Paige sighs as she listens to Daryl tell her of what he seemed to think was a very amusing anecdote about the time Nancy accidentally ordered the wrong toner for the fax machine. Oh that Nancy. Such a riot.
She misses California. Maybe she should have taken Johnny up on that offer to become a bartender at his club and they could find a place to rent together as roommates. Yet for some reason here she was, being led by Darryl over to the coffee station.
"Quite the crowd at the coffee station today… Oh I see why." Daryl groans, but continues his path to introduce her. "Agent Paige Arkin, meet receptionist Nancy Greene, administrative assistant Nina Wilhelm , human resources Laura Potter and agent Mike Warren."
Oh yeah, this was why Paige had uprooted her California dream life and moved across the country to become a paper pusher.
It was to see the shocked look on his handsome face when he first realized she was here now.
To his credit, he does not disappoint. Mike just stands there shocked, staring at her jaw open. After a full minute of gawking, he takes a sip of his coffee trying to bide some time to recover and look casual, but doesn't remember he's just poured it so it burns his mouth.
"Mike's not one of us DEA. He's FBI, but he likes to come down here and steal our coffee and distract our staff." Daryl gives a glare and two of the female staffers scatter to get back to work.
The receptionist doesn't take the hint and stays behind to pour herself a casual cup of coffee, eyeing Paige as though she's competition. Daryl glares at Mike. He clearly feels threatened by Mike, and Paige just stands there staring at Mike like a predator stares at prey. Mike finally recovers from his burned mouth, and decides to just reach out his hand to shake hers.
"Hi." He says lamely, still trying to recover.
"Hi. Agent Warren was it?" Paige teases.
"Mike." He corrects her, still not sure what the hell is going on. "Um, what brings you here?"
"I was just showing Agent Arkin around the offices, Mike." Daryl says with a threatening voice, and Paige's hunch was right, he does not like Mike. "It's her first day."
"First day of what?" Mike asks, and Daryl stares at him annoyed.
"Agent Arkin is our new DEA hire." Daryl says, "She's transferred from California."
"You… you work here?" Mike looks dumbfounded.
Paige stands there grinning, because Mike seems to be having incredible trouble catching up. Just a few months out of field work and he can't think on his toes anymore.
"Don't you need to be getting back to work Nancy?" Daryl suggests, trying to look intimidating.
"In just a minute, I need the dish on the new girl, what was your name again?"
"Agent Arkin, and you are...?" Paige knows a power struggle when she sees one, and stands her ground.
"Nancy."
"Nancy, right. How could I forget? Daryl's told me so much about you." Paige says with a giant fake smile, clearly throwing Nancy off whatever dominance game she'd been trying to play for Mike. Paige turns to Mike and very sweetly asks, "Have you told Agent Warren about that toner story, Daryl?"
"So Agent Arkin. What brings you to DC from California?" Nancy asks nosily. Mike eyes her warily, clearly very interested in Paige's answer. "Too much sunshine?"
"New opportunities." Paige says simply. She says the words to Nancy, but her eyes are trained on Mike.
"You know Mike transferred from California originally. I don't suppose you two ever ran into each other there?" Nancy asks suspiciously.
Paige looks over to see if Mike feels like jumping in the conversation anytime soon but he remains almost completely silent, staring at her like he's seen a ghost.
"It's a big state. Separate divisions." Paige says simply when it becomes clear Mike is not going to speak up anytime soon.
"Still I'm surprised you didn't at least hear of him. He was quite the rockstar. Shut down a big bus line, and a sex trafficking ring almost single-handedly." Nancy flirts, reaching out to stroke Mike's arm as she brags about his accomplishments.
"You don't say?" Paige raises a skeptical eyebrow at Mike who looks appropriately mortified. "That was you? Someday you'll have to tell me how you did it."
"Oh no, Mike never talks about his time in California." Nancy giggles, still holding onto Mike's arm possessively as she tries to align herself more with him. "DC was his first choice, he just had to pay his dues in California to get here. Which is ridiculous. He obviously belongs here. But oh well, it's done now. Thank God, no offense."
Paige looks at Mike's stiff body language and his eyes on his shoes trying to figure out how much of this is Mike's real feelings and how much of it is Nancy trying to mark her territory and prove she knows him better than the new girl.
"Yeah, all those beaches and sunshine. Sounds like hell." Paige smiles at Mike, trying to keep her fist from tightening with the desire to punch Nancy in the face. "You must've been glad to escape?"
"It got hard sometimes, but I wouldn't trade my time in California for the world." Mike finally says, and Paige knows this is him trying to calm her down and assure her she meant something. "I'm surprised you left."
"Well... things change. Sometimes you have to move on." Paige tells him, and he nods his head in understanding and drops his eyes back to the floor.
"Yeah." Mike swallows hard, scuffing his foot sadly. "Yeah, sometimes you do."
"Well I wrapped up my main case and was looking for new opportunities. This seemed too good to pass up. Plus I had a friend who always loved DC. Talked about it all the time. I thought I should see what all the fuss was about." Paige smiles as Mike looks at her like she's a rubex cube he's trying to solve.
"So you DO have friends in town. Is this a good friend?" Daryl finally joins the conversation again, trying to professionally and politely suss out Paige's relationship status.
"Sometimes. We had a tumultuous relationship. You know how it goes, sometimes best friends sometimes enemies." Paige shrugs, "Amazing sex though."
This last comment managed to take both Daryl and Mike off guard as both start choking on their coffee. Nancy just crosses her arms and glares at Paige like she's spilled sour milk all over her.
"Sorry. Went down the wrong pipe." Daryl tries to explain the choking and coffee that he spilled down his front as though it wasn't a reaction to Paige's blunt comment. "So I'm just going to duck into the bathroom and clean up, and then I think that's probably enough tour for the day. I'll hand you over to the IT department and they can get you set up with an email account."
"I can show her where IT is-" Mike starts to offer, but Daryl cuts him off.
"Agent Warren does the FBI have so much funding they can afford you hour long coffee breaks? Stop bothering my agents and go back to your own building." Daryl grumbles. Mike looks like he wants to pull rank and argue, but can find no excuse as to why.
"So Mike, I'll see you at happy hour?" The receptionist, Nancy, can only be ignored for so long, and she seems intent on directing Mike's attention off of Paige and back to her.
"I… ummm…" Mike is still at a loss for words.
"There's a happy hour?" Paige asks.
"Just a few of us from the office get together for drinks every now and then. Nothing official. So Mike I'll see you later?" The receptionist dismisses Paige's search for an invite, and turns back to Mike.
"Um… tonight I… I'm not sure. Let me get back to you?" Mike says, his eyes never leaving Paige.
"Oh there's the IT guy! Well I should get headed back to my desk. Nice meeting you Nancy. Mike, I'm sure I'll see you around." Paige excuses herself brushing back Mike to pour herself a cup of coffee before strolling right past him back to her new desk.