"Artie, you can't be serious!" Steve heard Pete shout as he made his way through the stacks, taking the first of the stairs up to the office as Artie replied.

"Pete, enough! You know how this works; the regents make the decisions and the decision has been made!"

"What decision? What's everyone all riled up about?" Steve asked, making his way into the office, static bag in hand. Claudia spun around in her computer chair, sitting cross-legged, facing her approaching partner and the rest of the room. Myka was at the table in the corner, watching Pete and Artie with mild interest as the two faced off in the middle of the room. "I could hear you guys arguing all the way in Ovoid. And by the way, Artie, I'm leaving this here with you," he gestured to the bag in hand, holding it out to his boss. "It keeps following me out anyways."

Artie's eyebrows jumped to his hairline—far jump it was not—reaching out for the bag. "Following you," he whispered, eyes wide and worried as Claudia jumped into the conversation.

"Artie, focus, announcement, sharing with Steve, remember?"

"Yes, of course," he replied, putting the static bag on the desk next to Claudia. "I was just telling the others. This morning I was informed by the regents—well, from Mrs. Frederic, but from the regents—of a certain…regime change I suppose." He took a deep breath as if bracing for impact. "Starting today the Warehouse will play host to… well, a guest of sorts."

"A guest, Artie!?" Pete exclaimed incredulously. "A regent is moving into the Warehouse! Into the B&B! With us!"

"What!?" Steve asked, shock clear in his tense features. "A regent? Artie, why? Is this because—"

"You know if any of you would ever let me finish a sentence I could explain to you what the regents have said." His tone was harsh, even for Artie, and Steve could tell the idea of having a regent living among them unnerved him. Steve held his hands up in defeat, and Pete nodded, allowing Artie to continue. "Thank you. The regents—not me—have decided to take a more 'holistic approach' as they call it, to agent health, after the stress of the last few years. Because of this, they feel—they, not me—that the Warehouse should staff a full time Warehouse doctor. Now originally that would have been Dr. Vanessa—"

He grumbled menacingly when Pete and Claudia opened their mouths to ooohh and ahhh over Artie's love interest, successfully stifling them. "But some of the older regents were unwilling to switch to a new physician, leaving us with a new, full time Warehouse physician. I haven't been told much—I met her once a while back for all of five minutes according to Mrs. Frederic—so all I know is that she is a fully qualified physician who has been a regent for a few years, and she will be living with all of you starting today. So, if you all want to complain and argue, fine, but do it somewhere that I don't have to hear it!"

"But Artie," this time it was Claudia who tried to object, but Artie shut her down in an instant.

"But nothing, Claudia! Nothing from any of you! You are all going to have to accept that there is nothing I can do about this! The regents make the decisions, Mrs. Frederic passes down the orders, and the rest of us have to deal with it! End of conversation!"

"Wow, Artie! What an enthusiastic welcome!" A soft voice said with a laugh from the door, smile evident in the soothing pitch.

The Warehouse residents jumped in unison, too caught up in their argument to have heard her entrance—that or she appeared in Mrs. Frederic style—heads turning toward the door. Artie had the good sense to look sheepish as the group jumped again at Steve's scream.

"Lila!" He exclaimed, rushing toward the woman standing in the doorway, enveloping her in a crushing hug. He didn't even stop to process, didn't stop to think about how she was there, how she couldn't be there, because he knew that voice. He held her tight, hands on the small of her back, her caramel-colored loose curls pressed against his face. He inhaled her familiar scent, that mix of strawberry and pineapple he'd grown accustomed to during college, yet with a hint of something new, something more surface and masculine. He'd have to check in about that later.

"Jersey!" She shrieked back, arms wrapping tightly around him. "Long time, buttercup! How are you!?" They disentangled slightly, her holding him at arms' length, hands on his hips so she could look him up and down. "Look at you! Still gorgeous as ever! How have you been!?"

Realization seemed to come back at once, that sudden reminder of her lack of belonging. The others stood still on the outskirts, watching the scene curiously. Pete looked ready to burst. Claudia was definitely tense, eyes following the greeting warily, obviously hesitant over Steve's enthusiasm toward their guest.

"Wait, Lou! What are you doing here!? How do you even—? How are you—? What is going on!?"

Their guest brought a hand to her forehead with a thud, shaking her head at her own over-enthusiasm. "Where is my head today? I am so sorry!" She disentangled from Steve entirely to make eye contact with the other members of the room. "Dr. Lila Emerson, regent, new Warehouse doctor. It's a pleasure to finally meet you all."

Artie took this opportunity to refocus, making up for the others' slack-jawed surprise. "Yes, well, welcome," Artie replied gruffly. "You obviously know Steve, this is Pete, Myka, and Claudia." He introduced, gesturing around the room, landing finally on Claudia who was still settled in her computer chair, obviously trying to put all of this together in her head. "As we've discussed, Dr. Emerson will be with us from now on. Any questions, physical or mental health related you should feel free to ask her. Also, per the regents, Warehouse agents will be required to undergo twice-yearly physical exams. Those will begin this week. Anything else, take it up with either of us."

It was Pete who spoke first once the introduction had been completed, latching onto this new piece of information. "Wait, Artie, physicals!? Come on! We've only ever had to do those like once every five years! Twice a year!? Warehouse physicals are so invasive!" He complained, sulking clear on his features.

Artie was ready to bark back a reply to this when to his surprise, Lila stepped in, cool and collected. She smiled, holding her hands up in innocence. "Not my decision, Agent Lattimer. Regent decisions are a group effort. Even as a doctor I only have so much pull. Ultimately Dr. Calder and I make our recommendations and the decisions are put through the regents as a whole. This team has an excellent artifact retrieval rate, which is fantastic. But it also has a high artifact exposure rate, so we're trying to be cautious and careful with your health and safety."

She smiled again, putting forth the calmest and most rational face she could muster. She didn't want to be the bad guy here, the big bad regent dictator coming in to ruin their groove, but this one was non-negotiable. Surprisingly, it was Myka who responded, smiling and in good nature, obviously aware of how to best deal with her partner.

"Pete, why are you even complaining? You know you love any excuse to get naked. This should be like Christmas for you!" Pete smiled at the mention of this, realizing his partner had an excellent point. At the mention of this Claudia's face started to turn red as she seemed to realize that now, as an agent, this new rule included her. Lila took all of this in, about to react when Steve surprised her by responding.

"Well, at least you've already seen me naked so I guess that could be weirder."

And then he stopped, biting back the words as soon as they were out, his face turning a deep shade of Macintosh, eyes wide and worried as the room went silent, the previous laughter held suspended in the air between them. The agents' eyes darted back and forth between their fellow agent and friend and their regent guest. His knowing her was one thing. But this, this was too much.

Lila rubbed the back of her neck, shaking her head at Steve. "Smooth," she laughed, her eyes light with humor despite the situation. Steve looked to her, eyes pleading. She shook her head again as his friends' curiosity began to bubble over in the form of questions.

Pete wolf whistled, "I wanna hear that story!" He exclaimed as Myka asked:

"You what!?"

And Claudia rattled off a slew of half-sentences. "Jinksy! My gay best friend! With a girl! You what!? How scandalous!"

Lila just laughed and smiled, accepting the gazes of the agents as they sized her up. She couldn't find it in her to be embarrassed, completely comfortable with what had happened between her and Steve. Still, she understood completely that he wasn't comfortable, but since he'd brought it up, she was going to let him tell the story, however he felt right.

Luckily for Steve, however, Artie's voice bellowed over the chatter. "Enough!" He wailed, his voice filling the tiny office. "You all have work to do! Pete, Myka, the last two crates of artifacts in Ovoid—go! Steve, Claudia, inventory in Bravo 37-50. Go! Shoo! All of you!"

The group dispersed amidst grumbles of "but Artie!" from both Claudia and Pete. Myka dragged her partner from the room, smiling at Steve as he mouthed her a "thank you" as she passed. He knew he wasn't getting out of this, but that was one bullet dodged. Though that was hardly the big concern: he still had to deal with Claudia.

This, he knew, was going to be nightmare fuel. She would be incessant. Still, he couldn't see any way out of it, so he nodded in acquiesce. Claudia practically clicked her heels together when she realized he wasn't going to try to get out of it. But Steve knew better. He couldn't avoid them forever. He turned to Artie.

"I'm going to leave on time today, Artie. 5 o'clock, I mean it." He turned to Lila. "And then you and I are going to get dinner, and catch up. You have a lot to tell me."

She nodded, smiling at the thought of finally being able to share all of this with him. "We'll talk, I promise. Now get to work. And you," she turned to Claudia, attempting to maker her voice gentle but firm. "Go easy on him. He'll tell you everything in his own time."

Claudia nodded, still obviously uncomfortable around their new guest, but excited to get Steve cornered doing inventory. Steve gave Lila one more anxious glance before allowing the younger agent to drag him back down to the Warehouse floor, leaving Lila and Artie alone.

Lila knew this wouldn't be easy either, that no matter how much she tried to stay out of everyone's way, they may still always feel a little watched, Artie especially, feeling as if he constantly had a boss looking over his shoulder. She didn't want it to be that way, but she knew it would all take time. This was going to be a process, for all of them.

Artie watched her closely, obviously as curious about her as the others had been. She appreciated his restraint so as not to encourage them. Still, now that they'd gone, she could see him debating internally whether or not to ask. She smiled.

"You can ask if you want to," she told him. "About any of it. But in short, I became good friends with his sister before she…" Lila trailed off, her expression pained, chest heavy. "Anyways, he and I were the same age and the three of us were always together. After Liv died I just always looked after him. We went to college together and I tried to keep him afloat. But he struggled… a lot." She paused, not wanting to ramble. "He's a good guy. We've just always been there for each other, in a lot of different ways."

To her surprise, Artie smiled back, his eyes soft in a way she hadn't seen from him before. He sighed, seemingly in spite of himself. "You really are going to fit in just fine here."