Chapter Text
“Sixty-four.” Pete’s been counting for the last five minutes as the both of you make your way deeper into the building.
“Not as high as last week, but it's strange that these lights haven’t been fixed by now.” You say half to yourself but aloud for Pete’s sake..
“You’d think they’d like us to have light down here, being as you know, if this facility shuts down that’s half the city gone.”
“Half the city?” Claudia chirps in as spots you rounding the corner. She’s the newest member to your ‘little super mega force team’.
“He’s exaggerating. More like the fifth quadrant and most of the fourth.” You state as you drop into your chair.
“How would you even know that?” Claudia asks even as Pete rolls his eyes.
“Because I actually read the manual,” you say as Pete huffs in his chair, “yeah, yeah, probably the second person to do so, after the geezer who wrote it.”
Used to the teasing by now, you smile to yourself as your eyes rake over the newest additions to the pile on your desk.
“What needs fixing today?” Pete asks you. Claudia speaks up from her spot by the main monitors before you get the chance to tell him to read his own goddamn files, “Um, the second core in 4B is out and the safety checks for rows 6-10 need to be done.”
“I call the core!” Pete yells as Claudia indignantly spins in her chair, “You can’t call assignments!”
“Says who?”
“Says me,” Arties says as he walks into the office, “everyone needs to do the safety checks and before you start whining, that’s final. Myka go with Pete to see what’s wrong with the second core and then join Claudia for the safety checks.”
“When will I finally be allowed to work on the fracking cores! I gave you all my ideas, like 65 gajillion ideas to improve them, old man!” You don’t hear the rest of the argument because Claudia's already following Artie out of the office.
“Alright, grab the harnesses Pete”
“I love this part of the job.”
“Okay, slowly--” “Woooohoooo” “----or just swing in like Tarzan...do you have to do that every time, Pete. You're definitely going to slam into the reactors one day.”
"Well, not today. That's 546-1, Mykes. You're going to need to take this game seriously if you want to raise your score."
You reply while slowly lowering yourself into the reactor pit, "I don't care about the score, Pete. Literally only you care about the score."
"That's cause I'm the fun one and you're the one who reads manuals from cover to cover." Pete's now swinging down, alarmingly quickly, to the reactor's control panel.
"Hey! I can name at least two other people who read things cover to cover."
"Not boring manuals and your hot smart girlfriend doesn't count. She reads crazy fast."
"What about Delphine? I know for a fact that she read the DYAD's welcome packet the day she accepted her position."
"She doesn't count either."
"And why not?", you demand as you finally reach him.
"Beeeecause, Mykes, she's Delphine. She's French and French people are all learned and stuff."
You blink, "I don't even know how to respond to that. Hand me the torque wrench."
You and Pete fix the reactor in two hours flat, you've been doing this for a while. Once you both reach Artie's office for the inventory lists, Pete immediately reaches for his packed lunch.
"You're not getting any of my lunch, I'm telling you now." His face drops comically, you stand firm. You won't give him any of yours if he insists on eating his at ten in the morning everyday.
"But, Mykes, I'm so hungry right now. I neeeeed this sandwich."
You shake your head and pick up your inventory list, "No last time I gave you a 'bite' of mine, you bit nearly half off. I've learned my lesson."
"Whatever," he's already diving into his lunch, "Claudia will share with me."
Pete follows you as you descend the Warehouse steps to row 6QRE, after all this time he still gets lost amongst all the endless wonder. Before you reach your destination, however, you can hear the tell tale signs of Claudia's presence. The rock and roll playlist she has on the iDock is quieter than usual but audible enough that you hear it three aisles away. She's playing The Smiths today, good choice. As you reach her Pete is finishing up his lunch and Claudia is half way done with her list.
"Err glough", Pete sputters around the last of his roast beef sandwich.
Claudia raises an eyebrow and rolls her eyes at him, "dude, totally not sharing my sandwich with you at lunch."
You smirk. Pete's face falls, "why are all the women I work with so mean?"
Inventory takes you all about three more hours. Though, Claudia finished early and took to tossing crumpled pieces of paper at Pete, who doesn't seem to notice. He's entirely too preoccupied with his rumbling tummy.
"You all can leave for lunch now, be back in an hour and a half," Artie grunts at the three of you on his way back to the office.
"An hour AND a half Mykes, he's feeling really generous today, ya think Vanessa's here??"
"Don't say anything or he'll take it back!" Claudia shout whispers.
"I heard that!"
"Man's creepy like that."
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You pull up to the DYAD institute but you don't see Helena anywhere, typical. You park the car and head across the parking lot to the ridiculously secure research facility. Your girlfriend probably got caught up and forgot about your lunch date for the umpteenth time. After you sign in, you run into Alison on your way to Helena's office.
"Oh hey, Alison, meeting Cosima for lunch?"
"Oh no, I haven't seen her yet. Just my monthly check-up. You're here for Helena?"
You nod, "I haven't seen her yet either, she most likely forgot about our lunch again."
"They're always so caught up in their research, Cosima once forgot to meet Sarah and I for Beth's promotion dinner."
"Hey! That was one time and I was only half an hour late. You guys never let me forget it, either." You both turn and see Cosima walking towards you.
"Hey Cosima, long time no see."
"Hey Myka, looking for Helena? I think she's with Delphine, they're discussing one Helena's mad scientist inventions. I can walk you over, I'm heading there now. And hey sis, looking fine."
"Oh shut up, we look exactly the same." Alison states as she rolls her eyes at her 'sister'.
"Duh, I know that that's why I complimented you."
"You're so cheeky, as Delphine so aptly says." Now that you think of it, Delphine does say that a lot, it's a perfect description.
You smile at their interaction, they're the only group of clones you know and it is startling how similar they all look.
"Right, Delphine's office, Cos?" You say as you look over to her, you're not trying to be rude but you've only got an hour and half for lunch.
"Right I'll let you two go, I'll see you this weekend for Kira's birthday yeah Cosima? Don't be late, Beth said she'd drag you out of the lab if she has to and Sarah said she will kick your butt if you forget Kira's present." Alison turns to you, "I'll see you and Helena too? Sarah says she sent Helena the invite, but I can never be sure if your girlfriend will remember these things."
"This time she actually told me, I saw the invite a couple of weeks ago. We'll be there." Alison smiles at you and then looks back to Cosima.
"Alright, tell Helena and Delphine I say hi. Bye now!"
Cosima walks you right to Delphine's office and true to her word, you find them bent over her desk examining some part of one of Helena's inventions.
"Hey crazy scientists, your girlfriends are here." Both women look up from the table at the new occupants in the room.
"Technically, you're a crazy scientist too." You say to Cosima as you walk closer to Helena. "Hey honey, hi Delphine."
"Darling, what are you doing here?", Helena greets you with a peck on the lips and her adorable deer in the headlights look. You pointedly glance over to the clock hanging on the far wall and she grimaces.
"I forgot didn't I?"
"Hey Myka, hey you." Delphine says in her charming accent as Cosima walks over to her. They leave you two to have your own private conversation.
"It's alright," you glance down at your watch, "I've got about an hour left, let's just grab a bite at the cafeteria?"
"Yes, I can leave right now. I'm so sorry, darling, time just got away from me." She turns away and puts down the little screwdriver she was holding. You look over to Cosima and Delphine who have no visible space between them.
"Hey guys, we're going to grab a bite at the cafeteria. Care to join?"
"They can't hear us, darling." She says as she slips her hand into yours and tugs you towards the door.
"Huh, so that's how that feels."