Winter our discontent (RP)

"You could always wash dishes. Or stock shelves."
It was about time Sarah started taking responsibility for her life. Emma wasn’t going to solve every problem she had, even if she could. Sarah’s anxiety wasn’t something a little pep talk could fix. That kind of thing needed therapy. And time.

"I’m not saying it’ll be easy," she added, a bit softer this time "But you’re not going to get better just lying here either."

Sarah was curled up on the couch, face turned away, crying quietly on the couch. Emma didn't look. She hasn't looked in her direction for the last fifteen minutes. The apartment was too small to offer any real privacy to any of them, so the least she could do was give her some space. She didn’t feel good about how their conversation ended either. She had no intention of taking care of Sarah for the rest of her life, but forcing her to take steps to move out did sour her mood, especially after she'd seen how she took it.

She kept herself busy. A load of laundry already done, dinner nearly finished. When David finally walked through the door, she swiveled to look at him, brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and offered him a tight-lipped smile, then turned her attention back toward the cutting board.

"Hey," she said, and gestured at the table, averting her eyes from the couch, and her husband "Dinner’s ready. How was your day?"

Emma kissed David back, letting her hand rest at his side just for a moment before stepping back to turn the electric stove off. She wanted to enjoy the evening, to sit down and eat together like a normal couple in a normal apartment, but Sarah's quiet sobs from the couch were suffocating. She couldn't sit down and enjoy her meal while she was crying her heart out.

"I’m glad" she rubbed his arm when he told her about the vetting process "I hope it will all get sorted out quickly. You deserve that promotion"

She turned to the table, dinner plated and ready, but didn’t sit. Instead she glanced toward the couch, and sighed to herself:

"Sarah. Would you like to eat something? Come join us at the table?"

Persephone looked through her contacts and, sure enough, there it was. Hotline. She sighed and muttered, "Ah yes. Of course."

She shook her head in frustration, looked at Wentworth, and said, "What orientation? There was no orientation. That's a shite attempt at humor, Wentworth." Persephone had lived in London briefly before, in college, and had picked up a few Britishisms, like shite, loo, and so on, which were starting to return, though she did not always employ them perfectly.

When the conversation turned to Kat, Persephone eyed Wentworth, wondering if she was about to make a mistake. She shrugged internally and said Kat's full name, as well as what she knew of Kat's 'owner.' "Ring any bells?" she asked.

Persephone pays close attention to Wentworth, commenting along the way. "Oh, yes, Eliot," she says, when he mentions a missing vampire lord. She does this, of course, to throw him off; he would not expect her to know the vamp's name. But Emma and Benji discussed Eliot's disappearance and Persephone made the guess that they must be the same person. "And the demon who owns a bookshop on Bookseller's Row?" Again, Persephone only overheard Emma and Benji, but she is authentically curious if Benji's demon friend is an ally or enemy of her patron. Finally she nods in acceptance of his suggestion that she might look into this weekend affair.

When he turns to the matter of her job, her heart sinks--she'd somehow have to juggle this with her sister's day out. She did not expect this to end well, but she'd pulled off such antics before, she realized, as she recalls the time she brokered a funding deal for her startup at a cocktail party while also taking her one of her finals online on her phone.

Her target is Viviana Norwood, an Italian-British woman, about 30, who works in banking tech at HSBC. Her specialty is managing the tech systems that deliver trade information for stock brokers and investment bankers in real time, globally. She is queer, but keeps it secret, because her banking superiors are very conservative. She is single and lives in the City.

This will be Persephone's first recruitment from the get-go. She'd been a liaison and handler for those already in process. Harold Winters was her first "close."

Persephone will try to make first contact with Viviana while out shopping with Circe. She hopes that Circe's cluelessness will reinforce the "accidental" nature of the encounter. Which means, YES, Persephone will be involving her sister, if only as cover. She will not inform Circe of any of this, of course.

What Emma really wanted was a quiet moment alone with her husband. She kept the conversation light, asked about his day, and passed around the pasta she’d made, all the while staying gentle and polite with Sarah. All she was hoping for now was to get through dinner without another emotional breakdown, so they could retire to their bedroom as quickly as possible.

Persephone glances at her phone and sees that she must leave if she's to make it to meet Zhiyu on time. The guilt she still feels for assisting his brother's death, plus her general annoyance with Wentworth, are more than enough to overcome her curiosity about what else she might be able to pry out of the man.

She stands and says only, "Understood." She turns to walk out, wishing that her lack of courtesies when leaving would sting, but she doesn't think he is capable of feeling anymore.

Once out of there, she is able to breathe more freely. She checks the address and finds her way to meet Zhiyu.