Sofia didn’t even look up as the phone she shared with Olivia rang she simply reached over to answer it. Each pair of desks had a landline shared between them. “Good morning, Sofia speaking.” She greeted as succinctly and politely as possible.
“Hi, Sofia, do you know where Allerton is?” Peter asked in rather hushed tones, as if he was trying to prevent someone else from overhearing.
“No. One minute.” She turned around. “Tasha, do you know where is Allerton?” Natasha looked up from her own computer at the question, frowned in thought and then shook her head. “No. Why?” Sofia asked leaning back into the headset.
“There’s a group of people here saying they are scheduled for a tour and presentation with Allerton’s team, but I’ve got nothing scheduled in my calendar and I can’t get hold of her.”
As Sofia’s eyes had grown wider and wider Natasha had strolled over and switched the phone over to speaker, allowing her to hear the end of Peter’s worry. “Tour?” Sofia asked nervously.
“Barney’s not ready for presentation yet...” Natasha muttered. “We thought we were presenting in a couple of weeks.”
“Well they’re here now. Can you collect them?” Peter asked hopefully.
Natasha took a breath as she counted to ten, as much as she wanted to shout at Peter for dumping this on them, she knew it wasn’t his fault. Shouting at him would do nothing but undo any favours they might have brokered between them over the years. “Okay, I’ll track down Toni if you stall them.”
“You want me to stall them? How?”
“You want me to be the diplomatic one?”
There was a telling silence. “Good point. Okay, but please be quick.”
~-x-~
Zachariah looked up from Barney as Natasha practically fell through the door into the lab, looking worried. He didn’t have a chance to ask what was wrong. “Where’s Toni?”
“He’s got an undergrad workshop to run today.” Zachariah replied. “Why?”
Natasha looked panicked now. “Peter just rang to say that there’s a group of delegates Allerton promised a lab tour and she’s fucked off somewhere.” The words tumbled out of her mouth in a single breath, then there was a brief pause as an idea flourished in her head. “Will you -”
“No.” Zachariah confirmed before glancing at Barney. “But I’ll get this tidied up.”
Natasha nodded before running off in the hopes of trying to catch Antonis before he got to the workshop. She had to sneak out of the door Zachariah took his smoke breaks at so that she didn’t have to go through the tour group that Peter had promised to stall for her. She owed him at least one drink after this. She hadn’t been aware she could run the distance between their engineering department and the chemistry building - let alone that fast - until she hurtled to a stop in a corridor and spotted Antonis, and shouted his name causing him to turn to her and allowed her to catch up. It was serious if she’d run. “I will cover your workshop if you please, please, please do a lab tour for me.” She half bargained, half begged.
Antonis looked at her shrewdly. “Why?” He asked, the who was irrelevant.
“You really want me to give a tour?” Natasha challenged. “Allerton is nowhere to be seen, Zach already said no.” She explained. They both knew that this was part of their funding application, it was down to one of the three of them - well, probably Allerton really - to do this. Sofia, Joseph and Olivia weren’t in the best position to lead it as they were technically all still students and not permanent employees.
Antonis glanced at the folder under his arm and back to Natasha. “What do you remember about statistical thermodynamics?” He asked.
Natasha’s face fell. “Really?” Antonis couldn’t stop himself from laughing for more than a moment. “You’re messing with me, right?” She asked hopefully.
“Yes.” He admitted. “Lasers.” He confirmed, smiling at the relief that washed over Natasha’s face. Laser theory and applications she could cover. She’d have done the statistical thermodynamics one without question, but she would have struggled whereas lasers fell right into her wheelhouse.
“I love you!” She practically cheered as she leapt to hug him firmly.
Antonis chuckled. “You owe me for this.” He corrected as she let go of him and he passed her the folder.
“I owe you for a lot of things.” She retorted cheekily as they set to a rather efficient exchange of information, he quickly gave her the background on the workshop and she explained everything she knew about the group Allerton had promised a tour to. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much to tell him on that front.
~-x-~
Zachariah honestly didn’t know how Antonis had such a perfect pokerface. That man could keep smiling even after being insulted and belittled and it was astounding to Zachariah because if he were in Antonis’ shoes right now, he’d have punched someone. Hell, if it had been Natasha she’d probably have punched out the whole room.
Antonis had stalled the group as long as possible to allow Zachariah a chance to put Barney back together whilst drawing on the rest of the team to tidy up as best as they could. He had taken them the long way through the department chatting in a professionally casual way until arriving in the office and then using Olivia and Sofia as bait to talk briefly about their PhD projects - to showcase the talent their department nurtured, he’d said - before finally conceding to himself that he had to move on or what he was doing would become obvious.
Zachariah and Joseph had greeted the group with smiles, before Joseph had politely excused himself because he needed to take the box he was carrying to another lab - timely before Antonis had chance to ask him to delve into his PhD, but he covered by briefly explaining it himself - as Zachariah discreetly put the tools he was still holding away without drawing the eye of any of the group.
In a feat of spectacular timing Allerton had appeared just as Antonis was about to introduce Barney to the group - Zachariah presumed not with their informal nickname - and she breezily swooped in to introduce herself to the group, making all the usual fake apologies for her absence with fake excuses about meetings that didn’t exist and schedules she didn’t keep. Antonis managed to keep his face decidedly neutral as she did that.
Once that was done Allerton walked past Antonis and patted him on the arm, thanked him for what he’d done so far before dismissing both him and Zachariah because she would take it from here. Zachariah’s face had fallen into a furious glare, Antonis had smiled politely at the group as he bid them goodbye, before all but dragging Zachariah out with him before Allerton caught him glaring.
“What’s going on?” Joseph asked as they returned to the office without the group.
Zachariah and Antonis both looked to make sure the door was definitely shut behind them. “Allerton dismissed us.” Zachariah almost spat the words out in his disgust before sighing. “This is depressing and expected. She’s taking all our credit and acting as if we didn’t have much to do with it.” The office fell quiet as they thought. None of them were surprised - even Olivia wasn’t really surprised by now - but none of them knew what they could do about it.
~-x-~
Natasha arrived back from the workshop to find a particularly tense air in the office. It was unnaturally quiet causing everyone to turn to the door as it opened. “What happened?” She asked as she handed Antonis his folder back.
“Boom.” Zachariah muttered under his breath.
Natasha threw him a confused and concerned look. After working with him for so long she knew that meant something bad. “Allerton screwed us over.” Sofia explained softly as she handed Natasha a mug of coffee.
“I think we’re actually toast this time.” Zachariah added ruefully.
“Okay.” Natasha decided after taking a sip of coffee before turning to the one person she was most likely to get a straight and quick answer from. “Toni?”
“Allerton took over the presentation. She tried to run a demo. It failed.” Natasha resisted every urge within her to slam her hand to her forehead in disbelief, frustration and a little anger.
“We’re supposed to tell her the moment you’re back.” Joseph added quietly. After it was all done and the visitors had been seen out, Allerton had strolled back into the office - looking far too calm and collected for a woman who had just humiliated herself - and done a quick headcount before issuing the order and departing again.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
No one was inclined to move as Natasha sighed into her coffee again. “I guess we better get this shitstorm over with, then?” She put the mug down on her desk and headed back out of the office to knock on Allerton’s door. She wasn’t there long, only really sticking her head through the door to let her supervisor know she was back. Allerton thanked her tersely before dismissing her.
“How bad?” Zachariah asked as Natasha returned.
“Bad.”
There was a few minutes before Allerton followed Natasha, allowing the door to swing shut behind her before she folded her arms and glared at them all. “Well?” She demanded. None of them fell into the trap. “Which one of you is responsible for this?”
“Define this.” Natasha was the only one who dared to speak.
“The absolute failure of a presentation today.”
“We didn’t know they were coming.” Zachariah folded his arms, clearly seething. “This is all on you.”
“What Zach means is that we cannot prepare for something we do not know about.” Antonis cut in quickly in an attempt to minimise the damage.
“I was under the impression that the prototype was working. I saw a report on the tests you ran just last week, the results were more than adequate to do a demonstration on.” At that revelation Zachariah and Natasha exchanged a confused frown with each other.
“We still had two weeks for additional tests and to make improvements.” Sofia replied, ignoring the looks, she could ask later. “We wanted it to be the best it could be.”
“Well, then, thanks to your efforts to improve you’ve sabotaged the entire team.” Allerton retorted as she didn’t quite manage to resist tapping her foot impatiently. She wanted a specific scapegoat - she didn’t mind who - but they were all being far too reasonable about this.
“Why didn’t you tell us you’d moved the presentation?” Joseph asked.
“It was of no concern to you, I always planned to give the presentation myself.”
Before anyone could continue the circular argument, Zachariah interrupted with a tangent. “Who told you?”
“What?”
“Who told you Barney was ready?”
“The prototype.” Natasha quickly translated before Allerton could ask.
Allerton didn’t see how it mattered one way or the other, but perhaps this was the fuse she needed to light to give her a legitimate reason to properly vent her frustrations of the day. “Olivia, she sent me an email with the summary of your latest tests. Frankly I’m disappointed that you didn’t think to fill me in yourselves.”
Olivia had never felt more conspicuous or more shocked in her whole life as her mouth fell open in shock and she shrank into herself from all the attention as everyone else turned too her. She preferred being invisible. “I... I didn’t...” She stammered taking in the various shocked, aghast and just disappointed faces.
“Now, now, don’t be shy. I’m not angry at you for keeping me informed.” Allerton dismissed the denial with a wave of her head. Zachariah was about to say something, but Natasha put a hand on his arm to stop him, her eyes never leaving Antonis’ who was giving her a warning yet reassuring look. Not now. Joseph was looking at the floor and Sofia’s hand was still covering her surprised expression with eyes full of hurt. A hollow feeling fell over Allerton as she realised that she wasn’t going to get the instant stress relief she had hoped for, as all her anger knotted itself up into a tiny ball that she could no longer throw. She sighed. “I want that prototype fixed and ready to showcase by the end of the week - at the latest - whilst I attempt to rescue this disaster.” She slammed the door shut behind her as she left.
~-x-~
The silence continued a few minutes after their supervisor left. As if no one knew what to say. As if no one wanted to make it real by dealing with it. As if everyone was too betrayed to face it.
“Olivia, what did you do?” Antonis eventually asked.
Olivia wasn’t sure if she was grateful it was Antonis who asked. At least he didn’t sound like he wanted to hurt her, but at the same time he was the nice one and even he couldn’t keep the affront from his voice, not entirely. Maybe Natasha just shouting at her would have been better? She’d expect that. “I didn’t email her anything. I didn’t even have an electronic copy of those results. I only saw the ones on Zach’s screen.”
“I gotta say, that’s not exactly the most convincing of excuses.” Zachariah stated as he rubbed his hands over his knees in an effort to dispel some of the frustrated energy. The second this conversation was done he was taking a smoke break.
“It’s convenient, we’ve no way to disprove it.” Natasha agreed after finishing another sip of coffee, staring at the contents as if to avoid looking at Olivia.
“Just check her email history?” Joseph suggested.
A number of them shook their heads. “Histories can be deleted and there’s nothing to stop someone using her unlocked computer to send an email.” Natasha followed up. “It doesn’t prove it one way or the other.”
“I promise I didn’t do this!” Olivia almost shouted, her voice pleading. “What can I do to prove that? Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re smart enough to stay on Allerton’s good side.” Natasha finally raised her eyes to the younger girl. “You always have been. You’ve always known when to stay quiet and not rock the boat.”
“Unfortunately no one can stay neutral forever, no matter how much they want to.” Zachariah added.
“Perhaps we should leave this for today and talk about it when tempers are not so high.” Antonis suggested firmly, for a moment it looked like a number of people were going to ignore him, before they recognised the wisdom in his words and they all turned away from each other and back to the work they had for the rest of the day.
~-x-~
Sofia couldn’t remember the last time she and Joseph had walked home this quiet. Part of her wanted to unhook her skateboard from where it sat between the straps of her rucksack and hurtle off on it, as if she could outrun the problems they’d hoped to leave behind in the office.
It wasn’t that simple though.
“We’re screwed, aren’t we?” Joseph finally asked.
“What?” Sofia asked as blinked as if clearing her eyes could clear her head. “Why?”
“That demo was for additional funds. If Allerton blew it...”
If Allerton blew it then the prospect of either of them having a job in the department was rapidly declining. Sofia picked at her fingers. “It is not over yet. We can still push -”
“Can we?” Joseph asked.
Sofia grabbed Joseph’s hand to pull him to a stop at one side of the pavement, raising a hand to his face and cupping his cheek gently. “Giù, we have time to try and fix this.” She promised.
“I want to believe you.” Joseph replied as he leant his head down to rest on her forehead and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He couldn’t help but feel that it was beyond fixing now. Their department was set on a course that could no longer be changed and people better be happy with the beds they’d made for themselves.
~-x-~
“Hey, how’d it go today?”
Olivia’s head snapped up as if she’d literally walked into something. She had hoped to escape the building without anyone seeing her, wishing she could go back to being invisible, but Peter had called out to her as she was walking past. “What?” She asked weakly.
“The presentation? I wanna know how many drinks Tasha owes me.” Peter explained with a cheeky grin which slowly fell as Olivia approached his desk and he took in her expression. “What happened?” His tone softened easily as he realised this was not a time for cheery jokes.
“I...” Olivia trailed off as she leant heavily on the desk. “I don’t know.” She admitted. “God, would you judge me if I started crying?”
Peter offered her a wry smile and plucked a box of tissues from behind the shield that surrounded his workspace, designed to hide sensitive documents and work from any old member of the public. “Not in the slightest.” He promised. “Unless it’s because the vending machine hasn’t been restocked in two weeks. I’ll judge you for that.”
Olivia managed a watery laugh. “I mean... that is a travesty.”
“At least you can still smile, so it’s not the end of the world.”
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.” Olivia admitted, wiping her eyes with her hands before Peter wiggled the box at her again. She gave a little rueful chuckle as she swiped a tissue to use instead. “They all hate me.”
“Why?”
“They think I did something I didn’t.”
“Is this something I shouldn’t ask about and just let you cry on my desk?”
“The team thinks I sold them out to Allerton.” Olivia whispered into her hands.
“And did you?”
“No!”
“Then the truth’ll come out eventually.” Peter assured her, she glanced up at him, clearly unconvinced. “Look, I’ve been here long enough to know that despite all that goes on between them and their supervisor, they’re not actually interested in petty rivalries. They don’t want to hate her, but they’ve learnt to as a defence. If you really didn’t do this, they’ll work that out.”
Olivia managed a smile. “I wish I could believe that.”
“Then don’t wait for them to do all the work, prove it yourself.” Peter’s tone was conspiratorial as he pushed his glasses back up his nose, for a brief moment drawing Olivia’s attention to his flat but rounded nose and mono-lidded eyes. It was always his shaggy brown hair she’d noticed before.
“I might just make matters worse.” Olivia hugged her arms around herself.
“The way you were acting suggested that wasn’t possible.”
Olivia sighed. “I suppose you have me there.”
~-x-~
“I have never been more tempted to steal one of those than I am right now.” Natasha admitted as she slipped past Zachariah out of the building, claiming a seat on the low wall opposite the unofficial smokers door.
Zachariah couldn’t even laugh at her terrible joke as he blew out a frustrated breath of smoke. “Don’t.” Natasha huffed a laugh at that. “I was kinda hoping you’d have a secret stash of booze hidden in your desk.”
“Like this?” Both of them turned sharply to see Antonis brandishing what looked like an ordinary water bottle as he joined them, taking a seat next to Natasha. Though he perched whereas Natasha was sat cross legged.
She took the offered bottle and unscrewed the cap to take a sniff, pulling a somehow disgusted and impressed expression before taking a swig. “Tell me that’s not ouzo!”
Antonis just looked innocent as she took a swig anyway, clearly regretting it, before he took the bottle back for his own sip before holding it out to offer Zachariah who was stamping out his cigarette. “Here’s to the end of the road.”
“It’s not that bad... Is it?” Natasha started off scolding him before realising that he might have a point.
Antonis sighed as he screwed the bottle back up. “Until now, we could trust each other. Unless Allerton can salvage this, our resources next year will be... limited.”
“Limited we can work with.” Zachariah reminded him and both Antonis and Natasha nodded at that, in fact Antonis felt that deserved another round of ouzo for them.
Natasha coughed again as she finished her second sip, glaring at Antonis as if he were trying to poison her. “We need to work out if Olivia really did send that email.”
Zachariah was rather more dignified about his drink. “How? You said it yourself, anyone could’ve walked up to her computer to send it. We have to assume it’s her or we end up trusting no one.”
Antonis didn’t even bat an eyelash at the strong drink. “Is it fair to mistrust Olivia if we cannot prove it was her?”
“I think we’re beyond fair.”
“Zach, we’re never beyond fair. We’re better than that.” Zachariah slumped against the wall next to them as Natasha scolded him. He knew that really. As he took in both of their expressions he realised that they were going to have to get to the bottom of this to have any hope in recovering things.