A, B, C, D, E.

ii. In which I find a new purpose.

Delta and Echo made it back to The Office earlier than I expected, and in a fresh change of clothes that was neither what they started the day in, or the guard's uniforms they obtained in the botched job. I didn't ask.

"Cass." Echo nodded in my direction.

I nodded back and passed her a beer. "You look like you need it, Em."

"I think we all need one." Emily pulled her keys from her jacket and opened the bottle. She took a long swig before holding it out towards Delta. "Damon? You drink?"

"Not tonight." Damon was our most recent recruit, only been here for two or three months. He'd grown on me, and Alpha loved him from day one. "I'm going to make a call, get someone in to help us with this." He took his phone out of his jeans-of-unknown-origin and headed outside.

The room was still. It was just Emily and me now. I headed to the fridge and pulled out my second beer. "Today was fun. Despite the whole Benji and the dog thing." I took the bottle opener from the top of the fridge and opened my drink before going back to sit down.

"Yeah, you're right." Emily was leaning against the counter; long hair tumbling down the left side of her form. I have no idea where you got those clothes, but they look fucking perfect. She turned to me with a look in her eyes I couldn't quite place, and for a second I was scared she could read my mind. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing that happened today. "Wanna head up to the roof?"

"Uhh, yeah. Sure thing." I grabbed another pair of beers and the bottle opener from the fridge and led the way up the stairs to the little beer garden we put in on the roof.

I pushed the access door open and was hit with a wave of heat and sunshine. The sky was relatively clear, and there was the smell of a barbeque on the air, maybe on the next street down. I took two of the little plastic chairs and placed them side by side, facing the sun, low in the sky. "Would you care to sit with me?"

"Well, that was the idea." Emily smiled and sat down, finishing her beer.

"You want another one?"

"Of course I do. You're on your third or fourth by now, and I've barely finished my first one," She laughed a little, resting her head on the back of the chair and looking up to the sky. "How open are you to me pouring an entire bottle of beer off the side of this building?"

"So long as I don't have to get up, you can do what you want."

Emily jumped out of her seat and stood between me and the slowly setting sun. "Oh, come on Cass, you gotta get up! Aliens are invading London, and they need you to take us to your leader!"

I laughed. I laughed like I had been holding in a laugh all day and things just kept getting funnier and funnier until I broke. "Tell them to get someone more qualified."

"Either you're drunk, or I'm the funniest person in the world," She put her hand out towards me. "Come on, let's pour one out for Benji."

I took her hand, and she pulled me up out of the chair. "I don't think he would appreciate us wasting alcohol like this."

She took one of the bottles I had placed in the shade and popped the cap off of it by angling it on the edge of the brickwork and hitting it from the top. "Fine. Half a bottle. And the rest is mine." She turned around to look at me and held her hand out again. "Come on, Cassie, stand next to me." She started making grabbing motions with her hand, so I walked over and took it in mine, locking our fingers together.

I leant over the brick fence and watched the beer pour out of the bottle and fall in the wind. "That's actually really pretty," I said as she finished pouring just under half of the bottle over the side of the building.

"So just like you then?" Emily turned, so she was facing me, her ass about level with the barrier.

I looked past her, to the sun. It was just setting and creating an incredible array of colours in the sky. "No, actually. I said pretty, not stunning." I smiled and looked back at her.

"Oh, so it's actually just like me?" She pointed to herself with the beer bottle and started to smile. She let go of my hand and ran her fingers through her hair as she drank.

She looked like a modern day princess. Tight cropped black leather jacket on top of a faded band tee, french tucked into a pair of skinny jeans that were ripped at the knees, and across the thighs too. And there she stood, in front of me, silhouetted against the prettiest sky I'd ever seen. "Emily. If there's one thing I am 100 per cent certain of, it's that you are the prettiest girl, no. The prettiest person I have ever met."

Emily's eyes met the floor almost instantly, and I smiled and put my hand under her chin and tilted her head back up. She looked into my eyes, and I stepped closer, our bodies were mere inches apart. I moved my hand from her chin to the back of her head and ran my fingers through her long hair.

She blushed.

"You know, there's something I am just now realising about you." I smiled and took her bottle, setting it down on the bricks behind her.

"Yeah? What is it?" She put her hands around my waist and straightened up. She stood a couple of inches taller than me, and I dropped my hands, placing them on her hips.

"I just realised that there is a little bit of yellow in the brown of your eyes." I started making little circling motions with my thumb, and I pulled myself closer to her. "They're beautiful."

In less than a second, Emily had grabbed me by the waist, spun us both around, sat me on the wall, and placed herself in between my legs and right up against my chest. Our eyes met, and she slowly leaned in closer to my face. "Cassandra. I want to kiss you."

Suddenly my heart was in my mouth. Everything I had wanted all night was culminating at this moment, and I had frozen. I put my arms over her shoulders and swallowed hard. "Well, what are you waiting for?"