Chapter Two
Hodges stared at the shameful figurine with a naked intensity, focusing on his next move. How could he possibly fix this? Admittedly, David had said some stupid things to Wendy before, but she had always seemed to brush it off or ignore the tactless statements completely, but this time, this time there was no denying it- David Hodges was a senseless prat. But what to do about it? An apology was obviously necessary, but this time David felt like Wendy deserved more than his usual muttered apology in the break room or the awkward looks and small talk for a few days before they spoke to each other again.
David knew exactly what he wasn't going to do: no fluffy notes, no planned speeches that would inevitably be interrupted or blundered over (besides the fact that they were utterly ridiculous- life wasn't some dumb sitcom), and by no means would there be flowers involved. Along with the already unstable nature of their relationship at the moment, handing Wendy flowers in the office (worse yet, flowers that could be wilting or dead by the time he got there) would cause a stir. He knew his lab partners: they were a pack of gossips and would get on top of Wendy and later himself if they saw a vase full of carnations or roses in her office, probing them both and making their theories public by the time shift was half over everyone from Ecklie to the janitor would know what had gone down. If there was one thing Hodges wanted to avoid, it was that.
The trace technician was also aware of the fact that at this point Wendy probably wouldn't take his apology seriously, provided she gave him the time of day to express it at all. So, that meant he had to make this apology real, concrete somehow. Hodges glanced at the voluptuous figurine, picked it up from his desk and held it in his fingers. Flipping it over, he read the description on the bottom of the base: "Clumsy yet buxom DNA tech." Stupid stupid stupid. Well, the first step was to fix the most obvious blunder. Plopping back into his office chair, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a small pot of blue paint and a brush. Painting over his unkind words, David considered very carefully what he what put instead- the scientist would be damned if he would make the same mistake twice.
As Hodges clocked into work the next evening, he was half-prepared to apologize to Wendy. This point consisted of David having a newly labeled Mindy Bimms figurine and a semi-coherent idea of what he was going to say to her, besides the requisite "I'm sorry." Other than that, he was flying blind. Stuffing his messenger bag into his locker, he pocketed the Mindy figure and made his way to the trace lab. Arriving there, he found relatively little to work on, but each item that lay on his desk would require a fair amount of focus. A Ziploc bag of fibers, a couple bizarre hair samples, and a fluid sample of hell-knows-what looked like they would easily take up the first half of his shift- which meant that his apology to Wendy might have to get put off until later that night. But you need to apologize; she needs to at least see you changed the Mindy statuette. Taking a deep breath, Hodges straightened his posture and walked over to Wendy's empty station, pulling the doll out of his pocket and gripping it in his palm. As he made his way into her office, he heard approaching banter of Henry Andrews and Wendy as they made headway toward her office. David set the Mindy figurine on a set of manila folders and turned his back as if to block it from their approaching eyes.
"Battlestar Galactica!" insisted Andrews "It may not be a classic now, but just wait!"
"No way! Star Trek will always reign supreme!" Wendy put her palms forward as if to halt his misguided attempt to convince her.
"Yes way!" They were about to round the corner into Wendy's station when the trace tech's fight-or-flight instinct kicked in. The latter impulse gained control just as he eyed Wendy through the glass window of her office and he disappeared from the room just as they walked in.
"Stop, Henry, you know you'll never win this-" Her brown eyes locked on to the Mindy Bimms figurine on her desk, "You've got to be kidding me! You've got to be freaking kidding me!" she shrieked.
At the sound of her angered cry, Hodges froze in his tracks and very slowly turned around. He spotted Wendy holding the figurine.
"Oh shit." David muttered, his urge to run again became immensely appealing. But he couldn't- especially because that would be running from his only chance at a worthwhile apology to her. Besides, if she was ticked, that meant she hadn't read the bottom yet- he could still save this attempt at an apology. Almost running, he reached her office just in time to hear her call "Hodges!"
"Yes?" he whispered from the door frame, suddenly aware that his voice wasn't quite functioning anymore.
"What the hell is this?! Are you trying to make me hate you? What is this doing here?" She held the figure up to her face- which, David noticed, revealed this dimples in her cheeks when she got angry. "Hodges?"
He blinked, refocused.
"Did you read the bottom?"The tech asked, noticing that Henry Andrews was sitting on the edge of her lab table, trying his very best to be invisible.
"I did yesterday- that was enough. I haven't forgotten Mindy's 'qualities,'" she said icily, shooting him a look as she settled into her chair.
"Well, I changed them. They, they weren't accurate, not even remotely." He chanced stepping inside the room, setting a gloved palm on the edge of the desk near Wendy's clenched fist. What the furious DNA tech wouldn't see were the oh-so-very-slightly trembling knees of the otherwise unshakable scientist.
Glancing at Hodges, Wendy tentatively turned over the "top-heavy" figure, prepared for the worst. Reading the blurb on the bottom, she paused and crinkled her brow, her frown fluctuating to a near-smile and stopping somewhere in between. Staring at Wendy evaluating the figurine, Hodges felt as if he were standing on the cracked viewing glass of a glass-bottom boat, watching the blood-thirsty sharks and piranhas swirl below, knowing that the safety of rescue was a few inches above him.
Lost in his thoughts, Hodges almost didn't notice when she looked up at him, considerably more tranquil, saying "What is this, David?" The tech opened his mouth, closed it, found a few words, and tried again.
"It's, it's, um- look, Wendy. I'm sorry about the Mindy…thing. It was really stupid of me. So, I changed it to something better. It's an apology…" he slowed to a stop. God, please…
She turned the doll right-side up and pointed it toward David "Mindy Bimms: Cute yet Quick-witted DNA Tech? It's a lot better, Hodges. Really. Thanks."
Hodges hadn't realized he had been holding his breath until she said that. He exhaled and tried to smirk back at her but couldn't quite get his face to follow orders. Instead, he just nodded and started to turn away.
"Is that what you really think of me though? The new description?" she looked at him, serious and inquisitive.
By this time, the trace tech had managed to get his wits back to their full capacity. He turned back to her "Well, you're gifted with a sharp tongue, Simms."
"You're alright yourself, Hodges." She arched her eyebrows flirtatiously. At this point, Henry appeared to be looking around on the floor for a hole to fall through to get away from the rehabilitated lab partners. He had no such luck and froze to his spot on the desk.
For a few moments, Hodges and Wendy held each others' gaze, each daring the other to look away. This small battle of wills lasted only a few moments when both were brought back to reality with the clatter of Henry Andrews falling of the desk, and then popping back up with an "I'm alright! It's cool!" as he darted out of the office. Turning back to Wendy, Hodges smirked "I'll see you around, Simms" and started to walk away again, when she called out to him "Hey! Don't you need this?" She danced the figurine back and forth in the air. Glancing behind him, he called "Keep it! I still have the mold- I'll make another! Consider it a priceless Hodges work!" as he disappeared into his now very backed-up lab. Wendy looked up to watch him sit down, and then, lightly smiling placed the redeemed statuette by her microscope and started to work again.
Things might just work out after all, mused Hodges as he saw Wendy smile. I might just have another lucky day.