[PART ONE] OVERFLOW POST

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THE SOCIAL NETWORK PART ONE OVERFLOW POST

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Fill! - mockingbirds (12b)

[anonymous]

"Will you drop by this weekend at least? Chris is flying in Saturday night, so Sunday would be best. Dinner? He misses you."

Mark bites his lower lip and feels his stomach turn warm at the thought. He nods.

"Great. I'll make sure he brings those little cocoa cakes his mum bakes."

"Great. Now go away, Dustin."

"All right, all right, I'm going. Bye bye, baby girl," he waves suavely at Jay. "Don't crash Facebook again, will you?"

"I'm working on crashing everything but Facebook next," Jay says cheekily.

Dustin grins and leaves.

"I need a few more minutes for this," Mark mutters at his laptop, almost back under.

"It's fine," she tells him. She's leaning against the backrest of his couch, laptop bouncing on her knees. "I'm about to crack your main internal security password, I need a few more minutes, too."

Mark nods and leaves her to it. Hopefully, she won't really implode the internet. Though his security guys have been getting smug lately; maybe she can mortify them some more. He grins and goes back to his coding.

- - - - -

Mark stays wired in for half an hour by himself, then spends two hours with Jay cleaning up the fencing code; after that, she goes back to whatever it is she does online when she's not hacking - apparently, stalking her latest celebrity crush on Twitter - and Mark figures he has another hour or so to program a short update for Facebook before Eduardo comes to get her.

Around six, there's a sudden sharp drop in overall productivity. Since Mark monitors all internal server access and running processes from the computer next to his laptop, it immediately jerks him out of his headspace and back into reality. Usually, this only happens around 3.30, during shift change.

He looks up. Ashley is working on her computer, and so is the rest of the floor; and then Eduardo comes into sight. He's holding himself like he's afraid of getting shot. Mark realizes why no one's working anymore. He can practically see it happen, the elbowing each other into a state of drop-everything-and-freeze as his work force spots the infiltrator.

Possibly, he should have thought about this when he declared Facebook a Eduardo-free zone. He's under no illusion; all his employees know the story and talk about it. But they also think he's magic and hears everything, so they don't talk about it in the building. Which explains the sudden, all-encompassing silence.

Mark makes a split-second decision. He stands up, the movement catching Eduardo's gaze, and waves awkwardly in greeting. He can't quite bring himself to smile. Wardo looks surprised for a split-second before he manages to force a half-smile and his shoulders untense just a tiny amount. Mark feels the sharp weight in his stomach topple, then grow lighter.

Outside, Ashley has also noticed what's going on. Her mouth is o-shaped as she stands up, and she closes it swiftly. In a heartbeat, she's transformed back to the professional Mark knows and appreciates. She greets Eduardo warmly, more warmly than Mark has probably managed to greet anyone in his life. From the expression in her eyes, he almost expects her to hug him. Eduardo doesn't look averse to the idea himself, as per the sheepish grin on his face.

Mark opens the glass doors. Behind him, Jay's fingers never stop rattling the keys.