Headquarters
Seattle, WA
December 2017
8:12 PM
It's late.
Aether peeks at the time on the upper corner of her laptop screen. She needs to go home. The rest of her time had gone an hour back (with Tad trying to convince her to come with him), and the rest of the office followed. At this time, Aether expects that she's pretty much the last one there. It's Christmas Eve, after all; hardly anyone would pass up the chance to go home and sleep (Tad), or party and hook up with someone (Peters), or curl up in bed and binge something on Netflix (Mack). But she doesn't. Soon, maybe. She knows Theo's waiting back at home, but she needs to get this report done and emailed.
“What are you doing here?”
Aether yelps. One of the folders in her hands falls to the floor and she jumps, looking up and looking for the source of the voice. Audra gives a small chuckle and Aether flushes in embarrassment. She didn't know Audra was still there, still working just like she was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Gesturing to Aether’s work, “But I’m curious, Agent. What are you doing here? It’s late.”
It takes a moment for Aether’s heart rate to return to its normal pace. She stares at Audra for a moment before managing to collect herself, balling her hands into fists in attempt to calm herself down and stop the trembling. “Ma’am--I--I was busy coming up with another report for the Kim case,” she explains. Audra blinks and Aether continues, “My other teammates were busy tonight and I wanted to get the report done as soon as possible so that it wouldn’t interfere with tomorrow.”
