"Selfridge, sir!"
"Aaaah! Officer Mandy! I'd started to think that you'd left me to come here all by myself!"
"No sir," she answered rather irritably. "The documents about the new marines are in sir."
"Good, good, can I expect to see you again?'
"I don't know sir, how is your wife sir?"
Selfridge was slightly taken aback and his hands clasped together behind his back, his fingers pried off the platinum/unobtanium band and he slipped it into his pocket nervously.
"Elizabeth's fine, rather well, thank you."
"Give your wife my regards sir."
"Yeah, I will thanks." He turned away slowly and a deep pang of regret slid across his stomach as Officer Mandy walked out the door.
He took the ring out his pocket and curled his fist around it, feeling it get warm in his hand, the voice which usually made its opinions known in his head remained in a frosty silence as if disapproving of the recent conversation.
Selfridge looked out his office at the monitor of images which security cameras picked up around Hell's Gate and sent back to various databases.
On one of the monitors was his wife. Her back was turned towards the security camera and he quietly slipped the ring back on his finger; 25 years had been a long time.
Her semi-long hair had been tied up at the base of her neck.
She turned and waved smiling at the camera.
Selfridge waved back although he knew that she couldn't see him. She turned away from the camera as if satisfied and the officer watching the monitor turned to look at him.
"What?" Selfridge asked. "This damn place so uptight that I can't even wave at my own wife?"
The officer looked away from him and stared at the screen.
Selfridge rolled his eyes and opened a large draw in his desk, pulled out a green felt mat, golf club and ball, he walked out among the mass of screens and monitors and laid the mat out. The crew was well used to this 'hobby'.
His brain acknowledged Grace Augustine who in his completely honest opinion was the nutcase scientist who had planted the idea of his sometimes headstrong wife working with the scientific group with her own avatar body, he had and still did , disapproved of her and her stupid ideas.
So he promptly and rather pompously ignored her—at least until she kicked the mug at the end of the strip (which he used as his 'whole') with her foot.
He looked up at as the mug rolled away, slightly peeved and got a notion about why she was standing there in front of him.
"You're purposely trying to screw with me."
"Well actually I thought we got kinda lucky with him."
Dr. Augustine stared at him her mouth gaping in disbelief, her arms crossed over her chest, Parkers wife looked through her and his eyes zoomed in on his wife who was walking over to Dr. Augustine with a heavy and unusual frown on her face and latent irritation in her eyes.
"Dr. Augustine—"
"Whizzy Izzy!." Parker opened his arms in a gesture of greeting and the woman looked up quickly and the irritation in her eyes disappeared.
"Parker!"
She turned to Dr. Augustine with a small smile on her face, Parker picked up his mug and returned it to its original place, listening to Dr. Augustine's waffle of useless information from her mouth and listening to his wife's almost husky reply.
"Mrs. Selfridge, may I please be able to expect you in my quarters tonight?" Selfridge asked.
'Whizzy Izzy' looked up at him mildly surprised and mouthed 'Don't you mean be-'
Dr. Augustine snorted, "God keep your plans to yourself."
He ignored her and looked expectantly at 'Whizzy Izzy'.
"Yeah I suppose, but I have to go Parker." She touched his shoulder, then turned and touched her fingers to her temple in greeting.
"The avatars will be let out tomorrow."
"I really couldn't give a shit, but if she gets hurt-"
"Don't worry Parker I'll get a squad to surround her and every time she needs to piss-"
"Yeah, keep that to yourself.
Dr. Augustine laughed bitterly, slipped a cigarette into her mouth and lit it.
"Don't get to carried away with this, you know why we're here-"
"For your damned unobtanium, but there are life forces on this planet to you know-"
"We'll deal with that when we get there." He explained in a dismissive way, Dr Augustine shook her head and disgustedly stormed away.
Parker knew he had waged warfare against a powerful woman and by god he refused to allow her to win.