Back again! Thanks for all the reviews so far!
Enjoy.
Lester drove up to his country house where he lived with his wife and kids, and cut the engine of his car in the driveway. He looked up and smiled at the old house. It was a nice orangey yellow colour with ivy growing across it. The colour wasn't his choice, but his wife's. He would have had it white, but she said it was too plain. He had then suggested green to match the colour of the countryside, but green was her least favourite colour. He said black and she had said that they weren't a haunted house. After that, Lester had thrown his arms in the air and said purple... Only to get a light smack round the back of the head and told that he was being ridiculous.
He stepped out of the car and picked up the bag of vegetables and meats out of the back. It was a sunny day and Lester moved his shades again on his face as he looked up at the blue sky. It may have been sunny, but it wasn't that hot. Lester walked up to his brown front door that didn't match the house and put his key into the lock. Turning the key and giving the door a little shove with his shoulder, he walked into his all familiar hallway. The light brown wooden floor and carpet stairs, plus the bright yellow walls all seemed to have a happy glow to them. He placed his keys in the bowl on the side table and started to walk towards the kitchen. He looked into the living room to see that his kids weren't there.
"Jane, I'm home," he called out, and looked behind the sofa to see if they were hiding down there, waiting to ambush him.
"In the kitchen. You've got a guest," her sweet, but stern voice called back. Lester frowned and sighed.
"If M.I.6 still wants me to run their office they can bloody well hit the road," he said, entering the kitchen, placing the bag in the work surface and then kissing his wife on the cheek. His wife, Jane Féroce Lester smiled at how he had brightened up since he was fired from his job. She was sad that he was fired, but happy to see him happier. The woman had long black hair, deep brown eyes and a wonderful jawbone. She dressed in a white top and jeans with a floppy hat that Lester didn't overly like. Actually, he hated it. He hated floppy in general.
He turned and looked outside to see Simon, his eldest child at the age of eight, riding around on his bike in the large garden. He stepped outside, watched him for a moment, and smiled, as the boy was so happy. He turned to see Lucy sitting at the garden table drawing.
With a man...
"So you're my guest then?" he asked the man whom he did not recognise. The man turned in his chair and smiled at him.
"All right James," Becker beamed.
"Oh God it's you," Lester said turning his body away from Becker slightly.
"Daddy, Becker taught me to draw a horse! Look, look!" she said, jumping up, running over to him and waiving a piece of paper in her hand. Lester smiled at his six-year-old daughter, even though he didn't feel like smiling. He took the paper from her hand and looked at it.
"Lucy! Did you really draw this," he said, looking at a horse that could never have been draw by a six-year-old. It was more a work of art than a simple drawing.
"Yep," she popped the 'p' proudly. "But Becker helped and showed me tips on how to draw a horse," she beamed.
"I fixed Simon's bike, I showed Lucy how to draw a horse, I stopped Garnet from crying and helped you're wife find the cooking book. Did you know it was behind the sofa?" Should have bloody well guessed, thought Lester, they're always hiding behind the sofa or hiding something behind there. Lester then frowned.
"You got Garnet to stop crying?" asked Lester surprised. Garnet, their one-year-old girl barely ever stopped crying unless she was eating, sleeping or having her nappy changed... And she weed on you when you did that.
"You bet I did James."
"We are not that close, stop calling me James."
"Sorry Sir.
"I'm not your boss anymore Becker."
"I already know that James," Becker replied grimly. Lester rolled his eyes.
"You came because you wanted something?" Becker held up a file.
"What does Gestalt mean?" he asked dumbly, getting up and walking over to Lester. Lester smiled.
"So you're the unfortunate that got my job."
"My bad luck."
"Indeed." There was an awkward silence between the two men.
"I'm going to get your job back Lester, just watch me," said the soldier determined. Lester looked at the man and had only now noticed that he was wearing a suit. It wasn't complete; as Becker wasn't wearing a jacket, but instead a long coat that went down to below his knees. Lester couldn't help but smile at how Becker rebels against the normal office wear just that little bit.
"What you do with your new power Becker is up to you. The torch of Head of the ARC has been passed... and thankfully to you instead of Temple or Philip. I'm passing the torch Becker, and I'm passing it to you..."
Becker walked through the ARC thinking over what Lester had said to him. Whist his mind was deep in thought, his body moved him out of the way of passing people and stopped him from banging into doors. He walked past his office and noticed a woman in there tidying up his desk... Lester's desk, he meant.
"G," the boy's head snapped up from the files he was reading. "Who's the ginger lady in Lester's office?"
"Your office."
"Difference?"
"Don't say she's ginger, she gets touchy over that," the dumb boy replied.
"G, who is she?" Becker said, using his thumb to point over his shoulder at her.
"You're new P.A."
"Really?" he turned and looked at her through the window and then looked back at G. "She looks too professional."
"She's the Minister's daughter."
"Aw shoot."
"Mr Becker," a strong female voice said from behind him. Becker turned on his heels to face his new P.A. She was young. Not much older than Becker was. Twenty-eight, maybe twenty-nine... Looking good for thirty maybe. She had nice pale skin and deep blue eyes; her 'ginger' hair was up in a neat bun. She wore a white blouse with a blue suit and slightly darker blue pencil skirt that was just above her knees. She had a pair of navy blue six inches high heels on that surprisingly, don't make any noise when she walked.
"So you're my new P.A?" he asked.
"Not until you hire me Mr Becker," she said simply, a sweet, but slightly evil smile dancing on her lips. Becker heard G gulp behind him in fear.
"What were you doing in my office?"
"Sorting out your files into important and not- so important then grouped them and put them in alphabetical order ready to be read and sorted, then easily filed. I set up the photocopier so you could make copies in your office and then file them in your filing cabinet, which I also cleaned up for you."
"Do you know what Gestalt means?"
"A configuration, pattern, or organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of its component parts; a unified whole."
"You're hired, let's start with the paper work," Becker said walking round her and into his office. Becker's new P.A watched him go and then turned to G.
"He's not good with women is he?"
"I actually never knew it was that obvious," said the young soldier. The P.A sighed and walked into Becker's office, shutting the door behind her. Becker sat at his desk, feet up, reading a report about security, the only report he knew something about. He frowned, as he didn't like the sound of the west wing not being that protected.
"What's your name anyway?" Becker asked, biting a pencil whilst still reading the report.
"Pepper Ranew."
"Ran-ew?"
"Ra-new."
"Let's start with something I actually know about," he said dropping the file on the table. "Security."
"You landed this job by accident didn't you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That easy to guess?"
"This shall be interesting. I have the knowledge here and you have the power, let's try not to argue over any of this, because if this is going to work then we need to like each other, not hate each other," she said calmly, taking a seat in one of the chairs on the other side of the desk.
"Agreed," Becker, said nodding and pouring himself a glass of whisky for safe measures.
Five minutes later…
Pepper stormed out of Becker's office, heels making an angry noise. Becker marched out after her, face as red as his P.A's. Pepper got down the steps just before Becker called after.
"It is a very logical reason to get a tank!" he roared. Pepper turned sharply on her heels. She did not like that fact that she was being shouted at or that fact that Becker had a glass of whisky in his hand, half-empty.
"The ARC has barely enough money to pay for everything else, and you want a tank?" she cried. The pair were making a very good public show. G had been talking to Jess before Becker and Pepper had started to argue. He wasn't half-surprised to see them shouting at each other. He also had placed bets with some of the soldier's that Pepper would stay and would tame Becker to some ropes… However, by the look of her now, he wished he were wrong.
"It would help a lot!" he cried in protest.
"You are thick, you know that?" she screamed back. It had only been five minutes and they were trying to kill each other.
"Oh, here come the insults."
"You're an emotionless idiot!"
"And you're a moody old cow, how old are ya? Thirty-eight?" Pepper gasped at what Becker just said. "Twenty-nine!"
"And I had money on forty-three," Becker roared back sarcastically. He was shouting, but keeping calm in the argument, which annoyed Pepper even more.
"You know, when I look up 'stupid' in the dictionary, there's a picture of you!"
"Ha!" Becker cried, calming down. "I'm not the one looking stupid up in the dictionary am I? I mean, at least my dictionary doesn't have pictures in it ya moron," he said, moving to take a sip of his whisky. Pepper calmly and with a blank face, slapped the glass out of his hand before the liquid even touched his lips. The glass shattered all over the floor. Becker looked down at it then back at her.
"You did not just do that!"
"You bet I just did. Do you have a problem Sir?" she said, looking smug. Becker groaned in frustration and started to walk off.
"Deal with the files and reports whilst I go punch a boxing bag for the next two hours. Come and get me if there's anything for me to look at." With that, Pepper Ranew had won her first argument against Becker.
And all because she had slapped his whiskey out of his hand…
Before anyone asks, no Pepper isn't a bad person. She's just… Annoying.
Review please!
P.S Should I put this as humor?
