Hey all! Sorry about last week. I had a chapter written but it was terrible and I had too many tests to reasonable excuse the time it would take to finish it. I like most of this one, but I figured better to post something than not post for two weeks in a row. Just general heads up my semester is heating up and I might not make weekly postings, but as I really do enjoy this I'll do my best! As always I love to hear what you think!
Do you know that karmic influence that, when one commits to new goal or standard, suddenly causes that thing to be impossible to avoid? For example when you start a diet, coworkers start bring in donuts every day. Or when you commit to do your homework as soon as possible and Netflix puts every single season of your favorite show up? This is what Elizabeth had prepared herself for upon the inner declaration to behave around Darcy. She expected to be bombarded with the nearly constant presence of him, assumed he'd be in the communal bathroom in the morning, show up in the office or lab throughout the day, and probably decide to join her as she watched a show or two in the evenings to wind down. But that didn't happen.
Elizabeth was surprised to find that she saw less of Darcy than ever before during the following weeks. The immature part of her did a happy dance, while the stubborn part was disappointed that she wasn't allowed the chance to prove to Jane that she could be civil. He'd apparently changed his morning routine, because she no longer saw him in the mornings, and he was hardly to be found in the canteen during meals. Elizabeth regularly saw his assistant, Agent Reynolds, carrying two meal trays out of the canteen and down the hallway to the administration offices. Jane and Charlie had been discussing Darcy's absence one afternoon and Charlie said there were some administrative issues that had been particularly troublesome, the difficulty of being a secret government entity was that the few people who did know about MCB assumed they had a say in everything, including areas far outside their expertise.
Of more immediate concern to Elizabeth was her appointment with the facility psychologist. Her trial month had passed and she had been booking forward to being cleared and able to carry again. The appointment had been strange to say the least.
Doctor Collins was an awkward, wiry fellow with thinning hair and thick glasses. He was also a devoted disciple of Freud. Which meant that Elizabeth was asked to recline on a chaise and face a large stuffed orange dog. She assumed Doctor Collins was attempting to mimic Freud's use of his dog Jofi, where patients would see the dog's reaction to their revelations instead of Freud's. While she had no doubt it worked with real dogs, the stuffed replica had creepy eyes and frankly, was insulting. While most of Doctor Collin's questions were to the purpose of determining her attitude about the facility, her coworkers, and the management of the Nautilus, there were a few questions he asked that seemed completely unrelated, and frankly disturbing… mostly about her relationship with her parents. There were also the occasional, innocuous statements that had the feeling of a come on, but didn't outright qualify as such; it made Elizabeth's skin crawl.
Fortunately, after a grueling two hours of awkward questioning, Doctor Collins declared she was cleared to carry, "I see absolutely no reason you'd be unqualified to carry your firearm." He announced, standing up, "Or anything else you might be considering." This was punctuated with a creepy eyebrow raise, "I'll send the appropriate paperwork to the facility director for final confirmation; he is of course the final word on all issues."
"Well thank you Doctor Collins, I appreciate it." Elizabeth proffered her hand, he had a limp handshake.
"You are most welcome Doctor Bennet," He took a step closer, "You know you are more than welcome to stop by at any time at all. You company was most pleasurable." the man drew out the last word in a way that made Elizabeth want to wash her hands, and everything else.
"I appreciate the offer," She replied noncommittally, stepping back, towards the door. "But I best be going, back to work you know. I'm sure I'll see you around." And with that she quickly grabbed the door handle and darted out of Doctor Collin's office.
"It was a pleasure!" He called out behind her.
Elizabeth cringed as she made her escape. The psychologist's office was located on the same floor as main administration and, because she wasn't looking where she was going, halfway down the hallway she collided with a very solid body. "Sorry!" She squeaked, taking a step back, but her heel snagged on the industrial carpet and she began to fall backwards, very ungracefully. A hand shot out and grabbed her upper arm in time to stop her landing on her butt. Looking up she felt she shouldn't have been surprised to see Agent Darcy before her; that didn't mean she wasn't surprised, or that she wasn't terribly embarrassed by it all.
"Doctor Bennet, are you alright?" He asked, looking concerned. Oddly, Elizabeth noticed, he wasn't wearing either his agent armour or his director suit, but was in exercise clothes. It was clear he'd been working out, his gray t shirt was damp, and his dark hair was slightly curly at the temples, where sweat still shown. Even more odd was how self conscious Elizabeth felt seeing him in this slightly less official state; even when she occasionally saw him in the bathroom he always had a robe on over his pajamas, though that had been rare as of late.
"Yes, I'm just fine," Elizabeth smiled tightly, "Just stuck in my own head, you know how shrinks do that, make you over think the way you think." Things like restraining orders, but that might have just been the first impression, and she wasn't quite ready to share it with her boss.
"Ah yes, your psych eval for personal firearm carry." Darcy nodded, "I assume all went well?"
"That's what Doctor Collins said anyways, the paperwork should probably pass your desk in the next day or two."
"I'll keep an eye out for them." He looked at her, expression hard, "Are you sure you're all right? Should I ask for an agent to escort you somewhere? Your office or your rooms? I have a meeting with the head agent, but obviously I need to freshen up first, I could have him take you."
"No, really I'm fine." Elizabeth assured him, "Just need to look where I'm going, sorry I ran into you."
He smile, and it seemed genuine. "Don't worry about it, I just spent an hour in the simulators with a team of agents, and you're much nicer than a horde of wights, real or not."
"Gotcha," Elizabeth nodded, "Well, I'll let you get to your meeting."
"It was good to see you, Doctor Bennet."
"Same, Agent Darcy." And with that Elizabeth quickly passed him and walked down the hall as fast as she nonchalantly could manage. Her appointment with Doctor Collins before had most definitely set her off kilter, which made Elizabeth's interaction with Darcy seem strained and awkward, at least to her. That being said she could report a successful interaction with Darcy that involved no sharp words exchanged, and no supervision require.
Elizabeth headed to the canteen for dinner, and found Jane and Charlie sitting in their usual corner. She joined them, but was only half listening to their conversation about emails from Jane's mother about some home town gossip, instead occupied by mentally dissecting her session with Doctor Collins and what had been so strange about it.
Her attention was reclaimed by reality when Charlotte set her tray down and asked how her evaluation went. "If you passed you get to carry your gun again, and I think the entire Nautilus knows you've been pissed you can't."
"I think it went well," Elizabeth nodded, twirling her fork in bowl of thai curry chicken with noodles. "And I don't mean to be dramatic, but it's been like not wearing a bra in public, it just feels wrong."
"I know it feels wrong for me when I don't have my bra on." snickered Hernandez, who'd sat down with Charlotte.
"With man boobs like that, you need one." Charlotte taunted. "What are you bench pressing lately?"
"Harsh Lucas," the fellow agent mocked self consciousness, holding his hands up to cover his chest, "And I bench more than you weigh, thank you very much!"
"You should be, I probably weigh at least sixty pounds less than you do. If you couldn't bench my weight I'd be disappointed." she retorted, eyebrow raised in a challenge.
"320." The big man replied proudly, and Elizabeth noticed him visibly swell as he puffed out his chest.
"Congrats, that's almost two of me." Charlotte nodded in approval. "If you work hard, just maybe you can go up a cup size." she joked, elbowing him in his very beefy arm.
"I'm already what, a D?" He asked, alternatingly flexing his pectorals. Charlotte rolled her eyes, but laughed.
"Double D at least." Elizabeth appraised, laughing as well. "You have a harder time finding pretty bras, so good luck with that."
"That's not fair." Hernandez frowned, "I deserve to feel pretty too!"
"You're very pretty Marc, but you're also on vamp cam duty in ten, I'd head over to the surveillance room now." Charlotte reminded the fellow agent, "Parker is in charge tonight and I think his girlfriend broke up with him, with the long distance, half truths, full lies, and everything; he's in crap mood."
"Dammit." The large man grabbed his tray and stood up from the table, "Bennet good to see you, Lucas thanks for the heads up." He paused, then winked suggestively, "Maybe we could get together and compare cup size later." and with that he jogged out of the canteen, carefully holding his tray out in front of him.
"Were you and Marc flirting?" Elizabeth asked as Charlotte returned to her stirfry. "I mean as a woman of science, I am more responsive to a 'talk nerdy to me' line of action; so, you know, biochemistry really turns me on… though that might have been caused by some poor decisions made with this one study partner… Regardless, is bench pressing of similar effect for agents? Because all of that sounded like flirting to me."
"That was just joking around." Charlotte replied, though she didn't make eye contact. "It's what we do, call each other's crap, make sure you're training hard."
"Training, yes, clearly Marc wants to train with you, on the matts, probably naked. Now I wish I had some air samples to prove the pheromones you two were shedding."
"What's shedding?" Jane asked, turning from her husband to look at Elizabeth and Charlotte.
"Absolutely nothing." Charlotte replied sternly. "Nothing is shedding, anywhere."
"Be careful contradicting a scientist, we tend to prove our answers, no matter what it might take." Elizabeth warned, her voice light, but her eyes serious.
"Should I even ask what she's talking about?" Jane inquired.
"No, don't bother, she's barking up the wrong tree anyways." Charlotte replied to Jane before turning back to Elizabeth "So back to your psych eval, you think it went well?"
"That's was Doctor Collins said." Elizabeth shrugged, "He's a bit of an odd duck, isn't he?"
"Yes, yes he is." Jane nodded, "Very interested in Freud."
"Freud was an addict, wasn't he?" Charlotte asked, curious.
Elizabeth smirked, "Yeah, he used heroin to get over an opium addiction."
"That sounds like a solid choice right there." Charlotte scoffed, "Is Collins following suit?"
"No, of course not!" Jane shook her head, "Howard isn't a drug abuser, he's simply… quirky?"
"You are too nice for your own good." Elizabeth shook her head.
At that moment Doctor Collins walked into the canteen and immediately spotted Elizabeth at her table. He waved enthusiastically before turning to the serving line. Elizabeth returned a hesitant, tight smile.
"Better watch out Elizabeth," Charlotte muttered in her ear, "Looks like someone's smitten."
"He's just being quirky, right?" Elizabeth asked, brow furrowed.
"He's not known for being so enthusiastic, Elizabeth," Jane shrugged. "Just be careful."
"On the bright side you'll be armed soon." Charlotte laughed.
"Definitely a bright side!" Elizabeth smiled. "I've missed my baby!"
Jane just rolled her eyes. "You guys are weird."