Chapter Text
The little corner cafes were always a saving grace for Molly. On an early morning start or a late night she could always rely on them to provide her with what she needed.
She started off her days with a steaming cup and a breakfast bagel in a brown paper bag, often carrying double so Lawrence would have something waiting for him after his night shifts. He’d take it with a grateful sigh, spend fifteen minutes indulging in it, then collapse into the beanbag in her office and make an attempt to sleep before his next assignment started.
Now they just reminded her of their worth, as she walked through the door with Dr. Buck close behind.
She probably shouldn’t have been surprised when the blonde ordered something dark and nothing else, but she contented herself with a plate of biscuits for them to share. Choosing a window side table for them to sit at.
“So, what do you want to talk about?”
“You tell me,” Dr. Buck replied. “You were the one insistent on coming here.”
Right. She had to be patient with Buck, let her loosen up her shell gradually.
“Well. . . How’s Agent Green doing?”
The slightest twitch of her lip. Pulled down into a slight grimace before her face returned to its neutral state.
“I’d rather not speak of that if possible.”
“Right, okay. Sorry. . .”
She took a sip of her hazelnut coffee, mulling over the silence. She wasn’t prepared for Buck to make the approach.
“How are things with Lawrence?”
“Good. I guess you could say we’re official now. I kinda’ declared myself his girlfriend after he was hospitalized,” she admitted with a smile.
“Hospitalized?” Buck echoed.
“An instance of 966 chose him as its prey. Finally got to him while we were on a date,” she explained in a hushed tone. “He got slashed across the chest and dropped on the table before Iota 1 arrived, but he pulled through just fine.”
“Oh. I’m glad to hear that,” she said awkwardly. “Um. . .Congratulations."
“Thanks. . .”
“I-I guess I can at least tell you that Agent Green has mostly recovered from his. . . incident. O-of course he’s not going to be doing any more fieldwork for a while. I-I’ve been negotiating with Director Zolgomax about having him in the lab with me, bringing in D-Class and all that,” the blonde stammered. “At least then he can get back into things slowly. Who knows, maybe after this he’ll finally stop smoking.”
“You never told me how you two first met.”
“You’ve never told me how you and Lawrence met,” Dr. Buck countered.
“We used to share break time in 999’s room together. Back when he was still just a guard. After he switched to MTF I started to see him more often until we eventually started going out for meals together,” she exclaimed triumphantly. “Now you can tell me how you met Green.”
“There is not much to say about it. He was the Agent assigned to SCP-178 at the time. He offered me some coffee, and a cigarette, and I put him in his place for smoking inside. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what it was he saw in me to provoke such. . . unprofessional feelings.”
“You are allowed to have other feelings, you know? Even if you only show them outside of work,” Molly said, nudging the plate of cookies closer to her coworker despite the way she turned up her nose at them.
“That may be true,” she admitted. “But I prefer not to let them control me. Our work is important and we shouldn’t let how we feel about it get in the way.”
“Showing emotions in the workplace isn’t all bad,” Molly reasoned. “Lawrence uses them all the time to make his decisions.”
“That does not surprise me. I’ve seen what he does on his missions and it is a wonder that he has not been successfully killed yet. In fact I would not be surprised if one day he is labeled an SCP. ‘The Unkillable Agent’ would be a suitable name would it not?”
She burst into a small fit of giggles, setting down her coffee before she spilt it.
“Did you just make a joke?”
The smallest of smirks formed on Dr. Buck’s face.
“Maybe.”