I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 74 : Unbeatable and Unsinkable

"Okay guys, please. Attention !" exclaimed Greg in the middle of his team openspace.  He succeeded in catching the attention of half of his team but the  other half continued their chatting and working without even noticing  him.
"SHUT UP !" yelled Donovan to the ear of her nearby colleagues who were still discussing the result of the last rugby game.
"Thank you, Sally." nodded the detective. "Right everybody, if you've read your emails lately - which I hope you have ...- you know we won't be working this afternoon."
A  few smiles and cheering came from the policemen gathered around their  boss. Half of them were looking surprised by the announcement, a clear  sign that they hadn't read their emails in the last few hours but  Gregory decided not to show that he've noticed, not willing to start the  team's afternoon in a bad mood.
"Right so, we are not working  because Sally have organised something for us all. Team building !"  smiled the DI. "I'll let her explain you what we will be doing maybe ?"
"Thank you, Greg." replied the young woman. "So, do any of you know what is a Laser Game ?"
"It's  this thing were you are locked in a room during like an hour with fake  guns and shoot at one another in the dark ?" answered Donougher, unsure  but apparently please by the idea.
"Pretty much exact Dough." smiled  the policewoman. "So this is what we are up to this afternoon. I've  chosen a nice one not to far from here so what I suggest is that we take  a couple of cars and moved there quickly. We've got a booking at 2.30,  so chop chop, lets go."
The  six of them grabbed their coats and made their way to the garage,  gathering into Greg and Sally's cars and following the latter through  the London traffic. As Donovan had said, the establishment was only 10  minutes away from the office but they still arrived late as they spent  more than 20 minutes finding a place to park, making Greg wonder if it  wouldn't have been quicker to come by foot.
They finally manage to  make it to the building and after apologizing heavily for being so late  they were briefed and equipped with plastic armours and guns and their  face painted in UV paint, each of them letting one of their colleague  draw on their face, most of them ending with rude drawing all over their  forehead and cheeks. Gregory, on the other hand, ended up with Sally  drawing flowers on his forehead and cat whiskers on his cheek and a  picture being sent to Mycroft by the woman without the inspector  noticing it.
"All right everybody." exclaim the place owner. "I need  you to separate in two teams, find team names and nicknames for every  member please."
"I'll take the girl and the village idiot." decided Greg, pointing out to Sally and Donougher.
"Hey ! You fucker, I'm not an idiot !" protested his adjunct.
"Come on Dough, we all know you are." laughed one of his colleague, gathering the other team.
"Have you got a team name ?" the owner requested, smiling at the childish argument.
"I think we will go by 'The unbeatable', modestly." chuckled the detective.
"So,  The Unbeatable. Formed by the Girl, the Village Idiot and who ? The  boss, the fucker or the cat ?" repeated the man, entering the  information on his computer.
"I think the Fucker would be damn fair !" exclaimed Donougher, earning himself cheers from his colleague.
"Alright..." nodded Greg, chuckling. "But that will earn you an entire week of my bloody paperwork."
"What about you ?" requested the owner to the other team.
"The Unsinkable." answered Anderson with a mocking look to his boss. "Composed of the Good – that's me -, the Bad and the Ugly."
"And what about you being the Ugly and me being the great ?" exclaimed his colleague, slapping him on the shoulder.
"Ok  teams, that's all sorted out. Time to enter the arena. One you'll be in  you'll have one minutes to disperse in the maze before the music began,  indicating that your devices have been activated. Alright ?"
"Yes sir !" all of them yelled happily before entering the dark room.
The  two team separate, Greg discreetly giving his order to his team on  their strategy while Anderson was trying to manage his own. They were  still running around the place trying to find the best spot when the  music started, launching the hostility. Not even half a minute later,  Gregory was already attacked by one of the guys from the Unsinkable team  that he had trouble to identify due to the dim lightning and the  identical rude drawing on each and every of the team's faces.
The guy  scored twice before Sally came to rescue her boss and placed a couple  of virtual bullet in the man's back in complete disloyalty. The  detective nodded thankfully before both of them moved to another  position before Anderson's team gather around them. They had no idea  where was Donougher but decided not to go behind him and to concentrate  on finding the best sniper position. They finally settled themselves in a  corner with only two access and position themselves to cover it both.
They  waited for a few minutes, not having any opportunities to take a shoot  and understood that snipping was probably not the best technic has it require  the other team to put themselves into the trap so they went back on the  move and tried to find the other team by following the noise. Sally  suddenly stopped and taped on her boss shoulder, gesturing toward a  human shape that appeared to be Anderson's back. The young woman kneeled  and adjust her shoot while the detective was covering her back to be  sure no one would take advantage of her position to attempt a shoot at  her.
All their bright technic  went messed up when the two other Unsinkable team members fell on their  back and start shooting them like game's target earning themselves a  frantic repartee from Greg and Sally and they just started chasing each  other like kids, laughing frantically and not being exactly sure who  they were shooting at, only making sure it wasn't someone of their own  team by checking the colour of the lights on their armour.
After an  hour more of running around, screaming one to another to be heard over  the loud music and running through walls when not looking in front of  them, they exited the maze all red and sweaty but definitely in a very  cheerful mood. They all collapse into the reception's room's couch right  after they've been taken their armours away and waited for the place  owner to announce the results.
"Right. Here we go." informed the man. "Winners with 218 points ... The un ... beatable ! Congratulation !"
"Cheaters !" roared the opposite team, sore losers.
The  owner handled each of them their individual mark's table while they  were all breaking into laughters. Surprisingly enough, the best scorer  was no one from the Unbeatable team but the most junior officer from  Anderson's team, even if their head team had performed so badly it  wasn't surprising that he didn't had the right to carry a gun in real life.
"Why,  according to you, your team as performed so badly, even if you had the  best shooter of us all Phillip ?" demanded Greg, deadpan.
"Come on, why are we even debriefing a bloody laser game ?" chuckled Anderson.
"I'll  say you why you fucker. Because you are lucky it's not real guns or  you'll be dead 27 times in a single hour." laughed his boss.
"That's why I'm in the damn forensics. I don't risk my life by facing dead bodies." retorted Phillip, pulling out his tongue.
"You got the point I suppose." agreed Gregory. "But still, I'll say you why. We won because we had a strong leadership and a fucking team communication !"
"For the first 6 minutes actually." tempered Sally, making everyone laugh once again.
"Come  on, it's time for a pint on the losers I'll say." proposed Donougher  having everyone raising to their feet in less time needed to say it.
They  made it to one of the local pubs and gather around a table of the  already crowded establishment. It was Friday's afternoon and despite the  exhaustion from the week, the six of them were in the best of mood and  after a couple of pints they were all about laughing frantically and  commenting again and again the disastrous team management of their laser  game, trying to determine who had been the worst between Greg and  Phillip.
Around seven, the detective felt his phone buzzing and  checked it to discover a text from his partner asking him where he was.  He hesitated to apologize and turn back home but finally decided to  invite Mycroft along and proposed to the other team members to invite  their own wives and boyfriend for diner down at the pub.
Surprisingly  enough, the official agreed and half an hour later he was sat beside  his partner, Alden happily sat on Sally's lap, playing morpion  with her on the paper table set while they were waiting for their food.  It wasn't the first time they had team diners like this one but it was a  complete first for them to invite their partners along and apart from  Anderson, everyone had one to bring. They were without any doubt the  loudest table in the pub, half of them having probably had a few too  much drink but for once, everyone was talking cheerfully to everyone  else and even Sally and Phillip had been able to discuss without getting  piss at each other.
Alden was passing from laps to laps,  loving to be the centre of everyone's attention and the team being  amazed by the little boy vitality and skills. But soon enough the  toddler started to feel sleepy and his fathers decided it was time for  them all to pay their farewell to the others and make it home. Greg was  definitely to drunk to drive so the auburn had to call for a car and an  extra driver to bring the BMW back to Kensington Palace Garden.
In  Greg's mind this had been one of the best afternoon and evening he never  had spent with his team and he had good hope that it would help putting  back his team in a better and more disciplined spirit for a few weeks.  Having Mycroft joining the was also a big surprise as the elder Holmes  was not one for noisy and crappy pub but Gregory really appreciated the  effort his husband made and it seems like the auburn had a great time  despite his prejudices or at least he faked it really well.