Claudia sat cross legged on the concrete floor of the NOLWEPS lab surrounded by piles of copper wires, and metal scraps. Four new tesla designs lay in front of her none of which were working. Almost everyone in the lab had gone off to celebrate their weekend. The only people left were Claudia, who had a deadline she probably wasn't going to make, and Parrish who was too OCD to let anyone be in his lab alone. He had retreated to his office, mumbling something about safety reports needed by the first of the month, which left Claudia screwed. Henry and General Mansfield, who had commissioned the teslas to use on field work with the Special Forces. And if they were the regular teslas that she and everyone else at the warehouse used she would already have them knocked out, however these required the ability to cut metal and solder if needed, and the design she made didn't work out. She needed these done by tomorrow, and that was looking about as possible as Pete resisting Leena's food. She had the smallest model in her hand working on the connection from the resistor tube to the opening. She was twisting the screw driver so carefully, that her hand was shaking; she was almost there, until a yell made her jump and drop the mechanism.

"Parrish, did you end up finishing those..." Claudia's glare stopped Zane from finishing his sentence.

"Dude, who comes in a room yelling?" He started smirking and sat down in a chair next to Claudia and her mess.

"Sorry, I usually do it in order to annoy Parrish. The man cannot take noise." Claudia nods.

"You look familiar, are you a new intern or… wait I do know you, you're the chick that Fargo escorted around GD to impress right?" She sighs.

"Yeah, but now I'm working with Parrish on this symbiotic project." He starts laughing.

"Oh god that sucks, I always get stuck with Parrish as punishment. I mean he's an ass but he's good at what he does." He looks down at the pile. "Working on creating the terminator?" She looks up with annoyance.

"No I have this stupid deadline and nothing is working and it's like I've forgotten how to fix anything." He tilts his head and moves down to the floor copying Claudia's position. She stares at him.

"What are you doing?" He picks up a rifle styled tesla, not seeing Claudia's glare.

"Well Princess, everyone here has been fucked over by deadlines, so we all help each other out when we can." Her eyes squint.

"God did Parrish tell you that idiotic nickname." He smirks and pulls over the blue prints.

"No but you can sure as hell bet that's what I'm calling you now. Ok so what is supposed to be happening that isn't, because these prints seem pretty solid."

"It needs to have a smaller charge sent out but with just as much current. And when I tried what is on that, it wasn't strong enough or didn't come out at all." His eyebrows scrunch and he pulls a steel bulkhead and starts screwing around with it. She pulls out her own soldering gun and starts working on the opening. This continued in silence until he spoke up.

"So I'm Zane." She laughs.

"I feel like I remember you being brought to a hole?" He nods and smiles

"Yep but I got out, ya know to explore wonderland, and of course to help steal the ring." Claudia actually raises her head to meet his eyes.

"I see, well Bilbo I'm Claudia." A part falls out of the rifle, Claudia's eyes widen.

"I will fix that I promise. So what do you think of Parrish?" She rolls her eyes.

"Well what can one say about a self-entitled jack ass who mocks everyone's ideas." Zane smirks.

"Aw he's not that bad all the time. He just doesn't know how to approach people." Claudia raises her eyebrows and switches out the tesla she's working on.

"I saw him make this girl cry last week, because she messed up one batch, ONE, of a testing liquid." He rolls his shoulders a couple of times, and cracks his neck.

"Like I said he doesn't know how to deliver any message; dissatisfaction, happiness, romantic feelings." Her eyebrows rose at that.

"Who on earth would date him." Zane looked like he was struggling with words.

"Well he may have the social skills of an agoraphobic lobster sometimes, but other times he can be sweet, I bet." Her eyes narrowed.

"You bet?"

"Well I've never actually seen it. But everyone can be charming sometimes." Claudia still didn't look convinced. She fidgeted with a small bolt, and her eyes lit up.

"It works." She sketched out the modifications really quick on the paper before grabbing the mini tesla again and started working. Zane studied them, got up and returned with a soldering gun.

"Parrish's?" He smirks at her.

"Well I came with intent to annoy him, and I will do it by god." She laughed and continued working. 10 minutes later Jo came in looking annoyed.

"I've been looking for you for like an hour." She stares down at the scene.

"It's almost 10 you guys need to leave. Only department heads can be here after that." Claudia's eyes landed on the last tesla they didn't finish, and rubbed her eyes. Sighing, she pushes herself up and gathered all the parts she didn't use before packing the teslas up in their case. The trio started to walk out but Zane stopped.

"I came down here to tell Parrish something." Lupo's eyes narrowed. "I'll be literally 2 minutes max."

Claudia shifted on her feet, trying to wake up her legs. Jo stared at her for a couple seconds before returning her glare at the door. Zane appeared about a minute later.

"I timed myself 1 minute and 34 seconds." Lupo's lips pursed before she started walking.

Claudia followed behind the couple until they got to the door.

"Wait I thought you came down to annoy Parrish."

"Princess I can do both." Jo raised her eyebrows but said nothing, as Zane wrapped his arm around her and they walked in the other direction.

Claudia's stomach was in knots as she walked to her room at the local B&B. She hadn't felt anxiety like this since high school. The type where you know you'll be in trouble on the next day, but you can't do anything about it. Even as she slept her dreams were filled with an angry Colonel Mustard screaming at her, and a disappointed Morgan Freeman sighing. The knots still hadn't left as she dressed and left for GD.

She managed to get to the lab, with 10 minutes to spare. Taking out the lock box with the teslas in it she grabs each one out leaving the unfinished one for last. As she pulls it out she notices it has the soldered modifications. Claudia's mouth drops, and she just stares at it mystified.

"Hey Princess, I'd shut your mouth before Mansfield comes in." She closes her mouth and glares at him. Parrish smirks and passes by her to set up the targets.

"By the way next time tell me when you're screwed on a deadline, I can help." Her eyebrows knitted together, and Zane's agoraphobic lobster analogy popped in her mind.