Alexei And Grace

03 | Companionship and Coffee

"THIS IS SO NOT GOING TO WORK," I muttered to myself, striding towards the cafeteria where I knew I would find Lena. She always got hungry at dawn.

Sure enough, I found her picking apart a cream cheese bagel and a bag of crisps at a table on her own. She'd thrown on an oversized grey hoodie and she leaned her head on one hand whilst using the other to put food in her mouth. Every few seconds she'd fall asleep and then wake back up with a sharp jolt.

"Hey." I slid into the booth opposite her. "Mind if I steal a crisp?"

She shrugged, offering a weak smile. The hospital's cafeteria was known for making food that shouldn't be fit for human consumption, so most of the time we stuck to pre-packaged junk food. I popped one of the crisps into my mouth and crunched on it loudly. Lena still looked like she was about to fall asleep. I pushed my steaming black coffee towards her. "Here," I offered, "drink."

In less than a minute all of my coffee was gone. "Don't save me any," I joked.

Finally a little more alert, Lena looked up and her dark blue eyes narrowed. "You want something."

"Me?"

"What is it?"

"Maybe I just came over to offer companionship and coffee." I picked up the empty styrofoam cup and shook it. "Which you accepted."

"I accepted it knowing there was a price," she smirked, "so tell me what it is."

I sighed. "Okay. I'm about to ask you to do something crazy, and I need you to not question it. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Really?"

"I figure I owe you after that time with that guy in that club..." she trailed off, reminiscing.

"...right. Anyway." I paused, thinking how best to phrase my request without sounding utterly insane. "So you know how you should have been an actress?" It was a story Lena told during any social function she attended—how she'd almost been cast for a role in Eastenders. Lena nodded enthusiastically. "Well, I need to borrow your skills."

"What for?"

I spent a good ten minutes trying to convey to my best friend that I wasn't, in fact, crazy, but that I'd just somehow wound up agreeing to help a man who quite possibly could have been a criminal. I stressed the fact that I was pretty sure he wasn't, but most of the time Lena ignored me.

"This is insane," she commented. "You're insane."

"Tell me about it," I said flatly.

"I never thought I'd see the day, you know? The day Grace Perne turned rebellious...I'm actually a little proud." She wiped a fake tear from the corner of her eye. "I feel like a parent."

"Right." I dismissed her histrionics. "So you'll do it?"

Lena smiled her uniquely devilish smile. "For you, my dear? Anything."

**

"Are we really doing this?" I requested as we strode in the direction of wing G. Lena had acquired a bounce in her step beside me; she'd always been energised by the prospect of trouble.

          "I'm really doing this," she corrected. "You are watching artwork as it takes place."

          I felt a little bad that we were essentially pissing around on the job when so many patients were waiting for assistance, but I'd already promised one of them my help, and I might have been a lot of things, but I wasn't a flake.