Cynthia Knightly sighed as she sat at her desk in her flat's bedroom, a glare on her face as she looked out the window. She should have been happy. She really should have. After all, the park had passed its inspection with flying colours, something that would help support the idea that the park should be revealed to the world – this was good news, surely. Most of the staff had been celebrating. But despite all this, she was in a very bad mood this evening.

She glared in the direction of her ex-boyfriend's living quarters. She'd been left out of the mission today in order to, ostensibly, "familiarise herself with the park" – whilst she understood the logic, it was still a bit of a disappointment. To add insult to injury, her old beta, Fiona Winters, had been amongst the Novum inspection group – Cynthia had tried to say hello, but had been ignored. Naturally, having been snubbed twice, she really couldn't help but feel bitter despite the good news that the park had received from the end of the inspection.

She sighed, placing her head on her desk. In a way, she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. After all, even back when they'd been dating, Drew had always been far too stubborn, impulsive, and overconfident for his own good. Quite frankly, from what she remembered about him, the fact that he hadn't self-destructed immediately after he had parted ways with her, Leon and Adrian was a miracle. She could remember how much of a vicious whirlwind her romance with Drew had been - the arguments, the petty sniping, the mercurial plans and the occasional abandonment, and his resistance to any attempts to rein him in.

Then there were her ex-boyfriend's two friends from school, Leon and Adrian. And while she hadn't interacted with them much, she hadn't really gotten on with either of them. Leon was the one she'd gotten along with the worst. In her eyes, he was mostly just a hanger-on who clung to Drew like a security blanket, blindly siding with him in arguments and almost obsessively dedicating himself to vain attempts to get Drew's acceptance… or his love. From the way Leon behaved, it was transparent that he had had a crush on Drew… which hadn't helped their relationship. And while she and Adrian had never interacted all that much, due to the latter being a natural loner – Adrian mostly kept Drew and Leon at a distance. He rarely weighed in on arguments – and rarely took a side when he did.

But for all her issues with Drew, she still couldn't quite bring herself to hate him. After all, a small part of her still loved him, or at the very least cared about him. And for good reason at that.

She shook her head side to side. Even now she could remember how everyone she'd known back in her days in school, including her own parents, had constantly compared her to her older brother and family golden boy Allister – and had ignored her when she failed to measure up. And by the time she'd reached middle school, she'd all but stopped allowing people to willingly know about her being Allister's sister and had done everything in her power to distance herself from him and her family in her life at school, with even her eventually becoming head cheerleader in high school at first starting out as just a means to differentiate herself from her brother than a hobby of passion on her part. But in high school, things had changed when she'd seemingly finally found her kindred spirit and true friend who'd liked her for who she was in the form of Drew.

In several ways they'd been a little too alike - both were stubborn, strong-willed people who were rebellious by nature and didn't like being told what to do. However, in other ways, they had just the right differences – Drew's natural charisma contrasting with Cynthia's aloofness. Where Drew was impulsive and hotheaded, Cynthia was far calmer and more cautious. And where Drew preferred to kick back and go with the flow, Cynthia preferred to grab the bull by the horns and get things done. And of course, where Drew brought chaos, Cynthia brought order. Despite the occasional disagreement and how little she'd gotten along with Leon and Adrian, they'd made a good team - in their young minds, it had seemed like nothing could stop them, almost as if they'd had the whole world at their fingertips. But then...

She hung her head, a half angry and half melancholy look on her face and a small tear slowly sliding down her cheek as she remembered their final argument that had ultimately proven the straw that broke the camel's back. It had all happened just a week after graduation from college, when she had been about to tell Drew about a job – and a house – that a relative – who owned a wildlife conservation and rehabilitation centre – had offered. Her desire to accept was partly due to an increased desire to stay near her family – after the death of her grandmother, she figured life was to short to keep your loved ones away. However, Drew had announced a change in plan – he was getting a job at Novum… and they had to relocate in two weeks.

That had proved to be the last straw and an absolute blowout confrontation had occurred in which, among other things, Cynthia had accused Drew of always forcing her to make sacrifices for him when he never made any for her and Drew himself had accused her of being selfish. The argument had ended with Drew calling quits on their relationship and coldly kicking her out of their apartment.

Cynthia shook her head, now remembering the months that had followed in which she'd worked at the facility before eventually getting offered a position at Novum herself. And from there, she'd spent some time slaloming from pillar to post – before being selected at a Novum facility in construction in Florida as a keeper; a position that the Novum board had agreed would afford her the best use of her skills. And she'd been quite happy and excited herself upon hearing the news...

...right up until the day she'd finally arrived at the park for the first time and discovered that she'd be working with Drew. And of course, with how things had unfolded for her on this day, her opinion of him had certainly not improved.

She shook her head again, but this time to clear her thoughts. "Buck up now," she thought viciously to herself. "So what if you've still got unresolved issues with your ex and things didn't go the way you would have preferred? You've still got the future ahead of you. And besides, there's still plenty of stuff to feel happy about." And this was true. For all the negatives, there were still plenty of positivs. To start, even with the past unresolved tensions between her and Drew, plus their mutual lack of excitement at working together, she had to admit that at least Drew hadn't made any effort at getting her removed – and said that probably she'd be allowed to the next mission. Leon and Adrian were also being professional in their interactions with her – aside from the obvious. there seemed to be some unsaid reason as to why things shouldn't be personal. Was there some previous tension or something? She filed that into her head as something to ask – it was probably important. And likewise, not only was she on good terms so far with the four chiefs of staff, but all the other staff were at least civil to her.

She nodded her head. Simply put, for all the less pleasant aspects of her current life at Prehistoric Park, she could certainly at least take comfort that things could have just as easily been a lot worse. She yawned, nodded her head, and then got up from her desk to get to work on preparing for bed. After all, life was only set to get busier, and the last thing she needed was to be thrust into another busy day at work on a sufficient sleep.

So… yeah.

It was important we got into Cynthia's head and establish what made her tick – and the backstory of her relationship with Drew. Speaking of which…

I think a lot of people are going to be a bit alarmed by Drew's behaviour here – attempting to force Cynthia to make a major sacrifice for him and kicking her out of their apartment. And that's really the point – the action should unnerve you because we've come to like Drew and we can't imagine someone we like doing something like this. It was important to establish this simple fact – Drew's a bit of a dick. And he's always been a bit of a dick - even to the people who are closest to him. He does it without even thinking.

Drew is an extremely complex character – and often a contradictory one. From Tony Stark to Daenerys Targaryen, I've always loved characters who are defined, somewhat paradoxically, by their contradictions - and Drew is one of those characters. He's compassionate in some ways, apathetic in others. He can be a good and loyal friend - but other times he can be an utter arsehole, sometimes within seconds of each other.