• Twenty-Two •

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She returned to the office in a worse state than she had left it.

Saying goodbye was not something she enjoyed doing any matter, but this had been particularly hard. Flo had been the once person who had been there for her since she had started at the Yard. Had been... It was painful to think about.

"She's gone."

He yelled. Threw something at the wall. Cleared the desk of files and paperwork in one violent swing. Lucy just stood watching, thinking about how these violent outbursts were getting more frequent. Placid Prof was slipping away, being replaced by a bad-tempered Potty.

The night of the party, Barton had said something. Hershel wants his son back. She had thought then that his son was disappearing along with the real Prof, being replaced by these two conflicting sides. Here was even more proof.

They kept their emotions low by diving back into work. Lucy followed up on her vent theory, while the Prof examined the doors and widows carefully. By lunch, three more forensics were looking into contamination in the room, while two more were at the scene, dissecting the door. Placing the phone down, Lucy turned; "Eli should be here at 2. Oh, and Jacob's still refusing contact."

"We should go see him in person," he replied.

"You're joking."

"Nope- we need to discuss matters with him and it's much harder to turn someone away to their face."

"Yeah, ok. How about tomorrow?"

"I'm not working tomorrow."

Lucy stopped for a second, "Now you're joking."

"No again."

Debating whether or not to inquire further, she casually shut down the reconstruction machine. "What you up to, then?"

She looked behind her just in time to catch him muttering something at the filing cabinet. "Didn't quite catch that."

Sighing, he glared at her. "Barton called. He wants to meet me over near Cambridge."

It was such an obvious ploy that he must've picked up the real story.
"You know 'e'll-"

"Yep, I full well know."

"Can't you just tell 'im no?"

He laughed unexpectedly. "I'm afraid not- that would be impolite."

Lucy laughed too, "You and your manners."

"I'll need them too. Chelmey will be there."

Having only met the surly older Inspector once, at another Yard dinner, she could only imagine how difficult it would be for the Prof to get on with him, especially wound up as he would be. "Oh God Prof, good luck."

"I'll need it."

"Seriously though. Don't do anything stupid."

"Thanks for the advice," he snorted. "Any other pearls of wisdom you'd like to share?"

"Nah, I'm done. Lunch?"

"Sure," he said, following her from the Mystery Room.

"So we can speak to Eli later, then I'll deal with Jacob tomorrow?"

"You can handle it?"

She almost missed a step. "Sorry, what? You're joking."

Lifting his hands up in defence, he replied, "Sorry, sorry."

Lunch was quiet and subdued. It appeared the word about Florence had spread swiftly around the Yard, and a few tables at least were respecting that. As Lucy and the Prof slipped into their usual seats, Isolene and Hilda did the same opposite. The conversation was distracted and the topics mundane, but Lucy was glad for their efforts. It was also known that she and Florence had been pretty close.

"You have a lead yet, on your case?" Isolene asked in her heavily accented English. Potty Prof's eyes flickered momentarily red.

He said in a tight voice, "Yes, you could say we have."

Hilda nodded approvingly and nudged Isolene. "Speaking of cases,  we should get back to Interpol. See you later Al, Lucy."

The pair acknowledged her dismissal, and stood to leave themselves.

~~~~

Uu so this is a draft I didn't realise I'd written, and I haven't edited or anything so oop.
However I'm feeling like I should get back into writing this, if anyone would read it. Would you be interested in me finishing this story? Vote or leave a comment if you would!

Also sorry for inactivity, haven't had the motivation to write recently •~•

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