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Part 34 - Rumbled

(Nathan)

If spending Sunday in solitude anticipating his first day back to work had dragged Nathan's mood down, arriving at his desk on Monday morning plain caused it to plummet.

He forewent the opportunity to head in early; a decision he'd come to regret the moment he laid eyes upon three weeks' worth of work piled up waiting for him. Not only that, but for the entirety of the morning, Nathan tried and failed to take his mind off Alexei and the seemingly insurmountable distance between them.

His emotions would become truly erratic by the afternoon. They'd swing from crushing sadness at the idea of never seeing his wolf again, right through to furious anger whenever a colleague had the audacity to ask if he'd enjoyed his break, dumping yet more work on him in the process. In fact, as 3pm came and went, Nathan felt fully prepared to bite the head off the next person unfortunate enough to cast shadow upon his workstation.

"Nate?"

He slammed his pen down to the desk, halfway through noting down the workings of a particularly taxing calculation. "What now!?"

"Good gods, sorry I came over!"

Nathan spun on his chair, looking up to find Tasha recoiling away. "Damn it. Wait." He gave a short sigh, rubbing at his weary eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. I've just been stupidly busy today. I thought..."

"Don't worry." The lioness waved a paw dismissively, taking a step back closer. "I guess I shoulda thought harder about coming over here, what with all you've got going on." She looked to Nathan's in-tray; its contents literally overflowing. "Me and Shaun missed you at lunch today."

"Yeah, well, this is to blame for that as well." He, too, gestured to the heap of paperwork massed atop his desk. "Barely had time to breathe, let alone eat." Nathan took a second to glance around the hectic maze of workstations, briefly wondering whether having a casual chat in the office would cause problems. He smirked an instant later, realising in fact that he couldn't care less.

"What're you grinning over?"

"Nothing. Just a quick moment of clarity."

"Never a bad thing on a Monday afternoon I guess," Tasha replied with a grin of her own, glancing past to the cityscape outside the adjacent window. "As long as it's not one that involves throwing yourself off of the twenty-fourth floor that is."

"By the gods, Tash," Nathan snorted, briefly turning to look out upon the forest of skyscrapers sitting beneath the overcast, afternoon sky. "For you, that's pretty dark."

"I guess, but then I'm not having the greatest of days either," she retorted a chuckle. "It's either that, or throw my own in-tray at Richard."

Nathan laughed briefly, but heartily, winning a couple of perplexed glances from nearby co-workers. He suddenly realised his mood had lifted a great deal from only thirty seconds ago, giving way to his second moment of clarity. "Thanks for that."

"No problem," Tasha replied with a wink. "I saw from my desk you could do with cheering up."

"Excuse me," came a timid squeak. Nathan craned his neck to peer past his friend to the petite, brown mouse standing with paws almost apologetically clasped. "Sorry, Nathan, but I was wondering how likely it'd be to get that report from you by the end of today?"

"Carolyn, I don't--" he stopped short, composing himself until he could suppress his stress enough to answer without hostility. "I'll do my best, but it might need to wait until tomorrow. That okay?"

"Sure, sure," Carolyn responded nervously, gaze constantly finding her department on the other side of the office. "I'll go give Laurence an update."

"Thanks."

Both Nathan and Tasha watched the short mouse weave her way back through the workstation maze, the latter waiting until they again loitered in relative privacy before speaking up. "Seems it's not just our boss giving people a hard time."

"Being a dick seems to be prerequisite to becoming management here," Nathan whispered back, not wishing for the rest of their own department to hear. "Laurence can damn well wait, I've only just got back."

"Speaking of which; how are you settling back in? Coping okay?"

"Just about," he groaned, briefly pawing through the papers littering his worktop. "I mean the legs of my desk haven't buckled under the strain of my work just yet, so that's good, right?"

"Not a bad thing, for sure," Tasha scoffed, taking a moment before adding, "Is it just the workload that's bothering you?"

Nathan fell quiet, taking the time it took to compose and send a short, work-related e-mail to gather his thoughts. "Apart from constantly thinking about the attack, and all the stuff I lost in the fire... Yeah, it's hard to be back here, trying to get back into the old routine while being so far away from Alex. There's a lot of Velika I don't miss, for sure... but gods, I really miss him."

"I bet..." The lioness smiled sympathetically. "It can't be easy."

"It's like I'm supposed to sit here and forget all about the past three weeks. I'm supposed to just work like crazy while I wonder if he's okay back there after everything that's happened to us... to him."

"There's not much else you can do I'm afra--"

"I don't even know when the next time I'll see him again'll be." Nathan could sense his voice raising, but did little to adjust it. "It's fucking heartbreaking--"

"Nate, come on," Tasha whispered with urgency. "Not here."

He rubbed at his tired eyes with a grunt, reeling his emotions back in. "Yeah, probably not the best idea to get into any problems on the first day."

Tasha didn't answer, prompting him to glance back up at her.

"Yeah... about that," she mumbled, briefly scanning the room. "I figured you should know."

"What?" Nathan cocked his head, muzzle twisting with confusion. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but Richard's on the warpath. Has been since the middle of last week."

"How come?"

Tasha shrugged, checking around again in an apparent effort to ensure they weren't being listened in on. "We were all wondering why, until he let slip."

"Let slip?" Icy daggers of anxiety jabbed at Nathan's chest. "Let what slip? What have I done!?"

"Well, he didn't mention specifics... just that he was looking forward to asking you a couple of questions when you got back today."

Those daggers came together, forming a bitter blade that drove deep into his heart and almost paralysed him with fear. "Q-Questions?" His words faltered, breathing quickening. "What about?"

"Like I said, I don't know," Tasha replied regretfully. "I just know that once he's done with his meetings, he'll probably come looking for you."

Nathan covered his mouth, looking down to his report. Suddenly, his workload seemed a far smaller problem than it did five minutes ago. "What the hell? I... what?"

"I'm really sorry, Nate. I just thought you should know beforehand."

"Yeah... thanks, Tash."

"Listen, it might not even be a big deal, right? After all, he gets grumpy over every little thing."

Tasha smiled, though he knew her well enough to pick up on the effort it required.

"I guess."

She looked to her desk two seats ahead, stepping out into the aisle. "I'd better get back to work before someone says something. I'll see you at the end of the day, okay?"

"Sure. Later," Nathan muttered in response, right before panic flooded his thoughts completely. 'What does he want with me!?'

For the next twenty minutes, Nathan did little more than cast his wayward glare out of the office window. He watched as the sun began to disappear down behind the towering buildings opposite, unable to take his mind off the warning Tasha had offered.

"This is no good," Nathan groaned, pushing himself up from his seat. He hoped grabbing a drink of water from the dispenser might ease his arid throat, along with his fearful thoughts. He'd never get the opportunity to find out for sure however.

"Nathan," Richard spat as he stormed up the aisle, the grey patches of his brown, vulpine muzzle scrunching with the beginnings of a snarl. "Welcome back. Meeting room two, please."

Nathan gasped in shock, both at his boss's sudden appearance, and the poorly concealed anger directed his way. "Hi... Is everything alright--?"

"And I do mean now."

He followed the fox's snapping tail away from his workstation, slinking towards the front of the office with ears flat to his skull. 'I've never seen him this pissed before!'

All around him, Nathan's colleagues had trouble resisting a curious glance his way. He'd not blame them for watching, such was the ire in Richard's loud, purposeful footsteps. One person not afraid to look was Tasha, her consolatory eyes gazing up from her desk as Nathan anxiously padded by.

"I've been meaning to talk with you all day," the greying fox grumbled, stomping towards the second of three frosted glass-panelled meeting rooms lined up in a row.

"Yeah... I heard that." Nathan's nervous stomach fluttered faster, his curled tail dipping down to brush the back of his suit trousers.

Richard rattled the wooden door open with a push of its handle, pressing the husky into fighting to imagine any logical reason for this fast-worsening situation.

'I can't be blamed for all the work that was waiting for me! I booked my time off properly. I came back on time. There's no way this can be about anything that happened while I was away in Vel--' In that hair-raising instant, the blinding dawn of realisation forced Nathan's eyes closed. 'He knows...'

The door thumped closed behind him, sending Nathan hurtling back into the increasingly claustrophobic meeting room. He quickly noticed the black wolf sitting at the head of the small, boardroom-style table, a variety of notes and paperwork laid out before him.

"Good afternoon, Peter," Richard stated with a nod, promptly gesturing at a seat to the wolf's right. "If you don't mind, Nathan."

Time slowed as Nathan practically floated over to the empty, blue-cushioned chair. He took a seat right before his boss did, leaving him sitting opposite with Peter positioned to his left. He placed his arms in his lap, fearing the racket the claws of his trembling paws might create upon the polished tabletop.

"Shall we begin?" the middle-aged wolf inquired, looking to Richard, then to Nathan before finally peering back down to his extensive notes.

"W-What's this all about?" Nathan finally squeezed the question out. "Why's Peter here?"

"It's company policy for the head of Personnel to be present in instances such as this," Richard replied, his near-emotionless expression almost as unsettling as the anger that greeted Nathan moments ago. "This isn't formal... but we're here to find out if it needs to be."

'Oh shit, they're gonna fire me!'

'Calm down.'

'They know!'

'How could they!?'

He took a deep breath, only partially buoyed by that last thought. "Instances such as what?"

"Nathan." Peter's gruff voice didn't carry the warmth of his wolf, nor did the pale yellow eyes glaring at him. "We're here to discuss your use of three weeks' annual leave to travel away to Velika."

'...I guess they do know.'

Nathan's blood ran cold as Peter pushed a form across the dark wood tabletop towards him. "We received this through to us last week; a claim against your company health insurance from a hospital in Kremensk."

He looked up from the telltale sign of his trip and into Richard's accusing eyes.

"Firstly," the fox rumbled, tapping his finger so that the gold band around it rapped the table, "I hope it wasn't serious."

Nathan didn't quite know how to take that question, nor did he know of the genuinity behind it. Regardless, he had no desire to divulge any details. "No... not really."

"Good. Then I can move on to my next question." The few seconds Richard spent adjusting himself in his seat proved no less stomach-churning as any that had preceded them. "Why did you feel the need to misinform us about the reasoning behind your leave from work?"

He chose not to answer that, focusing on the Velikan text bordering the hospital's logo as he stared back down to the medical form in front of him.

"I don't appreciate being lied to, especially when it's to get three weeks' vacation time during our busiest period. If I'd known you weren't visiting family... celebrating your father's birthday..."

Nathan wondered in that moment if Richard really did care about the lie at all. He considered whether the real crux of this meeting involved his hatred of Velika, and whether this all came as some thinly-veiled attempt to get at someone who didn't share in his ideology.

"Nathan?" Peter rumbled. "Do you have anything to say on the matter?"

As much as these rebellious thoughts raced around inside his head, he didn't; he couldn't think of a single reason or excuse he could offer that might appease his management. Instead, Nathan peered down to his tightly-clasped handpaws, wishing even harder to be back with his wolf.