Title: The Prank
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Michael Garibaldi, Jeffrey Sinclair, Susan Ivanova.
Rating: G
Word Count: 490
Spoilers: Babylon Squared.
Summary: Garibaldi and Sinclair pull a prank on Ivanova.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 273: Amnesty, using Challenge 13: Breakfast.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Some dialogue borrowed from the episode.



It was a mean trick, and they both knew they’d be in trouble for it, although Garibaldi had no doubt he’d take the brunt of Ivanova’s righteous fury. Jeff was the station Commander; what could a mere Lt Commander do to her boss?

Still, when Garibaldi had come up with the prank, Jeff had been happy to go along with it. Commander he might be, but he still had a sense of humor and it was probably true that Garibaldi brought out the worst in his friend; they’d been through a lot together over the years. Besides, everyone needs a good laugh now and then, especially after all the stress they’d been under lately. Hopefully Susan would see the funny side before she caused any permanent damage to Garibaldi’s person. He figured what the hell; if it lightened the mood, however briefly, it was worth the risk.

All they’d needed was the right opportunity, and because Garibaldi, in his role as Chief of Security, automatically kept tabs on everything that happened aboard Babylon 5, he knew Ivanova had been dragged out of bed an hour early and would be half asleep when she arrive at the officer’s mess for breakfast, so…

Set-up was the key to a successful prank. A couple of dirty breakfast dishes commandeered from people who’d already finished eating, matching dishes containing their own breakfasts because even half asleep Ivanova would notice any discrepancies, then once she joined them with her own breakfast…

Honestly, if Garibaldi hadn’t been so stoked about getting to prank his stoic colleague, Jeff’s spiel about the Jesuits and their early morning meditation practises, breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out, might have sent him to sleep too. As it was, Jeff had Ivanova nodding off in less than a minute. Oh yeah, this was gonna be great!

They switched their full dishes for the empty ones as quickly and quietly as they could, before clattering the cutlery to wake her up.

“That was great, just hit the spot! I see you cleared your plate too.”

Ivanova shot bolt upright, confused, struggling to get her brain in gear, and the sheer panic on her face, when Jeff mentioned it was almost seven-thirty and she thought she’d slept right through breakfast, was priceless. She sped off babbling into her link and Garibaldi couldn’t repress his satisfied smirk as he restored the full dishes to their trays. Jeff, figuring in this case discretion might indeed be the better part of valour, took his breakfast to go, but Garibaldi stayed put; Ivanova would be back once she realised she’d been had. Since her breakfast was still right there waiting for her, and she still had plenty of time to enjoy it, she might even forgive him.

“Garibaldi, you’re a dead man!” The enraged bellow that echoed throughout the mess would have made a lesser man wince.

On second thoughts, maybe forgiveness was a touch optimistic…


The End