Drabble:129

"May I enter?", Janine asked from the office's doorway.

Hans ushered her in with a smile, gesturing the red-haired guardian towards a chair facing his desk and the two guardians and former-schoolmates caught up on news and events.

"You wanted to see me?", Janine asked after awhile.

"Yeah, about that.", Han started in a businesslike tone. "Do me a favor, look out the window. What do you see?". Janine was mystified by his request, but decided to do his bidding anyway.

"I see the first floor desks and the second floor cabins.", Janine offered, turning to look at her friend.

"I meant what do you notice about the guardians?", Hans persisted.

"They're working. Well, most of them are.", Janine amended, noting the spitball war being conducted by a trio and the multitude of paper-planes floating over the workspaces. "Why the sudden interest in your window-view?"

Hans heaved a long-suffering sigh, going back to his chair and sitting down before speaking. "I assume you know the approximate number of Court guardians?". When Janine nodded, he continued. "In the last month, exactly 62 guardians have used the gym facilities, half of whom are Royal Guards, 8 are instructors and most of the leftover have been sent on raids or missions."

"Was Rose…", Janine trailed off, but Hans answered her incomplete-query. "Yeah, she works out at least 4 days per week when she's at Court. One raid. 2 molnijas."

"And Belikov?"

"Still punishing himself for killing people while he was strigoi. He's been to every raid, trains like a machine and has one of the highest kill-rates.", Hans sighed and Janine couldn't help but join in, thinking of the younger guardian who had a mile-wide-streak of blaming-himself-for-things-out-of-his-control.

"But that's not why I called you. I wanted some counsel.", Hans continued. "For motivating the guardians to work out voluntarily, be prepared at all times; because if certain events manifest, things are about to get a lot worse at Court. Probably worse outside."

"Worse than what we'd deduced before?", Janine queried worriedly.

Hans' answer was a curt nod. "Obviously, we can't tell the guardians that. Or the moroi. Avoiding widespread panic is key. But I'd prefer if my guardians remain resilient. If not, Court would be compromised, and then…", Hans trailed off but Janine got the big-picture.

She mulled over possibilities for some time before speaking. "The way I see it, you have to incentivize them. Increase drill sessions, get experienced guardians from outside if you can. Do training competitions. Provide bonuses and time-offs for going on raids. Penalize them if they fail to meet your standards. That sort."

"That's not a bad idea, Hathaway.", Hans nodded, taking notes but Janine was not done. "Also, and this is highly unorthodox, but you could have them stage fake-strigoi attacks, like-"

"Novice-training at the academies.", Hans completed her thought, his mind already racing with implementation-plans.

"But when guardians are off-duty.", Janine amended. "At home, unprepared. Test their responsiveness. Make them wary"

"That's….brilliant, Janine. Thanks! One more thing, would you be interested in conducting drills sometime?"

"If Lord Szelsky can spare me or if he makes his way to Court, then sure.", Janine promised with a small smile. "Now, if that's all, could you point me to where my daughter is?"

"She's probably in Belikov's cabin.", Hans pointed out, towards the other side of the deck. "But you should probably….umm….call to let them know you're going over. Or else make some noise before you walk in."

"Why?", Janine asked, confused by Hans' latest instructions.

"Trust me on this, and knock before you enter or you'll see more of them than you want to.", Hans admitted with a shudder. When Janine's eyes widened in shock, Hans told her the rest. "Most of us Court guardians…..we learned it the hard way."

And Janine, horrified, turned to stare at Dimitri's door a minute before wordlessly retrieving her phone and calling Rose.

This one's for wordsequalmight, who wanted something more on the house-attacks (Drabble114). Hope you enjoy it! That also goes for the rest of you reading this, I hope you like it too. Don't forget to leave a review!

Reviews reminds me….thanks for the reviews on Drabble128, I was stunned by it's reception…and RoBiNiSmYbOo….trust me, that's a question we've all asked ourselves sometime :p

Take care. Cheers!