The Facility

Chapter Five

Wednesday, October 4th, 2018
8:13 p.m. Fen-Rock Facility
Meredith Gray

Looking back at the man, she took her hand away "It's a pleasure to be here."

He smiled before turning to greet Adam with a similar interest.

Adam followed her same approach, "It's a pleasure to be here, neither Meredith or myself have had the chance to see Alaska before. It's something completely different."

The man nodded in agreement, "That she is." He clasped his hands behind his back, moving up the dock towards shore. "Unfortunately Fen-Rock doesn't hold the same natural beauty. Though I'm sure you'll find it beautiful in its own way."

Meredith smiled tightly. "Agent Weiler and I are looking forward to learning more about Fen-Rock, I'm afraid we know very little."

He chuckled softly, his laugh catching in the wind. "The government has its secrets, Ms. Gray." He turned to her as they walked, gently touching her upper arm. "I suppose I never introduced myself. Jasper Keenley, Assistant Director here at Fen-Rock."

The polite smile was lost on Meredith's face when her heel wedged itself between the gap in the wood of the dock. She stumbled to the ground with a small yelp. Her suitcase tipping towards the edge of the dock, with fast hands Adam grabbed it before it fell prey to the icy waters below. Her knees collided with the frozen wood as she landed with a rough "uff".

She knelt there for a moment, the embarrassment of it all running its course. Her heel was half off and still stuck on the groove between the boards off the dock.

Adam kneeled down beside her, one hand holding her suitcase, the other resting on her shoulder. She nodded her head stiffly, an unsaid response to his unsaid question. Adam surprised her by tugging her heel out and shimming it back onto her foot.

Grabbing his forearm, she hauled herself up and onto two feet. Shaking the crunched snow off her knees, Meredith slung her bag on her shoulder and reached for the handle of her suitcase in Adam's grip.

She smiled gratefully up at him.

"Why Ms. Gray, that was quite a tumble. If we had known, we would have told you that heels and Alaska just don't work." Redd grinned callously behind her, clearly finding amusement in her misfortunes.

"Well if you were a woman, I wouldn't need to explain the importance of image in this field." The bite in her voice was apparent and angry. Adam shifted to a short distance away. "And please, no Grey's Anatomy comments. Gray isn't even spelled the same way."

She turned to look at Fen-Rock off in the distance, before looking back at the pompous assholes behind her. "Please after you." She stuck out her arm, gesturing for Redd to lead his pack of wolves.

Redd just smiled tightly, curtly nodded his head before moving around her and walking away.

Adam looked her way, hiding his grin behind tight lips. Meredith's face was void of emotion, the only hint of her rage was seen in her pursed lips and squared shoulders.

Meredith's heels couldn't be heard over the waves crashing and the wind tousling her perfect hair. But if they could, they would sound like the soft tap of a man's dress shoes as she walked on balls of her feet. Even as her foot started to cramp from the long walk, Meredith was all about representation; her image, her character meant everything to her. And she was trying to salvage herself from whatever low, shitty pit Redd Burken shoved her into.

Meredith paused when she reached the gravel path that led the rest of the way to Fen-Rock's front doors. Her feet twitching inside their fashionable prisons.