Note: thank you all for your lovely reviews. This is the first time anyone has ever read my stories.
Trying a new 'format' bare with me, I aren't used to presenting my waffle.
I have to admit, this is based around somewhere I used to work, and the daydreams I'd have there.
I do not own the characters, the wonderful Charlaine Harris does, I just enjoy dreaming about them.
Hope you enjoy
After lunch I managed to get my machine back in one piece, and working. It was amazing what threats of "I'll call the engineer" or "you wanna be scrapped?" will do for a machines productivity.
And yes I realise talking to machinery isn't healthy, but there was no-one around and you just gotta let the fur fly occasionally.
I made my way to the room that held the konelab. I had to make sure it was going to work, and I only had half an hour before the visitors showed up. I started up the computer and began running pure water through it's tubes. I asked the machine calmly to behave until later, which surprisingly seemed to work.
I ran the calibration next, just to make sure it would pass. This would be an impressive thing to show the visitors, especially when it worked first time.
I loaded up a few racks to be run after my little demonstration, and then sorted through some paperwork while I waited for them to arrive.
A little knock on the door announced their arrival, Mel poked her had in first.
'everything set?' she whispered. I nodded enthusiastically.
The 4 visitors, Mel and my lab manager walked into the room, and formed a little semi-circle around me and my machine. Suddenly the room felt very claustrophobic.
I briefly told them about what the machine did, showed them how I cleaned it in preparation for running and then began the calibration. I crossed my fingers and stared at the rack as the needle went into the first standard.
'Sookie is one of our most valued members of staff' my manager told the gathered visitors,
I was still facing the machine, with my back to her, and felt confusion sweep across my face.
Stood next to my machine and almost in front of me was Mr Handsome, who's face was a picture, he seemed to be holding in laughter, or maybe just gas.
'she has trained the entire department, and still manages to improve our methods' the manager continued.
I smirked a little, looked up a Mr Handsome, who winked again.
I turned a beetroot version of red that time, I was sure.
Eventually the machine finished its calibration, and I was able to show them how the machine picks up samples and reagents, and the racks we insert with the samples. I also told them about the most common faults, and how to fix them. Overall I was trying to sell myself, I really wanted to go to California, and it wasn't just because Mr Handsome made me feel 16 years old.
My manager walked out of the room then, trying to usher the visitors with her. Two of the followed as far as the corridor but Mr Handsome and the beautiful woman stayed behind with Mel.
'Sookie, I'd like you to meet Mr Northman….' Mel said gesturing towards Mr Handsome
'Eric….. please' he said as he reached out his hand, I blushed and shook it.
'…and this is Miss Ravenscroft' Mel gestured at the beautiful woman.
'Please call me Pam' she said.
'Well, its very nice to meet you both, I hope my little demo was helpful' I said, half asking.
'Yes, it was very informative' replied Pam.
'How many different machines are used in this building?' asked Eric
'Well, there's 7 in total, but a few of them are used for the same purpose' I replied, smiling ever so gently.
'Really? And how many do you know how to use?' Eric seemed to be trying to sell me to Pam, who was looking very thoughtful, she must be the boss.
'Oh, I can use all of them. I've trained on each so I can help fix them without calling an engineer' I replied, and on the word "engineer" the machine began making a grating sound.
I moved quickly around the machine, opened its lid and removed all the racks not in use. I pried the needle up off the vial it had gotten trapped on, the grating noise stopped.
'We'd better let her fix the machine, lets go, we have much to discuss' Pam said, moving towards the door.
'I thought it would be useful to watch her fix it' Eric told Pam, stepping to one side as I opened up the entire front of the machine.
'Yes, I suppose it would.' Pam replied, moving back into the room.
Thankfully the other 2 visitors, still merrily chatting to my manager, seemed to catch on there was a impromptu demonstration, and moved around to the window to watch.
'Holy hell in a hand basket' I said to myself, and began moving part of the machine out of the way.
Thankfully this machine was like my child, I knew everything it did, and how it broke. In under 2 minutes I was removing the offending vial and piecing the machine back together.
'That was very impressive' said Pam, 'We really need to go to the boardroom now'. She pulled on Eric's arm, he was still watching me attach the panels.
They left the room and walked down the corridor with my manager, leaving me and Mel sat in the room dazed. We sat on our swivel chairs and looked at each other.
'That felt a bit like an interview' I told her.
'Yeah, but they seemed very interested in what you were doing' she replied.
'I guess that's a good sign' I said, and turned to finish the run that had screwed up.
'Yup, I'll go see if I can find out what's going on' she said, and wandered down the corridor towards the managers office.
The rest of the day seemed to be moving along nicely, with only the occasional interruption.
My friends appeared at the door to take me for my break, while I was finishing programming Mel stuck her head round the door.
'Sookie, could you come down to the boardroom for a minute please?'
'Yeah sure' I told her, standing to follow her. 'I'll find you guys when I'm done' I told my friends.
We walked down the corridor, my nerves on edge. Mel seemed excited, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
As we entered the boardroom, I saw there was only Pam, my manager and one of the directors, 'I wonder where Eric is?' I thought to myself.
'Sookie, so nice to see you' said the director, his name was Philip I think. I tried not to get too involved with management, which was the main reason I had no idea of my managers name.
'Thank you, how may I help today?' I asked, as I sat in the chair I was indicated.
'I have a proposition for you Sookie, as you know we have just bought Miss Ravenscroft's laboratory.' he began, I crossed my fingers under the desk and held my breath automatically.
'Well, Miss Ravenscroft is so impressed with our team here, we would like to offer you the opportunity to return with her, to train her team to be as good as ours.' Philip finished speaking and seemed to be waiting for me to say something. I must have slipped into shock, even though I was hoping for this.
'Wow, that would be an honour' I managed to say, before my silence made me look too foolish.
'Excellent, I'll have Audrey draw up a sub-contract and arrange travel for you' Philip smiled, satisfied.
'Thank you, but where will I be staying? And how long will I be there for?' I asked.
'You accommodation will be sorted out by Miss Ravenscroft's team, and your contract will be for 2 months… initially' he answered.
My eyebrows shot up, Mel looked surprised too.
'I'll get the contract to you tomorrow, Sookie. Could you be ready to leave on Saturday?' Philip seemed almost as excited as me, maybe he thought I could be his spy in the new company.
'Wow, Saturday, Yes I think I can be packed in time for that' I said, standing.
'Mel, if you could take Sookie for a coffee, I think she may need some fresh air' Philip said, clearly wanting us out of the room.
Mel and I walked down the corridor, collected a cup of coffee each and walked outside into the car park.
'wow, did that just happen?' I said after a few moments of stunned silence.
'yep, your going to California' she replied, blowing her coffee.
We sat there a while, the occasional sentence passing between us. After about 5 minutes, Eric appeared from around the corner of the building, with the dark haired man.
'I hear you will be returning to the states with us?' he said, coming to sit on the bench next to ours. His dark haired friend sat opposite him.
'yes, I've been loaned out to you, I sure hope I'll be useful' I said, trying to get over the wobbly legs that seemed to plague me when he was close by.
'I'm sure you will be an asset to our laboratory. This is Bill, he will be your supervisor while your with us'
'oh? Its nice to meet you' I said, holding out my hand to the man, he shook it firmly and smiled.
'I work in the office, but I have a lot of dealing with the laboratory' Eric continued.
'lovely, it sounds like such a friendly place to work' I was making stuff up now, I had no idea what to say but wanted him to keep talking, he had such a nice voice.
'I hope you enjoy it, we better be heading back, they'll think I was chatting you up' he laughed and stood to walk back to the building.
When he had disappeared from sight we put our cups in the recycling and headed back towards the doors too.
'I think that was a pre-chat-up chat' said Mel joking. I looked at her, not quite knowing what to say. I wanted him to chat me up, sure. But I didn't seriously think it would ever happen, he was way out of my league.
Back at the lab I told my friends, who were all as excited as me. Jenny managed a few lewd comments, which made me laugh. Then they all began planning the night out they were taking me on, Friday would be my last day in England, not just in this lab, for at least 2 months.
The rest of the week was manic, preparing paperwork and re-training some of the staff. When I got home, I spent most of my evenings dancing around with joy and repacking my suitcase several times. I had nothing to leave behind except my crummy flat and my friends, I was pretty sure both would be here when I got back.
Friday rolled around very quickly, I hadn't slept much because of all the excitement and activity. I was being dragged to the pub immediately after work. Audrey, the manager, pulled me into her office that morning, giving me a few pointers on what the company specialised in. My job there may end up a little different than expected. Audrey wanted to make sure I followed the guidelines all branches of the company stuck to, which meant a shed load of paperwork.
After all the boring formalities were finished, I returned to my lab to put my last run on my favourite machine. Just as I was finishing up there was a knock at my door.
'hey, you all set for tomorrow?' Eric asked, the biggest smile on his face.
'yep, I fly at 4pm from Birmingham, you?' I figured I'd be "friendly" seeing as I would be working with them for months, but I was locking away the hope he'd see me in any other capacity than that as employee.
'us too, we got you on the same flight so we could take you straight to your accommodation' he continued.
'oh? Where am I staying?' I asked, curious that he would know.
'we actually got you a little flat in the same building as me' he stated, the smile never leaving his face.
I didn't manage to speak for a moment then, that was a little weird.
'we figured you could ride to work with me, unless that's a problem' his face dropping to show concern.
'no, no that's sounds fine. I hope its not too much bother' I said, wondering what was really going on.
'great, see you later' he said and left the room. Later? I asked myself. But before I could ponder it for too long Steve was knocking on the door, it was lunch time and we were going to the pub.
'I just wanna drop some stuff off at home, I'll meet you there' I told him.
I packed up my personal stuff, emptied my locker and carried it all to my car. After dropping it off at home I grabbed my camera and headed to the pub.