AN: Set in/during MAG 4, slight reference to details given in MAG 104

This was simply another wrench thrown into Jon's day. He'd just finished reading a statement regarding a troubling Leitner, and was trying to follow up on it. He already got Sasha on the job but Martin, being the slacker that he was, seemed to have left at five-o-clock on the dot. Did he know nothing of workplace etiquette?

It had started with a knock on his office door that made Jon jump. Without being invited, the door had swung open and there stood Elias.

"What can I do for you, Elias?" Jon said tiredly. He was rather busy, and didn't appreciate the interruption. It'd been a long day.

"I have a surprise for you." Elias said cheekily. He opened the door further and fully entered the office, trailed by a teenager.

"Meet your newest assistant." He said as though it was a good thing.

This 'assistant' couldn't have been more than a few months out of secondary school. His hair was immediately the most shocking factor. It was largely black, but with streaks of white. It made him look almost like a younger Elias. Jon couldn't tell if his eyes were blue or green. He wore a dark blue jumper with some logo on the front and jeans. His red trainers looked like they'd seen much better days.

All in all, it could hardly be called professional apparel.

"I don't need another assistant. I already have my hands full trying to keep track of three." Jon said dismissively.

"I'm afraid he's already signed the paperwork, so he's your problem now. Toodaloo," With that Elias turned around and the door clicked shut behind him. He could be rather insufferable sometimes. At least he kept it professional, though.

"Um, hi?" Squeaked the boy. He sounded younger than he looked.

Jon fought the urge to slam his head against his desk.

"My name's Daniel, but I go by Danny." He introduced himself awkwardly. No last name? Alright.

"Jonathan Sims. I typically go by Jon." He replied.

"I don't suppose Elias went over your duties?" He asked. Elias should have at the very least done that much.

"A bit, yeah. Though he glossed over the smaller details." Danny explained.

Jon fought down an exasperated sigh. He stood from his desk.

"The day is technically over, but I tend to stay late. I'll at least help you get you set up before the evening is out. We can go into more detail tomorrow." Jon straightened a few things up on his desk. He put his tape recorder into his pocket. He didn't like to leave it just sitting around, especially when the tape had a statement on it. He'd have to put it away properly after showing Danny around.

Jon walked over to the door and opened it, gesturing for Danny to follow. It wasn't Danny's fault that Jon was stressed, nor that he was uninformed. Jon would pick up where Elias had failed.

Jon walked down the hall, Danny trailing behind like a duckling. Together they reached the series of offices that belonged to Sasha, Tim, and Martin. Filing boxes spilled out into the hallway.

Luckily, there was an office that went unused. Unluckily, it was also in a state of disuse. All of the surfaces were covered in dust and there were still belongings left from the previous occupant. But it had all of the necessities, and that's what mattered. Danny just needed a space to work. It was rather small, though.

"You'll have to do a bit of tidying up, sorry. I just recently took over down here and things are still quite the mess." Said Jon. Danny wandered into the room and plopped down into the office chair. That sent up a plume of dust. Danny set down a plastic bag next to the desk.

"Did something happen?" Danny asked curiously. He perused the series of books on the shelf. Jon remained standing in the doorway, leant against the frame.

"My predecessor… had to leave unexpectedly. The entire Archival team changed hands, for the better in my opinion. Seeing the mess we were left with." Jon sighed harshly. It felt like there was sand in his eyes. He'd been staring at words for far too long now.

"Uh-huh." Danny stared at a stain on the rug.

"I can tell." He said cheekily.

"So… does anyone come around here after-hours aside from you?" Danny questioned.

"Sasha stayed late tonight, though I imagine she'll be out soon. You heard me complain about Martin." Jon spat the name. Martin was nothing but trouble.

"And Tim called in sick this morning." Jon rolled his eyes.

"You can spend whatever time you'd like tonight tidying up, there's some spare office supplies in a cupboard in the break room. I'll get with you tomorrow on anything else. 9 am." Jon informed. Danny nodded and did a mock salute.

"You got it, boss!" Oh not another one. Tim had already gotten into the habit of calling him that.

"Just Jon, please." He chided.

"Have a good evening," Feeling like he had instructed enough for tonight, Jon left the boy to his devices with a goodbye.

"Bye Jon!" The door creaked shut.

Hopefully the kid wouldn't cause too much trouble. He seemed agreeable so far, if a bit lacking in manners. But people always told Jon he had too many manners, so perhaps it was simply a matter of perspective.

Jon walked past Sasha's office to see that her door had been shut and the light was off. She must have headed out while he was getting Danny set up.

Jon's gonna have to introduce him to everyone tomorrow, isn't he? That's gonna be fun.

Eager to be free of the place, Jon grabbed his bag and hurried out the door. He just barely remembered the tape recorder that he'd hastily shoved into his pocket. He thought he turned it off? Oh well. He'd just have to… splice it later. That was a thing right?

Just one more task for him to deal with.

Danny looked around at 'his' new office. Kinda shabby, but what else should he have expected? Danny had simply gotten comfortable in his plush life back home. He couldn't remember the last time he really wanted something.

But his stomach certainly wanted something right now.

Danny opened up his bag of snacks and started to eat as he considered his new digs. The building around him creaked like all old buildings did. It was comforting. Haunting, even.

The dust would need to be done away with. He kept starting to sneeze and then it would stop right before the payoff. It was dreadful.

"Good morning, Jon," Danny said, testing his accent aloud. Then he laughed to himself at how funny it sounded. But he hadn't been called out on it yet, so it must be authentic enough. He trusted his skills, but it was still nice to see that he fit in enough.

It was also just fun to talk like that. The words were much more… forward in his mouth. It was strange and fun. Not to mention he was talking to natives. This was almost as fun as when Pandora praised his Greek as almost as good as her own.

The chips Danny had picked out were bland. If he'd known Elias was gonna step in to pay, he would've gotten more expensive snacks.

Elias. What to think about him?

There was obviously something wrong with him. Probably multiple things, if Danny was being honest. What were they though? He could guess, but honestly Danny would just have to spend more time around the man to find out what made him tick.

Heh, tick.

Speaking of ticking, there was a clock somewhere in this office that was driving Danny bonkers. Danny pushed himself out of his chair and found the offender high up on the wall, quite out of his reach. Dang.

Even though it was hopeless, Danny tried to tap into his core. He urged his body to float. He tensed every muscle hoping for his feet to leave the ground. But his feet remained solidly, stupidly, on the ground.

That was going to take some adjusting to. He was so used to floating everywhere. With the technology of his time, he didn't even get weird looks when he did it in public.

He should've brought some gadgets with him. But then again, he'd been so excited for something new that he'd practically jumped through the portal. And Clockwork hadn't mentioned that it would be in the past.

Danny begrudgingly wheeled his chair over to the wall and stood on it to try and remove the clock.

Just his luck, the chair swivelled unexpectedly and he fell flat on his butt. He just barely managed to avoid smashing his head against the corner of his desk.

Danny laid there and just tried to get his breath back, desperately hoping that nobody heard him fall.

His chest heaved. Dang, when was the last time he actually had to breathe? He actually felt lightheaded.

It was so strange and alien yet grounding at the same time. Danny had long ago stopped wanting to be fully human again. Now that he was, he didn't know what to do with himself. Eating, breathing, they were habits he sometimes chose to indulge. But now they were necessary. It was scary and exciting at the same time.

Danny looked up at the underside of his desk. There was a piece of dried gum stuck under it -which, gross- but there was also something else.

He reached up and felt the scratches of the wood under his fingertips. It had been deeply gouged, with what he couldn't quite tell. In thematic fashion, it was a carving of an eye. Or was it an Eye? The capitalization seemed important in his head.

What was the Eye? Or Who? Clockwork had been purposefully vague, of course. Danny was partly glad the old Clock had left it up to him to discover. But another part was frustrated. He wanted so deeply to know. To Know?

Danny huffed through his nose.

His best hope for any answers was probably Jon. Or maybe the bookshelf? This seemed like an academic place so they probably had books on this stuff. Oh, books? Like the ones in Artefact Storage…

Briefly, Danny considered a heist.

If he had his normal powerset, it would be all-too-easy. A touch of intangibility, some invisibility in case there were cameras, and he would be off scott-free. But he didn't have his arsenal. Instead he had solid limbs and skin and weight and gravity. He didn't have any special abilities. At least, not as far as he was aware.

And he had just started working here. If he got caught, he didn't want to burn this bridge. For all he had once yearned for mundanity, it was never Danny's style. He'd been entrenched in the supernatural before he was even born. It was in his blood. Literally. At least, back home it was. Here, he didn't know what color he would bleed. Probably red, but he didn't know for sure.

There were so many things he didn't know.

One thing was for certain, as Danny suffered through yet another aborted sneeze, he had some cleaning to do.

Jon came into the office at 8. He had snapped awake at 6 in the morning, and hadn't managed to get back to sleep. He tossed and turned but couldn't find any degree of comfort. So he decided to do something productive with himself and went into the office early.

It was at 8:15 that he found Danny-last-name-not-yet-given curled up asleep with an old curtain in his sparkling clean office. Jon balked.

Was this kid homeless?! Was that why Elias was so eager to give him a job?

They looked kind of similar, maybe this was nepotism? But Jon couldn't recall Elias ever mentioning any family. Or friends, for that matter. But they rarely talked about anything outside of work.

He was sleeping so peacefully, Jon couldn't bring himself to wake him. He really looked like a child when asleep.

But Jon really couldn't just allow him to sleep there. On the floor, that is. He vaguely remembered seeing a few cots stacked up in a storage closet in the Archives themselves. He had no clue why they were there, but Danny would likely benefit from one. Maybe he could sneak one into-

Wait. What was he doing? Jon owed this kid nothing. If he wanted a cot so that he could sleep at work, then he would have to get it himself. He was grown. Grown enough to know that he really should not be crashing at his workplace, especially on his first day.

But then again, did he trust the kid in the Archives? He was brand new. They hadn't even really discussed the actual details.

Jon bit his fingernails as he waltzed down to the Archives and pulled out a cot. He stashed it away in his office between a bookshelf and the wall. He then resolved to tell Danny about it when the day was done. After he found out why Danny had stayed there overnight.

Best case scenario, he simply fell asleep in the midst of cleaning and didn't have the chance to go home.

Worst case, he was completely homeless and planned on living out of his office. If that was true, Jon could try to nudge him into getting a place after he got paid. At the very least today he could tell Danny that he should start looking at places. There was a computer with internet in his office.

Expectations set, Jon decided to set that aside for later. Much later it would seem, as just after he sat back down he heard the sound of a door opening.

Tim's head popped in soon after.

"Morning, Boss." He greeted then left just as quickly as he had appeared. Jon didn't even have the chance to warn him.

A loud scream pierced the air. Jon rushed to his feet and emerged just in time to see Tim bursting out of the breakroom.

"There's a zombie in there!" He declared. Tim jumped behind Jon and started pushing him towards the door. Was this a sacrifice?! Jon dug his feet stubbornly into the carpet.

"Zombies are not real, Tim. Of all people, you should know that! Zombies are simply a figment of-"

"-of somebody's imagination that became accepted by the public consciousness. Yeah, yeah I know."

"But you won't be saying that when it eats you!" Tim shoved Jon and he went pinwheeling forward into the break room. Then he went and ducked out of sight.

Jon just barely managed to save face by bracing against a table. He made eye contact with a very frumpled Danny who was standing hunched over the coffee maker. His hair was a mess and there was a dried line of drool on his chin.

Danny at least had to tact to look appalled. He turned away immediately and wiped his chin.

"Tim!" Jon whipped around. The guilty party popped his head in.

"It didn't eat you?" Tim sounded puzzled.

"I've been accused of being many things, but surprisingly a zombie is not one of them." Danny said tiredly. He yawned and stretched. His joints popped to a concerning degree.

"Ghost, corpse, vampire, cosplayer. And probably more I'm forgetting." Danny said as though that out-of-the-blue statement was no cause for concern.

The coffee maker groaned to a stop and Danny practically pounced on it.

"I've seen many things here, but a random kid showing up is not one of them." Apparently Tim felt safe enough, as he entered the room fully. He stared intently at Jon.

"What?" Jon asked indignantly.

Tim squinted at Danny. There were cogs turning in his head and Jon did not like where he thought they might be going.

Finally Tim got up the courage to voice his thought.

"Is he related to Elias?"

Danny choked on his coffee. He coughed somewhere deep inside his chest and tried desperately to breathe despite the scalding in his throat.

"N-no!" He sputtered hoarsely.

"No, I am not related to Elias. I just met him yesterday!"

"Well we know he's not related to Martin." Tim added. He held up a hand to his eye like it was a monocle. Was he trying to look like Sherlock?

"Why do you say that?" Asked Jon.

"He put tea leaves in the coffee maker."

"I what-? Oh." Danny looked down at his cup. He swirled it around and a grimace passed his face.

"It's been a long time since I've seen one of these, ok? Gimme a break." Danny huffed. He dumped the pot of 'coffee' down the sink.

That was another point for Jon's 'homeless' theory.

"This is Daniel- Danny. Elias decided we needed even more hands down here." Jon rolled his eyes. It was busy enough with just the four of them. Sure they were a bit behind where Jon would like to be, but that was largely due to dead weight. Tim and Sasha did their jobs… not wonderfully, but well enough. They were managing.

Well. He'd just have to find out what Elias saw in Danny.

Tim took a moment too long to respond. He stared off into space, then rapidly blinked away the moment of reverie.

"Welcome!" Tim said warmly. He held out a hand for a high five.

Danny stared at it for a moment, cogs turning in his brain, before finally returning the gesture.

Tim stood there awkwardly.

"Well- uh, as much as I'd like to get to know you, I've got some… stuff I gotta get to." Tim quickly excused himself from the room. But he failed to look where he was going, and managed to bump right into Martin.

"Oh- sorry," Martin apologized.

"Didn't see you there Tim."

"No sweat. See ya!" He sidestepped past Martin in the doorway and broke free.

Martin watched him leave, confused.

"Do I smell tea?" He asked, incredulously. Just then he seemed to notice Jon was there. He immediately looked down at his shoes.

"Sorry. I'm not very familiar with this thing."

Martin puzzled silently over the newcomer, looking between Danny and Jon.

"Hi! I'm Danny. As of about..." Danny squinted at the clock on the wall.

"-13 hours ago, I work here."

"Oh-! I uh, I didn't know we were expecting anyone?" Martin looked to Jon.

"Neither did I. But, he's here now." Jon reasoned.

"Right." Martin said curtly. He watched as Danny fumbled with the coffee pot again.

"Do you want some help?" Martin offered. He put his hand out to stop Danny before he poured grounds in the machine without a filter.

"Yes please." Danny said brightly. Martin set about showing him how to use the coffee pot.

Hmm. That was an idea.

"Daniel? How would you feel about having Martin show you the ropes?" Jon asked. Martin sputtered, which was to be expected. Which was why Jon directed the question at Danny.

"Oh! Uh, I'd like that. If it's okay with you Martin?"

"Okay, yes! I can do that." Martin nodded determinedly. Good, now Jon could get back to his own research. He might even get another Statement in today. If his eyes cooperated. It still felt like blinking through sand, even though he was wide awake. Maybe he should invest in some eye drops.

"Thank-you," And with that, Jon left them to their own devices. Martin couldn't mess this up too badly. The smell of fresh coffee followed him out the door.