Alex really isn't surprised that things imploded this early. If anything, he's surprised it took this long to implode. He can't say he's heard the whole story, but he knows Miles did something stupid and now everyone is freaking out about it, both magic and Muggle. He's even heard rumors that they might shut down the Initiative entirely as a failed experiment.

If he's honest, Alex probably wouldn't mind all that much if things did end up going that way - he can still cash in with his brother and also not have to deal with this bull facade any longer.

He says as much to Edward at lunch the week after it all goes down, and his Hunter friend laughs openly.

"So are you more surprised by the magical screwup or the Muggle response?" He asks, and Alex shrugs.

"The screwup. Specifically, how long it took - the Muggles were always going to wise up." He declares sagely. He's officially used to lunches with Edward, and honestly he thinks they're the one worthwhile thing to have come out of this entire experiment. Edward is willing to actually listen to him without the patronizing crap most people pull (and if he hears Kylee ask him "well why do you feel that's what we're doing?" one more time he's going to punch her - he doesn't need a ing therapist, he needs her to get the over herself).

Edward hums thoughtfully. "Well one thing I can give the magical world is that it's hidden itself successfully for a while. Perhaps it isn't so surprising that they continued that success for a few more months."

Alex grumbles. "I suppose." He mutters - Edward does have a point with that. "Well, it's probably over now anyway - the Minister had a meeting with the other Ministers about the Initiative yesterday and the fact we didn't hear anything on that first thing this morning isn't a great sign in my opinion."

Edward hums. "I wouldn't be so sure - coordinating that many people is complicated - there may just be some paperwork and logistics that had to be finished before any final say could be given."

Alex pouts at him pointedly. "Let me dream for five minutes please Ed." He sighs, and Edward grins wryly.

"Apologies, I thought you appreciated my honesty. I find being disappointed by reality is never enjoyable - always best to keep your expectations low so you can be pleasantly surprised."

Alex's pout twists into his own tired grin. "Fair enough." He agrees. And that's another reason he likes Edward - the man really does exist on the same wavelength as Alex. There are never any attempts to coddle or lie to him about a reality that he can plainly see is ed up and broken. How Edward is the only person who actually gets that just goes to further show how arrogant magical people really are. Even Desmond and Aruna, who are both Muggles, are no better than the rest of the Initiative members.

Desmond, as Alex has recently learned, has two magical brothers, so he's obviously been indoctrinated into the world already, and Aruna is always locked up in her office so even if she understands how stupid all this is, she's not exactly any help.

"You're right though, I should keep my expectations in check." He knows all too well the vicious stab of disappointment, has felt it time and again (thanks, family), so he really ought to know better by now.

The rest of lunch is as enjoyable as it ever is, and they move away from talking about the Initiative and instead discuss how magic used to be kept secret - Alex wants to defend his position that the magical folk could easily have screwed up sooner than they did, thereby legitimizing his surprise at how long they held up a semblance of decency.

"I mean, there's an entire division of the Ministry dedicated to memory erasure and changes - that wouldn't exist if they were actually any good at hiding themselves!" He points out. "And besides, the fact there have been conspiracy blogs about magic for the past decade says to me that there have definitely been other sightings that weren't successfully covered up. A whole department dedicated to it and they still didn't catch everyone."

Edward hums neutrally. "Well, perhaps this clashing of worlds was inevitable then." He allows, and Alex grins triumphantly. "Though speaking of conspiracy blogs, there's a popular theory spinning through them recently that magical people are descended from aliens."

Alex snorts. "Yeah right, I doubt it."

Edward tilts his head. "Oh? No immediate denial?" He prompts, and Alex shrugs indifferently.

"I mean, we don't really know why some people have magic and some don't. Heck, it might not even be biological like most people think - I have an identical twin who's got magic, so." He shrugs again, hating that the admission feels painful, when really it should just be a flat, pointless fact at this point in his life. "Anyway, why do you even know that? I wouldn't peg you for a conspiracy theorist."

Edward actually smiles at that, without his usual wryness or dryness, or sarcasm, and it's kind of a weird expression on him. "Not me, but a work friend finds them absolutely fascinating. Says they're interesting looks into the minds of the truly mad." He shakes his head. "I don't understand the interest myself, but he does always have rather fascinating stories in the break room."

Alex shrugs, not really sure what to do with that. Of course, it's not strange that Edward has other friends - it would be stranger if he didn't. But somehow the mention of his life outside the Initiative is a bit startling to Alex. Edward feels so much like his one safe harbor in the offices, that it's hard to separate him from their shared work environment.

"Your friends are weird." He finally says, figuring that's a safe comment to make.

Edward shrugs. "I won't disagree with you there." He says simply.

Lunch wraps up shortly after that, and Edward insists on paying like he always does. Alex has stopped trying to contest it - he is pretty broke at the moment, and with no idea how long this job will actually last saving up isn't the worst idea in the world.

When they step off the lift into the Initiative offices, Alex immediately notices that it's weirdly quiet. Even when half the Initiative are out, it's never this dead on the floor - someone is always chatting about something, so the tense silence is unnerving, to say the least.

He figures out what the issue it rather quickly though - the leaders are standing in the middle of the room, and everyone is gathered around them.

"Guess you'll find out about your job stability now." Edward observes lowly, and Alex smiles slightly as the man heads over to where the Hunters are politely pretending to not be eavesdropping on the meeting.

"Alex good, that's everyone." Mrs. Morgan says briskly as he approaches the group. "Alright, so I know a lot of you are worried about the future of the Initiative after the slight setback we experienced last week."

Alex scans the group for reactions, wondering how many of them even realized there was a possible problem - the blind optimism that's prevalent in his coworkers is nauseating in it's naïveté. Impressively, they all look somber rather than surprised, though he may have missed an earlier announcement since he was the last to return from lunch. He certainly wouldn't rule out them having started without him, only to realize he wasn't actually there.

"At the moment our allies are remaining supportive of both us and their own Initiatives, though things may change if the overall public reaction turns to something more negative." Mrs. Morgan reports. "I know this isn't the concrete answer you were hoping for today, but we're requesting that you all continue your jobs as if the Initiative will still be ongoing for the rest of its tenure. And to be clear, it most likely will be - unless something goes catastrophically wrong in the next five days. So we expect only the best behavior from all of you. That is all, thank you."

Weasley just nods before heading for the lift - Great leadering, Alex thinks at her sourly - and the rest of the group disperse back to their desks.

"Oh good, so that was pointless." Alex grumbles to himself, starting to turn towards his own workspace before he's stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

Alex would deny it if asked, but he jumps at the contact. "You're still with me this afternoon?" Fergus asks, amiable as ever, and Alex rolls his eyes. It's not a question after all - he has nothing else he's allowed to do this afternoon.

"Yeah, whatever." He grumbles, and Fergus pats his shoulder again before stepping past him to lead the way to the meeting room. Condescending prick. Everyone is always going on about how nice and thoughtful Fergus is, but Alex doesn't trust it. No one is that nice without a reason, especially considering he doesn't get anything in return for his trouble.

Alex steps into the meeting room grouchily, hoping against hope that the Floo Network Authority head Channer Lindberg will actually show up on time today - he's usually very precise, but for some reason he's always late to meetings if they're immediately after lunchtime. He said something the first time it happened about his sister, but Alex wasn't really listening, and only cares at all because so long as Lindberg isn't present, he's alone with Fergus. And that means Fergus is going to try and have a heart to heart with him, and Alex isn't about that noise. Not with thirty-somethings he barely knows, anyway. He might tolerate it from his friends.

"So have you thought any more about what you want to specialize in?" Fergus asks after a few moments have passed, and Alex huffs out a breath.

"No." He says flatly, as if short answers have ever made Fergus give up on having a chat.

Sure enough the man hums. "Well, it's already November - much as we enjoy your input, I get the sense you aren't thrilled about not having your own project to work on."

Alex rolls his eyes. How Fergus makes the phrase 'much as we enjoy your input' not sound sarcastic just confirms that he's disgustingly naive and/or up to something. "I don't need my own project." He grumbles. "I'm just sick of yours."

Fergus smiles magnanimously. "Well, that's a bit of a problem then. You are being paid to be here you know Alex, and I will say that despite everything, you don't strike me as someone who enjoys handouts or freeloading." He looks amused at the glare Alex shoots him. "Just a thought."

Alex doesn't have a chance to tell him where to shove his thoughts when Lindberg arrives, apologizing and tossing his briefcase onto the table, immediately launching out of his "sorry" and straight into magical mumbo-jumbo about the Floo system and resetting it to try and expand the connection, blah blah blah. Alex slumps into his chair and zones out.

It's not the best afternoon, but at least it's predictable. And hopefully it will be his last one.

Kylee can admit she's been sort of stressed about Miles and Desmond and the bar fight and the future of the Initiative ever since she heard about what happened. But she's kept herself busy the past week, refusing to linger on it lest she drop into panic territory.

Today the distracting is a lot easier - she has another meeting with Dr. Caldwell and it's exactly as enjoyable as the first one. Getting to actually talk about her medical interests with someone who at least vaguely understands is a major mood lifter.

"We're trying to work out a partnership with The Royal London Hospital of Integrated Medicine." Caldwell tells her as they settle into their seats for the meeting. "I managed to put together a team focused on the biological study of Muggles and magical folk, but we're having some difficulty actually getting people trained in Muggle biology to sign up. For now the team is mostly studying  medical textbooks, but charts, graphs, and figure drawings only go so far. If the Initiative does go belly-up this week, you wouldn't happen to be interested signing on with us as a consultant for that?"

Kylee's eyes widen. "Um, yes? Absolutely?" She replies immediately, then immediately is embarrassed by how utterly unprofessional the response was. "I mean, hopefully it doesn't come to that, though." She adds quickly. "I think that partnership is a great idea - maybe we can figure something out with the Ministry to streamline the process?"

Caldwell hums. "I actually already talked to a friend of mine who works under the Wizengamot - she's co-head of the Secretarial force, so if anyone can find something it's her."

"Well that's good then." Kylee agrees, privately a little stung that Caldwell had superceded her like that but also understanding that it was probably easy to bring up with her friend, and Caldwell is definitely the type to dive into something and complete every aspect of it possible before taking a break. Even if that means circumventing someone who really should be kept in the know.

Maybe Caldwell doesn't actually trust her that much? But no, Kylee had promised herself when she came back to England that she would stop assuming she knows how people feel about her. Caldwell is just highly driven, nothing more, nothing less. And she'd just asked Kylee to be a consultant, so obviously she does value Kylee's skills and input.

Caldwell either doesn't notice her momentary distraction or doesn't comment on it, as she starts talking again halfway through Kylee's internal monologue. "So we're going to have to wait on that for at least a week. In the meantime, I thought today we could put together a proposal to give to the Hospital's board of directors so that we're ready to go as soon as Claire gets the meeting set up. I've got a lot of ideas, but I'm not really big on the presenting part - my team usually covers that. Heck, the only presentation I ever gave was to implement the IVs in Mungo's, and things were too chaotic then for anyone to really say no to that."

Kylee blinks. "You're the one who brought IVs into St. Mungo's?" She asks, a bit dumbly. She knew about them of course - she'd begged Baylee for information about the magical hospital when they were younger and Kylee was still trying to pretend that not having magic didn't hurt. "I always thought that was a really cool idea."

Caldwell puffs up slightly. "Well, the overall idea of using Muggle technology was originated by a whole team, but I'm the one who got it approved." She confirms. "Well, mostly because the rest of the team originally on it was dead at that point, but it does still count."

Kylee blinks slowly, unsure of how to reply to that particular comment. Caldwell smiles at her silence.

"Sorry. Nearly thirty years in healing and surviving a war makes me kind of numb to death. Not sure what that says about me, exactly, but what can you do. Anyway, we had the same magical interference issues in our initial setups that Audrey said you all had with the laptops, so that might be interesting to look at as well, though probably not from a medical perspective."

"Well, if we wanted to bring in CAT scans or something it would." Kylee points out, relieved that they aren't going to continue talking about dead people. "Though that would probably be fascinating to look at for engineers from both worlds."

"Remind me what the heck a CAT scan is? I always just think of my cat at home looking for mice in the front yard when I hear that."

Kylee laughs, and lets herself get lost in the conversation, explaining Muggle medical concepts that Caldwell is unaware of, and in turn asking after certain healing practices that would be considered, well, magic to the Muggle medical community.

"So potions don't work the same way on Muggles versus magical people?" She asks incredulously about an hour into the meeting. "So that would confirm biological differences, right?"

They've successfully gotten on-track with their meeting, and are discussing the main goal they'd set for the year: getting the Cure for the Common Cold onto Muggle pharmacy shelves in time for the holidays. Kylee thinks it's not only a great idea, it also would go a long way towards smoothing hostilities on the Muggle end of things, especially if they can make the potion affordable.

"You would think, but we don't know how magic usage impacts biology, or if it does at all. It could be a radiation effect situation." Caldwell points out, tapping her pointer fingers together. "Considering your situation, I'd put money that magical affinity isn't just biological, at least."

Kylee hums. She'd told Caldwell about Baylee when they'd been talking about why Kylee became interested in magical biology in their last meeting, and Kylee isn't sure how she feels about Caldwell bringing it up so casually. She should be fine with it of course - she'd shared the information willingly, and it's not like it should still matter to her. And yet it's still frustrating sometimes to remember her twin has an entire life Kylee never had access to, and Caldwell mentioning it like it's nothing more than a data point stings more than Kylee would care to admit.

But she shakes it off - she needs to be professional if she wants the offer to consult to remain open. "That's a good point. Is there any way to measure that though? Magical 'radiation' effects?"

Caldwell snorts. "Considering I made up that term just now, nope." She grins. "But I can get my people started on it. We can probably borrow some of the magical ambience stuff the engineers had to work around for the Internet. Oh, and I could ask Percy if his dad remembers how he got that car to fly - that might help too..." She seems to be talking more to herself than Kylee now, and Kylee stays quiet. Caldwell sometimes falls into her own thoughts when she thinks she's on to something useful, and Kylee has learned to let the thought process play itself out without interruption.

So they sit in silence for a few minutes, and Kylee ends up flipping through some of the files Caldwell had brought that had been forgotten in the initial rush of medical chatter and general excitement to meet. It's mostly on things they've already talked about - the partnership with the good Royal London Hospital, personnel requests - though there is also a tentative expense report on what an increase on the mass production of Pepperup Potions might look like, which is definitely interesting. Kylee will have to ask if she can get a copy of this for her next meeting with Fleur - the older woman would probably find the information useful.

Caldwell unfortunately doesn't get to finish her thought chain, as a knock on the door startles both women out of their work. Tristan Morgan pokes his head through, at least having the decency to look apologetic as he does so.

"Sorry to interrupt Kylee, Healer Caldwell, but the Initiative are being called in for a full meeting with you bosses. Mom says they need everyone in the main room now." He ducks back out once Kylee has nodded in understanding and assured him she'll be out shortly.

"I guess that's the end of today's meeting. I'll send an owl when I hear back from my contacts to set up the next one." From anyone else that would be phrased as an offer, but it's a statement of fact from Caldwell, and Kylee agrees politely even as a pit in her stomach begins growing.

A full team meeting like this can only mean one thing - they know now what the long-term for the Initiative will look like in the wake of the disaster from a week ago (two weeks ago? It's closer to two weeks at this point, though it still feels uncomfortably recent), and Kylee is worried it might not be good news.

Of course, that's mostly her nerves talking - in general things seem to be trending well for them, so the Initiative most likely is continuing, just with new branding and probably an extra warning to be careful. But her anxiety doesn't care about logic at the moment, so the pit in her stomach remain steadfastly present.

The office has been hastily rearranged to look like it did on their very first day in September, with chairs pulled into a semi-circle around the leaders, who are standing in front of their office. The one major difference is that the Minister for Magic is standing with them.

It's the first time Kylee has really seen Minister Granger up close, and she isn't what Kylee was expecting. She'd always thought a Minister for Magic would be, well, magical looking, with a sweeping robe and shiny hair and a pointed hat - maybe some gray hair and glasses to show professionalism.

Honestly, she was mostly picturing the headmistress from a collection of children's picture books about Hogwarts she and Baylee had read when they were kids. Instead, Minister Granger has brown, curly hair barely contained in a low ponytail, a slight overbite, and robes that look like they were pressed at some point during the day, but have since been through hell and back, leaving them wrinkled and slightly crooked. Despite all this, the Minister has an air of intelligence and determination surrounding her that instantly tells Kylee this isn't a woman to be messed with.

She grabs the open seat closest to her, which happens to be next to Petra Clark. Kylee doesn't know the Social Media specialist all that well, but Petra seems nice enough. If this does turn out to be bad news, there are definitely worse people to be next to.

Tristan appears next to her, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. "Sorry for interrupting again. What were you guys talking about?" He seems like he's genuinely interested, but Kylee doubts an Auror would understand the intricacies of what she and Caldwell were discussing.

"Medical stuff." She replies, a bit awkwardly, and glances at the three women standing up front again. Now really isn't the time for small talk anyway.

In her periphery, she can see Tristan deflate and awkwardly shuffle away, presumable back to the Hunters, and she feels a bit bad, but considering he seems to flirt with Baylee every time her sister comes in for a consultation she doesn't feel as bad as she could. If Tristan wants to learn about Kylee's twin, he can talk to Baylee directly. Or maybe he's trying to make a good impression on the family before asking Baylee out? Kylee doesn't know him well enough to determine which it might be.

She's drawn back out of her thoughts by the Minister clearing .

"I won't keep you long." Minister Granger says, and her voice better matches Kylee's original mental image - commanding and no-nonsense. "I just want to confirm to you all that your jobs are safe. Our allies have confirmed they will not be disbanding their Initiative movements, nor withdrawing support from ours. All I, and they, ask is that you all be more careful from now on. Even if you aren't a public face, every one of you represents this attempt to integrate our two worlds, so we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I'll turn it over now to your leaders, who have more details on your new branding." She nods to Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Morgan before heading away to the lifts.

Mrs. Weasley steps up effortlessly to take her place. "As Minister Granger said, we're all clear to continue our work. However, this indicent has highlighted a few weaknesses in our outreach, and we're working on correcting those areas as quickly as possible. For now, you all are to promote the Initiative's new motto: that we're all humans. Right now Muggles see magical folk as a different species, and of course the Magical world only recently came out of our latest struggle fueled by the inverse assumption. The messaging went over relatively well on both sides, so we're sticking with it and planning to clean it up in the next month or so. And one final thing," She adds, her voice somehow becoming even more serious than it normally is, "If anyone screws up that badly again before the end of the year, we will be replacing you. We can't weather another storm like this one so soon." With that warning given, she nods to Mrs. Morgan, who proceeds to take over.

"First things first, our old marketing strategy isn't going to work anymore - Petra, we'd like to speak with you afterwards to discuss our options moving forward. Miles and Veena, your main focus in all future interviews, regardless of location or importance, is to relate to the interviewer and the audience. Share stories, whatever you can think of to humanize yourselves in their eyes. Heck, Miles make this past week one of yours - what man hasn't had a drunken night out on the town go wrong? Use that. You'll both also be more involved in the social media aspect from here on out - Veena, while we're with Petra, you teach Miles how the laptop works. Rose and Landon, you're to write up a report for both the Wizengamot and Parliament explaining the situation and how we're addressing it efficiently and effectively. I want that on my desk by the end of the work day tomorrow. Aruna, some of the Hunters have been looking into documentation from before the official divide between our worlds - see if they've found anything of use next time you meet with them."

Mrs. Morgan pauses for breath, and Kylee takes one of her own. Up to this point the leaders have been generally lax, letting them organize and conduct themselves and their roles as they see fit. Obviously this is going to mark the beginning of a lot more direct oversight. Which is fair enough.

"For our specialists, see if you can discuss ideas for how to promote the new messaging in your meetings - we'll have to likely slow things down drastically for at least the next few months as everyone settles back down, so generally lean back into planning and less into doing."

Kylee sees Fergus frowning, and knows he and the Transportation consultant were rather far along in their work. A thought strikes her then, and she raises her hand, a bit hesitantly, and swallows when Mrs. Weasley's eyes zero in on her and the slight woman taps Mrs. Morgan's shoulder to get her attention.

"Yes Kylee?" Mrs. Weasley prompts.

"Um, maybe we could implement a system where we write up any new proposals we're working on with our consultants for you, so you can decide how much effort we should put towards each idea? That way we speed up projects that will help with the integration and slow down ones that might be less immediately necessary?" She's thinking of the Pepperup production as she speaks - if the bosses get involved in that, they might not need to wait for Caldwell's contact to find time to pursue things.

Mrs. Weasley is smiling slightly. "I think that's an excellent idea. Did everyone hear Kylee's proposal?" A few people sitting on the opposite side of the room shake their heads, and that makes sense - Kylee wasn't trying to be heard by anyone but the leaders.

So she clears and says it again, louder this time, blushing slightly.

Mrs. Weasley nods. "Well specialists, I think that will work as your job for the rest of the afternoon - put together any proposals you currently have for us to review in the next few days, and see if you can create a standardized format for those. Dismissed."

Kylee breaths out slowly, and turns to find the other three specialists. That honestly went about as well as it could have, and she has a newfound determination now to make sure this Initiative works.

It's been the longest week of work since Petra started the Initiative, but she's actually feeling a lot better now than she had prior to the incident. Since Miles is grounded and both he and Veena are being trained to handle Social Media as well as the standard Media, Petra has gotten to focus more on her actual interests - marketing.

Of course, that doesn't mean work is any easier - in fact, her social battery has never been as dangerously low as it's become in only the past few days. She may love marketing - has ever since she went to university for it (and good thing too - the process of getting her GED and getting into university in the first place had been a nightmare) - but it involves a lot of talking to people, coordinating meetings, and running discussions, and by week's end Petra is at the end of her rope and looking forward to her weekend off. Normally she'd be feeling vaguely embarrassed about having two days off compared to the rest of the team's one day break, but right now she needs the recharge time.

She's just off a conference call with several members of the Prime Minister's PR team and checking how much longer it is until five o'clock when Miles drapes himself over her shoulders like he never learned what personal space was. Which, based on his... Miles-ness, he probably didn't, to be fair.

Still, she has trouble keeping up with Miles on a normal day, nonetheless now when she's tired and stressed and very much not socially charged enough to deal with any sort of person, least of all a hyperactive extrovert. And Miles isn't just a hyperactive extrovert - he's a hyperactive extrovert desperately seeking an affirmation of self due to insecurities dredged up by the disaster he started with his hare-brained bar hopping idea. Honestly Petra has been on her last leg with him for the better part of the past two weeks, but right new she just really does not have the patience for this.

She takes a slow breath and twists to shove Miles of of her. "Space, Miles." She says, tense but still trying to be nice. Miles' ego and emotional state is pretty fragile at the moment, and even when he's annoying, it's weird when he isn't happy. Petra isn't sure if this or mopey Miles would be worse right now, so she's going to try and err on the side of caution and not ruin his already fractured cheer. "I'm actually pretty busy right now, so is this important?"

Miles pouts, but it's not mopey-Miles pouting so she's still safe. "I'm bored - can't I hang out here with you? I can help with social media comments!"

"I'm not doing social media right now Miles, that's on you and Veena today, remember?" She points out, clenching her teeth slightly in a continued attempt to maintain decorum. Where is Veena? Normally she deals with Miles so Petra doesn't have to.

A glance around the room shows Veena's desk is empty, so she must be doing something else right now. Which explains Miles' boredom.

"Okay what are you doing? Can I help?" He persists, still honestly too close for comfort, especially when she's strung out already.

"No, Miles. Space." She repeats, not trusting herself to say more than that without snapping. She really just wants her coworker to leave her alone so she can finish her paperwork, file it away, and take her damn weekend off. Miles, of course, fails to pick up on any of that and keeps up his pestering with his usual obliviousness.

"Aw come on, I bet it's not too hard! I picked up the laptop really fast!" He boasts, and something in Petra snaps.

"Oh yes, because learning to hit keys is comparable to skills I had to go to university to aquire! I get that you're sad and bored and an extrovert Miles, but I've said twice now to leave me alone! The fact you can't understand those simple instructions says to me there's no way you have the metal capacity to understand the intricacies of marketing!" She's started yelling at some point in her rant, and Miles is officially looking like a kicked puppy, but she just doesn't have the energy to feel bad if it means he'll leave.

"I, um..." He glance around uncertainly. "I don't think you actually said for me to leave though-"

"SPACE Miles. I'd like some!" She's definitely yelling now, and getting a lot of concerned looks from around the room, but her rage is still outweighing her anxiety at the moment - she'll stress about this when she's safe at home and ready to unwind. But now? Now she just wants Miles gone, and if this will do it then she'll gladly keep shouting at him.

She doesn't end up needing to, as Miles slinks away without another word, but now she's acutely aware that half the office is staring at her, and she flushes and sinks back down into her chair, glaring at her phone until she hears the office start moving again. She really can't wait to go home.

Then she hears footsteps approaching her desk again, and she prays whoever it is will just walk past, but to her annoyance they stop beside her instead.

"Look, I don't care what you think you have to say, I'm really not in the mood." She grumbles, still staring resolutely at her phone.

"Oh, um, sorry." At the apology, Petra's head flies up, already open to apologize herself for snapping, but Noah is already backing away towards the Hunters. "I just wanted to see if you were okay - I'll leave you alone."

Petra groans once he's left again and slumps further into her chair. Great, now everyone thinks she's crazy and the cute boy she's been maybe kind of flirting with doesn't like her anymore. Excellent, a great day's work.

She glares at the clock in hopes she'll somehow make time move faster. She needs this day to be over twenty minutes ago.

Back at his desk, Miles is in full mope mode, slumped over and whining pitifully when Veena returns from her lunch with Cat.

Or at least he thinks she does - Miles can't see her return, but he feels her chair shift and hears it scratch across the floor closer to him. "Petra hates me." He tells her pitifully. He really doesn't know what he'd done wrong to make the girl so upset - he didn't act any differently than he normally does, and Petra has never gotten that angry before.

As he still hasn't look up at this point, he's surprised when a distinctively not-Veena voice emanates from the chair next to him.

"I think she's just stressed - give her some space."

Miles looks up in confusion and finds that Noah Thompson is perched next to him in Veena's chair, his eyes directed towards Petra. "She told me to leave too." He adds. "So yeah, I think she's just stressed. It's been a really long week for everyone."

Miles shrinks down guiltily again, his surprise quickly replaced with shame. "Oh." It was his fault then. This week has been hard because he messed up, and now Petra hates him.

"Pup, out of my chair. Miles, what's wrong?" That one is Veena's voice, and Miles tilts his head slightly so he can look at her sadly. "Don't just stare at me, that's not going to help anything." She adds with a pointed frown, and Miles peels himself back off the desk and flops in his chair.

"I ruined everything and now Petra hates me." He informs Veena mournfully, and she sighs, sitting down in her vacated chair as Noah hops up onto her desk. "She doesn't hate you, she's just stressed. Pup, can we help you?" She adds when she notices Noah's new positioning.

"I wanted to see if you guys had any ideas on how to help her." He admits. "It seeing her so strung out, but I'm not sure what I can do, or if it would be appreciated right now."

Veena sighs. "I can't even be annoyed by that, I'd feel the same if it was Cat. Alright, since you two seem clueless I'll help out. Miles, why don't you offer to put up sound muffling charms around her workspace for the rest of the day? That way she can focus without being bothered by our coworkers. Pup she has a massive crush on you, you're fine."

Noah turns bright red as Miles perks up. Of course! Everyone likes being helped, so if he helps Petra she'll stop hating him! "An elegant solution from an elegant woman." He declares, practically leaping from his chair and bowing gallantly to Veena. "Thanks!"

She just grins tiredly. "Go offer, and use your inside voice. Oh, and make sure she hears you coming - don't startle her or touch her at all."

Miles nods, twisting his expression into the 'serious face' he's been practicing for the press conferences and turning back towards Petra. He makes sure to walk loudly and stops about two feet away, clearing his throat so Petra knows he's there.

She turns, and the glare she gives him nearly has him running back to Veena, but he steels himself and holds up his wand uncertainly.

"Um, I was wondering, if you'd like, I mean, I could put up muffling charms here? So that people know not to bother you and you don't have to hear everyone rushing around?" He blurts out.

At least Petra isn't glaring anymore - now she looks a bit confused as she mentally sorts through his offer. Finally she gives a slow, hesitant nod.

"Sure that... sounds nice. Thanks." She says, and Miles absolutely beams.

Once he's set up the charms he practically floats back over to Veena, who's now alone at their desks and pulling up the Initiative's Facebook page.

"That felt great!" He declares happily. "I should do that more! Who else can I help today? I want to make up for everything!"

Veena gives him a wan smile. "Right now, I could use your help." She instructs, and he deflates slightly since reading more mean comments isn't exactly what he was hoping for.

He'll think about it tonight some, and tomorrow he'll start Operation: Help Everyone and Make Up for Last Week so They All Like Me Again. Title to be changed, most likely.

In a week's time, no one will be mad at him any more for sure!

Author's Note: Oh Miles. So optimistic. And yeah, that pretty much wraps up this first little bump! Some things have changed, some more things have been set up, but overall everyone got through really without a scratch. Next week we're actually back to more light-hearted material (well, kind of. Light-hearted for the POVs, anyway), though who knows how long that will last - a storm is brewing, and this was only a sprinkle compared to it >:)