A/N) This is a suggestion from Saltedcaramelpie, where Katherine Googles her name online and gets upset, so Nick's there to comfort her. Thank you for all your ideas, guys, it's really useful to a slow idealess brain like mine sometimes XD Anyway, enjoy!

Online

It had been easy to ignore it all when she was in charge.

Of course, like every major business, Calimov had critics, and the recent popularity of PRICE organisations had led to a lot of criticism of their technological choices. Katherine had always known she was disliked as a businessperson in charge of a major corporation, especially due to her more callous approach to leadership , that some may call immoral. But being the boss used to have its perks, and she had tended to be too busy managing the company and chivvying its employees to ever have to sit and think over anything too extensively.

Maybe that had been the problem. .

Nick is right, of course. She is accustomed to 'sweeping it all under the carpet', maybe because that's the only way to not be swept under with it.

But now she's just another employee, and it's much more difficult to keep her mind focused completely on the task in hand. The work she's put to is often menial, not really requiring much concentration, and it leaves far too much time for thought as she sits of an afternoon, leaning back absently coding a circuit board of some description, whilst trying to source an angle of some comfort in the steel-backed chair.

And staring at the blank screen of the computer on her desk – wondering.

Of course, she eventually caves.

A search for her name originally brings up few results. Katherine discreetly angles the screen away from the window of Nick's office, although unless he's just recently acquired super long-range vision akin to his niece's, it's highly unlikely he'd be able to make out the contents of the screen even if he was looking in her direction. There's not much of interest: a few Facebook profiles of other Katherine Calvins she might be interested in, a news story about a Catherine Calkin who apparently survived a bear attack last June, a few etymology websites about the origins of her name. Nothing out of the ordinary. Katherine breathes out slightly; at least she's still not headline news worthy of a Google search. It would be nice to be famous, but not for a bad reputation.

She narrows the search. 'Katherine Calvin Calimov' she types into the search bar.

Now Google's interested. Several articles pop up immediately, some titles familiar from the newspapers which Nick had repeatedly shoved in her face over the last few weeks. Some are from around the time of the childbot incident, some more recently. Intrigued despite something deep in her mind screaming at her to just leave it, Katherine forces herself to click on one that has just popped up twenty minutes ago. 'Katherine Calvin Ruins Company' it announces, on a similar thread to many others. She scoffs at the far from impartial title, although dread has settled in her stomach and the back of her throat and refuses to go away.

She only realises there are tears in her eyes by the time she reaches the end of the sixth article.

Katherine wonders what she had really been expecting as she furiously scrubs at her eyelids, dispelling the moisture and swallowing back the burning sensation in her mouth. Maybe she had just been curious as to what the world actually thought of her – even hopeful, perhaps. The articles are all the same, really: expressing horror at the childbot incident, exulting in her fall from power that is apparently now public knowledge, damning her egotism and cruelty and abject lack of morality that has brought her up to the top of the company and kept her there. Really, Katherine reflects as a single tear escapes her vehement hand and begins its steady path down her cheek, it had just set her up further to fall.

"Katherine?"

She spins abruptly, scrabbling at the mouse to cancel the tabs she had open on the search browser before Nick sees them. Her superior comes out of his office, forehead creasing in confusion and then concern as he takes in the tearful expression on Katherine's face. "Katherine?" he repeats, coming closer.

Katherine glances back at the screen and with a jolt realises she hasn't been able to successfully close the search browser in her urgent state. Nick reads the screen and her face simultaneously – of course he does – and realisation comes onto his own features as he obviously figures out what Katherine has been doing. "Katherine," he says a third time, although this tone is laced with sympathy instead of authority.

"I'm fine," mutters Katherine, her voice cracking in the middle of even the short sentence so it's not terribly convincing.

"You shouldn't read that stuff," Nick tells her softly. "That's not constructive criticism at all, that's just hate. Pointless, ineffectual hate."

"It's all true," Katherine points out, realising too late that there's still tears in her eyes and hating that Nick can see them. "I created the childbots out of my own greed and carelessness. My attitude to running this company has always been immoral. There's nothing in those articles that is a surprise to anybody. Especially not you. Don't even think of denying it."

Nick falters. He had obviously been considering denying it, but having voiced those same opinions to her previously, there is no real point. Instead he comes and sits down in the chair next to her, reading the last few lines of the article with a quick scan of the screen. "They paint you like some sort of devil here," he tries weakly with an attempt at a chuckle to try and make Katherine join in.

She just stares at the keyboard. "Funny," she says bitterly.

Nick senses a change of tack is needed. "You know they're wrong about you," he reasons. "Maybe some of the things they say are true, but you don't deserve all that. No-one does."

"I deserve everything they say and more."

"Rubbish." Nick's voice is surprisingly passionate, although still lowered to as not to attract too much attention. Katherine is oddly grateful for that; if anyone passes their workstation they will just assume Nick and Katherine are working on a project together like they normally do. "You know the media, they get hold of an idea then they spin it up and make it into something huge and exaggerated to get maximum interest. Since you were the one to take the forefront of the blame for all Calimov's mistakes over the last year or so, you're the weakest and therefore the obvious choice to target."

Katherine finally allows herself to meet his eyes, moisture glistening on her lashes which she wipes away angrily. "But they're right, Nick, don't you see? I have led this company into all its mistakes and I didn't care. They call me heartless; they're right."

"But you read these articles now and you care," her colleague says sensibly. "How can that show you're heartless, really? You may have been all of those things, but right now you're just Katherine. Katherine who has the innate ability to annoy me to no end, that's as may be, but those journalists don't know anything about you. Not like your friends do. So, no more reading articles online or otherwise. Okay?"

After a long pause and a prompting look from Nick, Katherine nods and clicks the cross on the browser, finally hiding the incriminating article from view. "Okay," she says in a tiny voice, actually meaning it. Somehow, she always finds herself believing Nick's calm assurances, though she doesn't really know why.

Nick nods again, pushing her hand off the mouse and using his own to open up a Word document, for some unexplained reason, before typing seven words onto the blank page. "Good," he replies simply, before getting up, walking back to his office door and disappearing behind it. Katherine stares somewhat disbelievingly at the screen that he left behind. Tears continue to sting her eyes, but for a different, inexplicable reason this time. Maybe the same reason that the hand Nick touched is still tingling oddly.

Katherine Calvin is not a bad person.