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Jayce learned Mel's dirty secret on accident.
He was taking a break from the lab work and decided to swing by her office. He lightly whistled with his lunch pack bouncing against his leg as he walked. As he neared he stopped whistling so he could surprise her. Her name plate was in gold - he would have been disappointed if it wasn't. He pressed his ear to the door, heard nothing, and opened the door. He opened it just a little to make sure she wasn't in conference with someone but then quickly threw it open in shock.
"Oh my gods!"
Mel jumped a little in her plush seat. "Jayce? What -"
"How, why -" he gestured all around him, stacks of papers everywhere, pens on the floor, an ink pot spilled over and dried out on her desk. He sputtering out words until an actual sentence came out, "It's a mess!"
She stood up elegantly, with not a hair out of place, her usual white dress shifting back against her body with hardly a wrinkle. Yet her office was such a sty.
"Elora usually keeps it tidy but she's unwell this week."
"But you're so neat." He put a hand to his forehead. "How is it possible you're this messy?"
She softly huffed. "I've been busy." She walked around to the front of her desk and crossed her arms. "Did you merely come here to lecture me or did you barge in for a reason?"
"Uh, yeah," he let out a long breath and lifted his leather carrier bag, "lunchtime but I think a clean up is on the menu instead."
She eyed the bag curiously. "I was getting hungry."
"We can't eat now. We should clean up first."
"It can wait," she waved off. "Now then, let's see." She walked to a chair and plopped the stack of papers on another table. "You can sit here."
"I-I can't." He looked around. He could hear all the papers crying to be sorted. "How do you find anything anyways?"
"I manage." She walked up to him and linked their arms. "Clearly we need a change in scenery."
"But your office -"
"I'm hungry Jayce."
He sighed as she gave him the Big Eyes and Batting the Lashes. "Ok, we'll eat."
She eased into a smile. "I know a good spot in the courtyard with plenty of shade."
Jayce took one last look at the chaos and then let her pull him along.
He couldn't sleep.
Well, he did sleep for a couple of hours - Mel made sure of that - but then he woke up from a nightmare of drowning in a sea of paper. With Mel's head against his chest and his arm around her waist, his fingers lightly stroking her smooth skin, he decided on a plan. He reached out to the side table by the bed but couldn't reach it. He slid over, bringing Mel with him. She made a sleepy murmur and snuggled her face against his neck when he finally stopped moving. He smiled at that. He wouldn't have pegged her as a cuddler. One handed he got his notepad and a pencil. It took some maneuvering of his legs and balancing the notepad but he was able to scribble away his ideas before he forgot. The light crystal he added to the top of his notepad glowed just enough for him to see the paper and not bother Mel - that had been some nights of trial and error to achieve.
"Ok."
He put the notepad and pencil back on the table. He rolled on his side, making Mel shift on her side too. She grumbled as she adjusted her head.
"Sorry."
He kissed the top of her head and helped shift them in a better position. They now laid with their legs tangled. He pulled her in against his chest and then closed his eyes.
Elora was out for another week.
Mel stepped out of her meeting dreading to go back to her office. She missed the deadline on a couple of forms and now had to start that project all over again. "Elora, you must get better," she tiredly sighed. She wouldn't say she didn't appreciate what Elora did for her, but she was now realizing just the extent of skill and organization the woman had to be able to keep all of that sorted out. Mel was great at filing away information mentally. She had memorization tricks for those. But physical files? That was another beast altogether.
She opened her office to find Jayce sorting out a stack. "Where's my desk?"
"Councilwoman!" He stood up and hurried to her side. "Great timing. I've just finished testing your desk out."
"I liked my old desk."
"You're going to love this new one. Elora especially. Look." He put his hand along her back. She stepped forward as he requested. "I've built in a calendar into your desk - don't touch it, I just set it correctly - and it's connected to these bins over here. It's labelled by month. So you put some papers due this month in here." The month label on the bin turned red. "And it goes red when the due date is soon, yellow if there's still time but coming up and then green if it's completely not a priority. I can change the bin names to weeks or change the colors if you want. Then over here," he led her to sit down, "is the fun part. Go ahead and open the compartments."
She looked at his eager face and humored him. "A stamp?"
"Your signature, but see here, the bottom is closed. So to open it you need to place your thumb here - " it slid open to reveal an impression of her signature, "and only you can unlock it."
"When did you get my thumbprint and signature?"
"And over here," he opened a drawer, "just your pens and ink pots."
She gave him a half hearted glower for not answering her question and opened another compartment. It held a glass container of nuts and dried fruits. She quirked a bemused brow at him. He merely grinned and gestured her to keep looking. A circular mirror unfolded at eye level. She took a moment to check her hair and moved on. The big side drawers were more filing aids, nicely labelled and color coordinated. Elora already had such a system in place so he was just automating certain aspects.
"This is very impressive."
"I'm thinking of setting one up in the lab and in my office too. Speaking of my office," he straightened his jacket. "I got a meeting soon." He leaned over and tapped a compartment. "Check behind this one."
She pulled out the drawer with the snacks. "I don't -" she narrowed her eyes as she spied a knob in the back. She pulled out the drawer completely and opened the hidden drawer. Something gleamed inside. She pulled it out and her eyes were wide. "Oh Jayce..." Her forefinger traced the gold rose hairpin with an emerald stone in the center. She looked up to thank him but he already left. She slid the mirror back out and carefully placed the hairpin in her bun.
A soft smile appeared on her face.