Sally pushed aside the vertical blinds of the Preventer’s break room. She gasped when she saw who was entering the building.
“What?” asked Lady Une, holding a freshly poured cup of coffee.
“She’s here,” said Sally.
“No,” exclaimed Lady Une. She walked to the window to see for herself. “It is her. Why would she do this? I told her to take at least two weeks.”
“You should talk to her,” said Sally.
“No, I don’t want to upset her. It’s best not to bring it up.” Lady Une looked down at her coffee mug as if the depths of it held answers for her.
Sally sighed deeply. “Your right. If she wants to come back so soon, it’s up to her.”
“Yes,” Lady Une agreed.
The break room door opened and a cheerful Hilde stood in the doorway. Her face brightened when she saw the room’s occupants.
“Hi Sally! Hi Lady Une!” said Hilde. “Hope someone made coffee!”
Sally opened her mouth to speak, but no words came to mind. She closed her mouth feeling awkward.
Lady Une tried to fill in the gap with a quick, “Yes, but it’s strong. I think Wufei made it.”
Hilde made a face. “Yuck! I’ll have to cut it with milk then.” Absentmindedly, Hilde placed a hand on her lower back as if supporting it and walked over to the coffee-maker.
Startled, Lady Une and Sally looked at each other. Lady Une gave Sally an imperceptible shake of her head.
Hilde stood sideways to the counter as she poured cream and milk into her mug. With a pause and a start, she realized what she was doing. She turned and faced the counter to finish the process.
“So where is Wufei?” Hilde asked.
“I sent him out with D…Duo this morning,” said Lady Une.
“Poor Wufei!” cried Hilde. “He hates to patrol with Duo.” Hilde turned to face the two women with her mug in hand. She brought one arm up under her breasts, then looked down. She corrected the motion by crossing her arms properly.
“He won’t mind Duo much today,” said Sally.
Lady Une shot a glare at Sally. Sally blushed and looked down at her mug.
“Oh?” asked Hilde. “Why is that?”
“What Sally means to say is Duo looked a little tired this morning. She doesn’t think he’ll bother Wufei today,” Lady Une said smoothly.
Hilde looked down and tugged at the front of her shirt. “Yes, he is tired. We both were a little tired this morning.”
“Well, Hilde, I was thinking of having you review the satellite data this morning. You have the best eyes for it.” Lady Une watched Hilde pull the front of her shirt smooth. She felt a pang in her heart for the younger woman. First Duo walked through like a zombie, now this.
Hilde forced a smile. “Yes, I love running the data. Just my spying nature I guess. Love to look at all those other people. My own private soap opera!”
The three women chuckled softly. They all took drinks from their mugs, not looking at each other.
The break room door opened and all three women looked to see Heero standing there.
“Good Morning,” he said in his quiet neutral tone. He scanned the room and his eyes came to rest on Hilde.
“Hilde,” he said with just a touch of surprise.
“Good Morning Heero.”
He walked over to her and took her by the shoulders. “I’m so sorry.” He pulled her into a gentle hug.
“Oh, it’s all right Heero,” Hilde said as she returned the hug. “There’s always next time.” She pulled away. “I have to go read the sat data now.” She stepped around him and walked towards the door.
Lady Une and Sally watched with concern in their eyes. Heero turned as she moved past him.
In the doorway, Hilde paused and looked at each person briefly, not making eye contact with any of them.
“Don’t worry about us, you three,” said Hilde in her forced cheerful voice. “Duo and I have made it through a lot worse than this. We’ll be fine.” Her voice cracked slightly on the last word.
Hilde quickly pulled the door shut behind her. She leaned on the closed door, as a few tears escaped from her eyes.
“Damn,” she said as the emptiness choked her. “Maybe it was too soon?”
Scene Two
Sally pushed open the door to the break room and scanned it. It was empty. Good. She stepped inside glad for the comfort of the cheerful room. She breathed deeply in and out as if trying to loosen steel bands constricting her chest.
She glanced about the room. The walls were lined with safety posters. There were three rather lived-in couches set up in a semi-circle to the right and a kitchenette to the left complete with the object of her desire. The coffee maker.
Maybe caffeine would cure the ache in her soul? She walked toward the kichenette with single-minded determination. She fished her favorite cup out of the dishwasher and swung it over toward the sweet-smelling brew.
In her haste, she upset the basket of tea-packets sitting on the counter. More than fifty little tea packets scattered all over the floor.
This was too much.
The tension of this past week overwhelmed her. Her eyes blurred as she sank to her knees to pick up the packets.
“Get a grip, Sally!” she scolded herself. “Stupid…”
In the back of her mind, images played. The awkward scene in the break room. The look on Hilde’s face. Walking by her office every day to hear the quiet sobbing. The silence that filled the entire Preventers’ building. No one smiled, no one told jokes, everyone listened and worried. They watched Duo and Hilde move through like automatons.
Tears spilled down her cheeks and she sniffed loudly.
“Damn it!” She wiped at her face with the back of her sleeve. What would Wufei say if he saw her now? He'd call her a 'bleeding-heart'. She’d loose all the hard work she’d put in to get him to think of her as an equal.
She swept the tea packets into a pile in front of her while still scolding herself.
“Stupid! Stupid tears!” But they continued to fall.
The doorknob turned with a loud click. Sally ducked her head down quickly and tried to look busy cleaning up the tea packets. She did her best to silently sniff and covertly wipe her eyes.
She risked a quick glance up to see who had entered.
Wufei.
Damn! Had she hidden her tears quickly enough?
“Sally?” asked Wufei. “What happened?”
“Oh I just knocked over the tea basket!” She smiled over at him. “Now I’m playing fifty-two packet pick-up.” She forced a smile at the dumb joke then she ducked her head back down and busily grabbed at stray packets.
A napkin fell across her vision. She looked up to see Wufei holding it out to her.
“What’s this for?” she asked, trying to sound casual.
“You’re eyes and nose,” he replied.
“Damn,” she grumbled and took it to wipe at the offending features. She closed her eyes and pressed them with the napkin as if trying to squeeze out the sting of sadness.
When she opened her eyes again she found herself face to face with Wufei. He had squat down to look at her. She started and backed up.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked again.
“Oh it’s nothing Wufei. Just tension tears. It happens to most everyone every now and then.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Yes well, men usually get mad and hit something instead of crying but it’s all the same emotion.” She stood up and put the tea basket back in its spot. She turned around. “Don’t look at me like that, Wufei. I’ll get out my textbooks and prove to you it’s normal. And don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve doubled your workout time this week. You’re not immune either.”
He blinked in surprise. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. I just felt like training more.”
“Yeah, well, surprise! It’s tension stress.”
“Yes but why are you stressed out?” he asked.
“Oh God, Wufei! You haven’t been here. You don’t know about Hilde. Take a walk around. She cries in her office with the door closed but we can all hear it. Everything is so silent. No one talks above a whisper. It’s just finally got to me is all.” She scooped up the coffeepot and poured some into her mug.
“And, you’re telling me I work out every night because of Duo?”
“Don’t you?” she asked. “You spend all day with him.”
“It hadn’t occurred to me. He’s so damn quiet. I never thought I’d ever complain about Duo being quiet…but,” he paused, then forced himself to tell her, “it makes my skin crawl.”
Sally nodded, “Emotional bleed-over. Even a Long warrior is not immune.” She walked over to the nearest couch and sat down. She cradled her coffee mug in both hands letting its warmth seep into the bones of her hands.
“I’m going to do something about it,” announced Wufei.
“No, there’s nothing you can do. This is between Duo and Hilde. We just have to live through it.” She watched him come around the couch and sit in the one opposite her.
He stood up again having only sat for a few nanoseconds. “But if this is affecting the whole office…”
“It is, but that’s Lady Une’s responsibility.” She watched him pace before her.
“Has she done anything?” he demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“I’m going.”
“Wufei, don’t get involved.”
He glared at her. “Woman! How many more tears must you shed?”
“Damn it! You can stop tears Wufei. It’s not something you can just fix.”
He opened the door, “Yes it is!”
“You’ll only make it worse…” she called after his disappearing form.
“Men!” she exclaimed.
The word echoed in the empty room.