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 Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:39 pm
"So uh," Hayes said over lunch, "I'm getting promoted."
He'd been wondering how to say it for a while - ever since he'd had that conversation with Seth and crashed on Aulus' beanbag chair once he got off work. He'd said it plainly then. Aulus had reacted like Aulus and then they'd gotten dinner and played a distracted game of co-op, joking about what sort of gaming rig they could fit in his new quarters and whether Hayes' and his 'skinny girl arms' could do with some karate lessons to go with learning how to handle guns since the whole thing was so short notice.
It had been a good evening, but under the banter there'd been a feeling of quiet anxiety from the closest thing to a best friend Hayes had had in a while, who'd asked 'How d'you think Faleen'll take it?' and Hayes had shrugged, because he didn't know.
Eventually he'd reasoned that there really was no way he could word it without some kind of reaction, so he might as well do it at a relaxed moment when they weren't working with delicate equipment.
That brought him here, to the little side office he and Faleen had taken to eating lunch in on days he was scheduled for robotics, watching her over the top of his sandwich while an old episode of Transformon played on his laptop. He wasn't nervous, but he was attentive to whatever her response might be. Over the last year he'd found a comfortable little niche in the department and very soon it would be gone, replaced by a tighter schedule, a bigger office (hell, an office period,) a higher paycheck, higher risk of getting killed on the job, and - this was relevant - his coworkers becoming subordinates and all the barriers to casual interaction that would provide.
It was all something else, and Hayes found it worth getting an idea of what that something might be.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:42 pm
They sat mostly in quiet, partly to be able to listen to the sounds from the Transformon episode Hayes had put on, and partly because they were eating,
But the company that was kept made for a comfortable quiet, when they were not discussing something that was of interest to both of them.
Faleen looked forward to working with Hayes, when he would come down to work on programing for the robots the team would build.
Though, this time they had the important task of figuring out the Galactic jet they had stolen,
It had been the buzz all month, and through both frustrating and exiting revels, had started to get a better understanding of how the Galactic tech worked.
Faleen had been bent over the table from where she sat, one hand supporting her head up, as her other, holding a stylus, was sketching around with designs for the newly completed R-Ball.
At what Hayes said though, her head snapped up from the tablet, eyes wide in surprise.
She hung there for a couple of seconds.
"Promoted? really? To Elite?" She asked.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 8:22 pm
"Yeah, Seth let me know yesterday." Hayes put his free hand to the back of his neck, catching the fold of his uniform's high collar. One side of his mouth went up in a tentative smile as he explained. "I'll be taking over the department for him in a few weeks." His tone was casual, but a shade less than the usual blithe.
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:06 pm
Her mouth fell open a little bit at the last thing that Hayes had said. "... Taking over the department?" But Seth ran the department, what exactly did that mean for Seth?
"Wow... Is Seth not going to be leading anymore?" She asked, almost carefully, this was starting to sound like a bigger chance then she had first thought, and she sounded very surprised.
Lifting herself up higher over the table, pulling away from the tablet to sit straighter and give her full attention to Hayes.
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:11 pm
"Yeah," Hayes replied, with a clipped, breathless half-laugh of incredulous confirmation. He hadn't really adjusted to the news yet; for the longest time the server room office had belonged to Seth and the department had been run with bad-tempered efficiency and the occasional explosion. Both agents at the table had gotten used to it; it was the way things were. And now it.. wouldn't be.
It was a sobering thought. "Yeah. For a while, at least." The blond glanced at his sandwich, set it down, and sat back in his own chair to look at Faleen with serious eyes half-hidden by his frames. "He didn't say a whole lot. I've got the next few weeks or so to spend training before he leaves, and.." He shrugged, lifting a hand palm-up to cup an unspoken thought. "He might or might not be coming back."
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:50 pm
"Ah, I see." This was in fact surprising news... and like anyone, hearing about a change so drastic as suddenly as it seemed to be happening Faleen was a little jarred by the fact that Seth was stepping down for a time.
Though really, in a work environment like this, with people getting promoted, and reassigned all the time, its something that was going to happen quite often in any of their careers here.
For now though, she set the thought aside, There was the other part of this news that was much more uplifting, and right now she felt that's what should be focused on.
"Well, I doubt he could have left the department in more capable hands. Congratulations on the promotion, Hayes." she added on a more pleasant note, with a gentle smile.
It was a considerable responsibility to take on, that was for sure.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 12:39 am
"What, the whole department?" the agent burst out, unable to curb the incredulous laugh when he thought of its more obscure sections. It seemed like Seth had some superhuman aptitude for everything tech, but his replacement was, well, mortal. A smart mortal who'd been an unofficial right hand man in the programming subsector for a few years, but was getting tossed in headfirst now with only a hurried, barebones course of training to keep him afloat. He was.. fallible, and as he caught Faleen smiling across the table at him Hayes grew quiet under her gaze.
"It means a lot to hear you say that, Fal," he said carefully after a pause, meeting and holding her gaze. The corner of his mouth quirked upward. "Thanks."
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:25 am
Well, he seemed to be quite a bit more uncertain about this then she had first assumed, if the way he had spoken and laughed was any indication.
"Well, not to make light of the task, certainly."
It was a large department, and Seth had done a lot of work to keep things running smoothly, she honestly couldn't blame Hayes for that reaction, She knew she wouldn't be able to do that job.
Her tone and expression both remained encouraging and calm as he looked back at her. Though, after a few seconds of staring back into his hazel eyes.
After he thanked her though, she did blink once and flicked her eyes down at the table, feeling her ears getting a little warmer.
A finger tapped lightly against her tablet, acting as if she was taking a moment to clear out the functions, giving herself something to do as she tried to think of what she could say.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:35 am
An awkward silence descended over the table on soft, ungainly wings.
Then Hayes cleared his throat. "So-" he started, a trace of cautious humor in his voice as he picked up his sandwich, "-are you going to start calling me 'sir' again?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:05 am
Still blanking on something to say, Faleen was glad when Hayes seemed to take the initiative, glancing back up with arched eyebrows when he started talking again.
What he asked drew an a soft grin.
"I would have to, don't you think," she folded her arms on the table. "Being promoted to Elite is big enough, but you're also tech supervisor, my direct supervisor."
It was a little new thinking of Hayes as being her boss, she could never imagine being so casual with Seth as she had grown to be with Hayes.
Though, it wasn't like Hayes hadn't bee a rank over her before, maybe she had just gotten used to working with him as Agents.
"Speaking of, does this mean I'll become your personal aid in tech development? Or will I need to re-apply?" she arched her eyebrows at this question, giving the impression that she was serious, but a more light tone continued "I could probably get a recommendation from Seth."
She had no idea if that position would go away or not, either way she would go with what the new lead decided, but she was still smiling.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:28 am
"Uh."
It was safe to conclude from the way he looked up from his sandwich that this was a consequence of the promotion Hayes hadn't considered. "Well-" he started, eyes a shade wider than normal, and stopped, unable to find the rest of his sentence.
Somewhere, between what she had said and the way she was smiling, his thoughts had vanished.
"That's-" he started again, hit another dead end, and - for lack of anything else to do - laughed. The sound seemed to break him free of some dumbstruck spell; the fog that so quickly had surrounded his brain cleared and his words came rushing back again.
"Actually-" he glanced down at the slice of tomato slipping free from his lunch and back up, meeting Faleen's eyes. The agent grinned slightly, his own brows arched with playful humor, "I was thinking of doing something a little different."
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Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:11 pm
Her own eyes grew a little wider as she watched Hayes' reaction, certainly not expecting him to struggle for a moment with his words, and the way he was looking at her now.
She blinked a couple of times, lowering her own gaze when a tight feeling in her chest proved to be quite uncomfortable, and she almost nervously reached a hand up to pull her hair behind her ears. And of coarse, she was unable to keep from blushing.
He did speak though, once he seemed to find what he wanted to say. And the result drew a glance up from Faleen, who tilted her head.
"Different?" she asked after a pause, thought, curious to hear what he had in mind.
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Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:03 pm
Hayes cleared his throat.
"There's a lot of smart people in the department," he explained, back in the predictable realm of work where a smile wouldn't make you suddenly lose focus. "And they've all got a different focus. Like you-" The programmer gestured at Faleen with his free hand. "You're better at circuitry on those micro-bots than I am, and you'd know better than I would what kind of chassis works best on that scale. I could leave off the programming to learn it but," he shrugged and half-smiled, "why? I've got you."
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:52 pm
She recognized the familiar demeanor that brought Hayes to a professional work related approach to his behavior. she responded to this by sitting up in her seat a little more, letting her hands fall, and rest, one of the other on her datapad tablet.
Her lips parted slightly as he continued to explain his thought process.
when he gestured to her, she most definitely blushed again, but responded with a nod in agreement. "It's my job,"
It would be terrible to distract him from programming, he was very skilled at it.
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:38 pm
The programmer grinned "It is," he agreed. "'n if I'm going to be making decisions I'm going to use what people know, so I might as well made a title for it. So." He reached across the table as if to take her hand, but his fell just shy of the agent's data pad with a soft thump.
"Faleen Ewell." Hayes said it as seriously as he could, but he was suppressing a smile and his eyes were dancing with humor under playfully arched brows. "Will you be my robotics liaison?"
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