tear this castle down [OPEN]

[joanna ruby reagan]

MAYBE I'M A DIFFERENT BREED

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 355px;] Jo gave a vacant stare to her computer monitor for a few moments, willing the data to load faster. The little bar and its green loading symbol moved ahead before stopping abruptly and then moving forward again. Her cursor blinked encouragingly in the corner of the screen, and she found herself making squares on the desktop just to entertain herself. She stopped after a few minutes of that because her fingers started to ache, and finally dropped her head to the edge of the desk with a loud huff that would probably scare any of her colleagues in the vicinity. Someone was supposed to be up here to take the data back to the police officers after she had made it all pretty and understandable, and even though she wasn’t ready, she wished that someone would just be here so she could talk. Jo was wary of having conversations with herself out where anyone could hear her, and she didn’t want to be that girl who kept texting her boyfriend just because she was bored and she could. She didn’t think that Lysander would mind too much, to be honest, but at the same time, he had lots of responsibilities and stressors to deal with, and she was sure that he didn’t have the time to deal with her texting him every few minutes. The blonde raised her head wearily and tucked a strand of hair behind her hear, smoothing her palms over the severe bun she had pinned her hair in that morning. It was simple and didn’t take too much thought to maintain, and it looked professional. Professional was good in her world. Her workplace was where she wanted to be, no matter what, but it wasn’t necessarily fun at times. Murder crime scenes, for example, and the more subtle things like sexism weren’t great to deal with. Jo wouldn’t say that she worked in a place that was too awful in terms of equality. It was pretty good, all things considered, but she’d experienced her fair share of dirty looks and pointed remarks because of her position and ranking. She knew that she had done the work to get to where she was now, she was more than competent, but if she wore a little too much makeup or a shirt that rode a little too low, it was immediately insinuated that she didn’t deserve to be where she was. That hurt. She settled herself back in her seat, clearing those thoughts from her mind, and found to her delight that the loading bar had finally reached three quarters. There wouldn’t be too much more waiting. She could hand the information off to whatever officer was coming up to the lab, and then she could go get a candy bar and then maybe text Lysander to see how swamped he was and then- The floor shook beneath her and she threw out an arm to steady herself as the lights flickered. A loud, bass boom made her scream as everything in the lab trembled and then her world was a mess of shattering glass and sirens as the shock wave took out what seemed like everything. The blonde slammed down on the floor, knocking the breath out of herself as she rolled. She smelled smoke and realized with a burst of terror that there were plenty of dangerous chemicals that could kill her or start another explosion if she didn’t stop it. Plus, the evidence- she found herself numbly pulling herself up, even as she panicked, before landing hard on her hand and knees as one of the desks crumpled over and hit her in the side. Jo shook, feeling glass pierce her knees and hands as she tried to crawl over to the fume hood, hoping it was still intact as she threw it up to try and clear the room of whatever dangerous things could fill it. Her ears rung with the shrill sounds and she felt hot wetness on her palms, presumably her own blood. Another shock wave shook the building. Whimpering in fear, Jo retreated under one of the sturdy tables and covered her head as a low rumble signalled something that sounded bad happening. She didn’t even want to try to get out from the lab, and it looked as though part of the roof had collapsed inside, filling the room with smoky air and rubble. A few feet away, her phone blinked, screen looking shattered. She could still read the print, though, Missed Call from Lysander. Jo reached out with shaky, bloody fingers to pick up the phone and reassure him or herself or maybe call for help before she heard gunshots coming from not so far away. Shivering, she tucked herself back under the table, feeling more glass crunch under her as she moved. She was going to be really bruised and cut up after this, if the throbbing ache in her ribs and head said anything. Her temple felt warm, as well, and she supposed she must have hit it when she was falling. She didn’t know what to do. She usually prided herself on her knowledge, but now, trapped in her lab after some explosion, in a lot of pain and confused chaos, possible shooters outside, she had no clue as how to proceed. However, she did know that she couldn’t hide behind the table for much longer, due to structural damage and also the fact that if the fume hood didn’t work, she could die. Jo pulled herself together the best she could, pressing her lips together and blinking away any tears before getting herself upright. She couldn’t tell how badly she had hurt herself, and she was dizzy enough that standing was a bit of an effort. ”Hello?” she dared to call out, voice hoarse. She stumbled over to her phone, scooping it up and pocketing it before tripping her way over to her work area. ”Oh, God,” she whimpered, shaking hands smearing red all over the wood of the semi-intact desk before she turned to call out again. ”Hello? Someone be there, please, oh God...”

| tagged. open | outfit. here | notes. 1031 words. |

credit to cranberr23 of caution.