Sheamus/? Story

"Goddamit to hell! What is wrong with this thing?"

Stephen Farrnelly took at step back in frustration at the task at hand and slowly rubbed his sore eyes. He'd been at this for what seemed like hours, yet he couldn't figure out what was causing the constant errors within the server operating system that plagued the critical operations of the many employees who depended on the enterprise network to be up and operational for their job duties.

Stephen was just a junior IT networking administrator at the defense contractor company he worked for, McLaster Industries. He'd been working for the multi-billion firm for over 9 months now and was loving every moment of it. The pay was terrific, the benefits spectacular and the experience he'd gain was second-to-none. Although his passion wasn't in the IT sector, he still enjoyed his work. It was his cousin Larry that got him into this line of work in the first place, starting out as a onsite technician for a security software company back in Dublin.

Stephen took a deep breath and went back to work on the server, using the integrated monitor and keyboard to navigate his way through the complex software that maintained all of the networking functions for the corporation.

"Alrighty then fella, lets get to work. Now I've already did a manual reboot of all the domain controllers, refreshed the DHCP server table list, reconfigured the permissions and flushed out the DNS cache. What on earth is there to do now?"

"How about going back to basics…"

Stephen jumped at the sound of the voice behind him and whirled around to face the person who spoke. As soon as he saw who it was he instantly relaxed.

"You going around scaring me now huh fella?"

"Did I? I didn't realize anything could scare someone like you."

"Someone like me?"

"Well, you are kinda scary yourself Steph. Red, fiery hair, tall stature, ghost white—"

"Alright I get it, I get it. Its pretty quiet in this server room so um… yeah."

"Oh yeah I totally get it. Fella."

Stephen chuckled. His co-workers frequently teased him on his over-usage of the work 'fella'. his many other Irish lingo and thick accent. He didn't mind it much, he found it a nice conversation topic from time to time. After the move from Ireland to Tampa, Florida he didn't have many friends to chat with. When he'd gotten this job, he and his co-workers frequent the local coffee shop on Barge St., right by the pier and within walking distance of the office. He especially enjoyed it when his close friend, then man who nearly scared the daylights out of him joined in. He was kinda busy with school but when he got the chance, he'd join Stephen and the others for a Mocha Frappuccino. Stephen would go out of his way to wear something nice and put on expensive fragrance to impress the shorter man. He wasn't sure if his efforts were noticed, however he felt like a million bucks.

"So then, you mentioned something about going 'back to basics'?"

"Yes sir. Now, at this moment there isn't any internet connectivity to 23% of our users globally due to the VPN being down and many others are constantly receiving redirect errors, correct?"

"Yes. I've tried so many things to get the problems solved but—"

"Power outlet."

"What?"

"Power outlet. Look over there."

Stephen turned around and face the direction that his friend pointed him to. He took a few steps closer and saw that a power adapter had been unplugged and laying on the ground.

"Oh fook…"

"Yeah. Apparently when the delivery guys came down here last night to drop off the replacement switch, they accidentally knocked that out of the socket, and would you tell me kind sir what that power adapter leads to?"

"De men demern troler" Stephen whispered.

"Excuse me? Louder please so all can hear."

He sighed. "The main domain controller. That's what was unplugged."

"Yes." Stephen's co-worker walked over and bent down to replug in the server. Stephen watched in awe as he got a front row seat to the round globes that stared back at him. He licked his lips discreetly in response.

"There, done. Give it 5 minutes to reinitialize and test the connectivity again. If it still doesn't work, give me a call."

"Will do." Stephen rubbed his eyes and focused his attention back to the computer screen.

"Don't stress fella. Anyone could have missed that." The smaller man smiled brightly to which made Stephen smile. He couldn't resist his smile.

"See you later Stephen."

"Bye fella."

After he left the server room Stephen sighed. Another day, another missed opportunity to tell his friend how he really felt about him. It tormented him inside how everyday he'd have to hide his feelings, but one day he knew he could garner enough courage to share his true feelings. For now though, a solid friendship would do nicely.