It wasn't a good question. She near-flinched with it, before pausing and sitting straight with her head held up high.

"Mr. Dexter is a good man and I'm honoured to be working for him"

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Oliver wanted to believe her, trust what she was saying but he couldn't. He didn't think Mr. Dexter have a good bone in his body, Mr. Dexter was a bully and someone Oliver didn't like being around, but if Miss Peters could do it then so could he.

"You didn't answer my questions Miss Peters, I asked if you were happy not if you felt honoured," Oliver pressed the question again unsure if he had over stepped his bounds, they were colleagues after all, she owed him no explanation.

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"That is a personal question" An unexpected cold front fell over her, narrowing her eyes in a way that was scarily like Richard's own facial expression, "I will answer if you tell me if you are sleeping with Mr.Elliot"

She didn't expect a real answer, it was simply a way to rather viciously prove what a personal question it was.

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Oliver felt instantly uneasily, and the question posed by Miss Peters, had Oliver regretting everything he said in the past five minutes.

"I see your point," Oliver told her, avoiding her question clearly and returning his attention for a moment to his desk. He checked the time and realized he had just a little over twenty minutes before he should be back.

"If you excuse me I'm going to eat something before I head back to Mr. Dexter's office. " Olive told her as he rose up from his chair and pointed toward the door for her to take the hint and head out.

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She stood, taking what little pride she possessed left and walking briskly out the door with her lunch bag in her hand. She didn't look at Oliver, her eyes straight ahead and strangely cold and devoid of life. Disappearing around the corner, as soon as she was out of Oliver's line of sight, her coldness melted and she was left with a deep sense of shame ...

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Oliver exhaled loudly before gathering up his things and picking up the box of books to take back the library. He didn't know how to handle Miss Peters' reaction or even if he should bother trying. She was more complex than he originally thought. Locking his office door behind him, Oliver made the trip back to the library without a fuss.

He returned the books, talked to the woman behind the desk. Oliver put in an order for two books from other schools to be sent to him, they were all to be used for his lesson plan. Before returning to Mr. Dexter's office Oliver grabbed himself a power bar and another cup of coffee, he knocked one before entering,

"NIce of you to return," Richard said as his greeting to Oliver, who offered no reply before returning to his small desk and returning to work. Richard wanted to get a rise out of Oliver and wasn't pleased when it proved unsuccessful, instead he grumbled slightly about Oliver taking so long. After a while everything went quiet as the two men got back to work.

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Eating was hard when one's hands were shaking so hard. She honestly didn't mean to be so cruel and cutting; it was an almost automatic defensive reaction.
She had heard that question so many times. Why do you stick around with him? What do you see in him? Why do you care about working with him? Why do you let him treat you like that? ....

She had her reasons. They were stupid, they were foolish, they sometimes were enough to silence the little voice at the back of her mind that told her that she wasn't worth all this nonsense. This aggravation, this nervous stress, this ...

"Sorry I took so long" Blaize's voice interrupted her, causing her to jump in her seat and bite clean through her sandwich, "Once you get him talking there's no stopping him ... ... ... Are you okay?"
"I'mfine" She horridly swallowed her sandwich, trying to recover her composure with middling results, "I-I just got a f-fright, that's all"
Blaize raised a brow at her, but otherwise said nothing. He didn't exactly have great emotional sensitivity or any sort of grasp of other people's feelings when it came to anxiety or depression. But from working with Oliver and seeing Oliver deal with the stress of deadlines and the start of their expeditions together where the golden-eyed man didn't really understand that Blaize laughed at any notion of death, he at least registered signs of high anxiety.
And they were clear in Jeanette. He could see her hands shaking whilst holding her lunch, he could see the constantly flitting eyeline, he could practically feel the tension radiating from her.

Still, questioning her was likely to cause her to shut him out and make it even worse. He settled on the desk, looking over what they had done so far. And that's when he saw it.
"It's marked that we went over Files D-55 to E-94, but we're only up to E-6" He held up his paper, and looked at the one she had marked to make sure they were keeping up with comparing the archives with the audit.
Her blood ran cold with those words. She was lucky she had finished her sandwich, otherwise she would have dropped it as her hands reflexively slackened in sheer fear.

"I-I'm s-sorry!" She moved to grab the paper to salvage the situation, but didn't dare actually take it from Blaize, hovering her hand awkwardly.
"It's fine, we'll just make sure E-6 is really done and move on" Handing the paper back, but the sound of the paper being snatched was rather loud in the office.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'll fix it, I messed up" She savagely slashed out her notes, scribbling annotations so hard that Blaize was concerned for the wooden desk.
"Gina, it's fine, honest, just a little mistake"
"But I messed up!"
"And? It's just paperwork. No-one died, there's nothing you can do that can't be fixed, it's perfectly okay"
"..." She stared at the paper, the anxiety fiercely defending itself against the reassuring words of Blaize ... but his casual, light tone was actually winning the battle.

"It's ...okay" She breathed, inhaling through the nose and out through the mouth, like the doctor had told her, "It's okay ..."
"Yes" Blaize watched her, softening his voice even further, "It's perfectly okay, nothing bad will happen, no-one will be angry or shout at you. It's all okay ..."
"..." Breathing at a steady pace, in through the nose and out through the mouth, it took a few minutes to come back down, but she returned to some form of reality. Her heart took a little while longer to get the message, the shake in her hands was still strong, but at least she didn't feel on the threshhold of a panic attack.

"Do you often have problems with anxiety?" His tone was casual, though it was something he really did want to know.
"Sometimes ..." She admitted, "Sometimes things just become big for no reason. D-do you have anxiety?"
It was a silly question, but Blaize didn't begrudge her asking it in order to distract herself.
"No, I pretty much have the opposite of anxiety most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I still feel fear if the situation calls for it, but that's usually when I'm hanging upside down over a bunch of jagged rocks and my harness is slipping, something like that" Shrugging.
"H-how do you do it"
"Do what?"
"Not feel nervous"
"I ... well, there's no real answer for that. I know you want ways to help your own anxiety, but honestly, it's a deep biology thing. I just don't feel the same reactions; fear thrills me rather than wears on me. Oliver gets anxious more than I do, you might want to talk to him about how he deals with it"

"..." She didn't think that was a good idea. Their last meeting ended on a rather sharp, sour note.
"Anyway, let's get on with this paperwork. We're going to be here for days with this garbage ...."

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The hours couldn't tick by fast enough. Oliver kept glancing at his watch or the clock in the office, trying to determine if one of them was wrong. It was a terribly slow day as he kept working through the paperwork. Richard and finally settled on short orders served with a snarky tone, but Oliver paid him little attention. He knew what a bully looked like and wasn't going to play into the other man's game.

Focusing for awhile on his work, Oliver was grateful that once it was all over he'd be able to work again with Blaize. As he worked his thoughts went to his lover, as he wondered how he was doing with Jeanette. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his head that made him worry that their new not-really-relationship would be tested. Would Jeanette fall for Blaize the same way he had? Oliver's lower-than-average self esteem let the seed of doubt grow. Jeanette was perhaps more to Blaize's preference. Doing his best to push away that doubt that kept growing, Oliver let out a sigh of relief when the clock ticked to 5pm. Finally his work day was over.

He rose out of his seat and gathered his things. Offering only 'goodbye," to Richard before departing from the man's office. Once outside of the building he took in a deep breath of the cooling air. He let his feet fall into autopilot mode, taking him back to his office.

During the walk his mind wandered again, realizing he might have been to harsh toward Jeanette. He wanted to make it up to her. They didn't need to become friends but he disliked the idea of her disliking him enough to speak ill of him.

Stepping into the department building Oliver made his way to office. There wasn't much for him to do other than toss out the trash and double check everything was put away. He thought about stopping by Blaize's office to check up on him but that little seed of doubt emerged again. Would Blaize even want to see him?

In an attempt to cull the flower in a single pull, Oliver headed toward Blaize's office and knocked, unwilling just to walk in as if he owned it.

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"Come in"

Blaize's voice was tired. Whenever he was low on energy, his voice became softer at the edges, and the more fatigue worsened his attention, his voice would even slur a little. He wasn't quite that bad yet, but he was losing his want to do anything as he and Jeanette powered through the mountains of paperwork around them. They were barely 1/10th done, according to Jeanette's statistics ...

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Oliver pushed open the door and his eyes went instantly to Blaize. Concern washed over Oliver's face as he recognized a tired look, it made him uneasy. For a brief moment the urge to close the gap between them and place a kiss to Blaize's temple was strong, but he stopped himself once he remembered Jeanette was in the office. He remained near the door but took a few steps in so he could close it behind him.

"I wanted to say I was going home soon and wanted to check in on the two of you," Oliver said his words simple but conveying a bundle of emotions. It wasn't that he disliked Jeanette but it was the fact she was in his spot, doing his work, that made the prickle of jealously cling to everything he said. Oliver did his best not to look at either of them, but kept his eyes moving to other parts of the office as he waited for any form of reply.

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Oliver pushed open the door and his eyes went instantly to Blaize. Concern washed over Oliver's face as he recognized a tired look, it made him uneasy. For a brief moment the urge to close the gap between them and place a kiss to Blaize's temple was strong, but he stopped himself once he remembered Jeanette was in the office. He remained near the door but took a few steps in so he could close it behind him.

"I wanted to say I was going home soon and wanted to check in on the two of you," Oliver said his words simple but conveying a bundle of emotions. It wasn't that he disliked Jeanette but it was the fact she was in his spot, doing his work, that made the prickle of jealously cling to everything he said. Oliver did his best not to look at either of them, but kept his eyes moving to other parts of the office as he waited for any form of reply.

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"Powering through this garbage" Blaize threw a pile of papers on top of an already over-heavy stack, causing the paper to slide sideways and Jeanette dove forward in her chair to catch the stack and push it back to its original position.

"Maybe you should go home, si- Mr. Elliot" Jeanette softly suggested, rolling her pen between her right thumb and forefinger, "You're very tired ..."

"I'm fine" Blaize shook his head, rubbing his face and pulling down another stack of paper.
"Mr. Elliot, you quite clearly are not fine. You're tired and should rest"
"I'm [i]fine[/i]" Blaize pulled a face, "Now, F-55 ..."

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Oliver watched the exchange between Blaize and Jeanette with a bit of sympathy. Blaize did what he wanted and even Oliver himself had a hard time getting the man to listen to outside suggestion when it came to working. Adjusting his glasses as a nervous habit, Blaize took a few steps closer, reaching across Blaize's desk to place his hand on the new stack of papers.

"Blaize, you've been busy these last few days. I think it would be good for you to go home and get some sleep. The paper will be here in the morning when you come back," Oliver told him, attempting to coax the man into taking better care of himself and not overworking himself. It had been less then 48 hours since he buried his father, even if he didn't think was stressed from it, Oliver had a feeling he was.

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".." The fact that he was busy reminded him of what he had been busy with, and that hardened his already irritatingly diamond resolve to keep working.

"M'fine" His mood turned darker, which alarmed Jeanette. She slammed her pen down onto her pad of paper, startling Blaize into looking at her.
"Mr. Elliot, you are quite clearly not fine. I must insist that you leave and get some rest"
"And I must insist that I keep going" He snarked back, "If you want to go, that's fine"
"Mr. Marks clearly knows what is better for you"
"Mr. Marks is not my caretaker" His irritation grew, but Jeanette wasn't having it. She put up with Richard's abusive attitude, and the change of air was giving her the courage to act on her feelings and experiance. She stood up, walked around the desk, took the papers out of Blaize's hand and literally pulled him to his feet, much to his shock. Sure, he weighed a lot more than her and she had to buckle and leverage her entire body to make him move but it was worth it as she ushered him out of his own office.

"You can come back in tomorrow refreshed, I will lock up here"
"What the Hell" Blaize was far too shocked to initially react, but then jammed his arms against the doorframe to halt himself, "Wait, did you just throw me out of my OWN office?"
"Mr. Elliot, I have seen firsthand what happens to a man who mentally pushes himself too far" She held her head up high, "I might suffer the consequences of this later and they may be harsh, but I could not in good concious let you hurt yourself"
"Do you do this with Dick?"
"I try" That was probably true. And the consequences for doing so probably varied as violently as his reactions, "I won't stand by and let you wear yourself down. Goodnight, Mr. Elliot, I will see you tomorrow morning"

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Oliver watched as Jeanette seemed to grow a backbone in the span of a few seconds. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't impressed by her actions. Watching as she took charge of the situation, Oliver wondered why she didn't act that way toward Mr. Dexter.

However, all those thoughts went away as it became clear that Blaize was going along with it. Maybe it was the shock of it added to his possible exhaustion that made it easier, but it didn't stop Oliver from feeling useless again.

Stepping out of the way of Blaize and into the hall. He held back the urge to sigh. Jeanette had single-handedly got Blaize Elliot to do something he didn't want to do. Something Oliver hadn't ever been able to do in all the year's he'd known him. What did Jeanette have that Oliver didn't?

Annoyed at his own inability to be useful and earlier dark thoughts, Oliver turned slightly to look toward Blaize.

"Um..get home safe," Oliver managed to force himself to say, looking down at the floor for a few seconds. What if Blaize would end up liking Jeanette more? Would he'd be replaced by her? Conflicted again, Oliver wanted to confront Blaize about it but lacked the courage instead he turned to head toward the exit.

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