THE FOURTH BONUS CHALLENGE
HELLO HELLO! It's the 15th so it is time for
THE FOURTH BONUS CHALLENGEThis month we're doing things a little different again. I'm giving you four unlikely situations and to complete this cycle's last bonus challenge, you will write a ficlet about at least one of them. That's all the instructions I'm giving you this time :D ( Read more... )
THE FOURTH BONUS CHALLENGEThis month we're doing things a little different again. I'm giving you four unlikely situations and to complete this cycle's last bonus challenge, you will write a ficlet about at least one of them. That's all the instructions I'm giving you this time :D ( Read more... )
She nods. Her Blackberry is in her hand in case he feels the need to send an important text.
“This is a personal matter,” he continues.
She shuts the Blackberry down completely. Personal matters are rare and not to be interrupted.
“It has come to my attention that you have been unhappy recently.”
Amy doesn’t reply. She doesn’t ask how he knows; he knows she’s better than that.
“Now the cause of that may be that you are unsatisfied with your work…”
She merely shakes her head. It saddens him that even during a personal discussion Amy is never personal. She reveals no life outside of her work, and even though he knows all about her private life (such as it is) it seems hard to imagine that she has one at all. Which is a shame, because it suspects that her private life - or lack of one - is what is causing her pain.
It strikes him that though he knows more about her unfortunate history than anyone; he has never actually used her real name- nor seen anything beyond the surface image she presents.
“But,” he continues, “I believe it has more to do with this.”
He pushes forward a piece of paper that he had, this morning, plucked off the noticeboard.
It is a group sign-up sheet for a weekend at Alton Towers .
He realises how frivolous it seems to confront her with such an inconsequential item, but the line of her mouth tells him he is perfectly right. Exactly why is has upset her so much is quite beyond even his deductive skills.
“Are you intending to go?” he asks.
“No.” There is painfully long pause before she can bring herself to add; “We’re in China.”
He starts and re-examines the date. “So we are. I’m afraid it really can’t be cancelled. If it was France it would be a different matter.”
She raises one shoulder as if to suggest going to Alton Towers is neither here nor there. Mycroft admires a woman who can lie with a single shoulder movement.
“Why has this upset you?” Bluntness is often the best approach with his assistant. She has never lied to him (verbally).
There is another long wait for an answer. “You know my history.”
Indeed he does. It angers him incredibly. He admires her all the more for it.
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“You could have visited it since then.”
“I’ve been working for you since I was nineteen,” she points out. “I have had exactly three days off in that time-” he opens his mouth to object that he had objected to this many times, “- through my own choice. I don’t feel that I… do well in my private life.”
To be fair, he thinks, the way she was raised was hardly conducive to having a successful private life in adulthood. He refrains from mentioning this.
He closes his mouth. He feels she is opening up for the first time since he had employed her. Any second…
“Alton Towers is just a… whim I have. I’ve always thought it looked…” she is striving for a serious word such as ‘pleasurable’, or ‘entertaining’.
“…fun” he finishes for her. “Well there’s nothing stopping you trying. I will arrange the time off for you - and your travel, tickets, and hotel stay will be complimentary.”
She looks at him, carefully assessing the offer. “Thank you sir, but… I’d rather not.”
“Why ever not?”
He has never had a personal assistant so thoroughly inscrutable before; certainly not one who managed to be inscrutable with every single piece of private information about them sitting on a file on his computer. It pleases him and interests him equally.
“I… I don’t want to go alone.”
Mycroft tries to sum up some friend of hers’ from the file. None. He doesn’t insult her by echoing back; ‘no-one?!’
He coughs instead.
“Well then, you shall have to rearrange the trip to include two. I would be happy to accompany you on a non-professional basis. We can cancel the Italy trip next week and go to Alton Towers. I’m sure you won’t regret missing a visit with Berlusconi.”
He glances up. She is reading his expression and tone for traces of pity. She also seems doubtful that he might ever attend a theme-park.
“Believe it or not I was young once,” she says smoothly; his outward attention on writing a cheque. “There may not have been as many rides then but I believe the grounds and manor itself remains astonishingly beautiful. It would be a pleasure to see it again.”
He glances up again. Her expression is professional once more.
“Yes sir. I shall book it at once sir.”
He nods. “Thank you… Amy.”
THE END
Where did this even come from?!
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