a ghost story
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG
Challenge:
Milk Chocolate #15 - resignation
Red Velvet #13 - in the spotlight
Extras / Toppings: malt (Trick or Treat: bookblather: "The truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of imagination." - Improbable Cause, DS9)
Word Count: 2,090
Story: Misfits
Summary: When he has to take over full leadership, Dennis is overwhelmed by the workload.
Notes: The Ghost Story! It was either this or a really depressing piece and this won out. The basic idea is totally stolen from the Heinzelmännchen tale which is very common around here but it’s not a real ghost story. Call it my version of one.
The piles of paper, folders, monthly budget justification sheets and everything else that still had to be done was at a foot high by now, piled up on his desk. Dennis knew that there were deadlines on everything and that he would never get done with everything, from the mission reports to the accounting. He had never realized how much accounting the job entailed and he was dreadful at it, had forgotten everything he had learned in that personal accounting class he had taken in college so long ago and now he was grasping at straws trying to figure out how any of that could possibly work.
He was sure Stella must have usually handled that part among many others. They had always shared duties when it came to the bureaucratic part and with each of them doing half of it, it had been manageable if at times very annoying. Now that Stella had been sent on an indefinite sabbatical and wasn’t allowed to know what was going on at Cerberus, especially her former department, the ICU, all the workload ended up on Dennis’ shoulders and all of a sudden he had to refamiliarize himself with accounting and filling out paperwork with specific requests that Stella had always taken care of.
He looked down at the numbers he had started to put in the tables, convinced that he was doing it all wrong and that there was no point to keep trying at four in the morning. He would have to be back at work at eight to brief the team on their new mission and a report on the last mission was due that day. A mission report Dennis hadn’t even started to write and would never get done in time seeing how it took him at least three hours to get a report done. In addition to that, he still had to read the files on the new mission. He was supposed to give the briefing tomorrow. Back in the day, he would already have memorized every single detail on the files but now, he was too tired to even think about any of it.
He barely could keep his eyes open, his eyelids were incredibly heavy and it was impossible to focus on the task at hand. He hadn’t slept at all last night, spent the whole night in the office trying to get all the work taken care of but his to do list didn’t seem to shrink at all. There was always something new coming in, something that would take at least an hour.
The bureaucratic part of the job was full-time in and of itself and he and Stella had had a much easier time with it because their direct supervisor Joseph had always made an effort to limit what they had to do, at times even helping them here and there. Those times were over and would never come back again.
This, the overload of work that he never got a break from, that stole all his sleep, was the new reality and for better or worse he would have to get used to it. As much as he wished for the opposite, he was pretty convinced that Stella wouldn’t be allowed to return to the ICU and he couldn’t think of anyone who could possibly take over her job as his co-leader. Replacing her was impossible.
The next thing Dennis knew, it was nine thirty the next morning and from the looks of it, he had fallen asleep over the bookkeeping he had been doing only a few hours earlier. It took a few seconds for Dennis to realize that the team must have been waiting for him for at least an hour and a half for him to show up to brief them. He had been a little late in the past sometimes, but never this late, and he had no idea what the mission was even about.
He spent ten minutes searching for the mission files but couldn’t find them anywhere. Had he maybe taken them home and forgotten about them? It was something he liked to do, sit down on the living room floor and spread them out all around them, reading them over and over again and arrange them all in an order that made sense to him. He spent hours doing it, often with Stella so that they wouldn’t miss a single detail and it had actually been something he had always looked forward to. They would spend the whole night at it overdosing on coffee and sugary treats to stay awake and Dennis had come to really love those nights. It was so easy to work with Stella who knew how he thought and managed to cover the parts the would have missed. They complemented each other so nicely.
Completely confused about the files’ whereabouts, Dennis decided to just go see the team, admit his failure and schedule the briefing for the next morning and then get to it, work it out the best he could until next morning, focusing on nothing but it. That was the best he could offer which wasn’t all that much but better than nothing.
Making his way out of the building wasn’t much fun because it included passing the accounting department and Dennis was sure that they only hired retired snipers as accountants at Cerberus. They were able to spot anyone with their eagle eyes and always knew who was too late at handing something in. Had there been a way to avoid them, Dennis would have chosen it now but there was none and so, he found himself ducking behind the about two feet high area that wasn’t covered with glass, hoping that this way he wouldn’t be seen by the people in the glass office.
He had almost made it when Horner who was in charge of the mission reports and whom Dennis should have handed his report in yesterday crossed his path. There was no way to hide from the man that was very particular about deadlines.
“Lawson, why are you walking around like a dwarf with a hunchback?” Horner boomed and out of reflex, Dennis erected himself, completely forgetting that he was hiding from the accountants.
“I …” There was no good explanation for it, so Dennis just shrugged. “Playing hide and seek with the kids in daycare?”
Horner didn’t seem to believe the lie -- Dennis wasn’t even sure if there was a daycare in this complex but he was a hundred percent sure that Horner wouldn’t appreciate him playing hide and seek with possibly non-existent children when he was late on his report -- but nodded.
“I got your report this morning. Skimmed through it already and it looks good. No incongruous information, everything has been covered pretty well. It’s far better than I expected it to be seeing that you are doing all the paperwork alone these days.”
Dennis was about to point out that he hadn’t even started writing the report, let alone handed it in, but decided against it. Maybe Horner was confusing him with someone and maybe it would buy him more time.
“Err, thanks,” he said confused and was about to make a quick getaway when Jasmine Atton from accounting waved him over.
So he had been spotted by her, too, and there had been no point in trying to hide. God, how much he hated accounting. He considered running but there was no point, he decided, entering the accounting bureau with painfully slow steps that didn’t prevent him from eventually reaching Jasmine Atton.
“I was looking over your monthly accounts earlier and I really don’t understand why you haven’t always done them. Agent West-Barnes did a decent job but it’s nothing compared to what you delivered. You used a software to do it and everything, facilitating our job to go over it. There are no holes, nothing unaccounted for; really, it’s every accountant’s dream.”
This didn’t sound right. Dennis hadn’t even known there were accounting softwares and the parts he had done last night, he had done by hand, with a calculator that had had water spilled on it, making it hard to interpret the numbers on the display. There was no way Atton was referring to his work. While looking for the mission files about fifteen minutes ago, he had seen his accounting data on his desk with a trace of drool on it.
“I don’t think that was me,” he admitted because it was possible for him to get lucky once and that had happened with Horner, but twice was just too much for him to believe it. “Maybe you got something mixed up?” He suggested tentatively.
Atton shook her head and handed him the file in front of her. Dennis leaved through it and it didn’t take him long to realize that this was indeed his. Well, not his since he hadn’t done it but all the reference numbers were the ICU’s and this had been done impeccably. He had no idea who had done it but he would have to find out and thank that person.
“I guess I must have forgotten,” he winked. “I’m not getting enough sleep these days.”
“I can tell from looking at you,” Jasmine nodded. “You look horrible. I had already talked to a few people to give you another week to hand in your accounts because of how much work you probably have to catch up on right now. I really didn’t think I’d see this anytime soon.” She pointed to the file Dennis had put on the counter between them. “But it’s really good work, keep it coming. And if you need more time on anything next month or anytime, just tell me and I’ll make arrangements, don’t worry about it.”
After a bit more smalltalk and Jasmine Atton being incredibly nice to him, Dennis finally made it out of the building and into his car so that he could drive to the Misfits’ living complex.
What was happening this morning still seemed like a mystery to him. He hadn’t handed in a report or his numbers and yet, they had been received and he had even been commended on his work which rarely ever happened. Something was wrong here. There was no way he could have done all of this last night and not remember it. Even if that had been possible, it was completely impossible for him to have done it all well which obviously was the case. He would have to investigate as soon as he had gotten some sleep and caught up on work.
The drive to the Complex took longer than usual and it was already past eleven when he got there, feeling incredibly bad for having made everyone get up three hours ago to wait for him to not show up. He rushed into the meeting room that was empty.
Understandably. He wouldn’t have waited three hours, either.
He was about to go look for the team and apologize when he spotted the files he had been looking for on the table and notes on the white board that lined out the mission’s details, with pictures of the important people pinned to the board and short notes on them as well a line-out of the mission’s timeline.
He looked at it for a good line while, trying to understand. It wasn’t his handwriting; it was Hobbie’s and the whole set-up looked a lot more like a mission Hobbie was in charge of than him, not that that meant anything. It was still a really good plan that he wouldn’t have disagreed with but there were so many questions wandering around in his head.
How had Hobbie gotten access to the files? Had he done the rest of the work while Dennis had slept? It sounded impossible. Hobbie had no idea when it came to accounting, had miserably failed every course on it he had taken and there was no way one person could have done all of this in the few ours Dennis had slept.
Wearily, he made his way to the rec room, looking for Hobbie to ask him what was going on. As today was his lucky day, Hobbie was indeed in the rec room, sitting with Winter, Face and Shania, whispering. They ceased talking immediately when Dennis came in and greeted him in unison.
Dennis looked from one face to the next and slowly, his brain came to the conclusion. “Thanks, guys,” he said with a relieved smile.