If they thought the Friday following their disaster of a night out was awkward, the following Monday when Sofia was back at work but not Joseph was far, far worse. None of them knew how to act, whether it would be better to pretend everything was fine or accept things were irreparably different. Whether that was because they didn't know which would be better for Sofia, or because they were being cowards about the latter, none of them were really sure.

If Sofia were honest, she wasn't sure which she would have preferred.

On the one hand, after the turmoil she was going through with Joseph it would be nice to have some stability with her friends. However, in some way she felt like some of them had betrayed her in some form and she wasn't sure she wanted to let that go unaddressed.

"Ah, Sofia, you've deigned to join us today," Allerton greeted as she swanned into the office.

Sofia froze, trying not to bristle like a cat when she knew that was exactly what Allerton wanted. "I am sorry, I was ill on Friday," she said instead, turning to face her boss.

"Yes, Natasha told me you had food poisoning," Allerton confirmed, glancing at her phone as if she might have missed a notification. "Remarkable timing the day after your boyfriend causes a scene big enough that he needs reporting to HR."

"Would you have preferred me to have been sick all over the office?" Sofia asked innocently. She had siblings, and cousins, she knew how to work an excuse.

Allerton grimaced as she turned back to her phone, typing away as if she was dealing with an important email or text. Sofia wasn't sure if she genuinely was doing, or if it was to hide her expression as she thought up a new line of attack.

By the time Allerton looked up Sofia had turned back to her computer to continue working. "So you're not going to ask?"

"Ask what?" Sofia asked, turning back to face her boss.

"If HR see fit to fire him over this, then there might be a job opening," Allerton explained breezily. "I just assumed that if you really did care for this department you would enquire as to whether or not you could have it if it did come down to it."

"I… I had not really thought about it," Sofia stammered, only realising too late that she shouldn't have admitted to that. She should have said she didn't want to presume anything about the HR investigation.

Allerton chuckled and it made Sofia's blood run cold. "And that just goes to prove I made the right decision to get rid of you. You've no gumption, no fire. And I've no use for doormats on my team." There was a pause. "I suppose that's why we're in this mess. When something isn't right at home but there's not going to be any consequences…"

Sofia hadn't realised her hands had curled into fists until the pain of her nails digging into her palm distracted her from the metaphorical knife Allerton was twisting in her chest. She forced herself to relax as she resisted wiping her eyes. None of this was her fault, no matter how much it felt like it. If she told herself that enough times she might finally believe it.

"Since you were surprised to see me, who are you looking for?" Sofia asked, grasping upon a lifeline out of this conversation.

"I was hoping to catch you all to run through a few points about the current mess we find ourselves in and ensure you all have work to do whilst I'm away next week. Who's here already?" Allerton asked, turning briefly as the door behind her opened as Antonis arrived for the day.

"Everyone but Tasha," Sofia explained, purposefully avoiding Antonis' curious gaze as he tried to determine what he was walking in on.

"No matter, I can't wait for her tardiness, is everyone else in the lab?"

Sofia nodded. "I will get them," she offered. She wanted a reprieve.

Naturally both Zachariah and Olivia looked up from their work as Sofia entered the lab, only to lean on the door she'd just shut behind her. She took a couple of deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down.

"Sofia, what's up?" Zachariah asked, the first in with the question.

"Allerton wants a meeting," Sofia explained.

Zachariah and Olivia shared a look, but neither could add any further explanation. "What else did she say?" Zachariah asked.

Sofia swallowed, then took a breath. "Nothing important," she said before turning to go back into the office, by which point Natasha had also arrived and was halfway turning her computer on as the others filed back in. Allowing Allerton to give her briefing relatively uneventfully.

~-x-~

"I swear to God you guys are trying to get me kicked out of my own house!" Zachariah yelled as he opened his front door after a straight minute of insistent hammering to find a frantic looking Joseph.

"What?" Joseph asked.

"Never mind," Zachariah decided not to try and explain that barely a week ago Natasha had been in Joseph's exact place after she found out he'd sent the email. "Come on in, then tell me why the hell you're trying to break down our door."

Joseph stepped into the hallway as Zachariah stepped to the side so he could shut the door behind him, then waved him through to his room. "What did you do this time?" Zachariah asked once his door was closed.

"Nothing!" Joseph retorted defensively, before reigning himself and raising his hands as if to admit he deserved that. "Allerton crossed a line! Sofia arrived home in tears today because of her!"

Zachariah folded his arms as he straightened himself to his full height. He knew something had happened earlier that Sofia had sidestepped talking about. "Am I to assume you have a plan?"

"You sound like Tasha," Joseph muttered, scrubbing his hands through his blond hair. "And yeah, kinda."

Zachariah's hands twitched as he automatically reached for a cigarette, before he remembered and instead reached for the electronic device on his desk and stalked over to his window. "Okay, go on then," he decided, as if he was resigning himself to disappointment already.

"How do you feel about embarrassing the hell out of Allerton at a networking symposium next week?"

Zachariah nearly choked on his fake cigarette in his surprise. "What?" He asked when he got his throat under control again, but still absentmindedly rubbing it.

"My parents still make sure I'm in the loop when it comes to conferences and networking opportunities, and I checked Allerton's calendar, she's at this one even though it's geared more towards industry than academia."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"And you want to do what, exactly?"

"I also checked the agenda, she's set to give a presentation."

Zachariah took another puff. "We'll get fired for this, you know?"

Joseph shrugged. "For all I know, I already am. But we either admit there's a line we won't let her get away with crossing, or we admit that we'll roll over every time." Zachariah blew out of the window again, gazing at the dark street before nodding.

~-x-~

Zachariah almost found the stunned silence that stretched between him and Antonis funny until the other man shouted, "are you trying to get us all fired?"

"You've said it yourself before, we needed to get rid of her."

"Yes, in a responsible way, not by causing a scene at a conference that will damage us just as much as her."

"For all the luck we've had with that in the past," Zachariah scoffed.

"So your solution to desperate times is desperate measures?"

"She reduced Sofia to tears!"

"Yes, and that is terrible, but what do you think her response will be to disrupting her presentation?" Antonis asked, humming pointedly at Zachariah when he didn't immediately answer. "You think HR will take our side on this? They will see us being unprofessional and are more likely to sack us than her. You will trash your own and our reputations and make job hunting harder in the future. And for what? Revenge?"

"So you're just going to roll over and accept it?" Zachariah demanded. "Talk the talk with us but when it comes down to it act like a coward!"

Antonis folded his arms as he straightened himself to his full height, though he was still a little shorter than Zachariah the quiet anger did have an intimidation factor. "It serves us better to fight smarter than go for broke," he said though the subtle pauses between the words suggested he was putting a lot of effort into keeping his voice even. Then he turned and stepped towards his door, and opened it whilst saying, "I think you know your way out."

Zachariah glanced from Antonis to the open door and back to his friend, then gave and angry huff and stormed past him.

~-x-~

Never let it be said that Zachariah didn't listen. He did. Sometimes.

Not that it looked like it when he was currently wandering through the crowds investigating the different booths at the networking do Allerton was scheduled to do a presentation at. Partly for the swag, but mainly because the more he got talking, the more opportunity he had to drop hints and suggestions about what people should be asking his boss about at the end of her presentation. Joseph had reluctantly agreed to seek out his parents to network that crowd for the same purpose.

See? He did listen to Antonis. They were now getting other people to embarrass Allerton.

Hopefully.

He was still going as back up, but he'd restrict himself to the science.

Probably.

"I'm going to assume you have an excellent reason not being at work right now?"

Probably not, he realised as he heard Allerton's voice and turned sharply to see her stood just to the side of the booth he was at. For once she wasn't glued to a screen and was actually glaring at him directly.

"Even if I did, would you accept that?"

"No," she confirmed with a worrying smirk. "So skip the BS and tell me what you're doing here."

How many times had he rehearsed various excuses and now none of them were appropriate or even slightly useful to him. All because she'd disrupted their game-plan. "Research," he finally offered.

"Research?" She clearly didn't believe him.

"Research," he repeated, trying to sound confident. "I mean, you wouldn't be presenting our work here if it wasn't relevant. So I came to nosey about and see what else was on offer that hadn't hit the journals yet. Because we've been having those issues with sensitivity -"

"Zach!" She snapped, and he raised an eyebrow at her. She took a breath and smoothed her clothes down - not that she needed to, it was clearly in an attempt to centre herself - and he tried not to get smug by the fact that he'd flustered her. Once done she strolled up to him and grabbed his arm to march him away from other people. He let her mainly because he didn't want to have an actual confrontation. "Don't you dare mention those issues to outside ears," she hissed at him.

"Sorry, Professor, I thought that we were supposed to collaborate where there was a benefit."

Allerton scoffed at him. "With you it's far more likely to be sabotage rather than collaboration."

"Why would I want to sabotage you?"

"Don't play dumb with me," Allerton said without even attempting to hide her sneer, before her tone lightened significantly. "And it looks like there's more of you on this little field trip."

Zachariah turned to follow her gaze and spotted Joseph, whose eyes were flicking between the pair of him in a mix of confusion and anger. "Is there somewhere he's supposed to be instead?"

Allerton rolled her eyes as she released his arm with a shove to encourage him towards Joseph. "Not the point, I want you both out of here rather than interfering," she explained, trying to stare them both down.

"You'd know all about interfering," Joseph retorted.

"Joe -" Zachariah started, knowing that making a scene here wouldn't help. The crowds around them might be talking amongst each other, but they could definitely hear and would pay attention if one of them raised their voice.

"No, let him, I'm sure HR would love to know what he's about to say to me," Allerton goaded.

"I'm sure they'd love to know how you sent a member of staff home in tears! I'm sure they'd love to know how you manipulate and belittle your team for your own ends only to take all the credit for a project you know nothing about!" Joseph snapped.

Zachariah winced, but Allerton was rather calmer about the whole thing, even with the nearby people clearly pretending they weren't eavesdropping on them. "Joseph, go home, it's clear that you're still upset over your recent breakup and lashing out. We don't need to involve HR in this if you just calm down and think rationally."

From the way Joseph's jaw was clenching it was clear to Zachariah that he was seeing red at the unnervingly soothing tone Allerton was taking. He lurched forward before the other man could say anything else. "Come on, let's go check out some of the other booths and head back to the lab."

"You do that," Allerton agreed. "Do not loiter."

"Zach!" Joseph hissed as Zachariah held him firm to stop him following their boss.

"No, right now this is as much of a victory as we're gonna get from this."

~-x-~

"Is Nat already in?" Antonis asked as he hurried into the office, not even bothering to remove his coat as he dumped his bag at his desk.

"Lab," Olivia explained, unnecessarily pointing at the door.

He barely remembered to thank her as he marched through to find Natasha running more tests on Barney. She grinned as she saw him. "Toni -"

"Has Zach spoken to you?"

Her smile vanished. "No."

"He and Joe are going to do something stupid, or maybe already have done -"

Natasha properly put the laptop down and turned to him. "Toni, breathe," she encouraged and he halfheartedly frowned at her before following her advice and taking a breath so that he could explain things in order rather than rushing through a nonsensical explanation.

"They found out where her presentation was -"

Whatever else he was going to say was lost as the door swung open to reveal Allerton. She simply snapped her fingers at them and said, "office, now."

Natasha turned wide eyes to Antonis who glanced back at her with a rather more concerned expression. "Now!" Allerton shouted.

This time they obeyed quickly to find everyone else in the office, though neither returned to their desks but instead stayed standing near the lab door. "Right, now that everyone is present, who wants to admit to their part in Zach and Joe's little scheme yesterday?" Allerton demanded, looking around her team, watching the way they exchanged glances as if they could silently communicate with each other. "No? You really expect me to believe that you hadn't talked it all through?"

Zachariah opened his mouth, but promptly closed it again when Natasha shook her head at him. "You can't ride this one out in silence, Tasha," Allerton said, having also clocked the motion. Natasha turned to Allerton and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, have you lost control of them? Did they finally leave you out of the loop? That would explain why Toni was warning -"

"What do you think you know?" Natasha asked, drawing herself to her full height rather than slouching, folding her arms. "You're clearly in a mood and want blood, so how about we cut to the chase and you give me my third written warning right now rather than dragging this lot through it."

For a moment, Allerton was caught off guard and the surprise showed before she was able to school her expression back to stern. "Go on then, explain why you're the one in the firing line and not Zach?"

"You're the one who was asking me if I'd lost control, what else could you possibly mean if it wasn't that everything happened under my instructions?"

The whole office was silent for a minute, as if Allerton were weighing up if it was a trap and to see what the others said about this. She couldn't believe they'd just let Natasha fall on a sword for them. Especially when she could see the way Antonis and Zachariah were watching the room, and Natasha's hand twitching at her elbow as if she could halt them with such a tiny hand gesture, as if keeping the slashing motion so stilted that she could hide it from Allerton.

"Fine, if you're going to play it this way, get your things and out," Allerton said. "Consider this your third and final written warning."