The day was wearing on. His arm was itching and his cast was annoying him. He wanted the thing off, and would go soon to do just that. The only reason he hadn't removed the damn thing himself (besides it being dangerous and him being sensible for the most part) was because he knew his wife would destroy him if he tried it.

He was not in a bad mood, per se. He had Dogby sitting next to him on a little stool, as spoiled as she was, and he could reach over and pat her on the head whenever he was feeling vexed or annoyed by the work at hand. He was going through the records and making calls about long outstanding over due fees, and it made him feel like a bill collector.

No one liked those. His only hope was that the people he was calling weren't in the middle of dinner. That was always a death sentence to any calls anyone ever made in pursuit of money.

After being yelled at by angry parents and irresponsible book borrowers alike, Tony hung up the phone and rubbed his temples. He needed a break, and he needed it now. Opening the drawer on his desk, he reached to find some aspirin or something he might take to relieve the tension headache he had managed to give himself. Instead, his fingers lighted over an unfamiliar shape in the desk. He pulled out the Nintendo DS he had found earlier in the day, frowning at it thoughtfully.

Well, why the hell not?

He figured out how and where to plug the charger in and saw a light come on in the corner. A good sign, as there was now life in the machine. He turned it on through some trial and error, but not before turning it up all the way. He lowered the volume and watched the screens light up. There were two. He came to a menu and picked the top option just by pressing the 'A' button, and it took him into another screen. The game was loading, he imagined. He wasn't so hopeless with technology, at least, that he couldn't get this far but he wasn't certain he'd get much farther.

He could figure out how to work the thing, but that didn't mean he would be able to actually play a game.

He saw Nate playing video games all the time, but had never really taken note of the process. And he was never invited to play. He was not upset about that, really, as he imagined Nathan would just slaughter him in anything they played anyway. And enjoy it a bit too much.

By continuing to press A he managed to get into the game, loading whoever had played it before's last save. He watched the images and discerned that he was playing as some sort of lawyer in a court room. He poked some items but not knowing what the lawyer was doing at the moment, he had no way of knowing how to defend his client. If that was indeed what he was doing. He looked up when a shadow fell over his desk, shoving the DS under the desk on instinct, like a guilty student getting caught playing while at school.

He stared up at another employee of the library, the woman from the Documents section upstairs, Carol. She arched her eyebrow at him when a tiny voice yelled 'objection' from somewhere near his lap.

Tony just stared at her, mortified.

(Word Count: 590)