"Interesting people." He meant her and not the other employees standing around but that was obvious right? He was making his winning smile at her, not them. He lifted his head from his crossed arms on the top of the cubicle wall in order to look at her better. Armen was never really nervous around girls but Gabi seemed to make him feel that way. With Izzy it was different but this was good--better, really. They were friends already but Recard didn't want to be just friends. No. Que the hand sweating.

"I was wondering if..." Don't back down you can do this! He looked down at her hands, her think, slinder fingers tracing the corners of her magazine. Her eyes looking at him, excitement written in their wake and her lips...

"...you need any envelopes, I just got some in the other day if you want some"

Crap. He blew it.

Gabi seemed to hold her breath as Armen started to ask her something...OHMIGOSH, could it be, was he about to ask her out, something she'd been fantasizing about for weeks now?? This was so exciting, she hoped she looked okay and she didn't have any mascara smudges or anything on her face, that would just ruin the perfection of this moment...

wait.

ENVELOPES?

HE CAME TO ASK HER ABOUT ENVELOPES???

A wave of emotions overcame Gabi. First, she was overcome with a strong desire to reach over the cubicle wall, grab Armen by the collar of his shirt and slam his head on the desk for getting her hopes up like that. Then, disappointment. She'd been sure they had a mutual liking for one another, they practically admitted it to one another! Maybe she'd been wrong, and had just conjured up the whole thing in her mind. Next, embarrassment, because she was sure she looked like a loon right now, and her disappointment was shining bright on her face, she was sure. Finally, panic because a good five seconds had passed now and she hadn't said anything, and she was making this whole situation much worse.

"Oh, um...sure, I could always use more envelopes," she said with a small chuckle, trying to make the mood lighter in the cubicle. Because this job just had her sending SO MANY important memos to people all the time. Pssh. She wished.

Armen had seriously blew it, big time.

He had chickened out when trying to ask her out because he second guessed if she had liked him that way too but now her reaction was pretty obvious. She probably hated him now. Recard bit his lip angrily as he cursed himself. Gabi nodded and agreed about the envelopes like a troop but he knew she was upset.

"No. No...I didn't want to ask you about evelopes." Although he did have them. Awkward. "Gabi I was just wondering, if you had time, we could go to dinner thursday? Like after work or I could pick you up?" Yeah a date, that's what she wanted right? Because he certainly wanted one.

Gabi was starting to get a headache from all these emotions she was feeling. A second after she'd felt embarrassed and anxious because she'd clearly jumped to conclusions, her hopes rose again...and finally, he asked her. He FINALLY asked her the question she'd been waiting to hear for what felt like FOREVER. Wow, she forgot how exciting it felt to be asked out on a date! She hadn't dated in...oh Merlin, a long time, she didn't even want to think about it.

She needed to think about the current situation!

She giggled like a little school girl and nodded her head. "Yes, I mean...of course! That works perfectly for me! We can meet up somewhere, I'll drop off Tucker at my mum's and then I'll be free right after work," she explained with a smile. She could have had Armen pick her up, but that would involve introducing him to Tucker and she wasn't sure Armen was ready for that JUST yet. Not that Tucker was some crazy demon child or anything but...she had a kid. That was a good chunk of baggage that she didn't want to throw at Armen right away. She wanted to take things slow, she wanted to make this relationship PERFECT.

Taking the lifts down to level 3, Natasha entered the work areas bright and early for a new day of work. Sipping on her travel mug of tea the blond woman sat down at her desk. Closing her eyes for a moment she soaked the quiet and peacefullness that always was present in the early morning hours before everyone bustled in making work noises.

Tasha liked the atmosphere of a busy open workplace where you had easy access to your co-workers if you need their help or counsel. But at times they could be right distracting. Opening her sea blue eyes she put down her tea mug and took the first pile of reports for the Games & Sports department. Grabbing her favourite quill she got to work. Later she'd need to go the pay the international cooperation level as well as MLE and the Ministers office visits to hand off reports, update herself on current plans for locations.

She knew that by the time she could get out of the office her tasks for the day most likely would have increased. Dropping a large pool of ink onto her report she grumbled out loud. "Perfect, just perfect."

Brad knew he was really early for a change but he'd woken up early that morning and just couldn't get himself to sleep again so instead he'd dragged himself from bed for work. Here he was now stepping into the almost empty office and made his way towards his desk and the stack of work he knew he had there, not to mention the still ongoing task that had been given to him a while ago that he was still mulling over. How to stop plants freezing over. Hm.

On his way however he stopped in front of Natasha's desk, someone he'd noticed from the distance, learnt her name but never spoken to. Why? he really did know, but now seeing her frustration and empty mug he stopped and said, "Would you like me to get you another cup of tea? you look like you need it" He gave her a small smile as he spoke.

It was an ordinary day and it certainly seemed like one. Angela walked into Level three with a smile on her face, eager to start working. Taking a cup of coffee, she took a seat at her cubic, sipping it. Not that she was a big fan of coffee or anything, it was useful in refreshing her for sure. Meaning, she wasn't much of a morning person!

Now what? It didn't look like she had much of a work today. It was all just the easy and basic stuff! So it seemed like she was gonna have an easy day there. The morning just got better!

Still sipping her coffee, Angela turned around and looked at others. And seemed like Natasha was grumbling for some reason. "Hey Natasha.. and Hi!" she greeted the other man standing near her, whose name she didn't know yet! She seriously needed to know her co workers a bit more! "Heavy wourk today, huh?"

Derek walked in the work area looking down at the floor and going straight to his desk. He glanced up and sorta kinda 'greeted' the people that were looking at him by simply raising his eyebrows, pursing his lips and looking away right after that.

Because it was a perfectly normal way to greet people, of course. Well, that was all he ever did and probably was going to keep doing until... ever.

The 24 year-old walked over to the red dividers with his hands on his pockets, and thinking about everything he figured out back at home. Yes, because that was what he did at home also. He continued with his work!

Once he got to his desk, he took out two small vials, one with some thick, beige substance and the other with a mustard coloured liquid. The former Gryffindor quickly took a piece of parchment from the top drawer of his desk and placed both vials over it. After that, he got a bigger parchment, an ink pot and a quill from the same drawer and started squibbling a couple of things.

Wonderful, just wonderful! Now she had to take a new parchment and redo the report which was almost finished before the drop happened. Judging the big pool of ink, Natasha grimaced in concentration as she pulled out her wand.’ Would a simple cleaning spell do more damage than good’ she contemplated silently.

The blond was just about to try her luck when a manly figure came over and blocked her light. Looking up she was close to muttering out something not very nice when she noticed who it was. Brad. Giving him a small smile in return "Good morning Brad, only if it’s not too much trouble then yes i'd love a new cup of tea."

"Sometimes I wish ink wasn’t so unpredictable." Tasha commented a little irritated as she eyed her ink pot.

Hearing Angela’s unmistakable voice Natasha turned to look over at her colleague a small smile pursing her lips. "Morning Angela,"

"Yes, heavy work day. Mine looked promising until my favourite ink bottle started to give me trouble." Tasha grumbled frustrated. What looked like a good morning could now turn into day where she became behind on everything and she highly disliked those days.

Pouting as her first attempts to clear away the pool of ink proved to be unfruitful, Natasha let her gaze drift over the cubicles; most were empty except, Derek. When had he walked in? She figured it had been when she had been focused on the important report for Games & sports. Waving at him she greeted. "Morning Derek." Eyeing the vials and papers on his desk she raised a brow and asked curiously "What are you working on?" Hopefully it wasn't something that would blow up the workplace with a bang.

And there came another guy. Today seemed to be the day when evryone arrived on time. That bode well! "Hey Derek!" Angela greeted the newcomer, fully expecting him to just purse his lips and walk away arrogantly as he did always. Why wouldn't he talk and mingle with others?


Arranging her desk, making it a bit neat, she piled up her files on top of one another. There, it looked better. Still sipping her coffee, Angela smiled, amused. "You know.. its pretty easy work for me today, it seems. Not much to do!" she chirped, "Want any help?" she offred, seeing Tasha so frustrated. "Getting frustrated so early isn't the best way to start a morning, you know?"

And what was up with the ink bottle? Hers seemed to be working fine. "Here.. take mine.." Yeah, she just had to read and browse files, so not required for now.

Another work day in Level three. "Morning Brad , Natasha, Derek, Angela" she waved as she walked into the room. Imogine set her purse down on her chair and went to a cup of coffee. Coffee normaly did not have a waking up affect on Imogine, she mostly drank it because she liked the taste.

There was not much assigned, so Imogine got to work re-arranging her binders and pappers at her desk, making it look nice and neat.

"How are you guys today?" she asked, setting a stack of parchement down and heading over to the group. "So, what are you working on?" she motioned to the two vials of liquid.

Derek was hoping no one would come and talk to him today. He even gave a small nod to those who verbally greeted him when he walked by and all, wasn't that enough, people??

Apparently not...

Imogine came in after him and also greeted him when she passed his cubicle. And both her and Natasha wanted to know what he was working on. There was a reeeason why they worked in cubicles, for Merlin's sake! People...

The 24 year-old stopped writing and glanced at them quickly before looking down again. "It's just something from that..." Food poisoning? "...stomach bug that had spread among the Ministry last week." The women didn't want to know that the thick substance in one of the vials was actually someone's vomit, right? Derek didn't think they would.

Yes, it wasn't really something so deadly important to their Department. It probably wasn't even going to be considered an 'accident' or a 'catastrophe', but well, it had infected a lot of people from what he had heard and no one was sure about what it was.

Plus, he was curious.

In fact... "Have any of you felt weird lately? Threw up? Drooled? Froze?" He inquired, finally looking at each of them. He hadn't heard of anyone from their department with those symptoms, but it didn't hurt to ask.

Bradley smiled down at Natasha as he picked up her mug, "Sure it's not a problem, I can see your stressed and what better way to help than a cup of tea?" He said turning to head to the machine to make another batch of tea. Yeah I know muggle way. As he turned on the machine and set about putting a tea bag into the mug in front of him when the office door opened up behind him and in spilled other workers, some of which he knew by face and some by name. One however called over a hello at him.

Smiling he waved his hand in the air and said loudly, "Morning! I'm alright, yourself?" before going back to his task. Once the tea was made, the mug steaming above, he slowly picked it up and brought it back to Natasha. "There you are" He said with a smile placing it beside her.

Looking down at her ruined piece of parchment he bit his bottom lip in thought, "I think you'll have to start anew, there's not chance getting that off," He told her, "Just be more careful" He added with a wink and turned to go to his desk.

"That's just vial, that makes me want to vomit" said Imogine. She hoped this was something for work and not a strange experiment he was doing for fun. "Nope, I haven't had any symptoms. she shook her head calmly. Are you testing them to see what kind of virus might be going around?"she asked.

"I'm quite well!" she replied.

Natasha took a deep breath and another one. There. Turning her gaze towards Angela she smiled "I’m glad one us has got an easy day ahead of them." She would be spending more time running around the levels then actually sitting at her desk which was never a good thing. Tasha envisioned the pile of memos and couldn’t help but pout slightly under her breath.

Want any help? Did Angela just say the three magical words which Tasha never ever thought someone would utter in this building. Trying to not sound too excited she chirped. "Yes, please. If you could be star and create some order in the chaos that is my desk then I’d be most grateful." Tasha’s desk was usually neat and tidy but today it just looked like a mess.

Accepting the ink bottle from Angela she murmured. "Thank you. Let me know when you need it back, okay?" Tasha didn’t want to enable her colleague to do her work only because she had an ink bottle who had seen its best days.

"Good morning Imogine." Tasha chimed as yet another A & C employee made her way into the work areas. This day it seemed like many of her colleagues had risen with the birds to get ahead in their work. If only Althea was there to see it for her own eyes. "I’m slightly frustrated, but good." Tasha stated with a gesture towards her ink bottle.

Turning her attention to Mr ‘talk less, work more’ Tasha wanted to roll her eyes at him. What was wrong with a polite morning greeting back? Derek was odd. She shrugged it off as he explained what he was working on. Those vials couldn’t be containing vomit could they? Shuddering at the thought she shook her head in response to his question. "I haven’t had any symptoms either but a woman I met in the food court yesterday she froze, drooled and vomited right there next to the buffet table." Poor Kensi, Tasha hoped the woman had recovered now.

When Brad arrived back at her desk with a fresh cup of tea she sniffed it delightfully. Drinking a few mouthfuls of it she looked up at him with a beam. "Thank you, chamomile is my favourite. Tea is calming." She mumbled as an afterthought. Looking down at her disastrous looking report Tasha heaved a small sigh. Crumbling the parchment together into a ball she threw it in the trash can. "That report was rubbish anyway." She admitted with a small laugh before picking up a new parchment.

Dipping her quill into the borrowed ink bottle Tasha eyed the parchment with determination and started to work on it for the second time that morning. Please no more ink stains, now?

Angela smiled and nodded as Imogine entered the office. And realized that she really didn't know her colleagues much. Well, she should change that situation now..

Then turning towards Derek, she pondered over his question. Sick? "Thank Merlins I haven't eaten from the ministry food court in recent times!" Angela remarked, in reply to his question. And probably was not gonna eat any time soon for now. Merlins knew what else sickness could one get.

Looking back at Natasha, Angela nodded and sighed. yeah.. she knew how some days were just.. kinda bad.. where nothing seemed to go right. And it was apparently Natasha's turn today. Putting away the file she was reading at the moment, Angela went over besides Natasha and piled up all the memos and files and papers into a big pile, clearing the clutter. Noticing the latest memo, she asked, "So.. you have any idea when this first aid course is gonna be held?" and pointed at the memo.

Derek knew comments like Imogine's were bound to be made if they found out it was vomit. And he did notice Natasha's weird reaction to his vials as well. Women... that was important working material right there. It could give him all sorts of answers! It was like they didn't even care... Eye roll.

None of them had had any of those symptoms then. That was good. Well, not exactly. It was good because they wouldn't have to deal with puking and drooling people around their working area, but Derek couldn't help thinking they would have been able to provide him with more um... data.

"Yes, I am." The former Gryffindor replied to Imogine before looking down at his parchment and going back to scribbling. Not necessarily virus, though. It could be anything. But he didn't feel the need to explain that to any of them. He was sure they already knew it.

The next thing Natasha said caught his attention, though. "Next to the buffet table." He repeated, looking up to face her. And Angela was glad she hadn't eaten there recently. Derek's glance traveled around his desk as his thoughts went elsewhere. He picture the whole food court in his mind and started making a sort of itinerary. The man was definitely going to show up at the food court that afternoon. "Do any of you know of any more people with these symptoms?" Could he meet them? Now?

Maine shuffled into the work areas, coffee flask in one hand and the Daily prophet in the other. Closed of course, she wasn't exactly stupid. But upon reaching, she realized that it wasn't as empty as it normally was when she arrived. Strange. Maybe she'd overslept again.

"Good morning, everyone!" she beamed, dropping her stuff off at her desk before making her way towards the crowd. And then noticed the huge blot on Natasha's paper.

"I hate it when that happens," she said, frowning. "I could help you rewrite some of those if you want. It looks pretty bad." It did, really. And Maine had finished work on her shipment of backfires, so she was pretty free today.

Brad smiled once Natasha seemed to calm down, he hated seeing people tense especially when they were trying to work on important reports which he no don't suspected it was. "It's quiet alright, we all have to stick together in this department" He told her. Bradley watched the women crush up the report and throw it into the bin, giving him a weak smile in the process.

"Well I think i'll let you get back to work, you seem to have your hands full" He told her with a sympathy look before he remembered how much work he needed to be doing. Without a moments thought he turned on his heel and made his way towards his desk where he eyed the reports stacking up.

Raising her quill as she heard Angela’s remark Tasha looked up eyes widening, feeling an uneasy feeling form in the pit of her stomach. Trying to catch Derek’s eye she asked worriedly "You don’t think it was the food in the food court that initiated the disease or whatever we are supposed to call it?" Gulp, gulp. But she hadn’t gotten sick yet so maybe what she had eaten had been safe to eat?

Tasha gave Angela some space as she swiftly re-organized her desk with a few direct actions. "Wow thanks, now it looks neat again." She commented with a smile. Eyeing the aid course memo Tasha shrugged "I don’t know actually but Althea will inform us when the time comes. She probably has to find someone to hold the course and clear it with some other departments." MLE was a good guess as well as the Ministers office.

"Don’t say it like that, please?" Tasha shuddered. "Now I’m going to have to avoid the food court until what is making people sick in weird ways has a name and cure, thanks Derek." She grumbled. The food in the food court was actually delicious and well worth eating. It really wasn’t Derek’s fault the disease and everything about it just seemed to fascinate him unlike Tasha.

Shaking her head the blond replied. "No, I just know about Kensi. If you make some enquires in the different departments I’m sure you will find other umm victims of it." Victoria and Ella had said that the disease wasn’t isolated to just one department and its employees.

As they talked Maine breezed into the work areas a beam spread across her face. Was it only her that hadn’t had the smoothest start to the morning? "Good morning Maine." Tasha greeted with a smile.

Focusing her attention on her Games & Sports report she didn’t at first recognize that Maine was talking to her. When it became clear that it was Tasha looked up and nodded "Thanks for the offer but I’m half done with the report already so I should manage it on my own." It was nice to be offered help though but she needed to fix this on her own.

"Heard anything about this drooling disease that seems to be spreading around the building?" If Maine had had it then Derek would be thrilled and probably bombard her with questions Tasha doubted anyone in A&C had had it though.

"Yes we have to stick together. We are all a team." Tasha nodded and beamed at Brad. A&C was a team and to become a better team they needed to get to know each other better and to trust one another. On the field trust could be vital if the going got though."Have you signed up for the first aid course?" she asked Brad.

"Thanks again for the tea." Tasha called after Brad as he returned to his desk. Sipping on the tea she focused on the last part of her report.

Gabi had just had a very delicious lunch--wheat toast with ham and a hard boiled egg with a cup of coffee. Mmmm mmmm mmmmmm. Eating healthy tasted even better than junk food! If only she could get her son to understand that. Poor boy was going to gain so much weight if he went to school and ended up eating like a pig every day.

She settled down at her desk and pulled out the paperwork she needed to go over for her new position. She knew she should really look through these contracts...or she could read the latest issue of Witch Weekly. That sounded much more appealing.

As the lift opened on their level, Jade led the two women past the reception. "Here is the reception, it is where you will probably meet people from the other departments. Usually," She demonstrated by flicking her wand at some parchment laying on the reception desk; sending a message plane zooming around them, "you get called by the message plane that there is someone here. It is a simple charm- the incantation is "Nuntium" and the wand movement is a quick flick at the parchment."

She pointed at the door on the left of the reception area, "That is the storage area and it also leads to a spiral staircase that leads to level 4." She pointed at the two doors on the right. She gestured to the door on the far right--"That is Althea's office, she is the head of the department. She will probably be doing a welcome meeting or something so you'll meet her in person if you haven't already. She is a nice boss. And she will help with any problems that you may have"

Jade then took a step through the other door. "And this, girls is where you will be working." The place was busy with people working at desks and others rushing all over the room. Some nodded at Jade a hello before rushing off to tend to their various work.

"Gia, your desk is over there." Jade said pointing to her immediate left. "This is where the Obliviators and Reminisciators work. And Cora," She led them around a corner when there was less people around, "This is where you work in the development and research department."

She then led them to an internal door. "I have one more thing to show you before this tour is over but are there any questions?"

Oooo, and here was her level! Well, not HER level exactly, but the one she belonged to and the one she would be working on a lot, so kiiiiiinda her level if you looked at it that way. She just didn't OWN it obviously.

But anyway that was beside the point.

A charm! That was one she hadn't heard before! She beamed at the message plane and stored the charm information in her head. Incantation was Nuntium and the wand movement was a flick at the parchment. Yep, she could remember that.

M'kay, next the storage area, a spiral staircase...oh, and the Department Head's office! Neat! Cora briefly wondered if that was like the Ministry equivalent to the principal's office and therefore a place to avoid. But Jade said she was nice and helpful, so maybe not. That was good.

And this was where they worked! Cora ooh-ed and aah-ed softly, beaming as she watched all the random people. Random people in her department who would hopefully not be random for very long. Ohh, and her own corner-ish place to work! How fun! Cora grinned at it before continuing to follow Jade.

Hmm, questions? The young woman glanced around once more before deciding, "Nah, no questions." For now.

Jade smiled at both Cora and Gia and gestured to the door. "That leads you to the employee breakroom where you can get some food and drink and mingle with other employees but don't spend too much time there because Althea won't look at that kindly. There is also a big conference room, a lab where we can do all the toxicology and analysis we need to do. Last but not least there is a training and trial room where we can practice any new spells.

That internal hallway is mainly exclusive to us but we can bring people from other departments to work there. The rule about that is that we have to stay with them when they are in those rooms.

And that is it for the MoM tour.

If you do have any questions--you can always ask me or anyone in the department. Althea is especially helpful by the way. She is a great boss."

Well, that wasn't too difficult--considering that it was her first MoM tour ever. Jade was pleased with herself.

Tamara Scamander was MUCH better suited to Accidents and Catastrophes than she was to the Minister's office. The work up there was as mind numbing as the coworkers she had encountered. Bah. The heels of her Manolo's click clacked as she made her way swiftly into the work areas and over to a free desk. This one would do, she thought.

Setting the small box down she gave a tight smile and then settled into the chair, back ramrod straight as she went about making her little work space a bit more... HER.