As Rigby and Thomas return from lunch, Benson's office is abuzz with activity. Skips is overlooking a map on a tripod corkboard and poking pins in it as Benson relays locations from a hand radio while at his desk. Meanwhile, Pops is cleaning up what looks like a tea tray and accompanying set along with crumb-covered plates by the coffee machine as Mordecai sits reclined on the couch, appearing bored.
"-Alright, let me know if you spot them again."
"Will do Benson." The familiar high-pitched reply of High Five Ghost came through the radio. The gumball machine looks more harried than usual; he rubs his glass temples.
"Everyone, take a seat. We have a lot to go over quickly, as we don't have much time." Mordecai looks at Rigby and pats the spot next to him on the couch. The raccoon's eyes narrow at his friend as he instead takes a place beside the sofa, far away from where the blue jay is seated.
"Hey, Skips, Pops, why don't you guys take the couch? My legs are still kinda stiff from the cart; don't wanna cramp my hams when I chase down the dude pranking us." The two say their thanks while Mordecai rolls his eyes. A muttered 'drama queen' floats Rigby's way, but Benson addresses them all from his desk before he can retort.
"First off, thank you all for coming here on short notice. I know we are swamped today, but I need everyone to stop what you're doing and help with the ongoing situation with the public restrooms. Currently, eleven of the twelve facilities are out of order due to the plastic issue, so this has gone from a casual prank to our highest priority." Benson stands up, produces a collapsible pointer, and indicates the snack bar, "Muscle Man and Fives are currently monitoring the last operational restroom, but we can't rely on them to keep it clean all day long; it's too much of a risk. So, I need everyone to start clearing restrooms of plastic wrap until we catch the ones responsible for this."
"I don't see what the big deal is, just say all the restrooms are out of order so we can all just go get this dude." says Rigby. This earns a tired eye-roll from their boss before he looks over at the goat standing near the doorway.
"Thomas, since you seem to understand park law so well, I presume you can explain to everyone why that's a problem?"
"Oh, uh, sure," He turns to the group as everyone looks at him, "it's a federal law that all parks have at least one public restroom available for park visitors during operational hours. It's in case someone has a bathroom emergency or something similar. So, if we have no public bathrooms available for people to use and someone has an accident, they can, in a best-case scenario, sue the park. In a worst-case scenario, the government can shut down the Park for being a health and safety hazard." Mutters of concern fill the office briefly before Benson regains everyone's attention with a swift tap of his pointer on the map.
"And that's why we need everyone on this."
"If everyone's clearing the plastic, who's going to be searching for the culprit?" asks Skips.
"I will be roaming around on the cart using its radio to keep updated. Everyone else will also have a walkie-talkie, so if you spot the prankster, you can call me, and I can rush over and chase them down."
"But what does this person look like. Has anyone seen them?" said Pops.
"We do have a loose description of a short male, possibly a teen, wearing a black hoodie with a wide hood however nobody has been able to see his face. It's not much to go on, but keep your eyes peeled. Also, if you look at the map, you can see all the places he has been sighted." Benson taps his pointer on the pins on the map, "They have been spotted largely by the north and westmost bathrooms, so we'll concentrate our cleanup efforts in that area."
"What about there?" said Mordecai, pointing at the far corner of the map where a single lone pin is placed far away from all the others.
"Oh, that's from an anonymous tipper who called in. They claimed someone was sneaking around the abandoned park zoo. The description fits the culprit, but the chances are low they would prank there, those bathrooms had their plumbing cut off ages ago. Not to mention, the gate is locked and off-limits to all guests. Anyways, we need to focus on the working restrooms. Now, if you look here, I've taken the liberty of numbering all the restrooms we have at the park. Each of you will take two consecutive numbers and will clean one then move to the next and back again, bouncing back and forth until the end of the day. Hopefully, doing so will force the culprit to make a mistake and expose themselves so we can put this problem to rest. Any questions?" Silence.
"Alright, now Skips you will take restrooms one and two, Pops three and four, Mordecai will take five and six, Muscle Man and Fives will stay at the snack bar restroom, number seven, to hopefully guarantee that one restroom will be available all day, and Thomas and Rigby you both will be tasked with restrooms nine and ten. That should make it so-"
"Ugh! Why am I still paired with Thomas? I can clean 2 of them on my own!"
"Rigby, not now. Just do as I say and go with Thomas."
"No! I work as hard as anyone else here, so why don't you trust me to do this on my own!"
"BECAUSE YOU NEVER GIVE ME A REASON TO!"
"No reason? Don't you remember when we were locked in here by Mr. Maellard? We bonded dude! Didn't that mean anything to you!?"
"Oh, you mean the time when you fell asleep on the mower and rode it through a million-dollar cake?"
"You forgave me for that! This isn't fair!" Benson, who is becoming bright red, lets out a sigh and deflates into his desk chair. He sets the pointer aside and rubs his temples once more, collecting his thoughts before looking over at the raccoon, who is now the center of everyone's attention for the second time that day.
"You want to know why I still don't trust you? It's because after that, you still slack off on your duties, you still make excuses when you get into trouble, you don't pay attention to what I or anyone else says and you never just DO what I ask you to do. Instead, it's always a constant back and forth when it should be me, the BOSS, giving you, the EMPLOYEE, a task and you doing it how I ask you to do it and when I ask you to do it. But no, it is never that simple, and when it is, you always find some way to screw it up.
So, no. It doesn't matter that we 'bonded' over the results of a mistake YOU made in the first place that we both were being punished for. It doesn't matter that we have hung out after work collectively as a group to do bowling and dodgeball and it absolutely doesn't matter that we have broken hot wings together at the dinner table. Because in the end, despite all that, you have never and will never learn to do your job and be a decent employee. I will never trust you to do something important on your own, Rigby.
And before you even open your mouth to mention Mordecai, he was right when he said you are the opposite of useful. Even if he's generally involved, you are almost always the negative instigating force. On his own, despite me not trusting him with my car again, I do at least trust him to do his job and do it right when you're not around. So please, will you for once do as I say without an argument and go with Thomas?"
Rigby's leg feels like pins and needles, his tail having wrapped itself tightly around it during the speech as the pit in his chest, which had been festering in the background since getting back from lunch, is now ripped open wider than before. He looks at the others but sees no help from Skips who just shakes his head and Mordecai doesn't even seem to be pretending to pay attention, head likely lost in thoughts about CJ. Rigby flatly refuses to look at Thomas but, then, his eyes land on Pops in the middle of the couch who is looking decidedly uncomfortable with the whole situation.
"Pops!" The elderly man jumps a little at being addressed in the very tense atmosphere of the room. Benson throws his hands up in the air in exasperation, "Benson is clearly being unfair! Remember those times you tried to get him to trust me? It clearly didn't work! C'mon Pops, make Benson give me a chance to prove I can do this!" Pops' eyes look everywhere but at Rigby for a bit. He tries his best to say something several times to no avail until eventually he does find his voice, clears his throat, takes a deep breath, and says,
"No."
"W-what?" Rigby says meekly, feeling a bit lightheaded.
"I'm sorry, Rigby, but I must side with Benson. While it is true that I arranged things as best I could to facilitate a bond of trust between you, Mordecai, and Benson, I'm afraid your poor work ethic has deteriorated whatever gains you have achieved. You are, as Mordecai said earlier, a very fun person to know and are quite the spritely chap at any party! However, trust is, as they say, a two-way street… and you have fallen short of the reasonable expectations Benson has put forth as a manager. There is nothing I can do that I haven't already done." Rigby is left speechless.
"Well, now that Rigby has finished wasting precious time, let's get started." Benson produces four hand radios and four box cutters and passes them out, "Keep your radio on and keep moving. The faster this is over, the sooner we can get back to our actual work. Oh, and Thomas?"
"Yes, boss?"
"Don't let Rigby touch the radio. And if he tries to skip out on helping, let me know."
"…Yes boss."
With that said, Benson, Pops, and Skips leave. Mordecai, however, stays behind for a moment.
"Sorry, dude, but you really brought this on yourself." He says to Rigby right before exiting the office. Thomas is still standing by Bensons' desk and looks down at Rigby with concern; he hasn't moved since Pops spoke and is just staring out into space like he had earlier during the drive to lunch.
"Rigby?" There's no response. Carefully Thomas reaches down and touches his shoulder, "Are you ok?" The raccoon turns enough to look at Thomas, he appears devoid of any emotion. The only giveaway to his turmoil is the constrictor-like grip his tail has on his right leg, "We really need to go." He wants to say something, but he can't think of anything that might not make things worse or sound flat and fake. What could he say after what he had just seen?
"…Ok." Rigby says in a small voice. His tail finally lets go. He limps his way out the door, leg probably numb. Not knowing what else to do, Thomas follows him in silence.