Corrupt or conquer.

“Naw,” Fred shook her head, trying to be accommodating.  The girl had dropped in to see her, after all, and if she’d gone to the effort it wouldn’t be polite to say she was intruding.  She’d been brought up better than that, and her daddy would be disappointed to know that the thought had even crossed her mind.  “I don’t mind the company.  You’re still quieter than a warehouse full of people, after all - quiet as a mouse, actually, given how easy you snuck up on me.”  She looked her fellow student up and down - Eve really was a pretty girl, even if there was something about her that always seemed a little forced or put on.  But, she reconsidered, that wasn’t exactly a fair thought.  Everyone wore their own masks, for their own reasons, and Eve was no less entitled to hers than anyone else.

“It really was.  I’m almost sorry I didn’t get to a doctor before it was over, because I wish I had some idea what it was I came down with.  I’m exhausted now, truth be told, but I don’t mind working.  I’m not so tired I’m going to fall over, and it keeps me from parkin’ my lazy butt on the couch and passin’ out in the middle of the afternoon every day.”  She grinned.  “Uh - well, both are allowed, technically, but late-night walks are kinda…discouraged around here.  For a small town, there’s a pretty sky-high crime rate at night.  Lots of,” she tried to find a phrasing that didn’t sound insane to a stranger, “assaults.  People getting hurt.  It’s safer to stay inside unless you know the safe spots.  Oh - and you really shouldn’t invite anyone into your house unless you know them pretty well.  It’s just that kinda town.”  Her brain hurt from trying to talk around the truth.

Eve

Eve had nothing better to do with her eyes and ears than analyze people till she could play them like a fiddle. That’s why she had the opportunity to do a mental double take when she caught Fred scanning her body. Oh? That could be an interesting angle to play. On the other hand, Fred hadn’t been blatantly flirtatious and some people—like, well, herself—were just natural flirts. Still, most people didn’t avoid intense eye contact by searching the rest of someone’s body. “I have a habit of dropping in on people unnoticed. Gives you the upper hand in conversations. Not that I’d need it here…” Eve shrugged and clasped her hands behind her back.

The warehouse, normally almost deserted but for herself, was the ideal place to be alone at night - which was why the last thing Fred was expecting was a voice speaking from in front of her.  She jumped and almost dropped the sealed test tube in her hands, bouncing it from one to the other, and only saved it by a fraction of an inch.  Setting it down with trembling hands, she looked up at Eve with a confused smile.  ”Howdy.  Whew, you scared the ever-lovin’ daylights outta me, I wasn’t exactly expectin’ company tonight!”  She took a few more breaths to steady herself, finally looking up again and meeting the other woman’s eyes.  ”No, the place is all closed up, but I like workin’ the night shift.  Leaves me more time for school during the day, and it’s always nice and quiet.  Gives me time to think.”

She ran a hand through her mousy brown hair as she tried to decide how to answer the second part of Eve’s question.  ”It’s just been a weird week.  I got sick, and the last little bit is just…a blur.  Like I don’t even remember being sick, I don’t remember everything.  It’s annoyin’.  I’m a scientist.  I like to know, I like to understand, and to be missin’ whole days, it’s just…bugs me.  I get the science behind it, but it’s still really annoyin’.”  She grabbed a clipboard from the shelf beside her and ticked off a few boxes on an inventory sheet.  ”And what about you?  What brings you out wanderin’ in the middle of the night?”

Eve

Eve openly smirked at how startled the scientist was. It turned into a returned smile hallway through, but went back to a smirk when she realized Fred had to collect her wits. Note to self: drop in unexpectedly on Fred more often--it’s inexplicably fun. “Am I intruding on private Fred time then? I won’t say it’s the last thing that I want to do, but it is somewhere on my list of don’ts.” It would be if she had inhibitions the way other people did, but after the partners molded her mind to be the best lawyer and negotiator… most of her mental energy was spent pushing peoples buttons.

Fred had done her best to forget the last few days.  The huge gap of missing time, the way she’d woken up in Jesse’s house with no memory of how she’d arrived there and his complete unwillingness to share anything with her.  She trusted him, although she couldn’t explain why, but that wasn’t enough to wish away the mark on her neck that looked suspiciously like a puncture wound.  He’d insisted she was attacked by something and brought home with him, but that didn’t help to solve the mystery of why there were entire days missing from her memory.  She remembered going to sleep one night, and then nothing until she’d woken in his apartment.  But in typical Fred fashion she’d done her best to just forget it and move on, getting back into a routine of work and school and pretending the incident had never occurred.

Which was why she found herself, as usual, at the warehouse mixing chemicals late at night.  At least there hadn’t been any strange nocturnal visitors, like the one who’d tried to steal a box of chemicals weeks earlier.  The town had a lot going on under the surface, but as long as it stayed out of contact with her then she’d turn a blind eye to it in turn.  She just wanted to do her job and get her degree, and perhaps move on to somewhere else.  Rachel seemed to think New York was nice…

Eve

This town probably hadn’t been doing its best to be interesting, but it wasn’t, exactly. After attending all the classes that she wasn’t actually taking, she still had to resort to the internet, for goodness sakes. And it looked like Eve’s stay in Lima was going to turn into an extended engagement. The senior partners wanted to wait for Illyria to get desperate, and Illyria apparently didn’t even pop up that often. At least walks at night were as…entertaining as they were in LA. Even with a small frame like hers, radiating confidence did a surprising amount to scare away vampires and the like. Even so, she kept a cross on her. Deciding it couldn’t hurt to keep an eye on Fred in the days after Illyria’s control, she made her way to one of the locations Fred frequented: her workplace. Those who wanted to keep their alive and well status around the partners always did their homework.