Author's Notes:
I do not own any of these characters, JJ.Brams and Bad Robot do. This is also the first in my "100situations" series at livejournal, claimed for Lauren Reed, the aim is to use the 100 prompts to fill in the two years the Alias skipped with Sydney, centering around Lauren Reed and Michael Vaughn. No Lauren bashing please, if you don't like her don't read... or do read and try to be objective XD
Chapter One: All in a Day's...
Prompt: Work
"Today."
With that one word everything had changed. Of course she had known that eventually she would answer the phone to hear just that simple word, and what her task would be from that word onwards.
She sat in the car with her hands in the eleven and two positions, staring out of the windscreen blankly. Her expression could easily have been misinterpreted as apprehension, possibly even hesitant. However she looked, Lauren was in fact carefully calculating her odds in her mind; weighing up the pros and cons of the approaches she could apply to this situation. At best she had three more days to complete her initial task.
With a cleansing breath she gave the door handle a sharp tug and shoved the door outwards, following it with her legs. She stood up and tossed her blonde hair over one shoulder, simultaneously closing the door and locking it. She swung her bag over her left shoulder and started for the exit of the underground parking and the entrance to the building.
Kendall met her in the hallway and fell into step with her, "Good morning Miss Reed."
"Mr. Kendall." She replied with a nod; all business.
"Do you have the agenda for today's interviews?"
"Yes sir." Lauren reached into her bag and drew out a stack of stapled sheets of paper. She handed one to Kendall, their brisk pace quickly bringing them to the interview room. A line of desks sat at the far end of the room, chairs facing the doorway. A single metal chair faced these desks, tucked neatly behind its own grey table. Lauren eyed this station briefly before she and Kendall reached their seats.
"Very good..." Kendall was murmuring, reading through their itinerary.
"I was hoping we could get this business over with as soon as possible sir, for the sake of everyone involved." Kendall looked at her questioningly, "You knew Sydney Bristow, did you not?"
"Ah, yes. Yes I did Miss Reed." He replied, setting the schedule down on the desk, "I have to say I appreciate your sensitivity in approaching these interviews. Sydney Bristow was an important woman to a lot of the people you will be talking to during the course of your investigation, I know you will tread lightly,"
The doors opened and few people started filing in, all dressed in dark, sombre suits. The type of suit that was appropriate for this sort of work. Lauren turned her attention back to Kendall and smiled sadly,
"I understand sir. The NSA is grateful for everything Miss Bristow did for this country and we have no intentions of making this more painful than it has to be, the sooner we can close the case the better." It was a company line and Lauren knew it, she didn't know the Bristow's personally, they were files to her, names and faces with no connection but she put on the 'agencies as a family' face. A loss to the CIA was a loss to the NSA, to America. The notion made her sick to her stomach.
The men who had entered the room took their positions, muttering under their breath in clipped tones as they read through the schedule of the days to come. Everyone was ready to get started and Lauren and Kendall took their own seats. The guest of the hour was the only one left to come and they chatted mundanely as they waited.
The door handle turned and Michael Vaughn entered looking haggard and somewhat sick with shadows under his eyes and three days worth of stubble on his chin. Lauren smiled sympathetically as he came and took his seat at the lone desk in the centre of the room. "Good morning, Mr Vaughn," she said solemnly; time to get to work.