Last Heavenly Hash + Green Cheese #15, fresh peaches, cherry
Story: Nothing But the Truth
Title: It's Just...
Prompts: Green Cheese #15: orbit, Heavenly Hash #27: weight of the world
Word Count: 943
Rating: PG13
Summary: My entry for the Anonymous Icebreaker, thanks to everyone that commented there! Emma Clark has relationship problems and needs a shoulder to pout on. Much to the surprise of the people that know him in a much different capacity, her big brother Fletcher Clark is perfect for the job.
"Why haven't you ever told me what a complete and total idiot I am?”
Fletcher grinned and leaned back at his desk. “I think I’ve told you that before. Multiple times.”
Emma groaned over the phone and Fletcher lost his smile. So this wasn’t a minor act of idiocy then. “What happened, kid?”
“It’s Teddy.”
He grimaced. “I can’t help but notice that Teddy seems to be the root of a lot of your problems these days.”
“No, it’s not Teddy’s fault,” Emma said, jumping to her boyfriend’s defense just like she always did. “It is 100% my fault. He surprised me with a weekend vacation to The Lake last night. The thing is, it’s the same weekend as my college’s softball camp for middle schoolers and I already said I would help coach that. So of course I had to tell Teddy that I couldn’t go, and he got all angry at me and then stormed out.”
“Teddy didn’t ask you if you had anything that weekend before he got the reservations? That’s not your fault. That’s him being stupid.”
“It’s not the tickets that are the problem. It’s what he said when he was leaving. Teddy said that I’m not prioritizing our relationship high enough anymore. And I know he’s right. This isn’t even close to the first thing that I’ve had to blow off with him because of other stuff. I’m a bad girlfriend,” Emma’s tears were apparent as she choked off her last sentence.
“You are not,” Fletcher snapped. “You’re in college now. This isn’t high school where you can spend every second of the day with him. You’ve both got different commitments in different places. If Teddy doesn’t realize that then he’s a liability.”
“I don’t want him to be a liability,” Emma sniffled. “I love him.”
Fletcher rolled his eyes. His sister was young and she’d been with Teddy for over two and a half years; that was eons by high school standards. There was an attachment, yes, but love? Get real. The boy was named ‘Teddy’ for god’s sake. A Clark would never fall for a schmuck named Teddy.
“If you want your relationship to work then you know you’re going to have to put in the effort, kid,” Fletcher said the conventional thing though he’d much rather say the right thing and tell her to dump the whiny brat.
“I know,” Emma agreed sullenly. “I’ll call Teddy today and apologize. And I’m sure he can find one of his friends to go to the festival with him.”
“True.” Fletcher stuck his tongue in his cheek and ventured out on a limb. “Rachel’s volunteered to coach that camp with you, right?”
“Yeah,” Emma sighed, her voice perking up a little at just the thought of the girl. “She told me to break up with Teddy two days ago.”
“Smart girl.”
“Don’t even start,” she warned him. “I love Teddy. I do. It’s just...”
“It's just he’s an idiot.”
“No he’s not!”
“Alright, alright,” Fletcher said to soothe Emma before she turned her considerable wrath on him. “It’s just there’s Rachel, right?”
“Right,” Emma agreed and went silent while she thought about the girl she’d been crushing on for months. She was insisting that any feelings she may have for Rachel were purely physical, that it was just lust, but Fletcher was beginning to think otherwise. Emma had fun with Rachel, unlike Teddy who always seemed to find a way to ruin their time together. Not to mention the fact that Rachel was smokin’ hot, a proud bisexual like Emma, and single. Fletcher didn’t see what the hell Teddy had in his corner besides a high school romance long past its sell-by date.
Fletcher’s office door opened. His superior, Luc Boyer, rolled his eyes when he saw Fletcher talking on his cell phone with his feet on his desk instead of working, but didn’t comment. When an Extractor was on the job, they were there 150%, so they got cut some slack when they weren’t actually working a case.
“Play time’s over,” he said, throwing a folder on his desk. “Deltra grade extraction order.”
“I’m on it,” Fletcher said then turned his attention back to Emma. “Kid, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got a job.”
“’k,” Emma said. “I just have one more thing I need to ask you, and I need you to be completely honest with me.”
“You’re not a bad girlfriend,” Fletcher guessed.
“Yes I am, but that’s not what I was going to ask.” She took a deep breath then said in a rush. “Do you think Rachel told me to break up with Teddy because she wants us to get together?”
Fletcher paused. “If she does would you break up with Teddy?”
“I don’t know!” Emma groaned. “Maybe? No! I love Teddy. He’s a wonderful boyfriend! It’s just...”
“Rachel,” he finished.
“Rachel.” she agreed.
“Emma, I’m going to be completely honest with you,” Fletcher warned her. “If you were half as happy when you say Teddy’s name as you sound when you say Rachel’s then I’d tell you to stick with him. But you’re not and you haven’t been for awhile now.”
Emma was silent for so long that Luc, still waiting in front of the desk, raised both his eyebrows. Fletcher took the hint. “Kid, I really gotta go. I’ll call you later.”
“Ok,” Emma said softly. “Love you, Fletcher.”
“You too, Emma.”
“You’re such a softie, Clark,” Luc deadpanned as soon as Fletcher ended the call. His tone was sarcastic but the look in his eyes hinted at something more serious.
Fletcher snorted and picked up the folder. “Only to Emma. So who am I teaching the value of telling the truth to this time?”
Story: Nothing But the Truth
Title: Sense of Compassion
Prompts: Heavenly Hash #22: midnight oil + cherry (corporate jargon is a pain) + fresh peaches (Return to your primal state) +
Rating: R
Word Count: 812
Summary: A bit more about Fletcher’s job in the previous piece, though this one’s about one of his coworkers: Ransom Wheeler. They both work for Verum Corporation which provides its clients with the truth, nothing more (usually). That can be a hard pill for some customers to swallow. This is one type of job that Extractors pick up but definitely not the only kind. Also, last Heavenly Hash! :)
“Mr. Wheeler, please understand the position I’m in.” It was too dark to see details but Jenson put on his best martyr face anyway. “I love my wife with all my heart, but Jessica threw my love back in my face then went and slept with my Vice President, conned him into stealing all of my company’s liquefiable assets, stabbed him seven times and ran off with my money. She’s a thief and a murder and I’m just a simple single-proprietorship president. I don’t have the skills to deal with her. That’s why I need you. Please help me.”
Ransom smiled then, a dash of white in the darkness that he blended into so well. “Are you trying to appeal to my sense of compassion?” he couldn’t keep the amusement out of his voice.
Jenson flushed. “I suppose not. I didn’t expect you to be as emotionally void as you appeared.”
“Nope, I really am this shallow,” Ransom pulled his iPad out of his bag. “Your contract with Verum Corporation has been fulfilled. I found your wife, I found your money, and I relayed nothing but the total truth back to you. Now, please sign the completion form and transfer the rest of the prearranged funds as agreed.”
“The contract has not been fulfilled!” Jenson yelled, all previous attempts at playing the heartbroken single-proprietorship president forgotten in his indignation. “My wife and my money are still missing!”
Ransom raised an eyebrow. “They’re right there,” he said, pointing at the small shed at the bottom of the dark valley.
“You have to go and bring them back to me, you fool!”
“Your contract with my employer clearly states that my services and the services of any other employee of Verum Corporation do not extend beyond extracting the truth,” Ransom said in a bored tone as if he’d had to say it a hundred times before.
“Why, you-”
Ransom saw Jenson reach for something at his waistband and reacted. He grabbed Jenson by the collar and slammed him backwards into a tree. Ransom grabbed at the gun the man had hiding at his back and dropped it to the ground then kicked it into the brush.
“Verum Corporation provides information, not answers,” Ransom said in a deceptively soft tone. “Now, please sign the completion form, transfer the prearranged funds, and then go do whatever the hell you want with the information I’ve provided you with. I’m not liable and no sad sack story you try to feed me is going to make me stick my neck out for you.”
Jenson was a stereotypical Cubicle Ken: the kind of man that viewed trees as pre-processed paper and any place that wasn’t lit by overhead fluorescent lamps had to be the land of the heathens. He was an office-dweller and wasn’t accustomed to physical aggression. Ransom on the other hand, didn’t consider his work day complete unless there were at least two episodes of physical aggression. No one at Verum Co did. Ransom had the upper hand here and they both knew it.
“Fine!” Jenson finally gasped. Give me the damn thing.”
Ransom stepped back out of Jenson’s range then handed him the iPad. Jenson quickly inputted his digital signature onto the completion form and went through the steps to transfer the rest of Ransom’s fee.
“Here,” Jenson said, shoving back the computer with more force than necessary.
Ransom put the iPad back in his pack then bowed with extra flourish. “Mr. Jenson, Verum Corporation appreciates your business and hopes that the next time you find yourself bogged down in a mire of lies, you’ll seek us to help you find the light of truth. I’m leaving now. Your gun is under the pricker bush to your left. Good luck in life and business.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“And now onto our top story,” the anchorwoman put on her serious face and continued. “Two people were murdered in FieldCo National Park late last night. Steve and Jessica Jenson were found dead in a maintenance shed on the southern edge of the reserve. Jessica Jenson was shot dead and Steve Jenson suffered several fatal knife wounds. While the police have issued no formal statement, our sources say that over $50,000 of stolen funds from Mr. Jenson’s personal business was also found with the bodies.”
Poppy cut her eyes over to Ransom nursing his umpteenth cup of coffee at the break room table. “Do you know anything about that?” she asked.
Ransom glanced up at the television to see what they were talking about. “We did get the money from him, right?”
Being a top of the line office manager like she was, Poppy knew exactly what was going on with the job fee even though the money had been transferred in the middle of the night and they’d both only been at work for ten minutes. “Yeah, the transfer went through just fine.”
Ransom shrugged. “Then does it matter?”
Poppy refilled his coffee cup then changed the channel. “No, I suppose it doesn’t.”
Title: It's Just...
Prompts: Green Cheese #15: orbit, Heavenly Hash #27: weight of the world
Word Count: 943
Rating: PG13
Summary: My entry for the Anonymous Icebreaker, thanks to everyone that commented there! Emma Clark has relationship problems and needs a shoulder to pout on. Much to the surprise of the people that know him in a much different capacity, her big brother Fletcher Clark is perfect for the job.
"Why haven't you ever told me what a complete and total idiot I am?”
Fletcher grinned and leaned back at his desk. “I think I’ve told you that before. Multiple times.”
Emma groaned over the phone and Fletcher lost his smile. So this wasn’t a minor act of idiocy then. “What happened, kid?”
“It’s Teddy.”
He grimaced. “I can’t help but notice that Teddy seems to be the root of a lot of your problems these days.”
“No, it’s not Teddy’s fault,” Emma said, jumping to her boyfriend’s defense just like she always did. “It is 100% my fault. He surprised me with a weekend vacation to The Lake last night. The thing is, it’s the same weekend as my college’s softball camp for middle schoolers and I already said I would help coach that. So of course I had to tell Teddy that I couldn’t go, and he got all angry at me and then stormed out.”
“Teddy didn’t ask you if you had anything that weekend before he got the reservations? That’s not your fault. That’s him being stupid.”
“It’s not the tickets that are the problem. It’s what he said when he was leaving. Teddy said that I’m not prioritizing our relationship high enough anymore. And I know he’s right. This isn’t even close to the first thing that I’ve had to blow off with him because of other stuff. I’m a bad girlfriend,” Emma’s tears were apparent as she choked off her last sentence.
“You are not,” Fletcher snapped. “You’re in college now. This isn’t high school where you can spend every second of the day with him. You’ve both got different commitments in different places. If Teddy doesn’t realize that then he’s a liability.”
“I don’t want him to be a liability,” Emma sniffled. “I love him.”
Fletcher rolled his eyes. His sister was young and she’d been with Teddy for over two and a half years; that was eons by high school standards. There was an attachment, yes, but love? Get real. The boy was named ‘Teddy’ for god’s sake. A Clark would never fall for a schmuck named Teddy.
“If you want your relationship to work then you know you’re going to have to put in the effort, kid,” Fletcher said the conventional thing though he’d much rather say the right thing and tell her to dump the whiny brat.
“I know,” Emma agreed sullenly. “I’ll call Teddy today and apologize. And I’m sure he can find one of his friends to go to the festival with him.”
“True.” Fletcher stuck his tongue in his cheek and ventured out on a limb. “Rachel’s volunteered to coach that camp with you, right?”
“Yeah,” Emma sighed, her voice perking up a little at just the thought of the girl. “She told me to break up with Teddy two days ago.”
“Smart girl.”
“Don’t even start,” she warned him. “I love Teddy. I do. It’s just...”
“It's just he’s an idiot.”
“No he’s not!”
“Alright, alright,” Fletcher said to soothe Emma before she turned her considerable wrath on him. “It’s just there’s Rachel, right?”
“Right,” Emma agreed and went silent while she thought about the girl she’d been crushing on for months. She was insisting that any feelings she may have for Rachel were purely physical, that it was just lust, but Fletcher was beginning to think otherwise. Emma had fun with Rachel, unlike Teddy who always seemed to find a way to ruin their time together. Not to mention the fact that Rachel was smokin’ hot, a proud bisexual like Emma, and single. Fletcher didn’t see what the hell Teddy had in his corner besides a high school romance long past its sell-by date.
Fletcher’s office door opened. His superior, Luc Boyer, rolled his eyes when he saw Fletcher talking on his cell phone with his feet on his desk instead of working, but didn’t comment. When an Extractor was on the job, they were there 150%, so they got cut some slack when they weren’t actually working a case.
“Play time’s over,” he said, throwing a folder on his desk. “Deltra grade extraction order.”
“I’m on it,” Fletcher said then turned his attention back to Emma. “Kid, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got a job.”
“’k,” Emma said. “I just have one more thing I need to ask you, and I need you to be completely honest with me.”
“You’re not a bad girlfriend,” Fletcher guessed.
“Yes I am, but that’s not what I was going to ask.” She took a deep breath then said in a rush. “Do you think Rachel told me to break up with Teddy because she wants us to get together?”
Fletcher paused. “If she does would you break up with Teddy?”
“I don’t know!” Emma groaned. “Maybe? No! I love Teddy. He’s a wonderful boyfriend! It’s just...”
“Rachel,” he finished.
“Rachel.” she agreed.
“Emma, I’m going to be completely honest with you,” Fletcher warned her. “If you were half as happy when you say Teddy’s name as you sound when you say Rachel’s then I’d tell you to stick with him. But you’re not and you haven’t been for awhile now.”
Emma was silent for so long that Luc, still waiting in front of the desk, raised both his eyebrows. Fletcher took the hint. “Kid, I really gotta go. I’ll call you later.”
“Ok,” Emma said softly. “Love you, Fletcher.”
“You too, Emma.”
“You’re such a softie, Clark,” Luc deadpanned as soon as Fletcher ended the call. His tone was sarcastic but the look in his eyes hinted at something more serious.
Fletcher snorted and picked up the folder. “Only to Emma. So who am I teaching the value of telling the truth to this time?”
Story: Nothing But the Truth
Title: Sense of Compassion
Prompts: Heavenly Hash #22: midnight oil + cherry (corporate jargon is a pain) + fresh peaches (Return to your primal state) +
Rating: R
Word Count: 812
Summary: A bit more about Fletcher’s job in the previous piece, though this one’s about one of his coworkers: Ransom Wheeler. They both work for Verum Corporation which provides its clients with the truth, nothing more (usually). That can be a hard pill for some customers to swallow. This is one type of job that Extractors pick up but definitely not the only kind. Also, last Heavenly Hash! :)
“Mr. Wheeler, please understand the position I’m in.” It was too dark to see details but Jenson put on his best martyr face anyway. “I love my wife with all my heart, but Jessica threw my love back in my face then went and slept with my Vice President, conned him into stealing all of my company’s liquefiable assets, stabbed him seven times and ran off with my money. She’s a thief and a murder and I’m just a simple single-proprietorship president. I don’t have the skills to deal with her. That’s why I need you. Please help me.”
Ransom smiled then, a dash of white in the darkness that he blended into so well. “Are you trying to appeal to my sense of compassion?” he couldn’t keep the amusement out of his voice.
Jenson flushed. “I suppose not. I didn’t expect you to be as emotionally void as you appeared.”
“Nope, I really am this shallow,” Ransom pulled his iPad out of his bag. “Your contract with Verum Corporation has been fulfilled. I found your wife, I found your money, and I relayed nothing but the total truth back to you. Now, please sign the completion form and transfer the rest of the prearranged funds as agreed.”
“The contract has not been fulfilled!” Jenson yelled, all previous attempts at playing the heartbroken single-proprietorship president forgotten in his indignation. “My wife and my money are still missing!”
Ransom raised an eyebrow. “They’re right there,” he said, pointing at the small shed at the bottom of the dark valley.
“You have to go and bring them back to me, you fool!”
“Your contract with my employer clearly states that my services and the services of any other employee of Verum Corporation do not extend beyond extracting the truth,” Ransom said in a bored tone as if he’d had to say it a hundred times before.
“Why, you-”
Ransom saw Jenson reach for something at his waistband and reacted. He grabbed Jenson by the collar and slammed him backwards into a tree. Ransom grabbed at the gun the man had hiding at his back and dropped it to the ground then kicked it into the brush.
“Verum Corporation provides information, not answers,” Ransom said in a deceptively soft tone. “Now, please sign the completion form, transfer the prearranged funds, and then go do whatever the hell you want with the information I’ve provided you with. I’m not liable and no sad sack story you try to feed me is going to make me stick my neck out for you.”
Jenson was a stereotypical Cubicle Ken: the kind of man that viewed trees as pre-processed paper and any place that wasn’t lit by overhead fluorescent lamps had to be the land of the heathens. He was an office-dweller and wasn’t accustomed to physical aggression. Ransom on the other hand, didn’t consider his work day complete unless there were at least two episodes of physical aggression. No one at Verum Co did. Ransom had the upper hand here and they both knew it.
“Fine!” Jenson finally gasped. Give me the damn thing.”
Ransom stepped back out of Jenson’s range then handed him the iPad. Jenson quickly inputted his digital signature onto the completion form and went through the steps to transfer the rest of Ransom’s fee.
“Here,” Jenson said, shoving back the computer with more force than necessary.
Ransom put the iPad back in his pack then bowed with extra flourish. “Mr. Jenson, Verum Corporation appreciates your business and hopes that the next time you find yourself bogged down in a mire of lies, you’ll seek us to help you find the light of truth. I’m leaving now. Your gun is under the pricker bush to your left. Good luck in life and business.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“And now onto our top story,” the anchorwoman put on her serious face and continued. “Two people were murdered in FieldCo National Park late last night. Steve and Jessica Jenson were found dead in a maintenance shed on the southern edge of the reserve. Jessica Jenson was shot dead and Steve Jenson suffered several fatal knife wounds. While the police have issued no formal statement, our sources say that over $50,000 of stolen funds from Mr. Jenson’s personal business was also found with the bodies.”
Poppy cut her eyes over to Ransom nursing his umpteenth cup of coffee at the break room table. “Do you know anything about that?” she asked.
Ransom glanced up at the television to see what they were talking about. “We did get the money from him, right?”
Being a top of the line office manager like she was, Poppy knew exactly what was going on with the job fee even though the money had been transferred in the middle of the night and they’d both only been at work for ten minutes. “Yeah, the transfer went through just fine.”
Ransom shrugged. “Then does it matter?”
Poppy refilled his coffee cup then changed the channel. “No, I suppose it doesn’t.”