He wasn't expecting her to be back for the rest of her shift, figuring she'd take the day off for herself, so he didn't bother checking the front desk for her. However, when the stacks of folders on his own desk started to become troublesome in organizing, he was forced to move some of them to hers; she could take care of it the next day. He already had reports finished and signed, he would just need her to finish off the rest of the paperwork and get that placed in the system. It wasn't much to rush about and even if it was, it wasn't like he could do much about it.
However, he paused briefly as he made his way down the corridor, catching sight of her seated in front of the computer. It was odd but… he supposed he couldn't complain.
"I'm surprised you came back." Ishida remarked, leaning briefly against the wall next to her. "Date didn't go well?"
She offered a light chuckle as she moved herself away from the computer and slowly spun her chair towards him. "No, it went just fine; we had fun buying stuff we didn't need and eating things we shouldn't. But then her boyfriend showed up and I figured they might want some time to themselves."
"She… doesn't have a boyfriend." he slowly replied.
Pushing herself to her feet, she moved to take the folders from his hold, gently placing one hand against his shoulder. "Awww, well maybe one day you'll understand."
He watched curiously as she took the folders and moved back to her desk, seemingly willing to get to putting them through the system- which was odd. In fact, come to think of it, the files that had been on her desk that morning were already gone… which meant she had put them through and then placed them back into storage. He continued to stand there for a moment, unsure if what he was witnessing was really the truth here. "Okay first off, what does that even mean? And secondly… are you feeling okay?"
"Oh you know, it's just a language." she remarked, not really helping the situation with her words. Placing the folders down in front of her, she dropped back into her chair but didn't bother to straighten herself up afterwards. "As for how I'm feeling, I am absolutely miserable. I mean, I'm using work as a distraction and it's actually working." Fingers moved to cradle her temple for a moment, eventually spreading out to cover her forehead. "Is there anything else for me to do when I'm done with these? Like, can I organize someone's desk or something?"
Okay… he wasn't expecting that.
"Was it something from the date?"
"Ooh, tough question. Yes and no." she nodded before she moved to ruffle through her loosened strands. "Can we not talk about it now though? Not really comfortable with it in a public area… actually not really comfortable with it at all. It's just a mess of all sorts of things and I'm still trying to piece it together myself."
She always had a way of giving him enough of an answer that could still provoke about a dozen more questions. But… she seemed sincere about this problem; physically, it was easy to tell that she was bothered by something. It was just a question of what though.
But he wasn't curious enough to question her about it, not now anyways; it would put him on her bad side for sure and he didn't feel like running with that kind of risk right now. Instead, he gave her a brief nod and turned to go. "My shift ends at seven but I have to come back around eleven to get a few more things finished off."
"Sounds like fun." she replied with a hint of sarcasm before she watched as he started back towards his office. "Hey Quincy?"
"What is it?" he questioned as he turned back to her just in time to see her tug up the hemline of her skirt; revealing some kind of… lacy product underneath it.
"Have fun in your office." she remarked with a brief grin before she moved to smooth out her skirt once more.
"You are impossible."
He had to admit she seemed less upset about her problem by the end of the day; she had somewhat resorted back to being herself- not without completing every file that came across her desk though. She even hunted down a few reports that were late and managed to get those in before she clocked out; hell, she even cleaned out some of the overflow in the supply closet and helped some of the nurses get their documents finished up. He'd almost be willing to say that he wished she got upset more often… it would be great if the hospital could work with that kind of efficiency more often. But… personal reasons came before business and he didn't like seeing her so twisted over something.
By the end of the day, she decided to drive herself back with him and ended up parking on the street instead of in the driveway. It wasn't much but it was the little details that got to him, that stuck out to him. He tried not to make much out of it though and just let it go.
"Sounds like you've got a busy schedule tonight, I hope you don't mind me missing." Cirucci remarked as she followed behind him through the front doorway.
"How do you know I have a busy schedule?" he questioned, remembering that he had only mentioned a small portion of it earlier.
"Because… I looked it up in the system."
He paused briefly to hang his coat up on the nearest wall hook, watching as she continued on past him; choosing to toss her coat onto the couch instead. "My schedule is only available in a locked branch of the system. I'm the only one with that password."
"… Okay, okay, I may or may not have hacked it, but does it really matter?" she asked, shooting him a light grin over her shoulder. "By the way, I loved that email you sent to the city about the whole misunderstanding."
"You got into my mailing too?"
"I needed something to do, okay? And I didn't think your branch of the system was going to be that easy to get into… but it was and then I couldn't help myself." she explained. "Don't worry, I didn't look into too much, your stuff was boring and hard to understand anyways."
He shook his head and continued on his way down the corridor, making the turn towards his room. "You know, every day it seems like you're turning more and more into one of those psycho girlfriends."
"Well, they are the best in bed."
Yeah… she was okay now.
"You got any plans for the few hours you're off?" she questioned, pausing just briefly in the kitchen for a moment as she pulled off her heels. "Because if not… well I can adlib something or two to pass the time."
She really was insatiable.
One hand moved to push through his hair as he chuckled briefly at her remark. Just a few hours ago, she looked physically drained and now she acted like she could run a mile or two, like nothing was wrong in the first place. He moved to slip out of his work shirt before he slowly made his way back to where she seemed to be lingering about in the kitchen, probably making another pot of coffee. "Was there something you wanted to talk about earlier?"
"Oh come on, don't change the subject." she chuckled as she moved to take a glass from the cabinet; she paused about halfway up though with the glass half balanced against her fingertips. "Oh shit…"
For a moment, he thought she was going to let the glass topple down and hit her in the face.
Luckily she caught it in time though and managed to push it back into the cabinet. Once that short moment of panic was over though, it left him with another one to deal with. "What is it?"
She bit into her lower lip for a moment as she slowly settled herself back on her feet after having to stand on her toes to get to the cabinet. She completely forgot about the meeting tonight… shit. It was almost like she completely forgot about seeing Nel and Harribel overall. Shaking her head, she pushed the cabinet back closed and moved to gather her shoes from where they had been kicked off. "I just remembered that something came up earlier and it's important business that if I don't attend to now… bad things will happen. And I mean that in a sense that bad things may happen to you, not me."
He narrowed his eyes slightly at her remark and watched as she hurried to try and get her heels back on as she half hopped her way back towards the front door. "Do I want to know?"
"It's a long story." she offered. "Look, I love you and I'll see you later tonight after this ordeal is over with. I might stop by your office but if I don't, I'll be in your bed when you get home."
He barely had time to say much else before she was out the front door. He gave a few seconds before a low sigh escaped him and he moved to push up on his glasses. Knowing her… it was probably something he didn't want to know anyways; something he didn't want to get involved with. He could probably get in a decent nap before he had to report back- which would be easier now since she was off doing her own thing.
Still though… whatever she was talking about had him curious.
She had gotten so used to following him home and enjoying in a few hours of physical entertainment that she completely forgot about the meeting. Not that she was really all that worried about it though… it's not like they usually got that much done anyways; they usually talked for a few minutes and then argued for the rest of the time. Really productive.
She ended up speeding her way back to the house, running a few traffic lights and she might've ran one person off the road, but that was still sketchy. Fuck, she didn't even know why she was rushing… it's not like she really wanted to be there. The whole situation had probably blown over though- hopefully anyways. They didn't typically linger on one thing for too long, there were always more important things to deal with after all. Besides, she was still certain that they were in the wrong anyways, but she was tired of arguing about it. She just wanted to let it all go… even if it was impossible to do that much.
Finally making it back to the correct neighborhood, she lost her nerve and ended up circling the block for a few minutes longer. She was more than positive that she was going to lose her temper and possibly physically harm someone though. She knew Szayel was going to find a way to push her buttons and push her in the wrong direction just to get a reaction because he was a sadistic bastard like that.
The driveway was packed with cars so she ended up having to park on the street anyways before she forced herself towards the front door. Jeez, she could already hear them inside without even getting up the porch yet. Drawing in a deep breath, she held it in her chest as she pushed her way through the door and started towards the crowded living room.
"You've got ten minutes to keep my interest and then after that, I'm gone." Cirucci announced as she paused briefly just behind one of the couches, arms moving to cross over her chest.
"I don't think that was part of the deal." Nell started.
"There was no deal, all I said is that I would be here and I am, we never settled on how long I needed to stay." she remarked. "All I'm saying is that if this meeting turns into another fight about me and my business… I'm leaving and you'll be lucky if you see me here again."
"Always so dramatic, aren't you?" the voice made her cringe slightly before she turned to see where the pink-haired man was standing in the kitchen behind her; a half filled cup resting in one hand. "But you just brighten up the atmosphere around here so much, it's hard to complain."
Gods, she hated his sense of sarcasm.
"Oh Szayel, how I've missed seeing your stupid face in the morning." she returned just as bitterly.
"And I missed seeing your stupid ass."
"Can we get back onto topic here?" Nell sighed.
She really didn't want to, but then again, she didn't even know what they were going to be talking about anyways. Giving out a long sigh, she slowly stepped around the couch and took one of the few free seats that was still available; fitting herself between Nell and Menoly. "Alright, alright, fine… what's there to discuss?"
"Well we got ourselves into a lot of shit with that last incident." Menoly remarked as she pulled herself into a heavy stretch and almost ended up pulling herself off the couch in the attempt. "Right now, it seems like we're in the clear but… who knows. At this point, anything is possible."
"Here, why don't I tell you guys what I know and then you can fill me in?" Cirucci offered. "… Then again, I know nothing about what happened because I was not informed, so hop to it."
"I'll give you the quick version." Menoly replied, cutting off a few of the others who had started to step in to answer her. "Uh, a couple of days ago, or weeks, whichever, we had to respond to a last minute, late night call; we tried to act accordingly but let's face it, we fucked up a lot. Anyways, we got the job done… or at least we thought. Turns out someone here didn't tighten up their loose ends and one of those scouts managed to get away for us. That's what we were trying to discuss that night when you walked in on us."
It took her a careful moment to dissolve the woman's words and she frowned briefly at the given information. And considering no one tried to object to what Menoly said… she could only guess that it was true. If that was the truth though, they were in a lot more shit than she originally thought. She assumed they had fucked up somewhere, but to this extent? "Are you serious? I thought you guys could've handled something like that with no problem? We've dealt with worse shit before but we never let someone walk away from it. Why didn't anyone call me?"
"You didn't answer." Nell answered.
… Shit, she didn't take her phone with her that night, didn't she?
Damnit.
Fingers moved to rub at her temples for a moment as she tried to get her thoughts under control. Alright, alright, no need to panic… if there haven't been any other signs of activity so far, that meant they were still under the radar for now. "Well… nice going guys."
"Do you see why we couldn't speak with you afterwards?" Harribel questioned.
"Not really, no." Cirucci remarked.
"One of their scouts returned with clear confirmation of our presence and while we haven't picked up on any activity… that doesn't mean they're not out there." Menoly explained once more, eventually scooting her way back onto the couch. "They have insiders in this world, insiders who don't register with an energy source we can detect. Which means, if we can't detect them, then we can't know if we're interacting with them, which means they could be getting inside information on us. We only know a small handful of them, or at least we know what they look like and that Quincy boy of yours is one of them. Whether he likes it or not."
She refused to admit it but… it did make sense now, at least when it was said in that manner. Or maybe she just had time to calm down and think it through. Giving out a half-defeated sigh, she pushed her head back against the cushion behind her. "So… now what? Any plans, Oh Great Ones?"
"That's why we're here tonight." Szayel remarked. "We've made it this far without any problems, but that doesn't mean we're in the clear."
"They're more than likely doing the exact same thing we are." Starrk spoke from the far end of the room; one hand partly supporting his head as he stayed half slumped in a chair. "The only difference is that they've got more control over this situation than we do."
"True and false." Ulquiorra denoted, sitting only two people away from the dozing man. "They may retain control in a physical sense but they cannot seek us out so easily as they did before. We blend in perfectly with our environment and with the crowds, it would take some extensive searching on their behalf to even get close to our presence before we hide our trail again. It's time and effort on their half, wasting energy on a senseless hunt. However… it brings the question of just how much longer will we wish to run away in this rabbit chase?"
"Let's face it, we're all pretty fucking tired of running but we don't have a lot of options right now. Not a lot of smart ones." Aaroniero started as he moved to lock his hands together behind his head. "So we either keep running or we give up the ghost and shoot ourselves in a mass suicide pact."
That sounded about right, sadly enough.
"Look, we can discuss deep meanings and ways of death later… we have plenty enough on our plate right now." Nell interrupted. "Can we just… figure this out first? I don't want us still discussing options when this problem comes knocking at our door."
"We need to keep a low profile, be aware of where you are and who you're with." Harribel replied. "We know what a majority of their scouts look like, but these new people will be harder to distinguish. We have a brief advantage in the fact that these insiders don't know what we all look like either, however that more than likely will not last; just as well, they don't know how many there are of us."
"How many were present with the scout who got away?" Cirucci questioned.
"Only four as far as I know." Harribel answered.
"Well hey… if they want to pick a fight, we could take them."
