CJ- Lol, well he is called Peppercorn on the show! =D

Guest- awwww, that's a huge compliment. Thanks!

I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before

Hotel California- The Eagles

Mary drove to work and hurried into the office. If the looks that the others were giving her were anything to go by, she hadn't been the only one to read the paper this morning.

TGIF indeed. She was going to run out of there the minute she was done with work.

"Did you read this?" Tomas held the paper up for Mary to see.

"I did."

"Is it true?" Natalia asked.

"No."

Thankfully, Olivia and Colin chose to keep their mouths shut. Mary might have snapped if they had said anything otherwise. Nobody said a word when Bash came in. They worked together for two hours before Alec called Mary up to her office, telling her to come alone. She only needed one guess to know what it was about.

If I get a lecture on dating co-workers, so help me. . .

Mary took a seat and waited for Alec to start giving her the lecture. Instead, Hugo walked in to join the chat.

"Sir-" Mary started. Hugo held up a hand to silence her.

"This relationship you two have is going to give us a lot of press," he said.

"We don't have that kind of relationship."

"That doesn't matter, Ms. Stuart. This is still going to bring a lot of attention to the network. The press already knows you work here, and now they're going to know about Poitiers. Just wait until next week. They'll know more about him."

Oh, god. Mary shrunk in her chair. They're going to fire me. The call to my mother might not save me after all. Why didn't I call her before I got in today?

"I like it!"

Mary sat there, stunned. Had she heard that correctly?

"I-I'm sorry?"

Alec was smiling at her, and Hugo looked as if somebody had just told him he would be getting a paid trip to the Bahamas for a month.

"I like it!" Hugo said again. "This network could use more press and you two just may be the ones to bring it to us. Do you think we should take the temporary status off the boy? I think we should. All right, of course we'll need to run a background check but once that is done..." Hugo started spewing off but Mary wasn't listening. Her supervisor and the network president were happy about this. Happy!

She didn't even know why she was so popular in the city. It seemed to be due to being an heiress as well as "her beauty and sense of elegance" or some such rubbish. She never read anything about herself long enough to know why.

"That will be all, Ms. Stuart," Hugo dismissed her. Mary quietly excused herself and headed back down to her desk. Still stunned, she nearly walked straight into Bash on her way out of the elevator.

"There you are!" he said.

"How did you know that was me coming down?"

"I saw the level change," he answered.

Mary's lips curled upwards. "Oh Bash, you must have really bored to notice that."

"Why does everyone keep asking me about my personal life?"

She tensed. "What do you mean?"

"They're questions I can't imagine anyone having an interest in. In the 10 minutes that you were gone, I had people I had never met before coming up here and asking me all sorts of questions. Ones like what my favorite pizza flavor is, what bands I listen to, and what I like to do for fun."

"Really?" Mary pretended to be curious.

"Yeah. Do you know what's going on?"

"Maybe everyone thinks you're attractive," she suggested.

"Doubt it."

They walked back to her desk. "Is that so hard to believe?" she asked him as she settled into her chair and swiveled around.

"No, I think I'm pretty attractive," he winked at her. Mary rolled her eyes teasingly.

"You know, you still have some more pilots to watch. What do you say we watch them now?" she held up a disc. "We can start with this one." he saw the word 'clowns' and his eyes widened, much to her satisfaction. She had remembered him telling her about his fear of them.

"Do you have nothing else to do?" he asked.

"No, but you will be getting a call from Hugo later today. That's a secret for me to know," she told him before he could ask. "After you have seen this pilot, look at this one. This is one that I told you took longer to film because of changes in the script."

"I have a better idea," he sat up. "Why don't we split the work? You can watch the clown pilot, and I will watch," he took the disc from her hands and read the writing, "Lives of Zookeepers," he read and looked at the disc blankly. "Well that sounds utterly boring. Unless the animals are going to attack each other, then I might change my mind."

"The title needs to change, there's no doubt about that," Mary took the disc back. "There's much more to it though."

"I would hope so. That's a flop waiting to happen." He took another disc from her desk. "Hotel California. Like the song?"

"Like the song," she answered. "I think it's based off the lyrics of the song so it's meant to be more of a scary show. Especially when there are lyrics like 'but you can never leave' and so on."

"Can I please watch that one? I think that was the one with the description I didn't understand, but I didn't relate it to the song because there was no title," he took a file and skimmed through until he found the page he was looking for. "The lyrics are the show's descriptions. That would explain why I was confused when you first showed it to me."

He stood up. "I'm watching this one," he started walking to the conference room.

"Clowns first!" Mary held the disc above her head.

Bash trudged back and took the disc from her without an argument. While he watched the pilots, Mary got to work on her own assignment, one that included calling her mother. Her mother had promised to do what she could to get Bash out of the paper.

When she got up for lunch, she went into the conference room to check on Bash. He had his head down on the table.

"Are you awake in here?" She asked.

"Turn it off," he fussed.

She looked to the screen. Two minutes of watching it and she could understand for Bash putting his head on the table. The clowns she was looking at were absolutely terrifying- cannibalistic, dark, and silent.

"You watch the X-Files but this scares you?" Mary left the show on.

"This is only the first episode Mary. This whole show is about clowns being mass murderers that silently creep up on their prey from behind. Who's going to watch this thing?!" he lifted his head up.

"Horror fans. So what do you think about it?"

"Good. I personally won't be watching it though. Too many clowns, and I don't know how they can keep this going past one season."

"Yes or no to pick-up?"

"Midseason."

"Really?"

"Come on. 20 episodes of the same thing is not going to work well with ratings. Unless it's one arc over the entire season. Midseason means they don't have to drag it out the way they would if it went from September to May."

"I see your point," Mary agreed and wrote his idea down. "How about you watch another one while I go get some lunch."

"I'll come with you," he started to get up from his seat.

"No!" Mary was quick to argue. "I mean, why don't I bring you lunch? That way you could enjoy the shows."

"Okay?" Bash looked confused but sat back down.

"Great. I'm going to go now," she ran out.

She hadn't mean to sound rude, but she didn't want Bash to see any of the papers. It had been her mother's idea to protect him from it.

Mary was only gone for a short while to get the both of them lunch. She ignored any newspaper stands on her walk. That didn't stop the catcall she received from a complete stranger that walked past her.

"Lola?" She walked onto the level she worked on, going over to her best friend when she didn't see Bash in the conference room. "Where did Bash go?"

"He's in the bathroom," Lola answered.

"All right, thank you," Mary sat at her desk and pulled out her deli sandwich, looking at maps on the internet and planning out routes.

"Been here long?" a voice asked. She jumped. He seemed to know how to walk up behind somebody better than those clowns did.

"What the hell?!" water sprayed onto her and her paper as he shook his head. "Did the pipes break in there?!" She looked at his wet hair.

"I thought I smelled and that's why you didn't want to be around me," he said.

"You- wait, what?"

"You were quite firm in not having me go to lunch with you and I realized I haven't washed my hair in a while so I wet it in there."

Mary looked at him before laughing, and handed him a small pizza she had bought him to eat. "Sebastian, that's not why. I just wanted you to watch those pilots since it's so close to the upfronts," maybe she wasn't telling the complete truth, but she was telling most of it. "Speaking of which," she held up the paper she had been writing on. "How do you plan on getting to New York?"

"I didn't even know I was going," he told her, looking at her as if she should have already known this.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because I don't work here?"

She sighed. "Hugo isn't coming down today if he hasn't already. I wanted him to tell you this but I guess I'll be the one to do it."

"Just tell me already."

"He wants to hire you."

Most people that Mary knew would have taken this as their golden ticket. They would have jumped for joy, cried with tears of happiness streaming down their face, and then seated themselves in a chair and talk about the joys of working at a television network, instead of on a television show.

It turned out that Bash was not one of those people.

"Why?" was all he asked.

"What do you mean why?" Mary started tapping her foot. Perhaps it was better she tell Bash the news herself. Hugo would have told him everything. "This is a great opportunity. Do you not think you deserve it?" she glanced at him and saw the look on his face. "Oh my gosh, you don't."

"Gee Mary," Bash was giving her sarcasm. "I guess I really could get the job because of my charming ways with people."

"No need to be sarcastic about it," Mary told him.

"You're right. I'm sorry," Bash apologized without sounding too sorry. She could see he still needed to work on his social skills if he was going to go to New York with her.

"Let's settle one thing at a time. New York."

"I don't have a way to get there so I won't be going. You have fun though," he smiled. "Besides, what would I do there?"

"Join the rest of us. If it makes you feel any better, only Hugo and the actors would be onstage. Everything we do is behind-the-scenes."

"And I would get there, how?"

"With me."

Bash snorted. "Planning to put me in your suitcase? Because you'll need a big one in order to accomplish that."

"No, of course not," Mary smiled.

"I don't have the money for a ticket, Mary."

"Wouldn't it be fun to drive there?" she blurted out. When he raised his eyebrows, she put the paper closer to his face. "I planned it out. We would need almost a whole week unless you want to drive 20 hours a day."

Bash hesitated. "Drive there? You mean, just you and I?"

"Why not?. I'd pay for everything"

He thought for a moment. He could always sleep on a couch, or in a different room. It was easier to keep his hands off of her that way.

"Bash?"

"Oh, well, um," he tried to think of an answer that didn't involve what he was currently thinking about. "Doesn't you paying for everything kind of, I don't know, emasculate me or something?"

"That's what you have to say about this?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't have anything else to say. Would you be able to take the time off?"

"Are you kidding me? I hardly ever take time off. And after the way Hugo was fawning over you in Alec's office this morning, I'm tempted to say he would let me go if you came with me."

"It's just strange. The only place I ever thought of going to was France, to see my mother. Her name's Diane."

"Diane," Mary muttered to herself. "What's she like?"

"Young enough to not look like my mother. Everyone always thought she was my sister. We have the same eyes so that was part of it, and her hair is a lighter shade than mine."

"She sounds beautiful," Mary told him.

"She is," Bash stopped talking about his mother and picked up a disc. "I'll go on the trip with you if you want. In the meantime," he took a disc from her. "I'm going to watch the other two pilots, so I'll be in the conference room if Hugo comes by."

"Sounds good," she watched him walk away. Diane Poitiers. . .

A thought went off in her head like a light-bulb. She picked up her phone, smiling to herself. There was more than one perk to having a parent work in the press.

"It's me again. . . No, it's not about that. . . I need you to write a name down, do you have a pen with you? Call it a favor for someone. . . "

In the conference room with his lunch, Bash was actually enjoying the pilots.

"Sebastian?" there was a knock on the open door. To his disappointment, it wasn't Mary. He was hoping she would join him.

"Natalia, right?" he asked.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Watching the pilots."

Natalia nodded. "Mind if I join you?"

"No, go ahead," Bash pulled out a chair for her. "I'm halfway through this one."

"The zoo one, I know. I've seen them already."

"Right."

They watched in silence for 10 minutes before Natalia spoke up. "So, are you and Mary, you know," Bash turned to look at her, "together?"

"You're not the first to ask," Bash turned back to the screen. "And to answer your question, no. We're not. Think about it, what circumstances would that have happened under?"

"Where did you two meet?"

Bash smiled, remembering the day as if it had been that morning. It hadn't even been a month, and yet, it felt as if he had known her longer.

"Under unusual circumstances," he answered. Natalia paused the disc to listen to Bash's story. He only told her of the near accident, leaving out the soup kitchen. She didn't need to know about any of that.

"Wow," was all Natalia said after he finished. She scribbled something onto a notepad.

Bash peered at it, but couldn't make out any of the words. "Are you-are you writing that down?"

"Not that, no," she told him, without looking at him. "Have fun with the pilots."

"Wait, what?" Natalia was walking out of the room. "I thought you said you wanted to watch the pilots."

"I would love to, but I have to get back," she told him then went back to her desk.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked himself out loud. He finished the zoo pilot (not bad, he thought to himself) then went on to watch Hotel California. That one was by far his favorite. Perfect dose of creepiness and mystery, without going overboard.

"Bash," another voice that certainly wasn't Mary's.

"Yes?" Bash was taking the disc out of the DVD player.

"What's going on?"

"Look, Tomas, whatever you heard, is wrong. Mary and I aren't together like that."

Tomas looked amused. "That's not what I was going to ask, but thank you for clarifying. I have another question for you."

"Which would be?"

"How tall are you?"

"What does that matter?" Bash asked, confused.

Tomas shrugged. "No reason in particular."

Bash thought everyone was going crazy, but he had no choice but to humor them. "I would say about 5'11," he answered. "Anything else?"

"No, that's all. Thank you."

Bash went back to Mary's desk. "You work with some very strange people."

"How do you figure?"

Bash told her what had happened with Natalia and Tomas, their seemingly random questions and Natalia writing his answer down (he was sure that's what she had been writing). The whole time, Mary merely smiled at him. "Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"No reason," she turned back to her computer, still smiling.

So what do you think Mary was smiling about? And who told the press about Bash?

Oh, how I wish a movie or show could be made based off the song "Hotel California." Until next time, dearies. Leave a review! =)