Work Text:
distrait \dis-TRAY\, adjective:
Divided or withdrawn in attention, especially because of anxiety.
Distrait is from Old French, from distraire, "to distract," from Latin distrahere, "to pull apart; to draw away; to distract," from dis- + trahere, "to draw, to pull." It is related to distraught and distracted, which have the same Latin source.
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The tension in the building was thick enough that one could cut it with a knife -- and Artifacts had to be reminded to please not demonstrate the Arechni Blade's ability to do just that. It had taken long enough to clean up from the last demonstration.
Hiding in his office, dealing with the mounds of paperwork that went with the annual staff reviews, Spike couldn't help thinking that if he were still evil, this would be the perfect moment to attack the Council Headquarters. For several weeks, the attention was focused not on apocalypses, ancient prophecies or dire warnings but on the administrative minutiae that not only set salaries for the coming year, but also helped determined who was on the advancement track and who wasn't. Junior staff members seemed somewhat distrait as they went about their duties, certain their entire future rested on a few strokes of a pen -- and what kind of mood their supervisor was in as he completed their review. If there was ever a moment the Council's defenses were lowered, this was it.
Spike himself was not worried about his own review -- he knew what glaring errors he'd made during the year and Giles had duly chastised him for them, but he had confidence that even if the review wasn't glowing, it would once again support Giles' decision to make Spike his second in command. Nor was evaluating the performance of the Field Services staff difficult for the most part. Did they get themselves killed or seriously wounded? Did they get any of their co-workers killed or seriously wounded? Did they misread a sign or situation and bring the apocalypse down upon everyone's head? Did they still retain all their limbs?
No, the problem wasn't evaluating the staff -- the problem was fitting the evaluation into the format the dragons in Human Resources demanded. He'd learned the hard way that they didn't have a sense of humor; take the way they responded when he had listed the goals and objectives of a field operative as "1) Save the world. 2) Try not to get yourself killed doing it." They'd required him to take part in two three hour meetings on setting goals and objectives, which still, once you took away all the fancy language, still boiled down to "save the world" and "try not to get killed."
He was starting to wonder if there was a way they could rid themselves of HR when Linda walked in with a report bearing a red "Urgent" stamp on the front cover. Grateful for the distraction, he thanked her and dived in. Activity on the Capetown Hellmouth…suspicious sightings…potential attempt to open…recommend that team be dispatched immediately.
Spike was out of his chair and into Giles' office immediately. "We've got a problem in Capetown -- the Hellmouth is showing signs of opening. I'll grab Harry and Mike and head down. We probably need a couple of others -- a witch or two would probably come in handy."
Giles didn't look up from his own paperwork. "You're not getting out of the reviews that easily."
"This isn't a ploy to get out of them." Well, it was, but he certainly wasn't going to tell Giles that. "I just got a report from the team in Capetown marked 'Urgent'. See for yourself."
There was a skeptical look on Giles' face as he took the report, quickly replaced with a frown as he flipped through the pages. "This is serious. Yes, we must dispatch a team." He closed the folder. "Not you. Get Harry, Mike and the others together and I'll lead them down."
"Now who's trying to get out of the reviews?"
"Spike, I'm only doing what any good leader does; I'm delegating. I want you to stay here and hold down the fort -- and the paperwork -- while I'm gone."
"Anya won't like it."
"I'll take her with me."
"Wasn’t Travers squawking about not spending so much money on consultants? You know she's not going to want to abandon business to go traipsing off to Capetown unless there's a good reason or she sees a profit. Always knew she was a clever girl."
They stared at one another for a moment, neither willing to give. Finally, Giles sighed. "You're right. I shouldn't go rushing off."
Spike resisted the urge to shout his triumph, which was short-lived with Giles' next words. "And neither are you. Get the team assembled and into the conference room at three; time for Harry and Mike to show they can lead their own missions. We'll include the results on their review."