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A Stressful Morning

Aubrey jerked awake, a peice of post-it note and a paperclip stuck to her cheek. She had stayed up so late in her office that she feel asleep. The couple of beers she had had earlier probably didn't help her sleepiness.

Sore and uncomfortable, she picked the supplied off her cheek and groaned as she sat up, feeling her back pop in complaint to the unnatural position it had been forced to stay in. She checked teh time and winced, standing up with a yawn to try and find some coffee. Her communicator was on the floor, probably having fallen there from vibrating, she figured, since she turned the ring off.

Something told her she would have hell to pay. Hopefully Moreau had cooled off a bit by now...? She clicked the cel-phone like device back to its normal setting and slipped it in her lab coat and decided to go scout for some coffee.

It started vibrating almost as soon as it dropped into her pocket. Moreau was sitting in the camera room with the lab technician just waiting for her to wake up. They needed to have a bit of a talk about a certain memo he'd recieved.

Aubrey blinked in surprise, then looked back at her office with a sinking feeling. The labs and offices she knew had cameras, but they weren't always on.. was he... watching her...

She swallowed and headed down to the kitchen, looking for that coffee. "Dr. Lockheart," she said, trying (and failing) to keep her voice from sounded too ragged.

"Aubrey, it's Nick. I need to see you immedietely. Meet me in my office, in an hour. That'll give you time to tidy yourself up a bit." Moreau sounded, irrate, not quite angry but defintly not in a good mood.

Of course. Aubrey sighed, not expected much better. "Yes sir," she said. At least he called himself Nick. Either that was a good sign or she was grasping at straws. She grabbed her coffee and headed to her room to change. She took a quick cold shower and changed into something professional.. but low cut. Play every card you had, right? Not that she figured it would do any good.

Taking one last deep breath, she headed into his office at least fifteen minutes early.

"Aubrey, good... your finally here. Contacting you has seemed infurating lately. How can you expect me to put up with that?" Moreau sighed and poured a cup of coffee and set it in front of her and one for himself.

"Now... we need to talk, about a certain chain of command that is supposed to exist here. Or am I mistaken?" Moreau sounded calm and calculating about this, normally not a good sign, if you knew him.

Aubrey did know, and the color drained from her face a bit, but she tried to remain calm, and just think -very carefully - about her words.

"I'm sorry, Nick," she started. "I feel asleep and the communicator was on my desk. Thats totally my fault, it won't happen again..."

She sat down slowly and sipped at the coffee, even though she was wide awake. "...you're not mistaken," she said softly, "I just was trying to diffuse a volitile situation..."

"One that was caused by disension... and all you did was do the same thing. I wanted all of those... things, destroyed. As an example to Sabin." Moreau tapped his fingers against the desk.

"What he did made me furious, do you have any idea how much money he spent on those stupid worthless... creatures?" Moreau sighed. "And now two of them are still alive... why? Because they are cute or something stupid like that?" Moreau was calm but sounding rather sarcastic at this point. "I expected more of you Aubrey."

Aubrey stayed rigid as a bored, her eyes darting around the room, focuses on Moreau's shoulder or mouth, but never his eyes. "I'm sorry, Nick... I figured, you know, being suspended and all was example enough. You know.. its his responsibility now. Maybe we can pull some new serums from it,yes? I mean, to be honest the lethal injections are kind of pricey, too, and if there was no reason..."

She realized that logic probably wouldn't get her anywhere. "I didn't trust Dr. Duvert not to do something ... stupid. He's got quite a lot of power here, you know. I was just trying to appease him. Giving him a stupid pet so he would calm down and not like.. I don't know. Give Billy back his drugs or so mething."

She twisted her labcoat in her lab. "And the dog was Vasile's. Sabin collected him during the lockout - it wasn't his to experiement on! Or even Feral Labs property. It was Vasiles, so I just said he should give it back. We can still use its blood - it was the actual legit experiement - remember! Three heads... we've never done a multiple head serum before..." She paused, gauging his reaction.

"Yes yes, and that's admirable, if it'd been an authorized experiment." Moreau gritted his teeth, he was loathe to admit that Sabin's waste of materials had yealded anything worthwhile.

"But it's not that your decision was wrong, it's that it directly contridicted mine. Atleast that new girl, Robin, knows how to take orders." Moreau jabbed, pretending not to be obvious about it, he knew where to stick it to Aubrey and make it hurt.

Aubrey's heart skipped a beat. on a first name basis already?? She hadn't even met her. "I didn't know if you were ... aware that the dog belonged to Vasile," she feebly attempted.

Moreau glared a bit. "It really doesn't matter to me... he didn't keep a good eye on it. But that wasn't the only thing you did... the only one you kept."

"I thought you wanted to work here." Moreau half mumbled as he turned around towards the coffee machine to pour another glass.

"H Woke Up Naked In A TREE, for goddsakes, Nicholas!" She shook her head. "It wasn't HIS fault it got lost, Sabin probably took it directly from his duplex - why should Vasile suffer because of Duvert's idiocity!?"

But then she stood up quickly, her eyes going wide. She could almost here Dr. Duvert saying 'i told you so' in her head. "How could you say that?? How could you think any different. What else do I have to to do to make you trust me, Nick? I've given you everything!"

"I'd like to believe that Aubrey." Moreau sipped the drink. "Of course, you've spent an increasing amount of time with that layabout William."

Aubrey nearly choked. "Excuse me?? BILLY?. oh please, the most time I've spent consecutively with him I was nearly castrating him. You can't be serious, Nick. He's ... he's disgusting. But that doesn't mean I can ignore my duty of keeping him in line."

"Well, that may be the case." Moreau's jelousy was obvious. "I just can't say the idea of you... around... him, makes me comfortable. He's a near rapist." Moreau's thick disgust for William was evident in his voice.

"You didn't even come back last night..." he turned around for another cup.

Aubrey's expression softened, touched by his concern. At least that what she interpreted it as. "And I'll buzz him down if he so much as even thinks about touching me, Nick, " she said, leaning forward.

"I fell asleep in my office," she said with a hint of a smile, "So lets not have the pot call the kettle black, eh? There's been plenty of nights you've stayed in the labs."

Moreau's features didn't soften at the attempt to be cute. "We'll see. Alright Aubrey, well I'm going to get to work today then. I trust you'll be in tonight?" Moreau said with a cold tone.

Aubrey frowned, not liking his tone. "I said I was sorry, Nick."

"Your forgiven Aubrey. But I need to get back to work." His tone really wasn't any warmer. Moreau stood up and poured the coffee into the trash can. Leaving his mug for the cleaning crew to get.

Aubrey dropped her hands to side with a sigh. It could have been worse, she guessed. She left his office, headed down to the labs to be productive and her mind off it.

((Just before the announcement))

"What do you mean I'm not allowed back in!?" Sabin fumed at the guards on the other side of the electrified fence. "I'm STAFF! I'm YOUR superior"

The guard shifted nervously on the other side of the fence, avoiding the white-haired doctor's glare. "I'm on orders from Moreau himself. He said NO one was to come through the gates that was on the other side, not even staff."

"That is RIDICULOUS." Sabin belted. "I was on official business!"

The guard was shaking his head, supported by the rifle in his arms, and its twins in the other two guards.

Sabin crossed his arms. "I've been out here in the RAIN and storm. I am soaked to the bone, and my quarters are on the other side of this bleeding fence. Now open up before I-"

And Sabin was cut off by the voice of Moreau himself as it was broadcast over the whole island simultaneously.

Sabin stopped mid-sentence. He had head it himself - ANYONE on the outside was just that - on the outside until this was solved.

"I'm a suspect?!" Sabin demanded incredulously. "You have got to be kidding me!"

One guard snickered to the other. "You shouldn't have been out all night in the rain and storm." He parroted his words back to him mockingly, exalting in the chance to backtalk to the eccentric white-haired doctor.

Sabin replied with a smouldering stare that managed to shut the man up, even around the rather nasty-looking shiner that blossomed a blackish purple around his right eye.

Sabin turned quickly, warily at the rapid approach of one of the islanders, on his guard with a hand raised, only to lower it a moment later as he ralized it was Aubrey's 'pet' islander, the Cheetah girl.... Colche.

He took a breath and looked between the girl and the labs before speaking, shoving his hands into the pockets of his dark slacks. He was still dressed in his black slacks and dark shirt. His top hat was absent, as was the cloak he had sometimes been seen in. Mud was caked over his slacks and shirt, on his hands. He was soaking wet, hair matted, dirty, and tied back into that mop of a pony tail.

"I wouldn't reccomend touching the fence." Sabin finally spoke, a growl in his throat as he was still steaming at the guardsman.

"I don't know specifically" He commented irritably and wryly. "I heard the same as anyone else. Just now. Although I assume on the other side of the fence"

He huffed, a frown tugging at his mouth as he cast a long, considering look at the labs behind the fence, eyes narrowing in thought.

Sabin had heard a snippet of the Aubrey and Moreau fight the previous night... now he almost wished he had been paying more attention to it before he walked in.

"But these.... rentacops..." He ignored the guards' sneers. "aren't letting anyone in. Not even me. But if the electric fence doesnt' stop you, their guns will."

Sabin himself wasn't exactly in the best of moods. He was wet, he was rather chilly, he was hungry, and he didn't want to be stuck out HERE. With the subjects. He was well aware that most of the islanders really didn't like him. And he was also feeling particularly victimized by the announcement. Who the hell else of the staff was stuck outside the fence?!

"She can't here you right now, dear." He said in a grumbling voice. "You can press bloody zero all you want. But these guys aren't letting us, either of us, in." He turned around,his back on the ******** them. they had been lucky to have him working for them. Now not only was he suspended, he was now STUCK outside the lab.

He started walking towards the village.

The guards stayed stoic. "Your mother can't be with right now. She's hurt. You should go back to your house."

Sabin looked back over his shoulder as he started the long trek through the muddy road to the Village.

With a shake of his head at the stubbonness of the girl, "Suit yourself. Something tells me without Aubrey overriding orders and commands you'll probably be sitting out there till your a** goes numb."

And he walked away.