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Grace’s eyebrow twitched. “When did the mayhem start?”
“As soon as Elisha fell asleep,” Lou muttered, coming to stand beside them. She was also covered in a sheen of glitter, which made her look like an angry pixie. “You were right, by the way. She was out way before lunch.”
“And she didn't do this?” Grace asked, surveying the labs. It did look…well, it looked like shit. It was best she pinpointed exactly where it all began before she doled out the punishments. If it wasn’t Elisha then there was definitely anarchy afoot. Maybe it was Lou?
“No, apparently the science horde become monsters when there’s no central authority. Just like cartels,” Mindy replied, still trying to get glitter off of herself.
Grace frowned, hands on her hips, and she jerked her chin at Lou who was yawning and walking out of her office.
“What else happened?”
Lou blinked and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know. I fell asleep.”
“Good, you slept at least.” Grace breathed a sigh of relief. “This could have been worse if you and Elisha weren’t both knocked out.”
“Worse?”Mindy raised an eyebrow. “How could that even be possible? I caught one of them trying to create a new adhesive they were hell-bent on using onmy team.Plus, there’s the fact that I have no idea what to even feed them. It’s like having an army of sleepy toddlers running rampant. How do none of them take a lunch, or know how to feed themselves? I have no idea how you do this.” She shook her head and stepped closer to Anton, who leaned against the doorway.
“I’m not looking so bad now, am I?” he asked with a smirk.
“I will never ever berate your poor health habits again. You’re practically well-rounded and well-adjusted in comparison.”
“Gee, that gets me right in the ticker.” Anton clutched a hand to his chest. “I missed you too, dear.”
Mindy said nothing, but went to Anton and rested her forehead on his shoulder. “Never leave me again,” she ordered.
Anton patted her head. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“It couldn’t have been that bad.” Grace shook her head and stepped further into the labs. Yes, her labs were sort of messy, but they hadn’t been gone that long. Just the day. It was only one day.
Her eyes scanned the scene to see a group of recalcitrant scientists staring death glares at one another. The room was split down the middle with Anton’s group on one side and hers on the other. A snoring Elisha worked as the line of demarcation between the two, and Grace rolled her eyes, striding forward into the tense room.
“Can anyone tell me why you’ve decided to declare a civil war in here?” she asked, looking around. “You’re all professionals. This should be the time you all come together and learn from each other, not descend to glitter bomb fights.”
“Tell that to them,” Karen, one of Lou’s team leaders, said, pointing a finger across the room. “They walked in here acting like they owned the place.”
“That’s a lie,” one of Anton’s scientists fired back. “You’re all too busy acting like we don’t belong. You won’t even share the coffee.”
“That’s because it was decaf!” Karen yelled. “If you think I’m going to share what little caffeine I’ve been allocated, then you’re mistaken. We’re on war rations, and that means everyone for themselves, okay?”
“It’s your fault we even had to put up with decaf,” another New York scientist barked out. “Why were you trying to set us on fire?”
“Because your boss was getting handsy with our lab lady. We aren’t letting her go down like that,” another physicist to Grace’s right piped up, prompting a chorus of agreement from the lab team. She stopped short when she realized what she was hearing.
She swallowed hard, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, “Wait, are you telling me that you’ve been acting out to defend my honor? You were trying to save me from being ruined?”
“Of course! Why else do you think Elisha would risk decaffeination?” Karen said, jabbing a finger at Elisha, still facedown on the lab table in front of her. “I mean, look at her. She’s in a puddle of her own drool. She did that for you.”
“I overcaffeinated her,” Grace admitted. She still reeled from the fact that her lab team had exploded a bonfire and let loose a glitter plague for the sake of her honor. A fire was one thing, but glitter?
Glitter was forever.
Glitter meant business.
Glitter was love.
Grace sniffled at the gesture. “I’m really-I don’t know what to say to you all. That was really sweet.”
A murmur went up through the crowd, and Karen shook her head. “You’re a scary lab queen, Grace, but you’reour scary lab queen,and we’ve heard all about Kovalev.” She leveled a steely look over Grace’s shoulder at the man in question, who sauntered up beside Grace with an easy smile.
