Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
A cold silence filled the room when Devin walked in, eyes dodging everyone’s. Reina locked eyes with Mia and raised them questioningly. Mia shielded her eyes and shook her head slightly. Daniel walked in seconds later and nodded smiles around “Glad I didn’t miss anything.” He dared to break the silence.
Mia laughed nervously “Not yet, the show hasn’t started—” she was quickly nudged by Darren with a shake of the head.
Daniel nodded “Erin, Ted and I made quite a discovery yesterday night. Carmen, why don’t you introduce Ben.”
She smiled and threw Devin a glance and he nodded in approval “Ben is my first cousin. He’s been in Singapore for the past few years doing volunteer work for Green Peace. When he came back a week ago. He was chased by creditors. Yesterday, he was attacked in broad daylight.”
“Luckily Carmen was there to save me, I only had a cut on the arm.” Ben chimed in.
“What does this have to do with us?” Darren asked with interest.
Matt leaned in “Open your notebooks.” He began scrolling to the correct file and controlled the master computer to show them a picture “This is Ah Mo, supposed love child of Sum Gor, who is the Dai Lou of the Tiger gang. Which is also Hung Hing’s number one rival, the only gang strong enough to possibly take them down. Years ago, there was a huge war and Ah Mo supposedly ran away from the fight.”
“Bad…” Mia shook her head “What a wimp, he should be stabbed to death by the Tigers.”
Matt frowned strangely, she was too familiar with the underground world of Triads “Right. Well, according to Ah Bat, Sum Gor has been looking for Ah Mo for years. He was finally proclaimed missing, in other words dead. You see any resemblance?” he nodded to Ben.
“The scar…and the hair.” Mia pointed out “Otherwise, they could be twins.”
“Exactly.” Matt continued “So we’re going to have Ben go undercover for us as Ah Mo.”
“Has he been trained?” Darren asked.
Shaking his head, he answered “No, we’re going to rely on Ryan for his safety.” Matt smiled down the table at his brother.
“A new identity has been made and we’ve made up information in the Police database just in case there is a mole working for any of the Triads.” Daniel slid the envelop towards Ryan, who stopped it quickly. Opening it, he looked inside where a fake I.D. was made and a key to his apartment “You will go by On Chai from now on.”
“Doug and Jenna will be notified of the changes.” Reina added.
Matt noticed Erin especially quiet as he turned to her “Do you want to add anything Erin?”
Her glazed expression was snapped out as she sat upright “No.” but she quickly changed her mind “Except, Ryan look out for this Sum Gor. He’s sounds very vicious and I don’t think he’ll fall for the trick that easy.”
“I know, Ga Jei. I’ll be very careful.” He nodded firmly.
“Watch out for my cousin.” Carmen added with a smile.
“I’ll die before he does.” Ryan promised.
“Awww, Jenna would be all over you right about now.” Mia cracked. No one laughed except herself as she looked around “Tough crowd.” She muttered.
Devin thought of a few things before he called off the meeting “Mia, I want you to help Ben get his hair ready and does anyone know of any makeup artist that can put on a fake scar?”
Darren nodded “My secretary has a roommate that works for the TVB station as a makeup artist.”
“Perfect, get on that you two.” Devin nodded “Meeting adjourned.” He stood up and turned to Erin before exiting “Can I see you in my office, Erin?”
She didn’t look at him “Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of the team.”
Devin turned his head at everyone as they took the hint and began filing out. Daniel was the last to leave as he gave Erin one last supporting smile. She nodded briefly as the door closed “You think he’s on his knees begging for forgiveness?” Mia asked nosily peeking through the window. Carmen and Reina laughed as the pulled her away.
“I know you’re very angry with me…” he began.
“No. Disappointed.” Erin crossed her arms defensively “I really thought this would work.” She snickered in irony “How stupid of me to believe there was such a thing called truthful relationship.”
“I’m sorry.” Devin said earnestly. He took a step towards her but to his dismay, she backed away “Will you ever find it in you to forgive me?”
She shook her head, she refused to look at him in the face, afraid she would weaken and let her emotions take over “Maybe on my death bed.” She backed towards the door “If there’s nothing else...”
“I love you.” He blurted out.
Her eyes snapped up “You have no right to say those words.” Tears brimming as she turned the knob and left the room in a rush. Erin froze at the front of headquarters where most of the team was still lingering. Mia and Darren had their limo ready as they waved for Ryan, Ben and Carmen to enter. Spinning her heels, she walked the opposite way where she saw Daniel leaning on his car parked on the street.
“Erin.” He smiled “How about breakfast? I wanted to run through some ideas with you.” She lowered her head and he frowned “What’s wrong?”
Shaking her head, she looked up. Her eyes obviously red “Nothing. Come on.” She waited for him to unlock the door and got in hurriedly.
At the deli, he continued talking “…I could slip Doug the information tonight. I hear there’s going to be a huge meeting for Hung Hing. Designating Hung Gor’s sister as the head of the gang. There should be a lot of…” he faded when he noticed she was playing with her drink. Reaching out, he stopped her from twirling the straw “Am I boring you?”
Sighing, she apologized “Sorry. I’m not being very cooperative.”
“Do you want a couple of days off?” he asked sympathetically.
Shaking her head, she answered “No. I don’t want to sit home and think. I’ll just end up crying myself to sleep.” She suddenly realized what she just confessed “I’m sorry that’s too much information.”
He laughed “Stop apologizing.” Smiling, he confessed “To be honest, my first impression of you was a strong willed girl, who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. It was quite admirable. Plus the files they had on you was incredible. I’m sorry about your fiancé.”
Erin sighed, “It’s been years. Let’s not talk about it anymore. Plus, my love life is a drag. One failure after another.” Taking in a deep breath, she decided to start over the day “Okay, let’s get down to business. You were saying about the Hung Hing meeting tonight?”
“There’s the strive! So, I was thinking we can sneak in some tiny speakers or cameras to catch the footage. Get in touch with Doug or Jenna and fill them in on Ryan and Ben…” he continued with the plan as she listened intently.
******************
“Is it supposed to sting?” Ben asked as he winced in pain with each stroke that Mia combed through his hair.
Darren laughed “No, it’s Mia’s special touch. I call it worse than hell.”
“Really, I thought you liked pain?” Mia sighed seductively at her husband.
“Dude, I’m eating!” Ryan pointed to his banana.
“Help yourself.” Mia said sarcastically “What are you doing here anyways? Devin didn’t mention that you needed a dye job.”
He shrugged “Gor said that I cannot leave Ben’s side.”
“You should get use to calling him Mo Gor.” Carmen corrected. She couldn’t help but grin at the facial expressions her cousin was making.
When the house phone rang, Mia turned to Darren “Telephone!” she shrieked.
“I wish she could speak up, I can never hear her.” He rolled his eyes while Carmen and Ryan laughed.
Mia finished the last stroke “Okay, done. Now it says you have to leave the dye on for no more than thirty minutes.” She read from the box “Then we’ll add the streaks after.”
“Is it thirty minutes after you finish dying the last piece of hair?” Carmen asked.
“Or is it from the moment you start to dye his hair?” Ryan chimed in.
“Well, that wouldn’t make any sense. The whole head wouldn’t be evenly distributed.” Carmen added.
Ryan shook his head “It wouldn’t be no matter how you—”
“Oh get a room!” Mia groaned while pulling off the gloves “It’s just hair dye.”
Carmen nodded at Ryan with widened eyes “Wow, she does annoy easy.”
“What did I tell you?” Ryan pushed his chin in the air with a laugh.
“And Doug calls me ‘mou liu’.” Mia laughed to herself.
They turned to Darren who returned minutes later “That was Linda, she said her friend can work on the fake scar tonight at noon.”
“So what do we do in the meantime?” Ryan asked.
“Mommy?” the adults turned to the angelic voice at the stairwell.
“Look what you did, you woke up Bonnie!” Mia glared as she ran up the steps to fetch her daughter.
“Yeah!” Darren barked at Ryan.
He frowned “She was looking at you when she said that.”
“She’s a little cross eyed.” Darren whispered with a chuckle.
“Hi Uncle Ryan, hi Aunt Carmen, hi man I don’t know.” Bonnie waved to the group happily.
“Bonnie, call Uncle Ben.” Darren said.
“Uncle Ben.” She grinned.
“Hi.” Ben said shyly.
Mia placed Bonnie on the ground as the girl rushed over to Carmen and climbed onto her lap adoringly “Aunt Carmen, are you coming to my birthday party?”
“I think so.” Carmen answered with a smile.
“Mommy says you have to come or she’ll make Uncle Luke break you in half.” Bonnie said wide-eyed.
“That’s break UP, sweetie.” Mia corrected “And you tell Luke that he better not miss it or I’ll kick his ass.”
Carmen quickly covered Bonnie’s ears “Mia! Don’t say that A-S-S word in front of her.”
Darren laughed while waving a nonchalant hand “Oh, she’s heard worse. But don’t worry Bonnie knows better to copy mommy’s potty mouth.”
“Yes, it’s not lady like.” Bonnie agreed.
Ryan laughed, “So you don’t want to be like mommy?” he gathered her into his arms while Mia threw him an evil glare and stepped towards him. He quickly used Bonnie as a shield, swinging her here and there while the girl was giddy with laughter.