Looks like I'm going with my second goal of New Years' for obvious reasons. What can I say? It got hard juggling this with working retail every day. Which, let me tell you, is one exhausting endeavor. Wake up, work, go to sleep, repeat. Kind of emotionally draining, and I need those levels on the up and up if I wanna bust out some chapters! Even so, I definitely think this will be over within the next couple of days. The weekend gets rusty, but I'm not planning on letting this go now.

So all of your support means double the world to me during this stressful time of year. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing and following and favoriting and whatever else you guys do. I heartily thank you for it. :)

Thank you especially to the latest reviewers: ScipioPB, the Guest, teamBLAZE, XxBlue and CrimsonxX, and CAPJHMPAgirl! You guys really help keep me going with your enthusiasm. It's great to see that something I wrote gives people enjoyment. You know, other than to myself! Because even with all of this whining I do, I promise I love doing this. xD

And now. You've all guessed it! Let's not wait any longer…

And It Wasn't the End of the World

It was getting late, and it was the last day of their trip. Vaughn looked at the clock on his desk and noted the time. He stretched his arms above his head and reclined in the chair. Picking up the draft he had been working on, he held it above his head and reread the bits he just wrote to make sure everything looked right.

Making brochures was like going back to school and writing research papers. Except he didn't have to worry about how strong his thesis was for his essay. He just had to organize bullet points. Like he was stuck in the outline and rough draft phases forever. Which wasn't really anything to complain about.

They had their interview with Mayor Felix earlier that day, and he was… a boisterous man. Molly and Vaughn had exchanged a look upon meeting the towering, brawny representative and agreed he was Mr. Hamilton in everything but shape and perverseness. They hadn't expected to meet anyone as uproarious as their boss in their lifetimes, let alone on their only vacation, and were left quite exhausted after their meeting.

Vaughn's job done, he glanced at the connecting door and wondered how Molly was fairing. She was supposed to be organizing the pictures and writing captions, siting them as necessary. They both had it easy, and she had been talking about checking out the pool. He wondered if she left yet, or if he could catch her before she'd go.

Making up his mind, Vaughn rapped once with his knuckles before opening the door that divided their rooms. The place was dim, only the one lamp on, and he figured he was too late. He poked his head in. "Hey. You still up?"

Molly looked up from where she was sitting on her bed, legs crossed underneath her laptop. The camera was resting beside her, SD cards and cords scattered about it like a nest. She shot him a friendly smile. "Yeah… Just wrapping things up. You done?"

"Yeah, for a while," he entered, not bothering to close the door behind him. Her room was exactly the same as his only mirrored, throwing him off a bit. Vaughn waved the papers in his hand as proof.

"Lemme see," Molly held out her hands.

Vaughn leaned over her bed and handed them over, sitting down on the edge and waiting for her to skim through them. He couldn't help but notice she was a much more thorough and slow reader than Alice, taking it an inch at a time with a furrow in her brow as she concentrated. Molly had a whimsical look about her, and she started to smile on the second page. "What?"

"Nothing…" she started to chuckle, itching the tip of her nose with her wrist as she continued to read. "Just… you used the word 'discourse,' and I wondered if Tina and Luke are literate enough to know what that means."

He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "You're right. At least Alice and Dan can sort it out for them. And I'm sure Allen and Rod can cover if they need the dictionary."

Molly set his documents down, scrolling on her laptop as she fidgeted. "It makes me want to use the thesaurus on here and change all of these words to ridiculous, flourished ones they'll all have to decode. Maybe put it in different languages, too!"

"Even on vacation, and we're still pulling pranks," he sighed. "The job never ends."

She rolled her eyes. "No, it never does…"

Since their walk the night before, things hadn't… necessarily changed. There was a significant difference in the air between them, but it wasn't tense or uncomfortable in any way. Just like having a weight lifted. They were allowed to be friendlier. Let loose. Not worry about fronts or awkwardness, even though the latter was still bound to happen considering their social track record.

With every passing hour of their trip, Vaughn was happier he chose Molly to accompany him. And not only happy, but he felt lucky to have her around. It was just what they needed, even if it was only a few days. To get away from everything and everyone else to figure things out on their own.

Vaughn turned to face her, folding his leg up on the bed. "Here, let me see what you have."

"Mmkay," Molly scooted forward. When that didn't work, she picked up her laptop and wobbly crawled to meet him. She handed the lightweight notebook over to his lap, and he scanned through the documents she had open. Molly knelt, peeking over his shoulder to see where he was reading. "I did what you said and stole that picture of the bazaar from their website. Honestly, I don't think I could have taken a better one anyways, so that was a good idea."

He grunted in approval, carefully reading the captions below the shots she took. The pictures weren't anything to sneeze at, but Vaughn felt that was mostly due to the camera quality. But Molly was a fair writer. Informative, to the point, and a little zest of interest. "Good work."

"Thanks!" She chirped, releasing her legs so she could hold onto her knee for balance as she perched beside him. "Hey! Real quick – stay there."

Vaughn obeyed, pulling at the red tie around his neck and wondering why he hadn't taken it off yet. Molly reached back and grabbed the camera, plugging one of the SD cards into its port on the side. With practiced ease, she uncapped the lens and hooked it, turned it on with a merry chime, and focused the settings for the light.

"What are you doing?" Vaughn asked, a note of apprehension in his voice as she fiddled with the various knobs and buttons.

Molly bounced back behind him, struggling with the zoom a moment before holding out the massive device in front of them to take a picture. She was staring at the lens, already with a photogenic, ready smile. "I want to remember this! Say cheese, okay? But don't really – that's stupid."

Her comment made his smile quirk up just in time, and he was luckily looking close enough to the camera for it to be a decent shot. A light blinked in warning, and a beep sounded that the photo had been saved. Molly turned it over to the see the screen in excitement, approving of the picture and chatting about it.

Vaughn was suddenly panicked by what she said. That she wanted to remember it. This vacation. Them. Their plane was leaving tomorrow afternoon. It was all coming to an end, and it felt like it had barely started. Were they just going to leave this behind them? Keep it here? What happens in Zephyr stays in Zephyr?

Okay, now you're being ridiculous… Vaughn scolded himself, tugging at his tie. The knot slackened, and it slipped off entirely. He stared at it in his fist, clutching it tighter.

"-flash is way too bright for indoors, which I didn't know at first. That's why I had to go back and retake half of the shots a couple hours ago. I wanted to go swimming, but… eh. I guess work comes first," Molly sarcastically said, feeling grumpy she didn't get to use her suit. She looked at Vaughn and saw the strange look on his face. Worried yet suspicious, Molly lowered the camera. "Vaughn? You okay?"

Vaughn set her laptop out of the way behind him, quickly leaned forward, held her cheek for an anchor, and kissed her. Molly's eyes bugged wide in shock, unable to react as she was struck dumb like a statue. Her eyelids fluttered closed as his hand found hers. Her fingers gripped the tie still held in it, snapping her back to reality.

Molly pushed back, firmly holding his shoulder. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

He immediately had a hand to his forehead, wondering what on Earth had possessed him to attack her out of seemingly nowhere. "I-I'm sorry, I—"

"Wha—sorry?!" Molly snorted.

"I don't know— I just…" Vaughn let his hand drop. He was about to say he couldn't blame her – Molly deserved better. Someone like Allen who would fawn over every little thing she did or even Louis who was easy to talk to and easy to get along with. But before he knew what he was doing, he was kissing her again, telling her between each: "I just… really… care… about you… and…"

She was kissing him back until she cut them off again, holding up her hand with a warning glare that stopped him in his tracks. "Nonononono! I am not having a one night stand!"

Vaughn was sitting up straight, blinking owlishly at her as she seemed to be deliberating with herself. Running a hand through her hair, she admitted: "Though you're really not that kind of guy… so it'll probably be a relationship."

Molly bit her nails, wildly looking at the floor as she drove the valid points of reason deeper. Vaughn's smile grew watching her. She plead to him. "But I'm not dumb enough to date a colleague! It's against company policy, and if they found out…! We'd get fired… and… and… oh, hell."

She gave him a defeated smile. Giving him her signature eye roll, Molly gave in and grabbed his collar. "Screw it – I've never bothered with the rules before. Why start now?"

At the last breath, Vaughn dove for her again, gently holding her face and kissing her. Moving up to her forehead, a smile curved his lips as he grazed her brow, and Molly furiously un-buttoned his shirt.

It was closing time as Monday drew to a close.

Gill should have been miffed - as he usually would be - that Vaughn and Molly hadn't come in for the last hour of work, as their plane had landed a half an hour ago. Which he usually would have monitored down to the minute using his computer. They could have still reported in. And usually, he would have cared.

Just hours after his mother had been carted out by security with promises to visit again soon and threats to Hamilton for another round of pain, Gill was still thinking about what she had said. Mind, his boss' bloody nose and the ice pack he had to have strapped to his head was a distraction, but her words rang true. He had been a coward. Since the word go, Alice had worn her heart on her sleeve and made her intentions perfectly clear. Gill hadn't held up his end, leaving her in the dark. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. And it wasn't doing anything beating himself up over it like this.

Fix it! Gill urged himself. Yet he found he was still sitting at his desk, drumming his pen against the tabletop. He glanced at his watch and saw the day only had ten more minutes. Everyone was peaking his pet peeves and packing up and shutting down early. But he just went on rhythmically tapping his pen. Putting things off another day.

Someone cleared their throat, and he looked up. His eyebrows rose in surprise to see Alice, the object of this thoughts, standing before him, a crisp paper in her hands. Gill couldn't help but recall that the red blouse she was wearing was the same from last August when the AC broke down, and she ripped it off, threatening to sick her parents on him if he told her otherwise. He involuntarily grinned at the memory.

"Ahem," Alice brought him back down once again, pulling a long lock of hair over her shoulder and neatly combing her fingers through it. She handed over the paper. "This is my resignation letter. Please consider this my two weeks' notice."

Gill gaped at it, feeling like a toddler. What was he supposed to do? Take it, obviously. But Alice was quitting? Just like that? Even though Harvest Hobbies was no longer a threat? This was his fault. He had driven her to this. What choice did she have? It was only logical for her to leave.

Alice patiently continued to hold it stiffly out to him, not a trace of emotion in her face as she did so. Gill numbly took it from her, staring at the print before his nose. It was barely a paragraph and signed with elegant cursive. He always liked her penmanship. It was so regal, so old-fashioned. Few people wrote like Alice, and none of them he knew had as much class and character.

"I believe that's in order, then?" She asked coldly.

Eyes nearby were on them. Allen had overheard and had paused midway through packing his briefcase, a folder lingering in his hand as he watched the exchange. Dan's jaw had dropped, and a genuine look of sadness overtook him, having not known of his editing partner's decision until just then.

Unable to wait for Gill's dumb pauses any longer, Alice turned on her heel and marched out of his life. She was determined to spend her last two weeks using up the last of her vacation days, never to see any of these people again. Well, maybe Tina. She couldn't just leave Tina. And Allen was always good for a laugh… and she'd miss Vaughn, though that train had passed. She'd seen him getting together with Molly a mile away. And, well, the rest were just the rest. She couldn't say she'd particularly miss Dan. As much as anyone could miss the top of someone's head – that's the most she usually saw of him. She'd get his catch up emails the next day though. She was glad for those. Louis was a sweet soul, but he was a dime a dozen. Luke would probably forget her name after July passed. Hamilton could kiss her ass. Though if she said as much, he'd probably take her up on the offer. And poor Rod! That kiss she assaulted him with at the Christmas party would probably be the only action he'd ever get. Oh, the Christmas party…

Gill watched her go, the hand holding her resignation letter crumpling the paper as he squeezed. He stood. "Alice!"

By now, everyone was staring and whispering around. The severity of his tone startled them, but they were jostled further still when he left his desk, strode up to her, and decided to passionately kiss her in front of the whole floor.

There was a moment of stunned silence as everyone gaped in shock. Even Allen who knew about their flings wouldn't have bet on Gill doing something like… like that in a thousand years. Not even if his knickerbockers depended on it.

Luke was the first to shout, pointing at the scene in horror. "Somebody call the SWAT team – Gill's lost his shit!"

Rod desperately leaped across his desk in pursuit, snatching up his phone. He held the receiver to his ear, rapidly slamming his hand down on random buttons. "What's the number?!"

"Holy shit…" Louis whispered. Even his uncharacteristic cursing wasn't enough to garner attention at a time like this.

No one was surprised to hear that Tina had snapped not just one picture buy many. Luke was too busy staring at Alice and Gill totally making out in front of everyone to cover her lens, so Dan slowly held up his pillow to block her shot.

Hamilton heard the commotion and carefully emerged from his office, double checking to make sure an infuriated platinum blonde with a tote wasn't in the vicinity. What he saw was Gill and Alice before his door. His reaction wasn't particularly boss-like. As usual. "What is this red light behavior, and how do I get in on it?"

Gill came up for air, using his thumbs to wipe away the tears that were falling from her eyes. He stared into them, looking every bit sincere as he profusely apologized. "Alice, I'm so sorry – please don't go. We could be in the nastiest, ugliest apartment living on near nothing, and I would be proud to be there with you. I've always been proud to be with you. I've never been ashamed. I was just… scared."

Washed over with relief and feeling like she wasn't all alone anymore, Alice's heart felt fit to burst. She firmly planted another kiss on his lips and hugged his neck as tight as she could, unable to stop sniffling. "I had to show you how to be brave first, and don't you forget it!"

"Okay, but really, what the holy hellfire is going on?" Dan interrupted, waving his arm for attention. Luke seconded the motion, raising his hand over his head. Louis, Rod, and Tina mimicked him as well. Tina lifted her camera, snapping a picture from a bird's eye view.

"What on Earth could you two be thinking?" Allen asked slyly, folding his arms over his chest as he flashed them a Cheshire grin. "Such behavior is blatant disregard for company policy."

Gill glared, protectively wrapping his arms around Alice and partially stifling her. Though she reveled in the open affection she was finally getting. "I don't care."

"Gill!" Hamilton was surprised, a hand going to his mouth.

"Nothing to worry about, Mr. Hamilton," Gill turned to his boss, actually addressing him formally for the first time in weeks. He nodded definitively. "Though it's definitely PDA, it's perfectly legal since I'm qui—"

Alice placed a warning hand on his chest, applying some pressure to give her a chance to interrupt. "Because I've just put in my two weeks' notice, sir."

"But Alice…" Gill looked down at her, a little bummed his heroic act fell flat. He was going to quit for her. After that dramatic performance, he was prepared to turn his back on the company. How could he face them all tomorrow?!

"But Alice!" Hamilton echoed. He couldn't lose his only C cup! Who could replace a chest like hers?!

She smiled in reassurance to them both, reaching down and giving Gill's wrist a squeeze. "No, I'm sure. I've had a good run. It's been fun. But… it's my time. Besides, I kind of got offered a job in my father's office, so I'm getting twice the pay with a senator's lifestyle, so…"

"Ugh!" Rod scoffed, no longer feeling sorry for her.

Tina was quick to judge in agreement, hands defiantly on her hips. "And you had us going there!"

Alice flicked her hair sassily over her shoulder. "I'll finish out my two weeks' here, though, if there aren't any protests. And don't worry," she tapped Gill on the nose, "I'll visit often."

"I feel like I just watched the end of a Shakespeare play," Louis mumbled, deep in thought. Dan and Tina watched him in equal bewilderment, both agreeing that the feeling was mutual. "I wonder why though…? Only one couple got together. Weird."