Gathering the Staff (Auto Doc staff)

[Brock Michaels]

Brock paced back and forth in the shop. Everything had been scrubbed down until it shined like glass. The table was laid out with various foods. Slabs of Filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes, various vegetables, and mountains of desserts. The smells drifted and swirled around the room, dancing and mingling with each other. Business at Auto Doc had been good despite the various staff changes that had occurred. He wanted to reward his employees with a nice dinner. It would also be a good way to get everyone together to just hang out and chat. It’d be good for everyone to get to know each other on a personal basis.


Isabeau, Kerry, and now Grey. Bo and Kerry had been with the shop for a little while. Grey and sent in her application and resume and on paper she seemed very promising. Brock decided to chance it, and she did a good job. He smiled as he got the place settings. Everything was set, all he needed now were the girls.

[Isabeau Valachi]

Bo glanced at herself in the reflection of the glass down on the lower level of the mall. It had been sometime since she had been able to afford some new clothes. But even new as it was, there was no breaking her out of her usual outfit, especially since it was in the doc. She tucked her newly acquired cellphone into the one of many pockets of her cargo pants and hefted the new bag of goodies she always delivered to Brock higher on her shoulder. There had been a small memo telling her of the staff meeting of sorts so checking that her long sleeved black button up was clean enough, she made her way up the escalator and towards the back of the mall where there doc was.

The smell when she entered hit her first. It made her mouth literally water and she had to stop and remember the last time she had ever smelled something so delicious. Actually, she had to stop and remember when the last time was that she even ate. As far as she remembered it was sometime last night before she went to bed. She glanced around and made her way into the office, setting the bag down before she went in search of her boss. "Yo! Boss Man!" She called out for him and glanced around before she made her way in the direction of the food.

Wow, there was lots, and wow she planned to eat as much as possible. Despite her lithe form, she could eat like a horse, and when she could afford to eat, she did.

[Grey (DELETED 5068)]

Brock had been wonderful about her mishap on her way to work the day before. She had certainly had a rough go of it, refusing to leave because she needed the money he paid her. Her face still burned and her eye was completely swollen shut on the left now. She had not even been able to pencil in the half of her eyebrow that had gone missing when the camera exploded in her fingertips.

She thought for sure she would make a few decent dollars on that item. But it turns out that it was not as simple as picking up a lost wallet or a half a pack of cigarettes just lying around abandoned on some street corner. She had found a glove, a cheap gold bracelet, and even a woman's dangling earring. To which, she had pocketed all the items and had a little loot going.

She was even more thankful that Auto Doc's offered a locker. She stashed her pride and joy of a bag inside of it with a fresh, gleaming stainless steel lock. The thick kind with the combination and above that she had a smaller lock with a keyhole. Grey did not seem to trust anyone and even those that had reached out to her she was weary of.

Peeling off her coat, she stuffed it inside the locker and dawned an apron and the typical tool belt to go to work on the engine Brock said he had in line for her. But the smell of food had her hurrying. The tied back brown hair, stick straight underneath the black cable knit cap had her peeking around the corner. Well, as much as one could peek with a good hazel grey eye.

There was another woman. And she had yelled out for Brock. And she had a bag with her. Of all the days that Grey had put in, though it had not been many; her shifts just consisted of her and Brock. So when she got the note on her locker yesterday evening about the staff meeting, her heart fell.

Would she be laid off so soon already? She was so close to maybe getting an apartment. But, there was that room that Solene had offered too. And Brock had made her take a rest on the cot in the back office yesterday when she was too shaken up to make it down to the first aid station in the mall until she could stop hyperventilating.

****.

Get your big girl panties on, Grey. It's just another employee!

Chastising herself, she tucked the dark grey Henley style shirt into the nearly two sized too big blue jeans faded in all the wrong places to be her own. Black, chipped nail polish fingertips were certainly scorched and still red in the knuckles of that blow up camera. There was so much food. Her mouth absolutely watered when she saw the spread as she got closer. She should say hello. That was the only polite thing to do. She had to work with these people, after all. Pushing the shy, reserved feelings deep; Grey cleared her throat. Scuff of the steel toe work boots.

"Hello everyone." She gave a smile to the woman and to Brock when he came over. Despite her face, her work ethics remained the same and she showed up on time that day for the meeting. "I.. I'm here for the staff meeting." Grey said almost a bit lamely. She certainly did not mean to interrupt anyone's party.

[Kerry (DELETED 255)]

Kerry rushed in, holding a notebook and a laptop under her arm, she greeted her boss. She'd only been working there for a few weeks, but already felt like it was her home. Brock had helped her hone her investigative skills by providing equipment, a top notch computer, and a few connections to the underground.

With her new found abilities and knowledge, she felt like she could find her lost loved one, but at the same time, she felt like she was starting a new life and was happy.

After speaking shortly to Brock, Kerry made her way to the other 2 girls.

"Hi, I'm Kerry," she stuck out her hand .

[Brock Michaels]

Brock's smile widened as everyone was now in the same spot. "Alright ladies, let's eat," he said as he sat down at the table. He tossed one of the filets on his plate before piling on the vegetables and mashed potatoes. He poured some soda into a plastic cup and took a few sips.

"Okay, I bet you're wondering what this meeting is about. First off, I wanted to thank you for all your hard work. We're pulling in between one thousand and two thousand dollars profit day. I couldn't do it without all of you. Second, this is a time to relax, get to know each other, and have a good time. So eat up!"

Brock turned back to his plate and began eating his food. "I cooked everything here, So I hope you enjoy it."

[Isabeau Valachi]

Bo smirked a bit as she spotted her 'odd' boss, someone that she had gotten rather fond of, and she was sure in some way it was a mutual respect in some way. She was about to say something when another voice caught her attention and her smile faded some from her face. Turning towards this new voice, Bo's face took on a straight appearance - neither nice nor cruel. Civil would be the best way to describe it. "Staff Meeting? I'm just here for the food." She said in a deadpanned tone that was her usual 'joking' tone. Then she continued on "I'm Bo, You are?" She asked in a more relaxed tone before another woman was moving into the room as well.

This one had a Laptop with her and suddenly she knew that this one was Kerry, from the few little conversations that her and Brock had had while they worked on the different things. Most of them not totally legal since he had been giving her more than just a weekly pay check, he had also been giving her the tools she needed to use to gather things that he used to make things. Granted, she was still working on learning to build traps herself, and had injured herself more than once doing so, so she spent a lot of time just gathering things and leaving the gifts on Brock's work bench. "I'm Bo." She said again, this time to Kerry before she turned back to Brock and the table of food.

Ahh so much food, she moved to grab a plate and began to pile on tons of food, proof that the woman really could eat a lot more than what her form would suggest, especially since it looked as though she hadn't actually seen a mean in a long time. Bo then got herself a drink and glanced over at Brock wondering why he didn't at least spring for a little alcohol, hell, she could go rob a warehouse right now and go get some. But she didn't say anything she just moved to sit down, kicking back a bit as she let her eyes travel around to the other two women before Brock spoke and called her attention back onto him.

"So you cook too, huh Boss Man?" She said with a playful smirk "Is there anything you don't do?" She went on but then covered the smirk by taking a bite of the mashed potatoes. "Damn good man!"

[Kerry (DELETED 255)]

Kerry, puzzled, looked at Bo, looked at her extended hand, looks at Brock, then turned her face and hand towards the fourth person in the room.

"You must be Grey."

Kerry took in the moment with all her senses. The smell of the food, the smell of the work shop, the scent of the women and even her own shampoo. The weight of her laptop in her hand, though not heavy, was cumbersome and she always felt better with her hands on the keyboard rather than under it. She hoped to make great gains in her efforts to find her lost loved one, but first she was dying to eat. She smiled as she waited to see if Grey would shake her hand.

[Grey (DELETED 5068)]

"Hello Kerry. Nice to meet you." But was it really nice to meet her? To meet a woman she didn't know, whose locker she was assigned next to, whose personality upon first impression was obviously smart enough to cart around one of those newfangled laptops. That was a contraption Grey desperately wanted, but she would keep those thoughts to herself while she reached out and reciprocated. She shook Kerry's offered hand without a doubt and impressed upon her a little bit of squeeze in her fingers. The strength in her grip was to give way to no soft spirit, but she did not crush the woman's hand either.

"My name is Grey." She said to the other employee that asked her what her name was. As Brock went on to boast about the feast he had made and ordered them to sit, Grey scuffed those work boots opposite of the woman who called herself Bo. Grey certainly managed to assess the dry wit of her humor and that crooked smile settled upon her half swollen lips. The burn still looked nasty, blotchy and red. Most of the swelling was located to her eye and her cheek. The cream she had received from the first aid station had been a silent blessing though. Even while it tingled at the point it was almost painful, the goop had a cooling effect upon her skin that made the injury so much more tolerable. "Nice to meet you too, Bo."

If that was even the woman's true name. She had a feeling that a lot of people around these parts went by short cuts or nicknames. And certainly Grey was not a woman that would lament about the protection of one's privacy. No, she was quite thrilled that Brock had hired her with as little information on the application as she could fill out. Though her handwriting was large, it had a certain flare to it that did not scream doctor's handwriting to be deciphered.

The food, right. Back to the food. The steak, the potatoes, the vegetables were all piled onto her plate. She did so in a manner that almost seemed robotic. One does not bite the hand that feeds you; her portions equivalent to a scoop of this and that, along with the filet. She topped off the plastic cup with whatever soda pop was within her nearest reach and took not one, but two desserts.

The first was a slice of some decadent looking chocolate cake where the other screamed turtle cheesecake. They were more than four inches tall and the gooey caramel from the cheesecake dripped deliciously down the edges of the cheese filling. Her heart buckled. It bounded inside her chest while she thought about the full stomach and the wrench digging into her hip. The pain was almost welcomed for a minute. The proverbial pinch if one could call it such - no, she was not dreaming.

"This is all so very wonderful Brock. Thank you for this dinner." Her eye - the right, that was not swollen had widened slightly in her bosses' graciousness. So while she picked up her fork and that steak knife to cut into the filet, her eyes traveled around the table two both women again. Well, Grey certainly had no problems digging in like she had been told to!

She even had enough manners to nod as Kerry identified her too. She swallowed the food in her mouth before trying to strike up more of a polite conversation. In truth, she was being nosy. But it never hurt to know of those around her, Grey thought. Or their backgrounds, either. "So how long have the two of you been with Brock at Auto Doc?"

Her eyes traveled between the two women, wondering which one was going to answer first while she lifted the next piece of steak to her mouth and relished the burst of flavor on her tongue as she chewed.