Work Text:
Elias wasn't the best of bosses, he wasn't the worst either but his lack of communication in the workplace had driven Jon mad on more than one occasion, however no other situation had had him marching up to elias' office quite like this one
"It must have just slipped my mind Jon, i don't get why you're complaining really, one would think that an extra pair of hands would be appreciated"
"Stop playing dumb Elias you know damn well what the problem is, i don't know what is wrong with that man nor is it my job to accomodate him i want him out of the archives"
"Oh but it is your job now, the role of head archivist comes with many responsibilities, looking after mister Shelley is one of them. Now if you could please get out of my office…"
"I just don't get why you won't fire him"
Elias sighed, realizing that Jon wouldn't leave his office until he received some excuse
"If you must know the institute has always respected seniority in it's employees, firing him now would be an hr nightmare and he refuses to be moved from the archives, I'm sorry Jon but my hands are tied"
—
"That's the best he could come up with?"
Sasha was rightfully indignated at the entire situation, insisting that had he been anything but a white guy he would've gotten the boot ages ago
"He doesn't even look like he could be much older than us, so unless Gertrude hired a child Elias is full of shit"
Tim continued the rant, the three of them had pretty much hidden away deep in the archives using it's need to be reorganized as an excuse to discuss their suprise coworker, needless to say none of them where particularly thrilled
The only silver lining was that the existence of Michael had finally made Martin useful in Jon's eyes, being on what Tim referred as "Michael babysitting duty"
Speaking of which…
"Michael c'mon we aren't supposed to be here right now"
The trio seaced their complaining once they saw the lanky figure of one Michael Shelley approach them, with a very exasperated Martin Blackwood following behind
Strange was the kindest word to describe Michael, with his long skinny limbs, vacant eyes and long curly locks of hair that may have once been a shiny blond now matted and greasy
"Gertrude asked me to get her a statement"
He declared to no one in particular, his attention fully turned to the dozens of shelves and boxes laying around the archives before promptly taking out all the files that Sasha and Tim had been organizing the day before, while muttering about "the new hires", growing more impatient by the minute.
Jon was about to tell him off when Martin finally catched up to them and tapped Michael's shoulder to get his attention
"What statement are you looking for?" He asked, without waiting for Michael to really aknowledge him
He once again muttered still rummaging through the files, this time Jon couldn't make out a single word and he doubted that Martin could either. That however didn't stop him from continuing the rather one sided conversation
"Oh that one! I already handed it to her this morning, sorry i didn't remember to tell you"
That finally made Michael turn around
"Oh" was all he said
"Now why don't we go to the break room? Gertrude asked me to bring her some tea" he made a small pause and leaned closer to Michael, as if sharing some kind of secret before continuing in a mock whisper "and we all know she likes it better how you make it"
Michael seemed to brighten up at that proclamation, he started speed walking to the archive's break room and added
"We should make one for Gerry too! he always whines for my tea when he comes back from one of his expeditions"
No one in the archives informed Michael that this was the tenth batch of tea he had made today, or that Gertrude was Missing, or that they hadn't found any proof of an employee by the name of Gerry that had worked at the same time as him
It was easier to keep the peace that way
—
Martin had quickly discovered that one of the most effective ways to snap Michael out of whatever he was doing was to ask him to make some tea (it's a good thing all the commodities of the break room where paid by the institute)
So most of the time they were at work him and Michael spent it standing over the stove, waiting for the water to boil. Sometimes Michael would talk to him while they waited, however that didn't mean he got to know much about the guy, in fact a lot of the things he said would contradict each other from day to day. Sometimes he spoke of Gertrude as a sort of maternal figure, other times he talked about her with such vitriol it almost scared him. He would ramble on and on about Gerry, sometimes excited because "he's coming back soon" or an anxious chant of "why hasn't he come back yet? He's been gone for so long, did i do something wrong? Is he not coming back because of me?" Or on the really bad days, the days were not even tea brewing could distract him, he would go from door to door checking them with a manic energy looking for… something, he could never get him to explain himself clearly, he'd just mutter something about doors and spirals and islands but it never made any sense
Luckily for everyone in the archives today was a relatively good day, Michael was eagerly awaiting for the water to boil while telling him all about how he was going to greet Gerry when he came back from his trip to America
"… Have you ever had American candy? Gerry says it's way better than what they sell here, and he's going to bring me a whole box!"
He was excitedly enounciating with his hands
"And-and…" he was interrumpted from his rant by the hissing of the kettle
"It seems like it's ready" Martin offered
"Oh yeah yeah, don't worry i got it" he took the kettle and meticulously poured it into the cups, outside the break room Martin could faintly hear his other coworkers laughing along to… something, he was too focused on Michael to figure out what it was, a part of him felt hurt about the very obvious division in the archives. But at the end of the day it wouldn't be the first time he stayed behind taking care of a sick person while other people lived their lives, at least he was good at it
Maybe it was the only thing he was good at