Graham arrives at At Charitable Earth headquarters and heads into the building as Ace is finishing a meeting. As she sees Graham she flashes him a smile. Will notices it and tries to keep a mask in place. "Thank you Dorothy and thank you Will."
"Of course anytime, Mr. Smith," says Ace as the graying man walks to the door. "Hi Graham."
"Ready for lunch?" He pulls a bag from behind his back.
"I am right this way." Ace shows Graham to her office and they sit on chairs that Ace just rearranged so to be knee to knee. "How is Ryan today?"
"A little hungover, I made him some of my hangover cure that I created when I was younger.''
"You have one of those?"
"I do, I wasn't always the smartest and made sure I had something to ease them."
"When was the last time you had to make one?"
Graham sits and thinks, " I don't know."
Leaning forward "when was the."
Sanaul enters, "there is a police chase happening not far from here. Security is telling us to stay put. I have made sure that you and Will, will have no meetings during this time," he nods at Graham and heads back out.
"This means we will have more time together." Ace smiles and leans forward and kisses Graham.
"We sure do," he replies after breaking apart. "What were you about to ask before we were told to shelter in place?"
"When was the last time you enjoyed yourself?"
"Would it be cheesy if I said right now or last night?"
"I would say the same." They move closer together as there is a knock on the door.
"Come in," says Ace.
"Sorry for interrupting again," Sanaul says, "but it looks like this may take a while, it seems it was a team."
"Thank you Sanaul, I should be more than ok here with Graham."
"It seems so, want me to check in again Ms. Dorothy?"
"Only when it's lifted. Sanaul, this is Graham, the person I just started seeing. Graham, this is Sanaul, my business manager."
Graham stands up and goes to shake hands with Sanaul, "nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too Mr?"
"You can call him Graham, Sanaul?"
"Not how I was raised, Ms. Dorothy."
"It's ok, O'Brien."
"Thank you Mr. O'Brien." Sanaul leaves.
"I hope he doesn't go back to calling me Ms. McShane, it took me over two years for him to call me Ms. Dorothy."
"I knew a lot of people who would only ever call people by their last names."
"I guess being transported to an alien planet in my teens and then traveling with the Doctor got me not to see all that."
"Probably."
"Do you have anything to keep you occupied? I might as well do some paperwork."
"I can go on my phone."
"You sure?"
"Yes, I want you to be able to get work done." After trying to work for 20 minutes Ace looks over at Graham who is aimlessly scrolling through his phone on a couch that is against the wall.
"You know what."
"What?" Graham looks up to see Ace putting down her pen, standing up, opening up her laptop and turning on some music,
"I think you and I should do something to enjoy this time together."
Graham stands up and meets Ace in the middle of the room, "what should we do together in this space that is private?"
"Dance?" Ace holds out her hand and Graham takes it. They pull each other close and move slowly to the music. In their own world they don't notice a door opening then closing. Sanaul closes it quickly and smiles happily seeing that Dorothy seems even more happier then he has seen her for years.
"How is she holding up?" Will walks up to Sanaul.
"She is Ms. Dorothy, how do you think? You have seen her place at Kirkwood Farms."
"I have."
"You should know that nothing will hold her down."
"I do." Will walks back to his office.
Back in Ace's office her head is on Graham's shoulder. "This is great Ace."
Ace looks up to Graham, "it is great." They continue dancing for a few songs. When they are done they head over to the couch and start talking. "How was your childhood?"
"Minus me dad, it was ok. Though my mum died when I was young."
"I am sorry to hear that."
"It is ok, how about you; how was your childhood?"
Ace does a sarcastic laugh, "let's just say even after her death I was estranged from my mum. She never thought I could amount to anything. I am surprised she never gave me up."
"Why?"
"We were always fighting; except when she brought her most recent boyfriend home."
"Umm."
"It's ok, I know it is something that people don't know how to talk about," Ace tries to brush it off.
"No, Ace, it isn't ok. I just wish I knew what to say. I know how that feels to hear, when I was still traveling with the Doc, I told her that I am afraid of getting cancer again and she said basically the same thing to me."
"Graham, I know you mean nothing by it."
"I should," she stops him from saying more with her lips. When she stops the kiss his eyes are still closed.
"I guess that is one way to show you that I understand what you are trying to say."
"Huh."
"Graham are you there?"
"I don't know."
"It's not like we haven't kissed before."
"I know."
Ace leans against Graham, "I can't be that good of a kisser."
"We have good chemistry."
"Like my Nitro-90."
"I say even better."
"Since we haven't exploded?"
"Maybe not in a normal sense." He says, while wrapping his arms around her.
"Not in any sense, really." She feels Graham nod his head and turns around in his arms. Next thing they are fast asleep with peaceful smiles on their faces.
Will comes to check to see how Ace is doing not knowing that Graham is still there. "What in the world?" Ace and Graham wake up as Will feels someone dragging him back.
"Here," Sanaul hands him a phone, "call someone. I know you are still in love with Ms. Dorothy, but she is happy with Graham. For as long as I have known her she has never invited a guy here for a date."
"She asked me to help her out here."
"As a COO, she is still CEO and I am CFO. Did you two ever have a date here?"
"No."
"That is why Mr. O'Brien is here, I have caught them almost kissing twice since he has been here today. I know you have caught her flirting on the phone with him a few times. Let her be happy."
"Ok, I will go on an online dating site."
"Good.''
Meanwhile, "we fell asleep."
"We did Graham, and that was Will who rudely woke us up."
"Go talk to him."
"It may not be a great idea for me to talk to him right now; I need to calm down first. I hope I wasn't this jealous when he was dating Sam. Though she was playing with me about going into space."
"Ace?"
"Yes?"
"Do you still like Will?"
"As a friend, yeah when we were dating, we had fun, but I couldn't talk to him about the time storm and my subsequent time with the Doctor."
"You know you can tell me about all of those."
Ace looks at Graham and smiles, "I do, and if there is some alien running about you will more than understand how I will want to fight them."
"I fully understand that," they smile and lean against the other.
