The Return: An Intern's Life At The Peacock Network.

Chapter 2: The Morning After (AKA: A Day To Examine Consequences)

Like sands through the hourglass; like a clock tick tick ticking slowly and steadily, the day's early morning caress arrived with a blaring sunlight, the sounds of birds chirping and sounds of traffic and activity. Clearly the city that never sleeps also never shows respect for the sleepy, especially for those who had been spending a heat-filled night together. So of course, it was quite obvious that with any reunion, things would get complicated, lines blur, messages get mixed and actions normally not taken supersede any proper thought.

All those thoughts and everything else swirling around in her mind came rearing in as Anne's limbs twitched, starting with her fingers, which, for the most part, were intertwined with the fingers of another, at least one set of fingers were anyway. The other set of fingers were draped over the side of the bed as she opened her eyes, the sun blaring through the window. Anne made a note to buy curtains this weekend. As she laid up from where she slept, she looked over at her companion, the twinge of peacefulness exuding the other woman's form. Mika looked breathtaking, but of course that was no surprise considering how much Anne looked up to her and all. Sliding her eyes down to the said fingers, Anne looked at the engagement ring that practically lit a dagger-like blinking light that screamed at her how wrong it was. How everything about this was wrong.

Untwining her fingers from Mika's, Anne slipped out of bed slowly and quietly as she made a beeline to the bathroom. Opening a drawer for underwear, she slipped them on and found a tank top and pants, slipping them on and opening the door to slip out to the kitchen to make coffee. The entire time, all Anne could think of was how much she was gonna get screwed if within this week that she was working along Mika that this memory was gonna be only thing she sees.

It wasn't long after she had been waiting for the coffee to brew that she heard the buzzing of her phone, a sign that real life was calling. Looking at the text, Anne made a groan and turned it off as she looked out the window. As she gazed out into the city, her mind went to the previous nights events. What was she thinking? And with her boss of people?! Craning her neck to look down the hallway, Anne was jolted when she heard the coffee machine gurgle. She made a mental note to go looking into a new new machine. Grabbing two mugs, she exhaled and listened for any signs of intelligent or waking life from within the bedroom. Anne made her mug and stepped onto the balcony, sliding the door closed.

The air was fresh and clear from where she stood, the breeze a light feather but not too light to be considered too dull. It was all she needed to clearly go through the events of what had occurred. As the flashes of memory, from the disassembling of clothes, to the twisting of limbs and fingers, it was like reliving a one night stand with a club goer except that it wasn't any like that. It was something entirely different. Mika Brzezinski was someone she had looked up to; someone she had been massively following from Morning Joe to two books and beyond. Sure, Anne had never been someone who had been in a job like she currently has at MSNBC and with good reason, but that wasn't the main focus.

Of course, just as she could grasp said main focus, she turned around to find Mika lumbering out from the bedroom, hair just as disheveled as her own but still beautiful. She watched as Mika filled the other mug with coffee, noting that Mika was wearing strictly a robe from the chair in the bedroom. If Mika ever asked to take the robe from her, Anne knew she wouldn't care or would be more than likely give it away to her freely. As soon as Mika turned to grab a spoon to stir the cream, her eyes gazed up to the balcony, spotting Anne with her own mug as she exhaled.

Anne wondered what Mika was thinking as she stood there eye to eye with the blonde. It wouldn't be long till she found out as Mika made her way to the balcony. As Mika did so, Anne turned to face the view of the city, the breeze hitting her skin again. It wasn't until the door closed that Anne spoke. "I had thought you'd stay in bed till noon. Although i did realize that we're not exactly on the same schedule..." Mika sidled up next to Anne, their arms practically touching. "I thought about it, but then something in me realized that i wasn't one to stay in bed all day. I hadn't since the day my kids were born" 

Anne nodded, the warmth between them obvious against chilled skin as they stood together. "I wonder what they'd think about this between us. Though there isn't an us to be worried about i assume.." Mika didn't have to say anything because she knew there wasn't anything between them. "You know it's not like that. In fact, if this were any indication, I'd say we had a little too much to drink and..." "And what? One of us made the first move? Yeah, nobody will buy that." As the last syllable dropped off her tongue, Anne took a sip from her coffee, the pheromones of vanilla and caramel mixing together. They both knew what had transpired the night before had been a mistake, but in Mika's mind, she felt that nobody had to know that. "I don't care about that. You know that it's true how you feel about me, and that's something i won't dispute. And yes, what happened the night before was horrendous, but it's nobody's business."

Anne shook her head. "I won't dispute how i feel about you either, but you're forgetting..." As Anne spoke, she took Mika's hand that held the engagement ring and raised up. "You have a MASSIVE, bright-shining roadblock in your path. If you're smart, and i know you are, you'll walk away from the idea of having an affair with me and never look back because i don't want to be responsible for any misfortune of being discovered by anyone at the network to befall you or Joe." Swallowing, Mika exhaled and stepped away from Anne a bit, not totally walking away from her. With all that's occurred in her life, Mika has always known that love was given to her kids, her job, and the ability to help other women get equal pay.

"And I don't want you to be the reason that you're career takes another step back to a point where you feel the need to retreat and re-evaluate. You have no idea how much I hated not seeing you in the office, let alone around New York. And before you say anything, I found out from that British intern, his name was Lucas Brady, perhaps? I came to your apartment to find everything had been cleared out. Why did I have to hear from him that you decided to up and leave without so much as a goodbye or explanation?"

Anne grimaced. She knew Mika had a valid point. It was rather disrespectful to just up and leave both New York and MSNBC. But what was she gonna do? She had this feeling inside herself that told her if she stayed, things would've been ended badly for her career. And of course she couldn't allow Mika to be dragged down into her messy situation of having lusty feelings for her boss. It wasn't fair and she wasn't about to let Mika lose her job.

Tilting her head and giving Mika the look that screamed "you really expect me to answer that?" as she gulped and spoke. "Hmm, i'm sure it would've gone about like this...'Hello Mika. How's you're day and by the way, I've been having fantasies about fucking you're brains out in the office or a desert island.' Yeah, that would've made working with you a HELLUVA lot easier. I can't believe you would even ask that"

Mika knew Anne had a point. Just the way she said it all in such a free-flowing way had startled her, and not exactly in a bad way either. Still, she had to stick to the point in hand, and if she had to admit it, Anne's feelings about how this will affect her career if this got out was very sweet and endearing. "Alright, i agree with you on the basis that you're protecting me and my career, which is very sweet of you to do. However, i feel it best to point out that not only did we get drunk last night, but the moment we touched each other's hands, it was clear how you felt and..." Mika didn't need to say the last word before Anne got closer, slipped her hand around the hand that Mika was holding her mug and undid her grasp so effortlessly to ease the mug away and place it on the table where it joined her own. Looking at it again for a quick mila-second as she turned her focus back to Mika, slipping her hand up Mika's arm, over her elbow till it came to land on the small of Mika's back, pulling her closer to Anne, their lips inches like they had been last night but with an exception: Anne had fully expected herself to do this because it was what she had been drawn to all this time but hated to do because she knew it was violating all the rules of what MSNBC and NBC Universal had set up.

Nevertheless, here she was drawing her boss close to her and as her lips inched closer, she felt her inner voice scream how wrong this way but she didn't care because she saw the other woman moving into her lips as well. As both inched closer, the sound of cell phones interrupted them. Exhaling, both Anne and Mika pulled away, with Anne hanging her head in both relief and growled anger. Sighing, Mika ran a hand through her already mused up hair and shook her head. "You know, when inopportune times occur, it's things like those damn cell phones i blame." Slipping back into the apartment to answer her phone, Anne closed her eyes to ponder what was happening between them. This had to end and there was only way to do it.

Interrupting her thoughts was Mika sliding open the editor and