In the span of a few seconds, Shannon had disappeared, but for the life of him Alex didn't know how. That left him with nobody to fall back on, nobody to correct him, and nobody to fill the awkward silence between him and the… uh… new hire.

"So…" Sarah began, giving the kitchen equipment around her another weary glance, "how do we start?"

It wasn't like Alex had never seen a woman before. Sure, he'd never really hung out with his female classmates both in high school and college, and sure, he'd never really found time for dating, but he'd had no problem talking with his coworkers.

None of them had ever really appealed to him, though. Shannon was a tyrant, and far too old for him. Laura had the opposite 'problem,' the teenager would still be a junior if she hadn't dropped out of WF West. There were a handful of others that he didn't work with as much, but they, too, had qualities that helped him think of them as nothing more than another coworker.

With Sarah, though, it was much more difficult.

"Well..." he started, the familiar routine suddenly escaping him. While he thought, Alex looked up and away from the new hire, taking refuge in the speckled pattern on the ceiling panels. "...right! We clock in, over there."

He motioned towards an unused register and started walking towards it, hurrying to ensure that Sarah filed in behind him and out of sight. Not only would that hopefully help him focus, but it also hopefully hid his embarrassment.

This woman was going to be his coworker, and in a timespan less than a minute, he'd made himself look like a complete buffoon! He'd already ogled her, and obviously, too, which was a great start, and now he couldn't string a sentence together!

Christ, he didn't need to impress her, but acting professionally couldn't be that hard, could it? They were already short-staffed as it was, and he might be scaring off a much-needed hand!

"You have a badge number?" He asked, keying his in from memory and clocking in on the touchscreen.

"Yes." Sarah's soft contralto came from right behind him. His whole body tensed as he turned, backing away to give her access. Sarah leaned forwards slightly, reaching out for the screen with slender fingers. Soft pink fingernails drew attention to her porcelain-white fingers as they hovered over the screen. "I just touch it, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." He confirmed, a little confused. She was his age, and didn't know a touchscreen? Or was she just as nervous as he was? He guessed that wouldn't be surprising, especially given how he'd been acting around her. Beyond her hesitation, She didn't seem to have any trouble operating the clocking system. She even seemed to type her badge number from memory, which she could only have gotten less than an hour ago. Once the screen acknowledged her, she turned, crystalline eyes suddenly snapping to him.

Again, Alex felt himself suddenly rooted to the spot. Her questioning expression hid any obvious judgment, but who knew what Sarah was actually thinking. Why would someone like her be focusing on him so much in the first place?

…Oh, right! The introduction!

"Okay, we gotta wash our hands next." He rattled off a little too quickly, backing towards the station they'd been using. He started lathering his hands, feeling his new coworker's presence right behind him. Despite the hiss of the running water and the constant din of customers ordering and talking with each other, he could feel a thick silence that hanging between the two. "Remember to do this often." He weakly reminded her, more to boost his own confidence then for her own benefit. "Hygiene's our priority here. Nothing will lose a customer faster than food poisoning."

"I see." Sarah replied, just as weakly. Alex's stomach dropped at her uneasy tone. He wasn't creeping her out, was he? Employees came and went, so it shouldn't have been a big deal, but for some reason the idea was terrifying to him. He watched as Sarah turned the water on at the handwashing station. She leaned forwards, inadvertently drawing attention to the seat of her pants as she bent. They must not have had her size slacks, either. Alex didn't really know someone could fill them out like that-

He straightened, making a point to look away and focus on the still-broken milkshake machine.

Damnit Alex, get a hold of yourself!

Between the slowly growing queue of impatient customers inside and out in the driveway and the looming specter of homework tonight, Alex already had enough problems today!

Mimicking Alex's actions at the handwashing station, Trinitite was careful not to scratch the polish on her normally-gray fingernails. The cleaning wasn't nearly as thorough a job as her paint-and-chip detail could do, but humans didn't have those. It was just as well, as while she'd found time for them to work a few occasions while she'd been cruising through the wilderness east of Interstate 5, and the one time she wore human clothing during the routine maintenance it had ended up bleached and torn.

She cut the water off and donned a pair of gloves like Alex had. Her fleetmate didn't really seem like he knew what to do next, so The Abyssal started looking around her surroundings. Another human was manning their station right next to them, darting between machinery and the line of people patiently waiting for food.

"Welcome to Jack in the Box, what can I get you?"

Trinitite had heard him say that line multiple times already, with almost the exact emotion and inflection. The untrained ear would fall for its false cheer, but Trinitite recognized it far too much from beleaguered escorts like herself and more than one besieged princess.

That was fair enough. He was probably desperate for relief by now. Good thing Trinitite was there to…

Deep, she wasn't going to be manning that station yet, was she? She'd known it was a part of the job she volunteered for, but the idea of having to convincingly communicate with so many humans was suddenly terrifying.

"Alright, we're needed at the grill." Alex suddenly spoke up, drawing Trinitite away from her worry. "Laura's technically too young to be working there, but thanks to Clifton nobody else was available until now."

There wasn't that much venom in his voice, but it caught Trinitite off-guard anyways. She tried to read his expression, but the human was already ducking into the kitchen.

Very well, she thought, putting her concerns aside. They had a job to do anyway.

The human Trinitite assumed was Laura looked up from a paper box she'd just dropped a hamburger into, relief clear on her features. She hurriedly closed it and slid it into a slot, rattling off a haisty "Twenty Six," before turning to Alex.

"Finally." She sighed, nodding to Alex. "We still need a number eleven, two number sevens, one of them without tomatoes, and a number two. Gotta attend the frier." In an instant, she'd disappeared further into the kitchen.

"We'd, uh... start you there…" Alex commented, stopping at a metal plate. "...but we need to catch up with Harvey, so…" He waved his hands weakly over the surface, it's polished steel marred by scratches and caked layers of grease. "Welcome to the grill!"

It didn't look anything like the grill she'd used, but that probably shouldn't have been a surprise.

"Let's see," He started, a wave of cool air washing over Trinitite as he opened a steel door not far from the pair, "number eleven… number eleven…" He suddenly grabbed a slab of light, lumpy meat, as well as two thin strips of more textured flesh, before slapping all three down with a chorus of surprisingly enthusiastic sizzles.

"We're building a sourdough chicken club." Alex started, grabbing a disk-shaped loaf of bread and hurriedly splitting it. "While we brown the meat on the grill, assemble the sandwich like those recipes there…" he motioned with his head towards an abused sheet of paper attached to the wall. "...say." Trinitite leaned forwards, squinting to get a better read of the small printed text. There, next to a bold number 11, were a list of items.

Mayonnaise, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Bacon, Swiss-style cheese, Chicken

That was it. No directions, no explanation of an end goal, no safety notices, not even a period at the end. Nothing like what she'd seen even from her mother's improvised training in the abyssal fleets. Were you expected to just know how all those things went together? Deep, she didn't even know what most of those things were! That must be why Alex was showing her how, in his own way.

A sudden beeping noise drew the Wo-class's attention, and she looked away just in time to see Alex withdrawing the bread he'd just been holding from a device she didn't recognize. Setting it aside, he deftly scooped up a tool Trinitite also didn't recognize and flipped the three slowly-burning slabs of meat. It seemed like he'd forgotten about Trinitite as his hands darted across the counter, grabbing this ridgid leaf and that white sauce with a speed only attainable with countless hours of experience. Which one of those was the lettuce? The bacon? She could probably find out if she poured through either the supplies in her hold or the logs of what she'd eaten in the weeks since landfall, but that would take hours! From her experience attempting to cook for herself, she recognized cheese, but which one of the white slices was 'swiss-style?' How did that differ from the actual swiss cheese she'd tried before?

The sizzling suddenly increased in intensity, and Trinitite remembered she was supposed to be watching Alex. The human had removed the three slices of meat, and thrown them on top of the bun that wasn't covered in unknown foodstuffs. Grabbing that half and flipping it over, Alex took the final hamburger and engulfed half of it in a sheet of paper. The intricate series of folds slid out of the Wo-Class's mind as soon as he finished them. The human finished by neatly placing the food in a paper box, finishing by calling out "Number eleven!" and sliding the box into the slot leading to the front. His job done, Alex checked the list again, turning towards the larger steel door...

His rangefinders passed over Trinitite, before suddenly focusing on her and widening. The human froze, his mouth opening and slamming shut like a suffocating fish.

Finally, he spoke, his voice lacking any trace of confidence.

"Did you get all of that?"

Trinitite stared back at the human equally confused and afraid. It was more then a little embarrassing to admit it, but it would be much worse if she started without even knowing which ingredient was which.

"No."

At least Alex probably wasn't going to beat Trinitite for her failure.

Alex felt like finding a dark, quiet place where he could curl up and die.

'Did you get all of that?' What kind of question was that? Sarah was clearly lost, and who wouldn't be after his complete lack of training just now? He'd been thinking of the woman behind him, despite his best efforts, but in his attempt to focus on his job, he forgot to walk the unfortunate new hire through what he was doing!

Alex, you dumbass!

He could fix this. Two bacon ultimate cheeseburgers were next. If they both worked on one at the same time. Alex could help walk her through the process while making sure they didn't slow down too much. Orders were still rolling in, after all, if Harvey's call for a number four was any indication.

"Alright, we'll both do it, then." He said, putting his plan to action. He focused on the refrigerator as he spoke, as he wasn't sure he'd be able to maintain his train of thought if he focused on Sarah. "The customers need two bacon ultimate burgers. Those are number seven, by the way. At two hamburger patties each…" He grabbed the required meat, slamming the door to the refrigerator closed and slapping the four hamburgers on the grill. "...that's four hamburgers in total. Understand that?"

He finally looked over at Trinitite, who was next to him. She was nodding, but her lips were pursed into a slight pout and she was staring at the ingredients lists.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I'm sorry," Sarah started, shaking her head. "I lived a pretty sheltered life before the war got to me. That's a hamburger…" She pointed towards the sizzling patties on the grill. "...those are the buns…" She pointed again. "...and those are cheeses, but what is the rest of this?" She waved her black-sleeved arm over the rest of the ingredients.

Alex was stunned. Where the hell did she used to live? A cult compound? And she was a refugee? Hopefully this wasn't the poor thing's first exposure to American food. Jack in the box was above average when it came to fast food places, but that wasn't a difficult bar to clear.

"Number four, no onions!"

Harvey's call broke Alex out of his stupor. They had three people in the kitchen, but they were still falling behind.

"That's fine." He hurried, grabbing a pair of buns and laying one out in front of her. "I'll teach you."

If the new girl looked like anyone else, Alex probably would be cursing her right now. As it was, she was turning out to be even worse than his worst fears from a new hire, but for some reason he didn't mind. As he turned to flip the burger patties, he had to grab his waistband and adjust the fit of his slacks. Okay, he probably knew why that was the case.

God damn hormones...

Man, nothing helps the creative juices flow quite like an airline flight for me... it's kind of weird.

There's probably a few inaccuracies when it comes to how work is actually done in a Jack in the Box, despite the videos I watched on the topic, but I think I got things down good enough. I was a bit more worried about following the 'show, don't tell' rule when it comes to Alex's thought process without getting... tasteless about it. That's something I'll probably want constant policing on from readers, although it'll steadily become less prevalent as this arc progresses.

Also, I just realized the outline I had for the next chapter is unworkable! Should be fairly simple to improvise, though, although we'll see how that effects the flow of the story later. Here's wishing all of you readers have a wonderful 2022!