Maybe it was wrong to skip a meal and have pie instead, or have both lunch and pie, but it only made Konrad grin when Roxanne said that she'd have pie, too, without having anything to complain about. "Are you sure you don't want anything else?" He asked as he made his way to the dessert bar, with her following him. He just needed to be sure. It was free, after all. Hehe.

But... wait. Why was she walking behind him? He turned to look at her and smirked when he found that her eyes did a bit of exploring. "Admiring the view?" He whispered as he stopped walking and leaned a bit closer so she would be the only one hearing him. They were in a public space still... not that anyone was paying attention to them. Waiting for her answer, he eyed each and every pie, but only one of them was begging him to take a piece. The cherry pie, of course. He'd just wait for Roxanne to decide first.

"Yep, I'm sure!" Roxanne replied, licking her lips. The moment pie had been mentioned, she really developed a craving for it. Power of suggestion and all that. Besides, it sounded better than having another helping of chicken parm. Or whatever else it was they had for meals. For some reason, as large as the Ministry was, the food court was severely limited. But one thing she would never tire of was dessert. Though, who could get tired of that? She found anyone that could fundamentally weird.

Oops, she was caught! She just smirked when Konrad whispered in her ear. "Well, it is a rather nice view..." she whispered back, before spotting the the very type of pie she had been thinking about. Mmm... apple pie a la mode. Yum. She reached out and grab it quickly, before anyone else could see it.

Grinning at her response, Konrad waited until she grabbed a piece of apple pie, it seemed, rather greedily, and took a piece of cherry pie for himself, but... something else she said caught his attention, making him blink at her a few times, his smile all gone. "Err... thanks?" Did she just tell him that his back was nice?

... perhaps it was a woman thing that he'll never understand.

Just thinking about that, he remembered that he still had something to show her, and maybe he could, now that they were alone. Or... was it wise? What if she won't like it? "Where do you want to sit?" He asked out of the blue. There; might as well have her take a seat if he was going to show her his new tattoo. Considering that his was way bigger than any of hers, he didn't really know what to expect. Heh.

Hmmm.... where did she want to sit? "Maybe somewhere a little bit secluded?" Roxanne suggested, a small smirk on her face. After all, she did still want to ask him about that thing that she had spotted on his chest earlier. The thing that looked like a tattoo. And what better place then somewhere they wouldn't be seen? You know, in case she talked him into showing it to her. Though, it would be interesting to see the female half of the Ministry's reaction.....

Roxi Jasmine arrived at the desert table just in time. Any more hours and the food would have started turning stale. As it was, it seemed that the deserts had been left out by the Ministry after the panic when those weird people started turning into zombies.

Oh goodie! Jasmine always wanted to have an INTERESTING adventure, instead of all the boring work she was always being sent to do. She would try to find some zombies by herself. So...she started gobbling up the cake.

Now that the samples from the juice bar had been delivered safely to the lab, Esme quickly made her way back towards the food court, Melissa in tow. There were others still collecting samples here and there, and a hound or two sniffing about, but the dessert bar didn't seem especially busy. That was fine by her.....the less people about, the easier her job would be without worrying about cross-contamination.

She looked around for a few moments to see if Dacs had made it to the area, but saw nothing. Oh well, if she needed Esme, she knew where to find her.

"Alright, Melissa...." She began with a smile. "Great job on getting those samples. We want to do the same thing here. Just...don't eat anything, even if it all is very tempting."

Now that the samples from the juice bar had been delivered safely to the lab, Esme quickly made her way back towards the food court, Melissa in tow. There were others still collecting samples here and there, and a hound or two sniffing about, but the dessert bar didn't seem especially busy. That was fine by her.....the less people about, the easier her job would be without worrying about cross-contamination.

She looked around for a few moments to see if Dacs had made it to the area, but saw nothing. Oh well, if she needed Esme, she knew where to find her.

"Alright, Melissa...." She began with a smile. "Great job on getting those samples. We want to do the same thing here. Just...don't eat anything, even if it all is very tempting."

Dacs peeled off the gloves she had on working in the main buffet area and bagged them. Pulling out another set, she put them on and walked over to Esme."I think you are my best field investigator. Efficient." Dacs said, nudging Esme as she moved passed her.

"I'm not gonna stay long. But I know I can leave things to you. You keep tabs on the testing until the results are ready." she said."I'm stretched on my thoughts right now."

Well, there she was. Esme caught Dacs moving towards her from the corner of her eye as she set up her cases. She had restocked while up in the lab, just to be certain that they had all supplies needed and wouldn't need to make a time-wasting trip up to the lab again for more supplies. They had to work quickly and....efficiently. Esme smiled and nodded towards Dacs. "Appreciate the compliments, ma'am. Just doing my job."

And she was. She had been at this job for a while and it was all becoming near second nature to her, but she still paid close attention to the details. Sometimes familiarity could lead to laziness and she didn't want that.

"No problem, I'll let you know if any results come up from the testing." Hopefully, they would have them sometime later today. It depended on the complexity and the number of samples though.

After assisting Esme with delivering the samples to the lab, Melissa followed her back down to the Dessert Bar. Following Esme instructions, she grabbed more sample collection kits and began looking around for more evidence samples.

Melissa walked over to the buffet table where the desserts had been arranged. There were definitely plenty of food samples here but Melissa decided to do something else first. She knelt down under the table, smiled and nodded to herself, glad that her idea wasn't a futile one. There definitely were plenty of food crumbs on the floor under the table. Possibly food crumbs accidentally dropped by the infected people.

Snapping on her gloves, Melissa picked up her tweezers and using it, she slowlt picked up a large food crumb off the floor. She slowly examined it. It looked like chocolate fudge. Opening the lid of the petri dish, Melissa deposited the sample in to it before replacing the lid, closing it tightly. Then she dug around for her marker and wrote down the information on the label. What is it: Chocolate Fudge. Form: Solid and warm. Location found: Under dessert buffet table.

Placing the sample that she had collected aside, Melissa proceeded to crawl around under the table collecting more samples.

She was quick. Esme watched Melissa for a few moments, noting her careful collection of the evidence under a table. It certainly took dedication to do that. Good for her.

Since Melissa was so kind to collect samples from near the tables, Esme would begin her collection behind the counter itself. More than likely, this would be where most of the samples could be found.

Mm, and of course everything looked so tempting and delicious. Once this was over, and the all clear was given, she'd certainly have to try a few of these treats. Perhaps as a congratulations to herself for juggling two cases at once, even if the de Talone investigation was technically on hold for now.

She began with the case that held the candy. Acid Pops. Choco Ball. Sugar Quill. One of each went into her collection kit. Since she wasn't sure which was infected, if any, and which ones were not, she would have to make the suggestion that they purchase candy from outside the Ministry and then use it as a control against this candy."

As Melissa lay the sample she had collected aside, her hand slipped on something wet under the table and she almost went face down on to the floor. Quickly grabbing hold of the leg of the table, she managed to save herself but then the buffet table started to wobble. Melissa quickly grabbed hold of both sides of the table's edges to straighten it back up before it fell over. She managed to straighten out the table and prevent anything from falling off it,but in the process of doing that, she banged her head underneath the table.

"OWWWEE!!"Melissa cried out before muffling her mouth with her hand. She hoped that no one had seen her clumsiness. Quickly looking around, she rubbed her head before quickly kneeling back down to see what her hand had slipped on. It was something wet...something liquid...something gooey. Another sample to collect.

Melissa stripped of the gloves that she was wearing, and tossed them aside, before pulling out a fresh new pair from her jacket pocket. She slipped them on and then picking up a sample kit, she took out the dropper and siphoned up the liquid substance into it before transferring it over into another empty Petri dish. She tightened the lid on the dish, before bending down to examine the liquid substance more carefully.

From the texture of the substance, Melissa suspected that it was most likely the filling from one of the pies that was being served here. Then she noticed something small lying in the puddle of liquid. Taking out her tweezers she gently picked it up and realized that she was looking at a sliver of fruit. Apple. She quickly placed that into another Petri dish before labeling it. She then picked up the other sample containing the liquid and labeled it as :Syrup or filling of Apple Pie.

Victoria walked to the Dessert area after cleaning her hands from doing samples of the food. She looked around and noticed people already working. Scanning the room she saw Melissa that she had gotten to know just a bit and then she saw Dacs, but she was talking to someone else.

Victoria decided to just wait to see what her next instruction would be. She gave a hello smile to anyone who looked her way and wondered if she would be doing more samples like before or if there was something else she needed to do.

It was hard to miss when someone yelled 'ow' really loud. It didn't take her long to zero in on the sources, noticing Melissa rubbing her head. Yeah...hitting your head on a unforgiving table really wasn't a fun situation. She stepped closer. "You okay?" She asked, watching as the woman collected a sample and labeled it. At least she wasn't letting a little thing like a bump on the head keep her from collecting evidence.

Glancing up, she noticed another girl had joined the area. Raising one hand, Esme signaled for her to come over. "Are you doing something right now? If not, I would appreciate some help with collecting samples of the various desserts. Melissa has the main tables. I'm starting on the buffet itself. If you'd like, you can start on the other side."

Melissa looked up from the sample she was labeling when she heard Esme ask her whether she was okay. She gulped. 'Great. She heard me.' Melissa thought to herself. Grinning back at Esme, she gave her a thumbs up sign and nodded and in the processes bumped her head...again...underneath the table. She stared up at the table menacingly as she rubbed her head. "You're not going to keep me from collecting my samples. What are you hiding underneath here?" Melissa whispered to the table.

Not expecting a reply, she continued crawling on her knees until she spotted another suspicious looking item. A fork covered in something gooey. Melissa picked up her tweezers and delicately picked up the fork studying the substance on it. 'Hmmmm...looks like some bits of cherry and syrup. It must be the remains of a cherry pie. I wonder whether this fork belonged to one of the zombettes? There seems to be lipstick on it too.' Melissa thought to herself.

She decided that this was a good piece of evidence material. She picked up the Petri dish but realized that the fork was too long to go into it. She tried angling it this way and that trying to get the fork in but the Petri dish was still too small.

Then Melissa had an idea. Taking out her wand, she pointed it at the Petri dish and said,"Engorgio". Immediately the dish got bigger and when she had the desired size she ended the spell. Smiling to herself, she placed the fork into the dish, closed it tight and then labelled it before placing it next to the other samples she had collected.

She stuck out her head when she heard a voice that was familiar to her. It was Victoria. She waved at her before sticking her head back under the table. She took another look to make sure that she had thoroughly scoured the area for all possible samples and when she saw nothing else, she slowly crawled back out bringing the samples she had collected with her.

She stood up and bent back to knock the kinks of out her back. As she was looking up, she noticed something. It wasn't anything edible floating above her but she remembered seeing something similar in the Juice bar area. It was a plant. Melissa wandered over to it to take a closer look. Was it just a coincidence that the plant happened to be in both places she had been collecting samples at?

Victoria looked around when she heard the voice, then walking over to the lady that signaled her she listened. "I have come with Dacs to help in anyway you might need me." Giving a small smile she listened to the instructions. "I will get right on that." Looking around she got another pair of gloves on and moved to the other side to begin.

Making sure she had enough dishes for samples, Victoria started finding pieces of desserts and placing them into the dishes, the labeling. Just as she did in the other area. They were suppose to collect the same way, correct.. Looking back up, "I was placing the other samples in a cooler, is there a cooler in here as well?" She didn't want to mess up, so it was better to ask then do it wrong.

Melissa decided that she would take a sample of the plant. Plucking off a stem from the fern-like plant, Melissa placed it inside a petri-dish. Closing it tightly, she took out her pen and labelled: Not food sample but plant found in hanging in the air.

She remembered seeing the same plant in the Main Seating area and in fact, around the Atrium. She decided to look through the research books and see what plant this was and whether it affected humans in any way. But that was for later.

For now, she placed the sample aside and went around collecting samples of the food still left on the dessert table.

Esme shot a small smile in Melissa's direction as she indicated that all as okay before going back to collecting the samples. She was right. Nothing seemed to deter the woman, no matter how many bumps and bruises she got.

She nodded in appreciation towards the other woman who volunteered to help. "Excellent. I"m Esme and that's Melissa over there." She indicated. "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask."

With that offered, she turned back towards her own area. It wasn't long, however, before a question was posed. "Oh, yes, right over here." She indicated the large cooler that sat by her foot. It's temperature had to be carefully controlled. It couldn't get hot but it couldn't freeze either.

Victoria smiled at the greeting, "Nice to meet you and I do know Melissa." With that said she had turned to work. Gathering more samples and making sure they were labeled correctly. It was sad that all this had happened, the food really looked pretty good, but she didn't know if she could ever eat here now that this had happened. Maybe in time, but until all was safe she would avoid these type of areas.

Once she was shown the cooler, Victoria walked over opening it and placed the samples into the cooler neatly. She was glad she could help in anyway, while she worked on more samples her mind did wonder to her own work waiting on level seven. She still hadn't come up with a great schedule template that she wanted. Maybe she was thinking to much into it, but she did want it to be perfect. Shaking it off she picked up a few more samples and labeled them.

Melissa picked up her samples and placed the cooler bag that was keeping the samples they had collected at the right temperature. She smiled a greeting at Victoria who seemed deep in thought but she didn't want to bother her, so she just proceeded to the other end of the dessert bar and proceed to collect some of the food samples that were still left lying out in the open.

'Hmmm... I wonder whether any if this is already contaminated? It has been left out in the open for awhile now and who knows what other bacteria is growing on it now.' Melissa thought to herself. She made it a point to ask Esme about it as she picked up a piece of cherry pie with her tweezers and placed it in the petridish before closing the lid over it and labeling it.

Since her tray was almost full of food from the main buffet, Zoe had to do some maneuvering. There had to be room for both fudgy pudding and blueberry cream pie. No day was complete without pie.

She placed the last item on her tray and went to pay for her lunch. Jingling around in her robe pocket, she pulled out the proper amount and paid the kind lady. Realizing she didn't have enough money to also buy a beverage, Zoe decided that water would be fine. Much better choice to drink water than to go without pie.

It was the second day back after the holidays and Tasha yearned for something sweet to eat beside her chicken salad which she had eaten in the company of her colleagues on level 3. Entering the food court brought back mixed memories for the blond as she steered her steps towards the dessert table. Hopefully nobody would be acting strangely on what was left of her lunch break. She didn’t need or want weirdness.

Buying a cherry cream pie Tasha headed over to sit down at a red table with purple chairs around it. Sitting down she smoothed out her ministry robes to dig into the yummy looking dessert.

Coffee in one hand, and a fudgy choc brownie in the other, Emily navigated her way past the desert bar and between the tables. On autopilot, mind elsewhere, Emily pulled out a seat with her foot, and plopped down on it, only to realise she had sat directly opposite a stranger.

Whoops.

Invasion of privacy. Both for the stranger, and herself. How so very awkward.
"Apologies," she mumbled, taking a sip of her coffee and looking at the next table over. She could scoot over. Unless the blondie wanted to? Or not. "Do you mind?" Either way, she wasn't sticking around for long. Work beckoned.

Digging into her pie Tasha was contemplating whether to pull out her latest issue of the prophet when a woman she didn't know just appeared out of the blue and sat down in front of her with a coffee and brownie in tow. STARE. Why did this always have to happen to her? At least this wasn't Harland. That was a plus!

Was the universe trying to tell her something? That privacy in public spaces was only something some could enjoy but not her? Or was she part of some bigger cosmic joke? Raising her head to meet the other woman's gaze she decided to just be well spontaneous and inviting. "It's fine. Please sit."

Gesturing to the coffee and brownie she wondered curiously. "Not a dessert person?"

Emily had already made up her mind not to care what the woman thought of her seating choice. She didn't have time to fuss about with such trivial things, it wasn't as if they couldn't ignore each other if absolutely necessary..

But then.. something about the woman did look familiar. Very familiar in fact. Only, she couldn't place the face to a name, or even the circumstances in which she would have seen her. That being said, she had a way of bumping into people in the Ministry. So even those from the most outrageous divisions and floors seemed to get in her way, or er, attract her attention.

"What gave me away?" Emily mused with a rhetorical question. No, she wasn't big on desserts in particular, but she was a HUGE fan of food in general, so she wouldn't discriminate against the sweets. On this occasion time wasn't permitting a full sized meal, so this would have to keep her going for some time.

"Have we met?" Emily blurted out. Again. Super familiar.