Author's Note: I may add this into 'Beyond Reasonable Doubt' at some point (if so, in a couple of chapters time) but until then! I wrote this late last night and had great fun doing so, figured I'd post it as some kind of one-shot.
Let me know what you think.
"Must all our conversations in this office descend into a verbal evisceration of one another? It's becoming quite tedious." Even though Hanssen tries to feign boredom and disinterest, looking at his watch. He greatly admires and enjoys their verbal sparring and he's relatively certain that the woman standing in front of him does as well.
"Only if you insist on leaping to the defence of Sahira every time you feel that Princess is threatened. How long have you blindly worshipped her?" Hanssen is expecting Sahira at any moment and doesn't want her to hear this exchange.
"Not at all, Ms. Naylor. That is not how I feel at all." Hanssen's attempt at casual deflection doesn't ring true with Jac and she presses on.
"Oh please, it's either love or nepotism. So what is she to you, your girlfriend or your daughter?" Jac tries to ignore the image that's presented in her mind. "Whatever your motivation, it's quite something, the lengths you'll go to for her."
"Jealousy doesn't suit you Ms. Naylor, although you wear it well – years of practice perhaps? Talking of practice, do you hear from Mr. Byrne at all these days?"
"This isn't about me; it's about you and Princess, so which is it?" Jac fires back, she knows that deflection was poor as soon as she opened her mouth but it'll have to do. She's moved on from Joseph, part of her still loves him but he's gone. Jac has her eyes on a new man and she usually gets what she wants from them.
"Neither, thank you. Ms. Shah is an old friend." Hanssen's eyes gleam as he spots an opening. "It's most certainly not nepotism, my health is satisfactory, besides I do not currently require a kidney." It's a low blow and they both know it.
Jac's mouth becomes a hard line and Hanssen is content to let her walk away, knowing he's won this round when she turns around by the door and pauses before casually mentioning "Well, if you're certain, I'll have to go an inform the betting pool then. A shame, there was a lot of money staked on that one."
Hanssen's face pales and his expression becomes blanker than Jac has ever seen it and with that she smirks and strides out of the office without shutting his office door. 'Betting pool' he thinks weakly and sighs, getting up to close the door. A few seconds later and Hanssen is halfway across the room to the door when someone walks in through it "Ah, Ms... Naylor, again. What a pleasant surprise." He adds sarcastically.
"Expecting Princess? I think she'll be a while, Greg had her in his grasp last I saw and she didn't seem to mind." She searches Hanssen's face closely and is gratified to see a reaction to her statement, a slight narrowing of his eyes. 'Excellent' she thinks.
Jac knows that her concerns, what she originally came here for, have been lost in the insults but she's damned if she's not going to finish this, if she's going to be beaten, she wants to go down fighting. She moves closer to him and watches with amusement the realisation that he doesn't currently have his desk as a protective barrier, he can either tolerate the invasion or concede the space to her. He decides to hold his ground but looks off balance, uncertain as Jac draws closer to him.
"One final question. Do you make it a habit of kissing all your registrars in this office or only Ms. Shah?" Hanssen is not expecting that question, he isn't certain whether Jac is fishing for information or whether she's winding him up; he's still debating how to approach that question when Jac closes the distance between them and pulls his tie, bringing his head down to hers.
He's expecting her to kiss him and is surprised when she doesn't. "Have a think about it. I'll be back." With that she releases his tie and walks back out of the office without looking back at the tall Swede.