Chapter Text
The morning was not shaping up to be a good one.
His alarm clock just hadn’t gone off even though he clearly remembered setting it the night before. He had ended up waking up fifteen minutes late. On a day where he was most definitely supposed to be meeting with a client in a little less than an hour. Cursing, he sprung out of bed and practically darted over to his closet.
He had never gotten dressed so quickly in his life.
Glancing at his clock anxiously, he noted that he had almost made up for the time he had overslept by. He should run by his post box to see what bills were due, but he wasn’t sure he had enough time. After a brief consideration, he decided that his bill were, in fact, important and should be paid as soon as possible.
Hastily, he shoved the day’s mail into his messenger bag. He was still running a bit behind. He’d just bring his mail along and pay his bills on his lunch break. If he managed to get one today of course. And that had yet to be seen.
--
By ten o’ clock his day had improved very little.
He had finally made it to the office (and on time, luckily) to find that the client had called Harvey and rescheduled his appointment. So, really, he was just an hour early to work when he didn't have to be. Not that anyone seemed to care.
In hurry to leave his apartment that morning, he had forgotten the research he had spent most of the night writing up on his coffee table. He ended up spending that hour he shouldn't have been at the office for retyping the entire thing. Which was just annoying.
And in addition to the already massive caseload he had for Harvey, Louis had deigned to bestow upon him more paperwork. If he had to work over lunch, then he sure as hell was taking an actual lunch break instead of just scarfing down whatever he got from a vending machine.
--
The file room wasn’t quite the place he had in mind when he said he wanted a lunch break. He had meant being able to leave the office for the hour that he was legally entitled to, but his newest client had a bit of a crisis and so here he was. In this dusty, musty, cluttered room eating a sandwich he had bought from the little café downstairs, working.
Frankly, he was about ready to tear his own hair out in frustration. The paperwork he was filling out was just tedious. He was pretty sure that they had just changed the wording around a few times and been asking the same question for the past five questions at this point. Grinding his teeth, he slammed the manila folder closed lest he “accidentally” do something unfortunate to it.
He brought his hands to his temples, massaging them gently. He needed to find something to (very briefly) take his mind of the frustration of his job. He wouldn’t make any progress with his work if he was irritated.
Oh, right, his bills. He could budget for next month. That would be a welcome distraction. Or as welcome of a distraction he could manage for now. He reached across the table and pulled his messenger bag towards him by the strap. His mail was still mostly together, so he just reached in and pulled as much as he could out at once before fishing around for any stragglers.
He shuffled through his post unenthusiastically. Nothing looked too, too interesting. But truth be told he wasn’t paying that much attention to it.
Bill.
Bill.
Advert.
Coupons.
He froze when he got to the FedEx envelope. He held it, staring disbelievingly.
No.
Now?
Hands shaking, he tore open the envelope.
BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY
COMPLIANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING ORDERS IS MANDATORY.
Suddenly, repetitive paperwork seemed utterly insignificant.