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It didn't happen often, but every once in a great while Gretchen found herself just a little in over her head, a touch overwhelmed with her usual Death duties. Today was one of those days, and the cause, as it usually was, was having to run files and reports back and forth between the Life labs and her little desk tucked away in the bowels of the Death department. This really shouldn't have been much of a problem, but ever since the Life building had suffered from being split in half and more or less trashed, things just weren't arranged in the order she was used to anymore.

If she frequented the labs a little more often...but it wasn't as if she had much reason to outside of getting her leg fixed.

She was rushing through the halls now, a stack of folders and papers balanced in her arms. Attention on the walls, the little plates with names engraved on them. Once upon a time she'd known exactly where the office she was looking for was, but it had since moved, as so many had. She didn't seem to notice the pink haired Life standing in the hall as she walked past her. Nor did she notice when one of the folders slipped off the stake and smacked softly onto the tiles.

Gretchen stopped abruptly, and turned to glance back over her shoulder to see who had spoken up, and if they had been speaking to her. Apparently they had. She blinked at the shorter girl, and the sheer amount of pink on her, and then turned completely and offered a genial smile. "Sorry 'bout that. Didn't realize I'd dropped anythin'," she drawled back, chuckling faintly under her breath as she back tracked down the hall towards the dropped file.

Once she got there, though, a problem presented itself. With her arms full of other files, sinking down to retrieve the one was going to be fairly tricky. She considered it for a moment, lips ticking up on one side, before glancing up at the pink Life again. "Beggin' your pardon. Think you could hand me that?"

Another bright smile followed the request.

Gretchen stared back in disbelief. "Beg your pardon?" Had she said something wrong here? She didn't think so.

The Death trainee stared down at the smaller girl as if she wasn't quite sure what she was seeing and hear was what was actually going on. "You have to be a maid a lend a hand to someone?" That was one of the most backward things she'd ever heard, and she's grown up in the south.

"I know I dropped it, it was an accident. I'd really rather not drop the rest." It all seemed perfectly logical to Gretchen. "I'd appreciate if you could please grab it for me so I don't spill the rest."

That was mighty rude.

There was a small, considering pause, then Gretchen's smile turned a little less warm, and a little more empty. "Plenty of good," she corrected, voice pleasant still. "That's why this stacks so high, see? Lots of responsibilities." It wasn't technically a lie, but it was certainly an exaggeration.

"How about yourself, princess, they got you doin' something critical?"

This time Gretchen's features showed nothing at the belittling. She simply continued to smile benignly at the shorter girl, despite the weight of the paper stack in her hands.

"That what you're gunna call it?" She chuckled softly, and where it might have sounded mocking from someone else, from her it just sounded amused. "When they have me on monitor detail they don't call it anything special."

There was that momentary flicker of amusement again, Gretchen's features pinching in lieu of a chuckle, then she just shook her head. "Got a mighty high opinion of yourself, I see. Well, I guess that's not a bad thing, really." Her shoulders came up in a shrug. "Probably shouldn't get too over confident though. Could get you hurt."

"Report away." She seemed entirely unconcerned by the threat. Gretchen was doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing, and the tattletale word of a fellow trainee with a chip on her shoulder wasn't enough to rattle her.

She would work on gathering up the papers, however that entailed setting the stack of folders and reports on a small table near one of the doors in the hall they shared. It was a tricky maneuver, but she managed it after a moment of care.