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The first day after the lockdown lifted was a Wednesday, and almost a full half of the staff didn't come into the office. Some of them called in, some didn't, Jesse wasn't particularly concerned about their absences by and large. The fact that Emily neither came in nor called, that was a little worrying, but Jesse argued to herself that it was fine. Langston was out, Arish was in, they'd be fine. They didn't need Emily, and she deserved a day off. Jesse spent the afternoon reading through binders of barely intelligible data that explained various HR processes, inbound phone lines and how they worked with cell networks, and staff management in general. It was, unsurprisingly, a long day. She didn't get to shoot anything.
On the second day after the lockdown lifted Jesse ran into Langston in the Logistics department. Thursday was apparently the weekly department meeting, and there were several boxes of doughnuts. She waited until the meeting was over, only having to nod and smile once to tell the staff they'd done well, then most of the Containment staff had dispersed.
Jesse called Langston over, "So how was your cat?"
"Oh, Socks was very happy to see me," Langston walked back to speak with her and smiled. "Well, my neighbor had been feeding him Friskies, so it was hard to tell if he liked me or just liked the prospect of higher quality food."
"Glad to have you back today," Jesse didn't know anything about cats, or cat food, and didn't know if she could feign interest. She tried a topic change, "I probably should have thought to give everyone the day off yesterday, a lot of people called in. Seems like everyone needed the day to themselves to just recover."
"I'm not going to lie- I spent the whole day hungover, watching TV with Socks and eating breakfast cereal," Langston shrugged like he wasn't even embarrassed. That was fair. "It was wonderful."
Jesse snorted.
"What?" Langston looked amused.
"Nothing, just. Emily wasn't in, and now I'm imagining her hungover with a cat. Hard to picture."
"Ha, yeah! Honestly Emily seems the type to own goldfish. I'm surprised she called in sick, she never takes days off. I think she's maxed out her sick and vacation accrual, to be honest. A few years ago she worked through pneumonia… Either way, as nice as it was to go home I'm glad to be back ma'am," and then Langston was gone.
And now, finally, Jesse was worried.
"Hey Simon! Seen Emily?" Jesse approached the man at a jog. He didn't seem phased by that, which she appreciated.
"Nope, not since Tuesday. What's up boss?"
"She wasn't in yesterday, didn't call. Haven't seen her today."
"Oh," Now Simon looked concerned, which just made her stomach drop further. "Did you check to see if she actually left the House on Tuesday night? Reception should know."
"No, can you look into that for me? I'm headed to my office to see if anyone in Executive knows anything, she's been working on moving Hiss files from there to Research."
"Can do boss!" And Simon was gone, at a not-jog, maybe a brisk walk? Fast, Jesse thought, so he at least agreed that this was a little worrying.
Jesse took the elevator back to Executive to give herself a moment to think. She was torn: on the one hand this was Pope, who was painfully competent. On the other hand this was her Head of Research, and that seemed to be a fairly cursed job title. What if she had gone home and something had followed her? What if the Hiss had followed her? Alternately what if she'd quit, just walked out never to return? No, that was essentially impossible.
"Director, there was an urgent message for you: it's on your desk," the agent was gone before Jesse recognized them since Jesse had immediately taken off for her office at a sprint.
She shoved the door, bolted across the room, then clawed the pneumatic tube open, peeling out a short handwritten note.
'Jesse, Hoping you can help- found an elevator that took me to a place I'm going to refer to as the Attic, but having some trouble leaving now: think there was a building shift? Found a vending machine and Control Point, was hoping you might be able to swing by and help me re-discover the elevator. Writing this Thursday morning(can see the sunrise from here!) - Pope'
"Oh thank fucking Christ," Jesse clutched the note in one hand and the edge of her desk with the other. A wave of relief rushed over her, and she felt momentarily detached: she hadn't realized how worried she was until she'd read that Emily was alright. She let herself spend a solid two minutes just breathing, calming down, then straightened, tucked the note into her pocket, and headed to the Control Point in the center of Executive. Emily hadn't quit and it wasn't the Hiss. Thank god.
Jesse stood on an X of electrical tape, closed her eyes, and felt along the threads that tied the House together. At first she felt nothing helpful. She tried to think of light, to hold the word 'attic' in her mind, to imagine the sun in Emily's blonde hair, and suddenly there it was, a whole network of locations sparkling inside her head. Jesse pulled herself to the first one she noticed, and felt the sunlight on her closed eyelids. Which was indeed interesting since it had been raining when she'd come into the House this morning...
"Jesse! You got my message."
And that was the voice she'd hoped to hear. Jesse blinked through the bright light, looked around. The room was tall, with long vertical windows high in the walls above doors set opposite one another. At the end of the space was what looked like a break-room area, with a vending machine, sofa and-
"Em! Where the hell are we?"
Emily was standing next to a table where she had spread out a notebook and several packages of snacks, "A completely new floor, or an active Threshold, or both!" She looked thrilled, of course. "I don't think we've had any record of this area in the past, though I'll need to check in Archives, obviously."
"Was there a building shift after you came up?"
"That's my assumption, though I didn't see any changes I could easily identify," Emily nodded, and gestured Jesse closer to the table, where she could now see there was a rudimentary map laid out across several pages torn from a notebook. "Here's what I've covered so far."
Jesse breathed deeply as she listened to Emily talk. The wave of relief from seeing Emily wasn't as strong as when she'd first read the note, but Jesse still felt downright high from it. She had to ask Emily to repeat herself three times before she really understood the layout of the area, and what Emily had done already in the way of exploration. Jesse occupied herself by nibbling at an open bag of trail mix to cover her distraction until Emily had essentially decided on a plan to find the elevator.
"I'm glad you came!" Emily was smiling, hair bright in the sunlight coming down from the high windows. It was brighter than Jesse had imagined it could be.
"Of course. Couldn't leave my Head of Research up here to live off dried fruit and peanuts."
+++
The second time Emily had gone missing, Jesse wasn't surprised, and her panic was less intense. It was still very unpleasant.
Dr. Vaughn had knocked once before letting herself into Jesse's office. Jesse looked up from her report and waited, Carla was never one to beat around the bush.
"The expedition which went to Oceanview this morning returned, however Doctor Pope did not come back with the others," Vaugh's voice was emotionless. Jesse appreciated that.
"When did everyone else return?" Jesse flipped close the report before her.
"Three hours ago, that's the standard period we wait after Lightswitch use before considering it an anomaly."
"Has anyone used the Lightswitch since to check for her inside Oceanview?"
"Not yet, ma'am. Procedure is to notify the Director first. Would you like one of the staff-"
"No, I'll go," Jesse stood. The fact that there was a procedure for this scenario was helping to keep her calm, but she could feel a wave of nervousness lurking somewhere in the wings. Jesse realized she was already holding the Service Weapon as she walked to the door. "Where is the source location?"
Vaughn led her across Executive in silence, and Jesse wondered if she'd been too brusque with the woman without really realizing it. The elevator ride was silent. Vaughn leading her to an alcove in Research was silent. The whole department felt silent. Finally Jesse turned, at the last moment, looking to Carla.
"If I'm not back in another three hours, get Simon."
"Yes ma'am. And ma'am… Goodluck," Carla sounded so genuine on the last word, unlike her normally plain delivery that Jesse paused with her hand on the cord.
She pulled three times in quick succession and emerged into the Oceanview with open eyes and gun in hand.
Emily was sitting cross legged on the floor not five feet away, staring at a door.
"Emily?" Jesse asked, worried.
"Jesse, you're here!" Emily turned from the door to look at Jesse, then glanced back at the door quickly. It was cracked open, Jesse could now see. It was the 'two Cs door' as Jesse thought of it, and it was just slightly ajar, and dark inside. Dark was certainly preferable to red, she supposed.
"You've been gone for three hours, Carla told me you never came out after the rest of the staff," Jesse approached cautiously, gun in hand. Everything seemed fine, which had her on edge. Nothing was ever this easy.
"I was waiting for you, actually!" Emily stood now, still glancing at the door occasionally. "I heard the door creak open just as the last agent before me disappeared and, well, I didn't want to follow without investigating. The Motel seems to 'reset' after we all leave it, to be clear, and I might never see an open door again. On the other hand it seemed foolhardy to enter alone, and I realized that Vaughn or Tan would likely get you if I waited long enough. And here you are! Now would you like to go in or should I? Or I could push the door open fully, and you can take point, to look for threats?"
Jesse was almost annoyed that her worry had been for naught, but Emily's excitement was infectious and chased away most of her frustration.
And it was an open door, in Oceanview. Jesse looked between the sliver of darkness in the doorway and back to Emily. She admitted to herself, it was intriguing. She wanted to know more, she wanted a little adventure, but more than anything she wanted Pope to keep smiling that crazed excited megawatt smile.
"If we don't come back in three hours, Carla is going to send Simon in… So let's just try not to take that long," Jesse grinned as she shifted the Service Weapon from hand to hand. "Sound good?"
"I've been looking forward to this for three hours," Emily grinned back, like the sun, then shoved the door open.
+++
It had been two weeks since their return from Oceanview, it was eleven in the morning, and Jesse realized she hadn't seen her Head of Research all day. And, okay, she had seen Emily yesterday, but they'd developed a morning routine, where Jesse would drop by Emily's office shortly before nine in the morning with coffee and snacks, and they would spend their break together just going over whatever Emily had been working on.
Emily had been making sure not to schedule meetings before nine, Jesse knew this because Carla had complained that her semiweekly 8 AM check-ins with Pope had been bumped to "at or after 10 AM" and additionally complained that she was tired of it running into her normal lunch break.
Jesse had managed not to actually laugh out loud about Carla taking lunches, because who on earth had time to eat lunch around here? Much less at the same time every day. But, Jesse supposed, just because she lived on energy drinks and trail mix did not mean anyone else had to. Or even ought to.
Still, it was 11 AM, and Emily was nowhere to be found, and Jesse wasn't worried per sey, but was idly concerned.
"Jesse!" Simon jogged up, "There's a small situation: we're seeing that there's someone on the eighth floor of the Panopticon."
"The elevator goes up to eight?"
"No," Simon grinned lopsidedly. "That's why we thought you might want to look."
Jesse tightened the rubberband in her hair, checked her gun, then paused. She looked at Simon, "Ten bucks says it's Pope."
"Not taking that bet, Director," Simon shook his head.
"Damn, when did you get wise to my rigged bets? Also do we have rope handy?"
Simon looked thoughtful, "We don't do a lot of belaying here so I can't think of any out of hand. At least, not the several hundred feet I think you'll need."
"It's fine," Jesse shrugged. "I'll levitate us both down."
"It still feels weird to me how casually you say stuff like that," Simon smiled, then walked away.
Jesse wondered idly if her parautilitarian powers freaked the staff out, then decided she didn't care and headed for Logistics.
Twenty minutes later Jesse wasn't sure if she was an idiot or genius about using her levitation so casually, because she was holding an armful of clinging blonde and could physically feel her own face trying to ignite.
"I swear I pressed four. You must have pressed eight on the elevator, right? How many buttons were there?" Emily was saying something, and Jesse could actually feel the warmth of the other women's breath against her throat. She smelled like cheap strawberry shampoo, the two dollar Suave kind which Jesse had absolutely bought for years when she was flat broke. It was bizarrely endearing, Jesse assumed it was less of a choice and more of a 'I forgot shampoo mattered and bought it at a bodega at three in the morning.' Jesse wondered if the researcher lived off Cup Noodle too.
Jesse blinked out of her own imagination, replayed the question.
"Uhm, no."
"Oh," Emily sounded a little disappointed maybe?
"I mean, I didn't take the elevator," Jesse clarified, setting to the ground fully before letting Emily down. "It would have taken too long."
"There wasn't any rush," Emily said. She was loosening her arms from Jesse, which was disappointing, but she was moving slowly at least. "I wasn't in danger or anything. The three minute elevator ride-"
Jesse looked down, and Emily's eyes were just so damn blue- "Too long."
"Sure."
Jesse could feel how stupid her smile was, but Emily was smiling and looked pretty dopey too, and that was something.
+++
The fourth time Emily Pope goes missing, Jesse is actually totally certain it's all her fault.
"It's not your fault," Raya says. "You literally told her you were sick."
"Yeah, but-"
"Just go check on her, Jesse. It's my official advice as a member of her team that you should leave the House and go check on Emily Pope." Raya looked down and scribbled something on a chart then half-whispered, "If only so I can get some actual work done."
Moving the snarky scientist up into Central Research had obviously been a mistake: Raya plainly hated the foot traffic up here, despite her enthusiastic collaboration with Emily. Jesse glared at the woman, but did leave, and felt like an idiot the whole time she was in the elevator headed to the lobby.
"I'm taking a lunch outside of the office," Jesse said to the secretary at the front desk. He raised both eyebrows and made a note on the planner in front of him. Jesse did not blush.
One short cab ride later, Jesse was knocking at the door to Emily's apartment.
"Jesse?"
"Raya told me I had to come check on you. How are you holding up?"
"I've got the flu, Jesse, I'm not dying," Emily held open the door with one hand, the other holding a blanket like a shawl around herself. Jesse stepped inside quickly, trying to minimize the amount of cold air she let into the room with her. "Is everything okay at the office, did you need anything?"
"Everything is fine, I was just worried about you."
"Are you sure you didn't just come by to say you told me so?" Emily walked toward the kitchenette, and Jesse stepped around the counter before she could.
"Sit, what did you need? Sit, sit."
"Tea. The red box," Emily sat at the bar and cleared a gap in the paperwork and detrus on the counter in front of herself.
"I just came by to check on you," Jesse said, filling the kettle and powering it on. "Any gloating is purely coincidental."
"How is Raya doing with the irradiated mold samples: has there been any changes in the flowering?"
"I have no idea," Jesse admitted, pulling down two mugs.
"You were talking to Raya and she didn't tell you about the experiment that has been her whole life for the last three months?" Emily must have noticed the two mugs because she was clearing a second seat and space at the counter.
"Well I'm sure she said something about it, but I was honestly paying almost no attention," Jesse poured the water, dropping two tea bags in with a plunk.
"Did she bore you?"
"I was thinking of you," Jesse rounded the counter, leaned into Emily's personal space, and pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips while she set a cup of tea in front of the seated woman.
"Ew, Jesse, I'm all gross," Emily sniffed, but leaned right back into Jesse.
"I swear it was not one week ago that I told you that exact same thing," Jess sipped her tea innocently and brushed a stray lock of hair back from Emily's forehead, she did smell a little like sweat and was more flushed than normal. Jesse still wanted to kiss her.
"Yes, and look how I suffer for that mistake."
"I've already had this cold- I'm immune."
"So you think. What if it's some other flu I have? Are you willing to risk another week out of the office?"
Jesse snorted, sipped her tea trying to will Emily to do the same. It worked, and while Emily drank Jesse corrected her, "I wouldn't be out a week, I'd just work through it like last week."
"That's worse," Emily said, but was setting her tea down, leaning her forehead into Jesse's shoulder, arms looping around her waist. Her words were muffled into Jesse's shirt, "Thank you for coming over."
"Of course," Jesse set her tea down, then tipped Emily's face up to kiss her properly, lips still warm and bitter from tea. "Now, if I make us soup will you eat it?"
"Yes Director," Emily was probably trying to sound snarky, but Jesse grinned again.
"Emily, how kinky, but save that talk for when you feel better."
Emily blushed and Jesse hid her grin in the cupboards as she searched for a can of soup with chicken in the name.