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When Bonnie walked into the main living area of the villa she had expected darkness but instead at the opposite side of the room, suspiciously in the location of Dad’s desk there was the faint blue glow of a holoscreen. This wouldn’t have been strange normally, she knew Scott often worked late, but no one was anywhere to be seen and the lights were usually on since they worked on a sensor through the night. As she stepped into the room the sensors did their job and the room was illuminated in a soft, warm, glow. That was when she saw it.
Scott was face down on the desk, asleep and dead to the world, a cup of what was probably now cold coffee sitting beside his arm. She approached him carefully, she didn’t like waking up any of her brothers out of the blue after the stuff they had seen but especially not Gordon or Scott.
She laid a hand softly on his arm.
“Hey big bro…” She rubbed his arm gently, he stirred but seemed otherwise unaffected. “You can’t sleep here Scott, you’ll do yourself an injury.” She moved her hand and shook his shoulder slightly, still nothing but a snuffle and a twitch. “Hey, Scooter.” She raised her voice to a normal level. “It’s time to scoot your butt or Grandma’s going to give you such a roasting you’ll look like the thanksgiving turkey.” Nothing. “Scott!” She raised her voice a little more and it paid off.
Scott awoke with a start, knocking the holoprojector over the edge of the desk with one arm and sweeping the cup onto the floor where it landed with a resounding smash, spraying coffee and ceramic everywhere, with the other.
“Shit Bonnie! Were you trying to give me a heart attack!? Holy shit! Look at this mess! Don’t sneak up on a guy like that! What if it had been glass and not just a cup!”
Bonnie stayed silent but eyed him in such a way that put an end to his ranting.
“Sorry, sorry. Not your fault.” Scott muttered, stretching out his back and yawning at the same time.
“Too right it’s not my fault.” But she grabbed a mop and sweeping brush anyway. “For the record, I tried to wake you up subtly, but it didn’t work. You should be in bed. Beds are for sleeping, desks are for working.”
“Wish I could sleep, I’ve got too much to do.” He pulled the projector back onto the desk and pressed the restart button.
While it loaded up they cleaned up the coffee and smashed cup mess.
“Don’t tell Virgil, he’ll be very upset about that waste, it was some of his special stuff.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
There was a soft ping and the screen reappeared on the desk.
“What are you doing anyway?” Bonnie examined the files on the screen as Scott sat back down.
“Financials for TI, Rescue reports for the GDF, monthly costings for IR. You name it I have to sort it out. Oh, and stuff for Alan’s school.”
He selected the last file downloaded and a report card popped up.
“He’s doing well,” Bonnie nodded.
“He’s behind though, can’t tell you all of the passive aggressive emails I’ve had about him needing to prioritise his schoolwork.”
Bonnie snorted. “They know what he does, right?”
“They are more than aware.” Scott sighed. “I’m behind on everything apart from this.” He picked up the tablet and scribbled his signature onto the projected report card, sending it right back to the email it came from.
“How far behind?”
“Enough that I can’t sleep for thinking about it, unless I just crash after a long day.” Scott rubbed his eyes. “Even then I only get two hours, maybe three if I’m really lucky.”
“Scott…”
“I can handle it.”
Bonnie frowned. “Do the boys know?”
“John and Virgil help where they can, but they aren’t authorised on this stuff. It has to be my signature unless I one hundred per-cent was not there at all on the rescue, not even coordinating from here. They fill in their bits and then hand them off to me, and I fill in the official forms.”
“You need to rest.”
“I’m good. I just need to catch up.”
“Oh yeah? And how long do you have to play catch up for?”
“Month or so, no big deal.” Scott shrugged.
He tried to hide the screen from her then, but since she was fully rested and he still groggy from his nap she managed to push him away with little to no effort.
“Scott! This one is from February!”
“So what?”
“We’re in June.”
“It’s fine, I can sort it. Done it before.” He tried to shrug again and play it off but the yawn that overtook him was large.
“You need to go to bed.”
“I just need more coffee.”
“I’ll go wake Virgil, and he’ll give you a sedative, or just manhandle you to bed.” She smirked as her glowered at her. “Better yet, I’ll go wake up Grandma. She’ll get you to bed, and lock you in if she has to.”
“But then who would do this glamorous job?” Scott thought he had her beaten until he took one look at her determined expression.
“Me.”
“What?”
“I’ll do it. I’ll fill everything in that I need to, check over everything that I have to, and you just need to sign it.”
“But I - -”
“You’re not running yourself ragged over this. I’ll tell you that for nothing.” She turned the projector off and Scott made an annoyed noise. “You are going to go to bed, go to sleep, I’m going to check on you every so often and if I find you gone from your bed I’m going to call Aunt Val and she’ll put you down as not mission safe, then you’ll be stuck.” Her eldest brother glared at her. “Then tomorrow, when you’re fully rested, you’re going to talk me through what I need to do, and I’m going to do this bureaucratic bullshit so that you don’t dig yourself an early grave through a horrifying amount of sleep deprivation. I’m still injured and I can’t help in any way other than this, so let me.”
Scott held her determined gaze with a half-glare of his own, but eventually sighed. Logic winning over control.
“Alright. Alright. If you’re so determined, you win. Have fun dealing with the TI board and the GDF.”
“Oh, I will,”
“Play nicely.”
“Don’t I always?”
Bonnie blinked at him innocently and Scott laughed.
“Come on biggest bro, time for bed.”