Sherry was working in her office again. Well, working might be a little strong. She was stewing over what had happened in the past 24 hours. How did this thing blow up so fast? She hadn't known she was harboring such resentment against Rita, or Michael, for that matter. It was that danged diary page. Whoever sent it to her got a lot more than they bargained for. And then that mess with Bauer. Ugh. She still shuddered when she thought about it. That she could have lived with. But Rita's betrayal was something else. Her computer beeped again breaking into her thoughts. She punched a few keys. She was tracking Rita's movements. She knew it was coming. The final showdown. It seemed Rita was on her way. Well, she would be ready.

Stepping into the small personal room at the rear of her office, she changed into her mission gear. She strapped two guns around her waist and another in her boot. She wasn't about to let Rita get the drop on her. She also placed a knife in its scabbard on her leg. She hadn't been watching Michael all these years for nothing. Pulling her hair back in a ponytail so it was out of the way, Sherry checked that she had all her gear once again. Then she headed out the door.

North's door was open and she glanced up as Sherry walked passed.

"Oh no," North said. "It's going down and it doesn't look good. I've got to stop them." Grabbing her cellphone, she quickly jumped up and followed Sherry down the hall. She tried one last time to stop her.

"Sherry, wait!" she called.

Sherry heard her, but ignored her. She simply kept walking towards her date with destiny.

*******

Blissfully unaware of the pending confrontation between Sherry and Rita, Brenna decided it might be a nice idea to clean up the den before the debrief. With all of the PJs she was relatively certain that she would find a room filled with dust, Jell-O and shaving cream.

As she neared the den she heard a strange sound coming from beind the door. After the day she had had Brenna was prepared for anything, and continued on undaunted. She reached for the knob and flung the door wide open.

She was genuinely shocked by what she saw. It was huge, and so...so...so...BLUE! She started to enter the room, but thought better of it...after all, this situation was unknown to her, and she wasn't quite certain how to deal with the anomaly. She was relatively certain that she knew who was behind the prank, and decided to seek them out.

As she thought it over Brenna realized that she wasn't sure how they had managed to get the horse into the den, and honestly didn't care at the moment. What she cared about was how they planned to get the horse OUT of the den...

*******

North was calling frantically. She spoke to Michael tersely telling him that he better get down to the headquarters in a hurry. Then she punched at her panel checking to see who was in the building. Sending two operatives to delay the inevitable.

Rita made the slow walk down the flights of stairs leading to the main hallway. Thinking about all the times she had spent having fun with Sherry like the day of the talent show. But she shook those from her head and proceeded down when she came across Mentz. Sherry always thought he was cute.

"Rita, I can't let you go any further."

"Mentz don't even think about it." Rita said testily as she moved around him.

He grabbed her arm as she expected. With her other hand she moved to block, a scuffle ensued. The two fought with skill but at one point they broke apart and fell. Rita reached for her gun hidden behind her upper back beneath her shirt and shot. Mentz fell to the ground sound asleep.

Meanwhile:

Sherry was walking to the main hall and there was Davenport waiting for her.

Sherry simply said, "I have no time for this." Pulled out her a pellet of magnesium and threw it. It ignited on contact and blew smoke everywhere temporarily blinding Davenport. And Sherry walked away.

Sherry finally made it to the main hall and saw Rita standing at the top of the stairs. They merely stared at each other.

North, DragonLady, Brenna, Joann, Curlly, Avillion, Deiket and Nabiki all came running in from different parts of the house as well as many other CLERS and Operatives. Everyone wanted to see what would come next.

*******

North stood with the others not quite knowing what to do. The other girls were all looking to her to do something but for once in her life she had no idea as to what.

Michael came striding angrily down the hallway taking the decision out of her hands. "Enough." he yelled taking everyone by surprise. Even Sherry and Rita stood there with their mouths open. Michael never yelled. Never. "This has gone far enough you two. I want you to drop your weapons and talk this over like the two mature adults you are."

Curlly looked to Joann, "Well I think I have to argue with that. They certainly have been acting like children lately."

Joann just shrugged, "I don't know them well enough to say anything but I sure hope they get this settled without anymore people getting hurt."

Avi piped in, whispering, "Don't worry, Michael won't let it come to that if he can help it." Brenna and DragonLady just shook their heads.

Rita was the first to speak. "Michael right now this is none of your business. This is between me and Sherry."

"It is very much my business," he said succinctly. "You two have made it my business by acting like complete and total jackasses about this."

Sherry took offence to that, "Jackasses??? YOU are calling us jackasses??" she yelled. "If anyone should be called that mister it's you. If you would have made up your mind who you wanted then we wouldn't be here in the first place."

"And you think that using weapons is going to solve the problem, is that it Sherry? Rita?" Michael spoke more quietly now addressing the two of them.

"Why not?" Rita spit out. "It would solve the problem once and for all wouldn't it?"

***

Operations had come up quietly behind the group and was taking it all in. Making his way past the others he came up behind North and grabbed her arm pulling her back. "what the hell is the meaning of this. And why do they have weapons?"

"We'll talk about this later Paul," North answered tersely. "Right now I don't have time."

Operations looked aghast at North as if he couldn't believe what he had heard. "I want to know now North, not later, now." When she stood her ground he stalked off.

***

"No it would not solve the problem. I want the two of you to come down from there now. There is something I need to say to the both of you."

"What? Apologize for something that you don't know the reason for? NO thanks." Sherry shook her head.

"What you don't want to hear that I love you both equally?" he parried.

"NO" they both shouted.

*******

Sly strolled into CLHQ after a long haul on the road and found all these people in battle mode. "Hey, what the heck is going on here? I have only been gone a couple of weeks and I come home and you are fighting?!!!"

North turned to Sly and looked relieved that she could count on one more cool head in this fiasco. "Sly I'm so glad you're back. I made Rita a CLHQ mom after Trace had to leave and there have been all manner of things going wrong since then." North knew she couldn't bring Sly up to date in a few short words so she didn't try.

"Why are Rita and Sherry facing off?" Sly wanted to know. She didn't wait for an answer though, she just went up to her friend Sherry and looked in her eyes and knew that this was indeed serious. She then turned to her friend Rita and encountered the same face. "Okay, you two, this has to be over Michael. I knew this would happen some day. The constant wriggling over who was going to have him when like he was some kind of somebody won at the from the fair."

Everyone looked at Sly with wonder because she was saying what they were thinking but afraid to say out loud lest someone's feeling get hurt even more. Well count on Sly with all those planets in Sag that she doesn't always stop to think before she speaks. In fact North has told her on many an occasion that she had hoof and mouth disease.

Operations, looked over from across the room and saw Sly and decided to let North take care of whatever the hell was going on.

North said, "Okay, this is going to end now! Michael, you have been leading both of them on for a very long time and it's up to you to choose. Put an end to this now!"

Michael looked at North like he had been hit with a 2x4. "But North, I can't choose between them."

"You have to, I can't have CLHQ in shambles like this. Rita is a new mom and Sherry and Rita need to work together. I can sure see now why Operations and Madeline didn't want to have these kinds of romances going on around here." North was beside herself to have said that!

*******

Sherry looked at him with disgust. "Haven't you been listening, Michael? You still don't seem to grasp the problem!" Shaking her head, she turned to Rita.

"Well, Rita, it's been nice, but enough is enough. I'm not standing for this anymore!" With that she pulled a gun on Rita.

Michael started to make a move toward her, but she was too quick. She pulled the other gun out of its holster and held it on him. "No you don't, Michael. We told you this was none of your concern. We meant it. Now stay where you are. When this is finished, your decision will be made for you."

The others standing around were gasping. They didn't want to move and frighten the Rita and Sherry into doing something they weren't prepared to do ... like shoot each other. But they didn't want to get caught in the crossfire if they decided to shoot it out.

Operations decided enough was enough. "All right, enough. Put those weapons down this instant Sherry, or you will be in abeyance before you can utter Michael's name."

Sherry sneered at him. "Shut up, Operations. I've had about all I'm gonna take from you."

Gasps were again heard throughout the group. Operation's was sputtering about cancellation, but North pulled him back once again. "Let it go. You're not helping the situation."

Michael tried again. "Rita, please, just walk away. We can settle this peacefully without anyone getting hurt."

Rita looked from Sherry to Michael. "Sorry, hon., but not this time. If you can't decide, we'll do it for you."

Rita pulled her gun on Sherry and everyone involuntarily took a step back ... everyone but Michael. He couldn't let these two kill each other. If they didn't kill each other, Operations would certainly do it for them. "Please, ladies, let's talk. I don't want to lose either one of you."

Hearing the pleading in his voice, Sherry looked to Rita and winked with her right eye so no one could see her. Rita sighed.

"I'm sorry Michael, but it has to be this way." Then all of a sudden both of them turned their guns on him. Curlly said, "What's going on? Have they gone crazy? Now they're gonna shoot Michael?" Everyone was beginning to believe Rita and Sherry had both lost their minds. North was on the phone to Medlab telling them to get here right away. She also had a sniper team getting into place.

Sherry swallowed and looked at Michael pleadingly. "I'm sorry, Michael." Then they both pulled the triggers. Michael flinched, as did everyone else. Michael was immediately drenched. The girls pulled both their weapons and turned them on the whole crowd.

"Happy PJ Day, everybody!" They screamed as they soaked the whole lot of them. Sherry hurried up the steps to Rita and they took off together laughing their heads off!

The End