Erudite

To say that Carolina wasn't pleased with the way that things were would be a gross understatement. The way things were now never should have been this way. After all the time they had spent planning this, all the sacrifices that had been made, it was almost insulting how a teenager managed to slip through their fingers. How two of them did, and how it brought the whole thing crashing to the ground. All because she had let Max assure her over and over that they were doing their jobs, that they didn't need her to have anyone else oversee their work. It was her own fault really, exactly what she deserved for putting her faith in them.

And look where it had gotten them; decades of work made meaningless by one girl. Not to say that she didn't have a plan, she always had a plan. This wasn't over, they had never banked on failure but they would have to had be a very special kind of stupid to keep only one copy of the attack serum program. She, and Jeanine, and Gwendolyn would recover.

However, it didn't mean they shouldn't have just killed Marcus' son when they had the chance. But, of course, Jeanine just had to figure out how to control the Divergent, to jump that little hurdle in their minds and turn them into willing puppets just like everyone else. It was genius, and every experiment requires something to experiment on. But she personally would have much rather seen him dead, and every time her head throbs it on drives that desire in deeper.

As she walks down the hall she feels like she's swaying in her heels; every step bringing on a brand new wave of nausea and the painkillers not doing much to rid her of the searing pain on the back of her head. She couldn't even look at a screen without feeling nauseated. John had read off the Dauntless report to her as she'd gotten ready (he had to redo her hair too because he could see where her stitches were better than she could obviously; it was as sweet as it was embarrassing). Ryan would probably spend the next week or so following her around with her tablet when really there were so many other ways his time could be better spent. The doctors had tried to tell her to take a few days to rest and let herself recover, but there was too much work to be done to indulge in that kind of luxury. If she had to keep herself from passing out or throwing up again by sheer force of will, by god she would do it.

The fact that she's concussed with just have to wait.

She reaches a door at the end of the hallway and takes a second to collect herself before opening it. Jeanine is sitting underneath a blanket, a tablet propped up on her legs and her head snaps up at the sound of the door opening. She looks like a mess; a bruise blooming on the underside of her jaw, her eyes half glazed over from the strong painkillers, and her whole right hand wrapped tight in a bloodstained bandage. Still, she manages a smile.

"My Carolina, how's your head?"

She returns her smile, closing the door behind her and walking further into the room to sit on the edge of Jeanine's bed. "I'm fine, don't worry about me." She intertwines her hand with Jeanine's good one. "How are you?"

"I'll live. Where's John?"

"I sent him along to deal with the press; I figured that's what you'd want. He was rather reluctant about leaving us though, said to tell you that he sends his love."

"How sweet. I trust that he's filled you in on everything that happened."

She frowns. "He has."

"So then, tell me, what has to be done? I'm going into surgery in a few hours, then my hand will be redressed and I'll be sent back home to rest. So tell me what has to be taken care of now?"

"The Dauntless for starters," Carolina says.

Jeanine grimaces, "Ah yes, would you be so kind as to take care of my meeting with Max and Eric?"

"Of course," Carolina says. "And then there are the others, what we will say?"

"We will tell them the story of a tragedy, our most pious faction lost to the bloodthirsty Divergent."

"I've already begun preparing your speech. Sharp and Diarmond will need press releases before…mmm, let's say Monday. And there will need to be a televised statement filmed and broadcast by the same deadline. Support Crew has already begun the work on that."

"Good."

"Excavation in the Abnegation sector will begin as soon as the Candor investigators are out of our hair."

"Wonderful."

"Michael and Gwendolyn's teams are making leaps and bounds on the detection software, at the pace they're moving the team should have the prototype completed and tested by next Wednesday and – provided all goes well – in production by the twenty-first."

"Make it the eighteenth and we'll be golden."

"I took the liberty of bumping the new staff's first day up to tomorrow. But I wanted to get your opinion on taking on the spares full time as well. It's not like we couldn't use the extra hands."

She hums in thought. "You think they can be trusted?"

"I think they can be persuaded. They have no stake in this fight and no reason not to trust us."

"Then I trust you can take care of it. Anything else?"

Carolina pauses for a moment before saying, "I believe that covers everything."

"No, it doesn't." Jeanine squeezes her hand.

"Oh? What have I missed?"

"Mimette," Jeanine says.

Carolina squeezes her hand. "Yes. Regrettable. But we will leave her…for now."

"Oh?" Jeanine raises her eyebrows.

"As much as it pains me to say this, with Prior's daughter, she is safe."

"Who can say for how long though? Beatrice does have quite the reputation for turning on her friends. And we will have to hunt them down eventually."

"Yes, so we send someone with them. Someone Mimette likes, someone she can trust, someone who will coax her back."

"Interesting strategy. Do you think it will work?"

"Have my plans ever failed before?"

"No." Carolina smirks when she says that. "Do you have someone in mind?"

"A few people. I will make my choice before the week is out, depending on which person I choose we will find a way for them to make contact with Mimette."

"And she will just go along, after what happened in Dauntless?"

"I think that Mimette is afraid and confused. She doesn't know what to think or who to trust. She will be desperate for any familiar face offering their help."

"Sounds like you've got the matter handled."

"I do."

"Good, I'll call you as soon as I'm done here."

"Wonderful." She stands.

"Oh, my Carolina, wait a minute." Jeanine says holding onto her hand.

"Yes?"

"You're forgotten something." She tugs gently on Carolina's hand to draw her close again.

"And what's that?" She sits down on the bed again, her mind already moving at a mile a minute as she reorganizes her plans to suit Jeanine's orders. But she's distracted when Jeanine lets go of her hand and takes her chin in her delicate fingers. Carolina follows her gentle pull and their lips meet.

"That," Jeanine says when they part.

Carolina's quiet for a moment before she breaks down into giggles. She never really did like to part from either of her spouses without a kiss but having a thousand things on her mind and a concussion had sort of distracted her. Still, it was funny that Jeanine, even in the state she was in, pulled her back to remind her.

"You're such a sap," she says as her laughter tapers off.

Jeanine cocks her eyebrow. "Is that a problem?"

"No." She drapes her arms over Jeanine's shoulders. "Because you're my sap."

"So don't complain." She kisses her again, her hand gliding down to rest on the back of Carolina's neck.

"I love you." Jeanine says when they part again.

"I love you too." She gives her a kiss on the tip of her nose. "Call me when you get released, ok?"

"Mhm. Thank you again for taking care of my meetings, good luck." Jeanine knows fixing the mess Beatrice and Tobias made of their plans wouldn't be easy, would be even harder with her out of commission for the rest of the day at least. All that they could be glad for was that it wasn't both of them, leaving everything in John and Support Crew's very capable hands wasn't the worst thing they could do but it wasn't something they wanted to.

"Get some rest." Carolina stands and tucks a loose curl behind her ear. She gives Jeanine one last smile before turning to leave, her worry no longer pressing on her chest quite so heavily.

Call her fussy, overprotective, but she couldn't not be at least a little pedantic about Jeanine's wellbeing. Which was exactly why she would make Beatrice and Four suffer for what they'd done. A failed plan could be revised, damaged parts could be rebuilt, but a slight against her pride and the pain they caused Jeanine could only be paid in blood. She was not a needlessly cruel person; their deaths had been originally intended to be quick and as painless as they could be. But now they'd made her job harder, her life in general harder and for that they would have to pay. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do for Jeanine, at her behest or to protect her, she would and had killed for her. It wasn't something she truly reveled in, but had to be done nonetheless and this was no different. The blood she would spill could not be avoided; if anything, Beatrice and Four had ensured there would be more of it than she or Jeanine had ever originally intended. This setback, no matter how minor, was more than inconvenient and deeply annoying. To have been injured as she is was embarrassing enough, to have Beatrice and Four get away was rubbing salt into the wound. But it is not her fault. This failure is Eric and Max's to deal with because it is their people's incompetence that caused this whole issue to blow up. Her faith in their skill may have been misplaced but that did not cancel out the fact that every problem she's dealing with at the moment is on them.

They had been assured that Beatrice – deviance aside – was well handled. With this in mind, she and Jeanine had ensured that Beatrice was not to be kicked out of Dauntless. They were going to give her a chance to prove herself useful. Instead, she threw a wrench in a plan they had worked on for years, a plan that had manage to survive decades, that became their entire lives. Their plan had cost many, many others their jobs, lives, dignity; all those who couldn't prove useful were cut loose. All of that to be brought down by a reckless teenage girl who can hardly be considered a soldier, and her lapdog of a boyfriend.

She remembered Four from two years ago when his initiation simulations began to go awry. They'd payed a little visit to Dauntless to investigate, much to the fury of the leader at the time. In the process they'd managed to catch the boy's initiation instructor up in all of it. They'd left him alone, Max having sworn up and down that he was keeping an eye on him. It seemed that the two years between then and now had given him time to stew in his anger and cultivate a hatred for them. One that he'd apparently passed on to his young girlfriend; though she is Andrew Prior's daughter, so she doubts that he really had to do that much work.

They were oversights; underestimation and reasonable doubt left to fester into true problems, a reminder that they should never have slackened their grip on Max and Eric's agency. If their predecessors could see them now they'd be ashamed, they may have boosted Max to his place but they'd never but so much faith in his skills. Granted, he was never supposed to play the role that he does. Understudy would be a gross understatement, he was meant to play a different role entirely.

So much for sticking to plans. Perhaps this was karma.

She pulls into the parking garage of Erudite Tower and walks to the elevator. She reaches the top floor and walks down the hallway to Jeanine's office, where Max and Eric are waiting. But before she can reach the door John catches her by her shoulders.

"How's Jeanine?" His glasses sit on top of his head, creating cowlicks in his hair that make him look as frazzled as his wide brown eyes suggest.

"Going into surgery soon. I'm to take care of her meeting with Max and Eric. Oh, remind me to make time for an All Hands Meeting. It seems needed, wouldn't you figure?"

"Mhm." He kisses her on the cheek.

"Done with the press so soon?" she asks.

"Sharp and her staff. There's still the Candor to be dealt with before they can get ahold of any rumors. That's where I'm headed."

"Ah, thus the look." The Candor taped interviews and statements to play them back later and John didn't like to be on camera without his trademark red lipstick.

"Indeed."

"Well, you look wonderful. Good luck."

"You too. I love you." He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her in for a quick kiss.

"I love you too."

They go their separate ways; John plucking his glasses from his head and sliding them into his pocket, mentally rehearsing all the lies that the Candor won't be able to see through, and Carolina dropping her smile and once again re-triaging all that needed to be done now. There were cover-ups, and the council, and the Dauntless, and these injuries they hadn't counted on.

They'd all had had a very long two years – even longer if you counted the decades of setup that went into all of this – and due to this little hitch in their plans they would have a very dire few months ahead of them. The work they would do in these following months would outweigh much of what they'd done over those years and years of setup, even as their plot gained its own momentum recently it didn't compare to this. Every step they made now decided fates in no uncertain terms.

But she had her plans. She knew exactly what she was going to do. She had built a life for herself and nothing was ever going to take it away from her. She was never going to leave, she was never going to fold. They couldn't possibly lose, not when they had all the contingencies in the world and nothing they couldn't recover from. With their numbers, her plans, John's people skills, Jeanine's absolute control, they had the advantage and she intended to hold onto it.

This was just how things were always going to be.

She opens the door to Jeanine's office where Eric and Max are waiting rather impatiently. Max stands stiffly next to one of the chairs and Eric paces across the floor. Eric's head snaps toward her the moment she opens the door.

"Where's-" Max starts.

"She's indisposed," Carolina cuts him off.

"Look, about the Stiff it's-" Eric begins.

She sighs and holds up her hand to silence him. "I don't care how it happened or what your excuse is, but I want it taken care of."

"And we will. I will personally make sure of it." Eric assures her and there's more than a hint of a snarl in his voice.

The Prior girl isn't a threat, not really; on her own she could be easily subdued. But when combined with others she poses an unprecedented danger; she is a dangerous idea, she embodies the notion that Jeanine and Erudite are somehow not as powerful as they appear to be. She is not just a threat to the tangible pieces of their plan. She is a threat to their image, and image is everything. They couldn't have gotten away with anything close to what they've done if they didn't both possess the reputations that they do. Any sort of insinuation at all that they are not in control could be catastrophic, would leave people wondering, would allow people the illusion that they might somehow be able to leave. There were those who knew their place; like Max, Eric, and Lucy Sharp, who understood that to in any way disobey them would be to sign their own death warrants, either literal or societal. Then there were to ones who would be left wondering, who might actually try to leave. Carolina and Jeanine couldn't have that, they had to be in control. Anyone Tris Prior could gather would be disorganized at best. Erudite has the advantage, and they had to be sure to hold onto it.

"I'm sure you will," she says. "Now as for the rest of this matter-"

"My men await your orders." Max interrupts.

Carolina frowns at him, "Let me finish. Dr. Morgan and Dr. Malachite will make sure your members are aware of the circumstances. Eric, you will be taking a team and sweeping Abnegation for survivors and an artifact that Max will give you more details about when we're done here."

Eric nods and starts to walk out, but Carolina glares at him.

"Don't leave," she says, something deadly in her voice. Much to his internal shame, a shiver of fear runs through him. But Carolina looks to Max instead. "And you."

"And me?" Max says, pressing his lips together. He found Carolina just as threatening if not more. After all, he knows what she did to ensure his leadership position; he may not know how exactly she pulled it off, but she's never let him forget it.

"We are experiencing a setback, though it is minor it is not part of the deal."

"I know and I-"

"Stop."

Max closes his mouth, all but withering under Carolina's gaze. When Erudite collared Dauntless they kept an iron hold on him. The gravity of everything came and went in waves for him, but everyone knew that any hope he'd ever had of pulling out died with Azalea.

"When the artifact has been found, you will be heading up the search for any and all Divergent that may be hiding out amongst the various factions. Dr. Sorabella-Malachite will accompany you for the purpose of gathering data and field testing the detection equipment. He will also be there to ensure our success; unfortunately, Dr. Matthews and I simply cannot put our blind faith in you anymore."

He has to fight the urge to roll his eyes, thinking that there has never been anything blind about it. Erudite has kept an eye on Dauntless since the very start and the more years pass the more apparent it becomes that they don't trust him and his people to do anything at all.

"Okay."

"Hold up," Eric cuts in, "how exactly is a twenty-year-old Erudite meant to manage an entire squad of Dauntless soldiers? He doesn't know anything about strategy or combat. What does he know about leading anything?" He realizes a little late that this is Carolina's son he's talking about and that he just insulted him to her face. And judging by the look she's giving him, he's crossed another line.

"Max," she says, her voice terse.

"Yes?"

"You may go now. But remember, this little failure – this group of children – they are your problem. Not ours. Fix it."

Max nods vigorously, wringing his hands.

She narrows her eyes and smirks, "Good. Erudite sure would hate to have to cut loose such a useful asset like yourself."

Max shifts, "I will see it done."

A cruel smile curls across Carolina's face, "Good. Now get out; I have something to discuss with your faction representative."

Max leaves the room in a hurry, not looking back at Eric at all and just thankful that it's not him taking the brunt of her anger.

"But speaking of useless," she continues as the door closes, "we do have you, Mr. Coulter. You've failed in your sole objective, you've insulted my children not once but twice now, and you have the gall to question the orders that I give you. Have you forgotten your place? That everything you have is because of Erudite?"

"No, I haven't forgotten my place, but you seem to have. You're not Erudite's leader, I work for Jeanine; if anything, you're my equal and I don't think you have much business ordering me around like I'm a guard dog."

"Oh, I think dogs are better trained than you." Her voice turns poisonous. She steps closer to him and then a searing pain shoots up his leg. Carolina grinds the heel of her shoe into his wounded foot. He groans aloud, his knee buckling. And she smiles. "You are so arrogant. Exactly how valuable do you think that you are to us? I don't think that you quite remember the terms of your agreement with Dr. Matthews and I. You have your position because of us, because of me, and you are entirely too bold to truly understand that.

"I understand perfectly," he says through his labored breathing. "I'm a threat to you and it pisses you off."

She chuckles. "You're no threat to me. What pisses me off is your blatant disrespect for my authority and your inability to recognize the gravity of the situation you're in." Her sharp heel breaks the skin and he screws his eyes shut, choking back the urge to scream.

"I'm sorry," he says in one quick breath, cracking his eyes open again. "I'm so sorry. If you'll get off my foot, I'll leave now and I won't step out of line again." His breath quickens. "I'll find your girl. I promise."

She leans in close, still amused. "No. I'll find my girl. You will fall in line."

"Yes." He nods.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, Representative Malachite, I'll fall in line."

Her smile splits into a terrifying grin. "Good." She takes her foot off and takes a step back. "I look forward to seeing you make good on that promise."

He starts to limp out of the room, flushed with embarrassment and his breathing ragged.

"Oh, and Eric, one more thing."

He turns as best he can, trying not to look exasperated out of fear of making her angry again. He puts his hand against the wall by the door to steady himself and does his best to look like his shoe isn't filling with blood.

"You said it's Jeanine who you take orders from, right? Who do you think runs all of her ideas by?"

A chill runs down his spine as he limps out the door, thoroughly unsettled and something like fear in the pit of his stomach. He gives a stiff nod and leaves before she can stop him again. Whatever's managed to delay Jeanine, he just hopes it doesn't keep her long. Traitors are one thing; terrifying loyalty is something else entirely.

Gwendolyn sighs and runs a hand over her bruised cheek, which hurt too much to apply anything to cover it up. It looks terrible, and it hurts like a son of a bitch but there's nothing that she can do. She'll have to find a way to cover it before she has to interact with anyone at close range. The bruise is dark purple and dull yellow in some places with an ugly scab where her cheek split. She came to in the hospital with stitches on her legs and back in multiple places from where the glass from the shelf stabbed into her and black bruises all the way up and down from beneath her shoulder blades to her feet from the metal frame. Melanie was waiting at her side with Victoria, who had been pulled out of school to come see her. She'll be fine, in a lot of pain for the next couple of weeks, but she'll live. Her injuries aren't quite as severe as Jeanine's, who's hand may be damaged permanently, or even Carolina, who is severely concussed. But it was awful and undignified and it took three hours just to make herself presentable again. She was supposed to be untouchable, she'd crafted an image as Jeanine's shadow very carefully and deliberately. It may have gone to her head a little bit; and this is a painful reminder that even she is not invincible. And from the Dauntless dog and her own sister in law no less. Jeanine should have let her kill him when they'd had the chance, they'd lose valuable research but in the end they would all be better off.

He and the girl, whatever her name is, seem to be inseparable and obviously care very deeply for each other. She might think it was sweet if they weren't such nuisances.

But none of that matters right now; she and Melanie have a job to do. At the request of Carolina, they're taking over for her in explaining the situation to the Dauntless, in feeding them the lie that she and Jeanine had crafted. Gwendolyn has no issue with lying, with killing, with anything really. She can't.

The time for scruples was long over; now they have to work to do.

Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have to do much of anything. She would stand in the back and assist with the technical side and exude quiet threat. She has never been a people person, her strengths lie in other areas. But these were not normal circumstances; with Jeanine temporarily out of commission, Carolina had to pick up the slack with the council, the council liaisons had to pick up the slack with the Erudite public, Support Crew was busy with all the other sprung leaks and doling out orders of their own, which left the responsibility of rationalizing what they've done to the Dauntless up to Gwendolyn and Melanie. Not like they didn't have other jobs to do or anything.

She is not a people person, Jeanine knows this, Carolina knows this, and yet here she is. Because they trust her, Carolina had said, because she is one of the greatest minds in the whole faction.

This was flattery; she's no master manipulator, but she could tell when she's being played. Carolina is afraid, she knows it; she is afraid that Gwendolyn is beginning to question her trust in hers and Jeanine's plans.

She didn't know what to do with that knowledge, just like she isn't quite sure what to do with the nagging thought in her mind that her parents' death very well may not have been an accident; so instead she just decides to tuck it away, ruminate over it later. Like she said, there was work to be done now.

"You're quiet." Melanie is clipping her microphone onto her dress as she talks, not looking at her.

"I'm always quiet."

She turns; her black hair shifting in a wave, "Something wrong?"

"No." She shakes her head. "No, I'm fine."

That's a lie, and she really doesn't like to lie to Melanie and tries not to. But there isn't a way to explain what a mess her thoughts are. Besides, she wouldn't understand. There isn't really a lot that they don't understand about each other but this would definitely be one of those things. Melanie has always been fiercely loyal to Jeanine and her cause, it kind of came with the territory of being a Malachite and a department head. Not only would she not be able to understand she would very likely tell the others. Of course, she would never intentionally put her in danger but she would protect this plan and her family even if that meant removing her – or more accurately having her removed from the plan.

"Are you in pain?" She moves closer.

"The pain is nothing. I'm lucky that Mimette didn't break my cheekbone."

"Or worse." The frown on her face says that she's been thinking about this for a while. "You know what one wrong kick could do? Bash in your skull. It may not have been her intent to kill you, but she certainly could have."

"Cut your sister some slack." She cups her jaw with both hands, tilting her head back just slightly to look up at her. "I'm fine."

"You're lucky."

"You know I don't believe in luck." She pulls her down for a kiss. Melanie wraps her arms around her neck just a little too tight. She's afraid too, like mother like daughter; scared for different reasons but scared nonetheless.

She pulls away first, standing on her toes as much as she can and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Perhaps I should invest in a pair of heeled boots," she murmurs, wobbling on her toes. Melanie laughs, putting her hands on her hips to steady her.

"I'd pick you up but…"

"Best not," she says with a chuckle.

"Best not," Melanie repeats, then kisses her again.

The pair finally separate when someone clears their throat behind them. A mousy looking Erudite man approaches them, seeming uncomfortably aware that he's interrupting.

"Pardon me." He rubs the back of his neck nervously.

"Spit it out," Gwendolyn says, the cold edge she's known for in her voice again.

"Ah, uh, um…They're ready for you." He points toward the doors.

Melanie pins Gwendolyn's mic to the lapel of her jacket, adjusting it until she's satisfied. "Are you ready?"

"After you."

They walk in unison as the doors slide apart to reveal a massive room, the mid-afternoon sunlight giving the white steel a particular shine and making the tens of thousands of black-clad bodies stand out even more. They pay no attention to the women on the balcony, busy talking amongst themselves; speculating on their situation, looking for loved ones, trying to figure out what's happened. The two of them look around at the crowd before them; Melanie at her mother's latest pawns, Gwendolyn at those who were once her mother's people – were once her people too.

This was why Carolina wanted her here; not because they trusted her or something stupid and sentimental like that, but because she was visibly her mother's daughter and on the off chance that that still counted for something they were going to take every advantage they could possibly get.

She sighs, looking out at the crowd. "Quiet."

The room doesn't quite go silent, pretty par for the course for Dauntless. But the majority turn their attention toward the balcony.

"As of this moment, Dauntless has allied with Erudite to protect our city from falling to war. Today a group of radical Divergent attacked and subsequently destroyed Abnegation. Your role in all of this, well from now on you take orders from us to fight them."

There's a beat of silence as she lets this information sink in. Then somewhere from the crowd someone shouts, "Well who the hell are you?!"

She freezes, looking like a deer in the headlights. Melanie chuckles, covering her mic to mutter. "Why don't you let the people person handle this, okay?"

Quietly, she breathes a sigh of relief. It's easier to, as Melanie says, stand back and look pretty.

She steps forward, smiling in a way too reminiscent of her mother. "We are the people who are going to protect this city and Dauntless is going to help us. Your leaders have already agreed to enter a partnership with us for the good of us all. From this day forward you will be housed within the Erudite Sector and be assigned as we please. We share a common threat, a group of people who buck the faction system and seek to destroy it. We call them the Divergent." She pauses for dramatic effect and murmurs ripple through the crowd, continuing even when she starts speaking again. "As I'm sure you've all heard, early this morning the faction of Abnegation was brutally slaughtered. We are working now to determine the whereabouts of the masterminds behind this tragedy, but what we can say for sure is that they were a group of Divergent extremists looking to cripple the faction system by attacking its weakest members. With most of the council leaders dead or missing, Erudite has stepped in to assume the responsibility of keeping order and Dauntless is obliged to help us do this. If you'll follow the Erudite staff along the walls, they'll show you your lodgings and give you your assignments. From this day until this threat has been neutralized, you will defer to Erudite's staff and leadership." That doesn't make them happy, mutters and some protests grow louder. Melanie glowers and snaps, "Quiet." Then the look is gone and she straightens, smiling. "If this doesn't appeal to you, if defending your city and upholding your faction's traditions isn't quite your cup of tea then by all means you're free to walk away." And the moment the words leave her mouth people start pushing through the crowd in search of an exit. "But leave knowing that you face expulsion from your faction for treason and will be tried for collusion with a criminal insurgency." That stops them dead and for once they're quiet. "Now that that's been settled, my associates on the floor with you will handle getting you all settled." They turn away in unison and Melanie smiles at her.

Their microphones cut out and the doors open and then shut tight behind them, cutting them off from the clamor of the other room.

"Do you think that will work?" She asks, her voice quiet as they continue down the hallway.

Melanie angles her head to look at her, her eyes glimmering and a smile still quirking at her lips. "Do you think that it won't?"

A/N: And that's it! Thoughts? I of course have more planned but I think I'm going to take a break from this story for a little while so I can get it ready for print (yes, print! DM me for details) and plan the next books. Thank you so much for sticking with me so long and I'll see you in the future!