Empire Records and Bidet [4/9]

[not_entirely]

Lucas opened up Empire on Sunday. He was pretty thoroughly unhappy with this fact, as he'd gotten used to having Sundays off.

He was also getting very worried about Nadia, since she hadn't contacted him yet since leaving her letter of resignation.

He'd left her another voicemail, and was sincerly hoping she would come back to work.

Today's music: Depeche Mode.

Comments

[the4thsister.livejournal.com]

((You can't have DM day when I've been out the whole time *weeps*))

[nadiathesaint]

After her talk with Pip, and moving the guitar back into her room, Nadia checked her voicemail again.

And, finally, went back to Empire Records and Bidet.

She winced a bit, coming through the door. She didn't think she'd ever see this place the same way again.

[not_entirely]

Lucas had had his head down on the sales counter, watching his cellphone carefully, but he popped it up when he heard the door open.

Finally.

"Nadia! Are you okay?"

[nadiathesaint]

Damn, but she was getting really sick of that question.

"Not really." She walked up to the sales counter. "Can I ask you something?"

[not_entirely]

Lucas frowned, but nodded. "Of course."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia took a deep breath.

Lucas had had the Rambaldi symbol on his notes. He'd hired her when she came in to shoplift. It was about time she found out what all of that was about.

"What do you know about Milo Rambaldi?"

[not_entirely]

Huh. He wasn't sure what question he was expecting, but that wasn't it.

"Not a whole lot. I got a phone call shortly after I hired you, from someone who said he was your case worker. He asked a bunch of weird questions, then said something strange about Rambaldi, so I looked it up on the internet. He was some kind of medieval prophet or something, right?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Yeah, something like that. But you're not . . . a follower of Rambaldi, or anything?"

[not_entirely]

"I found one of his 'artifacts' for sale on eBay, but I didn't buy it or anything. I was trying to figure out what an Argentine orphan had to do with a medieval Italian, that's it." Lucas leaned forward. "What happened to you? Why are you resigning?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Yeah, I'm still trying to figure that out, myself."

Nadia avoided Lucas' questions for a moment, as she focused on something else he'd said. "Wait, 'he' mentioned Rambaldi? The person who called you was a man?"

[not_entirely]

"Yes, it was a man." Lucas leaned forward. "I can understand if you're uncomfortable here, after what happened on Saturday, but we can work through that--"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head, cutting Lucas off. "My case worker is a woman. Maria Vargas. There shouldn't have been any man calling you about me."

[not_entirely]

Lucas blinked.

He looked to one side.

He blinked again.

"Wait, what?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia's necklace started to whirr very faintly.

"The man who called, did he say his name? Was it Arvin Sloane?"

[not_entirely]

Lucas shook his head. "No, it was a Spanish name. Sanchez, or something."

Somewhere in Argentina, a woman placed a phone call. Two hours later, a man named Marcus Sanchez was grabbed off the street and thrown into a van, never to be seen again.

Of course, Nadia and Lucas had no way of knowing this. They hadn't even heard her necklace whirring.

"Is everything okay?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia clenched her teeth. "Madre del dios, what the hell is going on?!"

[not_entirely]

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "I was rather hoping you could tell me that. Does this have anything to do with the man who was here last weekend?"

[nadiathesaint]

"I have no idea. Maybe?" Nadia sighed and slumped slightly. "Things have gotten . . . very strange for me, recently. That's why I wrote you that letter."

[not_entirely]

Lucas nodded. This was a bit more the conversation he'd been expecting to have.

"That's fine, and if you need some time off to sort things out, that's also fine. But you don't need to quit."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia blinked at him. "Why are you so nice to me? I didn't come to work last week and I suddenly quit and the first time you met me I was shoplifting, and you keep giving me more chances."

[not_entirely]

Lucas smirked. "I'm the best boss, ever. Are you really complaining?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia looked down and rubbed her head. "Um, no?"

[not_entirely]

Lucas' smirk faded, and he stepped out from behind the sales desk to stand in front of her. "Nadia, listen to me." He put a finger under her chin and lifted her head until she was looking him in the eye.

"I've had my share of bad experiences. My mother abandoned me when I was ten, and for three years, I lived under the care of the local government, until someone came along, took me in, and gave me a job and a chance.

"You came in here, and my first instinct was to run you down and have you arrested. But then I saw that you were probably just another kid, thrown into a messed up situation like I was. So I decided to do the same thing for you that was done for me. I gave you a job and I gave you a chance."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia stared at Lucas for a moment, then jerked her head away.

"I've used up all my chances."

[not_entirely]

"What, by not opening the store one day? By taking only the money you were actually owed from the safe when you quit, and making sure you returned the key?"

Lucas smiled.

"Remind me, at some point, to tell you the story of how I nearly caused the destruction of the first Empire and the unemployment of all my friends by going to Atlantic City. I'd tell you now, but I think you'd probably rather go home and think some stuff over."

He leaned back against the sales desk.

"So, are you still going to be my employee, or do I need to find someone else to work Sundays?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia bit her lip. Marty had already left for who knew how long, and Paige could only work a few hours a week. That left Lucas here to man the store all alone.

She couldn't make him do that.

"No, I'll come back. Just. . . ." She looked around the store. "Can you fix the bullet holes, first? Because right now, this place is giving me the creeps."

[not_entirely]

Lucas looked around as well, and shuddered. "Yeah, me too. I'll be fixing those tomorrow, don't worry." He glanced out the front door, noting that the sun had gone down.

"I've had pretty much no one come into the store today," he said, reaching behind the counter for his helmet and jacket. He tossed the helmet to her. "I'll give you a lift back to the dorms, okay?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia caught the helmet. She thought about all the times Walter had lectured her on not walking around alone after dark.

She thought of Allie, lying in the clinic, because she had let her walk around alone after dark.

She held the helmet for a moment.

"Can I drive the bike?"

[not_entirely]

"Not a chance."

[nadiathesaint]

"It was worth a shot."

[not_entirely]

Lucas followed her out of the store, locking it up behind her and handing her a key. They climbed onto his bike, and just before he started the engine, he could be heard muttering something about uppidy teenagers.