DISCLAIMER – I do not own X-Men, the film rights or anything else, and am most certainly not making a profit out of them.
NOTES – Italics on the majority of occasions are thoughts
Work again. Same old story every day, fall out of bed late, shower late, eat late, miraculously arrive at work on time. Sarah had been grudgingly working at the library for some time now, and the routine-ness of everything was beginning to get on her nerves. Sure books were fine, but the people who read them were so ordinary, old women who came in every Thursday to pick up a large print romance novel, young kids picking up the third in a series of books they'd already read twice before, the old man in the wheelchair who appeared just before closing time on a Monday to pick up a couple of science journals. No one ever borrowed anything she didn't expect.
"Excuse me."
The young woman at the desk didn't seem to hear him; her eyes were focused on something just to his left. Turning slightly the man saw what it was she was so intently focused on - the clock. He put his books down on the desk, slightly peeved at her lack of a response. -Now then- he thought, -how to best deal with this then-
"Miss Evelyn Sarah Monaghan!" , the voice that brought her back from her daydream was a scolding one, and the face that belonged to it did not look amused. A man who could have been anything from fifty to sixty five pushed his glasses up his nose and jerked his head towards the pile of books lying on the desk. Slowly she reached out for the books, forcing an apology that sounded almost sincere. Taking the man's library card she suddenly realised with some relief how he knew her name - stupid manager and her name tags. Still that didn't explain how he knew that Evelyn was her actual first name, not Sarah as it said on the tag, maybe the guy just hadn't seen through his glasses or something. Realising she had nearly drifted off again she quickly checked out the books. She handed them back to the man, who himself was looking a bit distracted. Turning to see what he was looking at through the window behind her, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, just one of the usual suspects on his way to pick up a science journal or two. The computer beeped angrily from the corner. Wandering over to it she saw that Mr. Eric Lehnsherr owed the library a couple of late return fines.
"Excuse me, but you have a couple of fines for previous books Mr. Lehnsherr."
He seemed to gradually draw his gaze away from the window and back towards me, "What would they be for" he muttered, almost to himself.
She read the titles off the screen, "Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Memoirs of a Geisha"
"Ah yes, not very good that last one"
"No, I wasn't to impressed with it either, the other two are very good though."
Lehnsherr seemed to warm to the conversation, "I wouldn't have had you down for a gothic fiction reader Miss Monaghan."
"No? I would have guessed you were more of crime novel person yourself, I'm usually right."
He grinned, once more pushing his glasses up his nose, squinting through them a little he dug in one of the pockets of his overcoat, producing some coins.
"That should cover it, thank you for waking up."
And with that, he was gone.
"Afternoon Professor, nice and early as per usual"
"As per usual Sarah, my most sincere apologies for keeping you at work for another few minutes."
The man in the wheelchair smiled, he was always at it, too pleasant person for someone stuck in a wheelchair, especially as he was bald as well.
The Professor laughed as Sarah held open the door for him, "I'll see you next week then" she called to his retreating back, "Who knows, maybe a bit earlier Sarah" he replied, quickly she shut the door behind him. "I should bloody well hope so" she muttered, quickly grabbing her jacket from the backroom and locking up for the night.
