Chapter 8: Smiles

“And over here is where I keep all of my special potions and chemicals.” Dr. Fontane laughed as he pointed to a cupboard that was half open with its contents thrown wherever he pleased.

“Um, Lester.” Brooklyn looked down at her clipboard, worried. “Those are supposed to be safely stored, labeled, and organized.” She lifted a page, checking the safety regulations she had printed out just for this.

As a scientist, Dr. Fontane had access to a great many things the other heads didn't. That also meant that he was responsible for them. Brooklyn knew that he was disorganized, she didn't realize he was being so careless.

“I know what they all are.” Dr. Fontane waved away her concern.

The undercover part of their mission had finally begun and Brooklyn, Warren, and Mr. Ozera were doing a cursory check of Lester's work areas. Judging by the slightly concerned, if a bit amused expression on Mr. Ozera's face, Brooklyn could tell he was just as concerned about toxic chemicals being treated so casually.

“Yes, but nobody else does.” Brooklyn pointed out as she walked to the cabinet. She bent down and picked up a glass bottle that the label had been completely ripped off of, the liquid inside was perfectly clear. It was impossible for her to tell what it was. It could be as harmless as distilled water, it could be a hydrochloric acid solution. There was no way to be sure.

“That's just some...uh...” Dr. Fontane's confident face faded to confusion. “I don't think that was there yesterday.”

“Lester!” Brooklyn looked at him horrified.

“Really, Lester.” Mr. Ozera shook his head sadly. “I expected better than this.”

Dr. Fontane laughed sheepishly as he scratched his head. “S'not my fault.”

“This is exactly your fault.” Brooklyn glared at him, putting the unknown liquid back into the cabinet. “You should know better. You're a scientist, Lester. You've had training to deal with these kinds of things.”

“I don't do chemistry all that often.” Lester shrugged. “I'm more of a research and development kind of scientist.”

“All the more reason to treat these chemicals carefully.” She snapped at him, picking up a bottle from the bottom shelf that had turned a dirty brown with time and neglect. The liquid inside looked like it had curdled slightly to Warren.

“I expect this problem to be fixed before your inspection is over, Lester.” Mr. Ozera said, his hard edge of his voice leaving no room for excuses.

“Aye, Victor.” Lester sighed in defeat. “I suppose you're right.”

Brooklyn looked like she wanted dearly to chastise Lester more, but she put the bottle back down and shut the cabinet and continued going through the lab.

“She's adorable when she's doing that.” Warren smiled at Mr. Ozera as Brooklyn spotted some beakers that had been inexpertly cleaned and began laying into Dr. Fontane for that.

“The woman would scold the devil.” Mr. Ozera agreed calmly. “I'm starting to think this inspection was long overdue.”

“I'm pretty sure he needs an assistant more than any of the other heads.” Warren shook his head as Lester tried to explain the beakers away to Brooklyn who was having none of it.

“I'll have Brooklyn look into hiring him a new one.” Mr. Ozera said, easily falling into the idea of Brooklyn as his assistant. It wasn't the first time she had performed such duties for him. “I'm sure she'll find him someone...durable.”

Waren chuckled quietly. “The man is lucky he's so smart.”

Warren watched as Brooklyn began questioning Lester on where he kept his lab detergent, making him go through the steps of cleaning his glassware, and demanding to know where he disposed of his wastes.

While quiet when it came to social situations, when it was work Brooklyn really was a no-nonsense kind of girl. She was still the smallest person in the room, yet she held a ferocity that made the other men cow before her. Warren couldn't help but smile at it.

Brooklyn could feel Warren looking at her and she tried not to let it get to her. Mr. Ozera was watching too, she knew that, yet somehow his stare just wasn't as powerful, as pleasantly uncomfortable, as Warren's gaze.

For the last week or so, things had been incredibly easy between them. Easy in that they were friendly, professional, and polite. It was driving her absolutely mad.

Once Jack had checked out her house, installed a security system she hadn't asked for or known about until he had given her the pass codes to it, she had been able to return and stop sleeping at MCRC. Not that she didn't enjoy work but she did miss the comforts of home.

Every night, once again, Warren walked her to her car. They talked about work, they joked harmlessly, and he waved her away like a dear friend. It was sweet, it was easy, and it was infuriating.

Gone were her nightly kisses, gone were the loving embraces. Instead, Warren swept the parking lot with his gaze, sometimes even walking around, looking for the shadowy figure that had been stalking her.

Crispin had gone back through the tapes but whoever it was had been very careful. He didn't show up until dark had fallen, he never parked close enough to see his car, he always had his face covered and, since his attack, he hadn't been back.

Jack said that he first showed up the first day the inspection had begun. It was a too much to be a coincidence. Whoever their mole was, he had known since the beginning what they were up to.

They were continuing with the inspection as planned though.

“I've already declared them, we have to go through with it.” Mr. Ozera had told him. “I don't want to worry the other heads and better to do this in secrecy than out in the open.”

There had been logic in that, and Jack had begrudgingly agreed.

So, after Warren and Crispin had finished sweeping through Jacks' employees, they had begun on Dr. Fontane. As the good doctor wasn't in on their plan, it was up to Brooklyn to provide Warren's cover. And, since she didn't believe in leaving a job half done, she was going through with the inspection like it was totally real.

Warren, who couldn't really get to work until her cursory inspection was finished, was just watching her as she moved.

She really wanted, more than anything, to question him. She wanted to know why he was suddenly polite, suddenly distant.

All though the weekend, even through the dinner they had attended with Mr. Ozera, he treated her like a friend. Just a friend, nothing more.

It made no sense to her. Granted, she never really understood most social situations, it was why she hid behind a smile and tended not to speak overly much in them. But she wasn't so oblivious as to not notice the way Warren had looked, and at times continued to look, at her.

However, it just wasn't Brooklyn's nature to question things like that out loud. She felt weird, intrusive sometimes, doing it. So she kept her silence, held her peace, and followed his lead in acting like nothing had ever happened.

And when he wasn't around, she was doing more haltija research. She wanted to know what made him think and science had never failed her before.

So far, the only things she had discovered were that haltija's really were driven more by emotion than logical thought and that it wasn't uncommon for them to succumb to bouts of depression because of it.

Brooklyn was no scientist and she was no psychologist, but if this was Warren's version of depression then she wouldn't stop looking until she had discovered why he was acting like this and how to fix it. It may have been a bit nosy and even unwelcome, but she was determined now. If there was a way to put this back to how it had been, to make him go back to that sweet guy who held her hand and touched her so simply and pleasantly, then she would find it.

And if he just wanted this to be over, if he wanted to end their relationship, she thought she deserved him to actually tell her rather than pull back from her like he was doing. Until he did say something, though, she was going to keep at this like they were together because, as far she knew, they were.

“Lester, those are chemical stains!” Brooklyn cried in horror as she looked into a sink to see the stainless steel had been streaked with different colors. “You haven't been pouring chemicals down here have you?”

“Of course not.” Dr. Fontane looked offended. “I'm not that stupid.”

“Have you been monitoring your people to make sure they haven't been doing it?” Mr. Ozera asked coldly.

From the look on his face, all three of them could tell that he hadn't even thought of it.

“Brooklyn, I want you to call some specialists to come in here and clean everything.” Mr. Ozera instructed as Brooklyn dutifully wrote down the order. “I want this entire lab, I want Lester's entire wing of the complex, to be thoroughly checked to make sure everything is where it needs to be and anything that might have been exposed to chemicals they should not have been properly cleaned or disposed of.”

“Yes, sir.” Brooklyn sighed. Not because it meant a great deal of work for her but because of what she was sure any such crew would find.

“I can't imagine your records are in any better of a state.” Mr. Ozera glared at Lester. “Brooklyn, you can have Warren help you go through them.”

“Alright.” Brooklyn nodded, her face neutral as she internally smiled at how easily Mr. Ozera gave Warren access to anything she did making his job that much easier.

“I trust you to be able to handle that part without me.” he continued. “I have a few other things to see to. Lester, I expect you to cooperate with them fully and I want you to start organizing this lab yourself.”

“Aye, aye.” Lester sighed like a child being told to clean his room.

“Brooklyn, I'm going to go do some paperwork.” Mr. Ozera told her. “You and Warren keep up the good work.”

“Yes, sir.” Brooklyn smiled and waved him away as Warren automatically left Mr. Ozera's side to stand behind her. He really did fill out the bodyguard role very well.

Brooklyn turned back to Lester who was looking around at the pile of work awaiting him with a grimace that told her he wanted to do anything but clean it up. “If you did it properly the first time, you wouldn't have to do it all at once like this.”

“I know...” Lester shook his head. “I'm trying to think of where I put the gloves.”

“Me and Warren are going to start going through your paperwork.” Brooklyn decided not to respond to that comment as nothing she was thinking of saying would have been constructive at all. “Where do you keep it?”

“Here and there.” Lester shrugged. Paperwork did not interest him any more than cleaning and organizing.

“We'll start in your office.” Brooklyn tried not to groan out loud. True, she could be messy, but Dr. Fontane was an absolute train wreck. And, at least with her memory, she never forgot where she put something. She was not looking forward to going through Lester's mess. “We'll work our way out from there.”

Lester made a non-committal sound in the back of his throat that she took to be his agreement and she led the way out with Warren barely a step behind her.

“I don't think two weeks is enough to go through him.” Warren laughed as Brooklyn pulled out her phone. There was a number she could call for lab clean up in the safety manual that she had had to dig up out of Lester's mess.

“We'll have to work fast.” she agreed. “Mrs. Cohen will be easier, she's more organized.”

“Yes, but her department is bigger.” Warren said. “And it won't be so easy to get her to let me poke around. I'm pretty sure Lester barely noticed me.”

“He noticed.” Brooklyn typed in the phone number she had already memorized. “He kept looking at you like he wanted to take a blood sample while you were there.”

Warren laughed out loud then fell silent as she arranged an appointment with the cleaners.

“That's done, then.” Brooklyn said after she hung up. “I'll get started going through the rooms, making sure they have all the appropriate safety materials. You can get started in Lester's office.”

“Oh, thanks.” Warren said sarcastically with no real heat. “You're taking this inspection seriously, aren't you?”

“No point not doing it.” Brooklyn smiled. “I would put more effort into pretending to do it then actually doing it. Besides, Lester really needed it.”

“I think he should have a caretaker or something.” Warren suggested. “He's brilliant but helpless.”

“I'll look into it.” Brooklyn looked like she was seriously considering it. “It would be better than giving him another assistant. It would be someone who had real power over him.”

“We'll talk to Mr. Ozera about it.” Warren agreed.

“I will.” she corrected him gently. “You need to get to work on more important things.”

“I've already started.” Warren assured her. “Ilia emailed their financial records to Crispin yesterday and he passed them on to me.”

“That's all she has so far?” Brooklyn asked.

“She says she has bad reception over there.” Warren smiled. “I think it's more likely that she just doesn't want to do it.”

“She's trying to distance herself from all this.” Brooklyn agreed. “Not that I blame her. I never actually saw the images from the Haltija but Joe assured me that it's nothing worth seeing.”

“I saw them.” Warren's face darkened with the memory. “I'd rather you never see it. I'd rather no one ever sees it.”

Brooklyn put a hand on his arm, comforting him. His muscles were tense with just the memory of the photographs.

“We're doing all we can.” Brooklyn smiled. “Joe and Kai already have the first few pieces of the base at their warehouse and they're able to go over everything a lot better than when it had been underwater. You're looking for the traitor and Ilia is going through records. Intrebari, whoever they are, they can't hide from us forever. They would never be able to hide from Jack.”

“He's like a bloodhound.” Warren agreed, his face brightening marginally as she took his mind off of the photos he had forced himself to look at when he had been guarding Josh. A part of him felt like he owed the victims that, he couldn't exactly describe why.

“See.” Brooklyn smiled as they walked into Lester's office and he made a face at the haphazard piles of papers, files, books, and CD's. “You have a lot of work to do.”

“You could help.” Warren suggested more out of desperation than anything. He had had Crispin's help before along with Jack's intolerance for anything less than perfect organization. Seeing the mountain of work before him, not even knowing what he needed to be looking at and what was just useless, the task felt daunting.

“I've got a lab clean up to conduct.” Brooklyn reminded him. “And I'm in charge of interviewing the employees.” She had a set of questions that Jack had her memorize in order to question everyone around Lester.

While he had no assistants, he also had no discretion. He would tell anything to anyone even if they didn't ask. Hanging around him would be a great way to get information for any mole. He himself would make a terrible one but anyone hanging around him would be in a great spot to gather information. And, as a world renowned expert in mythics, he had a great deal of interns, graduates, and undergraduates eager to do work for and with him.

“I better start working then.” Warren said, his mind already trying to find some semblance of order in the chaos. Even people who were messy had a system. It was usually only a system that they recognized but things did tend to gather around like things. He imagined once he cracked Lester's personal code, digging through everything would get much easier.

“Alright. I've got to go check all the chemical showers.” she turned and smiled up at him. “We've both got our work. So, I'll see you later tonight?”

“Of course.” Warren said seriously. “I have to walk you back to your car.”

Brooklyn felt her face fall for just a moment before she fixed a smile back in place. “Of course.” she agreed and turned to walk away.

“Brook! Wait...” Warren called to her just as she took a step away from him. It had been, he realized, the wrong answer.

“Yes?” she turned back cautiously.

“We...we promised to be honest.” he reminded her, feeling suddenly desperate for reasons he couldn't quite place. “You said you wouldn't hide from me anymore.”

“I remember.” Brooklyn said simply. “Honest and open.”

“Then why are you hiding from me?” he couldn't help but ask. He felt so low, he wanted her near him. Yet it seemed she was only pulling away.

“You hid from me first.” she returned without hesitation throwing him for a loop.

“I-I'm sorry.” he stuttered quickly before she could leave, he could see the desire to do so in her eyes. “I'm sorry. I just...I haven't felt...right. Not for a long time.”

“So?” Brooklyn asked, genuinely confused. Things like this always confused her.

“So...so you deserve better then that.” he fumbled desperately. “I want to make you happy and I just...I feel like I can't right now. That doesn't mean I want you to hide from me again.”

She returned to him, looking at him quizzically like she couldn't quite understand but she was trying hard to do so. “Relationships aren't supposed to be all sunshine and rainbows. We're supposed to help each other when we're down. We...we're supposed to face everything together. Isn't that what a relationship is?”

“You sound like you know better than me.” Warren shrugged. “I'm a haltija. We get married and everything, but our vaki is the most important thing to us. That's what I was raised to believe. We put our vaki above all things, even our spouses. I wouldn't really know how to properly define a human relationship.”

“This isn't a human relationship.” Brooklyn reminded him gently. “This is our relationship. All relationships require work, so we work through this. I...”

She shook her head, cutting herself off.

“You what?” Warren asked.

She smiled. “Never mind. We'll work through this. Okay?”

“I'm sorry.” Warren said again. He felt like this was his fault although that wasn't surprising, everything felt like his fault lately.

She leaned up on her toes and pressed a gentle kiss to the underside of his chin, the highest point she could reach without him leaning down.

“You promised to tell me.” she said gently. A reminder without pressure. “When you find the words.”

“When I find the words.” Warren agreed. “I just feel...lost right now.”

Brook put a hand to his cheek, a touch he couldn't stop himself from leaning into slightly.

She smiled at him once more and turned to leave again. This time, Warren didn't stop her.

XXXXXXXXXX

“That's the second quadrant.” Joe corrected Kai with infinite patience as they divided up the most recent room from the base to arrive. Crispin told her that, as the only room without windows, it was the room where he and the other captives had been imprisoned before being called to the experiment room.

“Place the marker here?” he asked, holding up the sticker to the new position.

“That's fine.” Joe smiled at him.

“It looks really different.” Crispin signed as he looked around.

“You don't have to be here.” Joe said gently. “This can't be a good place to return to.”