'At Work' Drabbles

Because life isn't always fun and games. Sometimes you have to work too. But nobody wants to read about that! So here are the fun and games AT work...

- - -

'Lab Work'

Eve threw down her pen angrily, letting out a torrent of swearwords and scraping her fingers across her scalp. She just couldn't get the result she wanted – needed – and it was driving her crazy. It just wasn't working.

The lab door hissed open behind her, and Stella wandered in.

"Hey – Boyd's annoying me so..." she trailed off, feeling the anger and frustration that just seeped off Eve. "Baby?" she came up to her, kissing the back of her shoulder and resting her chin on it.

"I just can't fucking..." Eve gave an angry sigh. "Catharsis – ten letters."

"Abreaction?"

"Oh. Right..."

- - -

'Stress Relief'

(A/N: A friend gave me the first line for this one. 'The door shut with a bang.' I told her that it was a rubbish first line, but I did the best I could...)

The door shut with a bang, hiding Boyd from view. Stella cursed. She needed him to look at what she had found, to concentrate for a moment, and he was in a foul mood.

"Sir. Sir..." No answer. "Merde!"

"What is it?" asked Eve, wandering into the otherwise empty office.

"Boyd..." She didn't need to say anything more; Eve nodded in understanding.

"Come here..." said Eve quietly, beckoning, and murmuring to Stella – never once breaking eye contact. "Tonight, I'm going to make love to you, again and again, until you forget all about Boyd, and his moods. Ok?"

"Yeah, ok."

- - -

'Ringtone'

Eve was clearing up her stuff in the lab when her mobile rang. She smiled – Stella had assigned herself a special ringtone: Etta James' 'I Just Want to Make Love to You', and it made Eve grin no matter where she was.

"Hey, where are you?" she asked, putting the phone on loudspeaker.

"My place. Come over – I'm making you dinner."

"You are?" Eve felt positively flattered. "What are you making?"

"It's a surprise."

"Do you want me to bring anything? Wine?"

"A change of underwear."

"Oh..." Eve raised an eyebrow. "So I'll be staying then?"

"Play your cards right..."

- - -

'Interruption'

(A/N: Inspired by Pook)

Stella and Eve had been working late. Very late. They had kept meaning to go home – but the empty CCHQ just seemed to pull them back, get them distracted. Or maybe that was each other – hard to tell.

They were on the floor in a distant corner of the lab when the door made its loud opening hiss. Eve looked up from inbetween Stella's legs, mouthed 'shit!'. Stella bit her lip in agreement (although privately deciding that anything that mouth did was wonderful).

"Hello?" Oh god. Boyd. They froze. "Damn..."

The door closed again. A moment's pause.

"Continue?"

"Please do..."

- - -

'Another Way'

(A/N: Rewind. This takes place before Steve got together – and as much as I'd like to imagine that 'Deep Skin' tells the untold story of what happened after 'Skin', this is a short drabble of an alternative...)

They had been in the lab, alone for almost fifteen minutes when Stella finally gave in. It was hard – so hard to just concentrate next to Eve. Every smile they shared, every moment their bodies touched (accidentally of course) was just impossible to discount. There was something. They weren't stupid. Of course there was. Someone just had to do something about it.

"Eve." started Stella, as confidently as she could. Eve looked up from the microscope. "I don't want to go home alone tonight. I want someone to come with me. And I don't want it to be anyone else but you."

Eve didn't miss a beat. "I though you'd never ask."

- - -

'Smoker'

No sooner had Eve placed the cigarette between her lips than it was plucked out again, and discarded over the railings round the back of CCHQ.

"Hey, sorry." she said, as Stella leant next to her.

Stella shrugged. "Don't apologise. I just don't like people smoking around me. And as I'm here..." she smiled, and Eve grinned back.

"I thought everyone in France smoked."

"They do. I lost my aunt and two grandparents to lung cancer."

"Oh baby, I'm sorry." said Eve, gently. "I should quit, I just..."

"Yeah," said Stella quickly, cutting her off. "That's what they said too."

- - -