Space

Katherine has always liked her personal space.

Hence why, when Nick comes and places a pile of blueprints and his laptop on one side of the desk, drawing up an office chair alongside her own, she's not best pleased.

"Is this really necessary?" wonders Katherine aloud, staring through her glass window at the chaotic office outside, where Phil is attempting to usher eight or nine bewildered-looking lab-coated scientists into separate chairs, carrying boxes and scientific instruments salvaged from their own department.

Nick only sighs deeply in response as some bearded lab tech claims his desk and slams a box down on it, displacing some of the papers he had forgotten to grab before seeking refuge in Katherine's office.

"That explosion was the fault of the Forensics department anyway," Katherine continues in a tone of complaint. "It doesn't make any sense that we are forced to suffer by sharing our work space with them."

"You're the boss," Nick points out. "Can't you just overrule the Health and Safety department and get them to go somewhere else?"

Katherine pulls a face. "Unfortunately, this is apparently the largest and emptiest area so the only viable space to move an entire department into. Their words, not mine. And they'd probably just sue me if I did demand they go sit outside in the corridor."

"Ah, true." Nick decides to stop watching the chaos outside and instead slides the lid of his laptop open, settles back into the less-than-comfy chair he found in the corridor to Katherine's office, ready to get some work done. Whether that will in fact happen, he's not sure yet.

Half an hour in, he's realised that no, that's not likely to happen any time soon, with him and Katherine in such close proximity.

"Your coffee mug is on my side of the desk!"

Nick groans under his breath, tries not to make a retort that will get him fired as he moves the cup an inch to the left. "Better?"

Katherine hmphs and Nick is fairly sure she shifts her laptop a little closer to the taped-off border of their shared desk, decided around twenty minutes ago when it was clear they were not going to just peacefully share like normal human grown-ups. He reciprocates by pushing his chair ever so slightly closer to hers, to which she narrows her eyes at him, not missing a trick.

Phil hurries her way into their shared office, looking slightly taken aback as both scientists look up at her in unison, fixing her with eerily similar glares. "Oh – hi. I didn't realise we had co-CEOs in charge now."

"We don't," quickly denies Katherine, throwing a meaningful 'don't get any ideas' look sideways at him.

Phil looks even more confused as Nick tries not to glower back at his boss. "Um – okay. I just wanted to tell you that the fire brigade are just leaving and the maintenance team are starting to clear up in Forensics. I also want to apologise – I accept that it was totally my fault and –"

Katherine irritably waves her away. "Oh, stop grovelling. Just tell maintenance to hurry up, I need my own office back."

The relieved scientist scuttles from the room and Nick gets his own back by sliding his chair as close to their self-enforced boundary as possible, so the wheels lock into the ones on his superior's chair. Katherine realises what he's done with a scowl and shoves her own chair into his. "You're on my side!" she repeats, sounding personally insulted.

"Well, why don't you throw me out?" Nick dares her while pushing his chair back in her direction, thoroughly fed up by this point.

"Maybe I will!"

"Well go on then!"

They don't notice Phil re-entering the room until she's standing in the doorway between them, looking startled as Nick and Katherine grapple their office chairs together back and forth and arguing at the very top of their voices. "The Forensics department were just going to ask you to keep it down -?" she asked hesitantly.

Both frozen scientists look at each other, then out of the office window where a whole department is goggling at the fighting pair, formerly chaotic room utterly silent.

If Nick could have ordered a handy black hole to come and swallow him up right now, he guesses that it would probably suck the flushing Katherine right in with him, just so they could bicker their way right to oblivion.

He dreads the day they become co-CEOs.