#mendax undercover

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover - Chapter 3: The Cameos

Author's Note: It was actually thanks to @imaginationismybubble and her recent fic that inspired me to put some of you in this AU-- hence the chapter title of "Cameos." I hope it is okay and if it is not, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Author's other note: The writing hasn't gotten there quite yet, but this fic is turning out to be my most emotional one yet...I can actually picture living in Basel with Assangie... 🥺

As several weeks continued on, Kat and Julian did not cross paths very often.  There was the occasional passing by in the office halls, infrequent encounters in the coffee station where they met previously, or in the office café.  Julian typically kept to himself and did not talk to many people outside those on his team, but when he saw Kat he would usually acknowledge her with a nod and a soft smile, sometimes followed with a greeting of “hello” or “good morning.”  Kat always blushed when she saw him, and usually fumbled in one way or another.  Her ankle might buckle under her slightly that would cause a small but awkward change in her stride, or if she were carrying something like papers or a pen they would find a way to fly out of her hand the instant she would enter his presence.  After passing him by, she would always sigh at herself in annoyance.  She would often ponder, do I always have to look like a complete idiot every time I run into this guy?  However, unbeknownst to her, Julian found her slight clumsiness to be somewhat endearing.  It made her seem real and honest—and truth was something that was very important to Julian.  He did not trust people easily, and was generally stand-offish and uncomfortable around most of them.  Though there was something about Kat that he sensed was different in that aspect and it did intrigue him, but not enough to aggressively pursue it.  He had larger concerns on his plate such as keeping up with this new job that provided a sort of undercover refuge for him, and the salary helped him to continue to fund and support his main cause, despite having to seemingly disappear from it as far as the outside world was concerned.  While Kat stressed over her embarrassment after passing Julian in these instances, what she didn’t see was Julian would turn around to watch her walk on for a small moment, blink and grin softly before turning around and continuing on his path.

The weeks continued to pass by and soon the time arrived for the company banquet, where they would take time to celebrate their scientific and sales accomplishments for the year.  It was a formal affair that Kat always looked forward to because she loved getting dressed up in a fancy evening gown and socializing with her colleagues outside of the office over decadent food and unlimited champagne.  On this evening, Kat and Jun were seated at a table with some employees from different departments, the rest of their team of variant scientists was a table over.  Kat was very proud of and loyal to Santé Genomics—she found most of her self-worth and identity within her career.  Due to this, she was always enthusiastic about meeting new people from different departments, and learn more about the company as a whole.  She believed the more she knew about the company the better she could serve them.

As the evening went on and people moved about the room to mingle, Kat and Jun found themselves in some great conversation with three other ladies sitting at their table.  One was an assistant medical writer named Bethany, who sported mid-length straight brown hair with bangs covering her forehead, and brown eyes to match.  These features were in contrast to her light complexion.  She was a UK native, and after her university studies and a few entry level jobs within the biotech sector she found herself at Santé Genomics working alongside the medical writers who were responsible for helping with marketing materials as well as churning out the institution’s many scholarly research articles.  Seated next to Bethany was Marilu, another American expat who was an artist by trade and was able to land a role with Santé Genomics as an assistant medical illustrator.  Similar to Bethany’s writing role, Marilu assisted with the artwork that went into marketing publications and abstracts that would be presented at major oncology conferences like ESMO and ASCO.  Marilu came from Latino roots, and wore her wavy, dark brown hair short to her ears, but it was thick and full on the top of her head.  She also wore black-rimmed glasses, nothing too flashy.  Marilu was typically shy and quiet, until she felt comfortable around people then she would start to come out of her shell a bit.  Like Kat and Jun, Bethany and Marilu had started their relationship as colleagues and soon escalated it to friendship after they found they shared similar interests in art and entertainment as well as a strong worth ethic.  They partnered on many projects together which benefited the company.

Finally, on the other side of Marilu sat Astrid, the company receptionist who typically saw almost everyone who entered the vast biotech building.  Most of higher management and executives like Julian tended to enter through a restricted access site on the other side of the facility.  However, vendors, investors, auditors, and other guests of the facility as well as typical employees were often greeted by Astrid when they entered the building.  Astrid was a French native with short black hair cut in a chic bob style and dark hazel-like eyes.  She loved to dress her eyes with dark eyeshadow and her lips with red lipstick, which many times made her look like a sort of modern-day flapper.  She had a look that was both classic and yet modern, which made her an intriguing site at the front desk.  As the receptionist, she had to put on the friendly and professional façade, but few knew of her more sarcastic side that frolicked within a garden of dark comedy.

As the champagne continued to flow throughout the night, the five colleagues shared fun company stories of their prospective roles and departments after introducing themselves.  They bonded over their respect for the company mission, which was about fighting cancer and helping to prolong lives through innovative science and precision medicine.

Kat had been having such a good time chatting with these new colleagues that she had completely forgotten about wondering if Julian would be at the gala.  She had nonchalantly surveyed the room at the beginning of the night and did not spot him, figuring he decided not to show.  Maybe he was not into such things, she really didn’t know—and it was annoying that she wanted to know.  She just found him to be so mysterious, and it intrigued her deeply.  Of course, while she let her mind focus on her surroundings and forget about him and his mystery, he then showed up in her periphery as she cocked her head back to chuckle at one of Bethany’s office stories.  Once she got a glimpse of those white-blonde strands she had to double take and pause.  Every time she looked at him it was as if life moved in slow motion for those moments.

Julian looked quite dapper as he lightly chatted with his upper management scientists.  He was wearing a black suit and shirt accented with a bright red tie.  The black made his hair stand out even more, and it almost shined in the light like some sort of celestial being.  After a few minutes, Julian’s eyes wandered in her direction and seemed to lock onto hers.  Startled, Kat looked away, fearing of being caught. 

Surely he didn’t notice me from all the way over there…

Julian did see her though, and it was his turn to be a little intrigued.  He wrapped up conversations with the other gentlemen nearby and finished his last sip of champagne before setting down the glass and heading in Kat’s direction.

She looked back up and saw him walking toward their table, but the door to the ballroom was not far behind them.  Perhaps he was finished with the evening and heading out.  Kat looked down and sighed nervously as she fiddled with some of the silverware that remained on the table.

“Ohhh my Goddd…he’s heading this way I think…” she muttered under her breath to Jun, who was sitting next to her.

“Wait what’s going on?” Bethany leaned in, curious.

“Who…?” Astrid inquired.

Marilu was not paying much attention, she was locked in on her cellphone as she often was, sitting with her knees folded up toward her chin and her feet resting on the chair.

“God, make sure the knives and other sharp objects are away from me if he comes over here—before I hurt someone…” Kat yammered, pushing them toward the center of the table.

Jun giggled at their friend, then looked at the others.  “She has a bit of a crush…”

“Jun--!” Kat protested.

“Oooh..!” the two ladies sang in unison, and even Marilu looked up from her screen.

“Shutupshutupshutup…” Kat muttered under her breath to the table as Julian approached them.  He walked up beside Kat’s chair and rested his hand on the back of it.

“Ah Kitty-Kat—I thought I saw you,” he stated softly with a smile.

Kat looked back up at him and saw his zircon eyes shining from behind his errant strands once again.  “Julian…hello!” she returned with a bright smile back, trying to keep her cool and not blush too much.  Luckily the room was somewhat dimmed.

Julian then looked briefly at the others at the table.  “Hello…” he nodded politely, then turned his focus back toward Kat.

Everyone else returned his greeting but he didn’t seem to take much notice.

“I am heading out but I wanted to stop and say hello… Don’t get too crazy—we have lives to save tomorrow…!” he quipped with one of his signature silly grins.  He addressed the whole table but let his eyes lock with Kat’s for one small second before turning away and walking toward the exit.

Kat’s eyes fluttered once he walked away, and as she reached for her champagne glass, she fumbled it a bit and almost knocked it over completely.  She was able to regain control of it, however.  Unbeknownst to her, Julian took a final glance back as he walked through the double door exit of the room.  He smiled to himself when he saw her tiny falter, then finally turned around to be on his way.

Kat gulped down the rest of her champagne as her face flushed and her demeanor seemed a little more agitated than she had been before.

“So this man—you have a crush?” Astrid inquired nonchalantly, her French accent thick.

“Yes!” Jun blurted with a giggle, and Kat was mortified.

“Shhhhh!!” she motioned aggressively to the table.  “Gads, I don’t think the pathologists in the BACK heard you…” then she covered her face in embarrassment.

“I think he likes her too…he calls her Kitty-Kat…” Jun added. 

“Well I barely know either of you but I ship the hell out of this..!” Bethany exclaimed genuinely with a bright smile before grabbing another glass of champagne.

“Ouais, absolument—ship!” Astrid proclaimed, raising her glass.

“That man looks familiar…” Marilu muttered with a suspicious air.

Kat, still visibly mortified, tried to regain control of the table. “Stop it…stop it….”

“Wait, who is he though…?” Bethany asked.

“He’s the new VP of Therapeutic Bioinformatics…” Jun answered.

“Ah Dr. Assange…?” Astrid returned, emphasizing the silent e at the end as the French sometimes tended to do.  “So many doctors here, eh…?”

“Still familiar…that name…” Marilu muttered, poking away at her cellphone.  She seemed to be trying to research something, but was coming up with dead ends.

Marilu had a hobby of following political whistleblower stories and supporting their plight.  She remembered when Julian and his website blasted the United States many years ago.  Yet now she couldn’t seem to find a trace linking Dr. Assange to any of that on the internet.  She wondered if her mind were playing tricks on her—but as stated earlier, Julian was very gifted and impeccable at covering his tracks.  He knew he needed to disappear, so that he did as far as the internet was concerned. He was so arrogant in his abilities that he did not feel he needed to go to the trouble to change his name or appearance.  He, however, did not anticipate a person like Marilu would ever be embedded in a small biotech town in a politically neutral country.  For now though, his magic had thrown her off course.  Plus it seemed unlikely that someone at a VP level at a biotech company would double as a rogue internet journalist.

Kat sighed. “Okay, yes..it seems I may have a little bit of a crush…but that’s it!  It’s not like anything will ever come of it, honestly.  I can’t even interact with the man without blushing or making a complete fool of myself.  I’m sure he thinks I am a total idiot.  He only knows me because I dumped coffee pods all over him and our department works closely with his…”

“Dude has literally never said two words to me,” Jun protested.

Kat sighed again as she shrugged.  “Well…I’m sure he will soon…eventually…”

“This is fun!” Bethany exclaimed with a smile, pouring champagne into the other’s glasses.  “We should hang out more—maybe do dinner after work or something…”

“Yes!  You guys should come by my desk sometime—I always have little cakes and other snacks there…” Astrid added.

And just like that, this table of colleagues at Santé Genomics became good friends that night, and would continue to stay in touch for years to come.

#mendax undercover #kassangie #gingery-juniper #bethanysadventure #neddie-ramone #imaginationismybubble #shout out to my lovelies #hope it's okay #writing still sucks sorry #lol #yes i know that's a lo-def pic of assangie too but it's the only one I have of him in that outfit #still waiting for Bill Condon to donate every ounce of this movie to me 🫠

[ao3feed-harryginny]

In Mendax

by FloreatCastellum

Theia Higglesworth has reached a point of no return. Three years after she first met Harry Potter, she continues down a path that will change her life irrevocably in her hope to mend past mistakes.

The final story in the Theia Higglesworth series.

Words: 991, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of The Theia Higglesworth Trilogy

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, Gen

Characters: Theia Higglesworth, Harry Potter, Original Muggle Character(s), Original Characters, Various Characters

Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley

Additional Tags: Aurors, Crimes & Criminals, Organized Crime, Suspense, Thriller, Undercover Missions, Undercover

Read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2V7rEAu

#Harry Potter #Ginny Weasley #HarryGinny #Hinny #ao3feed #fanfic

[thinktosee]

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN A BUDDING DEMOCRACY AND THE BIRTH OF A DICTATORSHIP, WE EMBRACED A GOD – PART II - CHAPTER 5

Greed has no equal. Power, its most potent tool.

Act 1, Scene 1

Scene :

Stage Manager/Narrator : White-stoned inner sanctum, at the foot of Mt. Emily. Acres of crickety thickets and jade-coloured lawns, flashed by dozens of corrugated cast-iron street lamps, envelope the heavenly palace. With its creamed marble floor, triangulating up 4 steps where the sanctum, twilight and still, offers a glimpse of its sacred contents. A table, oaken and dark, rests on the dais, complimented by a large copper-stained steel chair at its head, symbolizing the ying and the yang. On each side and towards the gray-curtained wall, and protruding from the floor, are two golden obelisks. A silhouette, visible, but not entirely always, roots in the middle, directly behind the chair. It seems to merge with the wall at times.

God elevates to the sanctum, from the spot approximately 4 feet from the front of the table. Three others followed in single file, dressed in white satins :

Katukara, the Home Defense Minister : What more should we do? The protesters continue to demand their rights.

Mendax, the editor of the “people’s news media” : We have been putting out the news for several weeks now that these impressionable youth are violent communists and anarchists. The people believe us, not them!

God  : Hmm….these trouble-makers are traitors! How dare they think that there is a better way than mine? Don’t they know that without me, this country, its people would have been sacrificed to the devilish communists?

Katukara : More than 400 have been detained over these three weeks of demonstrations. Most have confessed to their crimes and are awaiting sentencing. We shall continue undaunted, and shall go on detaining the protesters at their homes before dawn, when they are fast asleep and least likely to offer resistance.

God : Excellent! Keep the pressure on these vile children. I am pleased so many have confessed to their sins, especially after just a few days meditating in jail. Goes to show how truth reveals itself. Dr. Anil was helpful in this, I suppose? 

Katukara : Certainly. The psychological profiles gave us clear insights into their vulnerabilities.

God : What’s the situation in the country? Are our friends, the bankers and businessmen satisfied with our actions?

(Everyone turned to the 4th person in the room).  

Fabian, the chief of covert intelligence : Well, our assessment confirms what Mendax said. The people are with us and not the demonstrators. They know what’s good for them.

TKK, (chairman of the chamber of commerce), told me yesterday after our weekly meeting that he thought we had and continue to perform a splendid job of arresting the mob, including the section leaders. He was initially concerned that the troubles would compel them to make a show of acquiescing to the demands of the students and workers. However, he is glad now that this communist plot has been nipped…… Ah yes. By the way, he also shared that the business of moving the commodities to our friends in the far north-east has been finalized.

God : That’s as it should be. The deal will usher great prosperity for us. TKK is a valuable asset. He influences the movement quietly in a way which is beneficial to us. If these godless communists had succeeded, this deal and all the good things which it entails, would have been dissipated.

Fabian : Shared you mean?

(The atmosphere in the sanctum goes still. God stared at Fabian).

God : (Raising his voice just enough so it echoes throughout the sanctum) To those who create shall go the rewards! The workers and the masses do not create. They perform a task, as simple as any idiot is capable of. Ideas escape them. They are unable to think for themselves and must be firmly guided to the truth by a superior class. And by any means necessary, of course.

All : Yes Sir.

God : I like to have a word with Katu privately.

(The other two exit the stage in single file down an unseen flight of stairs).

Katukara : Please forgive me for failing to suppress the demonstrations sooner with additional support. I was concerned how it might look to the international media if we had brought in our foreign mercenaries for that purpose. Their loyalty will always rest with us, no doubt. But their methods may provoke media and public condemnation.

God  : Yes of course. The approach of arresting the protesters at their homes in the still of the night is brilliant. No one knows we arrested hundreds, I gather?

Katukara : Yes sir. No one, apart from us. Our surveillance has been remarkably effective in identifying the suspects. The undercovers have completely infiltrated the mob. We know who these miscreants are and where to find them.

God : Good. They must be taught to respect and obey our sacred law. What of the leaders?

Katukara : There are six whom we knew about for some time. 4 are closely monitored and guided by our undercovers without being much aware of our agenda. The other two are independents. Idealists! They are much harder to suborn or bring under control on account of their beliefs. They will be dealt with severely, of course. The leaders’ actions were predictable. We control the situation throughout. TKK was very helpful here. Fabian shared with me that TKK’s intelligence network had performed superbly.

God : I am very pleased. I expect a very long prison stay for the trouble-makers. What does the judge say?

Katukara  : He’s drafting a bill at our request this instance to effect that, and retroactively.

God : We can always count on the judge to do the right thing. He’s a high degree believer.

(God places a hand on Katu’s shoulder as they are about to leave the sanctum): How’s Savi? Please convey my warmest regards.

Katukara : She’s very well, Sir. I will. Thank you.

Curtain falls. End of Act 1, Scene 1

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover - Chapter 8: Charged Gazes and Dropped Hearts

As the friends met the next day for lunch at their favorite Indian restaurant, Kat decided to surprise them with her interesting news.

“So I slept at Julian’s last night,” she nonchalantly blurted out.

Marilu had just taken a drink of water and immediately spit it out after hearing Kat’s words.  The others reacted with dropped jaws, gasps, and exclamations.  Kat laughed as she waved her hand to clear the mist from Marilu’s reaction.

“I thought you might like that…” she chuckled.  “Honestly though, nothing happened.  We just worked really late, and I ended up falling asleep in his lap at one point.  Then the trams weren’t running anymore so he offered for me to stay in a guest room.  It was quite sweet, actually…”

“In his LAP?!”  Juniper echoed with wide eyes.

“Yeah…you sure nothing happened?” Astrid giggled with a raised eyebrow.

Kat shook her head adamantly.  “No, no, no… I mean, yes I dozed off and collapsed and my head landed in his lap somehow…and he just…let me sleep I guess?  When I woke up I was beyond embarrassed—but he seemed to find it amusing…”

“I dunno about this…you two seem to have some peculiar connection…” Marilu mused.

“Yes, I keep saying he doesn’t talk to anyone else the way he talks to her,” Juniper confirmed.

“Well, I think it’s sweet he offered up his guestroom to you to stay in because it was late.  It’s a bit romantic, isn’t it?”  Bethany added, beaming with optimism.

“He also let me wear some of his clothes to sleep in, you know, just like a t-shirt and comfy pants…”

“Oh that’s so sweet!” Bethany exclaimed, bringing her hand to her heart.  “What a gentleman!”

“Yes, that is a bit familiar, isn’t it?” Marilu pondered.  “Intimate…”

“By the way, do any of you know what ‘The Pirate Bay’ is?” Kat asked.

“It’s a BitTorrent website where people can go to download media, like movies and songs, for free.”  Marilu answered.  “Why do you ask?”

“Oh well, that’s what was on the shirt he let me borrow…I was just curious what it was…” Kat blushed, feeling a little foolish for having to ask the question.

“So how did this morning go?  Did you come to work together?” Bethany asked before taking a bite of her paneer tikka masala.

“Oh…well…” Kat began while she tore her naan into a few single bite pieces.  “I haven’t seen him yet today…I left this morning before he woke up…”  she lowered her head a little, as if she were ashamed.

The four friends gasped almost in unison.  Kat responded with a flustered shrug.

“Well I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do!  I had to get home so I could get ready for work…and I still felt a little embarrassed over the whole thing…I wasn’t sure if I could face him…and have him see me all a mess in the morning…”

“Awe, I don’t think he would have minded any of that one bit!  You worry way too much,” Bethany responded, hoping to reassure her friend.

“Yes, maybe he would have cooked you breakfast or something!” Astrid added, reaching for more rice.

“Oh I dunno…maybe…” Kat shook her head a little.

“I don’t know how you don’t see it—he likes you!  Why else would he let you sleep in his lap and stay at his place overnight?  It’s so obvious!” Juniper exclaimed with bright eyes and a hopeful smile.  “You guys would be really cute together!”

Kat couldn’t conceal her beaming as her face flushed with a little heat, which was not caused by the spices in her delicious meal.

“That is definitely a thought that lives rent free in my head quite often…but ugh, I just don’t know… I think it might be easier if we didn’t work together and he wasn’t in such a high position…”  Kat sighed as she paused for a moment.  “Anyway enough about me and Mr. VP…what else have you all been up to for the past week?

“Oooh, well something I haven’t told you guys yet…is I have recently started archery lessons…” Juniper shared, reaching for their mango lassi and giving it a stir.

The table directed their attention to Juniper with enthusiastic surprise.

“Archery?!  That is so cool!” Bethany exclaimed.

“Yeah definitely!” Kat confirmed.  “How did I not hear about this sooner?”

“How is that, is it difficult?” Marilu asked.

Juniper nodded and smiled, acknowledging all of the reactions.  “Well, you know my affinity for all things outdoorsy and adventurous, and, well, I just thought this sounded like fun—like a new adventure.  It is difficult, a little awkward, but the instructor seems to think I have a bit of a natural knack for it…”  Juniper began to blush a little when they mentioned the instructor.

The friends were intrigued and wanted to know more about the archery in general, but also picked up on Juniper’s reserved giddiness over this instructor.

“So this instructor…” Astrid began.  “What are they like?”

Juniper smiled as their eyelashes fluttered for a moment.  “Well, the instructor is very skilled, I mean I guess that is why he is the instructor…”

“He?” Astrid raised an eyebrow. 

Juniper fidgeted a bit, feeling a little shy at first but eventually obliged the questions and told their friends all about the instructor.  He was an Irishman with long, thick, and wavy brown hair with some lightly tamed scruff about his face.  His eyes were also of a dark chestnut color, but they were kind and warm.  His name was Killian, fitting of his Irish background, but most people called him Kili for short. He was brawny like a lumberjack but also had a grace about him, as if he were a descendant of Mother Nature herself.  Juniper found themselves to be quite taken by Kili’s talent and kind-hearted soul.  He was soft-spoken and quite playful at times, which made his class quite popular.  Juniper often wondered what it might be like to go on a camping adventure with him in the Swiss mountains sometime.

“Well this is exciting…you should invite him out sometime so we can meet him!” Bethany cheered.

“Yeah maybe…” Juniper began.  “Or you could come and observe a class, too.  See him in action.  He is really something!”

“Does someone have a bit of a crush?” Astrid inquired with a smirk.

Juniper shook their head. “Agh, I dunno…m-maybe a little…but I’m just really enjoying the class right now and learning from him.  Besides, I don’t really know what his story is, if he is single or any of that…”

“Well there is always time to figure that out…how many more classes do you have with him?”  Kat asked.

Juniper took a sip of water as they finished up their lunch before responding.  “This class is a 12 week class, twice a week, and I just started a couple weeks ago.  I think he teaches more advanced classes as well.  He also competes in those axe throwing competitions…”

“Oh yeah, those are really popular right now!” Marilu noted.

“Yeah!  So I suppose that is my news for now,” Juniper concluded.

“I think it’s cool you just signed up for archery…I mean how random!  But also exciting.  I’d like to see you do that sometime,” Kat added.

The rest of the table responded in kind, and Juniper really appreciated the support.

“What about you, Astrid?  You always have intriguing tales for us,” Bethany inquired.

“Ah yes, you know…the rich doctors and businessmen…they are all the same.  Although last night, I did meet a somewhat peculiar man…”

Marilu tilted their head inquisitively. “Peculiar—howso?”

“Well…” Astrid smiled as she gestured with her hand dramatically.  “He was a bit of a wallflower at the bar, you know…just gawking in the shadows.  He had a typical upper-crusty look due to his attire but there was something about his face…something that seemed a little….dark.”

“Ermm…sounds like a serial killer…” Bethany giggled.

“Yes…he was dark and mysterious, but I didn’t get this sense that he was harmful in any way…” Astrid continued.

“Well did you talk to him?”  Kat asked.

“I did.  He had a very refined British accent, soft-spoken.  He is a doctor, of course…but quite different than the other doctors I’ve met.  He’s a forensic pathologist by training.”

The table gasped.  “Forensic pathologist?  How cool!  I wonder if he has a skull in his office…” Juniper smiled as they folded their hands and tapped their fingertips together just under their chin.

“Yes…so, it takes a special type of person to do that sort of work, no?  A dark and twisted soul, “ Astrid mused, finishing up her drink.

“I dunno, “ Kat shrugged.  “I mean, I’ve worked with pathologists and assisted on autopsies, and they are pretty normal.  Family men and such.  However that was just surgical pathology, not forensic.”

“Yeah, think of all the heinous crimes he may have seen throughout training, “ Juniper added.  “But the crime might be worse in the US or England, rather than here in Basel?”

“I definitely think he has seen some stuff, probably when he trained in London,” Astrid theorized.  “We didn’t talk too much about that though.  He was charming, he bought me drinks and treated me like a lady…”

“And did you dominate him later, put him in his place?” Marilu asked.  The rest of the table giggled.

Astrid shook her head though.  “Nope, not this time.  I offered, but he declined.”

“Has that actually ever happened to you before?” Bethany asked with genuine surprise.

“No—and this is what intrigues me.  He did however, ask for my phone number, so I gave that to him.  I think there is an interesting man in there—something deeper, more profound than these others who are so easily toyed with it’s sickening…” Astrid sighed.

“Did you get his name?” Kat asked.

“What does he look like?” Bethany followed.

Astrid shared that the man’s name was Alister and he was a man of medium height and build with pale skin, freckles, and ginger hair that was tied back in a low ponytail.

“Hey, ginger…!” Juniper raised their glass in a humorous manner which gained a round of chuckles from the table.

By this time, the friends had finished their lunch and needed to make their way back to the office.

*   *   *

After lunch, Kat settled back into her desk and unlocked her computer as she prepared to finish the second half of the workday.  Just as she had opened a case and began reviewing all of the detected variants listed, a mysterious black chat window popped up on her adjacent monitor.  It was like the one she received from Julian just the day before.

<jjj>: Kitty-Kat

Kat’s heart dropped into her stomach as she saw this message, both excited to receive another message from Julian but also worried she may have upset him by leaving without seeing him earlier.  As she pondered a response, she noted in the lower left hand corner of the screen she could update the chat handle that appeared for herself.  She smirked as she took a subtly flirtatious step, wondering if Julian would pick up on it.

<kkk>: Hi Julian!

<jjj>: Can you drop by my office?

<kkk>: Of course!  On my way now…

Kat sighed as she locked her computer again, feeling her face flush with warmth and her palms starting to glisten.  She took a quick sip of water to help calm her excitement before standing up and heading toward Julian’s office.  Once she arrived, she knocked on the door lightly before popping her head inside.

“Hey, Julian…?”

Julian looked up from the monitors at his desk and grinned once he saw Kat, and motioned for her to enter.  She nodded and walked inside, shutting the door behind her.

“Hi Kitty…” he said softly with a smile as she sat down in one of the chairs on the other side of his desk.  “So you must have left early this morning, I was surprised to see you were gone already when I got up.  Did you sleep okay?”

“Oh, yes I did—very well in fact!  I just had to get up so early so I could get home and get ready before work.”

Julian nodded, his blue zircon eyes shining warmly.  “I understand.  I should have given you the number to the driving service to come get you…”

Kat smiled, trying not to blush or fidget too much.  “Oh it’s okay, thank you though—and thank you again for letting me stay there last night.  I still can’t believe I just fell asleep on you like that!”

Julian nodded with an amused smile.  “It’s quite alright…I had a nice time.”  His eyes gazed at her before he blinked softly.  This look made her heart race a little faster.

Kat lightly batted her eyelashes before responding.  “I—I had a nice time too…”

They continued to share a charged gaze before Kat spoke again.

“By the way…I meant to ask you about the driver…and while we’re at it, the mysterious chat window…?”

Julian chuckled with another nod.  “Well I can’t give away all my secrets now, can I?”

Kat giggled, very much enjoying the flirtatious banter.  “Something tells me you have more…”

Julian returned a smile but then seemed to pause and tense up for a moment.  He did have a lot of secrets, especially one big serious one, so he thought it might be best to try and change the subject.  He pursed his lips and sighed briefly before delivering his next response.

“The driving service is just a company benefit.  The chat window, well…”  Julian bit his bottom lip for a second before continuing.  “Let’s just say I like my privacy and because I know my way around computer networks I found a way to create an instant chat that is not monitored by our IT department…”

Kat blinked a few times, intrigued.  “You really worry about IT looking at your chats?  They’re so harmless…”

“Yes, you’re probably right… call it an old hacker habit.  Sometimes it’s just fun to do it because you can.”

“Hacker, huh…?”  Julian’s mystique and dreamy good looks were driving Kat mad inside.  Every time she talked to him the attraction got stronger.

Julian internally scolded himself for letting out another juicy secret, but he did feel comfortable around Kat and believed her to be trustworthy.  However, he still wanted to remain cautious.

“Yes, well…you know—all ten year old gamers think of themselves as hackers,” he chuckled, diffusing the disclosure.  “Anyway, I asked you in here because I have some good news regarding our project.  I think I’ll have a better idea toward the end of the week, but I think we are almost ready to start validation!”

“Oh, that’s such exciting news, really?”  Kat was ecstatic.

Julian nodded with a wide grin, then swooped his hair behind his ears.

“Yeah…I will need to spend the rest of this week helping out with the pipeline issues the blood assay has been having, but I may have some time by Friday afternoon to put the final touches on this and take it for a test spin.  Think you’ll be available then?”

“Oh definitely, Friday is perfect.  I can’t wait to see how this turns out!  What time works best for you?”

Julian rolled his chair back toward his monitors to look at his calendar.

“Hmm…probably 4 or 5…”

“How about 430 then?” Kat suggested.

Julian leaned back toward her and flashed another one of his charming grins.  “Perfect.  I’ll see you then.  Thanks Kitty-Kat.”

Kat felt as if she were going to melt right there in his chair.  His smiles, those mysterious zircon eyes, his velvety-caramel voice—they all gave her the warmest shivers throughout her body and she was addicted.  The chemistry was so strong she pondered that he must have felt it too, and started to believe that maybe her friends were right after all, that he might have feelings for her as well.  The chemistry would not be so strong otherwise.

“Thank you, Julian…so much!  I will see you Friday!”

“Yes…if things go the way I think they will, we may have a reason to celebrate.”

Kat tried to control her giddiness as she stood up from the chair and prepared to exit his office.

“I certainly hope so, wouldn’t that be something?”

“Yes…” Julian mumbled quietly as Kat made her way toward his office door.  “Oh hey Kitty—” he added quickly.

“Yes?”  She turned around as she held the doorknob in her hand.

“Nice chat handle…it suits you,” he quipped along with another charming grin.

Kat’s heart dropped into her stomach again before it was picked up by a swarm of butterflies.  She chucked nonchalantly, looking away shyly before meeting his eyes once again. 

“I’m glad you think so,” she whispered.

They both stared at each other for another charged moment before Kat finally broke the gaze and quietly walked out of the door.

#mendax undercover #kassangie #my shitty writing #the fifth estate #fanfic #my f/o #self-ship bullshit #precisionmed!au

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover - Chapter 7: P4

Over the next several weeks, Julian and Kat continued to meet at least twice a week to work on their research.  Kat would prepare datasets and then Julian would test them through his pipeline programs, tuning parameters often for optimal results.  Kat also continued to scour through published literature in case any new variants of interest popped up.  Preparing the datasets could be tricky sometimes, and also required some advanced coding skills, for which she required Julian’s expertise and guidance.  They often found themselves working late hours in Julian’s office as they simply lost track of time while engrossed in their work.  Sometimes they would decide to have dinner delivered to the office or Kat would step out to pick something up for them.

While they both were very professional and focused on the project, they were also spending a lot of time together and getting to know each other rather well.  They shared jokes, anecdotes, and funny stories from their pasts.  Kat shared stories from her life in the United States, and Julian then would share stories about his childhood in Australia.  Australia seemed like a different world to Kat and she could not fathom ever making it there, it seemed like it was on the other side of the moon.  However, Julian made it seems less foreign to her, and she told him how she often joked and called Arizona the “Australia” of the United States due to the warm climate and strange, ominous creatures that could be found there.  Julian told her a little about his early hacking days in his teens and twenties, but he was careful to not mention his website or citizen journalism activities via “the fifth estate.”  He was beginning to grow quite fond of Kat and was pretty sure she was a trustworthy individual, but he still felt the need to be cautious.  On the other hand, Kat’s crush-feelings for Julian just continued to grow the more she got to know him.  She was fascinated by his mind and how talented he was with computer programming.  She could see why he was hired as a VP in bioinformatics.  While he was very confident and even arrogant at times, he never made her feel inferior.  He seemed to value her contributions to the project and treated her as an equal colleague rather than as if he were her boss or mentor.  They both began to truly enjoy each other’s company, and they looked forward to their working meetings together, despite knowing they would often run late into the night.

One day, on a day when Kat and Julian usually met after work, Kat noticed Julian was not in the office.  She was a little concerned and a bit disappointed to think that they would not meet that day, since she always looked forward to her time with him.  She did notice however, that he was online via the instant messenger intranet program, and she saw some emails from him come through of which her variant scientists group was copied.  She figured he was simply working from home that day, and that he probably had his reasons for doing so.  She pondered sending him an instant message just to check in and make sure he was alright, that he hadn’t fallen ill or anything, but she did not want to overstep her bounds.

A couple hours later, as the usual time for their regular meeting approached, a strange chat window popped up on Kat’s computer.  It was not through the company’s regular intranet instant messaging program.  It looked more like a command prompt, with the white letters on a separate window with a black background.  It simply read “Kitty-Kat.”

Kat felt a wave of heat flash through her face once this message popped up.  It was so strange—if it were Julian, why didn’t he just message through the IM program?  Then again, how could it be anyone other than Julian, who was the only one to call her Kitty-Kat.  She glanced around her desk, making sure no one else was nearby, then she bit her lip as she started to type a response in the mysterious chat window.

- Julian, is that you?

- I’d still like to meet today, if you are up for meeting offsite.

This has to be Julian, she thought to herself.  Who else could it possibly be?  Kat was extremely intrigued—Julian continued to keep up the mystique.

- Yes, I can meet offsite.

- Excellent.  I will send a driver to pick you up at 4pm.  He will be parked in a black car across the street from the back lobby.

This was the same spot where she often saw Julian enter a black car after leaving the office after their late meetings.

- Great, I will be there!

- See you soon.

Then the little black chat window disappeared.  Kat felt her heart starting to race in her chest.  This was all so strange and mysterious.  Why the secret chat window, why was a black car picking her up, and most importantly—where was she going?  She had so many questions, and while this was all so baffling and a little nerve-racking, it was also exciting.  Julian sure knew how to keep things interesting.  She looked at the clock and saw it was 330p, and at that point she didn’t even care if she had emails to answer or other work to tend to—whatever it was it could wait until tomorrow.  All she could think about was making it out to that street in time to see where this car was going to take her.  She quickly gathered up her things and rushed toward the elevators.

Once she made it to the lobby, she continued to scurry across the floor and caught Astrid’s attention at the front desk as she breezed right by her without a greeting.

“Hé!  Kat!  Hello to you, too!”  she quipped after her.

Kat stopped in her tracks and retreated back toward the receptionist.

“Oh goodness, I am so sorry, Astrid!”  she gasped, catching her breath.  “I am in a bit of a hurry…”

“Clearly!  Who’s on fire?”

“Well…Mr. VP is not here today, but I got a strange message from him and he is having a car pick me up at 4:00!”

“Pick you up?  And where is it going, this car?”  Astrid inquired with a raised eyebrow.

Kat placed both of her hands on the large marble desk and leaned in dramatically.

“I have NO IDEA!” she gasped with a mixture of fluster and excitement.

“Oooooh, quel mystère!” Astrid bubbled with curiosity and enthusiasm for her friend.  “Well would you like a little snack for the road?  I’ve got some of those little cakes you like…or perhaps some crisps?”

Kat laughed, she loved how generous Astrid was with her snacks.  It was sweet how she wanted to take care of everyone, especially her good friends.

“Not right now, my stomach is kind of in knots, but thank you!”  Kat then looked up at the clock, then back at Astrid. “Oh, I just realized I am supposed to meet the car outside the back lobby— outside the restricted elevator!  But how are you doing?”

“Agh, I’m fucking tired, you know it!  Now vas-y, vas-y or you will be late!  But we all will want details later, you know.  Now go!”  Astrid exclaimed as she shooed Kat off toward the back lobby.

Kat chuckled breathlessly as she waved to her friend and ran toward the back lobby.  Just as she made it outside, she saw the black car pull up across the street.  She felt her stomach drop once she saw the car and trotted over to it, trying to look a little more graceful even though she could not see the driver inside.  His side of the car was facing the other side of the street.  After she approached the back door on the passenger side, she opened it and peered inside inquisitively.

“Hello, um—were you sent by—”

The driver rolled down the divider between the front and back seats and looked at her with dark eyes that matched his dark, short hair.

“Dr. Assange—yes.  Are you…” the man hesitated for a second, as if what he was about to say next was a bit absurd. “Kitty-Kat?”

Kat let out a breath and blushed lightly, feeling a little embarrassed herself.  “Yes…Kat,” she started to clarify, but then rambled nervously as she climbed into the car. “…Kitty…Kitty-Kat….yes…”  She shut the door and once she got settled she looked in his direction again, her head titled inquisitively.

“Can you tell me where we are going?”

“You will see soon enough.  Once you get there, you will walk through the lobby to the elevators, and take it up to P4.”

Kat nodded, still so baffled by this mystery.  “P4…” she repeated.

“Enjoy the ride, Miss…”  And with that, the driver engaged the divider and began to drive away from the biotech building.

Kat took a moment to catch her breath and look out the window, as if looking at the passing scenery would give her clues on where she was headed.  She then took a few minutes to make sure her hair was set right and refresh her light red lipstick.  Then she took out her phone and began to text her friends in the group chat.

Kat: You guys, I am in this car that Mr. VP sent for me and I have NO IDEA where it’s going!

Aside from Astrid, the others were astounded by this curious scenario.

Jun: He wasn’t onsite today…

Bethany: Ooooh how exciting!

Astrid: You must tell us EVERYTHING!

Marilu: Maybe you’re going to his residence?

Quite honestly, going to where Julian lived would have been the most logical, educated guess.  However, Kat did not want to assume, or presume, anything.  Even if it were his home, she still had no idea where that was.  It could be an hour away for all she knew.

Kat: The driver did tell me once I get there, to take the elevator up to P4.

Astrid: P4???

Marilu: P may stand for penthouse…

Bethany: Ohhh penthouse, of course!  Mr. VP would be in a penthouse!

Jun: What a fun adventure!

The friends continued to text for a while until the car finally stopped and the driver rolled down the divider again.

“Have a good day, Miss…Remember, P4.”

“Oh!  Okay—P4…” she repeated under her breath, then she looked at the driver as she opened the door. “Thank you very much, this is a lovely car.”

The driver smiled lightly.  “Thank you.”  He rolled up the divider again and Kat shut the door.  As the car drove off, she turned around and faced the rather tall building in front of her.  It wasn’t as tall as Santé Genomics, but it looked to have about 16 floors or so.  She walked up a modest staircase to the front double doors and walked inside.  It was an older building but it looked to have been remodeled.  The wooden floor was polished and shiny, and had ornate, multicolored area rugs decorating the main walkways.  To her left, there was a front desk, and as she continued to step forward past the desk she finally saw the brassy, reflective elevators.  She pushed the “up” button and once inside the elevator, she saw the button for P4.  It seemed Marilu was correct in guessing the P stood for penthouse.  She tried to calm her nerves as she rode the elevator up to P4, and she was relieved to not have anyone else stepping on and off—she must have caught it at a perfect time.

The elevator finally made it to P4 and once the door opened, Kat walked out into a very quiet hallway.  The hallway also had a wooden floor with a long runner that was decorated similarly to the one in the lobby.  The walls were painted a very neutral grey color.  She finally reached a door at the end of the hallway that had a P4 on it.  Kat took a few breaths and took a moment to dry her sweaty palms on the sides of her slacks before she finally went to knock on the door.

However, before her hand could hit the door, it opened suddenly and quickly revealed Julian standing on the other side of it.  He looked to inhale for a second, with his mouth slightly opened and his eyebrows raised, but then he quickly relaxed and smiled in a way that was both playful and seductive.  His platinum blonde mane was a bit tousled, with rebel strands hanging near his right eye as usual while most of them on his left side were tucked behind his ear aside from a few light ones that seemed to escape and do their own thing.  He was wearing a white collared shirt with a couple of the top buttons undone in a relaxed look and the shirt was loosely tucked into dark green-to-grey slacks made of a soft, comfortable fabric.  He looked quite casual and comfortable indeed, but still breathtakingly handsome.  In fact, Kat worried that he heard a squeak escape her mouth as she lightly gasped at his sight.

“Kitty-Kat— hello!  I’m glad you could make it,” he smiled genuinely.

“Hi, Julian…!” Kat returned, still in a bit of a daze.

“Please, come in…!”  Julian motioned a bit awkwardly with his arms.  Sometimes the way he moved them made them look like they were asleep.  He then shut the door once Kat stepped inside.

Kat continued through the entryway and walked toward the large living area, which was backdropped with large windows from floor to ceiling and no curtains.  Due to the time of day, the sun was starting to set but plenty of light still filled the room.  She noticed that despite the large dining table a few feet away, Julian seemed to be set up working at his couch and coffee table.  He had a couple of laptops open on the table and various papers strewn about the table and floor nearby.

“Would you like anything to drink?”  He called from the kitchen area, that was somewhat blocked off from the right side of the living area.

“Oh um sure…I’ll just take some water, thanks!”  she called to him.

Julian returned with a bottle of water for Kat and he was holding a brown bottle of some other beverage in his other hand.  Kat sat down on the far end of the couch, closer to the kitchen and windows.  As she opened her bottle of water and took a drink, she watched Julian start to head back to his side of the couch.  He brought the brown bottle to his mouth and quickly popped the cap off with his teeth before sitting down and releasing the bottle cap into his hand, which he then tossed onto the coffee table.  He took a swig from the bottle then set it down on the table.  Kat watched in awe, unaware she was actually gawking a little bit.  He was so peculiar sometimes, but it just added to his mystique.  He was never short on presenting these unique quirks at random, and for Kat, it just made him that much more appealing.  He wasn’t just any ordinary man, and Kat loved that about him.

Julian glanced to his left, his eyes peering out at Kat from behind his white-blonde strands while he was hunched forward toward his laptop on the coffee table.

“What?”  he seemed to take note of her frozen state.

Kat didn’t even realize she was staring until he called her on it.  She lightly shook her head and managed to say something credible.

“What is that?”  She motioned toward his drink on the table.

Julian looked back at the bottle and picked it up.  He took another drink and licked his lips before looking back at Kat.

“This is Club-Mate—it’s a low-sugar energy drink.  Would you like to try it?”  He leaned toward her, extending his arm to offer her the bottle.

“Ohhh!”  She smiled.  “Okay sure!”  She reached for the bottle.  “Energy drinks though, usually not good for my nerves…”  She then took a sip.

Julian nodded with a grin. “Ah right, the anxiety and decaf…” he remembered.  His grin grew, amused at Kat’s adverse reaction to the Club-Mate.

“Yeah…it takes a little getting used to…an acquired taste…” he chuckled softly as Kat offered him the bottle back while squinting her eyes a bit.

She giggled.  “I suppose so…”

Julian looked toward the bottle as he held it in front of himself.  “Yeah, this helped keep me awake and focused for hours as I worked on various projects…”

“Like during your PhD studies…?”

He smiled softly then looked in her direction again, his zircon eyes tender and almost shy.

“Something like that…”

Their eyes locked for a brief moment before Julian finally looked back toward his laptop.  “Alright, so—where are we at today?”

“Well, I was having some trouble tweaking the datasets to include some other biomarkers such as FGFR3 and NECTIN-4… and I think we also were still working on fine tuning the parameters for optimal accuracy and precision for the pipeline…”  Kat recounted while she worked to unpack her laptop and set it up on the table next to Julian.

“Yes…it’s proving to be quite the challenge.  Fortunately, I have plenty of stamina for such an endeavor,” he flashed a smug smirk as he looked at her again.

Kat did everything in her power to hold back her blushing.  Was he purposely being flirtatious there?  The answer was yes, yes he was.  She took another drink from her water bottle, relieved that the cool temperature helped to dampen her lustful feelings for the moment.

“One thing about programming, is search engines are paramount.  All programmers search for code.  Sometimes that is a good 80% of the work—and it can often be time consuming—hence the need for things like this—”  Julian lifted his bottle of Club-Mate.

Kat smiled and nodded.  She and Julian then proceeded to work on optimizing the datasets and finding the best code to help them tweak their pipeline program.  Time quickly flew by, as it tends to do when working on coding and programming puzzles.  It can seem like the work just started, but hours pass by like minutes in a flash and this evening was no different for Kat and Julian.  It soon got darker in the penthouse flat as the sun had set long ago, but neither of them seemed to notice as they had ample light beaming from the laptops in front of them.  Julian, who was extremely focused and determined, spent most of the time in the same hunched over position as he searched and typed away on his laptops.  He was definitely in the zone and hadn’t even gotten up to retrieve more Club-Mate servings.

As the hours continued to pass, Kat started to grow sleepy but she didn’t want to disappoint Julian, especially since he was working so hard.  She didn’t want him to think she was not dedicated to the project.  So she thought she could just silently sneak in a quick rest of the eyes for a few minutes and Julian wouldn’t even notice.  She leaned the back of her head against the couch and closed her eyes.  She felt quite comfortable and the room was dark and quiet, aside from the light tapping from Julian’s keyboard which was a relaxing sound like rain drops on a rooftop.  Just another minute or two, she kept thinking to herself before her body finally succumbed to the relaxation and drifted off into a deep slumber.  Her body remained upright for a good half hour or so, and Julian was so engaged in his work he did not even notice at all until her body started to shift.  She slowly collapsed toward Julian, the side of her head grazing his shoulder.  Once he felt the contact he looked toward her, a bit startled.  He quickly leaned back into the couch and once he did, her head fell straight into his lap.  Kat then let out a sleepy sigh and her hand rested on Julian’s knee, her body feeling quite content and comfortable, indeed, but still completely asleep.

Julian blushed once her head landed in his lap, near such an intimate area.  He bit his lip and froze for a moment, unsure how he should proceed.  Should he wake her up, or let her rest?  He then smiled softly to himself as he looked down at her.  He found this display of vulnerability on her part to be rather endearing, and the gentleman in him did not want to disturb her little nap.  Plus, a part of him was curious to see how she would react once she woke up.  The thought made his tender smile turn into a bigger amused one for a small moment, then it slowly faded as he blinked softly.  He pursed his lips and looked to his left, reaching for a blanket that was draped over the back of the couch.  He gently placed it over her body as it was cradled next to him, then slowly returned to his hunched over position at the laptop, continuing his work.

A couple more hours passed by, and Julian became so focused on his work he almost forgot Kat was still sleeping in his lap, until she finally began to stir.  She took in a deep breath and sighed, grasping onto his knee as she returned to consciousness.  Once she opened her eyes and saw a rather unfamiliar setting—the large windows staring back at her and the fabric of a rather unfamiliar couch.  As she continued to wake up and realize where she was, and that her head was not resting on a pillow but Julian’s left thigh, her eyes widened and she quickly shot upright, pausing before turning to face Julian.  Part of her was hoping he wasn’t there, or that this was a dream and she did not just embarrass herself in front of the VP of Therapeutic Bioinformatics.

“Welcome back, sleepyhead.  Did you have a nice Kat-nap?”  Julian quipped in a low, velvety purr that probably would have made Kat melt into a puddle of goo if she weren’t so mortified at the moment.  She slowly turned toward him, still a bit hazy but enough to notice the sweet, amused smile on his face and blue zircon eyes shining in the monitor lighting.

“Oh my gosh…did I fall asleep?  What time is it?”  She asked, touching her forehead for a second.  The blanket fell off of her arms and rested around her lap.

Julian looked at the clock on his laptop.  “It is a quarter to 1…I suppose probably a good time to stop for the night.”  He then looked back toward her.

Kat, a mixture between flustered and hazy, lightly shook her head.  “Goodness, Julian, I can’t believe I just conked out like that…I am so embarrassed.  I apologize for being so unprofessional, it won’t happen again.”

Julian blinked softly at her while his mouth fashioned a slightly crooked grin.  “It’s okay, no need to apologize…we did work pretty late…”

“I suppose I should get going, huh?  Let you get some sleep…”

“Hmm…” he murmured softly, as he reached for the blanket and gently pulled it up around her shoulders.  “I dunno, it’s quite late actually…”  His hand naturally dropped from her shoulder to the couch, right next to her lap with the back of his hand barely grazing the side of her thigh. 

Their eyes met once again and Kat’s heart began to pound in her chest.  This was probably the closest she had been to him.  His lips were mere inches from hers, and they looked so soft and kissable. 

“I think it might be safer if you stay here for the night.  I have an extra room you can use…”

Kat felt a little silly, initially thinking that maybe he was inviting her to stay with him for the night, on a romantic level.  Which if he did, of course she would have accepted—and if Julian were certain of this, he would have proposed it.  While they both felt the chemistry, neither was sure how much of it was one-sided or mutual.  They both also sensed each other’s hesitation which resulted in an atmosphere of sexual tension for the both of them.

“Thank you, Julian…that is so generous of you…but I don’t want to impose…”

Julian shook his head with a smile.  “No, no…don’t be silly.  It’s late, the trams aren’t running any more and my driver is in for the night.  Plus look at all this space…” he gestured around his flat.  “I have the room to spare.” 

He then stood up from the couch and Kat looked up at him once he extended his hands out to her, offering to help her off the couch.  She lightly placed her hands in his and instantly felt a small spark from the contact.  Julian actually had beautiful hands—they were strong, yet soft and well-manicured.  Once she stood up to meet him, her eyes found themselves in direct line with his exposed neck which teased her desires and looked particularly lovely in the moonlight of the living room.

“C’mon…let’s get you settled,” Julian said softly.

Kat fought another blush as her eyes met his once again.  Her eyelashes fluttered as she smiled shyly.  “Okay…thank you…”

Julian grinned lightly and they both paused, letting their eyes lock for a moment before Julian finally turned away and let go of one of her hands.

“This way, follow me…” he whispered, leading her down the hallway toward the spare rooms.

Kat bit her lip as she continued to hold onto his hand lightly while she trailed behind him.  She blushed when they passed the door to his bedroom, pondering what a night with him in there would be like.  Surely it would be nothing short of sinful and heavenly.

“Will this be okay for you?” he asked, stopping at a fully furnished and decorated room, complete with a double bed that had plenty of blankets and pillows to spare.

“Oh, this is lovely—better than my flat,” Kat giggled.  “I might get spoiled and then you won’t be able to get rid of me!”

Julian breathed out a laugh then looked at her with bashful yet flirtatious eyes that were somewhat guarded by loose strands of his hair on both sides of his face.

“That might not be so bad…”

Kat’s heart seemed to stop and take a dip into her stomach as she looked back up at him.

Kiss me, you gorgeous, brilliant fool!  You know I want you to…

Sometimes Kat wished she were more bold in these situations, maybe more brave and confident like Astrid… but she also wanted to be chased and feel desired.  After a few moments of awkward silence, she finally spoke again.

“This is a lot of rooms for just one person, you really live here all by yourself?”

Julian’s air changed a bit, and he suddenly seemed more guarded.  He had let go of her hand and shifted his weight a little.  He took in a deep breath and nodded. 

“Uhh yeah…this place actually belongs to an old friend of mine who wanted me to watch it over for him…”

The “friend” was actually a fairly wealthy donor to his journalism vision and website.

“Oh I see,” Kat nodded, actually finding comfort in that explanation.  It made Julian seem more real, that he didn’t own this extravagant penthouse on his own.

“Oh, I almost forgot…hold on…”  Julian then quickly whisked away to his room for a moment, then shortly returned with a t-shirt and some flannel pajama pants.

“Here… in case you want something a little more comfortable to sleep in for the night.”

Kat smiled as her body flushed with warmth.  This was a really sweet gesture on his part, and somewhat intimate as he was letting her wear some of his clothes.

“That’s so thoughtful…thank you,”  she returned humbly.  “You’re a gracious host.”

Julian nodded with a little smile.

“Okay, I’ll let you get settled…”

“Okay…”

After Julian left the doorway, Kat unfolded the black t-shirt and on the front of it was a white decal of a large ship with several sails, and the words “The Pirate Bay” written under it in a sort of “Old English” font.  Kat was intrigued and wondered what The Pirate Bay was.  She made a note to look it up the next day, but for now she really needed to get some sleep.  She went ahead and changed into the t-shirt but had not donned the soft pajama pants yet.  She then found an outlet to plug her phone charger into, and she stood by the bed checking her phone for messages and setting her alarm.  A few minutes later, Julian stopped back to ensure she was able to settle in.  He stood outside the doorway and let his eyes survey her from head to toe.  Her back was toward him, wearing only the t-shirt that cut off just below her bottom.  He licked his lips briefly before biting his bottom lip while he took some time to admire her bare, slender legs.  He finally let out a little cough to let her know he was standing behind her.  She whipped her head around to face him, a little startled at first.  She thought he had turned in for the evening.

“Just thought I’d check to make sure you didn’t need anything else…”

Kat smiled.  “Oh thank you—I think I am okay.  I am just trying to find where the switch is for this lamp…”

Julian smiled as he walked over to her.

“It is a tricky lamp…it’s up here…” 

The lamp was one that was mounted to the wall, and had a switch somewhat hidden on the top ledge.  It was a peculiar place for a switch rather than on the brassy mount itself or somewhere closer to the bulb.

After Julian stepped in to turn off the switch, it left him standing inches in front of Kat once again in the darkened room with only subtle moonlight peering in through the nearby window.  He smiled to himself as he looked down at her, noticing that his Pirate Bay shirt served her quite well.

Kat felt her molecules buzzing inside of her again with him standing so close, also while she was only partially dressed.

“Thank you…”she finally managed to squeak out as their eyes seemed to lock almost intensely.

Julian lowered his head, and also seemed to lean in a little closer.  His hand was still on the wall after turning off the switch.  Kat took in a small breath and her heart began to pound faster in her chest once he looked into her eyes again.

“Goodnight…Kitty-Kat,” he murmured softly as he reached out to touch her shoulder and flash one final grin before backing away.

“Goodnight…Julian…” she whispered with glossy eyes.  She then watched him as he walked out of the room.

Neither one of them slept well that night, each in their separate beds while their hearts secretly longed to be with the other.

#mendax undercover #assangie #kassangie #the fifth estate #can you spot the easter eggs? #my shitty writing

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover - Chapter 4: Let Your Ego Flowcell

Kat yawned as she wandered over to the coffee and water station.  Her new friends she met at the gala a couple weeks ago joined her and Juniper for karaoke the night before and ended up having so much fun that they stayed out later than originally planned.  As she yawned again and breathed in the scent of freshly brewed coffee, she began to wonder if she could handle the caffeine just this once.  The individual servings of decaf just would not get it done for her this time, and the aroma of the higher quality crystals drew her in more so than usual.  Maybe she could use the extra boost to get her through the day.  She turned around and began to pull a cup out of the stack, when—

“Good morning, Kitty-Kat—we meet again…” she heard a familiar smooth Australian voice purr.

“Oh, hi Julian…!” she returned, taken by surprise and in effect, the cup she pulled from the stack flipped right out of her hands.  She tried to catch it with the other hand but it stubbornly bounced a couple times off of her palm like some sort of hot potato.  After several failed attempts to regain her poise and control of this cup, it finally made its way into Julian’s airspace.  He reached out and caught it easily, rim facing up.  He peeked out from behind it with a wide, charmed grin on his face and zircon eyes shining brightly.

“Looking for this…?” he quipped, trying his best to restrain his amusement.

Kat blushed considerably and tried to laugh it off. “Aha, yes…thank you…”  She retrieved the cup from his hand and turned back toward the counter. “The universe never fails to miss an opportunity to embarrass me…”

Julian took a few steps further into the alcove and stood behind Kat’s shoulder. He shrugged as he twisted his mouth a bit and tucked his errant strands behind his right ear. 

“Embarrass, hm..?”  He then watched as she reached for the carafe of fresh brew.  He bit his lip for a second and raised his eyebrows before continuing.  “No decaf today?”

Kat breathed out a slight laugh, still turned away from him as she poured her coffee and then reached for the cream and sugar.  She took this time to try and flush out her blushing. 

“Ah, yeah well…it just smelled so damn good I couldn’t resist it today.  I’m sure I’ll pay for it later…”

“Oh?”  Julian was intrigued.

“Yeah, the anxiety likes to hit me later in the evening… for some reason…” she continued, but then trailed off a bit once she turned around and met his gaze again.  Her body was buzzing and her heart was racing without even ingesting a taste of the coffee yet.  Julian blinked rapidly a few times as she looked up at him.  She was about to take a sip from her cup when she suddenly stopped herself.

“Oh!  I’m sorry…” she started.  “Would you like a cup?  I can pour it for you…?”

“Uhh… yeah, sure— thanks.”

Kat turned back around, again trying to calm her blushing.  She set her coffee down, then reached for another cup and pumped from the carafe.

Julian took a few steps backwards and leaned against the counter.  He crossed his arms as he stood somewhat at an angle. 

“Hey, nice contamination catch on that flowcell yesterday…I saw they had to re-extract…”

Kat’s heart fell into her stomach.  He saw that?  Of course he did…he’s on all the emails…but he knew it was me?  Now she was blushing but with gratitude rather than nervousness. 

“Oh…yeah, thank you…!”  She turned around to face him and was about to ask him if he wanted any cream or sugar in his coffee, when she saw his stance tense up a bit as he looked at his watch.

��Oh shit, what time is it…?”

“Oh, almost 10--?”

“Shit, I gotta run to a meeting—can you drop some cream and sugar in there and bring it to my office, please?”

“O-okay… sure…?”  Kat stammered as Julian quickly darted away.

She just guessed how much cream and sugar to put in his coffee.  She basically dressed it like she did her own.  She quite liked both in her coffee at times, but not enough to overpower the coffee taste.  It had to be a good blend.

Kat paused after she stirred Julian’s cup and then she looked at her own, realizing she hadn’t had a sip yet.  It had time to cool off, so she was able to take a couple large swigs off of it.  She really did enjoy coffee and would chug it in seconds if it weren’t for the heat.  She then grabbed the full cup she made up for Julian and headed toward his office.

For a moment, Juniper had looked up from their computer screen and saw their good friend headed toward the VP’s office with two cups of coffee in her hands.  They raised an eyebrow and cracked a small smile before focusing back on their work.

Kat lightly knocked on Julian’s door and as he was seated at his desk, he motioned for her to enter from behind his computer monitors.  She quietly walked in, letting the door close behind her before approaching his desk and softly setting the coffee down.  She shyly looked away and started to make her way back toward the door, careful to not disturb Julian in his meeting.

“Thank you, Kitty…” he said softly, then peered out from behind one of the computer monitors as she started to walk away.

“Hey, wait—” he called lightly.

Kat stopped and turned back toward him.

“Turns out my meeting was cancelled at the last minute…”

Kat smiled.  “Ohhh, gotta love it when that happens!”

Julian smirked and nodded his head up and down.  He then stood up and walked to the front of his desk and leaned against one corner in a half sitting- half standing position.

“H-how is your coffee…?” Kat asked.  She knew he hadn’t had a chance to sip it yet, but she was trying to break the awkward silence.

He exhaled for a moment as his lips fashioned an inquisitive pout and he looked toward his cup.  He stuck his fingertip in it and twirled it around a bit as if it were a swizzle stick.  Then he quickly licked the warm liquid off of his fingertip. 

“Mm!” he hummed sharply, then reached for the cup.

Kat tilted her head in wonderment for a second.  So strange…and yet at the same time, still so fucking magnetic…

“It’s good… perfect actually…you have good taste, Kitty-Kat.” 

Kat’s eyes fluttered as she was on the other side of yet another one of his wide, enigmatic grins.  Julian swooped his hair behind his ear again and readjusted his stance to face toward her.  He then motioned toward a chair in front of his desk.  “Please…would you like to sit?”

Kat blinked a few times, a bit surprised.  “Oh!  Okay, sure…”  She then walked toward the chair and sat down in front of him.  She still felt nervous, anxious, and her heart was still pounding in her chest, but for the first time in his presence she began to feel something else—a slight calmness. 

“Tell me about yourself-- How long have you been here at Santé?  What made you leave the United States for Switzerland…?”

Kat blushed lightly—Julian was taking an interest in her, but she had no idea why.  Honestly, neither did he—but he was interested.  No, she was not elusive and mysterious like he was, far from it—but what drew him into her was her transparency.  He was not used to encountering other people who were so honest that they couldn’t lie to save their life no matter how hard they tried.  This was like a breath of fresh air for him.

Kat answered his questions, gave him a brief summary of her career trajectory, her studies, and how she ended up in Basel.  She told him how she studied languages such as French and Russian before she finally settled in pathology and precision medicine.  She then began to tell him about the research she began in her graduate studies, and how she would like to continue it somehow.

“Did you not want to pursue a PhD?” Julian asked, sipping his coffee.

“I haven’t exactly ruled it out…but after I finished my master’s I ended up getting this job and moving here, and I dunno I’ve just been enjoying it.  I feel pretty content, like I’m where I should be…”

“What do you like about living here in Basel?”

Kat shrugged a little. “Oh, so many things.  I don’t even mind the winter as much here as I did over there…maybe because I don’t have to drive in it.  I love that you can be in a different country in a matter of minutes…plus Paris is only a three hour train ride away…”

“Ah yes, Paris…of course,”  Julian smiled.

“Oh—and I don’t know if you’re into this sort of thing—but there is this cool pub just a couple blocks from here that plays a lot of great music from the 80s and 90s…”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah!  Do you like to dance or anything like that?”  Kat could feel herself blushing a little bit but she was enjoying the conversation.  She felt oddly comfortable with him.  She wasn’t sure why he was engaging in this conversation with her though.  Perhaps he was just looking to take a break and chat with someone.  He was new in town, after all.

Julian smiled and nodded for a moment, then his mischievous zircon eyes peered out from his errant strands that always found their way back in front of his face no matter how often he swiped them back.

“I’ve found my way onto a dance floor or two before….usually after a number of, um, strong beverages…” Julian chuckled.

Kat giggled. “Ohhh!  Yeah, the drinks at this place are good too.  There are a lot of great places around here for that.”

They both laughed playfully, then Julian said softly, “Maybe you can show me sometime…”

Kat’s heart almost stopped right in her chest.  Was he asking her out?  It seemed he was leaving the door open to go in that direction at least.  She batted her eyelashes shyly, trying to hide yet another blush event.  “Yeah, sure!  Anytime…I know it can be a little strange and lonely moving to a new country at first… I mean, you came here from Australia, right..?”

Julian shifted his weight as he continued to lean against his desk.  “Yes, I grew up in Australia, but my work has taken me all over for several years now…”

“Oh, of course…”  Kat figured he meant his work as a scientist, which was only half of the story.  Julian was careful with his words—he didn’t want to reveal too much of his past but he also did not want to lie to her.

“What do you think of Basel so far?”

Julian shrugged.  “Yeah, it’s nice…quiet.  Keeps me out of trouble…” He flashed another charming grin.  “But back to your research…how would you like to continue it?”

“Well, I felt like I was maybe onto developing a predictive gene signature for urothelial carcinoma patients and immune checkpoint inhibition therapy.  Maybe something similar like what is out there for CRC patients and FOLFOX/FOLFIRI regimens…”

“Mm-hmm…so you’d like to create an algorithm to predict survival benefit…and test it against large datasets, I imagine?”

“Yes, exactly!  But I will be honest with you—my graduate studies only touched very briefly on data science, and it was a difficult class for me.  I don’t really understand how to tweak the parameters to improve accuracy and precision of the pipeline programs and things like that…”

“What programming language did you use in your studies?”

“Python.”

Julian nodded.  “That’s pretty common now, and one of the easier ones to use.  Lucky for you, I know it well.”  He flashed another grin that was mixed both with charm and arrogance.  He never missed an opportunity to gloat about his intellect and talent.

Kat smiled back lightly, still in awe that any of this conversation was happening.  Then it got even better.

“Look, they are bugging me to work on some research.  This sounds intriguing.  How would you like to work on this with me?”

Kat went completely numb.  She wondered if she just hallucinated.  Did Julian just ask her to work on a project with him?!  Was she dreaming?  Then she remembered to breathe before she passed out.

“Oh—really?  I mean—yes!  Yes, of course, absolutely!”  she finally responded enthusiastically, internally kicking herself for sounding so desperate.  This was exciting for her though—not only was she able to continue her research, but she was going to do it alongside this platinum fox of a man who rearranged the structure of her molecules any time she was near him.

Julian grinned widely and nodded.  “Excellent.  Set up a meeting sometime next week and we’ll get started.  My calendar is updated.”  He then pushed off of the desk to stand upright, and then he finished the last sips of his coffee.  Following his cue, Kat stood up as well.

“Okay, will do.  Thank you so much, Julian…I just—I really appreciate this.”

“Well, we can help each other out…” he walked back toward the chair at his desk and sat down.  “But for now I’ll let you get back to work.”

Kat bowed her head.  “Yes, of course…okay, thanks!”  She turned around and headed toward his office door, but stopped when Julian called to her one last time.

“Oh and Kitty-Kat..?”

She blushed any time he called her that.  “Yes?”

“Thanks for the coffee,” he said, then followed it up with a sort of “chef’s kiss” gesture and a playful yet magnetic grin.

Kat giggled a bit before returning, “You’re welcome, anytime…”  She then turned back around and made her way out of his office door.

Julian watched her from behind his monitors as she exited the office.  He touched his fingertips to his mouth for a moment as he continued to gaze in that direction, even after she was gone.  He was inexplicably drawn to her, but he had to be careful.  He couldn’t risk blowing his cover.  He couldn’t afford to get too close to anyone—the cost was too high if it didn’t work out.  He could lose everything and be put back in the line of danger again.  The last time he fully trusted someone and partnered with them to manage his high profile website, that person ended up betraying him by sabotaging the website which rendered it useless until Julian could rebuild it again.  For Julian this was the ultimate betrayal, and a mistake he swore to never make again.

Kat’s knees almost buckled under her after she left Julian’s office—but once she regained her composure she scurried back to her desk and had to tell Juniper immediately.  Juniper then accessed the inter-office messenger program, where the 5 friends had a private chat set up.

“Hey everyone—ready for lunch soon?  Let’s meet at Astrid’s desk and figure out where to go from there—Kat has a story for us!”  Juniper typed.

The three ladies responded immediately, excited to hear the tale to come.

#mendax undercover #assangie #kassangie #fanfic #my shitty writing #slow burn

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover - Chapter 1.5

Kat had been working as a variant scientist at Santé Genomics for over five years.  She started her career as a surgical pathology lab assistant in the United States before working her way up the laboratory ladder, and eventually became fascinated with molecular science, and finally, precision medicine.  As she dove into advanced studies on precision medicine, she found her true professional calling within the realm of biomarker and drug intelligence.  She loved the idea of discovering new biomarkers that drove disease and then developing therapies that would target those specific molecular anomalies, thus improving survival rates and quality of life.  Kat recognized that cancer was a complicated and duplicitous disease that was actually hundreds of diseases, so finding one cure was impossible.  Understanding which molecular variants were pathogenic, benign, or of unknown significance seemed like a grand and formidable undertaking—one which could keep Kat engaged in her work for years to come.  This was important as Kat could get bored very easily. It so happened that this task was that of a variant scientist, so when the opportunity opened up at Santé Genomics for this role, Kat jumped on it.  Luckily for her, she had worked at the US base for the company, so after procuring her dream job she also got to fulfil her other dream of living in Europe.  She was not a fan of cold and snowy weather, but the opportunity to live in Europe was something she simply could not refuse.  She was embarking on a new adventure, one that would be more fulfilling than she could have ever imagined.

Kat was not one to date much.  Once an optimistic romantic, that tended to fade with age and disappointing encounters.  Her work became her main focus and passion in life.  She knew she could only depend on herself, so job security and financial stability were very important to her—but she still wanted to have a career she could be proud of.  For a man to catch her eye, he would have to be more than extraordinary.  However, she did not consider herself to be anyone extraordinary herself.  She considered her looks to be average, though others debated that.  She was eyed and chased by men, but mostly by afar and not to her knowledge.  Many men found her to be intimidating, something she was bored of hearing.  Kat had long dark brown hair down to her waist, with slight hints of bright red highlights.  She loved the color red—the color of passion and fire—something that always burned deep within her heart, even when she thought it had been muted.  Her eyes tended to rotate between blues, greens, and even greys sometimes, perhaps depending on her mood, but they always had sparkle in them even when she felt defeated.  She was tall with an hour glass shape which at times was the envy of some of her female friends.  She enjoyed looking nice when she would go out on the town, but typically during the work day she wore little to no makeup, perhaps some red lipstick, and usually had her long hair tied up atop her head to keep it out of her way throughout the day.

Kat had settled in well at Santé Genomics, establishing herself as a leader in the department after being with the company for about two years.  In that time she had become close friends with one of her colleagues, another American expat and fellow variant scientist named Juniper.  Juniper, or Jun as many people called them, was a nonbinary individual with short reddish-orange hair, amber eyes, and modest freckles sprinkled across the bridge of their nose and cheeks.  Petite in stature, Jun was an excellent variant scientist, and shared the passion for laboratory science and precision medicine that Kat did, which made them a great team.  Their love for their work as well as both being American and moving to a new country helped them bond rather quickly and they became each other’s confidants and support systems in both their professional and personal lives.  Jun was a talented artist and cosplayer, and Kat enjoyed supporting them at all of their shows and events.  In return, Jun supported Kat’s love for singing and they could be seen at local karaoke bars, enjoying cocktails and unwinding from their sometimes stressful workdays.

Kat really felt like she had accomplished all of her dreams—she procured her dream job, in a dream location.  Basel was an interesting location—technically situated in Switzerland, it was so close to both Germany and France that it was quite common to be in 3 countries throughout the course of any given day.  It was also only a 3 hour train ride away from Paris, Kat’s favorite place in the whole world and now she could go there for a weekend trip any time she desired.  She truly had it all, or so she thought until she encountered him—the enchanting, elusive Australian native who would reignite the flame of desire that once burned brightly in her heart.

#mendax undercover #again i know my writing sucks but hopefully you get the idea #if anyone actually reads this lol #hopefully once I get through these intros and on to the good stuff it will get better #kassangie #gingery-juniper

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover - Chapter 5: SATC?

^^ Kat talking about her interaction with Julian. ❤️‍🔥

I wrote another chapter! The next one is gonna be more difficult but it should also have some good stuff in it.

After the five friends met at Astrid’s desk on the 1st floor, they decided on a place to have lunch.  There was a quaint Indian food restaurant called Tandoori Palace Gate that was near Santé Genomics.  It had great food, a lunch buffet, was decently priced, and offered a calm, relaxing atmosphere.  This was a typical go- to for many people in the biotech sector, and these friends quickly made it a favorite mid-day hangout where they could socialize and catch up.  Once they were seated and settled, they soon ordered and then began their chat session.  The topic of the hour was Kat’s new story regarding the latest interaction with the otherwise elusive bioinformatics VP.

“Okay so what is this story, what happened?”  Bethany inquired with playful excitement.

The other three focused on Kat with a curious air.

“Oui, tell us!” Astrid echoed.

Kat fanned herself a little bit as she exhaled, trying not to blush too much like a giddy schoolgirl.  However, it may have been a bit too late for that.

“Okay well—we ran into each other at the coffee station again…” Kat began.

“Ahhh coffee…” Marilu mused.  “I bet you needed some after last night—I know I sure did!”  The others laughed in agreement.

“Yes, that was fun, but we can’t make a habit of staying out that damn late—not unless we all call off the next day or use PTO or something…” Juniper added, rubbing their tired eyes.  “Oh but you were saying, Kat…?”

“Ah yes, so the coffee station.  Well, he has this habit of sneaking up on me and taking me by surprise…he’s like some sort of sneaky ninja…”

“Or sexy ninja…” Astrid added with a smirk.

The others groaned and nodded in agreement.  Even though Marilu and Juniper were asexual and aromantic, they could still appreciate the allure of a handsome man.  Plus by now, all of the friends were emotionally invested in Kat’s new crush.

“Anyway—so he startles me again and I of course fumble my coffee cup, thank goodness it wasn’t full.  It just kept bouncing off my hand until it flung towards him and he caught it!”

The friends giggled.

“Right, so then we just started chatting a bit—he made a crack about me going for the caffeinated stuff…oh!  Then I offered to pour him a cup and then he had to run off to a meeting, and asked me to bring it to his office…”

The friends leaned in, interested to hear what came next.

“Have you ever been to his office before?” Marilu asked.

“I hadn’t!”

“What’s it like?” Juniper asked.

“Oh…I dunno…it’s nice.  It’s big.  Large windows on the far wall, and a conference table in front of those.  Then bookshelves and cabinets behind his desk…I dunno, looks like a typical executive’s office...”

“Nothing personal in there?  Décor?” Astrid asked.

Kat tilted her head for a moment.  “You know, no—I didn’t really notice anything… I think he had a small fridge in there, maybe?  Behind his desk…but that’s it…”

“Not surprising…” Juniper began.  “I was talking with Otto in bioinformatics and he said Julian hardly talks to anyone…you have probably talked with him more than anyone on his own team has!”

Kat shook her head. “No way, that can’t be right…”

“He seems like the type to keep to himself,” Marilu noted with a slight nod.

“Takes one to know one!” Bethany teased.

Marilu shrugged. “Yeah, fair…”  They were being amusing in their own way.

“Ooooh, but I haven’t gotten to the good part yet!”  Kat exclaimed, getting a bit giddy.  “Okay so… I go into his office thinking I’m just going to drop his coffee off and leave—but then he’s like, ‘hey my meeting was canceled,’ and I was like, ‘oh that’s cool,’ and then he was all, ‘why don’t you stay and chat a bit,’ and I was all, ‘bpbpbpbpbokay!’”

Laughter filled the table.  As Kat continued, her speech and hand gestures were becoming more dynamic as her cheeks flushed slightly.  She was beaming.

“Anyway, so yeah, we just chatted a bit about how we ended up at Santé, and I told him about a couple of fun pubs around for dancing and stuff and then he was all, ‘maybe you can show me sometime…!’”  Kat started to fan herself again.

The others expressed surprise with dropped chins and more leaned in gestures.  “Whaaaaat…” they sang in unison almost.

“He is so into you—he has to be!” Bethany exclaimed, then taking a sip of her Lassi.

“But you guys, it gets even better…  After that, he asked about my graduate research, and then, well, long story short—he said that the company is on him to do some research so he asked if I would like to work on my research with him!”

“Woooooah!”  the friends chimed.

“I know!”  Kat brought her cold glass of water to her cheeks and forehead for a moment, trying to calm her excitement.

“I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little jealous,” Juniper responded.  “I wouldn’t mind some hot VP wanting to help me further my graduate research…”

“You could end up publishing a manuscript with him!” Bethany exclaimed.

“And presenting together at ASCO… Oooh overseas trips together…?” Marilu mused.

“This could also mean lots of late nights together, eh?” Astrid inquired with a raised eyebrow.  “Wouldn’t you have to do research after the normal workday?”

“Ooooh…” the others chimed in unison, agreeing with Astrid’s thought.

“Yeah…maybe…I guess we’ll see!  But yeah, I am pretty elated about this, you guys…  I really don’t know why or how this is happening, but I guess I’ll try to enjoy it and not screw it up by doing something stupid!”  Kat scoffed at herself.  “Hopefully I can control the clumsiness around him if I have to see him more…”

“Awe Kat, you’re so hard on yourself,” Juniper said, being a supportive friend as they often were.  “You are so passionate about precision medicine and what we do, and I bet he sees that in you and knows you will take it seriously.”

“Thanks, my friend,” Kat nodded to Juniper.  “So yeah, that’s my big news for the day…how is everyone else doing?”

“I’m so fucking tired…!” Astrid growled.

“Didn’t you leave with that businessman last night?” Bethany asked.

Astrid chucked. “Ah yes, I did…upper-class connard,” she added with disdain.

“But he was handsome—was he not very nice?”

“Bof… he was fun for a night—to dominate, you know…but they are all the same.  Thinking the pretty French girl is so exotique…it’s so…ennuyeux, non?”  Astrid rolled her eyes.  “But I give them what they want, a show, eh!  It’s fun for a night.”

Bethany grimaced.  “But what about finding a real nice man and falling in love?”

“Pfft—l’amour, c’est la guerre,” Astrid quipped.

Bethany looked at Marilu and Juniper.

“Don’t look at us, we’re ace…” Marilu noted, crossing her hands back and forth a bit.

“That’s not to say we don’t believe in others finding love, “ Juniper added.  “I just think it’s very tricky, and rare to find a good one.  Most of the time it’s just too much hassle, and who has time for that nonsense?”

Bethany sighed, then looked hopelessly at Kat.  “Kat, what do you think?  Do you believe in love?”

Kat shrugged.  “I am generally a skeptic… However, deep down I do want to believe, wish for it… It’s been a long time since I met anyone who made me think of stuff like that though…”

“Until now…?” Bethany inquired with a hopeful smile.

Kat cracked a shy smirk, almost feeling like she were caught with her hand in the cookie jar.  “Yes…Mr. VP…well…he is giving me the feels for sure.  He is just so…enchanting…”  Kat sighed hopelessly, then immediately scolded herself in her head for being such a silly schoolgirl.

“Oh my God, I just realized something…” Bethany added while covering a giggle with her hand.

“What?” the others asked.

“We are just like the ladies from Sex and The City…!”

“Huh?” “What?” “How do you mean?” the others inquired simultaneously.

“Oh my God, yes!  It’s so obvious!”  Bethany laughed, so proud of herself for discovering this parallel.  “Sex and the City—the biotech version!”

The others just looked back and forth at each other, then back at Bethany for further explanation.

“Okay so I’m totally Charlotte—the one with the more reserved and traditional outlook on love…”

“Ohhh…” the others began to nod as she continued.

“And Astrid here is Samantha, feeling power in her sexuality and having fun with it.  Then we have TWO Mirandas!”  Bethany gestured toward Juniper and Marilu.

“Ah yes, the romance skeptic!”  Juniper laughed.  “I even have the short red hair!”

“And Kat…” Bethany motioned toward the variant scientist.  “Well, she’s our Carrie of course…and Mr. VP is her Mr. Big!”

The table roared with approval.

“God…” Kat sighed.  “He’s even elusive like Mr. Big was…”

“Oap, there she goes…” Marilu waved a hand in front of Kat’s eyes to bring her back down to earth.

The table giggled as they continued to finish their lunch before heading back to the office.

And just like that… Basel was starting to show Kat there was room in life for friendship and potential romance as well as a successful career, and maybe having it all wasn’t as rare as most people thought.

#mendax undercover #assangie #kassangie #fanfic #my shitty writing #cameos #getting closer to some good flirty stuff soon!

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover: Chapter 2 - The 27th Floor

Julian’s arrival at Santé Genomics was fairly uneventful, like many new hires.  He was given an office on the 27th floor with his team of bioinformatic and data scientists who worked to develop pipelines and interpret molecular data from sequenced flowcells which would eventually translate into a final patient report that detailed a wealth of genetic information about their tumor tissues, as well as recommended therapy options when applicable.  The 27th floor was expansive and included several other teams, including curation scientists, QA scientists, a team of medical writers and artists, Quality Management Systems personnel, other executives, and finally Kat’s team of variant scientists.  The variant scientist workspaces were adjacent to the bioinformatics teams, and Kat’s desk was situated not far from Julian’s office, just a few rows across and away.  Her desk was somewhat angled toward his office door to where she could see it, but it was also far enough away to not be in his general path of office travel.  Julian often kept to himself in his office and rarely ventured out to speak to anyone.  If people needed to chat with him, they usually went to his office.  He would sometimes venture out to stretch his legs and stroll around, check out the office café, or grab a cup of coffee.  He was not seen socializing much.

Julian had only been onsite for a few days before Kat finally got a glimpse of him from across the office, and once she did she had to do a double take.  This tall, slender man with his striking platinum locks was definitely a stand out image in an otherwise average office setting.  She blushed and shook her head to herself once she realized she spaced out a bit, and then leaned in to peer over Jun’s cubicle, which was right next to hers.

“Hey, Jun…” she whispered, looking to get her friend’s attention inconspicuously.

Jun looked up from their computer screen and gave Kat their attention.  “What’s up?” they returned.

“Who is that…?” Kat asked, then motioning her gaze toward Julian and his office.  Jun’s eyes followed.

“Um…I think he is a new VP in bioinformatics or something?”  Jun then went to their computer and brought up the organizational chart, looking at the bioinformatics team.  “Ah yes…VP of Therapeutic Bioinformatics.  Cool.  I bet he knows a lot.”

“What’s his name…?”

Jun looked back at the organizational chart.  “Julian Assange, PhD…”

Kat blushed after she briefly eyed his office again.  Handsome and intelligent… she thought to herself.  She often considered these qualities mutually exclusive when it came to men.  It was rare to encounter one who possessed both qualities.  Surely a guy like that is married, and quite out of her league.

“Well Dr. VP Assange is kind of a fox…don’t you think?  Dang…”  Kat quipped with a giggle.

Jun shook their head and shrugged lightly with a half smile.  “Yeah, not bad at all…”

Kat smiled again and retreated back down to her seat, shrugging off the silly conversation.  However, she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of personality went with those looks and that title.  Was he nice and down to earth, like her own VP, or was he an arrogant jerk?

* * *

Weeks passed by and business went on as usual for Kat at Santé Genomics.  Sometimes she would catch a glimpse of Julian from afar, and she would blush a bit and hide her face behind her computer screen while her eyes managed to still peer out for a bit. 

What was it about him that distracted her so? 

Once she became self aware of her pining, she became quite irritated with herself.  She was not usually so easily tilted by some man.  She thought those years were long gone— she could not even remember the last time any man ever caught her attention let alone excited her.  To help distract herself, she took a walk over to the coffee and water station and prepared to make herself a cup of coffee.  Kat typically opted for decaf due to her sensitive nervous system, but it was often difficult to find any decaf pods for the machine as most of the office drank coffee for the caffeine.  Kat just generally loved the taste of strong, dark coffee, but was not a fan of the accompanying anxiety.  While she aimlessly rummaged around the cabinets to look for the decaf coffee, Julian had stopped by to retrieve some coffee himself—the fully caffeinated kind.  He paused and furrowed his brows a bit as he noticed the woman obscuring the path to the coffee machine as she was frantically poking about in the cabinet. 

He bit his lip briefly before letting out a small sigh and muttered, “Excuse me…” as he attempted to step past her.

Upon hearing the smooth, deep voice, Kat jolted and hit her head on the cabinet, which of course made a bit of an obnoxious noise.  To top that off, she had dropped some of the coffee pods she was moving to get to the decaf ones.  She squeaked a bit as she dropped to the ground, not even noticing who was in the small alcove with her.

“Are you alright…?”  she heard the same velvety voice inquire.  He had knelt down to the floor and attempted to help her pick up some of the pods she had dropped.  She looked up and once she saw who was in front of her, her face flushed and her heart began to race.  She then immediately bowed her head in embarrassment.

“Oh my apologies Mister-- I mean Doctor Assange…I-I was just looking for the decaf and I guess I got a bit startled—I didn’t know anyone else had walked in…”  Kat continued to pick up the pods frantically, trying to distract herself from her incredible embarrassment. 

Of all the people on the 27th floor I had to do this in front of him… 

Julian handed her some of the pods he had picked up, and once she accepted them from his hands, she looked back up at him and saw his zircon eyes peering out from the platinum strands draped over the right side of his face.  He sported a slight grin, looking somewhat amused. 

He must think I am ridiculous…

This was the first time she got an up close look at him though, and noticed he was even more handsome than he was from across the room.  His eyes were dark in color, but they sparkled almost mischievously, matching his silly grin.  And that hair— it looked soft and ethereal—almost extraterrestrial—and the errant strands that flopped over the side of his face gave him a mysterious yet endearing look that was imperfectly perfect.

Who IS this man…?

Kat managed to stutter out a “thank you” before she stood up and turned around to put the pods back in the cabinet.  Julian followed, standing behind her.

“Julian…”

She turned to face him again. “What--?”

“You can call me Julian—just Julian…” he stated, wearing another soft grin.

Kat exhaled nervously with a smile. “Ohh, okay… Julian…”

“And you are…?”

“Oh!  My name’s Kat—err Kitty…well, most people call me Kitty…but I go by either—or both…”  She desperately wanted to make herself sound interesting and be memorable to him, however she worried that she just sounded desperate.  She had 0 game.

Julian nodded, still grinning.  His errant strands followed the movement. “Kitty-Kat...”

She almost melted where she stood when he muttered this version of her name.  It made her feel feminine, delicate, and desirable.  And it was his voice that said it.  His voice was just as dreamy as he was.  It was soft, smooth, deep, and had a distinct accent that she could not place.  Perhaps Australian?  Yes, it was Australian.  Salty-caramel Australian with a light lisp.  The lisp was likely a product of his mild overbite, which then contributed to the structure of his pouty lips.  His intoxicating blend of perfect and imperfect contributed to his overall charm.

“Do you mind if I sneak by you to make some coffee now?”  Julian asked.

“Oh!  Yes, please—yes, of course…” Kat blubbered.  She turned back to the cabinet to put the rest of the pods away as Julian stood almost back to back with her as he prepared his coffee.  Kat was thankful she was not facing him because she felt as if her face were on fire.  As the single serve coffee cooked, Julian asked Kat what department she worked in and he was pleased to hear that she was with the variant scientist group, as that team helped out bioinformatics sometimes when troublesome flowcells needed to be analyzed.  Julian learned that she was an American expat and he confirmed that he was in fact, an Australian expat.  Once his coffee finished, he nodded toward her before passing by to retreat back to his office.

“Later, Kitty-Kat…” he said with another silly grin.

She turned toward him as he took a few steps away before he turned back to face her again.

“Good call on the decaf, by the way…” he quipped with a final nod and mischievous smile while raising his cup to her before finally turning back around to make his way back to the office.  He was poking fun at her jumpy nerves.

Kat blushed yet again after he retreated, and she then turned back toward the cabinet and buried her head in it for a moment.  She finally found her decaf coffee.

#mendax undercover #kassangie #writing still sucks lol #just consider all of these drafts #i ain't got time for fine tuning #more cameos to come in the next chapter I think!

[luv-assangiebatch]

The soundtrack to Mendax Undercover is getting a little out of control..!

#I've been hearing sooo many perfect kassangie songs! 💞💞💞 #so hard to choose which ones to use in the upcoming chapters! #oh the feels! #❤️❤️❤️ #self ship #f/o community #f/o x s/i #my f/o #assangie #the fifth estate #mendax undercover

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover - Chapter 6: Charming Mystery

Kat did just as Julian had asked and set up a meeting the following week for them to discuss the first steps of their research.  Julian’s calendar was fairly full most of the days, so she had to snag a timeslot within the last hours of the workday later into the week.  For the days leading up to the meeting, she was extra anxious and found that her stomach exhibited frequent fluttery sensations of butterflies any time she thought of Julian.  These symptoms became even more prominent when she caught a glimpse of him in the office or better yet, when they crossed paths in the halls and exchanged quick greetings.  His voice was always so soft and smooth when he spoke, and he was never short on the amount of charming grins he would flash afterward.  Kat caught herself gazing toward his office every so often while she was at her desk, and sometimes when he stepped out to interact with his team he would glance in her direction before heading back into his office.  When his eyes caught hers, he would always grin softly and give her a subtle wave.  She would then return also with a smile and a wave, but not before a shy blush.  These actions were very subtle and were not noticed by most others within the large office floor, but one day Juniper found themselves witness to one of these events. 

Juniper popped up and leaned over toward Kat’s desk and caught her spacing out as she was still glancing toward Julian’s office door.

“So have you met with him yet about your research?” Juniper asked.

“Hmm—what?”  Kat asked, somewhat in a daze.  Then she snapped out of it and looked toward her friend.  “Oh…no, not yet…we have a meeting on Thursday.”

Juniper smiled.  “Are you nervous?”

Kat shrugged.  “No…I don’t think so…”  She tried to play it cool, but Juniper could see right through it.  “I mean…it is just a work thing, for work.  I just need to focus on being prepared.  I don’t want him to think he made a mistake by choosing me to work with him on this.”

“I am sure it will be great!  You’ve told me about your master’s project before, so it’ll be interesting to see what you both come up with.  Have you talked with him at all since last week?”

“No, not much beyond passing each other in the office.  I have managed to keep my balance when I’ve seen him this week, so that’s something.  Hopefully a good sign.”

Juniper nodded with an amused smile.  “Ahh perhaps!  Maybe you are feeling more comfortable around him?”

“Maybe…” Kat pondered.  “I just can’t wait to talk to him again…  He was so nice, he made me feel comfortable.  I mean inside I was like, ‘aaahhhh!’” Kat flashed some jazz hands, illustrating her internal excitement.  “And he’s smart…so smart… And very confident.  I can tell he commands control but is not overbearing… He has a sort of quiet elegance about it all.  It’s like he’s this enigmatic mixture of dominance and humility—it’s intoxicating!  I mean, have you ever met anyone like that?”

Juniper shook their head.  “I can’t say that I have, not that I recall, anyway…he sounds intriguing.”

Kat nodded and continued to gush.  “He really is….he has this way of looking at you with a smile that is sweet and yet somehow sly…and it just makes your heart skip a beat.  And then his voice—with that accent…it’s as if his words are wrapping themselves around you in a gentle, warm embrace.  It’s enchanting…!”  She sighed as she spaced off for a moment.

“Well, I still think you have talked with him more than anyone else on this floor.  I think he might see something in you, too.”

Kat shrugged as she snapped out of her daze. “I dunno about that…I mean, he’s in a lot of meetings, so he’s talked with people in those, surely…”

Juniper nodded.  “That’s true…”  Then they looked toward their computer as a new email popped in.  “Oh, looks like one of our customers is looking for WTS and WES results that are on this flowcell we haven’t analyzed yet.  Guess we better get to it…!”

“Ah, I see that— on it!”  Kat was able to shift back into scientist mode and keep her mind focused on her work rather than her budding feelings for Julian.

* * *

Finally Thursday had rolled around and Kat was on pins and needles of anticipation all day until four o’clock, which was the time of her meeting with Julian.  Shortly before she began to gather her things and make her way toward his office, her instant messages dinged a few times with each of her good friends wishing her luck and pleading for all the details afterward.  Kat blushed and smiled at the messages; it was so sweet how invested her friends were in this new endeavor.  She really appreciated the support, both with her career and her crush.

She knocked on Julian’s door before she lightly pushed it open and peeked inside.

“Hi—J-Julian…?”

Julian looked up from his monitors. “Oh hi Kitty-Kat, how are you?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Good—good…Um, are we still meeting today?”

Julian raised his eyebrows and took in a breath before he licked his lips slowly, as if he were pondering something.  Then he bit his bottom lip for a moment before he exhaled.  “Is that today?”  He tilted his head to the side and toward her with inquisitive brows.

“Y-yes….today at 4.  It’s 4 now…”  Kat felt like her face was on fire and her palms were all sweaty.  She was simultaneously wishing she would have brought a glass of water with her while also second guessing herself if she remembered to put deodorant on that day.  “Do you need me to reschedule it…?”

Julian paused, raising his eyebrows again and rolling his eyes to the side as he seemed to ponder the question.  Then he looked down and sighed, some errant locks falling over his right eye. 

“Shit…” he sighed, then looked up at her with almost apologetic eyes. “Yeah, I am swamped, can we try for tomorrow instead?”

“Tomorrow…? O-okay, sure…” Kat started to walk away to leave Julian to his work, but then he popped out of his chair and stepped toward her.

“Wait—Kitty…”

Kat turned back toward him, still standing in the doorway.

“I am just messing with you,” he flashed a playful smile.  It was a little awkward, but he was being somewhat flirtatious.  While Julian possessed a great deal of natural charisma and charm, it didn’t save him from sporadic bouts of social ineptitude.  In fact, some people in his past wondered if he were placed somewhere along the spectrum of autism.  Charming yet awkward—again he exhibited the enchanting juxtaposition of perfect imperfection.  

“Please, come in…sit-sit…” he motioned toward the conference table in his office by the large window.

Kat tried to calm her blushing, wondering if Julian could see any of the moisture beading up along the hairline of her face.  She breathed out a laugh, relieved that they were still on for the meeting but also wondering what in the hell just happened.

“Oh, okay…good!”  She tried to match his playful demeanor.  She sat down at one of the chairs in front of the table while Julian undocked his laptop and sat at the next chair, which was at the head of the conference table.

“Okay, what do you have for me?” Julian asked, opening his laptop and typing in his login information.

“Well I have some references to my research and some of the variants of interest—” Kat began before Julian cut her off.

“Oh—would you like something to drink?  Water?”  He reached behind him for the small fridge near his desk and opened it, pulling out a bottle of water.

Kat was relieved. “Oh yes, please!”

Julian smiled softly and handed her the bottle.  He then settled back into his position at the table.  “Please…” he motioned for her to continue.

After taking a refreshing gulp from the bottle, Kat continued explaining her research.  She gave him a quick background on urothelial carcinoma and some of her variants of interest for therapy associations.  She also presented some crude, rudimentary examples of pipeline programs created in python to give him a starting point, as well as presented datasets from Santé Genomics cases as well as from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).  Julian was impressed with Kat’s preparedness and dedication.  He could also sense the passion she had for the project as she continued to explain her research, citing various scholarly articles that backed up the reasoning for her wanting to test out this group of pathogenic variants.  He saw a bit of himself in her, being so dedicated to a project.  That’s when he knew he had chosen the right person to work with—he needed someone smart, focused, and dedicated.  Someone who worked in the same way he did.

“Well, look—I think you’ve got a great start here,” Julian stated, his deep voice rumbling softly.  “We’ve got a clear direction, and you’ve come well-prepared.  I’m quite impressed, actually…”  His lips fashioned a soft grin.  “Nice work, Kitty-Kat…”  His eyes twinkled a bit as he continued to smile.

Kat’s heart skipped a beat twofold-- once for the charming look, and again for the compliment to her research.

“Thank you so much!  Julian, I really appreciate this and I am excited to work with you—”  Her eyes fluttered as she looked away for a moment, trying to control her blushing yet again.  “On this project… work with you on this project…” she tried to clarify.

Julian continued to grin at her, his zircon eyes playfully shining.  He found her bashful demeanor mixed with her intellect to be quite fetching.  He sensed her nerves were due to her possibly being sweet on him, but he certainly didn’t mind.  This was not a new scene for Julian though, his ethereal look combined with his intelligence and unfaltering confidence drew women to him like moths to a flame.  While he enjoyed the attention, he could not be won over very easily.  Julian had high expectations from everyone, so it would stand to reason that only unique and extraordinary women would pique his interest.  He desired someone smart who could challenge him at his level, yet also someone authentic and down to earth.  A woman with these qualities that he could fully trust was a tall order that was not met often.  However, when he interacted with Kat, he sensed a possibility of her meeting these criteria and it intrigued him.

“Yeah…” Julian returned with an idealistic air.  “I think we could be onto something here, let’s see what we come up with.”

Kat smiled as she nodded back at him.

“If you could continue researching variants of interest and also prepare various datasets for me to use, I will get to work on the coding for the pipeline.  Sound like a good start?”

Kat nodded enthusiastically, still elated to even be in such a conversation.  “Yes, absolutely—I will start working on this right away.”

“Good.  Let’s meet at least a couple times a week.  Go ahead and set up meetings for the next couple of months and we’ll see how that goes.”

“Okay great, I can do that!  Does this time work for you?”

Julian turned the corners of his mouth downward as he shrugged a little, seeming pensive.  ”Yeah, later in the day works better, I’m sure you have other tasks you need to do also…”

“Yes definitely…”  Kat typed on her laptop as she began setting up the recurring meetings in Outlook and sent them off to Julian.

“Okay, nice work.  I look forward to seeing what you have for me next time,”  he said, then flashed another charming grin.

Kat tried to hold back her giddiness as she responded with another smile.  “Okay…thanks again, Julian.  I’ll let you get back to your other work…”  She began to pack up her laptop and notes before she stood up from the table.  She looked back at him before walking toward his office door.  “Have a good night, see you tomorrow.”

Julian returned a soft smile. “Goodnight, Kitty-Kat.”

Her eyes fluttered once more as she turned away from him and left the office.  Once she let the door close behind her, she let out a big sigh mixed with relief and desire.  That was the longest interaction she had had with Julian so far, and it just confirmed her developing feelings for him.  She found his voice to be enchanting and hypnotic with its lower register and velvety-soft tone.  And while his platinum locks and deep, zircon eyes continued to mesmerize her, it was that smile of his that took her breath away every time he flashed it.  Sometimes he would grin so wide it would show several laugh lines on both sides of his face that would reach up to meet the little crinkles at the edges of both of his eyes as he squinted.  She had never seen a man smile like that, and how it was both innocent and mischievous at the same time just added to its mystery and charm.  Every interaction with him left her wanting more, and she always longed for the next meeting.  It was both exhilarating and frustrating—no man had ever ignited a fire within her like this before.

After she had gone back to her desk to grab her things to leave for the night, she headed toward the elevators.  As she reached the edge of the large office before entering the elevator lobby—she heard that familiar Australian accent once again.

“Hello again…” Julian chimed once he found himself walking next to her.

She looked up toward him and felt her heart stop for a second.  He had donned a long grey coat made of soft fabric, along with a dark, maroon-colored scarf wrapped loosely around his neck.  He looked even more dapper than earlier in his office, so elegant.

“Oh, hi Julian!”  she managed to finally say with a slight giggle.  “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Yes…finally going home for the day, just so we can come back and do it all over again tomorrow. “  He breathed out a chuckle as he grinned softly.

They had both made it in front of the elevators.  Julian reached for his key to the restricted access elevator and engaged it in the switch on the wall, not realizing that Kat did not use that elevator.

“Going down, I presume?”  he asked, glancing back toward her.

“Oh…yes, you got it,” Kat laughed.

Julian nodded with another smile and then the restricted access elevator opened.  He motioned toward the door, presenting it to Kat. 

“Shall we?”

Kat smiled.  “Why, thank you…” she quipped, trying to match his playfulness.

Julian stepped in behind her, his errant strands bouncing lightly over his right eye with his movement.  Then the elevator door closed and he pressed the button for the first floor.

“Any big plans this evening?” he asked.

“Oh no, nothing tonight…” Kat laughed.

“No drinks and dancing?”

Kat laughed again.  Does he think I’m some sort of party animal?  “Nah, I hadn’t planned on it—it has been a long week!  What about you?”

“Oh you know, the work never ends…”

“You have to work more when you get home?  That sounds exhausting…”

“Yes, it can be…but it is necessary.  True commitment, it takes sacrifice, you know?”

What Kat did not know was the work Julian needed to do when he got back to his penthouse flat had nothing to do with Santé Genomics, but rather his other project, from his other life.  He still helped with things even if he had to step away publicly.  Kat assumed that he meant he was going to start on the coding for their project.

“Ah yes, definitely.  Maybe I should get started on preparing those datasets…”

The elevator doors opened and Kat walked with Julian through the back lobby before they reached the outside of the building.

“Yes, well… I don’t doubt your dedication.”  He smiled as they stood outside for a moment.  “I’ve seen what you can do.  You should take a little time to celebrate.”

Kat felt a warmth run through her body even though the air was chilly outside.  She gave Julian a misty-eyed smile.

“Thanks, Julian…that means a lot.”

They stood looking at each other in silence for a moment before Julian lowered his head and cracked a small, crooked grin.

“Goodnight…Kitty-Kat.”  Julian then lightly placed his hand on her shoulder for a few seconds before he moved past her.

She looked up into his eyes as he held her shoulder, then turned around to watch him as he walked away and headed toward a black car that was parked on the street.  He entered the back door on the passenger side, and then the car drove away.

Kat was still in a daze for a few minutes as she reflected on the day and her interactions with Julian.  She wished they didn’t have to end, ever.  Once she finally snapped herself out of her daze, she was able to grab her phone and start to dial up her friends as she headed toward the tram that would take her back to her flat.  She of course had to fill them in on how the meeting with Julian went, the bonus ride down the restricted access elevator, and more importantly, the brief physical contact.  Finally, she had to tell them about the black car—did Julian have a chauffeur?  Was he Batman?  The more she learned about Julian, the more mysterious he seemed to become and it drove Kat wild.  She desperately wanted to unlock his mystery.

Bonus: A little Assangie AI in his coat and scarf... ❤️‍🔥

#mendax undercover #fanfic #assangie #kassangie #this is taking forever lol #my shitty writing

[luv-assangiebatch]

Got this sticker today and it made me think of PrecisionMed!AU Assangie..💕

#assangie #mendax undercover #vp of therapeutic bioinformatics #💕💕💕💕💕💕 #fanfic #f/o community #self-shipper #my f/o #f/o x s/i #romantic f/o

[luv-assangiebatch]

Kassangie AI: Inspired by Chapter 6 ❤️

#kassangie #mendax undercover #these gave me the feels #💕💕💕💕💕💕

[luv-assangiebatch]

So it starts....

I started my PrecisionMed!AU fic...we'll see how long I can go. I am also still trying to think of a title...

Julian was an intriguing man with a complicated and somewhat dangerous past.  A computer hacking genius in his teens led into a life of activism and journalism throughout his twenties and thirties.  He seemed invincible and fearless as he took on large corporations and dared to challenge national government institutions.  The website he created from his determination and brilliance allowed anonymous sources to share inside information showcasing the sins of some of the most powerful and influential people in the world.

In his never-ending quest for transparency and truth, Julian one day found himself in the crosshairs of the United States after one of their own military officers sent him an entire database of US confidential information.  Aware he was constantly tracked by the CIA and other government spies, he maintained his courage and determination in the face of such adversity.  His small team of volunteers partnered with major mainstream media outlets to expose the deepest, darkest secrets of the US which would create shockwaves for years to come.

Always so stubbornly fearless, Julian ignored the danger that constantly followed him.  He felt exposing these scandalous secrets was the best way to ensure a proper work of checks and balances for all societies across the globe.  He was clever, creative, elusive, and mysterious.  He believed he could outsmart anyone, and as his website and organization grew into a conglomerate of volunteers with unique and special talents, they all helped to protect Julian at all costs.  However, a day finally came when his most trusted colleagues helped him evade capture and incarceration, and they knew it was not safe for him to continue on this path.

Ever so headstrong, Julian did not want to back down.  This organization was his vision, the culmination of his blood, sweat, and broken sanity for over half of his life.  However, as danger continued to close in, his advisors were finally able to convince him that he needed to disappear, at least for a while, and they would continue to maintain his mission.  Julian was the face of the organization, and a very unique one at that.  He was statuesque with an ethereal, tousled, platinum blonde mane whose locks ran down the length of his slender, chiseled face.  He had deep, dark zircon eyes that shined when the light hit them just right, once they peeked out from behind the strands of hair that tended to hang over the right side of his face.  A striking man indeed, who had his share of female fans who were drawn in by his beauty and conviction.  However, it was his unique beauty that put him in danger and why his colleagues urged him to disappear for a while to save not only the mission but possibly his life.

Julian was a stubborn and prideful man.  He was no stranger to donning a disguise every now and then to avoid detection, but he refused to change himself or his look for good.  Always clever and with the help of his trusted colleagues, his hacker abilities gave way to erasing him from existence in the digital world, which in this day and age was just as good as burning a body.

Julian ended up retreating to Basel, Switzerland which was a fairly low profile corner of the political world.  A great hiding place for a political refugee such as himself.  Donations from his organization helped to get him settled, but he knew he needed to cut as many ties as possible to protect himself and his mission.  Basel was known for having a prominent biotech presence and soon enough with his doctorate and expertise in computer programming, Julian was able to land a job at a tumor profiling company as their new VP of Therapeutic Bioinformatics. While this shift in home and career was facilitated to protect himself and his original mission, he never expected to become fully immersed in it and find a whole new life—nor did he anticipate meeting her.

#assangie #fanfic #precisionmed!au #idk my writing sucks lol #but i'm gonna try #mendax undercover

[luv-assangiebatch]

❤️

I have been working on this, I swear! Writing is just...hard.

#mendax undercover #next chapter soon #work drains most of my energy #ugh

[luv-assangiebatch]

#the soundtrack to mendax undercover is gonna be lit #❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ #god he is so cuuuute #i'm so in love with you #kassangie #Spotify