The doctor was at his bullshit again.
Mind you, Doctor Robotnik was brilliant. He was the smartest man in the world, at least as far as Stone was concerned. He was talented, resourceful, productive and the US government's greatest asset by far. He was also handsome and stylish, but that was definitely Stone's biased opinion.
He was also an idiot, sometimes.
One of those times being when he procrastinated on uninteresting projects to the point where they were suddenly due and he had to scramble to get them done. He skipped breaks, refused to eat anything that wasn't bite-sized and thus easy to shove in his mouth between tasks, and of course the cherry on top was the all-nighters.
Stone hated the all-nighters.
The doctor got cranky from the lack of sleep, and he started making mistakes that he usually wouldn't, which in turn made him even crankier. And by cranky, Stone meant volatile, explosive, and unstable despite his medication. Literally flipping tables from frustration and throwing things at the walls. It was not pretty.
This time Stone wasn't going to take it.
He knew the doctor was in the assembly lab working on the project, so Stone took a few minutes to check the other rooms. He made sure nothing important was actively running in the computer lab and saved and closed all open files. He checked the study, nothing. The kitchen didn't have any appliances working. The testing machines had nothing being processed. The chemistry lab was in a safe state. The materials workshop had nothing running. Lastly he peeked into the assembly lab, where the doctor was hunched over the project, but none of the assembly machines were running. Perfect.
Stone set a five minute timer on his phone.
"Doctor, you have five minutes to wrap up anything that can't be left as is, and then the power goes out whether you're ready or not", he said with a neutral face.
It took a second to sink in.
The doctor looked up and gave a thoroughly unimpressed and unamused look in his direction. "What did you just say?"
Stone knew it was a rhetorical question and he was supposed to take his words back. Screw that. "That the power goes out in five minutes, sir."
The look turned into an irritated one. "We have boxes of fuses. We have a large, fully charged emergency battery that can power the vital functions of the lab for a few hours. We have an independent generator attached to the solar panels half of the outer walls of this building are covered with and a small scale wind turbine on the roof. The power going out can be fixed within minutes."
Stone smiled. "Not if I'm the one pulling the switches to turn it off, sir."
Robotnik got up, screwdrivers, pliers, and wrenches scattering everywhere from him shoving the table upon doing so. His chair wheeled backwards and Stone made a mental note to clean and oil the wheels soon, because one of them made an unpleasant squeaky sound.
The doctor marched over to him and leaned right into his personal space, nose maybe an inch away from his. Stone didn't even flinch.
"What makes you think I won't fire you for such blatant insubordination, Agent Stone?" Robotnik hissed. "And after firing you, I could have the badniks fire a few rounds into you as well, for good measure."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take, sir, if it means I can pry you away from your work – which I just successfully did – and have you take a nap in the panic room's nice, comfortable couch, which I've already prepared for you."
Robotnik grabbed a fistful of his suit and rattled him. "I. Do. Not. Need. A. Damned. Nap! I'm neither a child nor a pensioner, Agent!"
Stone waited for the shaking to stop, then took a measured step back – not out of reach and not dislodging himself, just discreetly stepping half out of the room. He smiled again. "I'm aware, doctor. You do need a nap, however. It's almost midnight and as such you've been working for 14 hours straight. If I left at my usual time and left you to your own devices, I'd be coming to work tomorrow with you having been up for over 24 hours. And-"
Robotnik closed the distance again, eyes manic. "You're fired. Problem solved, as you won't be coming to work with me having been up for over 24 hours."
Stone took another step back, bringing both of them out into the hallway. "Alright, but that simply means I might as well commit the crime I'm charged for."
As if on cue, his alarm went off. Robotnik glared at the phone as Stone took it out of his pocket, turned off the alarm, and put it back in.
"Five minutes are up, the power is going out now, doctor", Stone said with a wide smile, dislodged himself with one smooth move, and took off in a quick stride towards the panic room, which incidentally was also the location of the fuse box.
"I AM GOING TO MAKE SURE YOUR BODY WILL NEVER BE FOUND!" Robotnik bellowed, speed walking behind Stone.
Stone made his way to the panic room and was promptly grabbed by the wrist before he could reach the fuse box. He was roughly yanked around until he was facing the doctor again, and then grabbed by the shoulders. The doctor's eyes looked wild and Stone wagered there was a good chance he might actually be murdered today.
"There's a hot water bottle underneath the blanket, and a painkiller and a glass of water on the table for the headache and back pain so you can sleep better", Stone blurted as fast as he could.
To his surprise, he was simply being glared intensely at instead of being strangled. After a long, tense moment of the doctor visibly contemplating his options, he sighed, let go of Stone, and turned to head towards the hat stand. He started removing his coat, and Stone knew he had won.
"I'll set the alarm for a hundred minutes, aiming for a 90 minute power nap with a ten minute allowance for falling asleep", Stone said cheerfully and did just that with his work phone. Obviously a full night's sleep would be ideal, but that wasn't a battle he was going to win, so he settled for the next best thing.
The doctor grunted something that sounded vaguely insulting, and sat down to the edge of the convertible sofa to take off his shoes.
"I'll set another alarm for 9 AM to remind you to eat breakfast and take your medicine", Stone continued. "I'll be coming to work at 10.15 as usual, and I'll make you an early doppio latte first thing. I'll bring something from a bakery too."
"Make it something with strawberries", Robotnik said and downed his painkiller and water.
Just like that, Stone was discreetly un-fired. He smiled brightly, which the doctor ignored in favour of settling down under the nicely warmed blanket.
"Good night, doctor", Stone said quietly, and leaned over to drop a quick little kiss on his forehead. No reaction, most likely out of pure pettiness and to assert what dominance the doctor still could. "See you in the morning."
Stone turned off the lights and closed the door behind himself, feeling victorious. The voluntary overtime to accomplish this miracle had been completely worth it.