Chapter Text
As We Know It – Chapter 1, Setting the Bar
** Set around Jus in Belo (season 3, episode 12) **
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02/15/2008 18:51 EST
Bekarooni: How’s my favorite crime fighter?
A is for Awesome: Hey chicka
Bekarooni: A little birdie told me that you were moving down to my neck of the woods.
A is for Awesome: mmm… yup
Bekarooni: :(
Bekarooni: so why didn’t I hear it from you?
A is for Awesome: it was kinda sudden
Bekarooni: super secret spy stuff?
A is for Awesome: spies are CIA, B
Bekarooni: tosh! Secret departments in the government are all the same
A is for Awesome: more conspiracy theories? I thought you weren’t going to humor your uncle anymore?
Bekarooni: ;) I can’t help myself. It’s like fan fiction written by anti-fans. Hilarious!
A is for Awesome: weirdo. :)
Bekarooni: you love me anyway
A is for Awesome: true
Bekarooni: and now you are going to luuuurve me even more
A is for Awesome: …why?
Bekarooni: Mamasouri called me up during the holidays and told me not to put Kenna’s room up for rent when she left at the end of term. You don’t have to worry about apartment hunting in DC because you have one all ready for you. XD
A is for Awesome: as long as we’ve known her and it still weirds me out when she does things like that…
Bekarooni: yes, precious…
A is for Awesome: also weirding me out
Bekarooni: sorry
Bekarooni: so, you got an itinerary yet?
A is for Awesome: I’m supposed to catch an intra-state TLD Sunday morning, check into the hotel, and settle in for a bit. I’m due at the main office Monday at 9am for debrief and they’ll give me more information about my new assignment.
Bekarooni: Well then! I can meet you wherever and be in charge of acclimating you to the great non-state of governmental sprawl…
A is for Awesome: vunderbar!
Bekarooni: k. I’ll let you get back to your packing and whatnot. But when you get here I want to hear all the stories.
A is for Awesome: I can’t tell you the things that are classified, B
Bekarooni: All.
Bekarooni: The.
Bekarooni: Stories.
A is for Awesome: I could make things up and you wouldn’t know the difference…
Bekarooni: that’ll do donkey. That’ll do.
A is for Awesome: shut up!
Bekarooni: lol
A is for Awesome: you know you just called yourself an ogre, right?
Bekarooni: (signed off)
“Dumbass,” Amity scoffed fondly and turned the music on her laptop up as she went back to packing her apartment.
+++
“You can use this desk,” the bored HR representative motioned to a cubicle in the far corner as he gave her the quick tour of the building. “The Port Point is on the first floor near the elevator bank. You don’t generally need an appointment to access it; the warding regulates incoming porters and only lets them land at certain intervals. In the case of overload, all incoming porters are routed to the overflow room in the basement. The exact coordinates are listed in your handbook.”
They moved on before she could have a chance to make any notes or ask questions. The whole tour was like that, much to Amity’s annoyance. After a bare minimum of paperwork, he dumped her into the middle of a staff meeting for introductions and left to get lunch.
Her new co-workers eyed her with distain and Amity straightened in unconscious challenge. ‘It can only get better from here, right?’ she assured herself.
“Everyone please welcome Agent Stuart to the Indigenous and Special Autonomous Reservations DC branch office. She is joining us from the Ohio FBI-M main branch and will be taking over Mary’s old desk. Since Mary’s tasks have already been split out amongst everyone when she retired, Sonny and I have been working out how best to redistribute the work load now that we are back up to our full compliment. I have looked over all of the breakdowns that everyone turned in last week and we are going to be changing some things up a bit. Here’s how it’s going to look…”
+++
“I don’t think my new boss likes me,” Amity huffed, kicking her shoes into the cubby by the front door.
“What’s up, doc?” came a voice from the kitchen.
Amity kept talking as she unwrapped the layers necessary to walk a few blocks in the snowy capital. “He started off with a strategy session where they all shuffled their tasks around and I somehow ended up with all of the ones relating to the Durinians.”
“Ooo… fish slappers…”
“Be serious! I think he had someone else lined up for the open slot and then Brass gave it to me instead. So he gave me all the jobs no one likes.”
“Welcome to DC, luv.”
Amity rolled her eyes. “How goes your witch hunt?”
“Shut up. I don’t just work with girls, you know.” The sound of utensils tapping against a pot clanged thru the apartment. “And you kept jumping all over my case about not using the W-words in college, so set a good example…”
Amity walked around to flop onto a barstool overlooking the cooking area where her roommate was starting to drain pasta in the sink. “I’ve got a ton of background info to read and a 9am meeting at the Bank on Friday.”
The young-ish woman looked up, startled. “Oh dear! I’m calling Jay to see if he has any pointers later.”
Amity laughed, “Pulling out the big guns, eh Becca?”
The woman shrugged. “Desperate times and all that.”
The magissa snatched a piece of garlic bread and headed down the hall to change into more comfortable clothes. “Lemme know what he says,” she called.
+++
“Anyone get a load of the new girl in ISAR?”
“The one that snatched Mary’s old job out from under the Sup’s nephew?”
“Eh. She’s nothin’ special.”
“Anything is special compared to Battle Axe Siscal…”
“How long do you think she’ll last before he finds a way to kick her to the curb?”
“Ten says she’s gone by Easter.”
“Ha! They gave her all the Durinian contacts and a handful of shifter colonies in random locations. She won’t make it to St Patties!”
“No bet. Can you believe that they finally caught those Freak-chesters out in Colorado?”
“Those crazy necro creeps?”
“Oh, yeah! I heard that Richie got tapped to run escort on the transport chopper. All the weird things that keep happening around those two, it had to be a good idea to add a Battle Magus to the rotation.”
“Better safe than sorry, eh?”
“I wonder if they are going to end up in our cells or on the Mundane side?”
“Hey Gerry, what’re the odds on the betting pool…”
+++
The bank lobby was large and bright as Amity walked over to the information desk and showed them her appointment information. The man at the desk seemed unimpressed, but he called up to get her an escort and motioned for her to wait in the seating area.
Something about Durinian territory had always made her uncomfortable. Taking a few moments to really observe, she noticed that everything seemed to be clinical and cold. The floor tiles, the teller counters, even the pillars around the room were all perfectly squared edges. The colors of the room were sterile whites and icy blues. All of the tellers and employees seemed to be wearing the same gray suit and the same grim expression; their hair was all the same length and pulled back into perfectly combed ponytails. ‘How Stepford,’ she shuddered a bit as she realized that the environment was a calculated maneuver intended to awe and repulse strangers.
‘Freaking office politics. How in the hell did I get saddled with ALL of the Banking Liaison tasks? If I have to come here every day I’m going to need to buy stock in Pepto-Bismol…’ Amity thought to herself.
Just as she was working up a real case of nerves, her escort arrived to take her to the executive offices.
+++
“Hi. I have an appointment with Mr. Disson?”
Amity showed her credentials to the man at the desk. He looked them over, glanced up at her, and then went back to what he was doing without saying a word. Amity blinked, pocketed her badge case and waited for a reply. After a few moments with no response from the assistant, she nodded toward a nearby seating area, “I’ll just be over there, then, yeah? Please let me know when Mr. Disson is ready for me.”
+++
Rekker snorted quietly when the human female made herself comfortable across the way from his desk. She wouldn’t be going anywhere near the door behind him while he was on duty. Returning to his work, he began sifting through all of the incoming memos for the Director’s nephew and sorting out what could be forwarded to lower level executives for analysis.
An hour and a half later the human brought attention back to herself by pulling out a PAD to fiddle with. Rekker observed this new device to assess the threat level it created, but after several tense moments, there appeared to be none, so he returned to his correspondence.
Another two hours passed before the human retrieved sustenance from her bag and stood for a bit of a stretch. Rekker watched her covertly for any signs of subterfuge, but she re-packed her meal and pulled out a new book to occupy her time. He went back to rejecting requests for meetings from various department heads.
+++
Amity looked at time display on her PAD and tried not to sigh. It was almost 2pm, she had been in this place for almost six hours and she had yet to see anyone but the secretaries. Flexing and relaxing her leg muscles in sequence helped to keep from fidgeting, but she was not sure how much longer she could sit still. If this was some kind of test, she had not found anything in her research to help her figure out what it was or how to pass it. To top things off, something in the Bank was interfering with her wireless connection so she could not send out any messages to ask for advice or assistance in research.
Just when she was starting to get worked up again, a sound down the hallway caught her attention. A group of men in business suits was making its way around the corner and up toward the doors that she was supposed to have gone thru hours ago. Watching this group might give her a clue about what to do, so she tried to be unobtrusive in her little alcove.
Five men in those Stepford suits clamored around one figure who wore a dark blue suit instead. They were all speaking in a guttural, Slavic-sounding language that Amity assumed to be the Durinian tongue, so she could not follow the conversation. There was much to be gleaned from their body-language, however; the group appeared to be an entourage for a higher-ranking person, who seemed a bit bored with the attention. He leaned on the desk of the surly secretary and smiled as he chatted, seemingly joking with the serious man who rolled his eyes and passed over a sheaf of papers.
Amity must have made a sound of surprise or indignation, because the man in blue glanced over in her direction and startled. He stared at her with wide eyes before saying something sharply that cut off all other conversations going on around him. With quick strides he closed the distance between them and stood peering down at her with an intense gaze. For the longest moment, there was silence, and then he spoke to her in that language that she could not understand, but the heartbroken pleading sound was unmistakable.
---
On the days that Kaj Disson had lunch with his brother, he spent the walk back toward his office making a concerted effort to be as upbeat and optimistic as possible. Ever since the… events… after uncle’s ascension to Director Froden had been gloomy, focusing on his old memories and forgetting to live in the here and now. The Dreaming was a blessing rarely granted to their kind and for both of them to be so blessed? On the same night, even? It was unprecedented! Yes, there were drawbacks – such is the curse with any great gifting of the heavens – but to lose himself only in what was gone was no way to live. This week Kaj had successfully talked his elder brother into taking up his craft once more. Maybe the feel of gems and precious metals running through his hands would give him the anchor that he so desperately needed. Kaj could hardly wait to tell Mother the good news!
Leaning on Rekker’s desk and joking about the older man holding down the fort and guarding the keys to the kingdom and whatever else popped into his mind was his way of spreading the joy that he felt over his grand accomplishment. Plus, it annoyed Rekker when Kaj ‘did not take his duties seriously as befits a’ blah blah blah. He wasn’t really listening to the sycophants when something over in the alcove caught his attention and then it was like the world stopped.
There she was! The one from the Dreaming! Sort of. She looked odd in the business suit favored by the men of this realm. She seemed… fresher – unsure of herself – but it was her! He was moving in a daze before his mind could catch up to his feet and suddenly he was standing in front of the chair and staring down into that face. Oh, Froden was going to –“
---
With a confused and slightly apologetic smile, the magissa looked him right in the eye said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you just said,” and watched as something broke inside the strange man’s intense eyes.
---
‘She doesn’t know me?’ The world seemed to stop and shatter with that one sentence. He warily took a step back as the apparent stranger extracted herself from the chair and turned to meet him head-on.
---
Amity carefully stood and extended her hand in greeting. “Hi, my name is Special Agent Stuart. I was supposed to have a meeting here this morning, but I think there has been a bit of a mix-up.”
---
‘Oh, yes, this is all mixed up,’ Kaj thought, staring into familiar brown eyes that seemed to apologize for causing unknown distress. He stood for a moment, digesting the turn of events as he finally found the downside to his gift. Froden was right. If they ever saw that trickster devil again Kaj would be sure to hold him down while Froden introduced him to the dull edge of a ceremonial dagger. His brother would be insufferable when he found out about this. Froden would – … never meet her like this. Kaj would fix it first.
A smile bloomed over his stunned features and he finally noticed the proffered hand. Oh, this had definite possibilities.
“Kaj Disson, Assistant Director,” he grasped the woman’s arm in the traditional greeting, careful not to touch her skin directly. “I’m afraid that Rekker has been over-protective of me again.”
**“She did not have the necessary introductions, my lord. How was I to know that you did indeed know her and that she was not just another human time-waster?”**
**“You could have asked me before you relegated her to purgatory out here.”** Kaj barked over his shoulder, still staring at the woman in his lobby. “He thinks that everyone is trying to take up my time with frivolities and it is his duty to separate the wheat from the chaff.” Glancing down at her book and notes he smiled, “but I see that you are too stubborn to let him turn you away.”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I thought that maybe you were running late or something so I would wait for you. I had no idea that he never meant me to see you at all.”
**“It wasn’t her appointment, so why should she get to use it?”**
“He said it was not your appointment. However did you manage that?” Amity relaxed as the man laughed and shifted his grip to her elbow to begin leading her toward the office door. Quickly shoving her things into the bag, she let him pull her along.
“I am new to the DC office and was just assigned several tasks relating to your Bank. My predecessor told me that there was already a meeting slot on the books and that I should just go in her stead as the new liaison.”
Kaj raised an eyebrow. “Durinians are fairly suspicious of outsiders. Anyone arriving to meet a ranking official should have a proper, official introduction. Your predecessor should have accompanied you here to do just that.”
**“They still should!”** came a grumble from the desk as they reached the door, but Kaj leaned down and murmured something in his assistant’s ear that caused the man to turn pale and stare at her as if she had two heads. After a brief staring contest with his boss, the man bowed and shooed the rest of the entourage out of the lobby and back down the hallway.
Kaj, having never let go of her arm, turned back, smiled, and escorted her into his office with a ‘carry on’ hand motion.
“Ah. Well. Office politics. Given the reputation of the Bank, I think that someone was hoping that you might run me out of town and do their dirty work for them, I’m afraid.”
“Well, maybe we are both too stubborn to let others tell us what to do, eh?”
“We are something, alright.” Amity murmured, looking around at the homey, yet sophisticated area that was such a departure from the austere lobby.
“Oh, we will be, my dear. We will be. Now why don’t you have a seat here and tell me all about your new job while Rekker brings us refreshments?”
+++
02/22/2008
FROM: S.Balsdon
TO: All Staff
RE: Richard Greene, Funeral
As you may have heard, Richard Greene, Battle Magus 1st Class, was killed in action this week while on a routine transport assignment in Colorado. The funeral arrangements have just been announced:
A Wake will be held at the Green residence beginning at sundown on Wednesday continuing until sundown Thursday. Please bring a potluck dish for the guests and something for the family.
A Funerary Pyre will commence at moonrise Thursday night at the Silver Mount Sacred Space. All are welcome; however, the Matriarch has requested that anyone not of The Path refrain from entering the innermost ring of stones. If driving, please park in the lot near the high school stadium and take the trail behind the portables. If Porting, coordinates can be found on the National Parks website.
Thank you to those who donated towards the department’s flower arraignment.
Any questions or requests for porting coordinates/driving directions should be directed to Andrea.
+++
02/22/2008 16:19 EST
Bekarooni: Heading home now. Leftovers for dinner?
A is for Awesome: But of course!
Bekarooni: Great! You can do the honors. It tastes better than the microwave…
A is for Awesome: It’s not supposed to affect the taste at all, B.
Bekarooni: And yet, I can tell the difference.
A is for Awesome: That’s because you are weird.
Bekarooni: You say that like it’s a bad thing…
Bekarooni: How did your meeting go?
A is for Awesome: I need a drink…
Bekarooni: One of those days?
A is for Awesome: blarg
Bekarooni: I’ll break out the good booze!