Chapter Text
Gwen pushes the door handle to Lena’s office down and walks in, taking note of how pristine the room was. In the years she’d worked at the OIAR, Gwen had never seen Lena’s office in any state other than perfection . It was like Lena was hardly even human – no food wrappers, no crumbs, no stray files or pens.
She brings her attention back to Lena.
“You wanted to see me?”
Lena glances up from her computer and gives a prim nod, taking her reading glasses off and folding them, setting them down neatly in front of her – the glasses now being the only remotely out of place item on her desk.
“Yes, Gwen. Please sit down,”
“Another ‘performance review’?” she asks sardonically as she saunters over, sitting elegantly in the chair with a cat-like grace. “Can we make it a bit quicker this time?”
She wants it to be quicker because these performance reviews are far too dull. That is definitely the reason. It is definitely not because she can’t be near Lena for too long before making a fool of herself. It’s definitely not because she can’t look at Lena for more than five minutes at a time without getting nervous. Gwendolyn Bouchard does not get nervous.
One of Lena’s perfectly manicured eyebrows twitches up in an expression not unlike displeasure. “You’re aware you are severely behind your caseload?”
Gwen stiffens slightly, a hint of indignation crossing her features. “Because I’m actually trying to process them correctly. You can have it right or you can have it fast,”
With a small sigh, Lena gives a subtle shake of her head. “Regardless, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about,”
“I see,” Gwen juts her chin up, shifting her jaw a little in annoyance. “So what else have I done wrong, then?”
Lena’s eyes flit down for just a second, a moment of vulnerability glanced through the ever-present mask she wore.
“Last night. At Teddy’s leaving party,”
“Party,” Gwen echoes, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Of course Lena would consider that a party.
A beat of silence passes between them, and Gwen does her best to ignore the twinge of something inside her chest every time she and Lena hold eye contact for too long. The way that their eyes bore into one another in silence, almost communicating but both of them too stubborn to do so. The way that Lena’s eyes seem to draw Gwen in, make her feel like she’s unravelling.
“Last night at Teddy’s leaving event you were openly disrespectful towards me in front of the new hire. This is not acceptable,” Lena continues, as if that moment had never happened – because of course it hadn’t, there was no moment. Gwen was dwelling on things that did not matter. They didn’t matter to Lena and they certainly didn’t matter to Gwen, absolutely not, not in a million years.
Brushing off any feelings she definitely didn’t have on the matter, Gwen raises her eyebrows a little, giving Lena a well practised look of mild incredulity.
“Seriously? You’re calling me in here because I backtalked you in front of the new guy?”
“I’m well aware you dislike me, Gwen,” Dislike isn’t the word I would choose, Gwen thinks, but quickly dismisses it, unsure where it had come from, “-and that’s entirely your prerogative. But I am still your manager, and undercutting my authority in front of a new team member is deeply inappropriate,”
Nodding, Gwen stands, desperate to get away from Lena, from this whole situation and its weirdness .
“Understood. Now if that’s all,”
“It’s not,”
Great.
“Sit down,”
With a deep sigh, Gwen sits back down, far more casually than she had before, secretly wondering how far she can push Lena.
“If you hate working here so completely, you are perfectly within your rights to resign. No one is forcing you to stay here,”
Yeah , Gwen thinks, only my own fucking need to prove myself to you.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Gwen says with an edge of iciness to her voice.
Tilting her head a little in consideration, Lena answers. “Honestly, it more or less balances out. You are difficult to manage, but hiring new staff member is always
something of a pain,”
Gwen is unsure how to respond to that – unsure how she can respond to that. It’s a strange statement, one that holds no true value judgement. Yes Lena said she was difficult to manage, but that was her goal, was it not? She had been purposefully antagonising Lena, so was that not in part a compliment?
In place of the silence between them, Lena speaks again.
“What do you actually want, Gwen?”
You, Gwen thinks.
“Your job,” is what she says instead.
A flash of something behind Lena’s eyes. Something between a look of indignation and a thrill at the challenge.
“You think you could do it better?”
Gwen smirks slightly. “I do,”
Lena hums, picking up her glasses and setting them aside as she crosses her arms and leans forward a little. “I’ve always known you thought you were slumming it down here, but I never actually considered you might think of this as the first step of a career . Most people simply move on within twelve months or so,”
Eyes twitching into an inquisitive squint, Gwen tilts her head back a little as she looks Lena up and down.
“I’m not most people,”
Mild amusement dances in Lena’s eyes as she observes Gwen’s little act of defiance.
“...No,” is all she says.
“No?” Gwen repeats back.
“No,” Lena confirms. “Unfortunately, I know what climbing this particular ladder entails, and you don’t have what it takes,”
Huffing out a breath, Gwen straightens up and shifts her shoulders a little, as if trying to brush off the offence she felt at Lena’s words.
“Surprise, surprise,” she drawls, and Lena’s mouth stretches into a thin line.
“I’m sorry to put it so bluntly, but I really do fear your ambition is misplaced here,”
Sick of listening to Lena belittle Gwen’s efforts, she stands, the chair scraping on the floor – and Gwen feels the smallest bit of satisfaction at the way Lena winces at the noise.
“Well,” Gwen says as she marches towards the door, chest burning with hurt and anger. “Good talk as always. Excellent use of my time. Let me know if you have any other gems of wisdom you want to spit in my face,”
Lena starts, “Gwen, that’s exactly the kind of attitude–,”
Gwen slams the door behind her.