Chapter Text
Visi narrowed her eyes, staring hard at the back of the dispatcher's head as he stood in front of the vending machine. He was up to something, she knew it.
Not at the vending machine, mind you, he was probably just getting Twinkies. In general though, he was up to something.
Call it attention to detail, call it anxiety, hell, call it stalker tendencies. Courtney tended to pick up on the little things, especially changes in routines. Certainly, Robert had had a change in routine. Every Wednesday for the past few weeks, he’d stayed late for no apparent reason. When she’d taken the liberty of ‘reviewing’ the timestamps left open on Blazer’s computer, it appeared he was clocking out at 6:00 pm on those days. Not only that, but the next morning, he’d seem even more tired than normal
“Are you fucking listening?”
“Huh?” Courtney looked over at Mal, the demon clearly irritated at being ignored, “sorry, what did you say?”
“Are you kidding me?” Mal said, “the fucks gotten into you?”
“Sorry sorry, I’m just… distracted,” Courtney said softly, watching their boss exit the breakroom with his snack.
Mal followed her eyes, then leaned closer with a sly grin, “Oh, with him?”
“Urg, no! Nothing like that!” Courtney blushed, causing Mal to laugh. It had been no secret that she'd been infatuated with Robert for quite a while after first getting to know him. Even if it stemmed from her guilt over what she'd done, she still found herself drawn to him romantically. Rest assured, she'd killed those feelings after more than one failed attempt at pulling the man. At least, she thought she did... whatever. As far as she was concerned, she’d long gotten over her near obsession with the younger man, having been pushed away more times than should have been necessary, “he’s just up to something.”
“Oh yeah? What exactly you think? Aside from his, uh, his fourth snack cake.”
“What are we talking about?” Prism chirped, settling herself into one of the remaining chairs at the table while Flambae grabbed one from another table to join them.
“Apparently, Robert is up to something,” Mal leaned back with her arms crossed, looking over at Courtney as she leaned closer.
“The fuck do you care?” Chad dropped the chair down opposite Alice, before plopping down into it, "I thought you were over that little bitch."
“I don’t, I mean… I am! Over him... I mean... I’m just curious I guess,” Courtney glanced to the door Robert exited from a few minutes ago, before looking back at her companions. She listed out her reasoning for her suspicion to them, highlighting the suddenness of the change for emphasis.
“He’s probably just beating it at his desk,” Chad said, chuckling at his own statement.
Alice barked a laugh, "What? You think he's scheduling it?"
"He's done less weird things."
“I don’t know, not everyone’s as desperate as you are,” Mal stated, pointing at the man who growled at her, before raising her coffee cup to her lips and taking a sip. She continued: “plus even our HR would have lost their shit by now I'd think.”
“Okay so just… ask him?” Alice reasoned, but Courtney shook her head.
“Tried that, he just says not to worry about it, none of my fucking business, get back to work,” she mocked, slouching with her arms crossed, before leaning back and throwing her head back with a huff, glaring like it was the ceiling tiles fault.
"Oooh, maybe he's staying late for someone," Alice said cheekily as she clasped her hands together and hopped a bit in her seat.
"What? Like another coworker?" Courtney asked.
"I don't know, maybe," Alice responded, crossing her legs and bringing her hand to the side of her face in thought.
"Eh, I'm not convinced," Mal spoke up, "I'm honestly not completely convinced he's not an Ace in the hole."
The three women continued to throw out theories for what the young man might be doing by himself an hour after everyone has left, coming up with nothing that seemed very possible. Well, actually a lot of them seemed perfectly plausible, just not that interesting. Chad, on the other hand, was getting quite bored with this discussion; he’d been eager to take his lunch and talk to Alice about weekend plans, plus an upcoming album he was looking forward to. Yet, despite not even being present, Bob Bob was still taking over the conversation. Several eyerolls and antsy silence later, he decided to speak up.
“Well gee, that is a conundrum,” Chad mocked, interrupting his colleagues, “how ever can you, a bitch who can fucking turn invisible, ever figure out something someone is trying to keep secret from you, specifically what they’re doing in a location you already know exactly where and when to find them?”
“Fuck you,” Courtney glared at the fire hero, before giving it some thought. She rested her head in her hands. Is she really desperate enough to follow Robert and see what he might be up to? It was a big risk, and she still worried he didn’t completely trust her after everything. Not that she blamed him. Did she really want to risk that just for a little bit of curiosity over what was probably just OT paperwork?