Sterek Stories - A Collection - II

The job agency

Stiles waves the woman to the seat in front of his desk. "Hi! Welcome to Rainbow Recruit!" He puts on his most welcoming smile, wanting to put her at ease quickly. She is about his father's age, with sandy coloured hair and lipstick that's just a tad too much on the orange side. The woman gingerly takes a seat and smooths her skirt out with her hands. The two piece suit is a little outdated, she might need to go shopping before her first job interview; preferably for something that isn't moss green. Stiles might wonder about his updated sense of fashion if the explanation wasn't sitting in the glass walled office in the back. Working with Lydia for the past four years has left its marks.
He adjusts his keyboard a bit and sends the woman another broad smile. People always say he has a nice smile and he tends to use it. "Well, let's get started with the basics, shall we?" He nods towards the computer screen that has a new file open, ready for him to fill in all the blanks. "I'm Stiles. What's your name?"

The woman shifts uncomfortably in her chair, her hand fumbling with her necklace. "Uhm... my name..." she hesitates.

"Yeah...?" Stiles lifts his eyebrows incredulously. It feels a bit rude to point out that a name is probably the least invasive information he's gonna need of her. She'll need to tell him her date of birth, for one thing. And if he can find her employment, he'll need her social security number too. Both are things that people have lied about to him before.

"My friends call me Jo," the woman eventually says. She seems nervous, staring at Stiles as if she expects him to make a grab for her.

Understanding dawns at him and he puts down 'Jo' in the box for her name. They'll get to her full name later, if his hunch is correct. And it is, when he comes to the part where they discuss her previous job experiences.
"I've been held captive in a fairy mound for the past seven years, so not only is there a gap in my resume but my coding knowledge is way out of date. I used to program in C, they're all working in C++ now!"

"We have refreshment courses for that," Stiles tells her, chipper. "And I'm sure we can dress that seven year gap up a little. Family care, perhaps?" The woman happens to have a sister who has a history of chronic illness, which works out perfectly. The longer they talk, the more at ease the woman gets. He sets her up for a refresher course in C++ that starts next week and before she leaves she even lets him put down her full name. After being kidnapped by the fae it's more than understandable she's cautious in giving out her real name.

She's not the first person to walk into Rainbow Recruit that has spent some years with the fae. Stiles once had to find an attractive solution to cover a fourteen year gap. Most people don't stay any longer than seven years, but this guy had enjoyed himself. It's alright though, in his four years at Rainbow Recruit Stiles has seen weirder things. Like the man who found himself under a curse of the local bog witch and could only work night hours. When the sun rose he turned into an alligator. Stiles found him a job as a night guard in a museum and Lydia gave him some tips to help settle his debt to the bog witch. That wasn't even the weirdest case that came across Stiles' desk. Last year there was a literal Adonis of a man, who turned out to be a statue brought to life. He was great to look at - which Stiles enjoyed, at his leisure - but about as dumb as a brick. The guy had no idea what a job was, but was told he needed one. Stiles suspected that the person who brought him to life wanted him out of the house for a few hours a day at least. Luckily the art school nearby was looking for models. They later emailed to tell him they were super pleased with Adonis, because he could sit still for hours without complaint.
It's one of the success stories of Rainbow Recruit, a job placement agency specifically founded to help people who are having trouble finding employment due to supernatural interference in their lives. Of course they have their regular clients too, people who are looking for a career change, moms who want to get back into the field now their kids are in school, high school dropouts who need help finding a job that requires minimal experience but has enough perspective to help them grow. Those clients are a cover for the supernatural side of business, which takes up about seventy percent of their revenue. Lydia is a champ at getting the word out in the right places, advertising their business publicly while still staying under the radar. After all, most of the world has no idea that the supernatural creatures they see in movies actually exist.