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Gaia
I knew he was mad, like super mad but for the first time in a long while I was the last person that could defuse the situation. Why? Because I was the sole cause of this tense atmosphere lingering in his office.

I'd lost count of how long I'd been in here, and you just had to believe that was a good thing. Far from it even.

For the umpteenth time, I pried my eyes open, but nothing had changed. Chief stood still in front of me, his eyes staring straight at me, but not exactly seeing me.

"Chief?" I called with shaky breaths, and I almost winced at how vulnerable I sounded. "Chief. You can't keep doing this.”

Silence. Silence was all I got. He knew I hated it. I preferred being scolded than being ignored, no matter what my crime was. But here he was, towering over me, his beady eyes boring into mine, making me shrivel in my seat.

"Chief." I picked the invisible dirt under my black polished nails. “Please say something. Your silence is unnerving."

"What do you want me to say Gaia?” his voice came like an icy torrent, and in a matter of seconds, his fist came crashing down onto his desk. I honestly thought it would break at the force of his impact but it didn't. While I could testify that his desk was sturdy, something else struck me. He'd called me by my full name. He never did that unless I was in serious trouble. “What exactly do you want me to say?"

I flinched at the tone of his voice as I sunk deeper into the comfy headrest of my chair. That was the only comfortable object in the entire room. The ticking clock way up on the left wasn't helping either. Instead I found my heart beating to the exact same movements of the clock's hands.

"Come on." He pressed. “You wanted me to speak. Now I'm asking, what do you want to say?"

"I….” My voice was barely a whisper. "I, Chief..."

"Look at me." His voice was so low, I almost missed it." I said, Look at me."

I shifted my gaze from my nails and focused on him, but I regretted it immediately. His face was contorted in rage and barely inches away from mine.

"Come on." He pressed. “You're usually talkative and never shut up. So why are you quiet now? What's changed?"

"I'm sorry." I blurted out. In my entire life I'd never apologized to anyone, unless that was my last option, but at this point I didn't know what to do anymore. “I screwed up,big time. I didn't mean to.."

"Don't lie to me, Gaia " He shook his head vigorously. “Don't just lie to me. You meant to. You meant every single thing."

"I didn't..."

"You did." He spat. “You saw my calls, but you ignored them. Why? Because they weren't important. I'm useless for calling you up so many times."

"No" My lips quivered as I chewed down on them. “You're not useless Chief..."

"But you ignored my calls, because I'm wasting my time and you can do anything you like." He pushed himself off the table and walked towards his window. “I gave you one task, I trusted you and what did you do? You messed up on the first day. It hasn't even been up to 24 hours Gaia! 24 hours!"

Chief obviously didn't want me to speak, because his voice echoed in the space of another second.

"Yes, I told you to live a little." He sighed, his voice breaking. “But not at the expense of your job. I thought you loved this..." He turned to me, gesturing wildly with his hands. “I thought you loved me?"

I heard my heart shatter with that last question. If someone else had asked me that, I would yell back that he was trying to manipulate me, but I didn't. I couldn't. He wasn't my biological father but he was the closest I had.

"I do." I let the tears that I'd been fighting fall freely, cascading down my already swollen cheeks. “I really do, Chief."

"Well you have an ironic way of showing that." He scoffed. He still had fury and disappointment etched into his face, but his eyes told a different story. He rarely was like this, except when he spoke about his wife and son. “I don't think so. You disappointed me today Gaia, so, so, much."

"Please." I walked cautiously towards him, my eyes never leaving his. I placed my hand on his arm expecting him to flinch, but he didn't. “I'll make it up to you."

"You damn will." His steely expression caught me off guard. “I've reported you to my superiors already."

"What?" My blood ran cold as goosebumps crept up my skin. “What? Why?"

"What do you mean why?” He let my hand fall limply to my side. “He almost died. Our client almost died because of you..."

"But he wasn't injured that badly." I whined. “It was just a gash in the side he'll be fine..."

"Gaia!" He raised his hands towards me and I shrunk in anticipation of his hand connecting to my cheek, but it never came. “Don't make me hit you. "

"You'd hit me because he almost got injured?" My sadness was being replaced with fury. “You'd pick me over him?"

"It was your job to protect him Gaia…”

"Not babysit him!" I blurted out. “And by the way you didn't let me on the investigative team..."

"And I'm very glad I didn't!" He heaved. “If I had, you'd have messed up again and he'd have probably died. You're usually serious about your cases and your job, but ever since you found out he was your duty, everything changed. What did he ever do to you? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I…." I snapped my mouth shut before I would say something I would regret. There was nothing to say, I couldn't tell him.

"You're lucky he didn't die. Do you know what could have happened to him? To us? To you?" He flailed his arms around. “Do you?! So how could I not report to our superiors?"

"What do they want me to do?" I gritted. There was no use arguing with him, so I might as well find out what my next punishment was going to be.

All this was happening because of him; fucking Cassian.

"Good." He nodded curtly. “With your recent slip up, it's come to our notice that we need to be extra careful and tactful in our operation; we can't afford another mistake. Not on your part or ours either."

"Okay." I pressed my fingers against the inside of my palm.

"So we've decided that we'll have to dictate your every move and you must follow all of them." He continued. “Every single one of them."

"What!?" I groaned. “You've got to be kidding me...."

"Don't interrupt me." He raised a finger towards me. “And on that note, this is your next order. You're to become Mr Cassian's TA with full effect. That way, we can keep an eye on both of you.”

"What? What?" I stuttered. “But he already has one and I don't think he'd willingly agree to..."

"I don't care." He cut me off,his lips pressed into a thin line. “You're going to become his TA and I'm less concerned with how you're going to make that happen..."

"But Chief..."

"No buts." He shook his head vigorously. “If you mess up this time then I don't know what will happen."

"Chief." I called out slowly. He always knew what was going to happen. He literally called the shots here. “What are you saying?"

"I'm not mincing words, Gaia " he clasped his hands together. “If you don't do this right, you're out of here and I don't care about the relationship we share because obviously you don't value it. It means nothing to you."

"Chief, don't say that..."

"Get out." He sighed dejectedly. “Just go."

"Fine." I nodded reluctantly, taking in the grim walls of his office. “I'll give you your space. Goodnight Chief."

I gave him one last stare before shutting the door behind me and walking into the lobby. I glanced at the clock and realized it was super late; 1:00am. The lobby was empty and the entire office block silent. Everyone had retired for the night except Chief and I .

There was no way I could go home. I couldn't speak to Aly or Tatum either. I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and found missed calls and texts from both of them. They were obviously worried, but I couldn't talk to them. Not while I was this mad. I needed a distraction.

Wiping my eyes furiously, I made my way to the third floor. Normally I'd use the elevator but climbing the huge flight of stairs would do a great amount of good to me right now. On getting to the top, I turned right and pushed open the fifth room to reveal the academy's training room.

It was huge and dimly lit, with chairs arranged like a sporting arena. A huge stage sat in the middle and it could pass for anything. A boxing ring, a sparring spot, whatever you wanted or needed. Stripping down to my sports bra and denim shorts, I climbed into the ring and secured a punching bag.

I gave it my all in my first punch as the events of the night came rolling in. I'd ignored Chief's calls and had wanted to celebrate with a drink when he showed up at the party. He was furious and it was evidently written all over his face. He didn't say anything but just glowered at me through his gray eyes and I understood immediately. Then I'd followed him to his car and we drove straight to the office and he'd been talking to me since then.

"Urrrgggh!" I groaned, punching the bag so hard it spun a couple of times. “I'm about to lose my job, and maybe my spot at the academy, because of him!"

"He almost hit me!" Another punch. “He almost raised his hand to me! He reported me!"

For some strange reason, listing out all of Chiefs atrocities did nothing to calm me down. If anything, they only made me all the more mad. As I watched the punching bag spin slowly, in front of me, I realized I was channeling my anger to the wrong person. If there was anyone who deserved all the heat I was giving, it wasn't Chief, but him.

"He'll pay.” I let out slowly. “Cassian Corvin is going to pay and I'll make sure of it.”