Work Text:
William T. Spears had officially decided he didn’t get paid enough.
It would be one thing if the disruptions to his work day were infrequent and easily resolved, but they were not. At this point, they were near daily occurrences and Will’s patience was drawing thin.
The start of today’s interruption came from an unreported flood in a third floor bathroom. The third floor men’s room sat directly above a storage room housing countless Records and the flood of water ruined at least a quarter of them. A review of the security cameras showed a drenched Ronald Knox fleeing the scene, but upon questioning him, Ronald swore up and down he had nothing to do with it.
Before Will could begin to calculate how much overtime would need to be assigned to fix this mess, a fire alarm went off on an upper floor.
Of course one incident wasn’t enough. Of course.
He knew assisting Sutcliff in acquiring her own office would come back to haunt him one day, he just hadn’t expected this. Half the room was ablaze by the time he – and a very damp Ronald – reached it, and Grell ran smack into him while attempting a hasty escape. Her sheepish expression and hurried apologies did little to quell his ire when he discovered she had been in the possession of his half of this month’s Records. Said Records were now scorched beyond belief along with one of Grell’s curtains and a good part of her desk.
No more candles in the building, Will decided. Absolutely none.
The third and final event that disrupted Will’s day occurred while Will was escorting Knox and Sutcliff to his office for reprimand. A stampede of goats forced them against the wall lest they be trampled.
In the building. In his building.
After the beasts were cleared from the third floor – and that was no small feat; Will wasn’t sure how they had managed to get up there – it was quickly discovered that what they didn’t destroy, they tried to eat.
Evidently, Eric Slingby thought it appropriate to let loose a herd of goats on Alan Humphries in a cockeyed plot to earn his affections. Why in the office and not on their own time? Will constantly asked himself this question and had yet to find a suitable answer. Unbeknownst to Slingby, it seemed the object of his affections was deathly afraid of the animal and his plan was doomed to fail.
In the end, four reapers in various states of dishevelment were escorted swiftly to his office to receive their proper disciplinary actions.
Seated behind his large wooden desk, he pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping that his expanding migraine would vanish if he prayed hard enough. He was purposefully ignoring the four reapers huddled before him, focusing instead on where to even begin with their punishments.
Finally, Will lifted his head to take in the appearances of the rather uncomfortable looking reapers before him.
Ronald was still dripping and seemed to be focused on keeping his expression as innocent as possible; Will wasn’t convinced. Security footage didn’t lie and neither did Ronald’s wet clothes.
Grell, amusingly enough, looked rather scorched. There was ash smeared across her forehead and her elbow was still faintly smoking. Alan looked half trampled and was leaned into Grell's side, frantically pleading with her to switch seats with him. The cause of his immediate discomfort naturally stemmed from the last reaper in front of Will. Or, rather, what he was holding.
Eric had managed to snatch up one of the goats and was holding it proudly in his lap as if it were a house cat and not an average sized farm animal. It was trying to chew on Alan’s jacket sleeve while poor, white-as-a-sheet Alan tried to flee into the safety of Grell’s seat.
Eric, still vying for Alan's affections, tried valiantly to urge the goat’s focus away from his frightened companion and onto him, but all that earned him was a loud bleat and a face full of goat saliva.
Will scowled in Eric’s direction.
He was definitely not paid enough.