Natalie was busy at her desk. Her glasses had slid to the end of her nose, there was a small furrow in her brow. Her normally immaculate hair had a couple small flyaways. Her eyes darted up from the screen and a fierce scowl overtook her face. “Where have you been? I know I encouraged some relaxing, but now you’ve completely slacked off. You have a meeting with General Ibernathy in half an hour and I’ve had Mercy North on hold for fifteen minutes.”

“All right, I’ll go talk with Mercy and the General can wait as long as it takes me to finish the call.”

“If he-”

Richard cut her off. “Throw him out.”

A wry grin twisted Natalie’s lips. “You don’t know what I was going to say.”

“It doesn’t matter. If you don’t like a single thing he does, chuck him out. If he argues, call the cops.” Richard didn’t want to deal with him anyway.

Natalie rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face softened. “Go answer the phone. I’ll handle Ibernath.”

He did. An hour later, he had a meeting set up with the head of Orthopedics at Mercy North. He left his office. Natalie had a satisfied smile on her face as she worked at the computer. “Ibernathy here or did you toss him?”

“He was, unfortunately, on his best behavior.” Natalie came around the desk to go down the hallway with him. Her chair still squeaked with every step he took.

“While I’m in the meeting, why don’t you run down and get someone to fix that squeak?”

“Maybe I like the squeak.”

“How long has your chair had it?”

Natalie stopped. Richard did as well and turned to face her. She crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. “I don’t tell you to get the squeak in your legs fixed.”

Richard snorted. “If I ever have a squeak in my legs, then I expect you to not only demand I get it fixed, but also make the appointment for me before you even think of mentioning it to me. So, go take care of the chair next time you get a free moment, which should be…” He checked his watch and took another three steps. “Right about now.” He stepped into the meeting room and ignored the rolled eyes she sent his way. He could hear the squeaks continuing down the hallway towards the elevator as he turned to the General.

General Ibernathy turned to him. A stern set to his lips. His broad shoulders were encased in an olive green button up. He wore jeans and dress shoes. Richard held a hand out towards him. “Dr. Price.”

“General.” Richard took his seat. “What can I do for you?”

“Same thing as ever.” His voice was gruff and Richard was already sick of him. “Your inventions were some of the best advancements in artillery. We want to know what we can do to get you to open a military section in your company.”

Richard sighed and leaned forward onto the table. “General, I’ve told you time and time again… We are not now, and will not ever, open our company to military research.” And he had. Every couple of months for the past several years it had been the same conversation. The same rejection.

Ibernathy’s scowl grew. “Price,-”

“No.” Richard cut him off. “End of discussion. There is nothing you can offer me that I couldn’t get for myself.”

Ibernathy stood so fast the chair he sat in flipped over backward. “It’s time to stop living in the past. Your wife is dead. Doing this now won’t bring her back.”

Richard grinned at him as his heart pounded hot anger through his veins. “You can see yourself out.” He was proud of how steady his voice sounded.

“Gladly.”

“Oh, and General?” Ibernathy stopped with one foot out of the room. “If you come anywhere near my property again, I’ll have you arrested.”

Ibernathy sneered at him and slammed the door behind him.

Richard took a couple minutes to calm down. His heart still pounded a hard beat against his ribcage. Several deep breaths (and a soothing mental image of plopping Ibernathy in front of some of the artillery he had spoken about) later and he strode out of the meeting room and back towards his office.

Ibernathy had to have known that would be the end of any good will between the two men. Richard didn’t know what caused this appointment to make him finally snap and didn’t really care.

Natalie’s desk was empty. He had some paperwork he should probably work on, but… He spun and made his way to the elevator. A short ride later and he could hear laughter coming from Russell’s lab. Natalie’s voice and a vaguely familiar female voice reached his ears. A couple more steps and he heard Cio’s voice mixing in as well.

He turned the corner to see Cio’s sister perched on Cio’s desk chatting and laughing with Natalie who sat in Cio’s office chair. A bag of take out food sat in Natalie’s lap. She pulled a fry out, an easy smile still on her face as Cio’s sister spoke in a low voice about something he couldn’t quite hear. Cio’s sister wore a yellow and white checked dress with a white apron over it. There was a name tag pinned to the front.

Natalie’s smile dropped and a stern looked replaced the easy going grin she’d had when she caught sight of Richard leaning against the door frame. “Didn’t I tell you to get back to work?”

“When did you become the boss of me?”

She smiled at him. “The day you hired me.” She popped the fry into her mouth and reached for another.

Richard made his way to the other desk, Russell’s desk, and he swung the office chair around closer. He smiled at Cio’s sister. There was a clatter from the lab side of the office. Richard glanced over. Cio had both wheels off Natalie’s wheelchair and he was focused on the side where the wheel had squeaked. “I thought she’d just get someone to apply wd-40. How’d you convince her to let you take her chair apart?”

“I offered to share my food while we wait,” Cio’s sister spoke up. “It’s nice to see you again, Dr. Price.”

“I thought I was just Richard last time?”

“Cio pointed out it might be considered rude to address his boss like that.” Cio’s sister smiled and the similarities between her and Cio were unmistakable. 

Richard smiled at her again. “Richard is fine.”

“Good because it feels weird as hell to address his boyfriend as ‘Doctor.’”

There was a clatter behind him. Richard opened his mouth but didn’t quite know what to say. He turned to Cio again. Cio was glaring at his sister. “Ames. No.”

“Focus on the chair, hermanito.”

“Place of work, Amelia. Come on,” Cio’s voice took on a slight pleading quality.

Amelia dropped into some rapid fire Spanish. Richard understood a couple words but for the most part he was lost. Natalie looked as though she were trying to hold in laughter. There was a sigh from Cio and he answered Amelia in Spanish, though his words were a little slower, a little reluctant.

“Richard.” Amelia’s return to English was almost startling. “Cio likes to hide things from the familia. If, as he claims, you are not dating then I’m sorry for making the wrong assumption.”

“They’re dating!” Richard darted his eyes over to Natalie whose eyes were wide. A grin threatened to break her face in two as she continued. “Yep. Dating. Dr. Price has been hanging around these rooms an awful lot recently. And Cio brought him a gift not too long ago.”

“I was replacing something I broke!”

Natalie hummed and tapped on her leg. “Sure. Except I hadn’t seen you entering Dr. Price’s office before which means you had to have gone in after I’d left for the day. And if you’re knocking things off his desk… I mean, we can guess what happened.”

Natalie and Amelia shared a satisfied smile. Richard turned to Cio. The normally restless young man was completely still as he stared at the conspiring women. His lips were parted. His cheeks darkened in the deepest flush that Richard had seen on him.

Richard chuckled. “You caught us. I am sneaking around with an employee. We have dirty sex in my office after assistant Rhodes leaves for the night. Oh, let’s not forget to mention the 20 year age gap. Great decisions were made on both parts here.”

Cio snorted. There was tinkling and murmured Spanish behind Richard as Cio worked on the chair. Amelia rolled her eyes. “What about the age gap?”

Richard stared at her. What about the age gap? He was twenty years Cio’s senior. “I admit. I don’t know much about your family, but I cannot imagine any scenario in which they would be happy to see Cio dating someone so much older.”

“No one cares about any age difference.” Amelia rolled her eyes again. “Is that why Cio hasn’t brought you by yet? Have you been worried about how you’d be received?” Amelia’s look turned introspective. “Well, abuelo won’t be too happy to meet you… But that has nothing to do with the age thing! Abuela is 10 years younger than him.”

Nothing to do with the age thing? So, the gender thing had to be the problem.

“Yeah, that’s real reassuring, Ames. None of you bothered hermano like this when he had a secret girlfriend.”

“That’s because we saw him more than once a month and his ‘secret’ girlfriend wasn’t a very big secret. We all knew they were together.” Amelia’s eyes slid back over to Richard. “Besides, I only came to eat lunch with mi hermanito. It was just a happy surprise to see you again and to meet Natalie.” She smiled at Natalie again.

“Yeah, the two of you meeting is exactly what we need.” Cio’s voice was soft, but going by Amelia’s glare, she heard what he’d said.

Richard decided it was time to move to a safer topic. “Will you have that back together soon? I do need my assistant you know.”

“Yeah, I figured I’d get both sides lubricated while I was at it. Plus the brake handle is looser than it should be and the caster wheels don’t technically need to be replaced, but I figured while I was at it.” Cio spun the caster wheel to show the slight wearing on the rubber. “I don’t have to though if Natalie doesn’t want it done now.” He directed that sentence to Natalie.

“I do,” she answered.

“Ok, can you go grab me a new set?” The question wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.

Natalie and Amelia turned their eyes to Richard. Richard shrugged. “Sure.” He left. They had some wheels just down the hallway, far enough that the murmur of their voices faded to just that, a murmur. It was impossible to make out what they were saying as Richard scanned for the correct size, but he could hear Amelia and Natalie laughing again after a couple seconds.

He returned and handed off the wheels. “Thanks.” Cio set about removing the old wheels.

“Have you had your lunch yet?” He asked Cio.

“No. Amelia ate mine.”

Richard glanced over at Cio’s sister. She shrugged. “I gave my food to Natalie.” As though that was a perfectly reasonable reason to take another’s lunch.

Richard pinched the bridge of his nose and was briefly thankful to not have siblings. “Make sure you take a lunch break when you’re done with Natalie’s chair.

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh is it that kind of a relationship?” The joy in Amelia’s voice was infectious. Richard didn’t bother hiding his grin.

“Amelia!” Cio groaned. Amelia and Natalie ignored Cio and laughed.

“How’d the meeting with the general go?” Natalie cast an amused smile over at Cio, but directed her words to Richard.

“As expected.”

“The general? Are you expanding into weapons?” Amelia asked

Richard smiled at Amelia. “We are not. He just doesn’t appreciate being told no. Repeatedly.”

“Oh. Isn’t your background in weapon engineering, though?” Amelia asked. Richard saw Cio’s head turn towards her from the corner of his eye.

“It is.”

“How do you know that?” Cio asked her.

Amelia had the grace to at least look a little abashed. “I might have done a little googling.”

Natalie grinned. Cio looked embarrassed. “Ames, come on,” Cio’s voice was full on pleading now.

“Fair enough. I assume you were just worried about Cio, since you’re under the impression the two of us are an item.”

“Yes.” Amelia bit her lip. “Ok, no. I actually looked into you once he got the job as an assistant. I told him not to waste his talents as an assistant when he should be...” Her voice faded out and she shrugged. Richard glanced back at Cio who had attached the new caster wheels and was spinning them to make sure they were loose enough. An alarm went off and Amelia jumped to grab her phone. “Sorry. I need to get going. Natalie it was great to meet you! Richard, please convince Cio to bring you around to dinner sometime. Or at least stop keeping him from us. I miss getting to see him.”

“Love you too, Ames. Go before you’re late to work,” Cio spoke before Richard could.

Amelia smiled and waved as she rushed out the door.

“You know I’m going to feel guilty if you keep skipping Friday dinners now.” Richard twisted back and forth in his chair and watched Cio’s steady hands put Natalie’s chair back together.

“Don’t be. I’m working towards telling them we’ve broken up.”

Natalie laughed. “Wait, does your whole family really think you’re dating your boss?”

“Pretty much.” Cio’s deft hands flipped the chair and ran over each individual stitch in the back of the chair. “They do this thing where I say I’m not doing something and they all hear it as I am doing something. It doesn’t help when other people encourage the behavior,” he said pointedly to Natalie.

Natalie snorted. “More like doing someone. How did this start?”

Richard listened to Cio explaining the mix up, but didn’t pay any attention to the words. The atmosphere was warm in the room. Cio’s eyes never left his work as he inspected the fully assembled chair. His fingers ran over the bolts, then the handles on the back, searching for imperfections by Richard’s guess.

Richard tuned back into the conversation in time to hear Natalie ask, “So Dr. Price is taking you to your brother’s wedding that’s only two weeks away?” 

“No. I’m going to try again on Friday to convince them I’m not dating anyone.”

“And if it doesn’t work?” Richard surprised himself by speaking up. Cio’s eyes darted up from the wheelchair. The question hung there for a beat before Cio cleared his throat and shrugged.

“I haven’t gotten that far yet. Mamá is… it’s hard to say no to her.”

Natalie hummed. Cio, apparently satisfied in his inspection, wheeled the chair back to Natalie. “I’ll just be sure Richard has a nice clear schedule for the days around the wedding.” Natalie transferred herself back to her chair. She wheeled it back and forth. “Thanks, Cio.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get my family under control.”

Natalie hummed again. “I’ve got work to do. I’ll just leave the two of you to it then.”

Richard stood. “I’ll come with you. Cio needs to go get lunch still.”