Hey! Sorry this has taken me so long...I had a pretty hard time writing for some reason, and it's still quite short and fragmented; it's more just to lead into the next chapter, which I'm really looking forward to writing, seeing as it's partly what inspired this fic :) Thanks SO much for all your lovely reviews, I really appreciate them all, keep them coming :)
I hope you enjoy this chapter anyway :) xx Bolly

One Of Those Days

The day continued much as it had started. Ros took every chance she got to make Emily's first day as hard as possible for no apparent reason. Ruth kept her head down and worked, occasionally looking up and smiling sympathetically at Emily. Everyone appeared to be working relentlessly, but nobody ever seemed to get anywhere.

At around three o'clock, Emily got up from her desk. Ros looked up immediately, as if she'd just been waiting for her to leave her seat. She cleared her throat, but the dark-haired new girl didn't seem to get the hint.
"Where do you think you're going?" She asked irritably.
"To get coffee." Emily replied, slightly arrogantly. The atmosphere in the room immediately tensed, although Ros kept perfectly calm.
"It's a bit late now, I went and got it myself four hours ago." She said coolly. Tariq disguised his laughter with a cough again, and, despite himself, Lucas' lip curled into a smile.
"No, for myself." Emily replied defiantly.
From where he was sitting, Lucas saw Ros open her mouth, ready to retort. He leapt up from his desk, holding a folder in his hand.
"Ros, you need to see this." He said loudly. She turned to look at him irritably.
"Can it wait?"
"No."
She sighed and got up, following him as he led the way to one of the many corridors on the Grid, and leaving Emily free to go and drink all the coffee she wanted.

The second they were in a deserted corridor, Lucas turned to look down at Ros, who knew full well that he didn't have anything to tell her to do with the case. She looked down at the folder and gave a little snort.
"Ros." She looked up at him, smiling wryly.
"Lucas." She replied in a mocking, sickly-sweet voice.
"Look, I understand that it's not easy for you-"
"Good." She interrupted, with another deliberately false smile.
"-but you should at least give her a chance. She doesn't know about Jo- she's not trying to replace her." He saw her eyes flash with pain and guilt again when he mentioned Jo, but she recovered straightaway.
"No, I know she isn't, but what she is doing is acting like an arrogant little-"
"Ros." He interrupted her just as Harry walked around the corner. It was the first time they'd seen him since he'd introduced Emily to them earlier. He'd been locked in his office all day. He looked from Ros to Lucas and back again.
"Is everything alright?" He asked politely. They both nodded, although they were still glaring at each other. Harry sighed. "How's Emily doing?" He asked, evidently unaware of everything that had been happening on the Grid since eleven o'clock that morning.
"Fine." Lucas lied promptly, shooting Ros a warning look as she cleared her throat.

At around five o'clock, people started to drift out. Emily was one of the first to go- strategically picking a moment when Ros was on the phone. Lucas went home shortly after. Soon, the only people on the Grid were Ruth, Harry and Ros.

At eight o'clock, all three of them were still there. Ruth was on her way to the photocopier when she ran into Harry, and tried desperately to think of an excuse to walk the other way. She had no idea why she didn't want to talk to him, but she wanted to avoid him as much as possible. She was just beginning to turn round when she heard him speak.
"Ruth, are you alright?" She stopped in her tracks. She nodded. "You look exhausted." He continued.
Thanks a lot. She thought, but instead she said
"Yeah...it's just been one of those days."
"It's getting late."
"I was just getting ready to go home." She replied, and walked away quickly.

Harry followed her back onto the main Grid, but walked over to Ros instead.
"Go home." He said quietly, although he was still thinking of Ruth, and was watching her leave out of the corner of his eye. Ros looked up to argue, but he cut her off before she could start speaking.
"Rosalind, go home." The use of her full name worked better than he'd expected it to. She got up and pulled her coat on, and soon enough he was standing there, completely alone.