EverChange

26

Donovan still had the files, and had gone through most of them. The amount of data that was compiled was massive, and he was merely reading the summary reports. If what Alister had given him was just a summary, how deep was all of this.

"It's going to burn."

He was drawn back to what he was doing, and looked at the wooden spoon in his hand. Donovan delicately checked what he was cooking. Some cut of beef that he merely meant to sear on on outside, not cook from rare to done. Damnit.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, reaching out to stroke his arm.

"I should be asking you that," Donovan sighed, transferring the meat to a clean wooden board. He'd let it sit for a moment before cutting it, let everything settle. "You had a rough day today."

Sam shrugged her shoulders. She was petite, and compared to Donovan, she was tiny. The woman's presence was in no way weak or frail, but at this moment she was so much smaller.

Sam looked up from setting the small table to look up at him. She caught him studying her.

"...If this is about that bitch... like... I'll avoid her like the plague." Sam said defensively.

"eh?" Donovan had been bothered by it. Sam had some altercation with a woman, whose credentials were not known to him. He had requested Eileen to look into it, but so far there were no leads.

Some of the names aligned to the files he had, but only by Surnames, and only a few times. He looked at Sam, and knew she could not handle anymore interogations. Not from him, not until this entire thing was cleared and she wasn't locked up like a dog on probation.

"....How's the salad coming?" he asked, bringing himself out of his thoughts.

"I thought I was sauteeing?" she looked at the vegetables on her cutting board. Yellow squash, she had sliced some cherry tomatoes and peppers, some spinach and another leafy item sat next to it. "We can do salad though... since your thing it already done."

She looked over at the cut of meat on Donovan's board, then with lidded eyes looked at him.

"...What's that." She poked it with the point of her knife. She withdrew and clicked her tongue between her teeth. "That looks mighty done."

He reached over and nudged the cutting board further away from her. Sam snickered.

"You'd think for someone that breaths fire, he'd know what's cooked and what isn't," she when back to slicing.

"You wound me." Donovan put a had on his chest. "Got distracted."

Sam put everything in a bowl. She used the back of her hand to rub her brow. Donovan undid the elastic that held the end of his braid in place, and went about french braiding her hair.

It was so very soft and silky, and so thick his fingers disappeared in her locks almost instantly. "....Jessamine?"

And he felt her shiver when his finger brushed against the nape of her neck.

"Just... Sam. No one calls me by my full name unless they're yelling," she laughed sheepishly.

"It's a beautiful name," he secured the hair tie and curled a stray strand around his finger.

She looked up at him, brown eyes scanning his face. A small smile came over her full lips. Sam turned from him to continue with what she was doing.

"Then you can say it... don't let the others hear you though... don't want that echoing off the halls."

"They don't rank high enough to have your name in their mouth," Donovan bent some, delicate fingers sliding down her neck to turn her head some as he kissed her ear, then her cheek. Her eyes had closed, her breath had hitched.