Counterclockwise

3: On Familial Relations

Genie rules, they said; no changing who lives and who dies, no falling in love, and he supposes no telling the future. Even Noel doesn't appear to do it- and his brother definitely plays some part in that.

There's a person sitting at the bench, but they appear to be far too old to be one of Noel's friends, and they also look familiar. Simon recalls images of the documentary he watched- Constance Conwey. Easy to remember for the repeated sound. An eye witness to the Rift, one of the few. Who she is in this moment, less easy to remember.

She's drinking a coffee, and Noel appears to be taking out containers of various foods, leftovers by the looks of it, glancing inside and putting them back. Simon clears his throat, and Constance looks over at him, quickly swallows her coffee, and then extends her hand towards him with a grin. "You must be Simon," she says with an overly polite ringing tone in her voice. "I'm Connie, chief of staff."

So that's who she is. The exchange gets Noel's attention, and he turns around with an immediate frown, but Simon has to be polite first. He shakes Connie's hand. "Nice to meet you," he tells her, and the words don't sound as empty as they are. "Everyone's been quite lovely. I'm excited to meet the rest of the staff." And then, before she can answer, Simon turns to Noel.

He gives him a soft, fake, smile, and says, "I want to apologise for earlier."

Noel raises an eyebrow and looks him up and down, like he's the judge of Simon's mortal soul in the afterlife. It kind of feels like he might be, if Simon ends up a nameless victim to the Rift. It's a risk he's been willing to take, must have been to take this job. "When you said your job was to tell me what to do?"

Simon tries to let the hits wash over him; Noel's opinion is irrelevant to his mission. All of his missions- Miss Mina's, and to learn about the Rift. Scratch that, actually, Noel's opinion is relevant and it's bad that Noel doesn't like him, but Simon still needs to not panic. "Yeah," he says, "not the best introduction."

Connie gives him a sideways look he can't interpret, and Noel leans his arm against the open fridge, a look of pure disdain on his face. Simon feels increasingly uncomfortable with each passing moment. Noel is eighteen and Simon is twenty-nine, biologically anyway, but the way Noel looks at him makes him feel so small, like Noel could eat him up in one moment. He seems to be exuding this arrogance on purpose, and it makes Simon hate him.

"Yeah," Noel mutters after a moment. "You're new. You still should know better than to speak to me that way."

Silence. He's not going to keep talking? How the fuck does Simon answer that? Continue to apologise? "Yes, well, you have my apology," he says, but his words are not conveying a genuine need for forgiveness. Noel Spencer's forgiveness is the last thing Simon needs, and all he can think about in this moment is the way Noel looked at him on his death bed. Was it recognition? Will it be now that Simon's changed the past, in the little way he has? Will it be in the new, worse, timeline that Simon will only know he's created after he fucks up?

Simon just keeps talking before he can ruin things for himself. "Anyway, your mother asked for a specific thing. She said you and Lee would know what it is?"

Noel raises his eyebrows. "Liquid cope?"

Simon had been genuinely considering the possibility he'd misheard her, but he throws that possibility out. "Yeah."

Noel sighs. "One second."

He immediately leaves the room, and Simon assumes he's going to retrieve whatever they're referring to; and immediately, Connie whispers lowly, but somehow still sounding far too loud, "what did you do?"

"What?"

"To upset him. What did you do?"

Simon shakes his head. "I confiscated lit matches he was throwing around the building."