[Gurr... sorry again. I started college a little bit ago and prep for that limited my time on here greatly >.<]

Britney almost forgot to hit her watch when Silas feel. She walked closer over to him to make sure he was alright. She took out her notebook and flipped to a back page. (Not that there were a lot of blank ones left.) She wrote down Silas's time and that he did the hold up instead.

"I'm not surprised." She said after hearing him. "You looked kind of serious there." She added holding out a hand to help him up. She was a little worried about it but thought he'd know if he went too far.

~~~~~~

Veronica kept careful count as Watson finished his sit ups. She was impressed that he kept such a good pace. She felt a little guilty for thinking he might not make it on account of being the oldest recruit there.

She chuckled a little. "Well, I mean freakishly as in I'd do more of it then breath. And I didn't mean it in a bad way it's just that I'm not exactly the booky sort." She said rubbing her neck a little.

"Wait. You liked reading?" She asked a little amused. Now that surprised her. She hadn't pegged him for the kind to lay back and read a book for enjoyment.

[Dude it's cool :3 I kind of vanished for two weeks back there myself anyways because of family stuff and work and health. I of all people understand life getting crazy and keeping you off the net haha. Also college is terrible and I do not miss it even a little bit]



With help, he scrabbled upright to standing finally, moving with all the grace and elegance of a baby deer finding it's feet for the first time.

"Yeah... I figured, I should try to be serious here, right? You don't get not kicked out by not being serious, right?" he said with a laugh, only half-realizing how ridiculously that was phrased. "Plus, if I find something that means a lot to me, I tend to get like... wicked in the zone, you know? It's like feast or famine with my attention, I guess!"


~*~


He pushed to standing and stretched tall before starting to head towards the treadmills. Running was what they had decided next, wasn't it? He should do fine there... he wasn't built for speed (he preferred his morning jog to be at a more leisurely pace) but he could manage a short burst of intensity, he wagered. Enough to make decent marks, anyways.

At her remark, he laughed. She wasn't the first to be surprised by that sort of thing. Though most people who said that had known him when he was younger and when, frankly, reading great literature wasn't exactly a high priority.

"Well, I still do. I just couldn't bring my collection with me so I'm on a literary moratorium, as it is." he laughed. "I know it seems perhaps a little out of place for me but I am a bit of an introvert and books are one thing you can partake in for leisure without having to leave the house. Plus, it keeps the mind sharp and as you start to age, these that sort of thing is important."

Reading was more bearable than crosswords or sudoku, at any rate. He simply didn't have patience for number puzzles and crosswords rated only at the periphery of his tolerance. Oddly, he did enjoy a good cryptoquip here and there, though.

"...Granted, I do have more piles of unread books than read, at this point. It's easy for me to get carried away with buying books I want to read without realizing I am but one man who can only read so fast."

[Again... I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!]

Britney covered her mouth with her hands trying to keep from laughing at Silas as he stumbled about. She shook a little holding in the laugh.

She smiled shaking her head at him. "I guess so." She said deciphering what he meant at first. She walked over to be under the bar herself. "Well, getting into the zone there could've cost you the chance of the job... You could've really hurt yourself." She said jumping up to the bar herself.

She pulled herself up over the bar starting to count.

~~~~~~~~

Veronica shook her head chuckling. She just couldn't believe this guy liked reading as much as he said he did. She really needed to be able to read people better. She had been a little too confident in her ability to do so.

She thought she could read someone in the moment and figure out if they were bluffing about shooting or not. He uncle had been pretty amazed at how well she knew him when they spared a little. She used her hand to brush the hair on the top of her head back. She was really getting mad about forgetting a hair tie now.

She looked back at Watson with a smile. "I'm sure someone here has some books you could bum off of them." She joked picking a treadmill setting it up to a good level. "I've always prefured a good hands on puzzle. I've been really good with a rubric's cube since I was nine." She smiled smugly. "My uncle was a little jealous about it. I kept beating all of his times in front of the other government workers..." She said sighing at the memory as she started the machine. "This things have their own timers." She said as she started running.

Sy stood there, counting the pull ups she did, glancing to his watch occasionally. It was tricky to keep track of two things at once, he found, but he managed. He didn't seem to notice the pause in conversation as she tried to determine what he was on about- he was so used to people pausing for a moment to try and figure out where he was in the conversation that he assumed it was just normal. He tended to jump around a lot in chatting- Nan used to joke he was a 'conversational time-traveller', always jumping back into the past topics and starting in on them, only to leap forward moments later.

It was a polite way to describe his scatterbrained nature. Nan had always been very polite about those things.

"I know, I know! But... I'm fine! So it all worked out, right? I'm a little sore but still ticking... and I plan to keep it that way! No power in the 'verse can stop me!" he grinned, letting his geek flag fly a bit with that small reference.


~*~


Oh yes, if she had met him when he was younger, she'd have been even more surprised. His siblings were more book-smart and he... he had what his mother so tactfully called "personality". He liked to think that had shifted somewhat for the better as he'd grown, though.

He wasn't kidding when he said more of his books lay unread than read, though, personality shift or not. He would buy one or two because they sounded interesting or were on some recommended reading list. He would buy books he had been forced to read in school to see if they were better now that he was older and able to peruse at his own pace. He would buy them with the promise that he'd really read them this time, that he'd actually change things and power through between jobs.

And yet... the piles of bookmarked and dog-eared books stood as a testament to the contrary.

He'd start reading a book and for whatever reason, he'd start reading it less and less. And then he'd start a new one, telling himself that maybe that book wasn't right for him and that he'd come back to it after he read this next one. Repeat. And by the time he had 3-4 books stacked beside his bed... well, that's when that insidious self-loathing and defeat that had grabbed him so hard years ago would start to peck at him again.

So he'd shove it to the back of his mind, grab at least one of the books and start up again, forcing his way from cover to cover. But that still left an overbalance of finished versus unfinished. And it wasn't that the books were bad, he quite enjoyed them once he got working through them! It was just that sometimes, his desire to do things tended to flag and books had no consequence for being left untouched. His jobs he'd work through because he was being paid to do so. His workouts he powered through because the consequence was his body would weaken before he was ready for it to. And this? This opportunity he'd persevere through as well, because flagging interest would surely mean getting kicked to the curb.

"Perhaps. But... it's best I stay focused on my work for now." he aid, in reference to borrowing books. Maybe later- if there was a later for him- when things settled. Watson watched her on the treadmill for now, nodding at the mention that they had their own timers. He supposed they could both do this at the same time and moved up to his own machine, toggling the settings as he addressed the second thing she had mentioned.

"Puzzles... that's good. It's good to keep your mind sharp- and it sounds like you have more than accomplished that." he said, laughing a bit at the thought of a young girl trouncing the other g-men so easily. "Plus, a good balance of brains and brawn never hurt anyone."

He set to his own running now, focused intently on his movement, not even looking at the timer or the 'distance' tracker. He moved surprisingly well for an older sort, though his breathing did get noticeably heavier after a spell, more than likely before his partner's did. But still he powered through. What was being a little winded if it meant a better time? It wasn't like he was an asthmatic or anything; he'd be fine.

{*Cringes* I could've swore I replied to this a while ago. >.< I think. . . Anyway, I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!}

Britney continued with her pull-ups, keeping track of what Silas said so she could answer when she was done with her rep. She wanted to get the best she could so she wanted to save her breath for the work out.

She pulled up a few more times before really feeling it in her arms. On her next one she went down her arms wobbling before she let go and landed on her feet her breath a little heavy. She panted a bit picking her things back up before looking over at Silas.

"I counted thirteen, did you get the same?" She asked a little strained sounding. The allergy medicine she had taken earlier beginning to take effect as she felt a little drowsy.


~~~~

Veronica ran in silence for a minute before moving her hand and pressing a button to make the machine go faster as she ran a little faster before he breath got heavier. She honestly had stopped paying attention to Watson when she had started running.

Running was one of her favorite things to do. Just do without really thinking about anything. It had helped her calm down after some stressful stuff.