Chapter Text
Jon sipped his coffee and checked his watch again. Nearly 10 p.m. Almost time for the night crew at TMA-radio to arrive, a few hours to prepare before the program started at midnight.
The new program director for The Archive arranged scripts on his sparse desk. Jon wasn’t sure he was exactly qualified for the position, although he’d jumped at the opportunity when Elias, the general manager of the station, asked him to leave his research job during normal daylight hours.
The Archive had gained somewhat of a cult following during its extensive airtime. During the day, TMA-Radio broadcast the latest breaking news, classical and cultural programs, the usual public radio offerings. But after midnight, until the morning news program started at five, strange tales of supernatural occurrences and historical anomalies captured the imaginations of a small group of dedicated listeners.
Jon scanned the script for the upcoming show, mostly just introductory phrases for pre-recorded statements. Live-reading some of the stories broadcast on The Archive would be... challenging to say the least.
“Hey sorry,” A round, flustered face appeared in the doorway. “You haven’t seen a dog, have you?”
Jon started, looking up from his papers at the out-of-breath stranger.
“I’m s- Sorry, what?”
“Um -” the man took a deep break and gestured as if patting something on the ground “Uh, a dog, a - a Spaniel, I think.”
“In- In general, or?” Jon winced internally as soon as he heard the words out loud but maintained a steady gaze over his glasses at the man who looked away almost immediately.
“N-n-no... in the station,” his grey eyes shifted back to meet Jon’s for a moment before glancing at the different corners of the room.
Great. His first day running things and already the delicate radio equipment would be destroyed by a dog on his watch. Absolutely thrilling.
“Why would there be a dog in the station?” Jon tried to keep his voice even but the anger leaked into his tone.
“Oh, ‘cause, well, I-”
Jon didn’t have time for this.
“Who are you?”
The stranger laughed and flushed even harder, his freckles all but disappearing in the heat of his face.
“Uh- M-Martin,” the nervous laughter continued “I- and cause...”
Jon slapped the script in his hand on the table with a satisfying thump and stood up. Martin stood a good head and a half taller than him but Jon tried his best to intimidate the stuttering explanation into making sense.
“I... may have...” the grey eyes desperately searched for an escape, “l-l-let him in?”
The soft shuddering chuckle did not amuse Jon in the slightest.
“What? Why?” The words made it out past his clenched jaw.
“Oh, heh. Well, I didn’t, I didn’t mean to; you know” Jon glared harder, willing the statement to speed up. “I uh, we were outside, making friends and then I had to come in but - um - my hands were full and you know the doors really heavy and so I had to use my foot and then he just sort of... like... got past me...?”
“Why were you coming into the station?” Jon put his hands on his desk and leaned forward, hoping the unwanted visitor would leave after realizing the station was only open to staff at this hour.
“Oh! Uh, I work here!”
Jon wanted to kill Elias.
“No you don’t,” this... Martin must be mistaken. “I requested Tim and I requested Sasha and you are neither.”
“Oh! Ohhhh” recognition and a fresh wave of red washed over Martin’s face. “You’re Jonathan... Sims, yeah... Um - Mr. Bouchard said I’d, I’d - be working for you.”
“Well, he didn’t tell me anything about it!”
“He, uh, well, you may not know this but... Sasha and Tim don’t really have any engineering experience,” Martin plucked at the edge of his shirt. “And well, he transferred me from transmitter maintenance so I can do night maintenance on the servers and well, I’m actually quite good at audio editing as well and this show requires a lot of well... you know... editing... and... general technical things... so...”
“So I’m your boss,” Jon hadn’t really thought about some of the technical aspects of The Archive. During his time on the day shift the most technically challenging task required of him involved recording voice overs and emailing them on to the next person. Martin’s presence was, he supposed, necessary.
“I mean,” Martin shrugged. “I guess, heh.”
“Which means that technically,” Jon threw out a small taunting imitation of Martin’s laugh, “I have the power to dismiss you, if this dog situation is not resolved immediately.”
“I mean, yeah, probably.” Jon’s eyes widened in disbelief and he leaned even further over his desk. Martin caught his pointed gaze and started upright. “Oh! Oh yes, right, sorry uh... I’ll... Sorry!”
Martin ran out the door toward, presumably, the dog loose in the station and turned to shout over his shoulder. “Sorry!”
Jon sat back in his chair slowly. He took a deep breath and worked to unclench his jaw.
“Well that’s....” he sighed, “not ideal.”
Leave it to Elias to fill the one position Jon failed to think of, however critical, with someone who seemed completely unprepared for the task. Hopefully most of Martin’s time would be filled with server maintenance and technical difficulties that did not overlap with the production of The Archives.
John went back to the scripts, keeping an ear out for barking or other sounds that might spell disaster. He only had about an hour and a half before going on-air.
Someone knocked on the door and opened it.
“Uh, yes, who is it? Tim yes, good.” Jon had actually worked with Tim before on a few research projects for the day-shows. Tim’s familiar face and easy going personality reassured Jon. He knew Sasha through her work, of course, everyone on the day crew wondered why she bothered with ghosts and ghouls when she had some of the best reporting skills in the industry. She could probably work for the BBC if she wanted.
“First day huh boss? Exciting...” Tim smiled but kept looking over his shoulder in the direction Martin had gone.
“Yes, well, it certainly has been so far.” Jon had a feeling he wouldn’t like what Tim said next.
“Haha, yeah so hypothetically... what would you say if I said there was a... Dog... situation... in the station...” Tim tapped his foot with urgency although the sentiment didn’t quite reach the smile on his face.
“I would ask if it was getting worse?” Jon really wanted to read the full script before his first show but the chances of that seemed less and less likely.
“Okay, alright,” Tim’s foot stopped tapping. “Cool, so right.”
“Tim.” Jon imagined his first day going so differently from this.
“Hypothetically-”
“Tim.”
“I - yeah, yeah, there’s a dog situation in the station,” Tim hesitated. “There’s a, there’s a mess of the... doggy variety.”
“Right.” Jon sighed, resigned to the literal shit show.
“I’m sorry,” the apology seemed half genuine and half amused.
“It’s not your fault.” Jon knew who had ruined his first day. “Come on, lets... lets deal with it before it escalates.”
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