Question asked by melodiesofliv

Answer:

you evil evil woman. okay, tagged for spoilers (like, seriously. severe spoilers. if you don’t want to be spoiled, because spoilers, stop reading now.)

SPOILER ALERT

(in case you missed it, there are spoilers here)

You’re in the photocopy room when Olaf pops his head in the door.

“Hey,” he says, “The new girl is here. She’s in your office.”



He says it in such a casual manner, but there’s absolutely nothing casual about this at all. Oh god, and she’s early, too, a quick glance to the clock tells you. You give him a nod, acknowledging his words, but you wait until he’s whistling to himself halfway down the hall before you move.

Oh god she’s here.

You have an entire half-hallway to mentally prepare yourself, but it’s not enough, and you pause outside your office door for another few seconds. God, look at you. Terrified to go into your own office. It’s as though this wasn’t your idea in the first place. As though you hadn’t been keeping an eye on her, waiting, in case she needed a job. Like you hadn’t asked for her specifically when she had.

Closing your eyes and taking a final breath, you push open the door.

Anna isn’t facing you. Her gaze is trained out the window and on the vast cityscape, and it gives you a moment. She’s so big. Understandable – she’s an adult – but you’ve refrained from any real contact for a decade. She isn’t a little girl, comatose in a hospital. She’s an adult, who has spent her life living. Her hair is pinned back in a bun (that looks like it’s supposed to be neat, but little wisps have come loose). It almost looks like it’s on fire, but.. like a candle. Soft and gentle. Not an inferno.

She seems to realise that you’re there, because she turns her wheelchair and almost immediately begins stuttering out something.

She’s even more beautiful from the front. It seems like she slumps a little, when you don’t reply, and she moves herself toward the door. You can’t stop your eyes from flicking to her wheelchair.

I did that. I ruined her life. Monster. Murderer.

You cough lightly in the back of your throat and force a smile. “No, no, I’m sorry, I just- Anna, right? Anna Ackerman?” you ask, as though you haven’t been paying for her medical bills since her thirteenth birthday. As though you haven’t carved her name into your flesh as a depressed sixteen year old, looking for the punishment that, after your father paid them, the courts refuses to administer. “I’m sorry, I just expected you to arrive a little later. The email said 10, didn’t it?”

She rifles through her bag for her phone, tongue poking out to wet her lips before it pauses, too distracted to finish its job. You feel your face relaxing – you feel your body relaxing, because now she’s here. She’s here and you can start paying her back for all you’ve wronged her. No more anonymous benefactors. Now it’s you seeking her forgiveness.

You hold your hand out to her, and just relish in the way she grips your fingers, a little harder than necessary, but so warm.

“Elsa Arendelle,” you say. “And you must be Anna. Obviously.”

She nods, and then gives a laugh that sounds both forced and embarrassed. “I guess they didn’t tell you about the chair.”

You take a seat on your side of the desk, and you have to force yourself not to say something stupid. “Of course they did,” you say, and then wince at the bluntness of your words. “We had to make sure that all areas you would need would be accessible,” you lie. And maybe you should feel guilty, but there isn’t enough room in your head or your heart. It’s been filled since you were a teenager, and it’s not likely to start emptying anytime soon. “I have, of course, every other area being refitted, but they won’t be complete for a few weeks.”

But Anna seems almost shocked that you’ve given it such thought, and that hurts too because has no one else ever done that?

So you lean across the table and smile, and it maybe feels like a real one (but you don’t really know what that feels like anymore) and, softly, say, “I’m really looking forward to working with you, Anna.”

And as she smiles at you, hope shining in her eyes, you can only think of one thing.

Please forgive me…