A/N) Set somewhere after Episode 5, at the end of the day - a short one written just because I really found myself liking the dynamic between the snarky Katherine and a respectful Lily, since I had never really thought about their relationship before. It made sense in my mind when I wrote it, honest ;)
It had been the kind of day where all the doors stuck and the elevators closed in your face.
Come to think of it, there had been more than a few days like that recently, Katherine recollects as she strides as purposefully as she can down the harshly-lit corridor, heading for what had once been her office, turning sharply left just before she forgets and steps into her old department room, her former office. It wouldn't have been the first time she had done that, either. She strongly suspected that same sinking feeling wasn't going away any time soon.
What a day.
And now this.
"Hello, Doctor Calvin," the Watson girl says somewhat nervously as she quickly stands up from behind Katherine's desk, tucking an escaped strand of hair behind one ear and blinking slightly too fast at the older woman to be completely natural.
Katherine frowns at her. "What are you doing here?" she inquires sharply. "The last time I looked, you were supposed to be fired. That means not in the building, in case you didn't know."
"I was just finishing up," the girl - Lily - replies awkwardly. "Will and Dr Clarke went home, and Mum's coming to collect me in a few minutes. I'm going soon."
"Right. Fine." Katherine considers this for a moment then nods curtly at the girl, deciding it's not really worth her time to try and throw her out, and moves over to the space that Will had recently vacated, tutting irritably at the discarded microprocessor units left on the desk and beginning to methodically clear them away. Lily evidently realises that there's no real scope for conversation between them and crouches back down again, continuing to repack her bag.
"I really am sorry, Doctor Calvin," Lily suddenly interjects, breaking the minute-long silence. apparently desperate to apologise in some way. "About what my grandma said before, I mean. She didn't mean to insult you. Much."
Katherine raises her eyebrows, not expecting the subject to be raised again, although vague resentment still simmered somewhere in the back of her mind at the memory of the comment. "I'm accustomed to dealing with criticism by now," she dismisses. "Anyway... she wouldn't be the only one with that opinion of me."
"People don't think that about you. Not really."
"Well I am ex-CEO."
"But that doesn't make you a - a... you know." Lily trails off, obviously reluctant to repeat the insult.
"Yes. I know." Katherine gives a pointed look at a flushing Lily, though the genuine apology written over the teenager's face causes her frown to soften ever so slightly. "Though you cannot be fully blamed for your tactless grandmother's comments, I suppose. I was hasty, if not entirely unprovoked, to fire you on account of that."
"That's okay. Work experience was never going to last forever, anyway. Though I did enjoy working at Calimov," Lily adds haltingly, searching for the right words. "Working with you - it was inspiring."
Katherine searches the girl's expression for any traces of irony, somewhat surprised when she finds none. "You'll forgive me for my scepticism, but few people have found me at all inspiring recently," she points out dubiously. "And working here is no walk in the park either."
"Oh, I know," Lily agrees fervently, nodding. "But I do like it here. Some of the work you guys do is pretty amazing, and the computer systems are really advanced."
"Those computer systems are currently home to an insane artificial embodiment of what may be the apparently deceased Mary Douglas, out to destroy us all."
"True." Lily's enthusiasm evidently dampens a little. "You're scared of her," she states unexpectedly.
Katherine huffs, the comment out of the blue and consequentially unanticipated. "I'm sorry?"
"I saw your expression," she interrupts bravely, swallowing and continuing. "In Nick's office - when we found about Mary not being fully dead after all. You looked - scared."
"Your family is really doing a good job of interrogating me today, aren't you?" Katherine points out sharply.
"We're all scared of Mary, but she didn't try to blow us up - twice," Lily reasons. "It's okay to show your fear occasionally. Nick would help you if he thought you needed it."
"I don't need it."
"I think you do."
Katherine looks up, affronted, ready to admonish the girl, throw her from the building like she should have done from the beginning of this damn conversation. "I don't mean to intrude, Doctor Calvin, but it's true," Lily quickly defends. "If I'm scared or there's something on my mind, I know I can always tell my friends. Sometimes it takes me a while, but I find it always helps in the end. Nick's your best friend."
"Nick's also a busy CEO with little time for listening to his employees' troubles," Katherine argued. "I'm sorry, Miss Watson, but this is the real world. We're not talking about your little friendship gang, with the idiot boy and the robot girl, where you can just kiss and make up whenever you have a little tiff. If I annoy Nick, I could lose my job. End of."
"Nick would never do that to you. I doubt he'd ever do that to anyone," says Lily. "He's not you, after all."
Katherine doesn't realise her mouth is hanging slightly open until she shuts it abruptly, searching for something to reply to that. Luckily, she doesn't have to form an excuse, since Lily's phone gives a faintly hurt-sounding bleep from the desk and Lily checks it briefly, sliding it into her back pocket. "My mum's here," she explains simply. "Goodbye, Doctor Calvin. It was a pleasure to work with you." And she heads for the door, soon vanishing past the panels and out of sight.
When, a moment later - Lily's words still resonating oddly around her mind - Katherine attempts the same apparently simple manoeuvre, the doors slide almost smugly shut in her face, and Katherine is left wondering why the world seems to hate her especially today.