Oops! I Did It Again (I walked in on my boss)
To be blunt, everyone in Arcadia knew that there was something going on between the chancellor and her head of security, but what that was remained a mystery. There were longing glances and sneaking peeks and shared smiles, but that could all be conjuncture on the part of the many camp gossip. Still, the chancellor and her head of security were spending an awful lot of time together.
Dr. Eric Jackson wasn’t one for gossip. He kept his head down and worked hard. Gossip was just noise to him, as much as he heard it from his patients and the others who worked in the medical tent. He didn’t care that Lily Paulson and Harry Timmons were hooking up or that Mary Faulkner and Claire Dunson were mad that the kids were playing soccer by the gate. He cared about keeping people alive and not dead.
The first time it happened, Jackson didn’t think anything of it. He walked into Abby’s office, without knocking or making himself known, and found Kane and Abby standing very close and looking flushed. He stopped, nodding awkwardly.
Abby stepped away from Kane, fixing her hair. “Hi, Jackson.”
“Councillor Kane,” Jackson addressed with a curt nod. “I just needed to ask Abby something. But if she’s busy…”
“No!” Kane said quickly. “I was just talking to the chancellor about our mapping team. There was… I don’t… I’m done.”
He stepped away, but hesitated.
“We’ll finish this later,” Abby said with a cheeky smile.
“Later. Right,” Kane cleared his throat. “Chancellor. Dr. Jackon.” He exited, cheeks flushed pink.
Jackson stood for a second, processing what had just happened.
“What was that?”
Abby chuckled. “Marcus… Councilor Kane and I were talking business,” she brushed off. “What did you need me for?”
“Appendicitis. There’s a patient with symptoms that match appendicitis, but I want a second opinion before moving to a surgical option.”
Abby straightened herself out, nodding. “Right. I’ll do that”
Jackson found the interaction odd, awkward, and uncomfortable, but he wasn’t one to speculate. What two adults did in their own free time was their problem, whether that be reports from the survey team or other adult things. He just brushed it off as an odd occurrence.
The second time it happened, Jackson couldn’t deny there was something going on. He had just finished an 18 hour shift in medical and was absolutely exhausted. But when Abby didn’t show for her shift, he got a little concerned. With a comment to one of the nurses, he headed off to find the chancellor.
His first guess would be the chancellor’s office, so he set off. She had probably exhausted herself again and fallen asleep at her desk, or on the couch or in a corner, anywhere frankly. If he found her asleep, he’d cover for her until she showed up to relieve him. It was the least he could for her when she was already stretching herself this.
Approaching the door to the office, he paused. Shrieks and other noises came from inside the room. They culminated in one loud one, then stopped.
Jackson knocked, pressing his ear up against the door. “Abby?”
There was a moment of silence and shuffling inside.
“Is everything okay?” Jackson called.
“We’re good!” Abby called back, sounding out of breath. “Just… give me a second. I just gotta… I’ll let you in in just a moment.”
There was more commotion inside and Jackson stood awkwardly outside the door, nodding to the people who passed by.
After a moment, the door opened.
Abby stood in the crack, hair disheveled, shirt wrinkled, and still out of breath. She smiled at him sheepishly. “Hi, Jackson, would you like to come in?”
He nodded, unable to find his words. She stepped out of the way and he stepped in. Marcus Kane stood in the corner, keeping his back to the door. He stared intently out the window, peeking back to acknowledge Jackson.
“Oh, hi Jackson!” Kane said. “Sorry, we were just trying to... catch a bird.”
“I left the window open,” Abby added.
“I should go,” Kane said, pointing to the door. “Now that I’ve helped you with our intruder…”
Jackson cleared his throat. “Your shirt is on backwards and inside out,” he said flatly. “Thought you might want to know.”
Kane looked down at his shirt. “Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll fix it.”
And with that, Kane left and Jackson was alone with Abby.
“So, a bird flew in through the open window?” Abby confirmed with a nod.”And why was Kane’s shirt weird?”
Abby stuttered. “He.. well, he… he took it off to try to catch the bird.”
“Oh?” Jackson smirked at her.
Abby scowled. “Why are you here, Jackson?”
“I was coming to find you. I thought you’d fallen asleep and missed your shift. But, luckily it was just a bird, flying in through an open window.”
Abby groaned. “Shit. I completely forgot about that.”
“It’s okay.” Jackson replied awkwardly. “I can cover for you if you want. So you can get some sleep.”
“No. It's okay. I got a few hours last night.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ll be fine.” Abby smiled. She picked up her jacket and fixed her hair. She stopped just short of the door. “And Jackson?”
“Yeah?”
“Please don’t tell anyone about what happened. We… I… wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea.”
The interaction lingered in Jackson’s mind, but he eventually dismissed it. If there was something that Abby wanted him to know, she would tell him. If not, he just wouldn’t know.
The third time it happened, Jackson couldn’t deny it. There was a meeting of the advisors to the chancellor and Jackson, serving as Abby’s medical advisor, was sitting in the meeting room with the other advisors, minus a few people.
“Where are Sincalir, Kane, and the chancellor?” someone asked.
“I think Sinclair said something about being late or having to deal with one of his people,” someone offered.
“And the chancellor and Kane?”
Jackson stood. “I think the chancellor is in medical. And I assume Kane is with her. I saw him bringing her lunch earlier.”
“Well, they’re late.” Someone grumbled from across the table.
“I’ll go get them,” Jackson offered. “Be right back.”
Jackson exited, making a beeline for medical. He was so frustrated with Abby that he barely noticed when he barreled down Sinclair in the middle of the green.
“I thought you were supposed to be at the chancellor’s meeting,” Sinclair said. Jackson tried to escape, but Sinclair grabbed his arm. “What's wrong?”
“We’re missing the chancellor…”
“Oh,” Sinclair’s face twisted in concern.
“... and the head of security,” Jackson finished.
Sinclair flushed. He looked around and lowered his voice. “Look, if they are both missing they’re probably together. You know how Abby and Kane are. They’re probably tangled up in something.”
Jackson narrowed his eyes, suspicious of Sinclair’s behavior. Sinclair let go of his arm, Backing away. “Well, I’m going to go find them.”
Sinclair just looked at him.
“They’re waiting for you,” Jackson pointed out. “I’ll be right there.”
Sinclair chuckled to himself as he left. Jackson ignored him, rushing off to medical. When he got there, he ducked inside and followed his ears to locate his boss.
A loud noise came from Abby’s private “office” in medical. Jackson barged in without knocking, very annoyed.
“Seriously, Abby! The council is waiting for you and…”
It took Jackson a moment to detangle what he saw in front of him. He locked eyes with Abby, who Kane had pressed up against the wall. They were “intimately tangled”, a euphemism that Jackson’s mother and him had shared to make him giggle.
This situation did not make him giggle.
“Jackson!” Abby’s high pitched squeal was highly uncharacteristic. He felt himself go redder than he had ever been before. Kane groaned and froze, keeping his back to Jackson.
“I’ll…. I’ll come back… after you’re done,” Jackson made a hasty exit, possibly turning an even redder shade of red, if it was possible.
Moments later, Kane stumbled out of the office. He smiled guiltily at Jackson. “Hi.”
Jackson just nodded wordlessly. He and Kane stood in tense silence until Abby came out, looking surprisingly well put together.
“Jackson, I…”
“Abby, I don’t care what you’re doing or who you’re doing it with…”
“Please don’t tell…”
“I’m not going to gossip…”
“It’s all very new…”
“As long as I don’t have to give you two the talk…”
Kane cleared his throat, stopping their overlapping conversation.
“What just happened?”
Jackson recovered first. “The council is waiting for you two.”
Kane sighed. “So that's what we we're missing?” He glared at Abby. “If we can’t remember what it is, it is not important, right?”
Abby managed to go redder than Jackson. “It was kind of hard to think with you taking off my shirt,” Abby managed. “And I don’t recall you being too concerned either.”
“Okay!” Jackson cut in. “We’ve got a meeting to get to, lovebirds!”
Abby glared at him, waving to Kane. “Go ahead, I’ll be right behind.”
Kane ducked out silently.
“Now, Jackson,” Abby rounded on him, “if anyone else catches wind of what happened here, you will wake up one morning without a spleen, do you understand me?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good.”
“Oh, Abby?” He smirked. “You and Kane would make really cute babies.”
Abby won the face reddening contest, face turning near purple with embarrassment. “I swear to god, Eric…”
Jackson just laughed good naturedly and left, looking forward to an interesting council meeting ahead.