Work Text:
A Mild Misunderstanding
by Irena Adler
When the voice shouted for Marshall to freeze, he didn't. He wasn't used to people yelling things like that at him, so his first instinct was to turn toward the noise.
It wasn't until he saw the gun pointed at his face that the meaning of `freeze' percolated through his brain. He still didn't freeze, but he did put his hands up.
"What? Wait!" Marshall stammered. "I'm a friend of Dr. Eppes, this is his office!"
The big blond behind the gun narrowed his eyes. He took one hand off the gun and unclipped a badge from his belt. He held the badge up but Marshall barely registered it, unable to tear his eyes from the barrel of the gun.
"FBI," the man repeated. "I'm aware that this is Dr. Eppes's office. How did you get in here?"
"Get ... huh?"
"Breaking and entering into the office-"
"I didn't break anything!"
"-of a professor known to work with highly classified material-"
"A Sudoku solver?"
"-could be interpreted as highly suspicious. Especially when you deliberately avoided the security precautions."
"Security ...?"
"Dr. Eppes is a highly valued asset to the U.S. government. Do you think we'd leave him unprotected?"
"He's a mathematician, not some secret agent," Marshall grumbled. "I don't know why you would-"
"What were you looking for?"
Marshall managed a semi-casual shrug. "Nothing."
"So what is that in your hands?"
"Oh," Marshall said, realizing he was still holding Charlie's page of notes, as well as one of Charlie's metallic puzzles. "It's just ..." Without thinking, Marshall lowered his hands and thrust the items toward the man.
And found himself slammed face-down into a table, his right arm twisted behind his back and the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck.
end