The ever popular accidentally sleeps with boss AU because I'm an AU whore and I couldn't help myself. Hope you enjoy it.

-.-.-.-

Alison watched the wine swirling slowly in the bottom of her glass, around and around and around with each rotation of her wrist. This was supposed to be her first date since breaking up with Donnie, this was supposed to be her way of showing her mother she wasn't doomed to grow old alone now that she'd broken up with her highschool boyfriend, this was supposed to be her way of proving to Aynsley that she didn't need her match making expertise to find a man, this was supposed to be a nice way to unwind a little before starting the first day of her new job tomorrow.

All this actually turned out to be was her sitting alone in a bar considering whether or not an hour was too long to wait for Chad from the supermarket to turn up.

She finished off the wine that remained in her glass and turned to leave – it'd be nice to wash down disappointment with a second, but she was due to be in the office at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Her path was blocked though by a woman roughly the same age and height of her, who smiled when they came face to face.

"Just like I thought…" The woman said by means of greeting, and for a moment all Alison could do was stand and stare.

"I'm sorry… what was it you thought?" She tried eventually, her brow creasing when the woman simply remained smiling rather than make any attempt to explain herself.

"That you'd be even cuter from the front…" She informed her so matter of factly it took Alison a second to realise she was being hit on at all.

"I'm sorry is this…" She paused, took a breath and glanced around quickly to make sure it was in fact her the stranger was speaking to. "… Are you flirting with me?"

The woman grinned and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth in a way Alison would probably find seductive if she were into women. "Only if you want me to…"

First Alison thought of the look on her mother's face is she were to ever find out; then she considered the fact she'd only kissed one person since she was seventeen. "I do." She brought her hand up to her neck out of instinct and rung her fingers stiffly across the skin. "… want you to flirt with me that is."

The woman's smile seemed to double and she extended a hand. "I'm Beth." She waited for Alison to accept the handshake before continuing. "And I'd love to have a name to put to your cuter from the front face."

"Alison…" she replied almost too quickly. "I'm Alison."

"Okay Alison, what're you drinking?"

-.-.-.-

Alison had always known her limit when drinking; anything more than two glasses of wine – or alternatively three spritzers – and she was guaranteed a hangover from hell the next day. Apparently Beth's company had caused a slight lapse in memory when it came to her alcohol tolerance however.

Apparently it had also caused a slight lapse in memory when it came to her sexuality.

That didn't matter now though. A one night stand with a cute girl in a bar didn't matter now because a) everyone had one night stands after breakups, so what if hers happened to be with a woman and b) she had more pressing issues to deal with – like the fact she was already ten minutes late for her first day of work because wouldn't you know Beth lived as far away from her apartment as possible while still living in the same city.

Still though, she'd had the entire elevator ride up to the eleventh floor of the office building to come up with an excuse – in the end traffic had been the go to – and from the emails she exchanged with her new boss she didn't seem like the kind of person that would fire someone before they'd even been shown to their desk. Essentially this disaster was easily fixed, which was why Alison actually managed to smile when she knocked twice against the door of "Ms. Childs" to signal her arrival.

"Sorry…" A young woman with extremely unprofessional dreadlocks and piercings looked up from her screen. "Are you waiting on the boss?"

"Uh yes actually," Alison nodded, subconsciously straightening herself out. "I'm Alison Hendrix, I'm supposed to start here today and I was meant to have a meeting with her at half eight but well… traffic."

"Sure dude, sure… traffic," the woman winked knowingly at her. "Actually you're in luck, boss is running late this morning, so if you want you can take a seat over there." She pointed to a set of benches outside the office door. "Or, and I've a feeling this could be the preferred option, you can go get yourself a coffee… machine's in the break room just over there." She pointed to a door on the opposite side of the office space.

Alison stared for a moment, deciding eventually this woman could be trusted not to snitch her out as being hungover and late the second Ms Childs did show up. "Coffee would actually be wonderful."

"Cool, cool…" The girl nodded with a smile then returned to her work when Alison went to leave. "Oh, I'll let Beth know where you are when she gets here by the way," she added absently over her computer screen.

"Beth…?" It was a coincidence, surely it was a coincidence.

"Oh yea, that's the bosses name," the woman informed her. "Y'know her first name isn't actually Ms," she added, laughing so loudly at her own joke she didn't even seem to notice it garnered nothing more than a tight lipped smile from Alison.

Please god let it be a coincidence.

-.-.-.-

It wasn't a coincidence.

Of course it wasn't a coincidence because god forbid Alison's life would run that smoothly. Her one night stand/new boss had moseyed into the bullpen and, after a quick chat with the woman Alison had spoken to, had sauntered into her office and closed the door after her, as if completely oblivious to the fact she'd just ruined Alison's life.

Alison pressed the palms of her hands into her face and let out a frustrated sigh. Her mother had always warned her against homosexuality; who knew it was because of the career implications and not the eternal damnation.

The dreadlocked woman had surely told Beth she was here though, so there was no backing out now, especially considering the only way to do so would be to walk straight passed the office door. She had to face the music; the consequence to her actions.

Oh god she'd been so sure her job hunting days were over her.

Her walk back towards the desk of the woman she'd initially spoken with seemed to take an eternity. "Looks like you weren't the only one out last night," the dreadlocked woman informed her, apparently presuming it would comfort Alison in some way. "Good luck," she offered then, as if luck could save Alison now from her impending doom.

Alison merely smiled and took the final few steps across the floor towards the office door, her knuckles cracking against the wooden frame twice, just under the silver plaque. Then she waited only a second to hear an all too familiar voice beckon her forward – a voice that had been a lot raspier last time Alison had heard it – and with one final curse towards the sky she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Beth was sitting at her desk with her head bent over some papers and still hadn't fully registered Alison's entrance. "Take a seat…" she murmured, still not glancing up. "I'll be two seconds… I just need to look over this."

For lack of a better idea Alison did as she was told and sat silently observing as Beth finished reading over the report. She looked a lot different than she had last night; her hair was up now in a high ponytail, and rather than the simple black dress she'd worn to the bar she was now in grey slacks and a fitting white shirt.

A very fitting white shirt actually, not that it was the kind of thing Alison should be noticing at the moment. Still though the crisp linen clung ever so slightly to the swell of her breast and Alison couldn't help but recall her own hand feeling its way across the expanse of her chest and then lower still over the plains of her stomach and across the jut of her hips.

"Right, sorry…" Beth's voice broke through the fog in Alison's mind and dragged her back to reality just in time to see her one night stand slowly raise her head from the papers in front of her. "It's just these are due today and I wanted to- Alison…?"

Alison felt like she'd just swallowed cotton and she barely managed a half-hearted "Beth…" and a smile so tight she was sure her lips disappeared entirely.

"Well…" Beth cleared her throat and Alison wanted to crawls in behind one of the filing cabinets in the corner and die. "… apparently meeting a cute girl at the bar called Alison and hiring someone called Alison Hendrix wasn't just coincidence."

"No…" Alison paused for a moment, considering letting Beth speak again before deciding better of it. "... And I understand this is completely unprofessional Be- uh, Ms Childs and I swear at the bar last night I had no idea you were my boss and I would never, ever sleep with my superior because I understand how it can put you in a comprising position and…" She stopped in her tracks when Beth raised a hand to silence her.

"Okay, couple of things about what you just said there," Beth was smiling and Alison wasn't sure if that was a good thing or if she just took joy in tearing people down. "First of all call me Beth, please, not even the kids in my apartment block call me Ms Childs." Alison thought to protest – because again, unprofessional – though Beth was already moving on to her next point. "Also, I wasn't technically your boss last night Alison… so really you didn't sleep with a superior, and really you didn't put me in a compromising position."

"You mean… you're not going to reprimand me?" Alison felt like she would cry at any second.

"Well I mean…" Beth paused, seeming to mull over the pros and cons of her next sentence in her head. "There is one thing…"

"Oh?" God had she left her underwear there or something?

"You kinda ran out before I made breakfast…" Beth informed her, smiling when her statement was met by Alison's dumbstruck expression.

"Uh… yes… I guess I did."

"So how about I buy you lunch instead?"

"Wouldn't that be…"

"Unprofessional?" Beth finished Alison's sentence for her. "Probably a little…" she nodded and shrugged. "Though I'm kinda the boss around here… so I kinda get to say what goes."

She shouldn't say yes, she really shouldn't say yes because this was her boss. Her boss whom she'd already managed to sleep with for that matter. She really shouldn't say yes, though Beth was staring at her the exact same way she'd looked at her last night when she'd first approached her, and the same way she'd stared at her when she'd asked her if she'd like to come back to her place and it's not that Alison couldn't say no… she just really didn't want to.

"Okay…" She nodded once then rung her hand against the side of her neck. "Lunch sounds… lovely."

"Right, lunch it is then," Beth nodded happily, like she'd just secured a business deal. "I'll meet you in the lobby at one?" She questioned while at the same time rising to her feet from behind her desk.

"I'll see you at one," Alison agreed, standing from her own chair on Beth's cue.

"Okay…" For a second they just stood staring, then Beth seemed to come to her senses. "Anyway, Cosima can show you to your desk and all, she's the girl at the desk just outside the door there."

"Okay…" Alison smiled then turned back towards the door, almost reaching it when Beth spoke again.

"Oh and Alison..." She waited for her to turn before continuing. "I'll let it go today because we were both late… though try not to make a habit of it."