thief. There was no way he'd admit it to the others. Especially not Ezra. He'd just hide them all and start putting them back when no one was around. Good plan. He pulled out all the pads in his desk and started sorting them, deciding which ones to put back where.

A knock at the door jolted him out of his cunning plan.

"What?"

"Mr Larabee. I seem to recall that a few days ago, you used my post-it pad for the coffee list. I haven't seen it since."

Chris hurriedly stuffed all the conspicuous yellow pads into his drawer, just as Ezra opened the door and walked in.

Slamming the drawer shut, Chris looked up accusingly at Ezra. "Are you indicating something?"

"What did you just hide in that drawer?" Ezra asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Nothing."

Ignoring the glaring looks he was getting, Ezra walked around the desk and nudged Chris aside.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Standish?" Chris tried to sound authoritarian, but the truth was that he was nervous. If there was one thing he hated, it was being caught out in a lie. Or being accused of being a thief. Not that he had actually been accused before, but he was sure he would hate it.

Ezra continued to ignore Chris and opened the drawer.

End. Without a word, he walked back to the door and called out to Buck and JD. "Gentlemen. I think the mystery of the missing post-it's has been resolved..."

THE END

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