Aum Shere - for @onlystarisee

[binarythinking]

There were very few career options left for a former military man who had been summarily disgraced and forced to leave the service. Harry Wells refused to play politics and when he saw both waste and abuse, he dealt with it. The problem was the lieutenant he'd dealt with had friends in far higher places. Couple that with his rather abrasive personality, and it wasn't long before he was left in Alexandria Egypt with very little means.

But in the last ten years he'd made a name for himself. Harry knows the sands and the desert. He speaks Arabic and Berber fluently and has kept more than a few idiot academics from dying on their digs.

Not a bad way to live, really.

The library is used to seeing the lanky, dusty stranger occasionally stalking the corridors and today was no exception. He has a new contract and a new expedition to lead.

If he can find Dr. Morgan, that is.

Comments

[onlystarisee]

Dr. Tess Morgan is seated at a table in the furthest corner of the library, underneath the slowly fading light coming through the window above. She prefers the seclusion, honestly. It lets her work without interruption. And she’s been working for hours, probably (she lost count a cup of coffee or two ago), surrounded by stacks of books and documents. There’s a notepad open in front her that she’s scribbling notes in furiously.

She’s waiting for someone, has been waiting for someone, but there’s things she needs to do, research that needs to be done, and she’s gotten a little bit lost in it. If she’s going to be going on an expedition into the deserts of Egypt she wants to be prepared.

[binarythinking]

His pace is quick and clipped as he moves through the halls, only pulling to a halt in front of the table. She's been working for a while if the stacks of books and notes are any indication and he is absolutely not watching the way a beam of fading sunlight pouring through a window catches a lock of her hair, turning it to spun gold.

"I'm looking for Dr. Morgan." Abrupt and to the point, as always.

[onlystarisee]

Tess looks up at the sound of his voice, keen green eyes finding his, and she cannot help but smile brightly at him, absently tucking blonde hair behind her ear. His abruptness doesn’t faze her. “And so you’ve found her,” she tells him, slipping out of her chair and moving around the table to greet him. “You must be Mr. Wells.” And she holds out her hand.

[binarythinking]

"Harrison," he corrects absently. "Yes. Harrison Wells." A brief handshake before he's pulling his hand away and attempting to put his focus back where it belonged, the expedition. Not on that peek of dimple or the way her smile seemed to make the rest of the world around her dim when faced with such brightness.

"The expedition will be ready in three days." Two if he pushes it. "And I just want to go on record again that going to Aum Shere is a categorically bad idea. There's a reason it's been avoided this long, a reason the Berbers call it cursed."

But he'll still go. Money is money and with the changing in seasons coming up fast he can't afford to be picky.