Chapter Text
After the Prentiss attack things were..different to say the least. Jon was freaked out by Gertrude’s death, Tim and Sasha were recovering from almost dying, and Martin was worried about his boss. Elias also was struggling with the fact that after him and Peter had gotten ANOTHER divorce he wouldn’t be receiving funds from him, along with that some of the other people offering funds had taken back on the offer due to finding out not one but two murders took place there. Who could blame them though? Would you give money to a place that is crawling with cops and a possible murderer?
A month after the attack everyone returned to work, Jon recently received a cane due to his right leg being severely injured from worms eating at his muscles. Jon stumbled into the archives, struggling to use his new cane, and looked around. It was oddly quiet, Tim hadn’t given his usual “morning boss!” Or sarcastic comment, no chatting between everyone, Martin hadn’t even offered Jon tea. This was slightly disturbing to him but he decided to try to ignore it, everyone was most likely exhausted from Basira or Daisy coming in for the 15th time to interrogate everyone.
After recording a couple statements he realized it was already 3 pm, damn- he would probably go eat something, he has a tendency to forget to eat due to never having an appetite. He stepped out of his office, cane in hand and still wobbly as ever. He realized the office was still as silent as this morning except for the occasional stapler noise coming from Sasha’s desk, or the faint music coming from Martin’s headphones. Tim was missing from his desk and most likely in the break room. Jon stepped into the small kitchen area of the break room, and walked to the fridge grabbing the lunch he had in there. Tim was at the table in there sulking while looking at his computer, once again not even receiving his usual “evening boss!” Or “finally done being, spooky boss?” Something about it didn’t settle right with him. As much as he hated doing this he sighed and finally spoke “Alright what’s up Tim?”. Tim looked over, slightly shocked that THE Jonathan Sims was actually concerned for him, and closed his laptop before speaking “what do you mean Boss?” Jon sighed and looked at the ground “I mean, what’s up with everyone being silent? What’s up with everyone looking sad and everything? I mean you all never shut up and every time I leave my office something is happening. So what’s the issue?”
Tim went to speak but stayed quiet for a moment “Well, I’m not sure if I can state everyone else’s issues currently but, Elias hasn’t been paying as much she used to and living costs are..well..expensive! I’m late on the rent for my flat and if I don’t figure something out soon I’m gonna have to pick up a weekend job.” Jon could agree with the money situation, and was honestly struggling as well. Jon felt bad for Tim as odd as that sounds. During the awkward silence of trying to figure out what to say Martin walked in, he froze for a moment thinking something intense had just happened, filling in the awkward silence he gave a small wave and kind smile to Jon, “oh hello Jon, what uh, what are you and Tim up to in here?” Jon looked over to Martin, ever since the dog incident the two never got along, however he did have a soft spot for Martin. Martin had made him tea and checked in on him, so of course he had grown slightly soft for the fluffy haired man!
Jon finally spoke, realizing he was admiring Martin for too long. “Oh we’re um, just chatting.” Tim ,almost interrupting Jon, spoke as well “Talking about the shitty pay everyone is getting right now, I mean hell can’t Elias use any of his billions of dollars to pay us better?”. Martin sat his cup on the counter, starting a kettle to make a new up of tea, “Well, maybe he’s losing money trying to fix worm damages? I-I don’t know Tim, but I agree,, Pay hasn’t been the greatest” Martin grabbed tea bags from the cupboard and sat it on the counter. Tim stood and grabbed his laptop “Going back to my desk, Martin, a cup of tea would be really nice right now” Martin nodded, getting Tim a mug, “And Jon, until this is fixed don’t expect things to be normal, everyone is tired.” And with that Tim left the break room. Jon sighed and sat down at the table, leaning his cane on the edge of it and no longer having the stomach to eat anything. Was everyone really doing that bad right now? If 3 of the 4 people down here were struggling with housing funds that badly Sasha must also be struggling. What does he do about it? Tell Elias “hey horrifying boss who never answers my emails or anything, you should pay us more because if not we’re gonna be homeless!”. Martin interrupted his spiraling thoughts “Jon would you also like some tea?” Jon looked over to the tall, admittingly cute- wait no- it’s not ok to call your colleges cute- stop thinking that Jon- anyway, Jon looked over to Martin “sure, yea sounds good right now” Martin smiled and nodded, he grabbed a white mug with a heart on it for Jon. Soon the kettle was ready and Martin made him and the others a cup of his famously amazing tea. Martin handed Jon his mug and gave a small smile, “don’t feel bad about what’s happening Jon, s’not your fault.” He soon left the small man alone in the break room grabbing the other mugs and headed out to his desk. Jon knew he couldn’t do much to change anything happening, but he couldn’t help how sad he was over the ordeal. Jon sighed and took a drink of the tea Martin made him. Guess he’ll have to mope over this later, it’s already 3:40 and Jon still has paperwork to fill and emails to reply to, the lady at the front desk sends emails every week to ‘check in’ with the workers. Jon found them to be stupid while Sasha considered them to be sweet, Tim never replied to them and Martin never knew how to reply to them.
Jon finally made it to his flat at around 9. He was exhausted and just wanted to lay in bed with his cat Keats. Jon took his large coat and tossed his bag to the sofa while taking his shoes off, wobbly he made his way to his room where Keats greeted him with a ‘maow’, he smiled and gently pet the fluffy cat “Missed you too”. Soon he was in bed holding his cat on his chest watching whatever show was already on. Eventually his thoughts were flooded with memories from Gertrudes case. Was someone after him now? Who shot her? I mean gosh it was already a relief he wasn’t accused of the murder— his phone pinged loudly, someone texted him? The only person he had texted was Georgie, maybe even Sasha on occasion, but why would either be texting him right now? Maybe he left something at work. He picked his phone up, adjusting his laying arrangements to be sitting up more. Tim?? How did he get his number and why the hell was he put into a group chat with him, Sasha, and Martin? He opened the chat and sighed
Tim:Hey guys! So you’re probably wondering why I added you guys to this.
Jon:I’m wondering how you got my number.
Tim:Easy! Sasha gave me it!
Sasha:Sorry Jon! Tim had an idea and I thought you may want to hear this
Jon:Then say it or I’m blocking your numbers
Tim:ok ok, so we’re all struggling right now cause big boss Elias is slacking on paying right?
Martin:Staying in the archives hasn’t been horrible, but Elias said I need to leave soon.
Sasha:I’m this close 🤏 to moving in with my mum
Jon:I’ll admit yes it’s been difficult, but what’s your point here Tim?
Tim:What if we share a flat? There’s a big one a block from the institute! Rent is only about 300 a month!
Jon:No.
Sasha:Come on Jon! This seems like a really good way for us to not only get work done quicker but maybe even solve our problem!
Tim:yea! And as soon as things are normal you can leave!
Martin:Not sure about Jon but I’d be up for it :))
Tim:so that’s three of us in on it!
Jon sighed, Tim had a point on the fact it would help everyone a lot, and also prevent him from having to ask Georgie if he can stay with her for a bit..Fine he’d do it
Jon:Fine. Give me a week to have my things together and such, but the moment things are normal I’m out of there.
Tim:Wooo! We got the boss in on it now!
Sasha:This is going to be great!
Tim:How about we all go together Saturday to check the place out and grab lunch?
Martin:That sounds good with me
Sasha: I’m down!
Jon:Ok.
Jon was not looking forward to this but hey, maybe it’ll go better than he expected. God he hoped it would-