We Shadows

Chapter 10: schemes

Harper limped out of the room and down the hallway. Cameron would be unhappy with how much walking he was doing today, but it felt good to move around on his own. Botany wasn't too far and he walked in, taking a big breath of the fresh fruits and vegetables. It always smelled so different in this room with the trees and vines and other plants. He could see why Levi wanted to stay here.

"Harper! Cameron let you out of her sight?" Alcott laughed.

She came up to give him a hug; Harper returned it a little awkwardly.

"How are you doing?" she asked. "You look a lot better."

"Merci," he replied. "And I'm doing pas mal, all things considered. How have you been?"

Alcott released him from the hug. "I'm good. I could use some more sleep, but I have to take that up with little Marcus." She smiled, patting her stomach.

"Cameron wanted to know if you and Tyson wanted have dinner with us sometime," he mentioned. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I think tomorrow's free, I'd have to ask Tyson," she allowed. "I'll message you later?"

Harper nodded, relieved that she was amenable.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Looking for Levi," he admitted. "He's a hard person to reach nowadays."

Alcott's smiled faded. "Yeah. He's in his office."

Harper nodded and headed down, knowing full well he had exhausted himself in this trek. He hated feeling this tired all the time. Once in Levi's office, he collapsed in the chair. Levi looked at him with some puzzlement.

"You are not easy to find," Harper told him.

"You could have messaged me," Levi replied. "Does Cameron know you walked all this way?"

"No," Harper grumbled.

"You're staying here then," Levi decided. "What did you need?"

"I'm done with the message aggregate," Harper explained. "And I was hoping you had another assignment."

"You could have..."

I know that I could have sent a message, Levi," Harper interrupted, a little irritated. "You've holed yourself away from the rest of us. We aren't to blame for the present situation. And ignoring a department you now run is not the right choice either."

Levi sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I know," he said. "I'm not trying to avoid you. I just can't be in that room; it's suffocating." He gestured at his desk. "And I have things that have to be resolved here. I have projects unfinished in botany. I need to get those resolved too."

"I was talking with Libba and Laurier earlier; we need more people," Harper said. "Talk to congress, I think we need at least two, at one of those should be a Aeneid member; we need more people who grew up with tekcom. And we need to let Matisse go back to personnel; he's there all the time anyway, and Cameron desperately needs help with payroll."

"I'll ask," Levi promised. "Anything else?"

"Libba needs help with a suitable filing system," Harper continued. "She seemed to think that you'd would know what we could use, but I think we're going to need a department meeting over it; we need something that both sides of the base can understand to make this new timeline accessible. "

"I'll send a message and we can meet tomorrow," Levi agreed. "Merci."

Harper appraised Levi, an idea forming in his mind.

"What if I led archives?" he questioned.

"Congress wouldn't let you," Levi replied grouchily. "I would."

"But if the department votes, then congress couldn't stop us, right?" Harper questioned, trying to let his thoughts catch up with his new plan. "Think about it. You could stay here; archives needs a person in every department, recording what the departments are doing and working on: a person to coordinate with. Having a leader who doesn't want to be there is no good to anyone, and you'd technically be working for me, but you'd stay with Anatoly. You do paperwork here, don't you?"

"I do," Levi said slowly. He turned to face Harper fully, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "You wouldn't mind? I don't want to saddle you with something I don't want to do."

"Levi, I hate that this happened to you," Harper told him. "And Dashiell is no longer captain. What are they going to do to us?"

"Congress can still object," Levi shrugged. "But I'm more than willing to put it to a vote in our department." He winced. "I have a congress meeting this afternoon I had forgotten about until now."

"Last one, hopefully," Harper remarked with a smile.

Levi nodded. "What will Cameron think of you being department leader?"

Harper knew that Cameron would not be happy with this plan, even if it allowed Levi to stay in botany and be in archives. She wouldn't like having Harper in congress meetings and possibly voting against her and Dashiell's plans. She wouldn't like how busy this would make him, especially since he was supposed to be resting. Even so, he was a little excited about making real change to the base.

"I'm sure she'll be fine with it," Harper replied.

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Ooh, Harper. Living life a little dangerously. I'm totally sure that Cameron will be down with your choices. :)

I know that I said I'd have only one update this week, but I'd much rather update on Mondays and I have a small buffer, and I wanted a more exciting chapter... I don't have to apologize; but still. Thanks for reading!