"Woah," Piper said as she entered the room. The room in question was almost shockingly huge, yet it seemed tiny, as it was packed to the brim with barrel and barrels of various chemical compounds. Some Piper recognized as common Yeng food additives, having worked with considerably smaller quantities earlier in the day. Others, however, were a complete mystery. Hell, one of them had a name that nearly forty syllables long...
"Why are you still here?"
Piper jumped at the sudden voice behind her, and let out a bloodcurdling scream. Turning around, she saw an equally shocked Dr. Rhodes. Initially shocked by her reaction, his tone soon turned from questioning to teasing. "A tad jumpy, are we?"
Piper felt her pulse slowly returning to normal, but her blush was quickly passing into the infrared. "D-doctor Rhodes, I-"
He interrupted her a wave of his hand. "Robert, please. We're off the clock, you don't need to be so formal, Piper. And I do apologize that we didn't have time to do things properly before. Bloody rush orders, and all that."
"That's fine, Doc- er, Robert," Piper stuttered. Despite the fact that his hair was grey, seeing him out of his lab attire, it was clear that Robert Rhodes was a fair bit younger then she'd initially taken him for. Granted, he was still probably ten or fifteen years her senior, she guessed, but he was honestly pretty hot. Like a young Sean Connery, only with the deepest icy blue eyes...
"Piper?"
Realizing she'd been too busy staring at him to hear what he'd asked, Piper's blush grew a fair bit darker. "Sorry, come again?"
"I was asking what you were doing here," he asked again, chuckling a little. Piper let out a subconscious groan, certain he knew why she'd been tongue-tied.
"I came back because I forgot my bus pass, then I saw this door open, and I was curious, so I kind of came over to check it out."
Only as she said it did Piper realize that entering a lab into which she hadn't been assigned might not be permitted by Yeng. However, if that was the case, Robert certainly didn't bring it up. "Oh, all this. This was supposed to be today's assignment, before that blasted rush order came in. I suppose now this will be tomorrow's task. You'll get the full briefing tomorrow with the others, suffice to say that these are supplements that Yeng has been testing with great success at Site #37. However, the company has yet to master any sort of economy of scale with the supplement. Simply put, it's too expensive, and we've been tasked with figuring out how to make production cheaper.
"I asked them to send some samples for testing. Of course, I was expecting a few test tubes, not the entire friggin' warehouse."
Piper silently giggled at the good doctor's sudden and unexpected outburst. Spying the clock on the wall, she saw that she was running rather late. "Oh, hell. I'm sorry to cut this short, but I need to run if I'm going to make my bus."
"Yes, I've been here long enough myself. Shall we?" Robert held open the door for Piper, gesturing with his other hand that she should exit first. Blushing shyly, she gave a quiet "Thanks," as she quickly stepped through.
The two wound up taking the same elevator down. Piper tried to avoid looking at Robert directly, but the mirror like surface of the elevator made that impossible, and she found her eyes drawn again and again to the good doctor's face. She was in the process of memorizing the lines of his chiselled jaw when she suddenly blurted out, "So, anything fun and exciting planned for the night?"
Piper's eyes bulged at her sudden outburst, and she mentally kicked herself for saying something so stupid. "Oh my God, I can't believe I just said that. Oh God, what if he thinks I'm coming on to him? Oh God, what if fraternization isn't allowed and I get fired!? Ohgodohgosohgod...!?"
However, if Robert thought there was anything unusual about her question, he gave no sign and calmly answered. "Nothing too exciting for me at home, I'm afraid. Just a good book, and a rather bloated and overgrown aloe vera plant. What about you?"
Piper blushed once more, and stammered. "Well, I'm..."
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