"You'll find him in accounting."
Baffled did not begin to sum up how Jack felt. Astounded, maybe. Thomas was an enigma… he shouldn't be so easy to find.
Still, Jack made his way over to the elevators and pressed the button that pointed upwards. Jack felt a strange anxiety creep over him, sinking into his skin and tunneling its way to his heart. Why was he trying so hard to find this man? How would Thomas react when he saw him? What if he was walking into a trap?
The soft chime denoting the opening of elevator doors brought Jack out of his revery, bringing his focus to the scene that lay ahead. Shaking off his nerves, the American stepped out of the elevator and into the quiet office space of the Finance Department. If not for the faint ringing of telephones and whispers of ongoing phone calls, Jack would have assumed that the place was abandoned. Still, he ventured forward, in search of a person that would be able to help him find Thomas.
The first cubicle met him with a shock of red hair, a strong looking man hurriedly typing away at his computer. Jack led with an unobtrusive knock on the cubicle, the noise seemingly absorbed by the fabric that covered the walls. Even so, the red headed man nearly leaped out of his chair, seemingly startled by the noise.
It was all Jack could do not to laugh, but instead he managed an apology and went forward with his line of questioning.
"I'm so sorry for startling you…" Jack quickly glanced back at the name tag around the man's neck," … Hugo. I just had a quick question about one of your coworkers."
The man raised an eyebrow before answering in an oddly hushed voice, "Sure, I just need to see some identification first."
That struck Jack as odd. After all, this was the finance department. Nonetheless, he handed over his Torchwood ID for the second time that day and waited as the man inspected the card and its leather case. Once a solid minute and a half had passed with Jack contemplating what this man could even be looking for, the well-built man gave his ID back.
"Alright, so what was your question?"
"It was actually about your colleague, Thomas Gree—"
Without a further word from Jack, Hugo jumped up out of his chair and exclaimed, "Ah, right!", a response that got a few threatening shushes from the neighboring cubicles.
Lowering his voice once more, Hugo continued, "He's been expecting you, granted you are a little bit early. No matter— I'll show you the way to his office."
This brought up even more questions in Jack's mind, all of which could be summed up in a single phrase: What the hell?
"Huh?"
Jack hadn't realized he had said that out loud, the sound of the remark seemingly bouncing off the walls. In return were a few more shushes from the people laboring away at their desk. Jack hurriedly whispered to cover up his tracks, "Sorry, I thought that I was on time. In my calendar I had our meeting scheduled for 10 AM— guess I had the wrong time."
The redhead studied Jack's face for a little bit, perhaps catching him in his lie. Nevertheless, Hugo shook off his doubt and responded, again with his hushed voice, "No worries, he should be getting out of his other meeting soon. Right this way."
The ginger pushed his way past Jack and led him down the hall on the left side of the row of cubicles.
Jack allowed himself to ask one more question, "Is there a reason you and your associates are being so quiet?"
"The boss is talking to someone really important," the ginger responded with a shrug. Jack couldn't tell if this reason was out of fear for their boss or the person their boss was speaking to.
Once they reached the office at the end of the hall, Hugo gestured to the seats right outside of Thomas's office, "Feel free to sit here for the time being. We need you to fill out this form for your visit. I'm sure that Scorpious can help you if you have any questions."
This statement was met with a quick, "Sod off, Weasley."
Hugo, rolling his eyes, handed Jack a clipboard with the required paperwork, "You just need to fill out the first page." With a pause, the red head continued, smirk on his face, "and don't leave anything blank— we will find out whatever it is you don't want us to know."
Having been threatened many times before in his life, Jack simply raised his eyebrows and sat down. Having not completely forgotten his manners, Jack muttered a quiet 'thank you', only to find the other man had already returned to his desk.
Jack filled out the paperwork as quickly as possible, giving enough information to satiate whatever boss Thomas was turning out to be. Some of the questions were rather odd, such as, 'When was the last time you consulted a physician?' or 'Where would you like to travel?'. Jack answered as honestly as possible, though some of the questions he didn't actually know the answer to, like, 'How honest are you?' Oddly enough, he found that he could actually answer all of the questions, as if the pen in his hand had a mind of its own.
Once he was done with the entry survey, there was little more he could do outside of twiddling his thumbs. It felt like an hour had gone by, but a quick glance at his watch disproved that, showing that it had only been ten minutes. Precisely at 10:30 AM, the door to Thomas' office clicked, the brown haired man ushering a slightly taller strawberry blonde haired man out. They appeared to have a few closing remarks ending in a hand shake and a wave. Once the blonde haired man exited the room, Thomas wheeled around, mid-eyeroll, pausing as he had finally seen Jack seated outside of his office.
"Right. You. Come in." His speech was clipped, a far cry from the suave gentleman Jack had cornered earlier in the week.
Thomas was gone before Jack could blink, sweeping into his office with graceful movements.
He wasn't sure what he was expecting to see in Thomas' office, but what lay ahead was definitely not it. The large window that took up most of the wall had the curtains drawn, the ornate overhead lights were turned off, and a white noise machine played in the corner. The only thing illuminating the room were lamps at the corners of the room shining warm white light, dimmed to their lowest setting. At the desk on the far right side of the room was Thomas. Jack could barely tell that it was him, as his alluring features were eclipsed by the meager light in the room. Still, his blue eyes shone through the darkness, lacking their typical hardness and teasing manner. Instead, they were tired, exhausted even— an emotion that Jack wouldn't have thought was possible in the other man. They flashed green for a split second when the two men made eye contact, another instance that made Jack question his sanity.
"Have a seat."