Lilah slept through the night like a rock; without disturbance of any kind. She was woken in the morning by her dog licking her face insistently. Scrunching up her face, the deaf woman grumbled to herself and pushed the tiny weenie dog puppy away from her. She felt the baby whine against her hand, the vibrations running up her arm in a pleasant symphony of rumbling sensation.
Yawning, Lilah reached her hands up to scrub away the crust clinging to her eyes. Determined, the three month old dachshund crawled back up the woman's lap. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around the tiny pup and hugged it. Wiggling, the black, brown highlighted dog attempted to move to where it could lick at her face, licking and rubbing itself in anyway against her it could along the way.
Blinking hard, the computer analyst managed to clear her eyes of the crust, and began to slowly swing herself out of bed. Feet brushing the floor, Lilah placed the puppy down gently before standing up tiredly.
Lilah wasn't a morning person. Not in the slightest.
Still, she lumbered into the kitchen, half-asleep. Borderline blind, she managed to start coffee, and fix a bowl of food for her small puppy. "Mocha… please…" The slurred mumbled was lost on her own ears, but the tiny weenie dog wiggled back, giving her owner some room with a pitiful, pleading whine.
Shuffling a little, the exhausted woman set the food down. Instantly, Mocha was on it, devouring the dog food there in a messy fashion. Amused, Lilah fixed herself a cup of coffee and sat at her table with it, sipping at it while she watched her baby.
A check of the time told her she had about an hour before she had to leave for work. So, finishing her warm coffee off with a chug, Lilah pulled herself to her feet and moved for the shower, setting the empty cup in the sink as she passed by it. Like a duckling, the puppy waddled after her, right on her heels. Together, the duo moved into the bathroom, and Lilah shut the door.
Mocha sat by the door in a wiggling, rolling mass of fur and fluff as Lilah stripped down and climbed into the shower. She wallowed all over the floor without any heed to her owner's current agenda.
It only took her maybe fifteen minutes to get clean and woken up. When she exited the shower, turning off the hot water as she went, the puppy was on her legs, licking the water from them happily. Scrunching up her face at the feeling, Lilah reached down and scooped her up, quietly scolding her as best she could.
When she had stepped away from the bathtub, she set the pup down and began to dress. Mocha ran around her legs and leaped into the bathtub, instantly licking the bottom of it. Knowing she couldn't stop the dachshund- even if she tried- Lilah instead began to dry herself off as she entered her bedroom from the bathroom.
Halfway through her dressing, Mocha streaked in after her and began running around her feet excitedly like a black and brown bullet, nearly tripping her poor owner.
Huffing, Lilah yanked her shirt on and promptly sat down on the floor to put her socks and shoes on so she wouldn't fall. In response, her puppy attempted to get at her face to lick her to death. Smiling and laughing a little, feeling both exasperated and happy, the deaf woman gently pushed her dog back and scratched behind her ears.
Mocha rolled over onto her back as she did so, and Lilah rubbed her belly for a few moments before working to pull her socks and shoes on. The puppy rolled to her feet and shot off elsewhere in the apartment, leaving her owner alone to finish. Once Lilah was done, she pulled herself to her feet and began to hunt her puppy down with a smile. She found Mocha barking at something outside the window.
Smiling, Lilah grabbed the retractable leash from where it hung by the door, and hooked it onto the weenie dog's collar. Mocha was only too happy to follow her owner outside and into the grass. More than once, the computer analyst had to stop the little pup from chasing after other animals or people whilst barking, or from running across the road in front of the hotel to the other side.
Thirty minutes later, she had finally gotten Mocha to go to the bathroom and come inside. Feeling accomplished, the dog was unhooked and let loose, and the leash was hung back up by the door.
Ready to leave, with fifteen minutes left to get to work, Lilah resituated her coat and grabbed her work bag. Her baby didn't attempt to stop her as she stepped out the door, closing it behind her. Logically, a puppy will normally chew on everything in the house while their master is gone. Not to mention shit and piss in every available spot.
Thankfully, however, Mocha had several toys and bones to chew on while she was gone, and the things she could chew up had been removed from the floor and low places where she could reach.
The puppy shouldn't leave feces for her to come home to, due to Lilah paying a few different people a couple dollars each to let Mocha out on their breaks since the woman didn't get off in time to do so, and didn't have long enough breaks to go let her out.
It was a simple routine, born from many frustrating days of cleaning up after a messy puppy, and finding the right people to talk to and trust with letting her out.
Lilah was simply glad that was in the past now.
Making sure her apartment was locked, Lilah turned and headed for the base, not really looking forward to a long day of work. Still, she took a deep breath, steadied herself, and put a smile on her face. Positive. Cheerful. That always made the day easier. At least, that's what she repeated to herself and drew from for her strength and courage.
The base itself was rather quiet this early in the morning, as most of the soldiers were still getting ready or eating. This suited Lilah just fine as it made it easier to get to her station. But, as she walked, she couldn't help but to worry. Where was Maggie? Usually she met the deaf woman outside the hotel building, at the front.
Frowning, concerned for her friend's well being, Lilah entered the computer room. And there, sitting at a computer terminal… was Maggie.
The computer was still on, the glow from the screen shining on the dirty blonde, who was laid over the keyboard in a painful looking way, sleeping heavily. Their co-workers seemed to be ignoring Maggie's position and simply getting their jobs done. It irritated the deaf woman slightly, but she brushed it off.
Lilah moved over to the passed out woman and gently laid a hand on her shoulder, unable to help the smile that banished the frown from her face. Maggie didn't even twitch, continuing to sleep on heavily. Sighing a little through her nose, the blackette thought her options over carefully.
She couldn't carry her fellow computer analyst. She was no soldier, and lacked all the nice muscles that came from working out. Yes, she was lean and could carry quite a load should she need to. But carrying another person who was dead weight? Not a chance.
Perhaps she should call Red Alert, let him know Maggie was taking a day off for rest, and then contact the human CMO? Yes, that sounded good.
Moving swiftly, Lilah efficiently got each of these things done, powering up her computer to aid her in this 'quest' as she had dubbed it. Red Alert wasn't happy about it, he never was happy about people taking off, but told the woman to let Maggie know to 'rest up', sounding rather sincere through the email. The security specialist was something of a hard ass, and yet he still seemed to care for the humans and bots alike that worked under him.
Next, she contacted the human CMO. Her email was replied to quickly and simply. He was sending someone to take Maggie back to her apartment, and told Lilah not to worry about it. Pleased and proud that she had taken care of this, the woman leaned back in her chair a moment, checking through her emails. Some junk mail, and a few work related emails greeted her eyes. Sighing heavily through her nose, Lilah leaned forward and began sorting through it, already feeling tired of the day.
Still, she managed to delete all the unwanted mail, and get through all the questions and notifications sent her way. Feeling accomplished, Lilah exited out and opened her work file. She had just began her day's labors when someone came in, scooped Maggie's dead weight body up, and promptly left.
The deaf woman gave them a passing glance, but was quick to return to her work. She was sure the dirty blonde would be fine. She was, after all, in good hands.
Fingers tapped away at the keyboard steadily once more. Keys gave way beneath the lightest of touches, without any resistance. A true, genuine smile crossed Lilah's face. There was just something so wonderful about working on a computer. Maybe it was the way the smooth keyboard felt beneath her fingers, or perhaps it was the way things would pop up on the screen and float around, bringing forth a sensation of accomplishment.
Either way, it reminded Lilah why she had taken this job, and why she had stuck with it. Feeling humbled, the woman continued to type away at the computer, falling into the lull of her job and finding rhythm within its folds.
She almost screamed- having forgotten there were other people in the room- when someone tapped on her shoulder. Instead, Lilah jumped about three miles in the air and whirled around, wide eyed. Her heart pounded mightily in her chest, sending adrenaline rushing through her veins in an attempt to fuel her flight or fight instincts.
However, at the sight of the annoyed co-worker behind her, who had obviously been calling for her for quite awhile, Lilah began to settle and calm. Swallowing her burst of fear, the deaf woman nervously smiled at the annoyed male staring at her with slight amusement.
He took a moment to simply snicker at her reaction before beginning to speak slowly to her, as if she were stupid and handicapped. Well, she'd admit to being handicapped, but his slowness annoyed her.
'I was born with this.' Lilah thought, fuming on the inside at his audacity, 'I can keep up with a lot faster then that!' the thought brought forth memories of Bluestreak's quick lips and bright expression. She shoved it down before she got distracted from the man she was supposed to be listening to. Even if he was the greatest prick she had ever had the privilege to deal with in her time of working for the Autobots.
No, wait, scratch that. Sunstreaker was definitely worse.
As Lilah continued to read the man's lips, she grew paler and felt a nervous wracking sensation take over her stomach and chest. When he finished, she raised her eyebrows, and pointed to herself for confirmation. He nodded with exaggerated slowness, irritation sparking onto his face as she requested this. For a moment, Lilah could only stand there and blink before nodding mutely. There was no way she could argue.
Her against the rest of the department? She'd lose, make a fool of herself, and make things a lot worse.
So, feeling tired, nervous, and like a wreck, the blackette followed the brown haired man as he turned around and walked purposefully away. He lead her back over to one of the table's in the room, surrounded by the other analysts in her department. They all looked up at her expectantly as she came to a stop beside the man.
Somehow, by the grace of the gods, Lilah managed to keep her trademark smile in place during this. Without a word, a glasses wearing woman placed a manilla folder in the nervous computer analyst's hands. She only gave Lilah a sympathetic look, yet seemed glad that it wasn't her being put through this.
The blackette tightened her hold on the seemingly innocent, yet very evil folder filled with information regarding their recent projects. Once she seemed to have a good hold on them, she was practically shoved out the door.
A lamb, sacrificed to the wolves.
At least that's what she felt like as she made her way down the bustling halls filled with people and bots alike. Really, out of all of them, it had to be her? A heavy breath made it's way out through Lilah's nose in a wave of frustration. Still, she pulled a smile onto her face and moved to face her doom.
Once a month, all the departments were required by the government to deliver a collection of documents on their work. She supposed it was a way to check up on them and make sure they weren't screwing around and being lazy… but still, couldn't they just email this to them?
Groaning, Lilah ducked around a corner, narrowly avoiding a soldier on her way. Apparently, they were originally planning to send Maggie with this month's report… until someone pointed out that she was currently passed out. So, since Lilah hadn't said anything about not wanting to go, and not knowing that everyone had already voted themselves out with various things that 'needed' done, she had been sent.
Sent to her doom. Her doomy doomy doom.
Keeping as quiet as she could with her deafness, the analyst peeked around the corner leading into the main hanger. Luckily enough, her target- Lennox- was there. Unfortunately, he was talking to Optimus and was way up on that damned walkway.
Did she mention she didn't like heights?
Bemoaning her situation inwardly, and trying to keep a smile outwardly, Lilah moved for the ladder and began making her way up with the folder held carefully in one hand. She focused on moving slowly and precisely. Falling was bad. Making contact with the ground was worse. She didn't want that.
Now up on the walkway, Lilah headed towards the duo who had yet to notice her.
Maybe, hopefully, she could just drop this off and run away. Right?
Right.
(AN: Last chapter, someone let me know that it was difficult to tell story from note. So, I decided to use this fancy-shmancy bold print and those super cool letters at the front.
Anyway! In case you haven't noticed... I LOVE adjectives. Describing things? Yeah, I adore it. Unfortunately I have this little habit of 'over doing' it, as my last English teacher said.
She really hated it. And me. I think she was out to get me.
FUN FACT! I have a half chihuahua half weenier dog puppy named Ryou. :D And Miss C had a weenier dog puppy when she was around. Absolutely adored that thing, she did. It was like... a fat rolly-polly. So cute. :3
Okay, I'm done. Leave me a review with your thoughts? I personally think this one could use some major work. *Whispers* I don't think it's very good. But I'll leave that up to your discretion.)
