Inside Access

Chapter 6: Rejection

Chapter 6: Rejection

 Brooklyn found herself doing busy work in the library for yet another day in a row. Crispin and Warren had taken over her office by unspoken agreement and were working on sifting through Criminal's employees in there.

Crispin, being the sweet and helpful guy he was, had taken it upon himself to clean up her clutter and put away the books that she left scattered in there without telling her. She hadn't known he had done it until she had walked in after work one day to grab her purse and her office was neater than it had been since she had moved in.

Warren had denied he had done it as he walked her to her car. Crispin, he said, had just started doing it so subtly and without any emphasis on what he was doing that Warren hadn't noticed until he was already half done. He had tried to help but Crispin had told him to get to work and focus on what he was doing.

Brooklyn didn't want to seem ungrateful or ruin the tidiness so she didn't feel comfortable going back in there. She left books and all sorts of things just laying around. Unlike ordinary people, she never forgot where she placed something so she never had to worry about misplacing it. As a result, she was very haphazard about putting things down. She didn't want to move back into her office and begin putting down books, keys, papers, files, and who knew what else that Crispin, being sweet, would pick up without comment. So she had let the boys take her space and spent most of her time organizing the shelves, finding work for her little army of assistant librarians, and finding research material for her latest paper.

It was, in fact, quite dull. She knew when she agreed to do this that Jack wouldn't have her doing anything dangerous or outside of her field of expertise. She just hadn't realized it would be so boring. Really, she was doing nothing at all abnormal. All the busy work she was doing, like now putting a shelf back in order that had been knocked over by a careless visitor, could be and should be done by her assistants, but she had nothing else to do. When this was over, she was probably going to check the return cart and put those away.

There was nothing else she could do. Warren and Crispin were the ones Jack put in charge of going through the employees. Until they moved onto Lester's part of the 'inspection' she was completely useless. When they finished, she was to keep up appearances in front of the heads, but for now, she was just a librarian.

It was as she was working on the last shelf that one of her assistants, Kieth, came walking up.

“Oh, I was going to do that, Miss B.” he said looking distressed at seeing her sitting on her knees putting the books back in order.

“It's alright, Kieth.” Brooklyn said softly without looking up. “I've got this covered.”

“Yeah, but it was still my job.” he kneeled down beside her and looked over her work.

Kieth was Brooklyn's favorite assistant, he had been with her longer than any of the others, and he was very laid back with an infectious grin. His surfer boy, tousled blonde hair and sun kissed skin didn't belong in the quiet library but he assured her that he liked working there. He was an undergraduate at the university the next town over and was a mythic history major. Mythics, he had told her, were totally awesome and taking the class was like taking a course in fantasy.

“You can help Merida, she's logging all the new books into the directory.” Brooklyn suggested. Merida could handle it on her own but doing her assistants' work meant they had less to do and were just as bored as her.

“I could.” he agreed but he didn't stand up. “So, we've all been wondering, what's with the guys who've been in your office for the last week?”