Chapter content warnings: censored cussing; the potentially triggering things in canon (mentions of famine, war, pestilence- you know, the usual stuff-; Rex's tests and crapping on Lester's back, etc.); mentions of fire; mentions of an unspecified allergic reaction; mentions of alcohol (wine, not actually drank); Lester being an arse; slight su!cide ideation (semi-joking, in response to being summoned by Lester); brief mention of bleeding/bleeding out in regards to the last warning; Claudia's world continuing to implode

Word count: 5,264 I think

Friday, May 19th, 2006

05:30

Claudia's carefully-cultivated internal body clock woke her from an annoyingly dreamless sleep at half past five the following morning, even without an alarm clock. She wasn't a morning person by nature, but they weren't detestable in her eyes either- she'd come to see them as a necessary evil to pursue her career in the government.

She got up and showered, brushing her teeth and applying a professional amount of makeup naked to the male eye before dressing in yesterday's clothes. Glaring at her shoes in hatred, she changed the band-aids over her blisters again before reluctantly slipping her feet back into her regulation nylons and then into those confounded shoes.

She packed up what little she had with her and tidied the bed, but left her bag in the room when she went downstairs. At the bar, she ordered an English breakfast, deciding she'd probably need the protein-rich classic to get through the day.

The others all came downstairs before she finished eating, with Connor arriving last and clearly still half-asleep. She arranged her dishes neatly and set them aside as she finished her coffee, slightly nauseated by the sight and sound of Connor eating his breakfast like an animal. Stephen, across from him and breakfasting like a normal person, had a permanent look of disgust etched on his face, which he tried nobly to hide behind the newspaper and coffee cup.

Soon afterward, it was time to head out. Claudia did not miss how Nick not-so-subtly nudged Stephen away from the front seat, followed by a series of shared facial expressions she had previously thought only women were capable of. In the end, Stephen held up his hands in mock-surrender, suppressing the knowing smirk that spread across his face as he climbed into the backseat. Claudia fought to keep her cheeks from turning rosy as Nick ever-so-politely held the door open for her, an almost dorky smile on his face.

She quickly realized that when Nick was driving, sitting in the front seat was far more terrifying than sitting in the backseat. She found herself putting a great amount of effort into keeping her face neutral and her body relaxed while the fingers of her hand out of Nick's view dug into the leather of the bucket seat so hard and deep she worried she'd leave marks or break a nail. She herself was a rather lead-footed driver, admittedly, but she had long ago learned how to weave through the multiple lanes of London streets jam-packed with irritable drivers at nearly illegal speeds without anyone getting scratched.

It was a relief when they finally parked at the site of the strange, glittering thing, which had not seemed to dim, wane, or shrink overnight. It was still as mystifying as it had been the night before, and Claudia stared into its silvery-white heart with equal parts wonder and trepidation.

What on Earth was this thing? Claudia had seen enough- both in science fiction and in reality last night- to realize that it was some kind of portal or doorway. There was no other explanation for that giant creature vanishing into it last night, or young Ben Trent's apparent experience in seeing prehistoric times that Nick was so sure was real.

Claudia didn't know what to believe. She had been brought up believing in evolution, in all that existed progressing irrevocably forward, leaving every iteration of anything in the past to be improved and advanced but never revisited in any past form barring fossils and history books. There was no room for something so chaotic and anomalous as a glowing broken mirror that somehow connected 2006 to 'prehistoric times'- at least, prehistoric times according to a kid whose entire bedroom revolved around dinosaurs, Godzilla, and the odd little green man. Connor was convinced that the hulking animal they'd found in the woods- the one they'd found Abby Maitland in the vicinity of, apparently not the one that had killed the cow and left it among boughs- was a dinosaur. Neither Professor Cutter nor Stephen Hart, paleontologists and therefore the closest thing Claudia had to a professional opinion, had spoken a single theory after Nick's declaration that the light had taken the animal home. If they had, she hadn't heard it yet.

She was starting to wish she hadn't accepted Nick's offer to join the search, or better yet, Hodges' assignment.

But she was in the thick of it now, like it or not, and she would see it through- to the very end, whatever it may be. If this discovery was to the benefit of mankind and the world, she would be its advocate. If it was the end of the world, she would take responsibility for her part in it.

Only time would tell.

Claudia was pleased to see that reinforcements had arrived- scientists and soldiers alike. Vehicles, tents, and equipment had flooded what was an ordinary patch of forest just hours ago, transforming it into a government-controlled site. She drew what comfort she could from the following of protocol and procedure- not just her own, but her colleagues'- and the steps she would take next long since pounded into her mind. She could do this. She knew how to.

"My pen." Connor said, drawing her attention to him, and the silver stick in his land that seemed to lean toward the portal. A moment later, it slipped out of his fingers forward and was sucked into the portal, which made a strange noise and seemed to ripple for a moment. "That explains the compass going crazy." He said, joining dots she couldn't see.

"What could cause a magnetic field so powerful?" Nick wondered aloud.

"Maybe it's an alien spaceship." Connor suggested.

Nick and Claudia gave him matching looks.

Her eyes shifted away from him and landed on Abby Maitland, looking rather overwhelmed as she sat on a pile of bins and crates and cases that Hodges had sent along with several members of the SAS and some Home Office scientists. She had the feeling that Nick and probably Stephen also would dislike the government's involvement, but she had been trained to call in more senior officials in situations above her pay grade and skillset, and she trusted the British Government. Even if it didn't trust her.

Stephen appeared, carrying a steaming metal cup of either coffee or tea and handing it off to the blonde. He stayed beside her and they seemed to start talking. Nearby, two people picked up the strange lizard- Rex- in a massively oversized metal cage, eliciting chirps from the reptile. Claudia hoped that Abby would broker no objection to some minor and relatively non-invasive tests. She herself only planned to make a fuss if they wanted to kill and dissect the creature. There was no reason for that when it could probably be returned to where it belonged- whether that was prehistoric times, a preservation society, or even Ben Trent.

Her attention was brought back to Nick when he spoke a moment later. "Everything we've seen about the animals so far is consistent with vertebrates that last appeared in the fossil record hundreds of millions of years ago." Nick spoke.

Well, he was the expert. "You mean they're like creatures from the past?" Claudia asked, hoping against hope that this wasn't part of some idiotic real-life Jurassic Park experiment.

"No, I- I mean they are creatures from the past."

He said it with such a certainty that it surprised Claudia, as if it was a universally-known fact like the sky being blue and the grass being green.

Before she had a chance to respond to that statement in any way, the portal made its odd noise again and startled her, drawing her gaze. Connor was grinning. "Brilliant. It's brilliant." His face dropped. "Oh, that was my front door key." He winced.

Claudia paid him no further attention, redirecting it to the Scotsman beside her. "Professor, we have to go now." She told him.

"You've got your own experts?" He queried mockingly.

"They didn't see what we saw, and they don't know what you know." She responded. She was willing to believe what he was suggesting, but she wanted a second opinion, and she had protocols to follow, if only so she could keep her job.

With that, she left him, heading toward Abby Maitland. She had seen the girl's focus on the peculiar lizard- Rex, she had learned- and since it had to be taken back to the Home Office for examination, she figured she could convince the girl to come with her and sign the OSA as well.

07:34

The drive back to London lasted two hours and thirteen minutes, shortened by about fifteen to twenty minutes by Claudia's leadfooted tendencies. Normally, she would've felt guilty or at least embarrassed about how clearly disturbed Nick was by her casual speed-weaving through traffic and gunning it through stoplights about to turn red, but after he had terrified her with his driving 'skills' earlier that day, she had no qualms about making him sweat a little. She did, however, pity poor Abby Maitland in the backseat, who looked a little green every time Claudia glanced into her rearview mirror to check on her.

She brought them to the Home Office and explained to the necessary officials that they would need to sign the Official Secrets Act immediately and she needed to speak with a more senior official about something she didn't know how to define or explain. She was referred to one Tim Haines to help her get the resources she needed, and the three of them were brought to a 'private' room (read: it had a door that shut but all the walls were glass) where they were presented with the Official Secrets Act to sign.

She stood outside the room, watching the blondes discuss the papers before them as she leaned rather unprofessionally against the railing. Neither seemed too pleased about the requirement, and Claudia understood why, but as the world as she knew it continued to shatter and distort around her, she clung to her training, to the regulations that she'd beaten into her own head and abided by to get this far.

Soft footfalls of expensive dress shoes- men's, judging by the size of heel- against the blue carpet behind her drew her attention, but she didn't take her eyes off Professor Cutter and Ms. Maitland. It wasn't Haines or Hodges; she knew their gaits. The person stepped up right beside her, and at last she glanced at them. It was a man, dressed pristinely in an expensive (probably Italian) black suit complete with a crisp white shirt and a black and gold striped tie. He looked at her expectantly, and she reluctantly initiated the interaction. "Claudia Brown, Home Office." She introduced, pasting a small and professional smile on her face and applying the same tone to her words as she offered her hand and stood up straight.

He ignored it. "Yes, I've seen your file." He replied brusquely. "James Lester. I'll be in charge of coordinating our response."

'Lovely- another stiff, pompous man to answer to.' She thought gloomily, retracting her hand. "You shouldn't have brought them here, they have no security clearance. I don't like civilians in these situations."

"How many situations like this have you had?" She queried, a sarcastic laugh in her voice. She had meant it rhetorically, but even as the words left her lips, she found herself wondering if perhaps this sort of thing- creatures from the past and sparkling portals that they traveled through- had happened before, and this arrogant man led a response division.

"How do we know they're not responsible for all this in some way?"

"That's not possible." She returned immediately, refusing to even entertain the idea. Her mind turned over the previous twenty-four hours. The strange hulking creature in the woods, the strange reptile that Abby Maitland had brought back with her, the bizarre twinkling doorway of light in the Forest. Things that couldn't be reasonably explained without a child's imagination or some seriously sci-fi elements being treated as fact. One thing was for sure: no human or small group of humans- especially not this odd bunch- could have orchestrated it.

But his verbal smacking was not finished. "You spend your entire career planning for just about every crisis imaginable, up to and including alien invasion, then this happens." He leaned closer, his next words lower in volume but far higher in the amount of derision and condescension they held. "So much for thinking outside the bloody box."

He swanned away, and her jaw clenched. She stuffed one hand into her pocket, extending two particular fingers into its minute depth. (She couldn't very well flip him off in full view of officials and cameras, after all.)

She sauntered closer to the glass, squinting to see what pages they were currently on. They'd barely gotten started. Knowing they'd be there a while, she took the opportunity to speedwalk back to her car and drive quickly back to her house. She doubted she had time for a shower, so she simply packed a quick bag- a powder blue short-sleeved top identical in cut and cloth to what she wore, a pair of khaki trousers, a white denim jacket with long bell sleeves, and a pair of sneakers she rarely wore. They were horrendously bright and she felt her cheeks heat up just looking at them, but she didn't have any other shoes with tread as good as theirs, so they'd have to do. On the note of shoes, she also swapped her terrible pair for a set of loafers. They weren't much better, but they had less heel and more comfort. It would have to do.

She grabbed a few other miscellaneous items she thought she might need and quickly drove back to her place of employment, stashing the bag in the boot of her car and hurrying back inside. She returned to her previous station about thirty seconds before Lester reappeared, and she gave him a far more professional and concise run-down of what she knew. Just as he strode away, Nick and Abby emerged from the room, looking both peeved and exhausted.

"I'm sorry about all that." Claudia apologized sincerely. She checked her watch. "It's nearly twelve. Why don't I take you down to the commissary? Sir Lester can wait a little longer to meet you."

13:00 / 1:00 p.m.

Despite the instant disgust and annoyance that enveloped Claudia's being when she next clapped eyes on Sir James Lester, she was truly surprised that he let so much time go by before storming down to the cafeteria to summon the three. Judging by the exact time, however, Claudia imagined he had interrogated people to find their location, calculated how long it would take to get to there from his office, and then waited for the correct time to leave said office to stride into the cafeteria as the clock's numbers changed.

He seemed petty enough, and she had had two conversations with him.

She muttered a warning to the blondes, hurrying to finish her soup. In response, Nick shoved an entirely untouched diagonally-cut half of a sandwich into his mouth in an admittedly impressive feat and Abby tore the top off her chocolate pudding cup, tipping her head back and taking the whole dessert like an oversized shot. Briefly, Claudia wondered what going out for drinks with the other woman was like. She finished her crisps and drink and began collecting their trays and trash to dispose of, stacking the trays neatly with the rubbish arranged by type on the top tray.

"If you've finished stuffing yourselves, we have a potential national security crisis to discuss." Lester's voice brought expressions of disgust to the blondes' faces. Mercifully, only Claudia could see them, as they both were seated with their backs to Lester.

Claudia smoothly rose, gave Lester a tight, professional smile, and disposed of the trays and trash, Nick and Abby keeping close like children hiding behind their mother's skirt. Reluctantly, they then followed Lester from the cafeteria to whatever their destination was.

"This… phenomenon, Professor- Claudia tells me you have an explanation." Lester prompted.

"A theory." Nick corrected, his accent thick. "The boy's experience proves that there's a concrete landscape on the other side of the anomaly… and I think it's the Earth, many millions of years ago."

"And this… 'anomaly', as you call it, is a door between time zones of the world's history?" Lester snarked as they came to a stop at a set of large windows that looked into a laboratory.

Cutter made a humming noise in affirmative response.

"Suppose this… remarkable theory's correct. What are the immediate risks?" Lester inquired.

"Famine, war, pestilence. The ends of the world as we know it. You know, the usual stuff." The Scot snarked back cheekily, and Claudia found herself torn between smiling and rolling her eyes.

"I could do without the facetiousness."

"Well, I could do without standing in some anemic office in Whitehall talking to a civil service pen-pusher when I should be exploring the most significant phenomenon in the history of science."

Claudia glared. A little bit of empathy and a few ranks was all that differed her and Lester.

(The office was pretty anemic, though. That was a fair point.)

"Technically I'm not actually a civil servant." Lester returned, goading him. "More a, uh… troubleshooter without portfolio in the PM's office."

"You mean you're a government hatchet man." Nick's face was set in an aggravatingly impish grin, shamelessly cocky and brazenly impudent. A picture of it would've made an excellent photographic accompaniment for the definition of 'mischievous'. He was enjoying this way too much.

"Colorful, but, uh, surprisingly accurate." Lester conceded.

"And there's something else you should know. I intend to find out what happened to my wife, whatever the risks, so I'm going through the anomaly, and if you want to stop me, then you're gonna have to shoot me." Nick continued, that irritating smile paired with a saccharine tone that threatened trouble and possibly violence if he was challenged.

Worry coursed through Claudia's veins. Something about Lester's overall persona gave her the distinct impression that he wasn't above using force to get what he wanted. She just hoped he wouldn't bring firearms into Cutter Control.

Lester chuckled. "I hope it won't come to that." He replied lightly.

Their conversation was effectively ended when a handful of scientists clad in white protective gear entered the lab, Rex's green form the only real color in the room. Claudia nonchalantly positioned herself between Lester and Cutter, hoping to block them from physically interacting in any way. One scientist set the chirping creature down on a table with an illuminated top.

"You really shouldn't handle a lizard like that." Abby objected.

"Let the experts do their job." Lester condescended.

"They don't know what they're doing." The blonde responded. Seeing the irked look on Lester's reflected face, Claudia fought down a smile. A scientist attempted to collect a sample of something with a comically large swab, but to no avail. "You really shouldn't mess with an angry lizard." Abby spoke up again.

"I'm terrified." Lester's sardonic opinion was unwelcome.

Another scientist waved a handheld scanner of some kind down the length of the reptile's body. "Do they even know he can fly?" Abby asked.

"…'Fly'?"

If Claudia had known that, she had completely forgotten it, but was now struck with the odd sense that she was about to regret it.

Indeed. As if cued by Abby and Lester's words or Claudia's realization, Rex leapt from the table, spreading his wings (not fins! Đдϻи it, why couldn't they have been fins?) and taking flight. The scientists inside panicked, reaching frantically for the animal. A cacophony of shouts exploded, muffled and obfuscated by their protective headgear. The lab door was opened- likely a communicative error- and Rex soared out above the poor fool responsible for letting him out. Out of the lab, he now had access to the wide open spaces of the Home Office corridors, offices, and stairwells. He immediately swooped through open air, dipping back and forth between levels. If he was not quickly corralled, this could end very badly.

A flash of black and blonde in her peripheral drew Claudia's attention, and with a brief turn of her head she spotted Abby already in pursuit of the creature. Resigning herself to the likely fruitless task of chasing Rex down, Claudia braced for the fresh pain her feet were about to be subjected to and jogged after Abby.

"Rex!" Abby called as the women paused at a railing, leaning over it to track the flight of the lizard (was he a lizard? Did lizards fly? This really wasn't her area.). He continued his merry descent, chirping blithely, and almost as one both women made for the lift.

Claudia frantically stabbed the button for the bottom level, then the door-close button. "You knew he could fly?" She all but snapped at the blonde.

"I tripped in the Forest and he flew out of my arms. He landed a minute later and I eventually got ahold of him again." Abby explained. "I'm sorry. I thought it was obvious- the wings on his back."

"I was kinda hoping they were fins, like on his head." Claudia admitted.

A moment later, the lift reached its destination, and the women burst out of it. Claudia only caught a verdant glimpse before he was concealed by the twin silver doors of another lift closing. With tired eyes, Claudia watched the light shift from the '1' tile to the '2' tile, then to the '3' tile. "He's going up." She sighed, turning and grabbing Abby's arm as she hurried back into the lift.

This time, they rode all the way to the top floor. The opposite lift was open, and no lizard was in sight. "There!" Abby pointed as they stepped out of the transportive box, and Claudia quickly followed her line of sight to see a very familiar and very irritating lizard gliding through the air, straight toward a series of offices.

They speedwalked after him, Claudia managing to stay upright despite walking at such a speed in heels through sheer luck. There was a clatter up ahead. Loudly, Lester swore. "Look out!" He shouted, ducking away from the peculiar green creature soaring overhead. Women shrieked in surprise and fright as Rex continued to fly through the offices and startle their occupants.

"Where did that come from?" One man queried, but Claudia paid him no mind. There was only one office left, and within moments she and Abby had both stepped into it. Their gazes shifted to the left- an open window near the ceiling.

And Rex was just outside it, perched on the roof of the neighboring structure. "Rex!" Abby exclaimed, spotting him. He chirped, seemingly unbothered by the uproar he had started. "Don't do it, Rex. It's not your world out there anymore." Panic rose in Claudia's chest at the thought of the ramifications a more permanent escape would have.

The blonde drew something out of her jacket and broke it in her hands. Extending one, Claudia realized it was chocolate. She was dimly aware of Nick and Lester stepping into the office, remaining silent as they also observed. "Try some of this. You'll love it." Abby coaxed. His tongue darted out to determine what the peace offering was, much like a snake testing the air with its forked tongue. Apparently that reptilian trait was far from new. "I promise."

His wings fluttered for a moment, and with one last chirp, he took flight, rising high in juxtaposition to Claudia's heart plummeting in despair. "Rex, come back!" Abby called to the creature, still chirping as he swooped merrily close by. A few moments later, he disappeared from sight, and Abby let out a disheartened sound.

But then, as all hope to save the creature and contain the situation seemed lost, Rex came flying abruptly back into view. "That's it!" Abby cheered. He landed squarely on her, startling her. "That's it. Good decision, Rex." She praised the creature, turning back to the other three with a proud smile on her face as she cradled the lizard. A relieved smile spread across Claudia's face.

Lester turned to depart, but Nick stopped him. "Um, those risks you were talking about- there's one I didn't mention running down your back." He informed Lester, his voice quavering slightly with suppressed laughter.

Lester frowned in confusion, then sniffed, and an expression of disgust crossed his face as he turned, revealing a bright green splotch on the shoulder of his suit jacket. Sighing, the knighted official blazed out of the room, presumably to clean or change his jacket.

"It's so perfect." Nick's remark only widened the grin on Claudia's face. Turning away in a poor effort to hide it, she couldn't help but agree.

15:20 / 3:20 p.m.

Claudia had fled Lester's impending wrath to the little girls' room, where she had hidden in a stall for over an hour. She had only emerged from the stall when her close friend and colleague, Lorraine Wickes, had entered the bathroom and muttered in annoyance about none of the soap dispensers working (again). Claudia had revealed herself, brandishing a tiny purse bottle hand sanitizer as both a solution and a conversation starter. Lorraine, bless her, had kept Claudia occupied for another forty minutes exactly before reluctantly returning to work. Claudia had followed her, but clearly left the entire level that Lorraine's office was on upon seeing that three printer jams, four fires, a water cooler disaster of some kind, and a severe allergic reaction had sprung up in Lorraine's absence. One of Lorraine's employees spotted her, ran over, got down on his knees and proceeded to beg her- either to save them or to spare him, Claudia wasn't sure which. She didn't dare get involved, but she made a mental note to get Lorraine wine or something at a later date. An expensive one. And chocolate too- House of Knipschildt, maybe, or Guylian.

Claudia only had to ask three people if they'd seen Nick or Abby, and within a few minutes of leaving Lorraine she'd found them again. They had hidden themselves in an empty office, and poorly so. Entering the office, Claudia quickly spotted Nick's shoes sticking out from under the desk (the corresponding chair obviously across the room) and the top of Abby's spiky pale hair sticking up over the top of a filing cabinet.

"There you both are." Claudia spoke, fighting an amused smirk. "C'mon, come out of there. I can see you."

Abby emerged first, stepping out of her hiding place with a sheepish expression but no lizard. Nick's reappearance took a bit longer, the professor slowly crawling out from under the desk with an accompanying soundtrack of grunts, groans, and popping joints. "Bloody h£ll, I'm too old to be doing that." He muttered, standing up straight with a wince. He gestured to Claudia. "Where were you?"

"Little girls' room." She admitted. "It's more comfortable to cram into a stall than under a desk."

Nick winced and carefully cracked his neck.

"Professor Cutter, Miss Brown, and Miss Maitland, report to the office of Sir James Lester immediately." Lester's irate voice came across the intercom. The building-wide intercom.

"It was fun while it lasted." Abby lamented.

Nick stepped up to the window and peered out it downward. "How bad would a fall from this height damage me?"

"The windows don't open this high up, and they're reinforced so they can't be broken by chairs." Claudia informed him. She allowed a tiny smirk. "There's probably a really sharp letter opener somewhere in here, though."

"I repeat," Lester's voice came again, louder this time, and more shrilly, "Professor Cutter and Misses Maitland and Brown are to report to my office IMMEDIATELY!"

"Never mind; he might get to us before we bled out and save us just to lecture us." Claudia decided.

"He'll have restraints put on our hospital beds and we won't even be able to leg it." Abby moaned.

Nick drew in a breath and huffed it out. "Might as well get it over with, eh? Before he turns up with security."

"He seems the sort." Claudia agreed.

The three of them legged it with an unpleasant sense of urgency to the nearest lift, and Claudia punched the button to take them to the correct floor. Her feet were hurting again, yesterday's soreness and blisters exacerbated by chasing Rex and revived yet again by their hurried strides.

By some miracle, no one slowed their traveling to Lester's office, and when it came into sight Claudia reached up, pulling her ponytail free and quickly doing it up again, smoothing out nonexistent flaws from the first.

She rapped politely on the edge of the glass wall that framed Lester's office doorway, and narrowed blue eyes cut over to them. "The laboratory results are in." He declared. "You may wait outside, Miss Maitland."

"Why'd you call me, then?" Abby all but spat, rightfully put out.

"You've all made it quite clear that I need to keep you within my line of sight to prevent you from running amok." He nearly sneered. With a condescending wave of his hand, he dismissed her. "Off you go, now. Stay in the corridor."

Claudia shot Abby a regretful look, lips pressed firmly together and eyes rueful, but nodded nonetheless, and with an irritated sigh, the zoologist stomped out of the office toward the water cooler at the end of the hall in direct view of Lester's office.

Lester immediately ignored Abby again and moved on to the true purpose of the meeting. "The lizard's DNA confirms your theory." He announced. "The creature's a living fossil."

With his words, Claudia felt the last clung-to shreds of hope that this could be rationally explained and her world hadn't wholly imploded drained away, like the final dredges of tepid dishwater gurgling out of a sink. Her gut twisted, a pit forming as she realized that there was no more hiding behind skepticism and logic and secular reasoning to escape this earthshattering discovery.

"Under the circumstances, I'm going to allow your exploratory mission into the anomaly." Lester continued, and that pit in her stomach became a stone.

"I'm taking the lizard back." Nick stated. "Creatures that don't belong should be returned to their natural habitat." Lester nodded. At last- common ground.

The pompous man picked up a paper and set it down on the other side of the desk, closer to Nick and Claudia. "It's a disclaimer." He explained. "We don't want any nasty lawsuits if you don't come back." Claudia scowled, and Nick smirked sardonically as Lester extended a pen promptingly.

"You can read that over somewhere else. Little things tend to be hidden in the fine print of official and government documents." Claudia interjected, largely for pettiness' sake. She stepped forward and picked up the sheet off Lester's desk, ignoring the writing instrument in her superior's hand. "I have other pens."

Nick nodded, and together they left Lester's office. Catching up with Abby, Claudia quickly informed her of the situation, then flagged down a passing colleague and asked him to bring the blondes to the office she had found them hiding in. Then she headed for Lorraine's office. She needed a second copy of that disclaimer, and quickly. And to make a few adjustments to her will.

Author's notes:

First and foremost, despite how it might seem, I do not condone or take lightly self-harm or suicide, and they and depression and stress are very important issues. If you are struggling with such things, please seek help, whatever form that may take. There are suicide hotlines and anonymous apps you can go to, and on tumblr and Discord, kokocares is an service where you can communicate anonymously with real people about just about anything.

On a lighter note, House of Knipschildt and Guylian are two very expensive chocolate brands, and the former was declared the world's most expensive chocolate in 2009 by Forbes. is where I got my information if you're interested in learning more about these two brands and several others. I went with House of Knipschildt because of the above declaration and Guylian because the picture on the website was so pretty.

The tail end of this chapter is where the AU elements spark to life, if you noticed, but it really takes off in the next chapter.