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As the rest of the people who had attended the meeting got up and piled out of the room, all of them going back to their different offices and departments spread through out the building - not only the underground people - Ruth got up from her chair and started collecting her papers. She hated sitting in meetings. They were always boring and went on forever while everyone was trying to look like they gave a damn about what anyone else was saying. Ruth was more into action and all this sitting on her behind had not been why she had signed up to work for Hyperion when they had offered her the job. But she had taken the position of team leader willingly and guessed she couldn't complain.

Like most team leaders she thought her own team was the best and the brightest, all of them loyal to the core and fierce soldiers. She couldn't have asked for a better team and she knew they respected her as a leader, even if she was a harsh commander and didn't tolerate any complaining, whining or mouthing back. Years in the military had given her a very clear picture of how she liked things to be done and she didn't allow anyone to be slacking off - if she didn't think a person was fit to serve as an Avalon agent, then they were off the team until they had proved to her that they were worthy of a second chance. Thankfully she hadn't had to do anything like that in a while now.

Looking up from the pile of papers she had gathered up she realised the room was now empty, except for one other person and it was the person she had been avoiding the most for the past few months. She had assumed the pretty little thing Rick was married to would come see Ruth after Rick told her about his affair with the Israeli woman, but Mrs. Strawser had seemed to avoid Ruth as much as Ruth had avoided her. Even now the other woman was heading for the door and Ruth pursed her lips, considered putting a confrontation off for yet some time - and then decided against it. Quickly she rounded the table and cut the other woman off before she reached the door.

Ruth didn't think of herself as an intimidating person, she was of average heigh so she didn't tower over anyone - she was even an inch or two shorter than the other woman - and even if she was fit and strong she didn't exactly look like the body builder type. But now as she stood in front of the mistress of team Eros, the dark haired Israeli pulled herself up and squared her shoulders so that she looked positively frightening when she looked Lilly straight in the eye with a hard set to her jaw. "I think we need to talk, don't you?" she said with in strongly accented English, although it was a British accent and not as you might expected that of her native tongue.

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The Truth is Rarely Pure and Never Simple
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Lilly had lived the past few days in a dream state, caught up in day to day tasks to the outside world but in her mind she performed them all as though she was a sleep, get up, make breakfast, drive to work, work, come home, make dinner, sleep …repeat cycle. She couldn’t remember the taste of the food she had eaten in the last few days, or even what it was exactly she had cooked. In the back of her mind she wondered if perhaps she had made the same thing for the past three days and that was why her daughter kept giving her pained looks across the dinner table. She was distracted and she knew it, what was worse was those in work were starting to notice. Only that morning she had been so busy thinking that she had washed her hair four times, and then later in the office poured herself three cups of coffee and ended up not drinking any of them. She of course knew the reason for her distraction, it was the women in the office above her own – the leader of her husbands Hyperion team. This needed to be settled and for the sake of Lilly’s sanity, it needed to be settled now.

She moved from her office through the sparce desks which served as a sort of bull pen for her division, not that desks were really needed but Team Eros’s dominion was also their domain, and there was a small but lucrative corner market of their business, where for a small fee the common man could get a small sampling of the delights of the team eros agents via a live webcam feed. Calmly Lilly made her way to the elevator from there to the floor that contained the Israli woman’s office. A meeting was getting out just as she approached and she had intended to knock but instead she slipped in the door as the final suited agent left. Lilly stood in her elegant black skirt suit, her arms folded across her chest, her hands pressed at a 90 degree angle against her upper arms her fingers splayed slightly with the pressure. Her face was blank, her eyes, fixed on Ruth, were heavy lidded almost lazy in their perusal of the other woman. In her mind she did not know in what way she should think of Ruth – the ‘other woman,’ ‘the home wrecker,’ ‘the rival?’ they were all fitting and yet in their most fundamental facts they were wrong, the affair was over according to Richard, their home was intact, and she knew she should be comforted by the fact at least that he had in the end chosen her, chosen their family, but it was a hollow comfort at present.

"I think we need to talk, don't you?" the other said at last breaking the silence that Lilly had been content to let hang thick in the air. Lilly didn’t move, didn’t speak but continued to stare at Ruth, as though in doing so she would be able to discern, in a moment of epiphany, why it was her husband had chosen this woman over all the others in the Hyperion to risk their marriage with. ‘I think we should’ Lilly said stiffly at last, relaxing her stance just a little to move away from the door and further into the wide office space. ‘I suppose you know why I am here?’ she asked the other her tone still as flat and as dead as the first time she spoke.

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Word Count:430
Tag: Richard
Graphics credit: Hollowart
Lyric Credit: Oscar Wilde
Notes:

‘I think we should [...] I suppose you know why I am here?’

The nod of aknowledgement was barely noticeable but it was there as Ruth inclined her head ever so slightly, an amused smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. "Of course. You're here because I've been fucking your husband," she said rather bluntly, not the kind of person to beat around the bush and the other woman could think what she wanted about that fact. Ruth folded her arms across her chest, looking relaxed but prepared for anything at the same time, her military training shining through in the battle ready stance. "I must admit, I expected you alot sooner. It's been several months since I--" She cut herself off and then laughed as something occured to her.

Shifting her stance a little so that most of her weight was on her right leg. "Don't tell me he waited this long to tell you?" She chuckled and shoke her head. "Apparently I did not decide to sleep with him because of his strong character." Over the past few months she'd wondered why she had gone to bed with Rick for so long. She knew why she'd started the affair, knew she'd wanted him enough to overlook the fact that he was married. But looking back now she would sometimes wonder what had made her carry on with it, especially after Rick had proven to be much too focused on his own guilt, even while he'd been on top of Ruth during one of their rendezvous.

Looking at the other woman Ruth decided notto mention this, or at least not go into any details. She doubted Elizabeth Strawser would appreciate hearing about her husband's extramarital activities on top of his desk. Ruth wasn't too interested in going into details either, that part of her life had ended when she'd told Rick they should end the affair back in July. People had started to notice and it just wasn't as fun anymore, especially with Rick obviously not enjoying himself and constantly going on a mental guilt trip. It was kind of distracting and extremely boring having him doing his thing while he so clearly was a million miles away, thinking about his wife and daughter.

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The Truth is Rarely Pure and Never Simple
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"Of course. You're here because I've been fucking your husband, the woman said crudely, and Lilly gave an involuntary wince at her words, her lip twisting slightly into a snarl, but she bit her tongue, looking at Ruth through heavily hooded eyes, her expression stony, her ‘work’ face well and truly on. The sharp suit and the hair style which was sharp and pulled away from her face, only accentuated the intensity of her features. "I must admit, I expected you a lot sooner. It's been several months since I…Don't tell me he waited this long to tell you? Apparently I did not decide to sleep with him because of his strong character." the other said and Lily’s gut snarled at the thought, despite his numerable faults Rich was still her husband and the thought of someone talking about him like that made her blood boil. He was, at his core a good man, or at least she hoped so, she hoped that all the years if her marriage had not been a complete lie.

‘Well I hadn’t felt that much of a reason to come see you,’ Lilly said cooley, not taking her eyes off the other woman, but her tone was anything but dispassionate, indeed there was an edge of ice to what she was saying that belied her self control. Inside her normally controlled shell a storm was raging, the desire to protect her dignity, to protect her family was warring with her desire to tear the other woman apart, or perhaps to convince her that her hair was made of snakes and she should scratch her skull to pieces. She felt like doing a lot of things, all of them directed at Ruth. She had raged against Richard for weeks, she had hated him, pitied him, the full spectrum of emotions she had felt for her husband, but then there was Ruth.

Now she no longer hated Richard, rather she hated Ruth. If she thought for one moment that Ruth loved Richard, perhaps it would have been easier. Perhaps she could have forgiven the other woman if it had been something more than a mere shag. Somehow that made it harder, that not only Ruth but Richard had gambled on their marriage for something as pathetic as a shag. ‘Are you proud of yourelf then?’ Lily asked fixing her counter part with a glare. color=dodgerblue]‘Glad that you were my husbands whore?’[/color]

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Word Count:430
Tag: Richard
Graphics credit: Hollowart
Lyric Credit: Oscar Wilde
Notes:

‘Well I hadn’t felt that much of a reason to come see you [...] Are you proud of yourelf then? Glad that you were my husbands whore?’

Ruth's grip on her upper arms tightened a little and the already hard set of her jaw became even more firm as she clenched her teeth. "I think you're mistaking me for someone else, Mrs. Strawser. Unlike you, I don't let men pay me to share my bed. The only whore Rick's got is you, so don't for a minute think that I will be insulted by your feeble attempts at doing so," she told the other woman in a cold and obviously strained voice, the anger flashing in her eyes. She could say she wasn't insulted but truth was a very large part of her anger was due to the fact that the other woman had called her a whore and even if she knew it shouldn't bother her it still did.

Placing her hands on her hips she raised her chin and said in a dry voice; "Maybe if you kept you husband happy, instead of sleeping with anyone with enough money, he wouldn't have to go looking for company elsewhere. You have alot of nerve asking me if I'm proud of what I've done, especially when you go flaunting the fact that you'll fuck anyone with money," she added with a snarl. If Lilly wanted to play dirty, then so would Ruth and she wouldn't hold back either. There was however a small part of hr that was worried about the fact that Lilly Strawser had suggestive powers and could do just about anything, all of which would probably be horrible and messy.

Squaring her shoulders she changed the placement of her hands on her hips, so that if Lilly tried anything, Ruth would still have the chance to get her with a few well placed poisonous needles from her wrists. It wouldn't kill the other woman but her nervous system would shut down for a few hours while Ruth went to jump off the roof or whatever else Lilly had told her to do. Ruth pressed her lips together into a tight line and looked the other woman straight in the eye, barely even blinkinging and with a haughty expression on her face. "I know it must feel easier to blame me than Rick, but if I were you Iwould leave him. Once a cheater, always a cheater," she told the other.