It's been a few days since Glenn has died and it is only now that people in NorBAC found out about their boss' nephew. Only Bob knew about Caroline's struggle and that was by accident. She kept it private as much as possible. It's the norm. One does not let one's personal problem interfere with one's work. She tried to live up with it and she's now failing.
Caroline arrived to work early. She always does but today, she's particularly early. Being alone at her apartment makes her feel isolated, almost claustrophobic. She needs to hear people's chatters around her and yet she needs space so she can breathe. Mourning is not her specialty. When her sister died, she poured her energy to her work and Glenn. With Glenn gone, she only has her work left. McGuinn called her before she arrived at the office about a potential threat to the national security. It's something she really needed to make her forget. Girl talk worked before Glenn's surgery but she doesn't think anything will work at the moment. She needs to drown herself with work.
The knocking on the door snapped her out of her thoughts. She hadn't realized she's been sitting on the same spot for an hour staring at her nephew's picture on her table. She hadn't also realized she had locked the door to her office. She hasn't done that before and she's sure that would raise a lot of concerns from her people. It's the last thing she needed, attention.
"Just a minute!" she yelled then fixed herself so she wouldn't look like a mess and then opened the door.
The looks on Carlos and David's faces told her that she had indeed raised suspicion by locking her door.
"Since when do you lock doors?" David asked.
"I didn't realize I had", she said.
It wasn't a lie. She wasn't aware she locked it. It's another side effect of grief.
Carlos put the package from Homeland Security to her desk. She then put on her plastic gloves to avoid putting her prints all over it. Just as expected, the box contains a bottle of cabaret sauvignon.
"How do we know it's not contaminated?" she asked.
"Let's have a tasting party", David teased.
Normally, Caroline let that talk slide. She's used to it. David talks in sarcasm all the time. This one is normal. It's just the timing is not right. She snapped.
"There's that goddamn sarcasm again, David. Just do your job ad test the wine so we can be done with it", she snapped.
That caught the two scientists off guard. Caroline doesn't snap so easily. She has a long patience especially when it comes to her Chief Scientist.
When David snapped back at her, she chose to bite her tongue to avoid taking it further. She might be in her best state right now but she's still the Executive Director of NorBAC. She needs to take the high ground.
"Connor, it's Caroline. About the Cuban problem, it may not be an act of war", she said on the phone.
Her team has been working on that issue for days now. Caroline is itching to put that to rest so they can focus on other things. Some people are anxious about their productivity especially the private sectors that are funding their lab.
"Caroline, there is a problem. Senate just called a session. They might declare it as such if we don't provide them with a data that the bacteria on those citrus are not caused by the Cubans", he said.
Caroline ran her hand on her face. She wanted to drown with work but not an impending war between countries. Bombs will start dropping if they don't come up with something.
"Hold them off, Connor. Say something. You're good at it. Give us time to put together a report", she said.
"72 hours, Caroline. That's all I can give you", he agreed.
"That's all we need. Thank you", she replied.
Caroline went down the conference room where David and the others are conducting a meeting about the GMO fish case, David's side project.
"Listen up, we got a priority", she announced and everyone looked at her.
"Priority? We are waiting for the wine result. There's nothing else we can do about that", David objected.
Caroline ignored his tone even though it gets to her nerves.
"Senate called a session in the White House. They wanted to declare the Florida situation as an act of war from Cuba", she continued.
"What? We cleared that already. It wasn't Cuba", Carlos asked.
"I said that to McGuinn and he's giving us 72 hours. He will try to hold them off. We need to produce a data report of your findings in Cuba proving that they are not involve with the Florida crisis or US will drop the bomb on their soil", Caroline asked.
Her eyes roamed around the data her team was analyzing. The case looked promising and it seems they are trying to save lots of people but she cannot let her country launch a war against another country just like that. She needs to do something.
"So, Cuba, then wine problem, and then the GMO…" Jill concluded.
"If we wait to act on the GMO case, many will get infected within the area", Bob explained.
Caroline swallowed her moral judgment and kept her face straight and emotionless.
"Compile the report. I'll wait your final output in my office", she said and then leave.
She sounded like the kind of boss she doesn't want to be when she first started working on the lab. She wanted to help people by healing them, helping to prevent big crisis. Working as an intelligence officer, among other things, does save lives too but working at NorBAC doesn't necessarily require her to use her weapon. NorBAC is like a family. Now, she's treating them like they're nothing more than her employees.
Once she's at the comfort of her own place, she opened her bag and popped a pill to keep her up and running for more hours. Crashing is not an option. She needs to be calm and awake to function. She started dialing numbers and talking to her contacts to give her team an advantage with the GMO case. It's hard spinning stories from French to Canadian politicians but it's what she does best. After that, she dealt with the wine threat. Homeland Security isn't that convinced but there's nothing more they can do if they backed it with data from the lab results.
The knocking on her door once again snapped her out of her head but this time, the door isn't locked anymore. David let himself in and handed the file to Caroline.
"Thank you", she said and immediately dialed McGuinn but no one answered.
She tried couple more times until Wes burst in with news.
"They've issued an announcement. They declared it's Cuba's fault about what happened to Florida", he informed them.
"What?" Caroline muttered.
Her hand found her cell phone and she started dialing again. It's no wonder why McGuinn isn't answering his office phone. 24 hours had not yet passed by but they already made the announcement.
"I thought we have 72 hours", David said to her.
"I thought so too", she replied.
Behind David, she saw McGuinn entered her office in his complete uniform.
"You better have a good hell of a story", she said to him.
David is furious about the announcement but Caroline's tone undermined his furiousness.
"Not only good but true. The whole thing is up the in the air. Someone, somewhere just got a little creative. It wasn't us", he explained.
Caroline handed the file to him and then proceeded to write something on her pad. She ripped it off and then gave it to McGuinn. It says that she is resigning with her signature on it. She then proceeded to pick up her bag.
"Oh come on, Caroline!" McGuinn followed after her outside the office while David picked up the paper to read what's on it.
"Shit", he muttered once he saw what's on it and he followed them as well.
Downstairs, Caroline continued to walk towards the exit until McGuinn caught up with her and pulled her by the arm.
"Don't flush this place to the ground just because you didn't have your way this once, Caroline", he said.
"You're turning us into liars. You said 72 hours. We gave you the report in less than 24", she said.
David caught up with them but he was ignored.
"If you quit, Sandstrom will resign. All of this will go down", McGuinn said.
"What choice do we have? You're dropping a bomb to an innocent country, Connor", Caroline exclaimed.
She tried to free herself but McGuinn pulled harder and slammed her against the wall. Caroline groaned in pain but didn't say anything.
"Hey! That's not necessary", David tried to intervene but McGuinn didn't let her go.
"Caroline, I swear to you. It was some idiot who announced that. No one is dropping anything. We got the report. I kept my words. I held them off", he explained.
"…and if that announcement came from the top?" she asked.
"Like I said, some idiot. Come on, stay for another day", he answered.
"Let go of me and I will", she agreed.
McGuinn released her and Caroline gently massaged her arm.
"Fix this Connor. I mean it. Oh, and do that to me again, I will not only sink your boat. I will also blow up your house", she threatened.
That put a smile on McGuinn. It's the Caroline he knows.
"Crystal", he said and then left to go back to Washington.
Meanwhile, David looked alarmed on the side. He has knowledge about intelligence force but he has never seen anyone be that physically aggressive towards Caroline. He always accompanied her whenever she wants to go somewhere because he knows she can be hot-headed sometimes and he doesn't want her to go head first against a truck.
"Are you okay?" he asked in concern.
Caroline almost forgot that he's there.
"Yeah, I'm fine", she answered.
He doesn't buy it at all but he didn't push it any longer. He just followed her back to her office. He watched her as she popped a pill to her mouth. It seems like she is not aware of his presence at all.
"Got prescription for that, Caroline?" he asked to let her know he's there.
For a moment, there's that caught in the act look on her face but it quickly faded away.
"Of course", she answered.
"What is it?" he asked again.
He proceeded to sit down in front of her. It's a gesture for challenge. Caroline only stared at her in the hope he will back down but he is as stubborn as she is. That's why they always go at it with each other.
"Provigil", she answered and then took her seat.
It's uncommon for her to yield so easily but she's exhausted from arguing with him all day long. In fact, she's exhausted about everything.
"You got sleeping problems or something I don't know about? Why are you taking that stuff?" he asked.
"I don't want to sleep", she admitted while she looked down to avoid his eyes. "Every time I closed my eyes, I see Glenn. I see my sister. I tried to sleep before and I just dreamt of them. The lab is loaded at the moment and I cannot afford to crash so I need something to help me out", she explained.
David ran his hand over his face and then his hair.
"Oh, jeez…Caroline", he muttered.