Meme: Trick or Treat Drabble Meme

[elrhiarhodan]

Ganked from sinfulslasher and like her, it’s awesome…

The first five ghouls who come trick-or-treating at my door will get at least a three-sentence drabble written.

Just comment with "trick or treat!" and leave me a prompt or just a preferred pairing or ‘verse if you want to be surprised. Then go ahead and post this in your own journal so I can come trick-or-treating at your place!

To facilitate your participation, the code for you to paste into your own entry…

The first five ghouls who come trick-or-treating at my door will get at least a three-sentence drabble written. Just comment with "trick or treat!" and leave me a prompt or just a preferred pairing or ‘verse if you want to be surprised. Then go ahead and post this in your own journal so I can come trick-or-treating at your place!

Comments

Re: Trick or Treat

[elrhiarhodan]

Peter scrubbed his face and almost wished he had an appointment for a colonoscopy. Without anesthesia.

Scratch that, not almost.

Anything – dental surgery, taking his dog for a de-worming, getting audited by the IRS – was going to be better than what was coming up on his calendar in the next ten minutes.

Neal Caffrey’s annual performance review.

Two years ago, when he agreed to manage Neal, he had no clue how bad it could be. Oh, he’d been warned. Reese Hughes, who headed Finance, said that Caffrey was a thief. A charming thief, though. Diana, the company’s Director of Security Services, said that Neal was crazy and a masochist and had the impulse control of a three year old. Even the company president, his boss, the company president – Theodore “Mozzie” White – warned him that he now had the hardest job in the company.

Peter hadn’t believed any of them. The first year was okay. Peter had actually liked Neal. He found the young man smart and personable and seemingly eager to be the best employee in the company.

So he’d given Neal the benefit of the doubt and probably went too soft on him in last year’s review. Not that it mattered, of course. Neal was the boss’ stepson and no matter how badly he screwed up, no matter how many people he pissed off, no one could fire him.

Peter had agonized over the write up for nearly a month. He didn’t want to be mean or petty, but there were things that he couldn’t overlook. Like the critical work that didn’t get finished because Neal had an “unbreakable” appointment with his tailor, or the voicemail he left for the head buyer of their biggest client, where he almost pornographically praised her taste in wine, art and couture underwear. Except that he’d accidentally dialed that company’s Human Resources VP. Moz had to do a lot of feather-smoothing to fix that relationship.

Peter knew that Neal didn’t respect him. That he thought that Peter’s management style was a joke. And Peter couldn’t blame the guy. He wasn’t a good manager, he lacked that certain skill. Peter always preferred being an “individual contributor” with no staff, no direct reports. Working at White Industries as the head of R&D and reporting to Moz had been a dream job. But Moz was at his wit’s end with Neal. The young man had bounced between departments since he’d graduated Harvard summa cum laude almost fifteen years ago, drawing a high salary and doing nothing but making trouble for everyone else.

A knock on his door interrupted Peter’s increasingly morose train of thought. It was Neal, and the man didn’t look happy.

Peter gestured for Neal to take a seat. He didn’t say a word, but he noticed how Neal’s hands were shaking. Oh, Neal Caffrey wasn’t happy at all. He pulled Peter’s written review out of his jacket and tossed it on the desk. “What the hell is this? You gave me a “Meets Expectations” rating! That’s so unfair.”

“Neal – “

“No one’s ever rated me that low. I thought we worked well together. None of my other managers ever gave me less than an Outstanding. I’m going to complain to Moz about this.”

Neal kept babbling, getting more and more worked up, attacking every aspect of the review. But Peter was going to stand his ground. When Neal finally paused to take a breath, he jumped in.

“I don’t think complaining to Mr. White will do any good. He’s seen the review and he’s signed off on it.” Peter didn’t tell Neal that Moz suggested he change the “NI” rating to at least an “Exceeds Expectations”. They’d finally compromised the “Meets Expectations”.

Neal didn’t say anything; his truculent expression spoke volumes, though.

Peter sighed. “We’re stuck with each other, Neal. And face it – you’ve worn out your welcome in every other department.”

Neal still didn’t respond. Peter wondered if the man knew that when he pouted, he looked like he was twelve.

They sat there, staring at each other. Neal broke first, his frown slowly transforming into one of his patented “I’m so wonderful” smiles. “You’re a real hard ass, Peter Burke. I like that.” Neal picked a pen up and signed the review. “I’d say I’d promise to improve, but we both know that’s not going to happen. And besides, it’s not like you can fire me, right?”

Re: Trick or Treat

[miri-thompson.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Hee--I love the list of problems Neal created . . . and the reasons for them! And I love that little bit of grudging respect for Peter at the end, despite the fact that Peter can't do much worse to him. :P

Re: Trick or Treat

[joy2190.livejournal.com]

Such a hoot! (what's an NI?)