Chapter Text
Laura Hollis
The first thing Laura notice’s when she opens her eyes is the amount of sunlight streaming in through her windows. That gives her her first wave of anxiety of the morning. That amount of sunlight definitely shouldn't be happening right now which means she's either dreaming or her power cut out again and she slept in. Groaning and rolling over to check if her suspicions are right, she checks her alarm clock and sees that it has been reset to flash 12:00. So her power did cut out and now she knows she’s in trouble.
Maybe it's actually not that late and I haven't slept in. Maybe this actually is a dream and my shitty apartment didn't lose power again. Please please please don't let it be almost 9 o’clock she thinks to herself as she grabs her watch off the nightstand and sees it reads 830 am.
“Shit!!” All traces of sleep are gone as she flings her blanket and sheets off of her.
Panic and adrenaline take over, and while trying to get out of bed in a haste she gets tangled up in her sheets and falls face first onto the floor, using her hands to break the fall. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her arms from the fall she pulls on the closest clean looking clothes and throws her hair up into a messy pony tail while applying minimal makeup to make her look like an actual living person and not the zombie she totally feels like right now. She’s out the door in 10 minutes, which she notes is a new personal best, and begins sprinting towards Starbucks. She may look like a hot mess, but she’ll be damned if she shows up to work without her horrible bosses coffee.
Making it to Starbucks, she sees that there's a long line. Great, could this morning get any worse?
“Hey, Laura!” A vaguely familiar voice is calling her name.
Turning her attention towards the source of the voice she notices the cute barista she usually attempts to, emphasis on attempt, flirt with. And she’s calling her up to the counter. Ignoring the glares she receives from the people in the line, she quickly walks up to the counter.
“Two black coffee’s right? It's on the house.” She says with a warm smile
“You’re a literal life saver right now, thank you so much!” So maybe the horribly embarrassing flirting hasn't been going unnoticed and is actually working. She grabs the coffees and is back out onto the street making her way towards the office building.
Sprinting across the street and dodging traffic she makes it into the building and barely slides into a packed elevator giving Laura a moment to catch her breath for the first time since waking up. Living in such a crappy, run down New York apartment sucks the majority of the time but days like today she sure is grateful for it being so close to work. The short elevator ride allows her to wipe away the sweat that has started to accumulate on her forehead from her morning sprint. It also gives her the chance to check over her outfit in the elevator doors reflection. She’s impressed that she threw together such an impressive outfit with such little time and clean clothing available. A white shirt, tucked into a grey pencil skirt with a matching blazer. Although the outfit is a little crumpled, it's still presentable. Maybe this day won't be so bad after all.
Walking off the elevator and straight through the doors of Armatage Publishing Company with a lightened mood, she’s suddenly met with a mail cart to her side causing her to spill hot coffee all over herself.
“Are you kidding me?!” Laura huffs out in frustration, looking down at herself in disgust. Of course something can’t go right for her today. Whatever, she doesn't have time for this right now. Its almost 9 o’clock and she cant be late. Speed walking towards her desk, she spots Lafontaine is already at their desk. This is going to be a long shot, but she can’t let her boss see her in a coffee soaked shirt.
“Two VIP tickets to the science convention and panel tonight in exchange your shirt. You can take whoever you want” She blurts out as soon as she stops in front of their desk.
“What? Are you serious?” They ask with shock and reserved excitement in their eyes.
“Yes im serious! I really don't have time to talk so please your shirt, right now, or no science for you” Laura is looking around the office space nervously, praying she doesn’t catch sight of her coming into the office.
“Alright fine, calm down. Your face is all scrunched up and you look like you're going to give yourself a stroke” Lafontaine says as they stand up and start to lead Laura towards the washrooms where they can exchange their shirts.
“No time to go to the washrooms” Laura diverts them to the office behind them. They quickly make it into the office and Laura closes the door behind them. She turns towards Lafontaine and starts unbuttoning her shirt.
“Come on! Strip!” She says exasperatedly when she notices they haven't started taking their shirt off.
“Woah Hollis, at least buy me a drink first” They tease, but comply to Laura’s demand.
Right in the middle of the shirt exchange a notification sound comes from Lafontaine’s phone, instantly making Laura freeze in her spot.
“Its her isn't it? She’s arrived?” Laura looks over to Lafontaine and the look on their face is all the confirmation she needs. She's never been so grateful for the office wide group chat that signals when the She-Devil walks into the office then she is right now. “Shit! Get out now! She cannot catch you in here! I’ll have the tickets on your desk by the end of the day!” She nervously tells Lafontaine while shoving them out the office door.
As soon as they’re gone Laura busies herself by trying to make the slightly-too-big shirt look stylish on her and places the coffee that survived the mail cart crash on the desk. Laura is looking around the office with the spare time she finds herself. How is it that Satan reincarnated ended up with such an awesome job, office, and view? Some people really do get it all. Just as she starts thinking of how terrible her day has been and that it possibly couldn't get worse, she gets interrupted by the owner of this office. Her boss and the devil herself, Carmilla Karnstein.
Carmilla Karnstein
Carmilla walks through the door of her office and the first thing she notices is the way her cute, tiny assistant is slightly twitching.
“Geez cupcake, eat too many cookies already? Youre twitchier than normal.” She slowly checks her our head to toe, enjoying how Laura squirms under her gaze. “And your shirt looks too big for you, did you get dressed in the dark or something? Have a quickie with someone in a closet and grab the wrong shirt? No, you look too wound up still, so definitely not a quickie” She winks and chuckles as she notices the red slowly starting to spread on Laura’s cheeks.
Laura mumbles something under her breath that she can't quite catch but decides not to push for an answer. The girl looks shaken up enough and she doesn't want to give her an aneurysm because that would impede the amount of work that needs to get done.
Carmilla slowly struts past Laura, once again checking her out, questioning how this woman can make a baggy button up shirt look so hot. Once she gets to her desk, she plops down on her chair and addresses Laura again.
“Okay sundance, what do we have lined up for today?”
“You have a conference call in 30 minutes.”
“Yes I know about that, what else?” You notice that the spaz has started to calm down. The normal routine of the day must be soothing to her.
“You have a staff meeting a-”
“Oh, did you call... God whats her name? The really tall blonde” She interrupts Laura.
“Betty? Yes I did call her and I told her if she doesn't get her manuscript in on time you won't give her a release date” She starts going through the stack of manuscripts that she knows won't get published while Laura continues to spew her schedule.
“Oh and your immigrations lawyer called, she said it's imperative that-”
“Cancel the call, push the meeting until tomorrow, keep the lawyer in the dark, and call up PR and get them to start a draft for a press release. Natalie will be going on Ellen.” Interrupting Laura once again. Carmilla was good at her job but other days shes was excellent at it. Like today. Nothing was going to stop her or get in her way today.
“Wow, nicely done.” She looked up and just catched a glimpse of an impressed look on Laura’s face before she turns away to start making a list of things that need to get done today.
Carmilla grabbed her coffee and wheels around in her chair to face her computer when she noticed something off about the cup. Oh, is that a phone number? And a name?
“Hey, Laura?”
“Yea?” She hears the confusion in her voice. Rarely does she use her real name, so the cupcake must be concerned.
“Who is Elizabeth and why does she want me to call her?” She slowly turns back around with a smirk on her face, holding up the coffee cup for Laura to see. For the second time in 10 minutes she’s caused her to turn red. Oh yes today is going to be a good day for Carmilla.
“Uh, that's because that was originally my coffee” Laura stammers out while not meeting her gaze.
“Didn’t take you for being a lady lover sweetheart” Carmilla takes a sip of the coffee, noticing that it's black coffee her smirk grows even bigger. “So is it a coincidence that you also drink black coffee? Or do you order the same thing as me in case you spill one? Because I take you for a hot chocolate person.”
“No of course not! I love black coffee!” Her voice has raised an octave and is overly enthusiastic, which she only does when she's lying. Before she can really get into teasing Laura she's interrupted by the phone ringing. Oh how she loves to tease this little cutie. Its just so easy to get to her, and now that she knows she's also into ladies…
“Ms. Karnstein’s office. Oh hey Elsie” Carmilla internally groans at that. She hates it when people use her last name formally. It makes her feel old, and not the 25 year old she is. But that's what you get when you become the most successful editor in New York City.
She notices Laura looking over at her questioningly, wondering what their next move is. She raises her hand and makes a small hand gesture that signals to her that they will be heading to Elsie’s office.
“No, we’re actually coming over there” She says in a confused voice After hanging up the phone she turns back to Carmilla with curiosity in her voice.
“Why are we going to see Elsie?” And she only replies by giving Laura a tight smile and clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. That's the signal they use when Carmilla is about to fire someone.
She watches Laura run back out into the main office space, no doubt shooting off an instant message warning everyone that she’s about to leave her office. No time to think about petty office games Karnstein she thinks to herself. Laura and the rest of the office will never find out that the real reason she’s firing Elsie is because their “editing sessions” have started to go south lately. Elsie has gotten a little too clingy and too close for Carmilla’s liking. Nobody is allowed to be that close to Carmilla except her Carmilla herself. Of course she had to come up with a logical excuse to fire her, so she waited until she got Natalie on Ellen. Elsie was supposed to do this months ago, but got too distracted by Carmilla so she took her opportunity.
Walking out into the main office space Laura is by her side instantly. They start walking past the rows of cubicles.
“Hey, uh, have you read the manuscript I gave you?”
“I read a few pages, it wasn't that good.” She can see Laura’s face fall a bit.
“Can I say something?”
“No”
“I dont care.” Oh so this one actually does have some fire to her “I have read thousands of manuscripts and this is the only one i've given you. There is an incredible novel in there! It's just like the ones you used to publish!” She was doing that cute thing where she flails her arms around when she gets passionate about something.
“Laura, not now” Using her real name gets her attention instantly. They both stop walking and face each other.
“Oh come on, why not! Ive been here 3 years, this is what I came here for! I dont want to be your bitc-” Carmilla raises her eyebrow at the last comment but luckily Laura cuts herself off before that gets any further, but Carmilla already knows what she was going to say.
She looks down at the ground and mutters something too quiet for Carmilla to hear. She gets thousands of manuscripts a day and hardly ever publishes any. What makes Laura think that she was going to publish hers? Just because she works for her? It doesn't work that way. Plus she can't have her assistant published. She can't afford to lose her.
Carmilla starts to walk past more cubicles again when she see that ginger, who’s way too into science to be working at a publishing company, wearing a coffee stained shirt that's too small for them. That smirk is back on her face when she turns to look at Laura, who is looking guilty and red again. Third time making the cutie blush in 20 minutes? Personal record Karnstein.
“And by the way, I do think you order the same coffee as me in case you spill which obviously happened because you and Ginger over there obviously switched shirts. Pathetic, but nice save.”
Walking into Elsie’s office, Carmilla prepares for all the worst case scenarios that are probably bound to happen. All she can do is brace herself, and turn up her snark and sarcasm that she’s famous for. Noticing a new painting on the wall of her office, Carmilla walks over to it to inspect it and to buy herself time on how she is going to do this.
“Is this new? This certainly wasn't here the last time i was in here” she says in a husky voice while training her seduction eyes on Elsie. Better to pull her in with flirting and seduction so she doesnt suspect something is up. Laura looks uncomfortable in the corner of the room.
“It isn't new since it’s a painting of some castle in Austria from the 1600’s, but yes it is new to my office.” Elsie has obviously picked up on the seduction as she returns Carmilla’s smirk with one of her own.
“Well it's a beautiful piece.” She says while still staring down Elsie. Maybe she shouldn't fire her. She could just distance herself from Elsie a bit so her clinginess cools off. The girl really is a good time…
“If you tell you little shadow here to get lost we can both get acquainted with it”
That comment snaps Carmilla out of her lust and brings her back to the reason why she came over here in the first place. She still keeps the smirk on her face but looks over to where Laura is still awkwardly standing in the corner, though she is starting to get fidgety again. She must have felt her gaze on her and turns to look at her questionly, wondering if she really should leave the two women alone. Time to get this over with, hopefully fast.
“Hmm that would be nice wouldnt it?” Carmilla turns her attention back to Elsie, seduction eyes are gone and the smirk has a sadistic look to it now “No, the real reason i'm here is because were letting you go”
“What? You joking right? Elsie laughs, albeit nervously
“No im not joking. You were supposed to get Natalie on Ellen months ago and you failed. I got her on Ellen and now i'm firing you.”
“You can’t do this to me! Youre the reason why I didnt get Natalie on Ellen.” She looks at her with shock and betrayal.
“I don't know what youre talking about Elsie. You have until the end of the day to pack up and leave or i'm calling security.” And with that Carmilla turns on her heels, snaps at Laura to pull her out of her daze, and walks out of the office.
“Whats her twenty?” She asks Laura once they’re back amongst the cubicles. Please don't do anything stupid Elsie. Please just make this easy on both of us. Laura looks over her shoulder to check what she is doing in the office.
“She’s pacing, looking slightly crazed and... oh no here she comes”
“YOU BITCH” The office goes silent. Great thanks a lot Elsie. You couldn't have just let this go smoothly. She stops when Elsie yells at her, composes herself and turns around to face her.
“You can't fire me! You can't fire me over this! You say you're firing me over this stupid Ellen thing but really you're just trying to cover up the fact that we’ve been sleeping together! Well you know what? Fine! If this is your sick way of breaking things off with someone then you really are the monster everyone says you are.”
“Elsie stop” She says coldly.
“No! You know what? I feel bad for you! You use everyone around here as a piece in your little game, using whoever you can to get ahead. Thats going to blow up on you one day and you will have no one left around you! There will be no one to come visit your grave when you're in the cold hard ground!” Carmilla’s face has been growing colder by the second, and now it's time to shut this down before she does something stupid, like lash out emotionally.
“Elsie I did not fire you because of your accusations that we've been sleeping together. I am firing you because you're lazy, entitled, incompetent, and you spend more time talking about swag then you do about your work. Now stop and go gather your things or I really will call security on you.” She turns back around and walks back down to her office not caring if Laura follows her right away or stays to inevitable gossip with that science nerd. All she cares about right now is trying to ignore and hide the tears that are stinging her eyes.
Laura Hollis
This truly is the worst day of her life. She’s sitting at her desk with her head in her arms, eyes closed, trying to get over this stupid caffeine headache that's plaguing her when Lafontaine strolls up and takes a seat on the corner of her desk.
“Wow, I knew she was a bitch but that was just cold.”
“Yea, well thats Carmilla Karnstein for you. They don't call her the Wicked Witch of Armitage for nothing.” She opens one of her eyes to squint up at Laf.
“Tough deal that your crush is such a horrible person L.” They smirk down at Laura, wiggling their eyebrows knowingly.
“Shut up!” She says as she sits bolt upright and slapping a hand over their mouth. “I know that she's a freaking horrible person and my body is a traitor. Ugh, why does she have to be so gorgeous yet so evil.” She uncovers Laf’s mouth when she thinks they won't spill anything else and slumps back into her chair.
“Because it wouldn't be fair if she was both insanely hot and an insanely good person. The universe has to balance that out.” They nudge her with her foot “Come on L, lets go cheer you up with some cookies in the break room.”
“Yea, okay that sounds good right now. I need something to help lighten up my mood today.”
Just as they get up to go make their way to the break room, a quiet voice can be heard calling out to Laura. Groaning, Laura turns to stop Lafontaine
“Go on ahead. Ill see what she needs and then ill meet up with you”
They divert paths at Carmilla’s office. Laura walked in and was met with something she could have never been prepared to see. Carmilla with red, puffy eyes, and she’s staring up at the ceiling. Has she been crying? Maybe she isn't as heartless as she seems.
“I need you to stay and work the weekend, we have to go through all of Elsie’s stuff” She says without looking over at her. But when Laura takes too long to respond she glances over at her.
“What? Is that going to be a problem for you cupcake? Got a hot date or something?”
“No, I haven't had a date in yea-” She cuts herself off, why the hell did she just start telling Carmilla that? “Anyways that's not the point. It's actually my Gammie’s 90th birthday and I was going to go home for the weekend.”
“Well I guess youre going to have to cancel, aren't you?” Nope, definitely still a cold hearted person.
“Is that all, Ms. Karnstein?” She knows that the formal name bugs her. It's a low blow, but Laura doesn't care right now. She had been looking forward to going home for weeks now and now she has to cancel. Is the universe testing her strength today? This day keeps getting worse and worse for her and it isn't even noon yet. Carmilla gives her a tight smile, and a shake of her head, obviously annoyed but letting things slide.
Laura walks out of the office and sees Lafontaine across the way eating cookies. They hold up the box and beckon Laura over when they see her, but Laura just shakes her head sadly and returns to her desk. Time to phone home and let her father and Gammie know she won't be coming home. Hopefully she’ll see them before another 3 years go by.
Carmilla Karnstein
No doubt the cupcake just saw her red puffy eyes and knew she had been crying. Showing vulnerability is not good for her, so she is forcing Laura to stay here this weekend and go through all of Elsie’s files. Of course it could be done any other day but this is what Carmilla does best, breaking down other people when she feels emotions. She did feel a little bad that Laura won't be able to go home for the weekend, but it was mostly from the face she made and not from making her stay away from her family. After collecting and locking away her feelings, she gets up and walks out of her office towards Laura.
“I know it’s Gammies birthday.. I know, im sorry! What am I supposed to do? Shes forcing me to sta-” The topic quickly changes as Laura notices Carmilla walking towards her. “We take all of our applications seriously and they will get processed as soon as possible” She hangs up the phone.
“Was that your family on the phone?”
“Yes”
“Do they tell you to quit?”
“Every day” She says staring straight into her eyes. There's an angry glint to them that she’s never seen before. She’s taken back a moment, and she feels the need to try and make things right for some reason.
“Hey, Lau-” She's cut off by the phone ringing.
“Ms. Karnstein’s office” Laura smirks up at her, knowing she hates that usage of her name. The phone call is quick because before she can think of a snarky remark Laura has hung up the phone. “J.P. wants to see you upstairs right away”
She narrows her eyes, wondering why she possibly has to go see the big boss. She hasn’t done anything wrong, she’s still putting out manuscripts. Probably about another pay raise since she’s been doing so well this month.
“Fine. If i'm not back in 10 minutes, come get me. We have a lot to do.”
///////////////////////////////////
She walks off of the elevator on the top floor of the building. Walking past the secretary she heads straight for the door of J.P.’s office. Walking through the door she see’s J.P. sitting at his desk.
“Armitage” She nods her head at him out of respect. She walks over to the chairs placed in front of his desk. She choses to lean on one of the chairs instead of taking a seat. There’s no need to sit down when she knows this meeting will be short.
“Carmilla, congratulations on the Ellen deal.”
“Thank you. This isn't about my second pay raise this month is it?” She smirks at JP. He lets out a small chuckle but quickly turns serious.
“Carmilla, do you remember when we agreed you wouldn't be going to the Silas book fair because your Visa application was being processed?”
“Yes I do.”
“And you went to Silas anyways.”
“Yes I did. We were going to lose Natalie to another publishing company so I didn't really have another choice did I?” She lets out a breathy laugh.
“Well the United States government doesn't care who publishes Natalie” She notices that J.P. has some sort of document in his hands. Carmilla is starting to get a little nervous, this isn’t going the way she was expecting.
“Carmilla, I just spoke with your immigrations lawyer and-” She cuts him off before he can get any further.
“Great! So everything is squared away?”
“No Carmilla. Your Visa application has been denied and you're being deported.” Shock hits her, she freezes up. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is hanging open. Her expressions mirrors a deer caught in headlights.
“Deported?” She shoves all of her feeling aside, and forces herself to start forming thoughts and words. “Come on! I'm from Canada for Christ sake! It's not like i'm even really an immigrant!” She's starting to lose control over her emotions. How can this be happening to her, nothing ever goes wrong for Carmilla. “There’s gotta be something we can do to fix this right?”
“We can re-apply for your Visa but unfortunately you have to leave the country for at least one year.” It feels like someone just kicked her in the stomach. She’s bending over a little, trying to catch her breathe. No this cannot be happening right now, she has to be dreaming.
“Okay, well this isn’t ideal obviously. But I mean I can still work from Toronto! Ill just do video calls and emai-” She’s cut off by J.P.. Hes giving her a sympathetic look.
“Unfortunately Carmilla, if your deported you can't work for an American company.” The room is starting to spin. “Until things are resolved I am going to turn things over to Elsie.” Carmilla lets out a bark of a laugh. This is not happening.
“Elsie? You mean the girl I just fired?”
“We needed an editor in chief and she’s the only person in the entire building with the right qualifications.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” Her voice is raised and she throws her arms out in frustration.
“Carmilla we are desperate to have you here. If there was any way to make this work we’d be doing it.”
There's a knock at the door, and her thought process is interrupted by Laura opening the door. Oh not now! She’s trying to fight for her job, she can’t be pulled out of here yet!
“Excuse me, i'm sorry to interrupt but Jane is on the line. She’s on hold and she would like to speak with you right away. I told her you were otherwise engaged…” She stopped listening to whatever else Laura is saying. Something clicked in her head.
She looks over at Laura with a knowing look, causing her to return with a confused look.
“Come here” She mouths at Laura. All that gets is a look that is far too similar to a confused puppy.
“Come here.” She says more loudly and more sternly this time. This time Laura hears and slowly starts to make her way over to Carmilla.
“J.P., I understand the predicament we are in. But, uh, there is something I would like to tell you.” She slowly walks backwards to meet a still confused Laura. Poor girl, her world is about to shatter.
Carmilla reaches the spot in the room where Laura is standing. Carmilla moves to stand right next to Laura, their hips touching. This causes Laura to flinch slightly and move away to put distance between them. Carmilla slides over again and makes sure she’s as close to Laura as possible. This time Laura doesn't move, she must see that Carmilla is playing another one of her games and doesn't want to mess up and get in trouble. Next she snakes her arm around Laura’s waist, making sure it's too low to be considered friendly. This makes her freeze up instantly but she doesn't pull away. She looks over at the smaller girl and notices how red her face is. A smirk is forming on Carmilla’s face, and she moves to tuck some of Laura’s hair behind her ear before she turn back to face J.P..
“We’re getting married.”