Chapter Text
Another quiet afternoon in the archives, Jonathan Sims sits at his desk looking through some new statements, sorting out the ones that can be recorded digitally and the ones that must be recorded via tape.
He gets up and walks towards his office door, changing the sign right below his name plate to “In Recording” and right before he turns the lock…his phone rings.
“Uh- what, I swear I had..whatever”
Reaching into his cardigan pocket he sees a phone number he does not recognize but a feeling of both dread and curiosity washes over him. He answers the phone.
“Hello? Is this Jonathan Sims?”
“Uhm..yes, this is him. How may I help you?”
“Ah yes, your grandmother, Ethel Sims, correct?”
“Oh! I.. ahm..”
Jon hadn’t heard that name in years, let alone seen or even thought of his grandmother since he graduated from university. Puzzled, he responded…
“Uhr yes, she-”
“Please come down to the St. Thomas Hospital, immediately"
“I’m sorry- what?”
Jon scrambles around the room, grabbing his messenger bag before swiftly opening the door and rushing through the archives to grab his coat on his way out. His coworkers notice this abrupt scene playing right before them. Tim and Sasha glance at each other, while Martin almost walks right into Jon, nearly spilling the cups of tea in his hands. Their usually workaholic, stern boss has a panicked look on his face while basically bolting past them in a hurry to leave.
“Weird..” Tim mutters to Sasha.
“As you are Ms. Sims’ only living relative, you will need to sign and confirm her death certificate and retrieve the body and remaining belongings. Alongside arrange other things for-”
As soon as Jon heard the word “death” he tripped on one of the stairs leading up to the main floor of the institute.
“Fuck-” muttering under his breath before catching himself. He was finally registering what exactly this person was saying. His grandmother was declared dead, it seems like she has been for a while. Left speechless, the operator on the other end could only continue.
“-a proper, I’m sorry, Mr Sims, are you alright?”
Meanwhile the others heard the thud and stood up to see what the hell was going on.
“I- urm yes wh-what time? Did she uh..die?”
“Oh, are you not aware? I am terribly sorry and condolences for your loss. Your grandmother passed at 2:12 pm today. Like I said please-”
“I’ll be there soon.” Jon says as he ends the call. A heavy weight presses on his chest while he slowly tries stabilizing himself on the top of the staircase. Jon didn’t know what he felt hearing this news. He wasn’t sad or angry, it was something else that he didn’t have an exact word for.
He was never close to his grandmother, doubt she ever even liked him. He was simply a burden placed upon her after the death of both of his parents. She was long past her days of taking care of children and it certainly didn’t help that he had the same bold eyes and curly hair as her deceased son.
Thoughts raced through his head but then he felt a drop fall from his face. Tears, was he…crying? The weight pressed harder, and harder into his chest.
“Fuck!”
“Uh Jon? You alright?” Sasha bending down to him
Startled, Jon quickly wiped his face with his sleeve
“Oh-! Uh Sasha! Urm… I- sigh, I’m alright.” Jon felt so much, he couldn’t bring it upon himself to look Sasha in the eye so his eyes wandered behind her instead, seeing Tim and Martin with a worried expression on their faces. He tried getting up but his leg quickly gave out underneath him. “Oh god” he thought, finally remembering that he wasn’t holding his cane.
“You need a little help there boss?” Tim said, tossing the cane to Jon.
“Thank you, Tim” Jon takes the cane, dusts himself off and turns around back to Sasha
“Ah..I have to go somewhere and deal with an emergency but uh I might not be back today so please just, continue with your work. Please make sure Tim gets those reports on my desk by tomorrow like I’ve been asking for a week by now…..” He says eyeing Tim with the typical stern expression he has everyday “and uh Martin not spill tea on the carpet again”
“Hey! That was a one-well… Two! time-“
“Sure thing” Sasha interrupts before Martin completes that sentence.
“Thank you” Jon says as he leaves.