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Hayes' code was compiling. That left him free to do other things, but he wasn't hungry, had enough clean clothes to last another half-week, and didn't much feel like reading, playing video games, or going outside. What he really wanted was to tinker with more computers, but staying in the server room was out of the question, because Seth was being civil.

Like any good employee the agent knew how to read his supervisor's moods and unobtrusively remove himself from a scene where he would only be useful as the target of Seth's aggression. Granted there were some days nobody was unlucky enough to be reamed out by the elite (usually because on those days he shut himself in his office and only the unwary disturbed him,) but they were coming up on a week free of fuming, rage fits and insults to anyone's lineage.

It left the blond wondering a) what was ailing his superior and b) whether he'd have to function as acting head in the near future.

So Hayes grabbed the first work order out of the basket - there were always work orders - and skimmed it while he put distance between himself and his unnervingly pleasant work environment.

It was right about the time Nikki hefted a heavy object that he chose to knock on her door.

Good to see his partner was in her usual spirits.

"Uh, actually I am," the blond called back with a note of laughter in his voice, then added, "You still gonna throw stuff?"

It wasn't a usual question, but in Nikki's case it was worth asking.

Hayes blinked a couple times. He could only guess what was going on in there; none of the things he'd suspect his coworkers of seemed to fit, and it didn't seem prudent to inquire.

When Nikki opened the door he smiled pleasantly in the face of her wrath. "It's been kind of backed up since the server crash," he explained with an apologetic little shrug. And this was true. He let the comment about dragging slide and moved past her, glancing around a bit as he did. Despite what some would speculate, he'd never been in her room before.

"You're not the only one," the agent replied with some feeling. Hayes didn't get upset about much that he let show, but he'd lost an elegant little algorithm and spent days trying to recall it to no avail. A quick look around her room told him what he already knew - Nikki wasn't very girly and liked birds.

Scratch that. She really liked birds.

Hayes pulled out the desk chair and sat down, glancing sideways to check Darkfeather's position. "Hey, big guy," the blond muttered, pushed up his glasses and studied the screen.

"You install anything on this lately?" he asked, keeping the killer Pidgeot in his peripheral vision. "Or change any programs around?"

"Oh." Pause. "Okay." The tech digested this knowledge like he would being told someone didn't know how to ride a bike. Or use the stairs. "Then let's see.." He leaned forward and hit a few keys simultaneously, which made the computer go "bloop!" and start to whir disconcertingly. Hayes frowned at it.

One of the Pokeballs at his waist wiggled, wiggled again, and released its occupant while the agent was concentrating. "Vee!" A silver Eevee picked herself up, sniffed the air, then pawed at the programmer's leg for attention. "Hey Bines," Hayes muttered absently.

"Vff." The shiny 'mon swatted his boot.

"After the raid, but she hatched last week," Hayes replied, not quite catching Nikki's expression. Had he, that tone of voice would have prompted damage control, but he had a computer to fix. When the task manager popped up, he clicked through the tabs, closing windows and opening others.

Ignore her, would he? The little Pokemon wiggled backward, tail in the air, and leaped for the agent's lap. She fell short, but caught her claws on his trouser leg and scrabbled up with a squeaky little grunt of effort. "Hey," the blond protested, then "Whoa-" when silver fur surged between his arms and plopped itself on the keyboard with a meaningful look.

"Hey, c'mon." The Eevee kicked her hind paws as she was lifted off and set on the floor. "Veeeee," she protested.

"Gimme a sec, all right?"

Binary flicked her tail and squeezed herself between his ankles, peering at Darkfeather from her makeshift fort. She wasn't much good at this 'waiting.'

"Uh.." Hayes glanced sideways, the corner of his mouth pulling back with uncertainty. You didn't ignore a hiss like that. It spoke to the hindbrain, the part that didn't bother with all that higher cognition because its main purpose was keeping you alive. Binary laid her ears back at the Pidgeot and bristled, doing her best to look bigger than she really was.

More than once the agent had mused on just how expendable he was in Nikki's eyes. The conclusion he came to was never promising.

"When's the last time you cleared your cache?" the blond asked, pressing forward. Dying in the line of duty sounded like a noble and glorious thing, but Hayes would prefer an ignoble life over a noble death and in any case it was hard to glorify tech support.