Lisa finished her report on the effects of phosphorus tetrasulfide an hour later. It really was busywork but she wanted some time to think about something else, even for a little while.
"Are you going home now, or do you have something going on tonight?" She jumped when an arm snaked around her waist. "Because I'd love to take you out tonight. If you're open, that is."
She squirmed suggestively, "I don't know. What exactly do you have in mind?"
Someone whispered into her ear, "Well, I was planning on taking you home and making you sambaal, then…"
That devil, he knew her weaknesses just as well as she knew his. But she could hold out longer. "Hmm, sambaal? Got anything better to offer? I do."
"Oh?" whispered the voice, "What?" His voice was rough. So he was straining, was he?
She pushed herself back against him, making sure to create friction. "I'd have to show you."
He shuddered. "Vixen."
She laughed as she spun around in the circle of his arms and planted a light kiss on her husband's lips. "I know."
†
She stretched lazily, savouring the feel of the satin against her skin. A finger slid down her spine, and Jac's other hand wound up to knead her breast.
"And a good morning to you too."
She put her hand on top of his. "Why don't I get up and make us some breakfast, hm?"
"Sounds wonderful."
She put on a robe and made her way to the kitchen, only to realize that as wonderful as the sambaal last night had been, it wasn't wonderful enough to make up for the mess Jac had left in the kitchen. She loved him dearly, but if he couldn't clean up after himself... She shook her head and sighed. When he wanted to do something, he did it without a thought for the consequences, and it was one of the things that she loved about him.
Unfortunately for him, it also meant that he had left dishes everywhere.
As she hunted down the frying pan she tried to clean up a bit, but hadn't made much headway when he came down the hall.
He leaned on the doorjamb. "I remembered making you dinner last night, but strangely enough I don't remember cleaning up. Why don't you go back to bed and I'll handle making us breakfast for once?"
"How about you get a robe on and make breakfast and I'll clean up." She countered. Sometimes she thought that the only reason that they had met was because Jac was too nice a person to drown in his own messes.
†
After breakfast—and an episode with pancake batter that had left a bigger mess than the sambaal—she said, "I might be working a bit later than usual tonight. There are some things that need to be done that I've been putting off, and I was hoping to get them done today."
"And when do they need to be done by?" She could hear the laughter in Jac's voice.
"By tonight." She didn't sound guilty. Did she?
"And how long did you have to do them?"
"About a week." Bless it, darn it, and every other mild expletive. She did sound guilty. His weakness was messes, and she procrastinated like nobody's business. "I know, and don't start in on me just yet. I won't be needing more than an extra hour."
†
"Hey Lis! Hey, what's that in your hair?" Wendel reached out and snagged the offending clump. "Looks like batter. May I inquire as to…?"
"Jac and I had a pancake war this morning, if you must know." She hurriedly took back possession of her hair and combed out the dried stuff. Wen loved a good rumor and would follow you around until he got something. There was a reason everyone in the department called him "Paparazzi".
"So, how are you, since that wild female attacked you…what, all of three days ago? It isn't every day that we get a break out."
Lisa decided to do some careful fishing for information, since the subject of Alexandra came up without her bringing it up. "I'm fine. More than fine. In fact, I went down there just the other day, to make sure that I wouldn't have any lingering fears. The last thing I want is to be unable to work because of repression, or whatever it's called. Have you been there recently?" She tried to project 'I'm babbling about nothing of consequence and I just want to chatter mindlessly', knowing that Wen would happily share anything if he had an audience, and it didn't necessarily matter if the audience was attentive or not. Her private nickname for him was "Gossip Bucket", and hopefully there were a few fish in the bucket this time, along with all the blather that he usually picked up.
"Oh no, I haven't been to that wing in a very long time, ever since I got promoted the work load has been too much for any real research. Though I did hear that Mofryn has been down that way more than usual, something about," he made air quotes, "'almost there'. I think the workload is getting to be too much for him. The Reports Department is still buzzing about that essay you wrote, not that your idea wasn't interesting, but that was several weeks ago, and you would have thought they'd move on to something a little more recent. Like that female we discovered; I'm certain that people would be thrilled to learn that we have another intelligent species living among us, I mean, it's not every day that one of mankind's dreams are fulfilled, people have wanted for so long to meet and alien, well, perhaps she isn't an alien, but she isn't exactly human either. People are afraid of the oddest things, don't you think? I mean, come on, it's not like, just because the head honcho is afraid of a little culture shock that that means the rest of the populace will be too. And I don't understand why, out of all thirty people on the team only you and a few others aren't afraid to go near her—the female, I mean. You of all people have the license to be afraid, if anything, you should be the one cowering under your desk. Wait that came out wrong, what I meant to say was... Oh, never mind, I'm sure you understand what I mean, everyone else is afraid of her now, while the actual victim is walking around as though..."
"Here's my turn, I'll see you later." Lisa's brain cells were slightly frayed after actually paying attention to what Wen had to say. He was a nice enough person, but that man's tangents had tangents.
†
She made her way down to her workstation, but once she sat down, she couldn't concentrate, so she did what everybody did when they got bored in the middle of a genetics simulator laboratory.
She started to create the most bizarre creature she could imagine that would actually function. An hour later, she had something that looked like the child of a greyhound, elk, puffer fish, and giraffe, and in the challenge, most of her jitters had gone away.
Or at least they were reduced to a level that allowed her to work and not to write a five-year-old's comments on the article she had to either endorse or rip to shreds.
She forced herself to read the report on genetics material and write half of another report on why the first one was poppycock. It was only eleven o'clock by then and Lisa groaned aloud at the thought of spending an entire day like this. She, like most of her colleagues, was a rather solitary person, preferring the company of a computer to another person, but it seemed today was the exception
She finished her report by noon and sent it as a reply to the person who had submitted it. She still felt like crawling out of her skin with restless energy but she had no idea of what to do with herself.
She restlessly paces around the room like a tiger in a cage, doing small things to tidy up like straightening a spilled pile of papers and cleaning her calendar screen of out-of-date reminders, but somehow doing these small things was almost worse than doing nothing at all. What a wonderful phrase, crawling out of your skin, it fits my mood perfectly. She ran her fingers through her hair and looked at the pocket that held the object of her impatience.
"Ach! Why can't I sit still!"
With every step, her lab coat's pocket and the object in it swung out and hit her in the thigh—it burned her, or at least, it felt like it did.
She took out the offending—and innocent looking—box that Mat had given her, and the source of her agitation. She held it for a while, looking at it, before tossing it up in the air and snatching it down.
***End chapter 6***
gah! That was a tough one to beat out. Listening to Wen talk was bad enough, but actually having to write it down... blech.
and thank SayahYagashi for the early update, I had kind of forgotten that I had the next chapter written :3
