Olivia felt like she was back at school as she sat opposite the reception desk, bag on her knee as she twirled her ginger ponytail around a finger as she watched the clock, just waiting. Would it be unprofessional to start playing on her phone? She sighed and Peter briefly looked up from his computer at the reception desk at the noise and gave her a wry, apologetic smile. This was supposed to be the first day of her PhD and she had been told to be in at nine o’clock to meet her project supervisor. She had expected it to be overwhelming, but in a good way, now her anxiety was unsettling her stomach as she continued to wait.
She’d been there for half an hour.
As Olivia, yet again, brushed some imaginary dirt from the hem of her green dress another woman came in. She was tall with a messy bun and pale skin, wearing purple jeans and an old, scruffy jacket with a satchel swung over her shoulder. She cheerfully greeted Peter before taking a swig from the cup in her hand. Olivia realised that she was the first person to greet the receptionist without needing something from him.
“Tasha!” Peter called out before she’d gotten too far, making her turn and stroll back to the reception desk to lean on it. “Do you know when Professor Allerton is due in?” He asked. “I haven’t been able to get hold of her.”
Natasha checked her watch as she took another sip of her coffee. “About an hour ago.” She replied mirroring the same long suffering look that was on Peter’s face.
“Her new start, Olivia Pendleton, is here.” Olivia gave a little hopeful wave as Natasha turned when Peter indicated to her. Natasha offered her a polite smile before turning back to Peter and promising to deal with it. “Thanks, Tasha.”
Olivia quickly stood up as Natasha walked over to her, unable to temper down the hopeful feeling that surged through her at the idea that she might finally be about to get started. Or at least something more to do than just sitting there. Olivia eagerly thrust out a hand to offer Natasha in greeting. “Olivia.”
As she noticed the corner’s of Natasha’s lip twitch in amusement she felt a flicker of worry before Natasha swapped her coffee between hands and shook hers in a comfortable and firm grip. “Natasha. Has Peter got you all set up? Building pass, fire safety, etc?” Olivia nodded as Natasha beckoned her to walk with her, not really waiting for Olivia’s reply. Natasha knew Peter was competent at his job and that he’d have already seen to it, but she also knew better than to make assumptions. “I’m sorry to say our team leader has been at a conference and is currently out of her office, but we can get you set up for when she returns.”
“She forgot about me, didn’t she?” Olivia asked timidly.
Natasha wasn’t surprised by the question. “No. We all knew you were coming.” Olivia had noticed the hesitation but she didn’t question the diplomatic nature of the response, too relieved at the fact that she was no longer just waiting in reception any longer.
Olivia followed Natasha through a series of corridors that made her think of a rabbit warren, or maybe a labyrinth. She tried to map the turns they took so that she knew her way around but the building seemed beyond anything she was used to. When it had been built it had been much smaller, not anticipating how much the department would expand over the years. Therefore rooms had been modified and expansions added as required rather than with any real overall design plan. It was a stark contrast to the overly designed buildings of her school and university.
“Welcome to the belly of the beast.” Natasha announced as they arrived at their office, swiping her keycard over the lock and held the door behind her for Olivia to follow.
The office itself was quite large, though it didn’t look it anymore after generations of students and scientists. The door she’d just walked through opened up until it was flush against a wall, in her immediate line of sight were two desks she was looking at side on. If she followed the room round from them anti-clock wise she could just made out a kettle in the corner after the second desk, travelling along the next wall was another pair of desks, then a bookshelf followed by a door. Olivia would later discover that door led to their lab.
Following the same direction the next wall contained another pair of desks - after the gap allowing the lab door to open - then a filing cabinet. The final wall was full of wipeboards and corkboards - with a combination of official and unofficial notices before arriving at the door she’d just walked through. In the centre of the room was a final pair of desks that had been pushed together to form a large, more-or-less square table for meetings and discussions. However, it was littered with books and components. The wall space above all the desks against the walls was filled with shelves and cabinets and those she could see in were stuffed full of books in various states of repair.
It had not been what Olivia had expected, but then again she quickly realised she didn’t know what to expect.
Natasha had dumped her bag and travel mug on the desk nearest the filing cabinet. “Sofia and Joe.” Introduced the other two occupants of the office as she switched on her computer.
Olivia turned her attention from the layout of the room and to the people in it. “Coffee?” Sofia asked, an Italian accent complimenting her dark olive skin and long brown hair. She had an elegant look to her features, made mysterious by the dark make-up.
“...I don’t have a mug.”
Sofia giggled. “We have spares.”
“Yes, please. Milk, one sugar.”
Both Natasha and Joseph chuckled to themselves. “Never direct an Italian about coffee.” Joseph warned Olivia with amusement in his tone. He was about as tall as Natasha, but blonder and stood straighter, as if he had been trained not to slouch, with a refined accent. As Natasha passed her mug over for a refill Olivia made a note to bring in her own mug tomorrow.
“Even we do not have only one recipe for coffee.” Sofia corrected with a smile as she poured the water. “This is why we have so many fantastic coffees.”
“And took over our kettle.” Joseph chuckled before Sofia punched his arm - with no real strength or malice - before picking up the mugs to pass them out to their recipients before taking a seat at the desk next to the coffee machine and opposite the door. She had to move a skateboard out of her way she she did, Olivia realised that explained the short combats she was wearing, though not the hiking boots. “Zach’s in the lab, Toni isn’t in yet, professor’s still AWOL.” He explained succinctly.
Natasha shrugged off both statements as if they weren’t important. She’d been part of the team long enough to know the lay of the land. She put down her coffee and directed Olivia to the empty desk next to Sofia, explaining that she’d have to arrange her desk to fit her ergonomics but they’d already got her set up on the IT systems. She was left to it with instructions to just ask if she needed anything.
Olivia had just finished the DSE assessment of her desk when another man walked into the office with a bright smile. “Morning guys.” Olivia wasn’t the only one to look up at the almost too lively greeting in a Greek accent. He was tall with sharp, handsome features, sun-kissed skin and brown hair that already looked mussed up. He had the air of an athlete around him, that surprised Olivia in an office full of geeks.
“You missed the coffee again, Toni.” Sofia teased.
“I missed your coffee again.” Antonis corrected as he took a seat at the desk on the other corner to the kettle and checked the heat with his hand before setting to making his own coffee as his computer turned on.
“Never bother to make coffee for those two.” Natasha warned. “The only thing they agree on is that us Brits can’t made coffee.”
“You cannot.” Antonis corrected.
Natasha scoffed as if it were obvious. “No, our coffee shops can’t.”
Any further argument on who could and couldn’t make coffee was interrupted by the other door opening as another man leant through it, as if he wasn’t going to bother travelling further than necessary as he held the door open with one hand and leant on the frame with the other. He had short dreadlocks that were mostly pushed back out of his face and the sleeves on his hoodie were rolled up enough to show the artistic tattoos on the outside of both forearms, the black ink somehow both stark contrast yet subtle against his dark skin. His friendly grey eyes had done a sweep of the office out of habit despite knowing where his original subject had been. “Olivia?” He half asked as he realised that the empty desk was no longer empty.
“Hi.” She greeted.
“Zach.” He introduced himself with a smile and a nod before turning back to his original reason for poking his head back into the office. “Tasha, you got a minute to go over those diagnostics you were running?”
“Sure.” Natasha plucked a pair of lab specs from atop her computer as she stood up to join him in the lab. She wrinkled her nose as she took the door from him. “You stink of cigarettes again.”
“If I gave up you’d miss out on vital gossip.” Zachariah retorted. Natasha knew better than to go over that ground again, she’d attempted to make him quit too many times and he knew that if he ever wanted to he could rely on her support. Therefore she had stopped nagging, it wouldn’t work.
~-x-~
For the rest of the morning they continued as normal, with each of them introducing Olivia to various aspects of their work whilst they waited for their supervisor to appear.
When she still hadn’t made an appearance by lunchtime Natasha had had enough of wasting everyone’s time. “Do not do anything stupid.” Antonis warned her as he and Olivia watched her rummage through her back before eventually producing a large bunch of keys.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Natasha gave a far too innocent grin that made Antonis chuckle wearily.
Natasha strode out of the office before Olivia could question anything and down the corridor to a nearby office, knocking once on the off-chance the Professor Allerton had arrived back but not told them. She waited long enough to be sure she hadn’t got a reply before unlocking the office and walking in. It didn’t take her long to find the vague file that contained the application for the PhD, taking it with her she locked up the office behind her and returned to the team one.
It didn’t take her long to review the couple of relevant documents for Olivia getting the placement before beckoning her over to the breakout table, though she had to push back a bunch of books to make room at a corner. Natasha quickly went over that with Olivia before questioning her further as she drew up an outline plan for the direction of Olivia’s work and based the specific initial direction on what Olivia was already familiar with - specifically the use and application of photonics. It was a technology they’d started to hear more and more about, but as of yet lacked expertise and knowledge of it in their own department.
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Olivia seemed perfectly content to spend her initial days on research to both refresh her memory and to learn about the specific applications their team was interested in before she started focusing on anything specific. Natasha was perfectly happy for her to do so, because not only would it allow her time to settle in, but it would also mean she hadn’t got too far involved in anything if Allerton decided to change direction when she finally deigned to make an appearance. Just before she left to grab some food Natasha assured Olivia that she was welcome to ask them anything about their work to familiarise herself with it, before warning her not to assume she could take everything in in one go.
About mid afternoon a woman in a stylish skirt-suit strolled into the lab, her light brown hair brushed and sprayed into a perfectly neat bob. She had passed a critical yet detached eye over the occupants in the office on her way through before finding Natasha and Zachariah busy mounting the sensor array they’d all been working on as Antonis guided them. She paused briefly to watch them before her attention was diverted as an email notification popped up on her phone. “Why is the new girl sat at her computer?” Caroline Allerton asked without diverting her attention away from her phone.
Natasha shared a look with Zachariah, they’d both been hoping that because they were clearly busy Allerton wouldn’t want to bother waiting for them to be done, or disturb them in case they broke anything. “Because she’s doing background research rather than just setting to in any random direction.” Natasha explained tersely.
“Why didn’t she already have a direction before she arrived?” Allerton’s question was pointed and deliberate.
“I don’t know, where’s the project plan you wrote for her?” Natasha retorted despite the warning look Antonis gave her.
Allerton finally looked up from her phone with an unimpressed look on her face, raising herself to her full height - which wasn’t as tall as Natasha - as she stared down her unruly subordinate. “In case it escaped your limited attention, I have been away on an important conference.”
Natasha knew she shouldn’t take the bait, but equally she couldn’t let it slide as she took a calming breath and indicate Antonis swap with her. He hesitated until she glared at him for considering not doing so. She brushed her hands off on her jeans as she turned to her supervisor, who had already lost interest in her and was replying to get another email. “You have known you were getting a new start for four months, known who it was for two.” Her tone was quiet yet she was clearly seething. “You have known about this conference for three weeks. That was three weeks to either draw up a plan or to delegate that job to someone else. You did neither.”
“Yet you knew it needed doing.”
“I’m not her supervisor.” Natasha glared at the top of Allerton’s head. “And until you can muster the respect to look at the people you’re having a conversation with, I’m not dealing with this.”
That made Allerton look up as Natasha turned to get back on with her work. “Natasha.” She called calmly and knowingly, making Natasha turn back around after taking a steadying breath. “My office, now.” Natasha thought she did an admiral job of resisting showing any outward signs of irritation as she nodded and followed Allerton back to her office, picking up the folder she’d borrowed earlier that day as they went.
“Why do I get the feeling that this time, Tasha is out of lives?” Zachariah asked once the door closed behind them.
“She will be fine.” Antonis corrected in an assured tone, before frowning. “If she does not hit her.” Zachariah chuckled wryly.
It felt like a long time before Allerton came back out of her office to invite Olivia in, not even waiting for a reply before she disappeared again. Olivia chanced a pleading look at the others and despite the same timid looks on Sofia and Joseph’s faces, Sofia gave her a small nod of encouragement as Olivia stood to follow before she got herself in trouble on her first day. As she joined the professor in her office Allerton offered Olivia a seat as she took one at her desk, Olivia quietly sat down as she noticed Natasha in the corner of the office. Olivia didn’t have much experience of meetings, but even to her this seemed rather strange and awkward as Allerton discussed her current project plans. Olivia tried her best to keep her face neutral as Allerton went over everything Natasha had already gone through with her that morning as if it were entirely new material.
The general gist that Olivia picked up from the meeting was to ask Natasha if Allerton wasn’t available, but to be wary about Natasha’s competence and therefore double check everything she was told when she got the chance. Eventually they were dismissed. “Welcome to the team.” Natasha half muttered as she stalked to her desk to grab her mug to make herself a coffee.
Olivia remained stood in the doorway dumbfounded as Zachariah watched them both. “Still have your job then?” He was more than a little concerned about Natasha. She nodded as the kettle boiled. “Good, I need you to set up some more tests.”
“No rest of the wicked.” Natasha muttered as she wrapped her hands around the mug as if it were some kind of comfort, glancing into it briefly. “Would anyone notice if I Irished this up?”
“This close to getting fired? Yeah, I reckon so.” Zachariah warned her and she nodded absentmindedly in defeat.
~-x-~
Zachariah was the first to leave for the day - banning anyone from touching anything whilst he wasn’t there to fix it - because he was the first in. Sofia and Joseph weren’t far after but Sofia made arrangements for them all to head to the pub that evening so that they could get to know Olivia properly. They all laughed off Olivia’s surprise at drinking on a work night, before they promised her she didn’t have to stay out late.
Natasha and Antonis were the last two in the lab, doing a sweep of both lab and office to make sure everything was off or safe before they headed straight to the pub. Zachariah joined them just as Antonis was getting up from their table to place their order, pausing long enough to find out what Zachariah wanted to eat as well. Natasha tossed Zachariah a pouch of wet wipes from her bag as he sat down. “You’re covered in grease.”
“Thanks, mum.” Zachariah wiped his hands down appreciatively despite his sarcasm. He’d come straight from his house share where he did basic mechanical work in his garage to supplement his wage, In this case fixing a broken gear box in a student’s car, the students liked him because he was not only near campus, but was often far cheaper than conventional garages. It was what he enjoyed, Natasha and Antonis always joked about how if he ever got married he’d be one of those guys who constantly got in bother because he put another gear box through the dish washer.
It wasn’t long before Antonis was back with drinks and a spoon with a number on it. “So... what do you two think of the new girl?” Zachariah asked as he claimed his beer, he was a notorious gossip.
Natasha grinned as Antonis tossed her a bunch of ketchup sachets before he claimed his own drink. “Shy or incredibly politically savvy.” Natasha shrugged. “She spent the whole meeting this afternoon just quietly nodding along to Allerton, despite already having been through the whole material before.”
“What else would you do?” Antonis asked and Natasha had to give him that.
“We could report her...”
Natasha gave a wry chuckle into her own bottle of cider. “Yeah, that worked so well the last half dozen times.”
“They have to listen eventually?” Antonis suggested.
Natasha scoffed. “She’s a female professor in what is essentially an engineering role, there’s no way they’ll want to give that up until they have no other choice.” Antonis looked to Zachariah as if asking for a translation. Both Antonis and Sofia had excellent English skills, but despite that sometimes they both struggled to keep up with Natasha when she was on one of her rambles. “It makes them look like they’re promoting equality.” She rephrased.
“Even if that includes god awful people.”
“Such blasphemy, Zach, your mother would flay you.” Natasha giggled making Antonis chuckle.
“Ah, pish.” Zachariah said. “I left that part behind me at eighteen, don’t you go reviving it.” Natasha offered him an innocent grin. “You know, it’s a shame Prof ever had to retire.”
Both of the others gave a wry smile at that. They all still referred to their previous team leader as Prof almost as much a sign of endearment as respect. He’d been there when they’d all started, retiring only three years ago once Sofia and Joseph were fully settled into their PhDs. “He couldn’t stay, you know that.” Natasha reminded him.
“It’s still a damn shame though.” Zachariah agreed. “He was much better than this... harpy!” He decided not to swear at the last moment.
Antonis looked to Natasha. “Does he mean like the mythic creature?”
Natasha considered the question. “Yeah, pretty much.”
A moment later they all instantly perked up as their food arrived. That was business out of the way as they all tucked in, laughing about all the daft things they got up to. The bizarre TV that Antonis watched, the things Zachariah had seen broken in impossible ways and the weird books that Natasha had read. That got them onto dragons and led Zachariah to complain about failing to kill a dragon in one of his video games.
“I always fail at that one, I just avoid it.” Natasha shrugged, unable to offer any advice.
“Defence.” Antonis cut in firmly. “Armour, resistance, potions... Then you don’t ned to worry about attack.”
Zachariah considered that approach. “Just keep whittling away at it until it eventually falls, yeah that could work.”
“You need a hell of a tank to do that...” Natasha warned.
“Oh, no, you’re not on dragons again are you?” Joseph asked as he and Sofia arrived, letting go of her hand to grab a nearby chair as she took his drink to place it on the table as she claimed one of the two empty chairs already at the table. They’d need another if Olivia was joining them.
“Of course they are.” Sofia happily stole one of Zachariah’s chips - it was the safest option of the three.
Zachariah swatted at her hand halfheartedly. “We don’t like change.”
They all laughed. “You’re constantly petitioning for nothing but change.” Natasha objected.
“That’s only because they fucked up the last one.” Zachariah explained as if it were obvious.
“We need a swear jaw.” Sofia muttered and not for the first time.
Zachariah smirked. “Joe’d get jealous about how many more dinners than him I’d be buying you.”
“On the basis that I’d be getting dinner too, I think I could live with that.” Joseph assured him.
A timid voice interrupted the flow of the conversation. “Oh, was I supposed to be getting food here?” Olivia asked as Sofia waved her into the free seat. “I already ate...”
“We came straight from work.” Natasha explained making Olivia frown in confusion as she glanced at Zachariah. “He came straight from working on cars.”
Olivia nodded to herself, debating whether or not to dig deeper into how that made sense. However, Sofia cut straight to the chase and started asking about what she did for fun, mainly to make an active point of avoiding talking about work. It often seemed to be where their out of work conversations went anyway, but no harm in avoiding that inevitability for a while. Olivia explained how she used to play tennis and since finishing her fourth year exams was hoping to be able to pick it up again. That got Antonis onto his football and Sofia arguing that skateboarding did count as a sport. Though by now they all knew Antonis only told her it wasn’t to wind her up.
It wasn’t until Antonis and Joseph got up to get people drinks that Olivia noticed Natasha’s jewellery and started asking questions about what the various symbols meant. Sofia and Zachariah caught each other’s eye with a wry grin, Zachariah even asking if she was sure she wanted to start down that path. Natasha ignored him as she happily explained, she liked celtic and mythical symbols and knew what most of them were supposed to represent even if she didn’t actually believe in it. “Goth but too lazy about the make-up.” Zachariah quoted Natasha’s own previous summary when he’d once asked.
Natasha pretended to glare at him as the others returned with drinks and Antonis handed her back her change. Sofia was about to start itching at her stomach again but Joseph caught her hand. She sighed and placed both hands firmly around her glass. “How much longer till the bandage comes off?” Natasha asked.
“Tomorrow.”
“Bandage?” Olivia asked.
“My new tattoo.” Sofia explained. “It is a mandala owl.”
“You’ll have to make sure you show it us.” Natasha added. “We never got to see the pattern for this one.”
“How many have you got?” Olivia asked.
“This makes two.” Sofia turned before pulling down her top slightly to reveal the pattern of hearts over the top of her left breast - high enough to show without being indecent. “It is for my famiglia - family.” She corrected herself as she realised she’d slipped back into Italian.
“It’s nice.” Olivia agreed before asking if she planned on getting any more. Sofia shrugged admitting she didn’t know. That prompted a discussion on how much it hurt to get them. Zachariah said the ones on his forearms - stylised, mechanical wings - had been fine but Sofia had always called him a liar for it as the hearts had hurt. Eventually he had persuaded her the reason the hearts had hurt so much as the area. She had to admit that Zachariah might have been right as the owl had hurt much less.
For once they managed to keep their pub banter away from work, sharing stories and hobbies as they took the chance to get to know someone new for a change. Even if Olivia suspected she was going to be by far the most sensible one, as the others were still happily drinking away by the time she called it a night.