The following day, Marko heads straight for Benedict's office, first thing in the morning. He arrives at 7:05 AM, politely knocks on the Operation Head's door, and waits for a response. After five seconds, he does this again. Still no response. He decides to just open the door and check inside only to find an empty office. "Figures".
He heads to the empty lobby, thinking to catch him as he arrives instead. After waiting patiently for about five minutes, Benedict finally passes by and immediately notices him.
"Marko," Benedict greets.
Marko gets up to follow Benedict who was heading to his office.
"How was your day-off?" asks Benedict while walking.
"Eventful?" he adds.
"Ah, not much," Marko answers.
"Drove the kids to school, picked them up. Helped out with some chores."
"Sounds like you were still working."
"Yeah, wife got a little mad and insisted the entire day that I just sat back and relaxed and watched some TV or something."
"As you should, it's your rest day after all and we barely get any rest in this place."
Benedict opens the door to the mission control room.
"How's Claire, by the way?" entering the mission floor and heading for his personal office.
"Eh, the usual."
"And the kids?"
"Growing up fast."
"That, they do."
The two make their way inside the personal office space, Benedict leading the way.
"So," Benedict parks himself behind his desk, like usual.
"What can I do for you at," he looks at his watch, "7:14 in the morning"
"Oh, no, I just, I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other night," Marko explains.
"I was emotional and irrational, and I assure you that that'll never happen again. I'm sorry," says the seven-foot behemoth, gently apologizing.
"You WERE emotional, yes. But your concern was far from being irrational," Benedict responds.
"It was a reasonable concern and you were nowhere close to being in the wrong for feeling what you felt at the time."
"If anything, I'm the one in the wrong. In retrospect, I should have known better than to approve sending you as part of that unit," he adds.
"It's fine, Marko. Water under the bridge."
Marko responds with a smile of relief.
"Anyway," Benedict redirects the discussion.
"Are you perhaps considering retirement?"
"What?"
"I heard."
"I didn't figure Sebastian as one for gossip," Marko says, smiling.
"Bigger mouth than you think," Benedict notes.
"But really, I think he just wants me to talk you out of it."
"IF you really are considering hanging up Shelly," he adds.
"Honestly, I was," declares Marko.
"But I guess he already talked me out of it."
"Well, it's good to have you back, Marko," Benedict tells him.
SHHOOM
They hear the faint sound of Sebastian's arrival just outside the office. Speak of the devil.
"Is that—?" asks the surprised Marko.
"Who else"
Sebastian busts in like usual, no knocking, no asking for permission, just opens the door like it's his office and not his superior's.
"Morning, four ey—"
The sight of Marko interrupts his morning greeting.
"Oh, what's up big guy?"
"What are you doing here this early?" he asks.
"What are YOU doing here this early," Marko deflects the question back at him.
"Early morning exercise, big guy," says the normally tardy Sebastian who has shown up unusually early for the second consecutive day.
"Eva in yet?" he asks Benedict.
"You came here for THAT? And do I look like I take attendance of the people in this place? How am I supposed to know"
"I don't know, 'cause you're the head of this place?"
"Can you believe this guy?" Sebastian looks at Marko for approval.
"Man, you're useless," he tells Benedict.
SHHOOM
"Do you see what I have to deal with on a daily basis?" Benedict tells Marko, referring to Sebastian.
"Yeah, I know. I deal with the guy everyday, too," Marko replies.
"Why's he so early?"
"He's apparently been training and testing some new things out."
"Took one mission yesterday and he only did that to hustle Agent Xu out of his completion bonus. Locked himself inside the training room right after," Benedict elaborates.
SHHOOM
Sebastian warps in the pantry to check if Eva was there. From his knowledge, the resident medic was always either just in there or at the lobby, and in very rare cases when she's needed, deployed. The room is empty. He opens the food cabinet and takes two wrapped breakfast bars.
SHHOOM
He warps in the second and last area that he usually finds Eva at – the lobby. He arrives to see a lone agent sitting on the chair facing the large, glass door that leads to the balcony, staring at the rising sun.
"Yo," he greets the female agent sitting alone as he walks over to the nearby couch to take a seat himself.
"Hi," the woman looks back over to him and greets him back nonchalantly.
The female agent with a long, blonde hair parted in the middle, slender build, average height, a youthful and elegant face along with a black eyepatch covering one of her large, expressive eyes is a former member of the now decommissioned Inner Circle and currently one of the six appointed First-Class agents — Yulia Vasilievna Rozanova.
Prior to being recruited by Eden as a member of the Circle, the gorgeous, patch-wearing agent was a Russian assassin and spy, perhaps even the best in the country. Given that basically the only requirement needed to be a part of the Circle is tremendous skill in combat, Yulia was still given a chance to be a part of the monster-hunting unit. Despite her questionable history and past actions relating to her previously-chosen career, her skillset was all Eden needed to convince themselves that the Russian assassin would be a valuable addition to the roster.
"How long have you been back?" she asks Sebastian.
"I don't know, a few days, nearly a week?" he answers, opening one of the breakfast bars he took from the pantry.
"You?" he returns the question, taking a bite from the bar of oatmeal he's holding.
"I've always been here."
"Yeah, but I mean," he takes another bite. "First time I saw you since I got back."
"Yeah, I've kinda been just on an on-call basis the past few months. I've rarely been coming here for a while now."
"So I've heard. Harley was shitting on you the other day. Called you 'hot' but was still shitting on you for not showing up, nonetheless."
Yulia smiles after hearing the brief gossip.
"So, what are you doing here this early?" he asks while opening the other wrap of oatmeal bar.
Yulia responds by looking at him with her head tilted, as if to say "Coming from you?"
"Why is everyone treating me showing up to work early as some sort of miracle??" asks the poster child for tardiness.
"Isn't it?"
"I'm getting tired of this slander, you people keep this up I'm quitting for real this time."
Yulia chuckles.
"Oh, right," Sebastian exclaims out of the blue.
"What?" the confused Yulia asks.
"This is perfect," Sebastian continues without any sort of explanation.
"Are you deployed?" he asks.
"Um, n-no, I just got back."
"Good, 'cause you're gonna help me develop my ultra secret ultimate cool finishing move."