Eureka

Chapter 2

Triumph

"Here, sit down. Get comfortable." Roy said and pulled out his chair behind his desk before going over to look out his windows. It was an offering of the seat of power and he knew that symbolism wouldn't go to waste on her. He walked over to his the window that overlooked the foyer of the building and he could see everything from the entrance over to the elevators. His office was perfectly situated to draw the eye up to the command center of Alkahest Industries, but he made it more of a looming presence by standing here during the day while he made phone calls. Riza had called him on that power play the first day they met, and she continued to call him on a lot of his bullshit practices. So he surveilled the party below, which seemed to be going well. There was nothing disastrous yet, so he dimmed the window panes to ensure nobody could see in while he addressed something he should have done a month ago. He took a deep breath to focus himself on what really mattered and turned back to look at his wife. Riza was leaning against his desk with her arms folded. She wasn't going to get comfortable, she wanted to go back to work. "Am I being selfish here? Do you want a divorce?"

"Roy, I love you. I want to be a part of this town and a part of your world, but you won't let me." Riza replied simply.

He wasn't sure why she loved him especially with all the shit he constantly pulled. "I don't know how to share all this. I don't want to because it's honestly a burden of my command, not yours."

"So it's above my pay grade or intelligence?"

"Riza.." He walked towards her, "I never meant to imply you weren't smart enough to comprehend any of it."

"I understand you have a lot on your plate." She said and unfolded her arms to put her hands on his desk. It was less defensive. She had to lower her defenses too if she was asking for compromise. "The management of this facility, it's people, it's assets. Management of those visitors down there who hold it's future in their hands. Somehow you even manage to work on your own research, which I know is another savory morsel you're keeping just out of the government's reach to get what you want."

Roy smiled at her. His amazing wife who he didn't shower with compliments near enough. "And there's you who watched over all of us, defending us from ourselves and threats outside of town limits. Defending us from our own mistakes and myopic thinking and experiments gone awry. And General Raven, who would certainly be far more concerned about walking in this building if he knew that drone serving him cookies almost decapitated someone at the Christmas party."

"You told me it was just a concussion." She said and he walked over to her with an apologetic smile.

"When the head is still on, it's just a concussion." He said in a sing-song voice and leaned in to place a kiss on her head and a gentle kiss on her lips. "I missed you. I wanted to call but we both know I'm a fucking idiot who can't say the right thing. I needed you to see me with your amazing eyes so you can read my body language while shit pours out of my mouth. "

"It's an occupational hazard." She said. Wit was true for both of them. It took so much for him to 'power-down' from work mode that he often kept working to avoid it. She read his actions and micro-expressions, she knew when to stop listening and call him on it. She wasn't easier to deal with, she always was on edge and ready to jump to action. They were quite the pair.

"I left because there was no way I could have this talk with you knowing what was looming at the capital." He knew she was upset even though she was trying to remain calm and professional. Her long sentences and statements in the break room were not her traditional manner of speech. She was either fueled by anger or too much caffeine, or both. Riza typically was succinct and not prone to making speeches, but her run-on sentences and domination of the conversation lead him to believe her mind and heart was probably racing. Not exactly how he liked to get her riled up, but it certainly seemed to be his modus operandi.

"I know." She knew that all along. It would have been one more disaster to handle and that wasn't fair to either one of them.

"I was still wrong." Roy said and watched her eyes finally focus on him. That was hardly an easy sentence for him to utter and she knew it. "I did what I had to do but I recognize I didn't handle it the right way."

"You didn't speak to me for a month." She reminded him.

"I was way too volatile." He explained. "I knew you were angry, and rightly so. It would only take a spark to set me off and I knew I would say more that I would regret. It was better to just handle the situation in the capital and then come home. I didn't expect it to take as long as it did. Hell, they wouldn't be here if I had any other option."

"You can leave me to handle everything on my own but you can't trust me enough to share information with me when you're here?" Riza asked. "You understand that is contradictory, don't you?"

"I trust you Riza." He said. "You understand that my ability to leave everything in your hands is the epitome of trust?"

"Dropping that responsibility in my lap without any access to information is the sign of a bad leadership not delegation." She reminded him. "You leave the town in my hands, not Alkahest Industries. That you control thorough your phone. You let your people come to me when they need help."

"Since when do you need my security clearance and access to the Alkahest network to operate?" Roy scoffed. "You rely on your instinct and observation skills because you don't believe that plans mean much once put into action. That's your own words."

"It doesn't mean I enjoy you leaving me in the dark." She said. "Why don't you allow me the privilege of determining what I ignore and what I take into consideration?"

"Is this about work or us?" Roy asked.

"At this point work is defining us." She said. "So both."

"I love you, you know that...right? I never make you question that, do I?" He touched her face, gently stroking away a stray hair. She looked so tense, because of him.

"The question is, can we really make our marriage work?" She asked. "Not 'do we love each other', but 'can we be married'? Was that really just an impulsive night six months ago where we thought we were better people than we really are?"

That hurt. They had asked themselves if they could make this work, compromise and be true partners in life. They managed things for a a few months but then stress levels got high and projects intensified and they repelled against each other the magnetic fields had been reversed. "Compromise has never been easy for me."

"You've never had to. You're always steps ahead of everyone, so you lead." She said. "I follow orders or give them and you...don't outrank me. Except with all your doctorates and degrees..."

"I don't have a list of military honors like you do." He said genuinely. "I don't get to order you around."

"You push me away instead." She said and he looked to the floor. Inside this building he was king. She had no authority to do anything in this building except escort people out after they had been terminated. He had every right to shove her out the door.

"I like being in control, that way I don't have to worry about that variable." He replied. This facility was everything: knowledge, power and danger. "You don't need to know what the military is missing out on. So much that is done here never gets off the ground. What reaches the testing stage often fails. What succeeds is too much to hand over as is. That is what I withhold from you. That is all."

"So where are we?" She asked. "I still believe what you make here is for the benefit of the military, however you think everything is too powerful to be in the hands of the military. You protect this place from everyone, including me."

"It's a habit that's not easy to break." He confessed. "I want to. There is so much going on here that I wish I could tell you about. I want to let you know about the necromancy Elrics's working on..."

"I know about it." She said dryly and watched his expression go from almost apologetic to panic in an instant. "Ed tried to bring back his mother two weeks ago, opened a gate to who-the-hell-knows-where, lost two limbs and his brother and almost swallowed up the facility in a vortex of eyeballs and tentacles."

"He...what?"

"He got it all back and we shut it down." She said and shrugged.

"Why didn't anyone call me?"

"Like I said, we handle it and put the event in the shredder when it's resolved and move on." Riza then added, "I was also under the impression your phone didn't work since you weren't using it."

"What else did I miss?" He asked curiously and her look said, 'a lot'.

"Chimeras? Everywhere. Guess who had to wrangle them? Not the scientist, if you want a hint." She said. "Then there was that time machine fiasco which I have yet to understand how reversing it gave Mrs. Bradley's homunculus child an extra nipple. There was the experiment that put a serial killer's consciousness into the body of a suit of armor for 'military purposes' which backfired and got me a creepy stalker. Oh and the weird mannequin soldier project which I believe is just a guise for sex dolls. Which reminds me, one of Dr. Marcoh's philosopher's stones is still in Dr. Kimblee's stomach and he keeps regurgitating it to avoid letting it pass through his system and be 'taken away'. I'm honestly not getting paid enough for that so I told Marcoh to talk with you when you got back."

"Oh."

"I think I handle it all just fine." She said and reached up and patted his cheek. "Which I thought I showed you, but you still have your concerns about letting me know what is going on. Yet here I am handling it when it all spills out of your facility and into my streets. I'm the one who has to wake up in the middle of the night because some disembodied ax murderer named Barry walks in my office. I have to shoot him and he ends up falling in love with me."

"I'm concerned about this Barry guy, all right."

"You should be, he's downstairs on the second sub-floor as far as I know. I would worry about one of those Generals, who probably commissioned the sex dolls, going to look for them and getting a different surprise." She replied and watched him bite his lip. This shouldn't be relaxing him, but the man she loved was slowly emerging from under all the stress of his job. "I want to help you Roy, this job is too much for one man, even if that man is you."

"I don't want you to have to deal with this." He said and sighed. "In my attempts to juggle it all I guess I forgot to see that you already were."

"You're not the only one who wants to see this town saved." She said. "Everyone understands what Eureka is and wants it to thrive."

"Nobody sees that it take me being a politician to keep them free to work. I do what I do, so they can have this." He said. "I'd rather be the buffer between Eureka and the real world for both sides than to have anything ruin this place."

"I see it. All I want is to be by your side while you continue to do that." She said. "That's all. You have to let me."

"I don't deserve you." He said and leaned over to kiss her. "You deserve better."

"I made my choice when I married you. I have never loved anyone as much as I love you. Otherwise, you would have come home to divorce paperwork." She said. "I'd follow you into hell if you asked me to, but I need you to ask before you book the damned trip without me."

"Starting tomorrow I will copy you on my agenda for the day." He said.

"Since when do you create an agenda?" Riza said annoyed. "You hate paperwork."

"Good point." He said. "I thought I'd commit to doing that for you, but I can see that causing a new problem in a few days."

"Why don't you tell me at dinner?" She replied.

"I don't want to turn dinner into a briefing." Roy huffed. "I thought we were going to try and separate personal time and work?"

"That's clearly not working out for us." She said. "I think you might have a better time unwinding from the day if you debrief when you get home."

"Is that how normal people do it? 'How was your day at work, honey?' 'Oh, Armstrong informed me his protein shake makes him ejaculate sparkles?'" Roy said and Riza tried to not laugh, she was trying very hard. "I gave samples to all our visitors so I can find out later if those mannequin soldiers are sex dolls."

Riza finally couldn't hold back a laugh. "You did not!"

"You're the one who told me to share our secrets with the military. They want to be muscular and strong." Roy smirked. "It's been tested, Alex drinks it every day. It's 'Armstrong Muscle Milk' and I'm actually happy to discover it's synthetic and not 'milked' from his own muscles in some fashion."

Riza started to laugh, laugh away the remainder of the stress that had been slowly dissolving.

Roy leaned in and kissed her, first on the forehead, then on the cheek. Then he brought her in for a hug and kissed her jaw before whispering in her ear, "Did you want some Armstrong cream in your coffee?"

She threw her head back and started laughing more. Then she playfully slapped him in the arm. "That's horrible!"

"Where else is it coming from. He doesn't have nipples." Roy said and she hit him harder. He had to smile, she made very ounce of stress and worry leave him when she laughed. Maybe he could share more, he ended up giving her the information eventually when it all blew up in someone's face. "I'll try harder to be a better husband, I promise."

"Just talk to me." She replied. "That's all I ask."

He kissed her and she kissed him back, hesitantly, debating on whether or not this was progress and answers they both needed. He knew he needed to show her he loved her and that was not going to be done with words. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and put her hand on his head and pulled him closer, he didn't need to ask if they were OK.

She hated that this was how things went with them too often, a kiss leading to her pulling him in for more. Perhaps they both found it difficult to communicate some things and actions spoke so much louder than words. She loved him, god how she loved him, and they both had their faults, but passion was not one of them. "Is the door locked?"

"Yes..." He replied and pressed a button on his key fob that performed that task as she started to loosen his tie. He tried to look at her with mock concern, but it was hard not to smile when the woman he loved was undressing him and signaling this matter was now closed.

"I think I like it lot better on this desk then behind it." She pulled his tie free and watched his breath fluctuate.

"I think you're way better at negotiating than I am." He grinned and reached out to unbutton her shirt and she took her gun belt off to place it on the floor. She started to push off his jacket.

"I don't want to rush you, but knowing how this place runs," She started kissing his jaw and neck, then leaned back to kiss his lips. "Disaster is imminent. So if we're going to have sex on your desk, you might want to hurry it up."

"God, how much did you miss me?" He asked and she bit his lip. "Or how much do you like arguing with me?"

"Stop." She said and looked him in the eye. "Talking."

"Right. We talked, now sex. On my desk. In my office. While there is a congressional and military review board wandering the facility." He said and laughed a little as she grinned at him. "Alright, I'll do what it takes to save our marriage but I'd really like for you to want my mind and not just my body."

"Quit fucking talking." She said, laughed and grabbed his belt and yanked it tighter to demonstrate her impatience. He gasped and she unhooked the buckle and let go.

"Or what?" He asked and she pulled him down to her by his untied necktie and kissed him. A month of frustrations, sexual and otherwise, culminating in one powerful kiss. He put his hands on her hips to push her pants down, she reached out to unbutton his. Time for teasing was over.