What a healthy marriage looks like

Pauling needs a friend too

At just after eight, Pauling parked her vespa and hesitated before knocking at Caroline's door. Of course, Sniper answered and he narrowed his eyes, "What do you want?", "Um- I'm escorting Ms. Caroline-" From behind him at the kitchen table, Caroline shouted, "Oh! Is that Miss Pauling? Hi! Just give me a second!" and she jumped up to get her things. Once she was out of earshot, Sniper leaned in real close to Pauling and growled, "You don't let a damn thing happen to her or my next contract is gonna be your head ..." Pauling didn't know how to respond to that, but she didn't have to because Caroline came prancing back towards them saying, "Alright, I'm good. Now stop threatening Miss Pauling so I can go..." She tried to squeeze past him, but Mick pulled her into him and peppered kisses along her jaw. Caroline squawked and tried to wiggle away, but he had her locked in place. She giggled, "Ah! I gotta go!", "I'm just givin' you a proper goodbye!" She turned in his arms to kiss him properly and when they broke he said, "Be careful, darlin'." Caroline held his gaze lovingly, "You too, Micky." and with that, Caroline walked out beside Miss Pauling, "So, where are we going?" Pauling looked through her notes, "Well, I've got a couple of things I've got to get done so-" From the doorway, Mick cleared his throat and shot her a dangerous look, but when Caroline turned around, he was all smiles. Pauling sighed at put her papers away, "I guess I can do those later, I'll show you the office. How about that ?" She asked, more pointed at him than her. He nodded and gave Caroline one last kiss before they went down to the parking lot. Caroline asked, "So, am I driving or you?" Pauling pulled out her keys, "Well, do you know where we're going?", "No?", "Then I think it's pretty obvious." Caroline frowned, but she followed anyway. Pauling knew she shouldn't be poking the bear, but she couldn't help it. Those two had caused her too much grief in the past week and she was just out of patience. She gave Caroline her extra helmet and they were off, onto the highway and toward Teufort. After a long drive, they got to the offices and Miss Pauling led her inside. The TF Industries offices, like most offices, were pretty dull especially being the shell corporation that it was. As they were walking down the hall, Pauling pointed out, "So, that's off limits, that's off limits-", "What's this?" Caroline asked, poking her nose through a door. Pauling shut it promptly, " Off limits . Come on," She led Caroline over to space where her desk was, gesturing to another empty desk that had been set up beside it. Pauling pointed, "This is mine, that's yours." Caroline looked around hesitantly and commented, "Um... It's cozy?" Pauling shrugged, "It's work..." Caroline sat behind her desk and Pauling placed the very scrubbed ledger in front of her. Caroline picked it up, thumbing through it and asked, "Is this it?" Pauling couldn't exactly tell her they weren't really paying her to fix their books, so she just nodded, "That's what I have for you today, so...", "Oh come on, I know my husband is worried but I can handle more than this ..." She held up the offending ledger and Pauling sat at her desk, "Well, that's what we're paying you for.", "I thought you were paying me to fix your books, not thumb through a phony ledger." Pauling glanced up at her and cursed internally. She really didn't want to have to kill Sniper's wife, especially on her first day- That would be highly inconvenient for the both of them- but she was getting higher and higher on Pauling's hit-list. Caroline leaned back, "Look, I get it. You're doing some under the table stuff and don't want to get in trouble, but let me tell you- Tax evasion may be a smaller sentence, but it's much easier to catch if you're not careful.", "Caroline..." Pauling said dangerously, "You don't know what you're getting into...", "No, but what I'm quickly understanding is that you're not really wanting me to fix your books... So why hire me at all?" Pauling quietly unclipped her holster as Caroline continued, "I think... You actually did hire me for a specific reason...", "Oh, really?" Pauling said as she silently slipped out her pistol before Caroline cracked her knuckles, "Obviously, because I'm the queen of money laundering." Pauling blinked, "... What ?", "What?" Pauling shook her head, "You're the queen of what now? Money laundering ?", "Isn't that- Isn't that why you hired me?", "...Uh- Yes! I mean- that must be why the Administrator hired you, I must not have gotten the message." Pauling fumbled as she put her side arm away, "-But no! Great! That's great- that's..." Pauling said as she looked through her papers, not really knowing what she was looking for. She was not prepared to get caught off guard like that. She had done an extensive background check the moment she realized Caroline was relevant, but she didn't find anything like this. "Um- Um, um, um- Let me talk to the Administrator real quick and I'll-" She was interrupted by the fax machine and Pauling read the paper in a panic. "Shit...Uh Caroline, if I leave you here are you going to snoop around?" Caroline blinked, then looked away, "Yes...", "Yeah, figured...Okay then- Um, weird question: Have you ever disposed of a body before?" Caroline blinked again, "How much are you gonna judge me if I say yes?", "You have ?", "Long story short, my father was a mortician, and my aunt had issues, but we loved her anyway." Pauling shook her head and stood up, "You know what? I don't have time, just come on-", "Works for me." Caroline said as they went back down the hallway.

"I thought you said a body.", "Is this a problem?" Pauling asked as she walked over to the pile of corpses just inside the Teufort caves. Caroline shrugged as she followed, "No, it's just more work then I was expecting." Pauling barked a laugh, "I- understand the feeling." Caroline smiled, then turned and gestured, "So, what's the plan?", "Well, I usually just pull the teeth, sand the finger prints, and put them with the others. Let the quicklime do its thing." Caroline sighed, but nodded, "I guess that works." Pauling pulled out the tools she had stashed there and handed a pair of gloves to Caroline as she asked, "How do you usually get rid of bodies?" Caroline put them on, "Well, it was only one at a time and I would help my dad bury it under the grave a coffin would go in the next day.", "That's smart- did the cops ever find them?", "Nope-" Caroline said as she sat down and grabbed a pair of pliers, getting to work, "Like my dad always said, 'where's the best place to hide a tree? The forest!'" Pauling nodded, wrenching out a stuck canine before asking, "So, that whole 'queen of money laundering' thing- does Sniper know?", "Of course he does, I don't hide things from him." "Right," Pauling said, "And how did that happen?", "Me and Mick? Well that's a funny story... I was working for a friend of mine at her bar and this cute guy walks in and sits down. I mention to my friend that I think he's cute, and what does she do? She tries to subtly- not so subtly- get him to come talk to me. He comes over and I'm soo embarrassed, but he's super nice and we end up- well we actually just ended up talking all night...", "And that's how you two started dating?", "Ye-ah, but we didn't become official until right before he killed my aunt." Pauling furrowed her brow, "Wait- what?", "Yeah... But that story is really long and really sad and I don't really want to get into it right now- Damn, this one doesn't want to come out..." She grumbled as she yanked on a molar. "Here, let me-" Pauling said as she moved over to help her. "So then," Caroline stated, "How did you start with all this?" Pauling managed to yank it out, but the force of it made her tumble backwards. She quickly righted herself and said, "Um, I've kinda just- always done this?" Caroline nodded and Pauling continued hesitantly, "I've known the Administrator forever and- you know, I just- when she needs something done I just get it done... I can't really get into it.", "I understand." It was silent for a moment before Pauling spoke up again, "Okay... I know Sniper is still really mad at me, but could you tell him-", "I don't think he's really all that mad at you," Caroline interrupted, "He's just protective of me- which is fair, I'm protective of him too, but believe it or not Mick was the one who convinced me to go for this job." She finished, yanking out another tooth. Pauling blinked at her, "Really?", "Yeah. He told me that even though you're- you keep to yourself, you've done well by him and he appreciates that." Pauling smiled to herself and thought for a moment, then said, "You know, I can't let him slack off just because he's married...", "I know, and I don't expect you to." Caroline responded as she finished the last corpse, setting it aside. "But-" Pauling continued, "In the future, if you two have to leave for a period of time- a short period- I guess I could be more understanding.", "Oh, it's really not a big deal, you don't have to-", "Not right now though, there's stuff to do... I mean in the future- far future." Caroline smiled at her genuinely, "Thank you." Pauling blushed a bit and said, "Don't mention it... Anyway, let's get on to the fingers, shall we?"