"You want me to what?!"

Stan pinched the bridge of his nose and peeked at Charlie over his fingertips. The young man looked absolutely terrified by his newest assignment. That was a feat in itself. It took a lot to scare someone who willingly stuck his head in a dragon's mouth once every couple weeks.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal. You've done plenty of trading and purchasing for me before, Charlie."

"Well yeah!" The red head leaned back in his seat, running a hand down his face, "but that's not the same! That's legitimate business, you want to send me in to a swarm of smugglers!"

Stan sighed and shook his head a little. "I'd hardly call fifteen to twenty a swarm."

That sentence seemed to cause more panic than reassurance in the young man's mind. Sure, being involved in the deeper end of the beast black market was something that Charlie knew came with doing what they were doing, but he'd never done it before. Stan's senior handlers were the ones that got involved in that sort of thing. They had more experience in that field, and they knew how to handle people.

Unfortunately for Charlie, all of them were state side in Arizona dealing with the transport of a Horntail who was a little too keen on staying put. With the five of them gone, that made him the oldest and the one who had been there the longest at a little over a year. While that was ample time to have some close calls with death, he didn't exactly have any field experience with what Stan was asking him to do.

The whole thing sounded simple enough when you wrote it out like any normal purchase. He was supposed to deliver the payment for the Chinese Fireball Stan had bought and make plans for her transport. From there, he'd get the team he was being sent with a bring her back. The site was a couple miles away from their own, meaning it wouldn't be too difficult with the proper equipment. The biggest issue with that was the fact it was mating season, and the females were always extra temperamental around that time. They were irritable enough without a couple people drugging them and moving them somewhere else.

To any sane person that would've sounded like an insane amount of work to put towards an animal that could potentially kill them if the ordeal went sour. To Charlie, it sounded like a Tuesday, and he was honestly hoping for a new scar to brag about next time he saw his older brother, Bill. He was originally excited for the whole thing; and then Stan described the actual situation.

"Look, Charlie. Richard is many things. He's a foul, manipulative, lying, cheater, but at least he doesn't have a temper. You'll be perfectly safe through the whole thing. Besides, he wouldn't touch you knowing he could loose my business."

"If he's that desperate to keep you around, he must not be the most popular bloke."

"Not many people want to work with someone they could go to jail for associating with without proper clearance." Stan sighed again, leaning against the desk in his office, the only neat thing in the entire building he stayed in. The man lived in chaos, but he worked in the most pristine conditions on the grounds. "Charlie, is there any particular reason this is bothering you so much? You're dealing with a person, not a Chimera. The former will be much easier to get along with if you do what he asks. I've seen you stick your whole head in a Ukrainian Iron-belly's mouth before. That was just on a dare. Is there any particular reason the thought of talking with a man far less daunting than an Iron-belly scares you this much?"

Charlie fell silent, shaking his head. It was an easy job. He shouldn't be so stressed about it, yet there he was. He was even confused about the entire thing himself. It wasn't like he wasn't a people person. Sure, the beasts he worked with tended to be easier to get along with than most of them, but there was nothing wrong with a little actual human interaction every now and then. He was better about it than most of the people on his team.

There was just something about this whole arrangement that was making his stomach turn. He'd heard stories about people like Richard Wild. People with no respect for the people they worked with, and even less respect for the animals that got caught in their methods. It was never wise to just jump straight into a camp filled with smugglers without any clue as how to deal with them, and that's what Stan had Charlie doing. They weren't in charge of busting them for illegal activity; they left that to the Aurors. Their business was to study dragons, and the ministry cleared them to used somewhat illegal methods to do so on the occasion. If that was what they had to do, then that was what they did. Charlie had known that beforehand. He'd signed up for this, and he'd known this sort of event would come eventually. He'd just hoped deep down it never would.

"When am I heading out again?" He asked after a moment of quiet.

"Tuesday," Stan replied, sitting up. "You've got two days to get your head on straight and put together a team to move her down this way. That enough time for you?"

"I don't think I'd have an option to stretch it out even if it wasn't."

"Right you are, Charlie. Right you are."

***

     Charlie sighed and beat his head against the frame of the door, hearing a tsking sound coming from behind him.

"Mate, you stress to much," Leo remarked from his position on the floor, head inside a cabinet on his left, "Stan told you it's safe. Has he ever lied to us before?"

     "First time for everything," Charlie muttered with his head still hitting the hard wood. "It's not that I don't trust him, it's that I don't trust myself. You know what these places are supposed to be like."

     "Horrible, broken down, abusive establishments where animals don't last a year?" Leo looked up, wincing at the hard look Charlie was giving him. "I mean, I'm sure this place will be wonderful. Massive enclosures and lots of snacks."

     "You're absolutely zero help."

     "Yeah I know. Never come to me for comfort. There's your tip of the day."

Charlie couldn't help but laugh as Leo pulled out a flask from the cabinet. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. What have you got there anyways?"

"Morgana's got a nasty cold. Alex has been riding my tail to get her some medicine before she sets fire to the whole stable. I've got a million other things I've got to worry about though. The Welsh with a broken wing, I've got a Ridgeback with a toothache...I get that she could burn everything down, but she's at the bottom of my todo list. Not to mention Bao's driving all the breeders up the wall. I hope we're getting that new Fireball in soon, because I'm running out of materials for a potion to calm him down a little. Mating season has him all riled up."

     Charlie's attention suddenly snapped back into focus, and he grabbed Leo's shoulder. "Wait, there are potions that can do that?"

Leo gave him an odd look but nodded, "yeah. If you hung around me a little more, maybe you'd know that. I make them more than yearly. They're a little harder to do because I have to make them so potent, but I manage it. I'm the physician, Charlie. It's my job to know how to make this stuff."

Charlie grinned a little to himself, making Leo furrow his eyebrows. "Think you could do enough for another Fireball after you get Bao sorted out?"

     "Probably." Leo got up and walked to his storeroom, doing a quick mental tally of everything he had on him at the moment. "It might take me a while to get it ready. Three days probably."

     "No that won't work..." Charlie ran a hand down his face and bit the inside of his cheek in thought. There had to be someway. If he could make it, it would make this job so much easier, and he'd only really have to worry about the people he was dealing with. "Is there any possible way to speed it up? Get it done before...let's say...Tuesday?"

     "If I started right now and was quick about it." Leo ran the calculations in his head, another one of his many useful talents, "it takes 18 hours to take, so I could probably have it done? Not without Alex hating me for moving Morgana further down the list. Why Tuesday?"

Charlie didn't answer, simply heading towards the door without any more explanation. "Don't worry about Alex. I'll talk to him. Just start on that potion and get Paul, Levi, Maddie and Cas in here."

     "Why?" Leo called, confusion written clear across his features. Charlie stopped and smiled slightly, getting that look that always made the others fear for his life.

     "You six are going to help me buy a dragon from some smugglers."