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Incorrect Quotes: Maria X Gareth @tealeavesandthorns

A blush dancing to her cheeks as she backed up towards the door. "Why, Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Mallory..... are you flirting with me?" she teased playfully. The ever present understanding that she knew and loved every aspect of him on display with the use of his rank... though with it also came memories of when they were just a soldier and a nurse falling in love.

When they were stood before the kitchen again, he wrapped his arms around her waist. “Now…where were we?”

A nurse trotted into the room with a clipboard. The man was surprised to see Vera agitated and out of bed. He looked first to see if her husband, Mr. Mallory, would intervene and he stood ready to call for assistance to get his patient back into bed.

Gareth turned back to Vera, reaching out, his hand barely touching hers. “Vera.” Voice firm. “Look at me. Please. It doesn’t mean he’s gone, it just—” Well, what else did it mean? He shook his head again. “You need to consider all scenarios.” And most of all the one that Gareth hadn’t been able to keep his promise to get Tom out of there.

“No, I get it. It’s… it is nice in that regard. Still…” Ophelia sat the wine glass down, shrugging a bit. “Still a bit lonely I imagine. Maybe not for you, you’re so busy, but… I’ve found it can be sometimes.” She stirred the pasta around on her fork before taking another bite. Time to switch topics again. Dead mates and being lonely was hardly cheerful conversation. “Right, well… suppose we only have a few things to tackle once we get back to work. I don’t think we’ve missed anything major since we’ve left the office thankfully.”

He sucked in a breath. Back to work matters then. “You will learn quite fast that…you never actually miss anything major when you leave the office,” he told her half-jokingly. “If there was anything major going on, the phone would ring.” Thankfully it didn’t. It had been a rather calm day, though he knew that could change any second. He never took those kinds of days for granted. “We don’t have any more meetings today, do we?”

Ophelia turned back to him, trying to push down the fear so she could focus on his instructions. “If you give me a slight boost, I’m sure I can get up there. Are we… we’re gonna climb the lift chute, aren’t we?” At least she wouldn’t be able to see down other than the top of the lift. But climbing out of this mess, especially with a bum arm, seemed nearly impossible. “Afraid I missed out on all the training my brothers got in the military so I’ll… I’ll do my best.”

“Don’t worry.” M turned back around to Ophelia, taking her hand again. “I’m here, I’m helping you, and I won’t leave your side. Now. I suppose it’s easier if I do a leg-up and you try to open the ceiling. The plates usually can be pushed open.” He folded his fingers and bent his legs for Ophelia to climb on him. “Ready?”

This means you will give me permission to write your muse's feelings/actions/thoughts!

his beautiful eyes

"We... we need to get out of here...." she coughed some of the dust and ash from her throat and lungs.

He nodded his head at her words. That was exactly what they were trying to do, but it didn't seem like whoever was doing this, was making it easy for them. "Well...at least we have already made it one floor down..." Gareth muttered, half-jokingly. There was nothing funny about this situation, though. "We need to get out fast." Another cough; his throat was burning from all the dust. "You don't have your phone with you, do you?" His was somewhere upstairs, in his office - if it still existed.

Because she didn't want to talk at all, in fact what she wanted to do was something very similar to what they did in the library, near the window. What she wanted to do was kiss him and kiss him and kiss him.

While his lips were occupied with Maria’s, his hand moved from her thigh and farther up, gently clasping her waist before it kept wandering along her waistline, down to her leg again, and finally between her thighs.

Ophelia nodded slightly, taking a shaky breath. “Okay… yeah, alive, that’s… that’s good.” She looked around, trying to gauge their best plan of escape right now before there were any more injuries. She certainly wasn’t equipped for this. She had no training, no skills in espionage. She was completely out of her depth here. “Following your lead, sir…” She said, her uninjured hand taking his and holding on tightly.

“Right.” He glanced around for a moment, weighing their options. They had managed to get into this lift – from the size of it, it rather seemed like a cargo lift. Still, that didn’t change the fact it was stuck and they needed to find another way out. His gaze fell on the ceiling. There was no other option, was there? “How good of a climber are you?”

“Are you really that much of a homebody? I’m not judging f if you are, I do enjoy it too, but do you not have like friends from uni or the military that you still keep in touch with and go out with on occasion?” It might have been prying too much, but she was curious what sort of life M led outside of work.

“We do meet on occasion, yes, but…” M shook his head, “we are all scattered across the country and one is busier than the other.” Well, it was mostly himself, really, who worked until late at night and occasionally even slept in his office when he was too tired and lazy to go home. “Others are dead.” Short and quick as that. “I quite enjoy being alone, though. It means…you don’t have to explain why you are late home, or why you can’t make it. You don’t have to find excuses.”

"I spent my last night in the States with Tom. We were in Foundation housing... A secured compound. I'm not certain where." Vera forced herself to remember. "Utah. I know we were in Utah. I was drugged. I can't remember how I got there except that it was dry and the highway markers were black and white with beehives. I... I put it together on the flight into Heathrow."

His brow rose. There were only horror stories about them, weren’t there? “You aren’t still trying to convince me what the Foundation is doing, is actually for the sake of humanity, are you?” Gareth asked quietly. “Vera, I don’t—I don’t mean to hurt you, or…try to drag you away from them, but…what makes you think he’s still alive? Those phone calls could be forged. And even videocalls…with the technology we have nowadays…”