Work Text:
The table in front of Kim was covered in print outs that needed organising into folders for the Lizewski case. The mailroom team only had forty minutes to get every last sheet into the correct order and filed away, to reprint any mistakes and get them all to the fourth floor.
It was no small ask and yet Kim was the only one still sorting through the piles of paper.
Ten minutes ago everyone had been on task but then the new guy had started telling one of his stories and slowly everyone drifted away, caught up in his charisma and laughing too hard to pay attention.
Kim snapped the latest ring binder shut and added it to the box of completed files.
“-he had no idea what he was saying. Just making shit up. Anything to stop this cop turning around and seeing me-”
Title page. Contents. Intro summary.
“-and my pants are still caught on this fence so he starts singing the national anthem. Star Spangled Banner. Hand on heart and everything.”
Discovery update.
“I’ve got no other options.”
“No!”
“Oh yeah. Pants come off and I’m sprinting down the street in broad daylight.”
Possible counter arguments.
“Had no choice. The state he was in? No way Marco knew what he was supposed to be hailing by the dawn’s early light.”
Closing statements.
Snap.
Still laughing, the group gradually went back to their own set of folders, none of them noticing they had wasted so much precious time.
Kim shifted her weight to try and stop the pins and needles in her foot.
Gerald coughed.
Burt clicked his pen on and off.
Mind numbing grunt work was exactly what Kim had always known it would be, but unlike everyone else, she owed the company much more than they paid her and she had no choice but to power through the boredom.
That said she missed the background noise of the new guy talking a shade too loudly for an office.
She glanced up at him and was surprised to see him leaning over to see how many folders she had completed.
“Jeez, you’re making the rest of us look bad.”
“It’s in my job description. Keep morale low enough down here to stop you all rioting.”
“Huh. That explains why I keep forgetting my pitchfork at home.”
He grinned across the table at her, his too long hair falling over his eyes, and-
Yeah.
The new guy.
Only a month into him being at HHM and he had already driven Kim to distraction.
Well, maybe not completely to distraction. She was still the most profficent member of the mailroom team. Whereas before she would faze out into her own imagination, reciting case law she thought might come up on her midterm, now she listened out for him.
Not just his wild stories that she didn’t know whether to believe or not. Just the way he spoke to everyone else was fascinating. He remembered everyone’s names, their kids’ names, their pets’ names and listened to even the most boring of stories. Kim avoided talking to certain people as much as she could get away with, knowing they would only talk in cliches. They would comment on the weather or bemoan how it was Monday again and she would find herself returning the favour and hating herself for it.
He would somehow turn the same three lines of conversation into something new. He would genuinely laugh at the tired line he heard the day before like it was hilarious.
She watched him with everyone to make sure he wasn’t reusing material and was floored to learn he wasn’t. Building relationships with even the most taciturn of colleagues was as easy as breathing to him.
As far as Kim was concerned, it was a superpower and he needed to be tested in a lab.
The only exception seemed to be her.
It was a rare day that he did more than greet her or ask her about something work related. It wasn’t that he avoided her, just that their paths rarely crossed. When they did however, she couldn’t help but notice he was different somehow. He never played up to being the joker or drew attention to himself. Kim couldn’t work out if he thought she wouldn’t find him funny or if something about her made him shy.
Across the table he bit his bottom lip in concentration.
Maybe the shy theory was just wishful thinking.
Two years she had managed to live in Albuquerque without developing this level of crush. She had dated, nothing serious, but she had dated. Mainly guys from UNM. Guys who weren’t in their thirties and had decent haircuts.
Guys who didn’t make her stomach contract whenever they flashed her that stupid half smile.
There was no way she could do anything about it even if she thought she had a chance. Law school took up way too much of her time and dating at work was destined to go horribly wrong.
And that was before she took into consideration who he was related to.
So Kim stayed on the sidelines, watching him from the corner of her eye and trying not to laugh when he made an obscure movie reference that no one else understood. A cute guy at the office was not going to ruin her life plan.
Eventually the folders came together, were boxed up and loaded on a cart to be taken upstairs. A couple of people started clearing up and Kim hoped to sneak away for a smoke but her plan was ruined when a couple of the others announced they were going. Escaping people didn’t have the same instant relief quality when they were standing ten feet away.
Figuring she could always take her break in the law library, Kim volunteered to take the boxes upstairs. She was almost at the elevators when someone jogged by her and hit the button to go up.
“I’ll come with,” he said with a smile. “Gotta see Chuck anyway.”
“Okay,” Kim replied, stepping into the confined space with the man she was definitely not okay being in a confined space with.
They both went to press the button for the fourth floor and bumped hands. Kim snapped hers back to her side with a short laugh that didn’t sound like her. He gave her an odd look and pressed the button.
Kim closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She wasn’t fucking twelve.
As the elevator jolted to life, Kim straightened out her sweater.
“You like movies, right?”
Kim blinked. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“Yeah, but you actually like movies.” He slouched against the wall and put his hands in his pockets. Someone needed to explain to him that short sleeve shirts weren’t really professional.
Someone needed to explain to her that she needed to stop looking at his arms but that was another problem entirely.
“I guess.”
“That old theatre down on Fifth is doing a Stephen King double feature next Tuesday.”
“Right.”
“Carrie and Children of the Corn.”
“Children of the Corn?”
He smirked. Kim cursed herself for giving him a reaction.
“Maybe it’s a comment on the duality of man?”
“Maybe they blew the budget getting a copy of Carrie?”
“Either way - interested?”
“In Children of the Corn?”
He stood up straight as the elevator shuddered to a halt. The door opened to reveal no one waiting to get in on the third floor.
“And Carrie.” He sighed. “I’ll level with you. I saw a flyer about this last week. I don’t really know anyone in this desert hellscape yet so I’ve started making a few King references here and there. See if I can find a like minded soul who enjoys seeing the good people of Maine terrorised.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“Thank you!” He threw his arms out as if to thank the heavens. The more he spoke, the more animated he became. “So it turns out no one in the mailroom picked up on any of them.”
“We work in a Stephen King novel. Haven’t you heard Burt’s theory about the haunted photocopier?”
“You did though.”
Kim frowned. “I did?”
“I made a joke to Ken. You smiled. You tried to hide it - but you smiled.”
“That doesn’t mean-”
“It was a Mangler joke. Now, not to cast judgement, but a woman who recognises the name of a character from a Stephen King story about haunted laundry equipment is the same sort of woman who would get a possibly questionable kick out of watching Children of the Corn.”
Kim took a minute to process that he had been watching her as she avoided watching him. Moments like this were always a question of give and take, and more often than not, Kim would never give. If she presented herself as quiet and bookish then most people left her alone. Small talk was fine as it so rarely revealed anything of note.
This felt different though. This felt dangerous.
This was like standing on the edge, waiting for the perfect opportunity to jump once you knew you could land.
Something about the glint of uncertainty in his eyes made her forget about safety nets.
“It’s more possessed than haunted.”
He clapped his hands together in triumph and she laughed at him.
“So next Tuesday?”
“Oh! Oh I can’t. I’ve got - well -”
“A guy?”
“What? No -”
“Because I didn’t mean-”
“-but even if -”
“It’s not like-”
“I have class,” she finally got out. “Law school. Evening classes. So.”
“Shit.” He grimaced in sympathy. “Another day maybe?”
The elevator opened again and he stepped out, glancing behind him when she didn’t immediately follow.
“Yeah. Maybe. If you play your cards right.”
Kim regretted it the moment she said it but his sly grin warmed something inside of her. She refused to blush.
“Really wish I was good at cards now.”
They stood in front of the elevator, high above their office, grinning uncertainly at each other.
“I should probably get these to-”
“Yeah.” He pushed his hair out his eyes. “It’s Kim, isn’t it?”
“Think so. Jimmy?”
“It’s what my underwear says.”
Someone called his name from further down the corridor. He shot her a parting smile and rushed towards them, still managing to greet everyone he walked by. He disappeared around a corner, passing a sign bearing his surname as he went.
Kim took a deep cleansing breath.
“Jimmy,” she exhaled and pushed the cart towards the meeting room.