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Brigid discovered her mistake like an afterthought, and perhaps it was. She walked into work one day and smelled the familiar combination of fertilizer and chlorophyll, looking down she found the lab coat she was wearing was not her own, and that's when it hit her. Her chest clenched, and her heart fluttered a light, frivolous flutter. She worked like she normally would, with little discussion and optimum performance, no scientific errors to be found. Gilbert and Suchong looked at her strangely but she refused to let it phase her. After she was finished she adjusted the lab coat on her shoulders, and made her way to Arcadia.
Brigid didn't much like Arcadia, the cemetery was useless, it always smelled like fertilizer, and the persons who roamed the tea gardens were lecherous and distasteful. Arcadia did however remind Brigid of someone she very much liked and so she barely batted an eye as dirt clung to her shoes. She walked with her usual formal, face paced gait, not bothering to enjoy the scenery, she had somewhere to be. She was intimately familiar with the lab of Julie Langford and her knuckles had all but worn a spot for themself in the door she knocked on. Two no nonsense raps and she heard an exasperated, very American
"Yes, yes come in, but make it snappy, I'm busy." Brigid straightened her clothing, ratty and dirty though it was, she didn't care much for appearances, and walked in. The lab was as chaotic as ever, tables full of microscopes, notes, chlorophyll samples, Petri dishes of who-knows-what, and plants scattered about in a seemingly disorganized whirlwind. Trees sat in glass tubes and the whole thing just didn't seem sterile enough to Brigid. Julie was bent over a dead ficus stirring some liquid, with what appeared to be salts sitting at the bottom, in an Erlenmeyer flask. Brigid cleared her throat. "Who is it, what do you want?" Julie turned around, always upset to have her work interrupted, Brigid understood and liked her for it. Julie's face blossomed into a familiar smile. "Hello bridge, what the fuck are you doing here?"
"You would wisely be adding more distilled water to that concoction if you want to dissolve those salts."
"So you came to pester me about my chemistry? Sorry doll this isn't your lab." Julie's eyes scanned over Brigid in a hurried motion, she always seemed to be in a rush. "That is my lab coat though."
"That is why I am here, you left it at my apartment." She didn't remove it though, it seemed wrong to do so.
"When?"
"I believe it to have been after that awful Cohen's party, you are very much of a lightweight." Julie laughed.
"I'm hardly a lightweight, I simply learned not to try to outdrink you, but I made a company mandated function fun didn't I?" Brigid gave a halfhearted shrug, though every party really was much better with Julie there.
"I'm here to return it to you." Julie set down her flask, turning her body to face Brigid. The words spoke sincerely but Brigid felt like she was lying anyway.
"But then you'd be cold for your walk home, and what if someone spilled something on you? You wouldn't want to get that dress dirty."
"You do not want it back?" Julie stepped over to her and straightened the lab coat on Brigid's shoulders, brushing a bit of dirt off the collar, dirt got on everything in Arcadia.
"It looks good on you besides," Julie pulled up the back of the collar of the plain lab coat she was wearing, the tag said 'Property of Fontaine Futuristics' and Brigid's stomach tittered. Julie smiled wickedly, as if she knew she made Brigid feel that way. "Get dinner with me?" Brigid straightened her stance, regaining her composer.
"Anything so I may spend the least time as possible in this filthy forest. Perhaps you shall leave with your own clothing tonight."
"We'll see."