Thirty Nine Minutes (COMPLETE)

Chapter Nine: Preparations

Helen didn't see Craig for a few days after that. It was nothing personal: there was simply a tonne of paperwork to do, conferences to attend and endless meetings to sit through; meetings that could easily have been an email.

Craig had also been absent from the building, having been transported to the research wing for blood tests and regular check ups. Without him, the days felt a little gray and dull and had a tendency to blend into each other.

The meetings were all rather suspiciously themed: health and safety, working after office hours, guidelines with handling and interacting with Craig. It led to only one possible explanation: someone had seen her and Craig's private pool party.

This was further confirmed by a summoning to David's office and a thorough chewing out. The last time she looked up to meet David's gaze, his throat had gone almost entirely purple. He was doing an admirable job keeping himself relatively cool.

"Disciplinary action is only a formality. It was necessary to keep you on the staff and a compromise to placate the higher ups. I hope you understand."

"I do, sir."

"To be truthful, Craig's new willingness to be taken down the diving pool was the main reason you're still on the payroll."

Helen initially thought she had misheard. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I couldn't believe it either. Honestly, over a year of trying and you manage to get him to agree within your first month."

"Nothing to do with me, sir. I didn't even know he'd agreed to dive down."

"It's everything to do with you, Ms. Newman."

Truthfully, Helen was trying not to admit that Craig's attraction towards her was causing his sudden change in bravado. His trying to impress her was beginning to affect his judgement. "I know," she muttered, "you've noticed it too, right?"

"Well, he's not the most subtle of creatures. He'll be back later today for the dive. I expect you to be present."

*****

    Helen left David's office in a huff, and almost bashed into Neil walking in the other direction. Her shoulder bumped into his immaculate suit and his arms reached out to catch her clumsiness.

"Woah! You okay?" His soft and intoxicating cologne wafted up towards her nose and sent her knees half buckling. This kind of bumping into a beautiful man was straight out of some schmaltzy rom com and her heart both raced and was repelled by the thought. She pulled herself away and smoothed down the wrinkles in her skirt.

"I'm fine, really. Just HR management crap."

"Paperwork and all that? Yeah there's been loads recently. Anyway, Craig will be back soon."

"David just said."

"Yeah. Ummm." He fiddled with his cufflink, looking like a teenager wearing his first suit for prom. It didn't fit his usual confident cadence at all. "Did you hear he's going to make the dive today?"

She nodded. "I'll be there in the water, supervising."

Cool! I'll see you there. We'll be watching through the one way mirror. They finished installing it just yesterday."

The shrill tone of an internal call rang from Rebecca's desk, which she answered with the swiftness and practice that every receptionist should aspire to. "Yes, sir." And as she turned to Helen and Neil standing awkwardly together in the hallway, she grinned. "Up and at 'em, guys. We need to prepare the harness."

Craig was back, and with that thought, Helen's heart lurched at the thought of seeing him again. She hadn't regretted for one second their pool party the other night, and she hadn't had that much fun in a long time. It was soon swallowed by what had happened soon after, when Craig had forgotten himself. A cold fear shuddered down her back. Drowning was probably not high on her list of ways to die - and she did have a list that she'd fine tuned since she had been in her mid teens. Any kind of asphyxiation was way, way down near the bottom of it. She looked up at Neil's eyes as they smiled at her. "Big day, huh? For both you and Craig."

*****

"Helen!" Craig almost leapt from the gurney he was laid on. He almost sprung right off it had the quick thinking supervisor not grabbed his wrist. His face was filled with mirth and excitement, and a waterproof bandage was wrapped around his upper left arm. "You missed me, didn't you? Don't pretend like you didn't."

"Fine, I did miss you, but only when I realized how quiet it had been around here."

He grinned, and even chuckled a little. "We're doing it this afternoon, right?"

Helen watched his face as he was wheeled to his tank, looking for any kind of tell, a spark of fear or apprehension. She saw none. "Yeah. You feel ready?"

"More than ready!" He stretched out his arms and bumped his chest like a gorilla. "It'll be easy. A piece of pie."

She neglected to correct him, not having the heart.

"The pool will be ready in forty five minutes." David's ruthless professional voice cut through their moment. He strode up to the gurney and walked alongside it. Helen almost automatically fell back, David's presence was that overpowering. She watched Craig's face.

There. There was that flash of fear. Right on cue. Almost as quickly as it appeared, it got buried deep down. "I know." And he was wheeled into the meeting room.

"I don't mean to be upfront, sir, and Craig would never forgive me if he heard this, but he's more nervous than he's letting on. I'm a little concerned about his current behaviour."

"If he's willing, we should strike whilst the iron is hot. The heart is a powerful organ."

"Let's not keep bringing it up." The color of seafoam bled into her mind, of his toned body and boyish face. When she let her mind wander like this, the problem of being a different species to him became less and less of an issue to her.

"Regardless, this is big progress for him. His stubbornness almost seems a thing of the past."

Helen went into the changing room and went to her locker. "I hope you're right," she whispered to herself. She retrieved her wet suit.