AN: I hope everyone had an excellent Ramadan! :) Thanks to lyssie for the beta.

Spoilers: Vague for season one.

Disclaimer: If I did own Dollhouse, Epitaph One would certainly be canon.

Summary: Why should Stockholm have all the fun?

Part the First: In which someone receives a prize they do not deserve

Adele DeWit did not like to be away from her House. Too many things could go wrong in her absence. Worse, too many things might go right, and then Rossum would decide they no longer required her services, and God only knew what that might mean for her future. She probably didn't need to worry though. She had left Topher in charge along with that new handler, and was counting on the two men to keep each other occupied enough not to cause lasting damage.

Besides, Norwegians knew how to throw a party.

She had two companions for this trip. The first was Laurence Dominic, tasked with taking care of any problems that might arise. The second was Dr. Adam Sauvé whose pioneering work in the AIDS ghettos in Africa had won him the Nobel Prize for Peace. Dr. Sauvé's nomination had been rather a surprise, given that the man did not exist outside of the Dollhouse mainframe unless he was implanted in an Active, but it appeared that Topher's programming had done itself so well that no one could tell Sauvé was not an actual person. When he'd won the prize, the Rossum Corporation had been only momentarily stunned, and had then proceeded with business as usual.

In this case, business as usual involved three executive class flights to Oslo and three very large hotel suites. All Adele had to do was make it through the presentation ceremony without laughing. And keep Dominic's homicidal impulses at bay, of course.

After it was all over, the three of them retired to Adele's suite for a final toast to mutual accomplishment. Never before had a Nobel Prize winner been such a group effort. None of this had been mentioned in the carefully edited speech, of course, which was too bad for all the brilliant doctors Topher had cobbled together to make the imprint, and Adele was sure that Dominic was already picturing the tragic death of the good doctor so that the world would understand why such a high profile physician would disappear. For now, however Adele pushed those thoughts to the back of her head and enjoyed a rather lovely champagne that hadn't cost her anything.

Dr. Sauvé excused himself once his first glass was emptied. The imprint made him think he was, under most circumstances, a teetotaler, so this was something of an extravagance for him. Dominic was pouring her second cup before the door swung shut behind him, and she got the feeling that the evening wouldn't end until the bottle was well and truly empty.

Adele let her head fall back against the high backed sofa. She felt like she was relaxing for the first time since she'd found out that Rossum had accepted the nomination on Dr. Sauvé's behalf and this charade would be played out in front of the world. She raised her head to take a sip of her champagne and noticed that Dominic was looking at her with a strange intensity.

"What is it, Mr. Dominic?" she asked, a hint of a slur to her characteristic abruptness.

He didn't answer. Instead, he rose and came to sit beside her on the sofa, his face never changing its expression. He'd been intense from across the room. Now that he was close enough to reach out and touch, he was almost unbearable. He carefully relieved her of her champagne flute, and she tried not to start too much at the unexpected spark of feeling his touch produced in her.

Still without speaking, he leaned in and kissed her. He tasted like champagne and those little round sandwiches with the meat filling she hadn't been able to identify from the reception after the award gala. It was not an entirely bad combination.

He pulled back slightly, not far enough that she could see the expression on his face. She didn't let him get any further away. Bowties did not provide as much leverage as neckties did, but he'd undone his and that gave her just enough material to work with and pull him close. The second kiss was harder and more demanding, and his arms went around her waist.

He tried to shift her weight so that she was straddling him, but the skirt of her gown would not allow it, and they broke apart rather suddenly. She could barely keep from laughing, particularly when she saw how offended her inopportune giggle made him. Something set in his eyes then, and she realized they were rapidly reaching the point of no return.

"If you undo the zipper, I can just step out of it."

"You realize that this isn't even the craziest thing I've done today?"

"Technically, it is. The award was presented yesterday."

She had just enough time to kick off her heels before he pulled her to her feet and reached for the zipper.

finis

Gravity_Not_Included, September 19, 2009