ota {behind the mirror}

[holdsmyheart]

He's only meant to close his eyes for a minute, maybe five. But, he'd worked till well after sundown yesterday, then had come Donia Carruthers and her emergency stroke, which had seen him up all night long, getting the woman stable and trying to calm her distraught husband, and by then, adrenaline and coffee had rendered him unable to sleep, so back to his office he went.

And the agenda was full: a meeting with Rowan regarding the security issues involving the other Suits, the conversation with Mano about the h/vac system in the Castle as well as the planning and organization of a possible summer luau for the entire Deck, and countless other little details scrawled into his calendar. But somewhere around mid-morning, Theo's eyes just refused to stay open and he unconsciously leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, slipping into a doze before he realized it.

Just a minute. Just five minutes. That's all.

Comments

[holdsmyheart]

He heard her come in, but didn't open his eyes until she spoke, a belated, sleepy smile appearing.

"Nah, I'm good." Theo sat up, rubbed the bridge of his nose and put his glasses back on. "Didn't expect to be up all night, but I'll live. I'm a big boy and everything."

[gotyourheart]

"If you say so," comes the slightly dubious reply.

"We can try to keep this short; snag a few more minutes sleep before your next meeting. I imagine you're just as busy as I am."

[holdsmyheart]

"No, because rescheduling usually results in missed meetings." Or had in his experience. "Pull up a chair...from somewhere."

Thanks to Justin's efforts, Theo's office was quite haphazard, but the King regarded it as a work in progress.

"I'm sure you're aware of the situation happening in the other three Suits," the 'traitors', as it were, "and I'm wondering what the consensus is, regarding the situation."

[gotyourheart]

She nods, getting a chair after moving the pile of paperwork off of it.

"I believe the other Suits' Royals are... taking care of the ones in their Suit," she begins, "And while they don't seem to have had a connection in our own Suit, I feel it would be wise to keep an eye on any who arrived within the time period that the others did, just in case."

[holdsmyheart]

"As well as any who might have been suborned by the other three, as well," Theo agreed. While he hoped such wasn't a concern, one could never be too careful.

Tapping a pen against a notepad, he mused thoughtfully, "Wasn't the Diamond a fair hand with IT systems? Seems I heard that mentioned somewhere." Probably during a Thursday coffee meeting with Silas. Theo shrugged. "Anyway. If that's indeed the case, we might want to give our own networks a thorough going-over, just to be on the safe side."

[gotyourheart]

She nods, "I'll ask around, or get people to. See if there was anyone seen speaking to any of them very often.

Her lips thin at his statement about the IT Diamond, and she nods again, "I'll speak to our own IT people, see if there's anything." Hopefully not, but given what may have happened, it doesn't hurt to be careful.

[holdsmyheart]

Theo rummaged around on his desk, procuring the spreadsheets Rita had dropped off earlier. "Rita finished her assessment and dropped off the spreadsheets just this afternoon," he said, handing over the stack. "I've yet to give it a detailed look, but I'll have a copy made and sent to your office; we're going to have to find a few departments to make cuts."

He scrubbed a hand over his cheek. "What with the catastrophes already this year, they've hit the budget a tad harder than we realized." Not that he'd have made any decision differently--the welfare of his people came first, always--but it was time to go over things a bit more closely and make more contingency plans.

[gotyourheart]

She runs a hand through her hair, sighing heavily, "I'm sure we'll be able to figure some way to balance it out. Heating should at least cost less now that winter's over."