Righteous Indignation - RF! Welcome Home

Chapter 5 - Sunshine

The next morning, due to overworking yourself last night, you felt absolutely terrible. Nonetheless, you still had to do your job, and Wally had told you to go down to the break room and get him some coffee.

As you were working diligently, you noticed someone else in the room who had taken interest in you. With a sharp, sudden regret, the two of you made eye contact, which you looked away immediately.

"Sorry to bother you, but what's your name? You look real familiar." The person came up to you, talking in a sunny, friendly manner.

You told them your name, and they seemed to be in shock, in which they quickly responded.

"Oh, my gosh, you're Neighbor? You work with Darling? The Darling?"

"Yeah, that's me." You said nonchalantly, even though they seem pretty impressed.

"Oh, that takes some nerve. Kudos, man, I'd cry on the first day." They chuckled, and you were beginning to like this sunshine-y person.

"What's your name? I've told you mine,"
You asked, and they seemed to light up.

"I'm Sally, Sally Starlet. I run everything that goes on in Production." Their smile faded a bit into a vaguely disturbed look.
"There's a lot of things that goes on in Ptoduction."

"Whew, tell me about it," You responded.
"I originally signed up to work in Production. I got a degree for Spectra extraction, study, the like."

Sally looked at you like you were crazy.

"So you went after the most emotionally scarring job in this facility, and got the second most emotionally scarring?"

"He's really not that bad if you just do your job," You paused, and usually you would have stood by this statement, but memories of yesterday poked at you and taunted you. You reassured yourself that Wally was right, that you can't be soft. You slipped up on the job and that's what caused him to go off the rails at you. It's nothing personal, don't get upset. That's being soft.

"It's been nice talking to you, Sally, but I think need to get this coffee up to him now. Will I see you around in Production?"

"Oh, absolutely! See you around, Neighbor!"

Arriving at Wally's office, you handed him his coffee, which he traded you for some paperwork.

"The first seven need to go to Security, four under to the head of the lab, and then last two go to the Red Division instructor. Tell him that if he fucks up distilling the Spectra in that big of a scale again, he's going to be the next one distilled."

"On it, sir."

"By the way, Neighbor?"

You were halfway out of his office when he said that, and you stopped on a dime to turn around. He didn't look at you, which was surprising. He kind of stared forward looking a bit... off, maybe?

"Thanks for the coffee, you're a lifesaver."

You smiled, knowing the compliment was a underhanded apology for yesterday. He had a way of doing that, getting a point across through his tone and not his words. Over the years, you learned to pick up on it, and came to the conclusion that if he ever said what he meant then we were all fucked.

"You're just fine," You said, feeling a lot better about the whole situation. Now you can put it behind you. You'll be fine now.