Away From Here- Chapter 17.
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Chapter 17.
I’m Sorry.
It’s been a month.
Thirty whole days since Mara told Shannon she’d agreed to take the job.
Seven hundred and twenty hours since Mara told Shannon that she’d been kicked out of his apartment by Whiz.
Forty-three thousand, two hundred minutes since Shannon’s world changed, since a hundred different doors opened to her.
And now, she’s stood in front of Natalie’s desk, Mara stood beside her, her hands clasped behind her back as Mara fiddles with a strip of her almost-black hair, her eyes flitting between Shannon and Natalie, as though she’s not quite sure who she should be more interested in.
They didn’t talk about what happened a week before Christmas, Shannon doubts that they ever will, and for that she’s eternally grateful.
Laura had invited them into the office, her short blue hair as eye-popping as usual, but her tone is as cheerfully polite and kind as ever, and Natalie gives her a look as she leaves them (with the order of three coffee’s; one for each for them) that has Shannon wondering, just a little, about the nature of their relationship, but she doesn’t mention it to Natalie; they’ve got more important things to discuss.
“You girls can take a seat,” Natalie says, after a moment of awkward standing around. She waves at the two plush chairs in front of the desk and then she smirks at Mara. “They don’t bite, I promise.” She gives her a wink- that makes Mara chuckles as she settles into the chair, making herself comfortable. Shannon follows, pulling off her plastic leather jacket as she does so, slinging it over the back of the chair.
Natalie steeples her fingers together, the picture of contemplation as Laura wanders back in, a tray laden with coffee, sugar, milk and biscuits in her arms. She places it down on the desk; two of the coffees are black, which she passes to Mara and Shannon, before passing the perfect white coffee to Natalie.
“Mmm,” Natalie says appreciatively. “Milk..?” she begins, but Laura just smiles.
“Two sloshes of milk and one sugar. Just the way you like it,” she says, with a chuckle at Natalie's pleased grin. She nods at the other two before turning on her heel and striding out.
As soon as the door hisses shut, Mara starts dropping sugars into her coffee, sloshing milk in as she goes, almost desperate. Shannon prefers her coffee black, and Natalie is seemingly in ecstasy as she glugs down her coffee.
“That girl always did know how to make a good cup of coffee,” Natalie tells them, draining her steaming cup, seemingly ignorant of the burns that will result in later.
“I’m sure that’s the only reason you keep her around,” Mara mutters, not looking up from her coffee. Natalie just smirks and Shannon coughs.
“I think we have business to attend to?” she asks them, hurriedly, and Natalie nods.
“Indeed we do, let’s get down to it, shall we?”
Shannon nods and Natalie loads up her document on her screen. She paws over it for a moment, a tirade of unknown emotions scatter their way across her face, before they slink away, and she turns back to the girls, mulling over her words.
“It’s come to the attention of The Agency that we’re having a problem with one of our recruited technicians,” she tells them, formally, and Shannon’s stomach sinks a little, it’s never good when Natalie goes into formalities.
Mara shifts, uncomfortable, suddenly ever so interested in stirring her coffee with a metal spoon, and Shannon runs a hand across her immaculate ponytail.
“I suppose you could call it that,” she replies, simply.
“We’ve given you both a month to try and change his mind on the subject,” Natalie continues, looking at them both in turn. “How did that progress?” She looks at them both, her eyes sharp and piercing and they know that she already knows, she’s just saying it because she has to; yet another formality.
Neither of them have tried to contact Whiz for the past three weeks.
Shannon never tried at all.
And Mara... well Mara kept trying, using up all her monetary chips calling him from the cheap hotel vid, but there had been nothing.
The bastard hadn’t even answered the call. And although Mara never showed that she cared, there was a tinge of pink to her eyes whenever the two women met up that showed that it did matter.
Shannon had persuaded her to stop beating herself up for his own ignorance and the calls had stopped.
There’s a little voice in Shannon’s head that say maybe she should have tried to mend their broken friendship rather than destroy it, but by this point, it’s irreplaceable, so she might as well take her own advice and not beat herself up over it and let things run their course, and if that course happens to find her employed with a Central Agency, so be it.
“Nothing,” is her simple reply.
Natalie hums, and it sounds slightly unhappy to Shannon’s ears, which is unusual. Shannon leans forward and rubs a finger across her lip, an unconscious gesture of nervousness.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” Natalie says, her voice soft, and Shannon almost misses it. It seems that Mara does, as she’s still sipping her coffee, looking for all the world like she’s not interested in her surroundings at all.
“Nat?” she asks, skipping the usual ‘Miss Ashcroft’ that she uses in the presence of others.
Natalie ignores her, she looks back to her vid screen before straightening up, folding her fingers into her lap, coughing slightly, which grabs Mara’s attention.
“The Agency had prepared for this, and his replacement has been decided on.” Her face flashes with all those unknown emotions again as she grabs a PDA from her desk that Shannon hadn’t noticed there before. “This has all the information needed for the assignment.”
She hands it to Shannon, who stares at it dumbly. “So, who exactly am I meant to give this to?”
Natalie’s eyes are steely. “No one. It’s for you, Shan.”
Shannon's whole world just feels like its dropped on it’s head. Time stops, icy and cold in the air as she stares at the PDA.
No, no, no. That can’t happen, this can’t be happening.
“Surely you don’t mean...?” Shannon stammers, forcing the words as though they were made of toffee, sticky and constricting.
Natalie doesn’t look away from her best friend (god... her best friend, how could she do this to her?) “You are the replacement, Shannon. You’re best suited for the job.” She looks to her, imploring forgivingness tinting the edges of her eyes. “This is you new job, it’s already been cleared.”
The desperate I’m sorry hangs between them. It doesn’t need saying.
“Oh,” is all Shannon can think to say as the bottom of her world hastily tries to realign itself. The two are watching each other, distress and pain clouding their eyes.
Mara on the other hand, is grinning, seemingly oblivious. She jumps from her seat. “Well this brilliant!” she says, jumping over to Shannon’s seat, grabbing her round the shoulders. “We get to go together!”
Shannon doesn’t move when she speaks, staring at Natalie, who’s finally looking away, staring at her PDA intently. “Yeah... I suppose we do.”
New Chapter>>
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Chapter 17.
I’m Sorry.
It’s been a month.
Thirty whole days since Mara told Shannon she’d agreed to take the job.
Seven hundred and twenty hours since Mara told Shannon that she’d been kicked out of his apartment by Whiz.
Forty-three thousand, two hundred minutes since Shannon’s world changed, since a hundred different doors opened to her.
And now, she’s stood in front of Natalie’s desk, Mara stood beside her, her hands clasped behind her back as Mara fiddles with a strip of her almost-black hair, her eyes flitting between Shannon and Natalie, as though she’s not quite sure who she should be more interested in.
They didn’t talk about what happened a week before Christmas, Shannon doubts that they ever will, and for that she’s eternally grateful.
Laura had invited them into the office, her short blue hair as eye-popping as usual, but her tone is as cheerfully polite and kind as ever, and Natalie gives her a look as she leaves them (with the order of three coffee’s; one for each for them) that has Shannon wondering, just a little, about the nature of their relationship, but she doesn’t mention it to Natalie; they’ve got more important things to discuss.
“You girls can take a seat,” Natalie says, after a moment of awkward standing around. She waves at the two plush chairs in front of the desk and then she smirks at Mara. “They don’t bite, I promise.” She gives her a wink- that makes Mara chuckles as she settles into the chair, making herself comfortable. Shannon follows, pulling off her plastic leather jacket as she does so, slinging it over the back of the chair.
Natalie steeples her fingers together, the picture of contemplation as Laura wanders back in, a tray laden with coffee, sugar, milk and biscuits in her arms. She places it down on the desk; two of the coffees are black, which she passes to Mara and Shannon, before passing the perfect white coffee to Natalie.
“Mmm,” Natalie says appreciatively. “Milk..?” she begins, but Laura just smiles.
“Two sloshes of milk and one sugar. Just the way you like it,” she says, with a chuckle at Natalie's pleased grin. She nods at the other two before turning on her heel and striding out.
As soon as the door hisses shut, Mara starts dropping sugars into her coffee, sloshing milk in as she goes, almost desperate. Shannon prefers her coffee black, and Natalie is seemingly in ecstasy as she glugs down her coffee.
“That girl always did know how to make a good cup of coffee,” Natalie tells them, draining her steaming cup, seemingly ignorant of the burns that will result in later.
“I’m sure that’s the only reason you keep her around,” Mara mutters, not looking up from her coffee. Natalie just smirks and Shannon coughs.
“I think we have business to attend to?” she asks them, hurriedly, and Natalie nods.
“Indeed we do, let’s get down to it, shall we?”
Shannon nods and Natalie loads up her document on her screen. She paws over it for a moment, a tirade of unknown emotions scatter their way across her face, before they slink away, and she turns back to the girls, mulling over her words.
“It’s come to the attention of The Agency that we’re having a problem with one of our recruited technicians,” she tells them, formally, and Shannon’s stomach sinks a little, it’s never good when Natalie goes into formalities.
Mara shifts, uncomfortable, suddenly ever so interested in stirring her coffee with a metal spoon, and Shannon runs a hand across her immaculate ponytail.
“I suppose you could call it that,” she replies, simply.
“We’ve given you both a month to try and change his mind on the subject,” Natalie continues, looking at them both in turn. “How did that progress?” She looks at them both, her eyes sharp and piercing and they know that she already knows, she’s just saying it because she has to; yet another formality.
Neither of them have tried to contact Whiz for the past three weeks.
Shannon never tried at all.
And Mara... well Mara kept trying, using up all her monetary chips calling him from the cheap hotel vid, but there had been nothing.
The bastard hadn’t even answered the call. And although Mara never showed that she cared, there was a tinge of pink to her eyes whenever the two women met up that showed that it did matter.
Shannon had persuaded her to stop beating herself up for his own ignorance and the calls had stopped.
There’s a little voice in Shannon’s head that say maybe she should have tried to mend their broken friendship rather than destroy it, but by this point, it’s irreplaceable, so she might as well take her own advice and not beat herself up over it and let things run their course, and if that course happens to find her employed with a Central Agency, so be it.
“Nothing,” is her simple reply.
Natalie hums, and it sounds slightly unhappy to Shannon’s ears, which is unusual. Shannon leans forward and rubs a finger across her lip, an unconscious gesture of nervousness.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” Natalie says, her voice soft, and Shannon almost misses it. It seems that Mara does, as she’s still sipping her coffee, looking for all the world like she’s not interested in her surroundings at all.
“Nat?” she asks, skipping the usual ‘Miss Ashcroft’ that she uses in the presence of others.
Natalie ignores her, she looks back to her vid screen before straightening up, folding her fingers into her lap, coughing slightly, which grabs Mara’s attention.
“The Agency had prepared for this, and his replacement has been decided on.” Her face flashes with all those unknown emotions again as she grabs a PDA from her desk that Shannon hadn’t noticed there before. “This has all the information needed for the assignment.”
She hands it to Shannon, who stares at it dumbly. “So, who exactly am I meant to give this to?”
Natalie’s eyes are steely. “No one. It’s for you, Shan.”
Shannon's whole world just feels like its dropped on it’s head. Time stops, icy and cold in the air as she stares at the PDA.
No, no, no. That can’t happen, this can’t be happening.
“Surely you don’t mean...?” Shannon stammers, forcing the words as though they were made of toffee, sticky and constricting.
Natalie doesn’t look away from her best friend (god... her best friend, how could she do this to her?) “You are the replacement, Shannon. You’re best suited for the job.” She looks to her, imploring forgivingness tinting the edges of her eyes. “This is you new job, it’s already been cleared.”
The desperate I’m sorry hangs between them. It doesn’t need saying.
“Oh,” is all Shannon can think to say as the bottom of her world hastily tries to realign itself. The two are watching each other, distress and pain clouding their eyes.
Mara on the other hand, is grinning, seemingly oblivious. She jumps from her seat. “Well this brilliant!” she says, jumping over to Shannon’s seat, grabbing her round the shoulders. “We get to go together!”
Shannon doesn’t move when she speaks, staring at Natalie, who’s finally looking away, staring at her PDA intently. “Yeah... I suppose we do.”
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