If she hadn't spotted him approaching through the window, she undoubtedly would have been startled. But as it was, she laughed, spun the chair around, and planted a toe tip on his chest to gently shove him away. "Funny, funny. What are you doing mucking cages when you're clearly meant for stand up comedy?" She rolled her eyes, but couldn't wipe the grin, and instead turned back to her paperwork...
... and got about three lines down before her mind started to wander back to its original thought. Dinner. Royce. At her house. In what was clearly a step toward... something. This, she caught herself before she started making funny faces at the window again, and instead pushed away from the desk and hopped off the chair.
"Here, scoot over," she told Royce, grabbing a spare rag. "Let me help. I can't really concentrate anyway."
Not that, you know, squatting right next to the source of her distraction was going to do much to help. But at least cleaning cages didn't require much thought, so her mind was free to wander while she actually got work done. She reached for the cage next to the one Royce was working on, unhooked the latch, and soaked her rag in the bucket of soapy and disinfected water, all the while contemplating how she was going to bring up what she wanted to talk about.
Was she doing this to trick Royce into talking more about himself? Or was this all genuinely getting closer to him? Charlie suspected it was a healthy portion of both, as well as an excuse to feed him. Most days found him nibbling on the little bit of food he brought with him, if not scarfing down a bit of Abbey's steal from the Doc's meal, and despite how trim and toned he normally appear-we'll not even touch on how observant Charlie has been about this aspect, now-he still seemed... like he needed more food. Always eating as much as he could, yet never seeming to gain weight?
While her mind was preoccupied, she had washed the cage and replaced the filthy towel inside with a fresh, clean one. And when she spoke again, the words that came out weren't at all the ones she had been planning to say...