Oh, look, I am alive.
******************************************************************************
Anne sat back in her chair, front legs rising slightly off the ground as she reclined. The past couple of weeks had been very hectic. They had finally had their first major test of the solar power generators yesterday and there had been no explosions or massive equipment failures, or anything else obviously bad. The mood about the office today was cautiously optimistic, a few careful high fives, some extra camaraderie and patting of co-worker backs. There was still food left over from the catering of the test after-party yesterday, and the general mood of the office was well fed and smug. If things went well for a couple weeks, they would begin to ease the power drain on a couple of the floundering plants, and that was something that had her bulbed sisters almost as happy as the humans.
Everyone was pleased with themselves, glad that they had been a part of something that might save the human race, or at least what part of it resided on Gunsmoke. The fact that everything seemed to be working, that the test models hadn't suddenly developed bugs when they went from scale to full size models, that the pieces that had needed to go directly from the drawing board to the final product were doing what they were designed to do without problems, that all the various machines were working well in tandem, all of it combined, all the worries that had plagued anyone who had to look at the big picture, all the stress was slowly fading as the hours slid by with out any disasters.
Anne sighed contentedly as she played with the last couple of bites on her plate. She had spent two nights in her office last week, just too tired and too busy to go home. The thought of getting to leave at five today was making her nearly giddy. Vash had said last night that Knives had something to tell her. He had implied that the telling would be soon, with the emphasis on last night, but after all the stress leading up to the launch she had just wanted to sleep.
Knives had held her in his arms as she fell asleep, which was very nice. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and remembered how he had stroked her hair as she relaxed. She liked the new, calmer version of Knives. He had been wound much too tight when they had met. Maybe it had been her, or maybe it was the fact that he had been spending time around other people for the past few years, or maybe a bit of both, but she liked the result.
Not that he had turned into a sweet harmless innocent or anything along those lines. He just seemed a bit less likely to snap at the slightest provocation. They could walk on city streets and he didn't spend all his time staring at the people around them, wondering who was going to try something. The stress lines around his eyes were mostly gone, only showing up when he was tired or over stimulated, and that was a wonderful thing to see.
Anne had wanted to invite the group to the launch, to let them see what she had been working on, but at the end she had been so tired that she was absolutely certain that the entire thing was going to blow up and that it would never work. She hadn't wanted them to see everything fly to pieces, sure that they would laugh at her or something equally demeaning. But nothing had happened that wasn't supposed to, and she was feeling obscurely guilty that she hadn't extended the invitation.
She sighed and leaned forward to shove one of the bites of food in her mouth. Chewing contentedly, she returned to her former position and thought about very little. She still had a few problems that she was supposed to be researching, mostly supply questions and a couple more research ones, but since no one else was working she didn't feel particularly motivated.
Her thoughts returned to Knives, and she wondered idly what he might want to say to her. Something more important that a dinner menu request, obviously, since Vash had felt the need to warn her that something was coming. She hoped that he wasn't going to ask her to leave now. For one thing, just because they had finally launched didn't mean that there wasn't still a bunch of work for her to do, and it wasn't like she could ignore it forever. For another, there was still the whole proving that plants aren't evil thing that she was working on. She hadn't heard much form her bosses lately, and nothing outside of work related tidbits. Whenever she quizzed Effie or Mark they just shrugged, said that no one had told them anything, and changed the subject.
The lifted chair legs thumped down on the ground as Anne shifted her weight forward. She rested her elbows on her desk and her chin in her hands as her thoughts drifted to the remaining member of her family. Knives had been keeping an eye on her, and he said that she was still thinking things through. With as busy as her life had been, she had been willing to let things go at that, but now that she had the time, she let her thoughts drift towards those of her absent family member.
And was abruptly glad that she already had all the chair legs on the ground, or she'd likely had fallen. This was Knives' idea of just fine? Ace was plotting the destruction of the human race! Anne had barely brushed the surface of the girl's thoughts, but even that was enough to leave her pale. Ace was plotting to kill and kill and kill, and Knives thought that this was not something that she might want to know?
Oh, he was going to get yelled at. Luckily the walk home was long enough for her to come up with some really choice insults because she was too enraged to think of them on the fly.