Gillian had her ritual morning tease with the security guards and headed to the elevators. Her phone buzzed while she waited. Russell? So early?
"Hey, everything okay?" she asked, a little concerned.
"You tell me. Barbeque this Saturday at your place."
A bright grin replaced Gillian's worried frown. "You're coming home?"
"Hell yes."
Gillian walked into the booth and pressed the button to the fifth floor still grinning, because it'd been a while since she'd last heard Russell so happy.
"Permanent?"
"Sort of. I'll be working with the new supervisor for New England, so I'll be sort of around, but based home."
"Oh, Russ! That's frigging great! You're coming on Saturday, then?"
"Maybe Friday, or Thursday. Not up to me, you know. My boss will tell when we're leaving."
"And what about that new boss of yours? Is he on Cassidy's side, Mattock's side or Cooper's side?"
Russell chuckled at her categorization. "None of the above. You better wait and see yourself."
"C'mon, give me some!"
"Nope. It's a surprise. Don't worry, you'll find out next Monday tops. He'll be based in Boston too. Oh, I'm bringing all the manuals from the courses."
She gasped. "All of them?"
"Yep. With copies for you, of course."
"Russ, I love you."
"I know. Hard to resist."
"Should I tell the others, or d'you wanna surprise them?"
Both of them knew that 'others' meant Aldana. Russell chuckled. "She already knows."
"What!? You told her first?"
"Reg, it's Al."
"So what! Have you even kissed her? And you're already telling her before me? She should credit at least ten years of patience with you for that!"
"Okay, okay, won't happen again, promise!"
"You better."
When she walked into their office, everybody noticed her excellent mood.
"Any good news to share with the class?" asked Hank.
Gillian paused to take the mug Fred handed her. "Saturday at my place, lads. We're having a welcome barbeque: Russ is coming back home." She tried her coffee, nodded thanks at Fred with another smile and turned to the others. "He comes bearing gifts, though."
"Beware of the Greeks," said Kurt from his desk.
"What gifts?" asked Aldana.
Gillian instantly regretted her smirk—Russell hadn't told her everything. "The new supervisor for New England."
"Oh, well, another big shot?"
"He wouldn't say."
"So that's why Cooper is so over the top," said Ron. Gillian frowned and he shrugged. "She's nuclear this morning. A while ago she picked on her secretary. We could hear her from here."
Gillian narrowed her eyes. "Al, did you finish the New Hampshire report?"
Aldana reached out and grabbed the folder, that passed from hand to hand to Gillian. She looked down at it and pursed her lips, considering her chances. Then she arched her eyebrows with a deep breath, turned around and walked out.
Hank glanced out the inner window. "And there goes Daredevil Gillian, straight into the lion's den."
Ron frowned. "She went to see Cooper?"
"Yep."
Gillian found Cooper taking files from her cabinet and dumping them into a box on the floor by her feet, snorting and grunting under her breath.
"Ma'am?" she tried.
"If it's the New Hampshire report, leave it on my... on the desk," Cooper growled, not even glancing at her.
Gillian looked around and frowned. "Are you moving your office, ma'am?"
"Yes." Cooper dropped half a dozen thick folders into the box, huffed at the thud, and snapped. "It's the new supervisor. He'll be based here, so he will need an office! So I gotta move to the little one next door!" she snarled, then went on almost under her breath, as she kept dropping folders into the box. "Unbelievable! I didn't have to do this for my own husband, and now I gotta...!"
Careful here, Reg. Cooper has to be at the brink of berserk mode to let anybody see her like that.
"Why would you have to give him your office, ma'am? There are others in the building."
"Well, of course there are, Gillian! But this is the main floor of the field office! And mine is the main office of the main floor!"
"So...?" Gillian noticed the menacing sparks in Cooper's glare. "I mean, like you said, this is the main office of the fifth floor, but this new supervisor won't be working only with this field office, right?"
Cooper's scowl narrowed her eyes, turning her glare into a deathly laser focused on Gillian.
She raised her eyebrows instead of shrugging. "He doesn't need to be exposed to all our comings and goings. It'll distract him from his work. Maybe he's working on something about Connecticut, for example, and we're all buzzing about something local. That wouldn't be... friendly, comfortable for him, right?"
Cooper's scowl softened about a millimeter, and she nodded for Gillian to go on.
"And Coleman tells me he's coming to work with this supervisor, so he'll be needing some workspace too. And maybe there are other aides we need to accommodate."
Cooper's voice was like sandpaper—meant to sand granite down. "No other aides. Say it already, Gillian. What's your point."
"The fourth floor. I think there are a couple of nice offices that nobody's using right now. There they could work away from our buzzing."
Gillian waited, watching Cooper's eyes dart away from her face to move around, her lips pursed. Then she sharply looked up and stalked across the office.
"Come," she grunted, yanking her door open.
Gillian hurried after her. Everybody at the open office paused, expecting the storm, but Cooper stalked straight to the elevators. Gillian had to swallow a silly giggle, spotting her team lined behind their inner window, looking out like curious monkeys. Nobody resumed their work until both women got into a booth.
There was a little commotion, quickly concealed, when Cooper strode out of the elevator at the fourth floor. Human Resources and Public Relations worked there; also Brandon and the other techs had their cave on that floor. And they were not used at all to have the Iron Lady showing up by surprise like that. But Cooper hardly glanced at them, her high heels clicking at full speed down the hall to the other side of the floor.
Gillian caught up with her at the first door of a large room divided in two by an inner glass wall with a door. The one she was critically inspecting was smaller than the other, and both of them had independent access to the main hall.
"Coleman could use this one, and the supervisor the bigger one," said Gillian, standing with Cooper at the doorway. "And if they need anything about the office or any given agent, they're just steps away from the information."
Cooper's head made a short, sharp nod. "Call maintenance. Have them clean this section and get it ready for them." She turned to Gillian. "Can you see it done?"
"Sure, ma'am."
The Iron Lady wasn't about to show herself overly grateful and relieved. She just nodded again and turned around to leave. But she paused only a couple of steps away. "Did Coleman tell you who's the new supervisor?"
Gillian frowned. "No, ma'am, he just said they'll be here by the end of the week."
Cooper let out something that sounded like, "Hum!" and left. Gillian headed to the maintenance station of the floor, wondering what was that question really about.