Everything is ready

Written for @eliasbouchardweek

Day 1 - Favorite Canon Scene

There is one letter waiting to be read before everyone arrives and things finally get interesting.

…

“Thank you for the coffee, Rosie,” Elias takes a cup from his receptionist. He never asks her to make him a coffee. It is just something she does sometimes. I was already making a cup for myself, it is not a bother, really, she told him once he questioned her about it. It is very nice of her. It also happens to be a smart cover story she can use in case he catches her snooping around his office when he is not there. He can appreciate the amount of carefulness put into the habit of indulging her own curiosity. 

“You’re welcome. I was thinking about taking my lunch break now, if that’s all?” Rosie looks at the tall antique grandfather clock standing in the corner of the office of the Head of the institute. 

Elias knows what time they are showing. He looks towards them as well.

“Would you mind delaying it for another half an hour?”

“No problem.” Rosie does not stop politely smiling but her eyes show her unhappiness. She knows that in half an hour the cafeteria will likely run out of her cheesecakes that are available only on Thursdays. Well, she will have to survive it, Elias will need her assistance for what is to come. “Do you have some work for me, Elias?”

“Not yet.” She is not very happy with his answer. “You can go now.”

“Just call me if you need anything.”

As soon as she leaves his office Elias’ sight turns back the clock. He should be getting ready. 

First though, he checks his desk. He wants to make sure it is clean and all in order since he is about to have a lot of visitors in his office. He hides a stock of documents in the table as he would hate for them to get messed up. Only paper he leaves is one ready to be signed employment contract.

Now back to the clock. He measures them with his eyes as if he did not know very well how tall they are. It has been residing in his office for quite a while. It was a gift from Kempthorne when he was moving to Australia. It is a nice memento. Call him sentimental but he likes keeping around a thing or two reminding him of his friends from the times he was Jonah. Anyway, the clock itself is not as important as the thing hidden on top of them.

He takes one of his guest chairs and pulls it to them. As embarrassing as it is, he will probably need it to reach everything comfortably. His current body has much more… delicate frame than his previous two which were a bit taller. He climbs on the chair to get a better view at the top of the clock.

“Hello, Barnabas” Jonah greets a pile of bones, “apologies I have not been paying you much attention lately, have I? Then again… I had never been paying you as much attention as you would like.” He reaches for the skull and gently picks it up so he can get to the real reason he is here. The neatly folded piece of paper hidden under it.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have much time for you now, excuse me, yes I just needed to borrow your letter for a second.” Jonah puts the letter into safety of his pocket. Then he places Barnabas’ skull back, but not before pressing his lips in a short kiss on a place where his forehead used to be. He should really be cleaning dust of his friend more often.

“See you later, dear friend.” He gets down from the chair and puts it back to its place before sitting back behind his table.

A tape recorder appeared on his desk in the meantime. Ah, so it is about to begin. The tape recorder clicks. Elias reaches for the phone. And dials a number.