Four Weeks Earlier – April 1st
Friday, the day that was supposed to spell weekend but instead was when all the Turks were glued to their desks typing reports and returning a thousand phone calls. Cissnei looked at all the work before her. There were at least seven post-it notes on her document portfolio from Tseng. There were three unreturned phone calls from Rude and a 1:00 meeting looming over her head. This was easy though compared to what Tseng dealt with on Friday mornings. Tseng abused the coffee pot, was stressed out by 9:30 and was out back closet smoking cigarettes with Reno to deal with the stress by 11:30. His ear was glued to a phone throughout most of the day all the while he multi-tasked with a hundred other things. As for Reno? Apart from the closet stress-induced smoking with Tseng his greatest task was sending all 137 helicopter inspection reports to Cissnei. All reports had to be on her desk by 3:00 every Friday. Most of the time it was entirely routine and he could get most of the work done by noon, but occasionally a chopper needed re-inspection, needed a repair addendum, or something else a bit out of the ordinary. If a chopper had to make a run on a Friday, well….it meant all the reports fell back on Tseng and that made him even more bonkers than he typically was on a Friday. On days like that, Tseng could burn through an entire pack by 1:30.
Cissnei felt sorry for him. When it came to his job, he was straight-laced, no nonsense and an absolute workaholic. Tseng was a good guy and he dealt with a lot of shit every day. The Turks needed someone like him in command and he was a great asset to the president. Her door was open as she stared blankly at a computer screen typing away as fast as her fingers would keep up with the occasional glances at the paper beside her. There was a knock at her door frame. Cissnei looked up, stopping her work mid-sentence.
"Hi Angeal. It's always nice to see you." She greeted him warmly. He smiled at her.
"Hi Cissnei, have you seen the announcements today?" he asked her.
"No, I haven't read me e-mails yet. Are you kidding? I don't want to respond to them yet. I'm sure there are several awaiting my reply. One thing at a time, you know? I'm buried already and it's nearly 11:00."
"Well, look at the announcements right now." Angeal said smiling at her.
"Okay?" Cissnei questioned as she clicked around on her desktop and opened up her e-mail. She opened the e-mail titled '04/01 Announcements'. She covered her mouth and gasped.
"Oh my god! Zack! Oh my god! SOLDIER 1st Class Zack Fair. He must be just…overwhelmingly excited. I bet it's…just crazy up there on the SOLDIER floor today." Cissnei said pushing her chair back from her desk.
"You have no idea. I came by to give you this and this piece of cake." Angeal said handing over an invitation and a piece of delicious looking vanilla cake. Cissnei's face lit up at the sight of those vanilla layers as she grabbed the cake from Angeal. It was obviously Zack's celebratory cake. She put the plate aside on her desk and opened up the invitation. She laughed. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" she said. Angeal had a look of sheer excitement on his face.
"Tseng is invited too. I'm going to see him next. Tonight, 8:30 at Tonic downtown. You have to come, this is Zack's only SOLDIER party. Me and a couple other guys put it all together. Do you have any idea how hard this guest list was to put together? Everybody likes Zack but I had to cut it off at fifty. Naturally, some guests are more important than others. We already have a VIP room reserved. That place is ours tonight?" Angeal said winking at Cissnei.
"So, I should bring some bills, right? Tonic is a strip club after all." Cissnei said laughing.
"Hey, it is….so much more than that! When you come in show the bouncer this invitation. He will tell me and I will personally come get you. My god, this must be what the mother of the bride feels like when planning her daughter's wedding. My puppy's all grown up, Cissnei!" Angeal said. She laughed. "So, will you be there? Come on, Cissnei. Please? You need a break from being here all the time anyway." Angeal said watching her attack the cake.
"I'll be there. I may not be there right at 8:30 but I'll be there. In fact, I'll be there with bills in my pocket. Wait, does he know about this? Is it a surprise or something?" She asked Angeal.
"No, no he knows. He had to know otherwise we couldn't have planned it out as well as we have. It's going to be a hell of a time I promise. I'll see you tonight. And hey, no suit and tie. Tonight, you're off the clock, you hear me? We have a lot of food being delivered today at around 12:30. You should come upstairs and eat with us." Angeal said.
"Can't. Gotta' get this work done plus I have a meeting. But hey, eat something for me and I'll see you tonight." Cissnei said. Angeal smiled.
"You got it." He tapped the edge of the doorframe and left her to her work; heading down the hall to presumably Tseng's office. Cissnei read over the invitation as she devoured the cake before returning to her glowing computer screen. She wasn't sure why she told Angeal so emphatically that she would be there. Sure she was a Turk and as a Turk it was their duty to watch SOLDIER closely. But becoming SOLDIER 1st Class was a hell of a big deal. She was just really excited for him. There were only a few promotions each year and Zack Fair had been in line for this one. It was no shocking surprise but not even Cissnei knew that Angeal had submitted the paperwork for approval for Zack to change classes. She wondered how Angeal and whoever else had time to plan this event but she didn't question it. She figured that she would call Tseng's office later than day and see if he wanted to go with her. She hoped to god he would wear something other than his suit and tie especially after Angeal's warning to her.
She organized all the post-it notes in order of priority. At least there was something to look forward to tonight and she was genuinely very happy for Zack despite the fact that Cissnei knew she could come across as a bit cold at times. She couldn't help it; it was part of her job. She had a reputation to uphold and being the next most powerful member of the Turks behind Reno she didn't have much of a choice but to carry on that persona. Just as she got back to work the phone rang.
"Hey." She answered it. "Yeah, I'll have these printed out and over to you in about thirty minutes. Did Angeal bring you Zack's invitation? What? What do you mean you aren't going? Tseng! Come on, you can go with me. This is huge for Zack!" Cissnei tried to convince him. "Oh, an old friend of yours is coming in for the weekend? Well, I guess I can understand that. Reno did what? Oh geez. Well, I'm sure I'll hear about it. Okay, okay. I'll run these over in a bit." Cissnei hung up the phone. She was a bit surprised Tseng wasn't going to Zack's party. It was exactly his type of venue but she thought at least he would make an appearance. He always did when SOLDIER members were promoted to 1st Class. She figured he would probably send a card with Cissnei to give to Zack or something. The phone rang again. "Yeah." Cissnei answered it. "Oh I see how it is. Send me to the meeting and you get to go eat on the SOLDIER floor. That's fine I'll tell them. Bring me a plate too when you go up there then. I'll pass out the papers and stall the meeting until you come in with food. Alright." Cissnei hung up the phone again.
The day droned on and at 12:30 Reno appeared at Cissnei's door. "Hey, here ya' go. Get your rubber stamp out." Reno said dropping a pile of papers on Cissnei's desk. "If ya' do these now, I'll go put 'em on Tseng's desk. I'm also kinda' interested in seeing how fast you can stamp your signature on these." Reno said making himself comfortable in the leather chair just inside Cissnei's door. She sighed.
"Alright. Get ready to see something amazing." Cissnei said getting her rubber stamp out to slap her signature on all these helicopter reports.
"Wait, wait…I'm gonna time ya'." Reno said pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Okay, ready? Go." Cissnei started slapping each page with her stamp as Reno watched. He could tell she had done this so many times that it was second nature to her. She had trained her hand that she could stamp three reports with one blot into the ink pad with her signature stamp.
"Done….132 reports…I keep track because I count them by tens as I stamp them." Cissnei said pushing the completed stack toward Reno. He shook his head.
"You know how to drive a man crazy. One minute seven seconds…and you counted them. That's some hot shit, Cissnei." Reno said picking up the stack and shoving his phone back into his pocket. "Hey, lemme ask you somethin'. I gotta date tonight. Where should we go? Someplace that's not loud and has grilled fish on the menu." Reno said leaning against the door frame.
"That's easy. Go to Bluefin. You want me to look up the address?" Cissnei asked.
"Nah, I'll get it when I feel like goin' back to my desk but thanks. What are you doin' tonight?" he asked.
"I'm going to Zack's party. You knew he got promoted to SOLDIER 1st Class, right?"
"Oh yeah, he did. Tell him congrats when you see him. Thanks for showin' me your skills. See ya Monday, Cissnei." Reno said leaving Cissnei's office and heading for Tseng's mailbox to drop these papers off. She knew that after the meeting was over today the Shinra building would start to clear out. She would stay until 4:30 but it wasn't uncommon for Tseng to stay there working until six or 6:30. Cissnei wanted to get a nap in before Zack's party tonight. She thought that of all days, today might be the one she would clock out early.
